Welcome to English as a second language podcast, number twenty-two.
Hello and welcome to English as a second language podcast, number twenty-2.
This podcast is for those who are trying to improve their listening, comprehension and speaking.
My name is Dr. Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from Los Angeles, California.
We are having some problems with our website and we apologize. Some of you may not be able to get to our website, but we are working to fix it and it should be fixed shortly.
Our web address is “www.eslpod.com.”
We hope to have that fixed in the next couple of days.
Now let’s start our podcast today by taking about seeing old friends.
Lucy is going to tell us about some old friends that she has seen recently and then we’ll come back and talk about the expressions and some of the difficult vocabulary.

Now let’s get started.
This is turning out to be a month for seeing old friends. I got an email a couple of weeks ago from an old friend from graduate school. She and her family are visiting L.A. for a week. They plan to see family and to visit old friends. Since she moved out of the country, I hadn’t seen her in ages. I’m looking forward to meeting her new kids and seeing her again.
Another old friend called this week. She and I were buddies in our undergraduate days. She plans to swing by L.A. on her way to San Francisco. We’ve made plans to have lunch. She works in Washington D.C. as a political advisor and is usually very busy. I’m glad she could make time for us to get together.
When we say good-bye to our friends, we always hope to keep in touch. But what with this and that, it’s sometimes hard to do. With friends that I’ve fallen out of touch with, it’s sometimes hard to meet up again and pick up where we left off. We’ve both moved on to a different phase in our lives. Some of my old friends have become very successful, living lives in the fast lane. Other friends are struggling along and are just making ends meet. But no matter how they’re doing, it’s always nice to touch base again.
I’m really looking forward to seeing these old pals of mine and catching up after all this time.
Lucy talked about some old friends that she has seen recently. by old friends, of course she means, friends that have been her friends for many years, not necessarily someone who’s old in age, but somebody who you have known along time.
She mentioned that it was turning out to be a month for seeing old friends.
To turn out means to result in, to become.
This is turning out to be a very difficult assignment means, this is becoming a very difficult assignment or you can say, “This is turning out to be a beautiful day!”
Meaning, it is now becoming a beautiful day or resulting in a beautiful day.
One of Lucy’s friends was a friend of hers from graduate school and as you probably know, graduate school is refers to anything that you study after your bachelor’s degree (What we call under graduate degree.)
So, you study for four years to get a bachelor’s degree, then you can study two, three, four, maybe up to six years to get a graduate degree.
Lawyers, doctors, some accountants, many teachers, all of these study graduate degrees.
Of course, the graduate degrees most common are a master’s degree and a doctorate or PHD or medical doctor (What we call MD.)
Lucy said, “She had not seen her friends in ages.”
That expression “in ages” simply means for a very very long time.
She said that, “She and her friend were bodies in their under graduate days.”
To be a body means to be a very close friend.
It’s somewhat of an informal expression and it’s often used sometimes by children.
“She is my body., “He is my body.”
Sometimes, it is used ironically meaning, it isn’t really the case.
So, someone that you don’t like, your friend may say, “OH, have you seen your body, Jack?”
When he knows that you don’t like Jack very much, but most straight forward common meaning means a friend.
Under graduate is of course something we have already talked about.
Lucy’s friend said that, “She plans to swing by L.A. on her way to San Francisco.”
To swing by means to visit, but not to stay too long or to go somewhere just for a short time.
I’m going to swing by the post office on my way to going to grocery store.
I’m going to stop at the post office, go to the post office, pick my mail up and then go on.
I’m not going to stay very long.
To make time when Lucy said that, “She was glad her friend could make time for us” means to set a side time, to schedule time, to put same time aside for that person.
She mentioned that she and her friend always promise to keep in touch.
“To keep in touch” means simply to stay in contact, to keep communicating with each other by phone, email, letter and so forth.
Keep in touch means the same as stay in touch.
Lucy also used the expression “What with this and that” When she said, “But with this and that, it’s sometimes hard to do.”
This is a somewhat an old expression which means for a variety of reasons.
I was going to the gym today, but what with this and that, I didn’t have time.
Lucy mentioned that her friend had fallen out of touch.
“To fall out of touch” is the opposite of to keep in touch, means that you no longer have contact with that person.
She mentioned that they were going to meet up again and picked up where they left off.
There are two expressions here very common.
“To pick up something” can mean physically to take something in your hands and pick it up, but here “to pick up” means to start again.
It’s usually used in connection with the phrase “leave off” or “left off.”
I left off in my book on page 29 means, I stopped in my book, stopped reading my book on page 29.
I’m going to pick off where I left off tomorrow, Which means, I would start on page 29.
We can use this expression for anything that starts and stops usually when we talk about to pick up where you left off usually means that you were interrupted for some reason, but not always.
Another expression Lucy used was that She and her friend had moved on to a different phase in their life.
Phase here simply means part of your life or time of your life. We have our study phase when we are in school and then have our work phase when we go out and find a job.
Lucy said that, “Some of her friend were very successful living their life in the fast lane.”
The fast lane literally is a lane on the freeway or highway. Most freeways and highways have two or three lanes where cars can drive. The fast lane of course is the lane where people drive the fastest. In the united states, that’s usually the lane that is on the left, the very far left.
Here, it is a general expression that means living and spending allot of money.
“I’m living in the fast lane.” means that I’m out doing many things and I’m spending allot of money.
I don’t live in the fast lane. hehehe.
Now, couple of more expressions.
Lucy mentioned that some of her friends were struggling. Meaning, they weren’t making very much money and were just making ends meet.
“To make ends meet” means to be able to pay your bills: your phone, your gas, your electricity and so forth, but not much more.
So, I have enough to pay for my necessities -the things I need in life-, but not allot more.
This is called making ends meet. Means, you are not very rich.
She mentioned that it was nice to touch base with her friends.
To touch base means again to stay in touch, to keep in contact.
Sometimes, we’ll use this expression “Let’s touch base tomorrow about where we’re going to go bowling on Friday.” Meaning, We’ll contact each other tomorrow about our plans.
Lucy used the expression “Old pals.” Pals means the same as bodies, A little older expression, but still common.
Finally, she said that, “Her friends were going to do allot of catching up.”
Here, “to catch up” means to talk about what has happened since the last time they saw each other.
To catch up is a general expression that can mean getting up to the same point where other people are.
If you miss two weeks of school, you have a lot of catching up to do,. Meaning, you have allot of work to find out what happened in those two weeks.
You can say for example, “I haven’t been reading my magazines recently. I need to catch up.” Means, i need to go back and do that, so that I can be current, so that I can be up-to-date.
That’s going to do it for today’s Esl podcast.
My name is Dr. Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the center for educational development in Los Angeles.
We’d like to hear from you. Please email us and tell us where you live.
Our email address is “eslpod@eslpod.com”
Thank you again for listening.
We’ll see you next time on English as a second language podcast.
Esl podcast is produced by center for educational development in Los Angeles, California.
This podcast is copyright 2005.