📙 Part 2: Describe a time you made a promise to someone

You should say: what the promise was, to whom you made it, whether it was easy or difficult to keep, and explain why you made it.

This episode's vocabulary

Hands-on (adjective) – being actively involved. → He prefers a hands-on approach and works directly with the volunteers.

Hedge your bets (idiom) – to reduce risk by choosing multiple options or being cautious. → He always hedges his bets by applying to several jobs at once.

Cohort (noun) – a group of people with a shared characteristic or experience. → She trained a cohort of new teachers during the summer program.

By and large (phrase) – generally or mostly. → By and large, the event was a success despite the weather.

Deliver (verb) – to provide or perform a service, task, or speech. → She was asked to deliver a presentation on climate change.

Go to plan (phrase) – to happen as expected or intended. → Fortunately, everything went to plan during the wedding.

Monotony (noun) – lack of variety and interest; tedious repetition. → He needed a break from the monotony of office life.

Give your word (idiom) – to make a serious promise. → He gave his word that he would complete the project on time.

Beyond question (phrase) – without doubt; absolutely certain. → Her dedication to the cause is beyond question.

Follow up (phrasal verb) – to check progress or take further action after something. → She followed up with the client a week after the meeting.

Time-intensive (adjective) – requiring a lot of time to complete. → Creating a new curriculum is a time-intensive process.

Resource-intensive (adjective) – requiring a large amount of resources (like money, materials, or effort). → Running a school can be extremely resource-intensive.

Be out of your hands (idiom) – to be beyond your control. → The decision to cancel the event was out of his hands.

Emotional connection (noun phrase) – a strong feeling of attachment or bond. → They formed a deep emotional connection during their time together.

Invite back (phrasal verb) – to ask someone to return, usually for a specific reason. → The conference organizers invited her back to speak again next year.

Questions and Answers

Rory: I don't usually make promises, not because I don't think I can keep them, but because life has a habit of getting in the way, and I like to hedge my bets. However, some promises are pretty easy to keep, like the one I made to some colleagues while I was teaching in Bishkek. I'd been staying with them for a month last year, and I was delivering a teacher training course and some lessons for them and their school, and by and large it all went to plan, and we were celebrating at the end of the whole thing when someone from our group asked if I would ever think about returning to the country, and for me that was beyond question. I'd had such a great time that I absolutely would, and I promised that if I was invited back, I'd be very happy to see them all again.

When it comes to who I made that promise to specifically, it was the director of the school and a cohort of teachers I'd been working with to deliver the course I'd designed for them. Not only had I enjoyed the teaching, but I like to follow up on my projects, and coming back was an ideal way to do that. It would also break the monotony of my day-to-day back home as well, so I saw no downsides to giving them my word on the matter. Of course, I'd have to be invited back, and there would have to be a need for me being there, but that would be out of my hands, and fairly obviously so.

While I didn't think much of making the promise, I did think it would be difficult to come back for a while given how time and resource-intensive such projects are, but actually in February of this year I was invited back by the school, and I was able to keep my word. I was really excited to go back and see everyone there. If I hadn't made that promise, I'd have still agreed to return, but I don't think the emotional connection would have been so strong. Promises tend to have that effect on people, I suppose.

Maria: And do you sometimes break your promises? I

Rory: I can't remember the last time I broke a promise to someone, so... no.

Discussion

Maria: Yay! Thank you, Rory for your story! So, dear listener, the task is to describe a promise you made to someone. We make promises to someone, we promise something to somebody, or we make a promise. Then we keep a promise, if you’ve done what you told people you would do. So you keep a promise. Or if you don’t do what you’ve told them you’d do, you break a promise. Do you have a story with a promise? If no, feel free to lie. Imagine that, okay, I've promised to go to this birthday party, but I didn't. Oops. Accident. Sorry. A very good start is to say that you don't usually make promises. If I make a promise, I have to keep it. Or you can say that I don't make promises, I can't keep. Because life has a habit of getting in the way. Life is getting in the way. Like you make a promise, and then life happens, you can't keep your promise, you feel bad, the person feels bad, and like, what's going on? Rory, if I say I like to hedge my bets… Smells like Ben 9.

Rory: It's just an idiom that means that you protect yourself by supporting more than one result. So here I was saying that, yes, I'll come back if I'm invited. So if I'm not invited, then it's okay, but if I am invited, then that's amazing too.

Maria: So, “hedge my bets” - to protect myself against loss by supporting more than one possible result or both sides in a competition. When you avoid committing yourself to a difficult choice, for example, like they hedged their bets by saying they might invite you, okay?

ChatGPT: Oh, hello there, chat GPT here. Let me help Maria and Rory explain. To hedge my bets means to protect yourself from the risk of failure by not relying on just one option or decision. It's like having a backup plan or doing multiple things to increase your chances of success. For example, if you're not sure which job offer will work out, you might keep talking to both companies to hedge your bets, so you're not left with nothing if one falls through.

Maria: Yeah, to avoid making a decision between two things. Okay, I'm hedging my bets. I'm applying to two universities at the same time, for example. Some promises are easy to keep. And I'm going to tell you about one promise I made to some colleagues. So Rory made a promise to his colleagues. Then you give context.

Rory: Oh, it's annoying just because the task takes up most of the collocations that go with “promise”. So here it says, make a promise and keep a promise. And those are usually the main ones. So the only really obvious collocation left is break a promise or keep your word or break your word.

Maria: I kept my word, that's a very good synonym. Or I broke my promise, I didn't keep my promise, or I kept my word. And to give context, you can say that I was staying in Bishkek, I was delivering a teacher training course, or I was travelling around Europe, I was staying in this hotel, I was doing something. And then we talked, and I made a promise. I said I would. So future in the past. We talked about it and I promised that I would do something in the future. I was invited.

Rory: So I did it.

Maria: When it comes to who I made that promise to, so I made a promise to my colleagues. Who did you make it to? So when it comes to who I made that promise to, it was my friend or my parents, the director of the school. I thought that it would be easy for me to do, or I thought that it would be nice to do again, future and the past. When you were making a promise, you thought that it would be something, or I would feel nice, or I would be happy to do it. I would be happy to help out, for example, to come back to the place.

Rory: In the imaginary future.

Maria: Yeah.

Rory: Although it turned out to be a real future.

Maria: And then you can say I was able to keep my word. So I kept my word, I managed to keep my word, I was able to keep it. And the task says, like, a time you made a promise. Yeah, but actually, if you broke that promise, you can also say, like, well, unfortunately, life got in the way, and I broke my promise. I couldn't keep my word. So that's also possible. And then you can talk about your feelings. I was really excited. I was pleased. People were happy. We had this emotional connection. Yay! I was on top of the world. I'm on top of the world. I'm on top of the world. Rory, what helped you to organise this answer? Logically, coherently.

Rory: Well, having made a promise helped me organise the answer, but I think it was important to explain the context behind it. So normally I don't make promises, but here's one that I made at this time because... And then I explained why. And then I introduced the different points when it comes to who I made the promise to, because I had to talk about to whom I made the promise. And then thinking about whether it was difficult to keep. Here I said I did think it would be difficult to come back, but then this other thing happened. So using emphasis with do or did here. And then I rounded off by talking about what would happen if I hadn't made this promise, or what would have happened if I hadn't made this promise. But here it's a very minor thing. The emotional connection would not have been as strong, but still I got in a very advanced conditional sentence before the end. Yay!

Maria: And Rory, what do people usually make promises about? Like I made a promise to visit my friend, for example. I made a promise to come back.

Rory: Or many people promise to keep in touch with each other when someone leaves. Sometimes that doesn't happen.

Maria: Yeah, true. Or when people invite you to some places, right? So, for example, I promised I'd go to the theatre with you, or I promised I'd go to this party, and then, I don’t know, the person falls ill, unfortunately, and has to break the promise. Yeah, dear listener. But you choose a story that you can talk about easily and happily. All right. Thank you very much for listening. And we'll get back to you in our new episode.

Rory: About promises for part three. We promise we'll see you in part three. There we go. There's a promise that I kept or a plan to keep. Bye.

Maria: Bye

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