ESLPodcast 53 - Understanding Men and Women

Welcome to English as a second language podcast number 53. This is English as a second language podcast episode 53. My name is Dr. Jeff McQuillin, and we are coming to you today from the Center for Educational Development in Los Angeles, California. Today's dialogue is about relationships. Let's get started.

Jeff, here's a question. I was talking to Dawn. You know, they had their first wedding anniversary last week. Guess what her husband gave her as a present? I don't know. What? He gave her a vacuum cleaner.

Didn't she want a vacuum cleaner? Yes, the old one was broken, but that's not the point. It was their winning anniversary, their first one. Don was really upset that he wasn't more romantic. He really let her down.

Oh, great. Women are always saying that men aren't romantic, but we are. Just not in the way that women want. What do you mean? It's a man's job to protect his wife and family. When something goes wrong, they want to fix it.

That's the mark of a good husband. I can see that, but that's not romantic in my book. That's because you women have this idealized view of romance. that you get from a lifetime of watching chick-fix and reading romance novels.

Even if a man wanted to, he could never get into the head of a woman and guess what she wanted. That's why women have to just tell us what they want. That's the problem. We women think men should just know what we want without us having to tell them. That is, if the man really loved and understood us, that's why we don't want to tell you.

But I see your point too. So I guess it's really true. Men are from Mars and women are from Venus. Yeah, that's what makes life interesting, right? Today, Lucy and I talked about men and women and how they understand or misunderstand each other.

Lucy began by saying, Jeff, here's a question. That expression, here's a question, means I want to ask you a question. It's a way of prefaceing or introducing a question. She said that she was just talking to Don when we say we were just doing something.

We mean we were recently or in right before this we were doing something. She said that Don and her husband were having their first wedding anniversary. of course is when people get married and anniversary is when you celebrate every year on that day. Lucy explained that Dawn's husband gave her a vacuum cleaner for their first wedding anniversary.

A vacuum cleaner is what you use to get dirt out of a carpet or a rug. It's an electric, usually. The vacuum cleaner Lucy thought was not a good gift for a wedding anniversary. I asked Lucy if Don wanted one and Lucy responded or said in reply to him.

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Those, we help you. You know, you know, you're right. either the reason for something or the meaning for something. We often say the point is I want you to go to the store, meaning what I'm really trying to say is or what I really mean is this.

Lucy said that her friend Don was really upset to be upset. UPSET means to be angry to be mad to be bothered by something. She was upset because her husband wasn't more romantic to be romantic means to be loving of your husband,

wife, girlfriend, boyfriend. romance is refers to a love between two people, usually two people who are boyfriend, girlfriend, or husband and wife. I, for example, am very romantic with my wife, but don't ask her about that.

Anyway, Dawn said, a rather Lucy said that Dawn's husband really let her down. To let someone down means to disappoint them, to do something that they don't like. They were expecting one thing and you did something else. For example, I was supposed to meet my friend last night at 6 p.m.

But I forgot about it. I let down my friend, or I let my friend down. Meaning, I didn't do what I was supposed to do, or what he expected me to do. I use the expression with Lucy.

Oh, great. To be great, usually, means to be very good, to be wonderful, to be the best. But when we use an expression with that sort of intonation,

or that sort of expression, oh, great, we're really saying that's terrible. that's bad. It's just the opposite of great. So we're using it sarcastically. That is, we are trying to use it in a meaning different from its normal meaning in order to be funny or in order to

to communicate a different message to the person, to say something different. Somebody says, Oh, great. My car broke down. They don't mean they're happy.

They're car broke down. They mean it's bad news. I said to Lucy that men are romantic, but they're not romantic in the way that women want.