Online Dating

Hello everyone and welcome to EnglishPod.

My name is Marco.

My name is Katherine and this is our 300th lesson here at EnglishPod, so it's a special

lesson.

But today we're talking a little bit about dating.

That's right.

Today we're going to talk about dating now in a little bit of a less conventional way,

a new type of dating, very modern with using technology.

Using technology, that's right.

So let's listen to today's dialogue and we'll be back in a moment.

Do you want to hang out tomorrow?

Oh, I can't.

I have a date.

Really?

Wow.

With who?

This girl I've been chatting with for the past couple of months.

She's really cool and she's driving over here this weekend.

Wait a minute.

You mean you met her online?

Yeah.

I signed up for a website called match.com and it's great.

You fill in all your details and preferences, like if you are a smoker or if you have any

pets.

Then you find people that have similar characteristics and you can email them or chat.

That's kind of weird.

What if she's a psycho or something like that?

It's the same as meeting people anywhere and dating them.

I'm just tired of going to bars or being set up for dates by my friends.

I think this is a really cool alternative, especially if you are a bit shy.

I guess it does seem logical.

I'll have to check it out.

All right.

We're back.

Now, let's take a look at some of these key words that we've picked out for you on Language

Takeaway.

Language Takeaway.

The first word is a word that you're going to hear English speakers say all the time,

especially if they're Americans.

Cool is our first word.

This guy described this girl that he is seeing as really cool.

She's really cool.

What does that mean if I describe someone as a cool person?

A cool person is someone who you like.

It's a good thing.

Someone who is cool, I think of as relaxed and interesting and someone who maybe has

lots of ideas or things to say.

If you say that a person is cool, you're saying that you like that person.

What if you say something is cool, like Paris is really cool?

Paris is cool.

It's a cool city.

That means it's an interesting city.

It's something that you like.

Maybe you're trying to recommend someone to go there.

You can also say that movie was really cool.

So again, it means you liked it.

Yeah.

Okay.

So talking about dating, this friend was a bit surprised when he said that he met this

girl online.

That's right.

So online, where is this place online?

It's in cyberspace.

All right.

So online means on the internet.

And we often use this when describing things.

So EnglishPod is an online English learning site.

That's right.

So anything that is in the internet, in cyberspace, you say that is online.

So our website is online.

Or maybe you have pictures online.

I have many photographs online.

Or I like to meet people online.

Okay.

So continuing on, we talked about a website that obviously that's online where you find

people and talking about preferences.

You mentioned that you can state whether you are a smoker or if you have pets.

So what is a person that's a smoker?

Well, many of you have probably heard the term to smoke before.

I smoke cigarettes.

I smoke.

But a smoker is a person who smokes cigarettes.

And so I could say that I want a non-smoker if I'm looking for a boyfriend.

Because I don't want someone who smokes.

But maybe if you do smoke, you can say I'm looking for a smoker, someone who does smoke.

Okay.

So Jen was a little bit concerned saying, well, that's weird.

What if this girl is a psycho or something like that?

All right.

A psycho.

Now, maybe you've heard of the movie Psycho.

But psycho is something that we use in English to say that someone is really crazy, almost

scary crazy.

It comes from the word psychopath, right?

That's right.

And a psychopath is someone who is crazy but also very dangerous.

Right.

So obviously when we use this word, we're describing someone as being a little bit strange

or maybe even a little bit dangerous.

That's right.

So we don't want any psychos to come and talk to us online, right?

That's right.

So he went on to explain how dating is just the same online as it is offline.

And that he thinks it's a really cool alternative, even if you're shy.

So something is an alternative if you have different options.

Maybe dating by going to a bar and meeting someone is what normal people do.

But an alternative to that would be dating online.

That's right.

It's another option.

So the word alternative is a second option, another option.

Right.

For example, if I want to go have Italian food tonight, but you don't want to, I'd say,

Hey, Marco, well, can you give me an alternative idea?

That is the other option.

All right.

Great.

So a lot of words in this very interesting dialogue.

Stay with us.

We'll be right back where we'll take a look at Fluency Builder.

Do you want to hang out tomorrow?

Oh, I can't.

I have a date.

Really?

Wow.

With who?

This girl I've been chatting with for the past couple of months.

She's really cool.

And she's driving over here this weekend.

Wait a minute.

You mean you met her online?

Yeah.

I signed up for a website called Match.com and it's great.

You fill in all your details and preferences, like if you are a smoker or if you have any

pets.

And then you find people that have similar characteristics and you can email them or

chat.

That's kind of weird.

What if she's a psycho or something like that?

It's the same as meeting people anywhere and dating them.

I'm just tired of going to bars or being set up for dates by my friends.

I think this is a really cool alternative, especially if you are a bit shy.

I guess it does seem logical.

I'll have to check it out.

All right, we're back and we've picked out five key phrases for you.

Let's check those out on Fluency Builder.

Fluency Builder.

All right, the first phrase we've got here is one that we often use in English, spoken

English to talk about seeing our friends.

Okay, so the first person says, do you want to hang out tomorrow?

To hang out.

That's right.

So let's hang out.

We never hang out anymore.

What does that mean?

Well, to hang out is it's hard to define because you can do many things when you're hanging

out.

But basically it means friends being together.

So watching a movie, listening to music, chatting, these are all examples of hanging out.

So maybe if you get together with your friend, just sit in the living room and talk, you're

hanging out.

That's right.

Or you could go drive a car together and you're hanging out, you're talking.

So to hang out is to be social, is to talk to your friends.

To spend time together.

And he said, wait, oh, I can't because I have a date.

Okay, to have a date.

So a date is a romantic appointment with someone that you want to go out with.

But you have a date.

This is something you have.

I have a date that night.

So this is actually a very important part because as you said, it's a romantic appointment.

So if you have to go to the doctor and he's not your boyfriend or anything like this,

you don't say I have a date with the doctor.

No, you say I have an appointment with the doctor.

But if it's romantic, you say, oh, I want to get my hair done because I have a date

tonight.

Right, I have a date.

I want to look nice for my date.

Okay.

And then he goes on to explain that this date that he has is with a girl that he has been

chatting with.

Okay, so the verb here is to chat with, chat.

Chat just means to talk to, but in internet terms, to chat with means to talk to on the

internet.

So maybe you use a program like MSN or Google Gchat to talk to somebody online.

That's called chatting.

That's right.

So I think everyone has done this at one point or another when you are online chatting via

MSN messenger or any of these chat clients.

So very, very common thing.

But remember to add the chat with.

I am chatting with my friends.

Yeah, I don't like to chat with people while I'm at work.

Exactly.

On the internet.

So now this guy explained about the website match.com and he said that he signed up for

this website.

Okay, another really key verb when you're talking about internet things.

So for example, if you want to come to EnglishPod, you can sign up for a free trial.

That means provide your information.

All right, start to use.

That's right.

So it applies for things online and offline.

For example, in the real world or offline, you can sign up for a cooking class.

That's right.

Or last week, I signed up for a dance class so I can learn how to dance.

Very good.

Okay.

And then to finish off, the guy explained that he's tired of meeting people at bars

or that his friends set up dates for him.

Okay, so he doesn't like to be set up.

To be set up, remember that B. To be set up.

It means someone else is doing this to you.

So Marco, I want to set you up with my friend.

That means I want to take you and my friend and make you have a date.

Right, exactly.

So this is exactly what it means.

To set someone up or to be set up is to have them go on a date with someone else.

All right, so I don't like to be set up because I like to know the person I will have a date

with before we go out.

But when you're set up, someone else makes the decision for you.

That's right.

It's a little bit difficult.

That's right.

Okay, so a lot of interesting things here.

Why don't we take a look at our dialogue one last time and we'll be right back.

Do you want to hang out tomorrow?

Oh, I can't.

I have a date.

Really?

Wow, with who?

This girl I've been chatting with for the past couple of months.

She's really cool and she's driving over here this weekend.

Wait a minute.

You mean you met her online?

Yeah, I signed up for a website called match.com and it's great.

You fill in all your details and preferences, like if you are a smoker or if you have any

pets.

Then you find people that have similar characteristics and you can email them or chat.

That's kind of weird.

What if she's a psycho or something like that?

It's the same as meeting people anywhere and dating them.

I'm just tired of going to bars or being set up for dates by my friends.

I think this is a really cool alternative, especially if you are a bit shy.

I guess it does seem logical.

I'll have to check it out.

All right, so talking about setting up, this is another word that comes to mind when your

friends set you up for a date is a blind date.

Okay, so a blind date is not a date with two blind people.

A blind date is a date that you go to when you don't know who the other person is before

you go.

That's right.

So my friend's mother loves to set people up on blind dates.

She's a matchmaker.

She makes couples.

And so she will call one person and call the other person and then she'll make them have

a date.

She sets them up and then they have this date, a blind date.

A blind date, that's right.

And actually what you're doing with this technology now that you can use a website to find and

meet people who are also looking for romance, it's very interesting.

It's very modern obviously because now we have the technology to do it.

And many people actually have very successful or very great love stories of how they met

online, chatting or while playing a video game online or many different things like

this.

Well, the thing that I like about it, and I have to say I've never done it, so what

I like from hearing about it is that like Match.com, you save a lot of time.

It seems that way.

Because you get to tell the person, hey, I don't like people who smoke.

I don't like people who have pets, but I really like people who play video games.

And so you find people who are like that and then you can get to know that person better.

But I think it's hard when you're going on dates, especially your friends, they set you

up and you have nothing in common.

You have no interests that are in common and that can be really frustrating.

So it seems like online dating is a new type of efficient way of dating because you preliminary

already filter out everyone or everything that you don't like about a person and you

find someone that has your same or similar likes.

But that's modern day, right?

That's right.

A lot of people I know have dated using these websites and have been very successful.

Really?

They've been married.

Wow, it's amazing.

So actually this is a great thing.

Let us know if you have any friend who's found their significant other, husband or wife via

online dating or if you've tried it, maybe you can let us know how it is.

Our website is EnglishPod.com.

Don't forget to sign up if you don't have an account and we'll see you there.

All right.

Bye guys.

Carmichael