📙 Part 2: Describe a person you met at a party who you enjoyed talking to

This episode's vocabulary

One-on-one (adverb) - If two people discuss something one-on-one, they discuss it directly, without involving anyone else.

To stick in (one's)/the mind (idiom) - To be very memorable; to be unlikely to be forgotten.

Taxing (adjective) - Heavy, difficult; requiring a lot of effort.

To yammer on (verb) - To talk continuously for a long time in a way that is annoying to other people.

Kilt (noun) - A skirt with many folds, made from tartan cloth and traditionally worn by Scottish men and boys.

Tipsy (adjective) - Slightly drunk.

Isolated (adjective) -Not near other things or people of the same kind.

Idle (adjective) - Without any particular purpose.

Chit-chat (noun) - Informal conversation about matters that are not important.

Dull (adjective) - Not interesting or exciting in any way.

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Questions and Answers

M: Rory, your story.

R: This is a hard question to answer, because I don't really go to parties these days. I usually just see my friends one-on-one and try and avoid places that are so loud I can't even hear myself think. However, there was one person I met recently at our school Christmas party, that sticks out in my mind. So it might be worth telling you a little bit about him. Like I said, it was the school Christmas night out with all the teachers and school staff, away from the pupils, so we could relax and really be ourselves. And that involved drinking a lot of alcohol. It was reasonably fun, but there was a bit of an age gap between me and the people I work with. And while I'm sure they didn't mean to be, it was getting extremely taxing, listening to people yammer on about things I honestly did not care about. So, I did what you do in these situations and I looked for someone random to talk to. To prevent myself dying from boredom. And I settled on this guy, who was about six feet tall and wearing a kilt, that I thought it was a little too short. So I decided I would share this information with him. I would point out, that I was a little bit tipsy at this point at the bar and I don't recommend anybody does this when they are stone-cold sober. I mean, I doubt they do that anyway. However, I'm very glad I did. After he got over the initial shock of being given fashion advice by a completely random person, we got to talking and it turned out he was the under manager of an isolated Scottish resort. Apparently, you can only get there by railway and frequently, it gets cut off because of the bad weather. Imagine it's not everyone's thing, but for me it sounded ideal. It's like a little adventure for work, almost. The conversation also bought me a few hours of social entertainment, since he wanted to write a book and I'd already written a few of my own, so it wasn't entirely idle chit-chat. I was actually able to share some advice. If I hadn't done that, I think I'd have had a really dull time and the evening wouldn't have been as fun as it was. I'd definitely do it again, if I had the chance.

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Discussion

M: Hey! Thank you, Rory, for your story! So, dear listener, you should know the person you met at a party. Or you can imagine this person, alright? Because very often, speaking part two questions are about a person. So a fashionable person you know, an elderly person, a person who does their own business. You see? So, it could be one person. You just have one person in your head for different questions, okay? And Rory started it off with "this is a hard question to answer, because I don't really go to parties these days". Well, yeah. What if I never go to parties?

R: Yeah, so what if you're boring like me and never go to parties? Then you have to search back in your memory to find a time when you went to a party.

M: You know, dear listener, when Rory moved from Moscow, Rory had like 15 goodbye parties with different people in different locations. And now he's saying that "oh, I'm boring, I never go to parties". Okay.

R: Well, the nearest party would be, like, 50 miles away, so I'm not going to that. Although, I thought it was someone you met recently, but actually, it's not. So I really should have talked about somebody that I met at my going away party or one of my many going away parties.

M: So it's okay if you don't go to parties. You just admit it, you just say it, I don't really go to parties, I try to avoid places which are loud. But then you go, however, there was one person I met recently at a birthday party, at a Christmas party, at our school Christmas party. So meet somebody at a party. Okay? And then this person sticks out in my mind, right? Or I met somebody interesting at a Christmas party that sticks out in my mind, that I remember really well. So it was the school Christmas night out or it was a birthday party. What other parties can we have in our life? Like wedding party?

R: What other kinds of parties? Just a random gathering.

M: Yeah.

R: A get-together.

M: A get-together... Yeah, when friends just meet and...

R: And get together.

M: And get together. Yeah, like a random gathering or a get-together. It was reasonably fun. And Rory told us that there was an age gap between me and the people.

R: There is a serious age gap between me and the other people that I used to work with.

M: Really?

R: Yeah. Because I only realised it the other day. I'm 33 and the next youngest person was 39. And then after that everybody was in their forties and so I was kind of like, the youngest person there. So obviously my perspective on things differs wildly from everybody around me. But yeah, I mean that doesn't mean to say the way that I see the world is better. It's just like, I'm very conscious of the fact that people talk about things and I have no idea what they're talking about.

M: Right, interesting. And you said that it was getting extremely taxing. This is your favourite word, isn't it?

R: That's my favourite way of saying I was really, really bored. It's rude to say that though to people, like, well, thank you for inviting me to this party, I'm bored. So, you shall say like, it's a bit taxing, but it was. And sorry to any of the people I worked with, because obviously, they were having a great night. And it's also their job to entertain me, like I should have been creating fun for myself and I did.

M: Yeah, so taxing, like difficult, needing a lot of effort. Taxing. And we use the past continuous, right? Because the story is in the past. So it was getting late or it was getting extremely boring, it was getting extremely taxing listening to people yammer on, yammer on about things. So to yammer, yammer on about things. Rory, what did you mean?

R: They just wouldn't stop talking about things, that I didn't care about. It was just like, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I was like, yeah, this is, this is not interesting.

M: Yeah, so to yammer, it's another nice one. Actually, it's... The Cambridge dictionary says, that it's mainly US informal.

R: Well...

M: So are you using American English, Rory?

R: Well, this is it, this is me getting in trouble for using American English again. But, I like to see myself as a man of the world. So, I'll use words that I pick up along the way and that's what other people should be doing too. We live in a global world.

M: So, yammer, yammer, yammer, to talk continuously for a long time in a way that is annoying, okay? So it's a bit negative. So if kind of like, oh, like she never stops yammering about that dog of hers, it means like, okay, it annoys you and she just like... About her dog. Or very often people with babies, they just say yammer on about their babies and they... About the babies and it annoys you, okay? So I did what you do in these situations. Rory looked for someone to talk to.

R: Someone else to talk to.

M: To prevent himself dying of boredom. So I wanted to prevent myself dying of boredom. I didn't want to die of boredom, because the party was extremely boring. So I settled on this guy. So if you settle on somebody, what happens?

R: You just... That's where your focus goes.

M: Ooh, and this person was wearing a kilt?

R: He was wearing a kilt, yes. Very inappropriately.

M: Inappropriately, yeah, because it was a Christmas party and he was wearing a kilt.

R: Well, no, it was, it was short. Like, above the knee line, it should be below the knee. But I guess like, it's important to point out that, Harry is like over six feet tall. So, I was like, well, I don't know if they're, they make them that long, to be honest.

M: Oh, just because of his height the kilt was too short.

R: Yes.

M: And inappropriate! "Your kilt is too short for this Christmas school party".

R: But it was, it was entertaining, because we're talking about like a school Christmas party. Everybody in the room was an adult, the kids were like 50 miles away, because this was like the party for the adults. So, before anybody gets cross, because it sounds inappropriate, the people were drunk in the school building, we weren't in school, we were in a hotel.

M: Okay, good for you. Rory told us that he was a bit tipsy.

R: I was a bit tipsy, but that's just a slang term for "I was really, really drunk".

M: But tipsy is, it means a little drunk. But when people say "oh, yeah, I went to this party, I got a little bit tipsy", what they really mean is they were really drunk.

R: They were wasted, wrecked, totally gazeboed.

M: Gazeboed. This is some typical vocabulary about parties. I got a little tipsy, so I got a little bit drunk and other people were stone-cold sober. So you were drinking and other people were drinking water or juice and you were kind of drinking this whisky, Scotch and margaritas...

R: Well, no, what I said was, you shouldn't go up and talk to strangers about their retire, if you're stone-cold sober. I don't think there were many sober people at that party, to be honest with you.

M: Oh, okay, okay. So everybody was drinking?

R: Yes, almost everybody was drinking. My boss was not drinking. I don't think...

M: Smart.

R: But, yes, my former boss, I should say, I don't, I don't work for them anymore. Not because they were too boring, but, because I need my freedom.

M: Yeah, but sometimes some people, at the party, so kind of, there are two parties at a party, those who are tipsy, those who drink, and those who are stone-cold sober or those who are sober, so they don't drink alcohol. So we got talking, right? So we started talking, we started chatting and it turned out, he was the under manager of an isolated Scottish resort. Under manager? Who is an under manager?

R: To be honest, I have absolutely no idea what the difference between an under manager and an assistant manager is, Harry would probably be best place to explain it. But, it's, like, an assistant manager, I suppose, like the person who takes over at some point.

M: The conversation also brought me a few hours of social entertainment. So that's a nice thing to say. Like I chatted with this person and our conversation brought me a few hours of social entertainment, so kind of I enjoyed talking to this person.

R: And all it cost me, was £100 in drinks bills...

M: Are you joking?

R: It was an extremely expensive hotel. Even the staff that worked at the bar were like, I can't believe we're charging you this much money. But I was like, well, I have a lot of money. Take my money and give me the alcohol, please.

M: So, it was a school party. The school wasn't paying for the alcohol, for the drinks.

R: They paid for the first two bottles of wine, but the problem with that is, I don't drink wine, so I had to like BYOB.

M: Hmm. What were you drinking? What was your drink?

R: Emm, Jack Daniels. What is my drink, usually?

M: Jack Daniels, okay. And then you said something like, it wasn't entirely idle chitchat. Idle chit chat. Nice one.

R: Well, idle chitchat is just chattering away with no focus or point to it.

M: Yeah, sometimes you just chitchat to people at a party, just, you know, about some silly subject. But, Rory talked about the books he published. So it wasn't entirely idle chitchat, kind of he talked business. And we wrap it up with our third conditional structure, if I hadn't done that. So, if I hadn't met this person, I think, I would have had a really dull time. It's about past, it's about unreal past and we are imagining things in the past. If I hadn't done that, but Rory did that, he met this person, I would have had a really dull, boring time, but Rory actually had a good time after he met this person. So if I hadn't done that, I'd have had. How do we say this? How do we pronounce it? I'd have had a really dull time.

R: I'd have had a really dull time.

M: And the evening wouldn't have been as fun as it was. Again, the third conditional because the evening was fun and here we're imagining that if I hadn't met this person, the evening wouldn't have been as fun as it was. Rory, could you say the full sentence again?

R: If I hadn't done that, I think I'd have had a really dull time and the evening wouldn't have been as fun as it was.

M: Sweet, thank you. I'd definitely do it again, if I had the chance. And here we used the second conditional. Is this the conditional sentences? Yay. So, I would definitely do it again, sometime in the future, in the present, if I had the chance now. Right? So if I had the chance now, it's kind of possible, right? So we're talking about present, not past. If I had the chance now, I'd definitely do it again. Sweet. Rory, what helped you organise your story? Rory story.

R: Well, I immediately recognised that I wouldn't be able to talk at length about this subject alone, which is why I started off with saying that I don't really like going to parties. Before introducing the last person that I met, because it was months and months ago. And then, I referred back to what I said, because I said "like I said". And then I progressed forward from that. So, I did what you do in these situations, so introducing the action. And then moving the story forward further, after he got over the initial shock. And then moving towards the end, if I hadn't done that and wrapping up nicely. But do not be afraid to say you don't like the question, because it buys you time.

M: Sweet. Thank you very much for listening! We'll get back to you in speaking part three, where we are going to talk about meeting new people. Bye!

R: Bye!

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