📙 Part 2: Describe a foreigner who can speak your language well

This episode's vocabulary

To mix (verb) - to be with or communicate well with other people.

To get something across (phrasal verb) - to manage to make someone understand or believe something.

Persuasive (adj.) - making you want to do or believe a particular thing.

Commitment (noun) - something that you must do or deal with that takes your time.

Adept (adj.) - having a natural ability to do something that needs skill.

To master (verb) - to learn how to do something well.

Worth the effort (phrase) - if you say that something is worth the effort, you mean that it will justify the energy that you have spent or will spend on it.

Determined (adj.) - wanting to do something very much and not allowing anyone or any difficulties to stop you.

Come/get to grips with something (idiom) - to make an effort to understand and deal with a problem or situation.

Questions and Answers

M: Rory, off you go. Your story.

R: Well, I'm an English teacher. So I know lots of foreign people who can speak English well. But one I get on with in particular is Maria, the co-host of the podcast I work on. I know her from my former workplace. Though we didn't meet each other properly until I was promoted from being a teacher to, well, it's a higher-level management position, I won't bore you with the technical details. And even then, we didn't actually mix much outside of occasional meetings. Despite that, whenever we did meet, she was always great, or she always did a great job. Getting her point across and made lots of persuasive arguments. Well, she also did a good job changing my mind about things, which is how I judge whether people are persuasive or not. And later on, we started work on the podcast, and got a lot closer after that, because of all the work commitments and interests that we shared as a result of doing all of that. It's just a guess. But I imagine the reason she's so adept with English is because she's an English teacher herself, and studied the language for ages beforehand. And talking a lot longer than I have been doing it, or have been doing it explicitly. And rightly so. Since it seems logical that to be an English teacher, you should be able to speak it and use this language in everyday life. I'm not sure how long it took her to master the whole thing. But it seems to have been well worth the effort. And you can see the evidence every day, every time we talk to each other. And I really admire her for how determined she is. And it must have been difficult to get to grips with English, to be honest. So she would definitely have needed that. I wish I could make more of an effort myself were in terms of my own foreign language learning, so it's nice to have something to aspire to. If I hadn't met her, then I'm not sure who I would have spoken about. To be honest with you, while I know lots of people who speak English well, I don't know many people like Maria.

M: And what about your friends and other people? How do they feel about this person?

R: I only ever hear positive things.

Discussion

M: Thank you Rory for your story. And Rory talked about me, dear listener, The Maria. So you can start off with I know lots of foreign people who can speak my language. And my first language is Turkish or Mongolian or Chinese. Right? You can say that my mother tongue, my first language is Turkish, for example. So I know many foreign people who can speak my language, but one I get on with in particular is Maria. So one person I get on well with, so I have a good relationship with is... And then you give the name. And then like I know this person from my work, or from my former workplace. I used to work there but not now. Or I know her from my friends or, I don't know, we met in a bar, or at a bar, literally.

R: Have you met many people that way?

M: Oh, that's another story. Okay. And like we didn't meet properly until I was promoted. I was promoted, I was just a teacher. But then I became a senior teacher. I was promoted to a higher management position. So to mix much, we didn't mix much. We didn't talk much. We didn't just hang out much. I just knew this person, but we weren't friends. Okay? So we didn't mix much. Just in some meetings or at some meetings occasionally, sometimes. But when we did meet, you emphasised did. So when we met, she did this, so when we did meet she got her point across. So to get my point across is what?

R: To make your argument clear and make people understand your argument.

M: She got her point across or I got my point across and she made lots of persuasive arguments. So make arguments, persuasive you kind of convince people. People believe you, they are convincing. To be adept with English. What is that?

R: Well, to be adept with anything is to be good at it.

M: Yeah. So you can say like, this person is good at English or at Turkish, you should name your first language, or adept. Like adept? Having a natural ability to do something. Right? So like, she's adept at dealing with mass media.

R: I should say, if we go back to mix for a moment, I said, we didn't mix much outside of occasional meetings. But if you know the person well, then you could say, we mix quite often, or we mixed quite often to begin with.

M: Yeah, we mixed quite often at work, or we mixed quite often at different parties. So she's adept with English, or you can also say she's got a good grasp of English. So she studied the language for ages, to study the language for ages, for ages, like for a long time. So she's able to speak it very well. Or she's able to speak it fluently. And use it in everyday life, use it daily like use it naturally.

R: Use it well.

M: Use it well, yeah. She mastered the language. So if somebody masters the language, he or she speaks it very well, fluently.

R: I thought you were gonna say, he or she is like me. And I'd be like, look it in the dictionary, if you see the phrase master a language, there's the picture of Maria with an English dictionary.

M: I'm not sure how long it took her to master the whole thing. The whole thing? Meaning the language. So, ooh, I don't know how long it took her. So it takes me a long time to master a language, yeah? I'm not sure how long it took her to master the language, to master the whole thing. And then a very useful expression is, it's well worth the effort. So this person has spent a lot of time on their language skills and abilities. And it's well worth the effort. It's just, it's worth it.

R: What other things are well worth the effort? Studying a language is well worth the effort. Joining a gym is well worth the effort, going to the gym is well worth the effort. So that means that you get good results for the work that you do.

M: And about your feelings, you can say I really admire this person, like this person is very determined. Determined? Like they want to do something very much, and nothing can stop them. So in terms of learning a language, it's important to be determined. So she is determined or he is determined.

R: You need to be determined to learn a language I think.

R: To get to grips with a foreign language. So if I get to grips with something?

R: You understand it.

M: Yeah. And it's C2 like it's an idiom, dear listener.

R: Is it?

M: Yeah, it's an idiom, C2 level. It's proficiency, dear listener, okay? So to make an effort? To understand and deal with a problem, or a situation, okay? She got to grips with this problem. She understood it. And she dealt with it. So come to grips with or get to grips with. And you can say, oh, I'm sure it's very difficult to get to grips with my mother tongue. Especially if it's like Chinese, or Japanese, for example. And then a very good structure, I wish I could make more of an effort myself. So if you don't speak any foreign languages, you can say, oh, I wish I could also be like this. I wish I could make more of an effort myself. In terms of what? In terms of my own foreign language learning. So I wish I could or I wish I could speak a foreign language like this person. And you can finish off with I don't know many people like her, or him, right? If you don't want to say him or her all the time, you can say them. No, but you're speaking about a specific person. So he or she. Rory, what helped you to organize this answer?

R: Oh, I followed the task, for the most part, to be honest with you. Although I did do a little bit of an introduction, where I said, well, I'm an English teacher. So I know lots of foreign people who can speak English well. And then I focused on you in particular. And you could do that by talking about your own language. You could use the same structure or if it's an unusual language, just say, well, I'm from Japan, so maybe there aren't that many people that speak Japanese well. However, one of these people is and then you explain who. And then we followed through. How you know him or her. Well, I know you from my former workplace, and then talking a bit more about why you can speak the language well. And I don't actually know why, I would assume it's because you made a lot of effort. So I said that it's like it's just a guess. But I'm thinking and then exactly what I think. And then I've got to talk about how I feel about this person. Well, I just launched straight in, not even a preamble, just I really admire. And then I wrapped up with the usual conditional ending to get a little bit more high-level grammar in there. If I hadn't met Maria, I have no idea who I would have spoken about because Maria is unique. Unique Maria.

M: Hey! Thank you, Rory! That was so lovely! Aw, dear listener.

R: It is. Yeah.

M: I haven't, I realized I haven't spoken about you or Vanya, or other people I know for quite a while. So it was quite nice to do. But now we're going to talk about foreign languages.

M: In general. In speaking part three. Stay tuned. Bye!

R: Bye!

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