Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast
number 22. Hello and welcome to English as a
Second Language Podcast number 22. This podcast
is for those who are trying to improve their
listening comprehension and speaking. My name
is Dr. Jeff McQuillen, coming to you from Los
Angeles, California. We are having some problems
with our website and we apologize. Some of you
may not be able to get to our website, but we
are working to fix it and it should be fixed
shortly. Our web address is www .eslpod .com.
We hope to have that fixed in the next couple
of days. Now let's start our podcast today by
talking about seeing old friends. Lucy is going
to tell us about some old friends that she saw
recently, and then we'll come back and talk about
the expressions and some of the difficult vocabulary.
Now let's get started. This is turning out to
be a month for seeing old friends. I got an email
a couple of weeks ago from an old friend from
graduate school. She and her family are visiting
LA for a week. They plan to see family and to
visit friends. Since she moved out of the country,
I haven't seen her in ages I'm looking forward
to meeting her new kids and seeing her again
Another old friend called this week. She and
I were buddies in our undergraduate days She
plans to swing by LA on her way to San Francisco.
We've made plans to have lunch. She works in
Washington DC as a political advisor and is usually
very busy. I'm glad she could make time for us
to get together. When we say goodbye to our friends
we always hope to keep in touch But what with
this and that it's sometimes hard to do With
friends that I've fallen out of touch with it's
sometimes hard to meet up again and Pick up where
we left off we've both moved on to a different
phase in our lives. Some of my old friends have
become very successful and are living lives in
the fast lane. Other friends are struggling along
and are just making ends meet. But no matter
how they're doing, It's always nice to touch
bass again. I'm really looking forward to seeing
these old pals of mine and catching up after
all this time. Lucy talked about some old friends
that she has seen recently. By old friends, of
course, She means friends that have been her
friends for many years, not necessarily someone
who's old in age, but somebody who you have known
a long time. She mentioned that it was turning
out to be a month of foreseen old friends. To
turn out means to result in, to become. This
is turning out to be a very difficult assignment
means this is becoming a very difficult assignment
or You can say this is turning out to be a beautiful
day Meaning it is now becoming a beautiful day
or resulting in a beautiful day One of Lucy's
friends was a friend of hers from graduate school
And as you probably know, graduate school refers
to anything that you study after your bachelor's
degree, what we call your undergraduate degree.
So you study for four years to get a bachelor's
degree. Then you can study two, three, four,
maybe up to six years to get a graduate degree.
Lawyers, doctors, some accountants, many teachers,
all of these study graduate degrees. Of course,
the graduate degrees most common are a master's
degree and a doctorate or PhD, or medical doctor,
what we call MD. Lucy said she had not seen her
friends in ages. That expression in ages simply
means for a very very long time She said that
she and her friend were buddies in their undergraduate
days To be a buddy means to be a very close friend
It's somewhat of an informal expression and it's
often used by sometimes by children. He's my
buddy, she's my buddy. Sometimes it is used ironically,
meaning it isn't really the case. So someone
that you don't like, someone your friend may
say, oh have you seen your buddy Jack? When he
knows that you don't like Jack very much. But
the most straightforward common meaning means
a friend. Undergraduate is of course something
we've already talked about Her friend Lucy's
friend said that she plans to swing by LA on
her way to San Francisco To swing by means to
visit but not to stay too long Or to go somewhere
just for a short time I'm going to swing by the
post office my way to Going to the grocery store.
I'm going to stop at the post office go to the
post office Pick my mail up and then go on. I'm
not going to stay there very long To make time
when Lucy said that she was glad her friend could
make time for us means to set aside time to schedule
time to put some time aside for that person.
She mentioned that she and her friends always
promise to keep in touch. To keep in touch means
simply to stay in contact, to keep communicating
with each other by phone, email, letter, and
so forth. Keep in touch means the same as stay
in touch Lucy also used the expression What with
this and that? When she said but what with this
and that it's sometimes hard to do This is a
somewhat of an old expression which means for
a variety of reasons I was going to go to the
gym today, but what with this and that I didn't
have time Lucy mentioned that her friends had
fallen out of touch to fall out of touch is the
opposite of to keep in touch means that you no
longer have contact with that person she mentioned
that they were going to meet up again and pick
up where they left off there are two expressions
here very common to pick up something can mean
physically to take something in your hands and
pick it up but here to pick up means to start
again it's usually used in connection with the
phrase leave off or left off I left off in my
book on page 29 means I stopped in my book stopped
reading my book on page 29 I'm going to pick
up where I left off tomorrow which means I would
start on page 29 we can use these this expression
for anything that starts and stops usually when
we talk about to pick up where you left off usually
means that you were interrupted for some reason,
but not always. Another expression Lucy used
was that she and her friends had moved on to
a different phase in their lives. Phase here
simply means part of your life or time of your
life. We have our our study phase when we're
in school and then we may have our work phase
where we go out and find a job. Lucy said that
some of her friends were very successful living
their life in the fast lane. The fast lane literally
is a lane on the freeway or highway Most freeways
and highways have two or three lanes where cars
can drive. The fast lane, of course, is the lane
where people drive the fastest. In the United
States, that's usually the lane that is on the
left, the very far left. Here it is a general
expression that means living and spending a lot
of money. I'm living in the fast lane means that
I'm out doing many things and I'm spending a
lot of money. I don't live in the fast lane.
Now, a couple of more expressions. Lucy mentioned
that her friends, some of her friends were struggling,
meaning they weren't making very much money and
were just making ends meet. To make ends meet
means to be able to pay your bills, your phone,
your gas, your electricity, and so forth, but
not much more. So I have enough to pay for my
necessities, the things I need in life, but not
a lot more. This is called making ends meet.
It means you're not very rich. She mentioned
that it was nice to touch base with her friends.
To touch base means again to stay in touch to
keep in contact Sometimes we'll use this expression
Let's touch base tomorrow about where we're going
to go bowling on Friday meaning we'll contact
each other tomorrow about our plans Lucy used
the expression old pals Pals means the same as
buddies little older expression, but still common
Finally she said that her friends were going
to do a lot of catching up Here to catch up means
to talk about what has happened since the last
time they saw each other Catch to catch up is
a general expression that can mean Getting up
to the same point where other people are if you
miss two weeks of school You have a lot of catching
up to do meaning you have a lot of work To find
out what happened in those two weeks You can
say for example. I haven't been reading my magazines
recently I need to catch up Means I need to go
back and do that so that I can be current so
that I can be up -to -date That's going to do
it for today's ESL podcast My name is dr. Jeff
McQuillan coming to you from the Center for Educational
Development in Los Angeles We'd like to hear
from you. Please email us and tell us where you
live our email address is ESL pod at eslpod .com
eslpod at eslpod .com Thank you again for listening.
We'll see you next time on English as a Second
Language podcast ESL podcast is produced by the
Center for Educational Development in Los Angeles,
California This podcast is copyright 2005.