Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast number 22. Hello and welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast number 22. This podcast is for those who are trying to improve their listening comprehension and speaking. My name is Dr. Jeff McQuillen, 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 talking about seeing old friends. Lucy is going to tell us about some old friends that she saw 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 LA for a week. They plan to see family and to visit friends. Since she moved out of the country, I haven'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 LA on her way to San Francisco. We've made plans to have lunch. She works in Washington DC as a political advisor and is usually
very busy. I'm glad she could make time for us to get together. When we say goodbye 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 and are 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 bass 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 a long time. She mentioned that it was turning
out to be a month of foreseen 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 refers to anything that you study after your bachelor's degree, what we call your undergraduate 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 buddies in their undergraduate days To be a buddy means to be a very close friend It's somewhat of an informal expression and it's often used by sometimes by children. He's my buddy, she's my buddy. Sometimes it is used ironically, meaning it isn't really the case. So someone that you don't like, someone your friend may say, oh have you seen your buddy Jack? When he
knows that you don't like Jack very much. But the most straightforward common meaning means a friend. Undergraduate is of course something we've already talked about Her friend Lucy's friend said that she plans to swing by LA 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 my way to Going to the 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 there very long To make time when Lucy said that she was glad her friend could make time for us means to set aside time to schedule time to put some time aside for that person. She mentioned that she and her friends 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 what with this and that it's sometimes hard to do This is a somewhat of an old expression which means for a variety of reasons I was going to go to the gym today, but what with this and that I didn't have time Lucy mentioned that her friends 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 pick
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 up where I left off tomorrow which means I would start on page 29 we can use these 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 friends had moved on to a different phase in their lives. Phase here simply means part of your life or time of your life. We have our our study phase when we're in school and then we may have our work phase
where we go out and find a job. Lucy said that some of her friends 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 a lot
of money. I'm living in the fast lane means that I'm out doing many things and I'm spending a lot of money. I don't live in the fast lane. Now, a couple of more expressions. Lucy mentioned that her friends, 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 a lot more. This is called making ends meet. It means you're 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 buddies little older expression, but still common Finally she said that her friends were going to do a lot of catching up Here to catch up means to talk about what has happened since the last
time they saw each other Catch 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 a lot 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 ESL pod at eslpod .com eslpod at 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 the Center for Educational Development in Los Angeles, California This podcast is copyright 2005.