VIP LESSON 010 - Weekend Plans

Dialog:

A: What's the verdict for this weekend? Are we going skiing or what?

B: I'm going, but I really don't think you'll like this place. You should come next
time.

A: What are you talking about? I love skiing. I don't care where we go.

B: To be honest, I don't think there will be enough room in the car.

A: I can drive myself if I need to.

B: It'll be boring for you to drive all that way by yourself.

A: If you don't want me to go just say so. Stop beating around the bush.
What's the big deal anyway?

B: I'm not mentioning any names but some people don't want you to go.

A: Why not?

B: I guess you offended some of them last time we were together.

A: They are way too sensitive. What did I even do?

B: I guess they took some of your jokes the wrong way.

A: That is so ridiculous. Are we still in grade school?

Verdict: The "verdict" is a term used in the courtroom. It is the final decision by
the judge. We often use it for fun in spoken English for a decision that needs to
be made.

We could say, "So what's the verdict as to whether or not you will quit your job"

Or what: In spoken English we often say, "or what" instead of "or not".

Do you want to watch a movie tonight or what?

Phrases and Vocabulary Used:

Beating around the bush: This phrase means being indirect. If you are beating
around the bush you are often trying to hint at some sensitive topic instead of say
it directly.

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 VIP LESSON 010 - Weekend Plans

I'm not mentioning any names but: If some people said something behind
someone's back, we often say, "I'm not mentioning any names, but a few people
have said this". This means that you are not will to tell the person who said what.

I guess they took some of your jokes the wrong way: If someone "takes
something the wrong way" it means that they didn't understand your true
intentions. If someone is offended by a joke you made for fun, it means that they
"took it the wrong way". It indicates a misunderstanding.

You could say, "He's really sensitive about being overweight. He might take it
the wrong way if you mention it".

Grade school: Grade school means grade 1 to grade 8. It basically refers to

school children before high school. If you say, "We're not in grade school
anymore" it means that we should be more mature about this situation.

FULL PODCAST TRANSCRIPT:

Back on the microphones lesson number 10 already here in the VIP room, on the
weekend and we’re talking about the weekend in today's dialogue…Add anything
to add? well let's talk about our weekend briefly anyway…what did we do this
weakened? Friday night, had a bit of a rip show I like to call it…yeah, we started
with…we hosted a poker game…Had all our friends over… got a little…little too
drunk, we promised that we wouldn’t be doing that, lied to ourselves as usual,
then hit the bar…pretty phenomenal weekend…so now we’re already down to
Sunday, because yesterday was a write off meaning, we couldn’t do anything
because of how much fun we had Friday night Add…right we would have been
sounding a little bit horsy I guess and we didn’t really want to do that to you
guys…didn’t want to that to the fans and anyway, here we are on a Sunday
afternoon, lovely day here in Shanghai Add…let's jump right into this because
there really is a lot of juicy stuff in the dialog Add so let’s just jump in.

A: What's the verdict for this weekend? Are we going skiing or what?

B: I'm going, but I really don't think you'll like this place. You should come next
time.

A: What are you talking about? I love skiing. I don't care where we go.

B: To be honest, I don't think there will be enough room in the car.

A: I can drive myself if I need to.

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 VIP LESSON 010 - Weekend Plans

B: It'll be boring for you to drive all that way by yourself.

A: If you don't want me to go just say so. Stop beating around the bush.
What's the big deal anyway?

B: I'm not mentioning any names but some people don't want you to go.

A: Why not?

B: I guess you offended some of them last time we were together.

A: They are way too sensitive. What did I even do?

B: I guess they took some of your jokes the wrong way.

A: That is so ridiculous. Are we still in grade school?

Alright, so a bit of little longer and dialogue there so we definitely have some
things to talk about…a lot of things to talk about Add...and this one is, as I said
the terms are really good…but this really happens a lot of times, people taking
stuff the wrong way…we’re gonna get into that one by one…let’s start with the
first one. Very good one to know how to use in spoken English…I said what’s
the verdict for the weekend…and the verdict is a term used in the courtroom, and
it's the final decision by the judge, but we often use it for fun in spoken English for
a decision that needs to be made…so we can say. So what's the verdict as to
whether or not you will quit your job…or often you will just say to your friend,
what’s the verdict?…like if you want to go out for dinner or not…are you going or
not…yeah, so what's the final decision, what is…what’s the decision…what's the
verdict. Alright, next one we got…I said so are we going skiing or what? Now,
this or what is very similar to saying or not, but it's a little more direct…it’s kind of
like you’re little bit angry. It's like you're waiting…you've been waiting so
long…it’s like are we gonna go skiing or what…I mean, what's going on here? I
want the answer now…Right, you want the verdict…you want the verdict
now…are we going skiing or what? You know, are we going to do this or what?
Right, do you want to watch the movie tonight or what?…like tell me right now
what you want to do…tell me right now…so its…do in you want to do it or not, or
what… just gives that kind of feeling…it's really important that you get the answer
immediately…and Add’s kind of making a bunch of excuses as to why I shouldn't
go…and the big phrase here Add in this dialogue, I say stop beating around the
bush. And it sounds like one of those idioms that you wouldn't use…but actually
this is one that we do we use a fair bit in spoken English…and it really means
stop being so indirect…just tell me the truth straight up…I don’t want to guess
you know…don’t tell me…in the dialogue Add’s telling me you don't want to drive
there…maybe you don't like the place. He's trying to make excuses as to why I
won't want to go. But really, I can feel that there's another reason he doesn't
want me to go skiing…so I’m saying, stop beating around the bush, which means

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 VIP LESSON 010 - Weekend Plans

tell me…right now exactly what the real reason is…right, Andrew can tell I’m
hiding something, so he says stop beating around the bush and just tell me
straight up…tell him straight up…and its kind of like if you beat around the
bush…you’re trying to hint at someone, you want the other person to guess
about some sensitive topic. You don't want the person to really know…you don't
want to tell them because its too sensitive so you want them to guess at it…and
that’s when you're beating around the bush so. You never say I'm beating
around the bush…you’ll always….you’ll tell someone else to stop beating around
the bush…right, you’re never going to say that yourself is beating around the
bush because you're the one that is hiding something, so of course never use it if
you’re doing it…exactly. Next one, this is used quite a bit…Add says, I'm not
mentioning any names but some people don't want you to go…so that means
some of the people going on this ski trip don't want me to go, which is possible,
I've been known to offend people in real life…and Add says I'm not mentioning
any names, which means I don't want to tell you exactly who said it because it's
kind of private…right. Maybe they told me in confidence, and I wasn't even
supposed to tell you, and that's why I was beating around the bush in the first
place…yeah, it’s a sensitive topic…people don't want me to go, they could be
friends of mine, although probably not very close friends if they don't want me to
go…right, and hopefully not your best friend because that would be pretty
sad…right, so if people talk behind someone's back about something we could
say, I'm not mentioning any names but a few people have said this or that, and
then you…you'd understand that some people have said it, but you’re not going
to find out who basically…right but realistically since we are brothers I probably
would've named names…yeah, we’d be naming a lot of names over here…well
he might say I’m not mentioning any names, and then I would say come on, who
was it? And then he’d tell me…or as a joke I might say, I'm not mentioning any
names but Jay said it…exactly okay next one here, and this is the reason that
people apparently don't want me to go on the ski trip. I was making some jokes
and people took my jokes the wrong way…now this certainly…it certainly
happens to me quite a lot. And I'm sure a lot of people when you're making jokes
you’re having fun. You can offend some people, you go too far, and they don't
like what you said, they take it the wrong way…and if you take something the
wrong way Add…it really means that they just didn't understand your intent, you
weren't trying to hurt, hurt their feelings, you weren’t trying to be offensive.
You're just trying to have fun and if they got hurt by that, they took it the wrong
way…they didn't understand really what you meant, right there is a
misunderstanding in a bad way, they thought you were trying to hurt them, or
saying something that you really shouldn't be saying. Right, So I could say, he’s
really sensitive about being overweight, he might take it the wrong way if you
mention it. So if someone’s sensitive about something and then you make a joke
about it…they could very easily take the joke the wrong way and get upset, and
then they won’t want you to go on a ski trip or whatever you're doing…right so if
you have a trip planned with some friends and some people are a little bit
oversensitive in the group, remember that you might be shooting yourself in the
foot if you say something…yeah, I've had a hard time over the course of my

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 VIP LESSON 010 - Weekend Plans

entire life to avoid this….so what I’ve found…I need to find a group which I have
of pretty resilient friends, people who can actually take jokes… and then I can do
whatever I want and barely anybody takes me the wrong way…right, so if you
find a group where you can say anything you want that's not too bad if you don't
mind making some controversial jokes. Exactly, and that’s why we’ve got such a
great group here…we’re all friends here at China232, because nobody here
takes stuff the wrong way. Everybody knows we’re just kidding around and
having fun and that’s, that’s really all part of it Add…often younger people take
things the wrong way so at the end, Andrew gets a little bit offended by our group
of friends and says, what are they in grade school? So I’m kind of making fun of
them, grade school is between grade 1 in grade 8. It's basically before you're in
high school and it…it kind of means that you’re immature…so if I say, what are
we in grades school? It’s a sarcastic question it's a rhetorical question. I don't
expect anyone to answer it. I'm just saying. I think we’re all more mature than
this, I mean we’re not little kids anymore, we’re just joking around, it doesn't
mean I shouldn't go on the ski trip…alright so that brings us to a bit of a close
here. Lesson number 10, next we will be back as usual for lesson 11…a lot of
great terms here Add…hoping you guys are enjoying the investment here in the
VIP room as much as we are. We are having a ball here at
tripleWdotChina232dotcom

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