The Argument

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to another lesson here at EnglishPod.
My name is Marco.
And my name is Catherine.
And today, Marco, you and I are talking about movies, right?
We're talking a little bit about movies, but mostly we're having a big argument.
Okay, I kind of like arguments.
Lots of great words and phrases for you to learn here in English.
But we've got an upper intermediate level lesson with some people who are not getting
along very well.
It's a couple, a guy and a girl, and they're having a fight, as couples do.
So we're going to be learning a lot of the different language that they are using in
this very heated debate.
So let's listen to this dialogue for the first time, and then we'll be right back.
Wow, that terrible movie is finally over.
Next time I'm picking the film because I don't want to end up seeing a chick flick.
Well, you should have picked.
In the end, you always complain about everything.
Not everything.
Just this film.
Even the title was ridiculous.
And it's so long.
Those were the two and a half most wasted hours of my life.
So much so that I'm thinking about asking them to give me my money back.
I'm thinking of taking you back home.
I thought we could have a nice evening, but you're always so negative.
I'm only complaining about a movie that I could have rented or bought and then thrown
in the garbage.
You see, that's what I'm talking about.
I can't stand your sarcastic jokes anymore.
Next time, go with your gay friend who is more in touch with his feelings.
Well, he's more of a man than you are.
At least he appreciates love stories.
Love stories?
More like one night stands.
Don't criticize Mario, or else I'll start on those fat, drunk friends of yours.
They're no saints.
My friends?
Fat?
What about those whales you call friends?
You're unbearable.
You can walk home.
I'm leaving.
I think the guy was exaggerating a little bit.
What do you think?
I think they were both exaggerating.
You know, by the end of an argument, both people are saying things that maybe they don't
mean.
I think we'll talk a little bit more about this towards the end of the show, but now,
why don't we take a look at language takeaway.
Language takeaway.
Alright on language takeaway today, we have four words and the first one that you probably
saw in the very first sentence is a chick flick.
Chick flick.
So, first of all, the word chick means a woman.
It's slang and it's not very nice.
It's not very nice.
No.
Well, I mean, between guys, you would use it as like, oh, this chick or that chick,
but you wouldn't really walk up to a girl and call her a chick, right?
No, you wouldn't say, hey, chick, what's up?
Not something you want to say.
So chick is a slang word for a girl or a woman and a chick flick is a girl's movie.
So a flick is a movie.
Another slang word.
Exactly.
So this is the slang phrase for flick.
So hey, Marco, what flicks are showing at the movie theater?
All right.
Yeah.
So movies.
So in the chick flick is usually a romantic movie, a drama, something that's very, um.
Like beaches.
Beaches is a chick flick.
I don't know if you've ever seen that.
I've never seen it.
So he's just not that into you is one of those new chick flicks.
Or like how to lose a guy in 10 days.
Yeah.
How to lose a guy in 10 days or the devil wears Prada.
Bride Wars.
Bride Wars.
Wow.
Lots of chick flicks.
I've actually never seen any one of these except how to lose a guy in 10 days.
I've actually only seen that one.
All right.
So chick flick is a girl's or woman's movie.
And next up we have a word, sarcastic.
We're talking about sarcastic jokes.
So sarcastic jokes or somebody being sarcastic.
God, Marco, you're always so sarcastic.
So what would sarcasm sound like?
Um, yeah, he's really funny.
All right.
So it's not really what you're saying.
It's kind of how you're saying it.
Right.
So it's kind of like by saying, he's really funny.
You're saying, yeah, he's a funny guy.
But if I say, oh, he's really funny.
I'm saying he's not funny.
He's being mean or he's a jerk.
Sarcasm is kind of one of those things that it's a little bit difficult to learn how to
do or to actually get it right.
Especially in English.
Right?
Yeah.
Marco, great explanation.
Exactly.
That's the way it goes.
Oh, yeah.
You're so funny.
So you're amazing.
You should go to you.
You went to sarcasm school.
So my parents like to say.
You can be really mean, Catherine.
Sorry.
Just kidding.
All right.
So apart from being sarcastic, you can criticize someone.
Like you're ever critical.
All right.
Sorry, I'll stop.
You're really into character right now.
All right.
So critical to criticize someone is to complain about them or to say that the things that
they do are not very good.
So you can criticize a person or a movie.
Yeah.
So this movie wasn't very good.
It wasn't funny.
The actors were bad.
It was really long.
These are criticisms.
Criticisms.
All right.
Well, and then moving on, the girl was finally tired of the guy and his complaints.
And she said he's unbearable.
Gosh, you're unbearable.
So the root of this word is to be able to like to stand something, to bear it.
And so if you're unbearable, something is unbearable, you just can't stand it.
All right.
So you're tired of it.
You can't stand it.
She thinks he's so unbearable, she makes him get out of the car.
And she leaves.
Yeah.
She said you can walk home.
All right.
So that's an unbearable person, right?
Okay.
So we took a look at those four main words here in our dialogue.
Let's move on now to some of the phrases that we found in Fluency Builder.
Fluency Builder.
This first one's a common one, especially when we talk about women and men and the relationship
between women and men.
We say about men that maybe they should be more in touch with their feelings or their
feminine side.
Yeah.
Okay, so if you're saying to be more in touch with your feminine side, what exactly are
you saying?
It's a good question.
Well, what you're saying is that you want to be able to express your feelings more or
you want to be able to understand more about your feminine side or something like this.
So to be in touch with is more about yourself.
It's about self-reflection and self-understanding.
So you could say, I'm a very serious person, but I want to make some changes in my life.
So I'm trying to be more in touch with my inner child.
Your inner child.
All right.
So to be in touch with, and it's usually related to feelings, to something intangible.
Or to behavior.
To behavior.
All right.
Moving on now, a heated phrase, a one night stand.
Oh, I'll let you explain this one, Marco.
All right.
So a one night stand is a casual and very quick temporal encounter that's usually a
sexual encounter.
It's romantic, right?
So it can be between two different people.
They meet each other one night.
They have a relationship for one night only, and then they never see each other again.
So it's casual.
It's casual.
Very good.
So yeah, you would see this.
You see this a lot in shows like, you know, Sex in the City and all that stuff.
Yeah, they have a lot of one night stands in that show.
All right.
So a one night stand.
And well, related to this, the girl was criticizing his friends, and she said, they're no saints.
Okay.
So we can say this in many different ways.
He's no saint.
She's no saint.
Or I'm no saint.
You're no saint.
So a saint is a good person.
It's a word that we use in religion to say someone who's like Mother Teresa, or someone
who's just really good and kind.
Doesn't commit any sins.
Exactly.
And so to say, I'm no saint is to say, well, I do bad things, or I say bad things.
I'm not perfect.
Okay.
So he or they, they're no saints.
They do bad stuff too.
Yeah, very good.
So that's the way that you would use, he's no saint, they're no saints.
All right.
So I think now we should listen to our dialogue for the last time, and we'll be right back.
Wow, that terrible movie is finally over.
Next time I'm picking the film because I don't want to end up seeing a chick flick.
Well, you should have picked.
In the end, you always complain about everything.
Not everything, just this film.
Even the title was ridiculous.
And it's so long.
Those were the two and a half most wasted hours of my life.
So much so that I'm thinking about asking them to give me my money back.
I'm thinking of taking you back home.
I thought we could have a nice evening, but you're always so negative.
I'm only complaining about a movie that I could have rented or bought and then thrown
in the garbage.
You see, that's what I'm talking about.
I can't stand your sarcastic jokes anymore.
Next time, go with your gay friend who's more in touch with his feelings.
Well, he's more of a man than you are.
At least he appreciates love stories.
Love stories?
More like one night stands.
Don't criticize Mario, or else I'll start on those fat drunk friends of yours.
They're no saints.
My friends?
Fat?
What about those whales you call friends?
You're unbearable.
You can walk home.
I'm leaving.
Bye.
Good luck.
Bye.
All right, so, Catherine, is this an argument that you would say is typical among couples?
Or maybe people that are probably about to break up?
Not couples that are happy, I would say.
But yeah, you definitely have people who are...
Well, I guess it's kind of the battle of the sexes, right?
You have people who are different genders and so they don't always understand each other.
You know, you want to have your girlfriends as a girl and your girlfriends behave and
talk in a certain way together and guys do the same thing but with their friends.
And so sometimes you have these clashes, these interactions that are negative and you know
when people are upset with each other, they say mean things.
And especially I think in this case, they don't really like each other's friends.
Exactly.
And that's a kind of a common thing.
Like a guy doesn't like his girlfriend's friends because maybe they gossip too much or something
like that.
And the same thing with the girls, right?
Because a guy's friends maybe drink too much.
Drink too much, play too many card games.
They're single.
So I think a lot of times these problems also have to do with the fact that like when a
girl is with her girlfriend, she maybe acts differently.
Or when a guy is with his guy friends.
And so that's weird sometimes for the relationship because you see your partner acting differently
with other people.
Right.
So, do you like your boyfriend or girlfriend's friends?
Do you get in fights about this kind of stuff?
Or you know what?
The in-laws.
Oh, that's a whole another situation.
That's a whole another situation.
Absolutely.
Alright, so we want to hear from you and also if you have any questions or comment suggestions,
come to EnglishPod.com and you can leave it on our lessons page or you can email us at
EnglishPod at PraxisLanguage.com.
We hope to see you on the website in the near future.
Please get in touch with us.
That's all for today.
So bye-bye.
Bye-bye.