Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 11. Welcome to another edition of English as a Second Language podcast brought to you by www .eslpod .com. I'm your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan, Senior Researcher at the Center for Educational Development here in Los Angeles, California. ESL Podcast is especially made for you, those who are trying to improve their English listening and speaking. If this is the first time listening to this podcast, I recommend that you go to our
website, www .eslpod .com. to read more about how best to use this podcast to improve your English in today's podcast we're going to talk about expressing emotions expressing feelings particularly when you feel sad or you don't feel well we're going to listen to someone talking about their feelings and as usual we'll discuss vocabulary and expressions after we hear the interview now Let's get started. It would be great if I could always feel happy all the time,
day in and day out. But sometimes I feel down. This is one of those days. Sometimes I get depressed if something disappointing happens. like if I interview for a job and I don't get it, or if I have to cancel my vacation after looking forward to it for a long time. Once in a while, I'll even feel down if I've read a very sad book or have seen a movie with a sad or tragic ending. Well... None of those things happened today,
but I'm still feeling a little blue. I don't know what the cause is, but maybe what I need to do is to try to cheer myself up. When I've felt this way in the past, I've found that a change of pace helps. Getting out of the house, going to a new restaurant for dinner, Or just going for a walk outside can sometimes get me out of this bad mood. Sometimes, I hate to say it, but going out and buying myself something
new sometimes does the trick. Getting something new, especially something I've wanted for a while, can sometimes cheer me up. Or... Other times, just having a long talk with a good friend helps me put things into perspective, and I feel better. Okay, I've got it. I'll call my friend Debbie and invite her out to dinner. Debbie is such a good friend, and she has a way of seeing the bright side of things. She's one of those people who always sees the glass half full. not half
empty. I bet she'll help me get out of my lousy mood. And, if that doesn't work, I'm heading to the mall. There were several expressions that we heard that are equivalent or that mean the same thing. All of them expressing this idea of feeling sad. You heard the woman say, I feel down. I feel depressed. I'm feeling a little blue. I'm in a or I have a bad mood. All of these are ways of saying, pretty much the same thing, that we don't feel well, that we're not happy.
The expressions, I feel down or I get depressed or feel depressed, those are fairly common. The expression, I'm feeling a little blue, is a little more old -fashioned, a little more not used quite as often anymore in English. but to feel blue means to feel badly, like the color blue. A bad mood can sometimes be used when we feel sad, but a bad mood can also be when you are angry or when you are upset over something. A couple
of other expressions that were used. The woman said that it would be great if I could feel happy all the time, day in and day out. The expression day in and day out means all of the time, that we're trying to express the idea that it is going on constantly. So, for example, if you... live in a climate where it rains a lot, you can say, it rains day in and day out, meaning every day, all the time. The woman also said that because she was feeling a little blue, she was going
to try to cheer herself up. To cheer yourself up means to make yourself happy. One way she was going to do this was she was going to have a change of pace. Change of pace means a change in the way that you are doing things. Now, literally, the word pace, P -A -C -E, is related to speed, how fast you're going relative to someone else. For example, in a race. If you are going to run a long race, like, say, a marathon, you want to pace yourself, to keep your pace so that you
don't get tired. To change your pace or a change of pace means, more generally, to do something in a different way, to go in a new direction, to do things to get yourself out of your depression. to cheer yourself up. Another expression she used was, I hate to say it. She said, other times, I hate to say it, but, and then went on to say something. This expression is very common in
English. When you want to say something that you know the other person may not like or that you're speaking perhaps in a not very positive way about someone or something. So, for example, you could say, Well, I hate to say it, but I don't think my brother is a very good musician. We use the expression before some bad news or before something that's unpleasant that we're
going to tell the other person. The woman in today's podcast also mentioned that she was going to buy herself something new because sometimes that does the trick. The expression to do the trick means to accomplish something, to accomplish our goal. So, for example, I want to win a million dollars. I go out and I buy a lottery ticket and I win. I can say, well, you see, that did the trick. So to do the trick means to accomplish your goal, to do something to accomplish your
goal. A couple of other expressions that we heard today. The glass half empty, not half full. Or the glass half full, not half empty. The expression the glass is half full means that you are optimistic. I always see the glass half full means I always see the positive side of things. To see the glass half empty means you are pessimistic. You always see the negative side of things. Well, I hope that you listening out there always see the glass half full. That's going to conclude our ESL podcast
for today. Again, as we have said in the past, please email us at eslpod at eslpod .com. That's eslpod at eslpod .com, or go to our website, www .eslpod .com. We'd love to hear your ideas and your suggestions, or just to know who is out there listening and where you are listening from. We have heard from people in Asia, people in Europe. Tell us what country you live in and where you are, those you are listening. Thank you again for listening today. We'll see you
again next time. ESL Podcast is produced by the Center for Educational Development in Los Angeles,