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English as a Second Language Podcast

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 43

TOPICS

Topics: Obesity, greeting people in the United States, terrific, finally vs.

eventually

_____________

GLOSSARY

to gain weight – to increase how much you weigh

* I used to weigh 140 pounds, and now I weigh 150 pounds. I’ve really gained

weight this year.

to hit (a number) – to reach or become, usually used with age or weight

* When the price of gas hits $4.00 a gallon, I think I will start riding my bike to

work.

overweight – adjective used to describe someone who weighs too much or is

too heavy

* My uncle has become overweight since he started eating two bags of potato

chips everyday.

oversized – something bigger or larger than normal

* This t-shirt is oversized, but I can still wear it.

obesity – the problem of people being very, very overweight

* Obesity is a growing problem among children in the United States. Many of

them weigh over 20 pounds more than they should.

appetite – having the feeling of wanting to eat; to be hungry

* I have a big appetite today. Let’s go get some hamburgers!

to go on a diet – to try to lose weight by eating different or less food

* Now that I weight 300 pounds, I think I will go on a diet.

a firm handshake – to shake or grab someone’s hand strongly when you greet

them or make an agreement

* He gave me a firm handshake when we agreed to the new contract.

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 43

cheek – the part of your face below your eyes, in between your nose and your

ears

* What is that on your cheek? Some lipstick?

to hug – to put your arms around someone, usually a friend or family member

* I kiss and hug my wife every morning before she leaves for work.

to slap someone on the back – to lightly hit someone on the back with your

hand, usually to congratulate them for something they did

* My lazy son finally got a job, so I slapped him on the back and said, “Good job!”

to nod your head – to move your head up and down quickly; sometimes used to

greet someone, to say “yes,” or show the other person that you are listening

* When I was introduced to my girlfriend’s mother, I nodded my head and smiled,

but I don’t think she likes me.

terrific – wonderful or great; can also mean large or intense

* The Brazilian movie City of God is terrific! Let’s go see it again next week.

finally – adverb meaning at the end of something; after a long period of time

* After waiting four hours, my neighbor finally turned down his loud music.

eventually – adverb meaning after a long delay or time waiting, usually with

some problems or difficulties

* My friend got into a car accident driving to my house. She eventually arrived at

7:00 PM.

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these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 43

ENGLISH LEARNING TIPS

Many English learners believe that they must memorize all or most of the rules of

English grammar in order to be able to speak it correctly. Some students and

teachers even think that studying grammar is a “shortcut” or faster way to

improve someone’s English. Unfortunately, this is usually not true, especially for

speaking and listening. When you are speaking or listening, you usually don’t

have time to stop and think about specific grammar rules consciously. If you did,

you would have to speak…very…slowly…like…this! Most of what we use when

we communicate is “unconscious”; that is, we use knowledge that we don’t have

to think about or even know the rules for.

Here’s a very important point to understand: The best way to be able to use good

grammar is to listen and to read English you can understand. Most native

speakers of English can’t explain to you the rules of grammar, but they can

speak and write English without any problems. How is this possible? Because

they have listened and read a lot of English, and they “know” the rules

unconsciously, without having to think about them. For you to get this same

ability, you only need to listen and read as much as you can in English.

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these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.

English as a Second Language Podcast

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 43

COMPLETE TRANSCRIPT

You’re listening to English as a Second Language Podcast’s English Café

number 43.

You're listening to ESL Podcast’s English Café number 43. I'm your host, Dr. Jeff

McQuillan, coming to you from the beautiful city of Los Angeles, California, and

the Center for Educational Development. Remember to visit our website at

eslpod.com. You can get the Learning Guide for this podcast, which includes the

complete transcript of everything we say on the podcast, plus the words and

definitions, sample sentences, tips on learning English, and how to win a million

dollars. Well, no, not the last one, but everything else is in the Learning Guide, so

go to our website for that.

On today’s café, we're going to talk about a problem in the United States called

obesity. We're also going to talk about how you greet someone, how you say

hello to someone, what are some of the things you do in American culture. And,

as always, we'll answer a few questions. Let’s get started.

When I was growing up back in Minnesota, back many years ago, I was very thin

as a child and as a teenager. I was…did not weigh very much. This is probably

because I was the youngest child. I have ten brothers and sisters who are older

than me, so they ate all the food and then I didn't have anything to eat, you see.

So, I was very thin for many years and I could eat whatever I wanted and not get

fat. I would not increase my weight. The word we would use here would be “gain”

weight. I would not gain weight. I could eat pizza, and hamburgers, and candy,

anything. And that was true until about the age of 30. And when I hit 30 - “to hit”

here means when I became 30, when I turned 30-years-old, all of those mean

the same, hit is just sort of informal - when I hit 30, I suddenly started to gain

weight. I started to become heavier. I could no longer eat whatever I wanted, and

it was sort of the end of that part of my life.

Well, this problem of people eating too much and becoming overweight –

“overweight,” all one word, is sort of a formal or polite way of saying someone

who is too heavy, who has too much weight. The informal expression would be

fat. That’s not a very nice thing to say, it's sort of an insulting thing in English, so

we don’t say, “He’s fat.” At least, you would not say that to the person. If you

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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 43

wanted to be nice you'd say, if anything, “He’s overweight,” or “She’s

overweight.”

Well, obesity, “obesity,” is when someone is very overweight, someone is

extremely overweight. They have…they weigh too much for the size of their

body. And there was an article I was reading on the web about this problem, and

it’s a big problem here in the United States. The article said that Americans are

known for having big appetites and serving oversized meals. Well, an “appetite”

is when you feel hungry. You say, “I have an appetite,” means I want to eat. We

use the expression big and small to describe how much you want to eat. “I have

a big appetite,” I want to eat a lot. Well, Americans are known for having big

appetites and eating oversized meals. “Oversized,” like overweight, all one word,

oversized means that they're bigger than normal, and if you go to an American

restaurant, one of the things you will notice is that the amount of food you get is

often much more than in other countries. In Europe, or in Asia, or in Latin

America, or in Africa, or in the Middle East, the amount of food you get is much

less than what you will get in an American restaurant. And you may say, well

that's a good thing because you get more food for your money, but unfortunately

it also means that people eat more, because most people want to eat everything

that they pay for, and so the result is that nearly two-thirds of adults in the United

States, that’s 66 percent, are overweight, weigh too much, usually ten or fifteen

pounds more than they should. Part of the problem is these oversized meals. If

you go to a fast-food restaurant like McDonalds or Burger King where they serve

hamburgers, you can get a supersized meal. “Supersized” is the same as

oversized, it means even more food than regular, even more than normal. And

there was a documentary, a movie, last year that was very popular in the U.S.

called “Supersize Me.” Using supersize as a verb, “Supersize Me” was about a

man, a true story of a man who decided to eat fast food everyday, for one month,

and every meal - breakfast, lunch, dinner - he would eat hamburgers and that

sort of thing, go to McDonalds every day. And it was about how this made him

fat, but also how it was unhealthy, how it was bad for his health.

The problem of being overweight in the United States is also serious among

children. About 20 percent of American children are overweight, and that’s a

problem that some people say, because American children don’t exercise

enough, they don’t go out and play sports; they stay home playing video games

at their computer. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but it is definitely true that

more American children are overweight now than they were fifteen or twenty

years ago.

These materials are copyrighted by the Center for Educational Development (2006). Posting of

these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.

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