S01 - E13 - Rafaela's journey to the USA & some American Idioms

Hey everyone, thanks for joining me again. In today's episode, I speak with my former TOEFL student Rafaela about her experience moving from Brazil to the USA. At the end of the episode, we also discuss some essential American idioms to help you speak English the way it is spoken on the streets. 

S01 - E13 - Rafaela's journey to the USA & some American Idioms

Full intermediate level ESL podcast transcript

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Rafaela: Hi Richard, first I’d say that I am glad to be here with you today. You were the first person that told me about podcasts. 

Vocab: Podcast - noun - a digital audio file made available on the Internet for downloading to a computer or mobile device, typically available as a series, new instalments of which can be received by subscribers automatically.

Rafaela: So, since then I've been listening (to) a lot of podcasts here. But I am right now and it's very helpful. So, congrats on your new channel. And yeah I'm from Brazil. I'm from San Paulo, but specific. I'm 30, a girl who used to dream about her Prince and the on their ward ??? 1.18, but it's not like this. Just kidding. I'm an environmental engineer. I worked with waste management for seven years back home, and now I'm seeking a MBA at Houston, Texas. And, I will try to combine my previous career with business management in the energy field because Houston is a very good place to improve for this kind of field. 

Vocab: MBA - Master of Business Administration - A master of business administration (MBA) is a graduate degree that provides theoretical and practical training for business or investment management. An MBA is designed to help graduates gain a better understanding of general business management functions

Rich: Perfect. So you've been very busy since we last spoke. 

Rafaela: Yeah....

Rich: Lots of things going on. Very exciting times in Houston. I just want to make one correction, sorry to do this very early on…

Rafaela: Sure go ahead.

Rich: ...but it's ‘listen to podcasts’. So remember, with listen you always have to have to. 

Rafaela: Right…

Rich: So the reason for this is the to is the preposition for direction. So that's why we have...I'm walking to London or to...I'm going to the shops. Same idea with I'm sending a letter to you. It's traveling…

Rafaela: Yeah yeah… 

Rich: so when you're listening, it's like your attention is going to that direction.

Rafaela: Perfect. 

Rich: Okay. It's just to get that in early. Sorry to do this really early on…

Rafaela: No…it's always good to learn more. 

Rich: Alright, perfect. So I want to talk to you about a few of those things cause you've got so much going on.

Rafaela: Mhmmm

Rich: So let's start with Brazil maybe, so what was your life like in Brazil. You said you were dreaming of a prince, did you find your prince?

Rafaela: No, I'm just kidding.

Rich: Okay...

Rafaela: Because actually when we have like, I had a normal life, I have a normal life for sure. But sometimes when I talk with my friends they said like, ‘Oh I always want to live in United States or live abroad’. And I said ‘I've never had this dream’. I've never had dreamed about living abroad, and now I'm here.

Vocab: abroad - adverb - in or to a foreign country or countries.

Rich: Yeah…

Rafaela: So it's like just feeding because it's something that it's... for me was very nice. We will talk about this later, but my life was to be normal. I had my apartment, my car, my job, my own money, my friends, family, everything. And about four years ago my boyfriend was applying for a clinical fellow position in some cities in the United States…

Rich: Yeah..

Rafaela: ...and he got one in Houston. And since then, he wishes to live here. So at that time we started to make plans for our future. And of course for me was like an impact because we were getting very along and in a serious relationship. 

Rich: So getting along well? Yes. 

Rafaela: Well, very well. Yes. In the, yeah, we start to talk about our future things…

Rich: We started..

Rafaela: Yeah, I started. But I had my career. I had a position that I really liked. So this decision, those kinds of decisions, it's quite difficult. It's not easy. Yeah. 

Rich: So what was that like then? How did you come to the decision to move to the US? What was it? 

Rafaela: So, I point, I put everything like in a balance and I see myself in a future with a better career and of course speaking English. It is one thing that I always, always want to. And he proposed me, like, had these experience…

Rich: Mhmmm…

Rafaela: and I thought that it was, it would be like a very good opportunity to have a better condition to improve my career, improve my English also. Knew a new culture. 

Rich: To know a new culture. 

Rafaela: Yeah. To know a new culture. And live in a different way also. I think, of course, if this kind of opportunity happens to somebody you think just good stuff, not the bad stuffs. 

Rich: Good stuffs. Stuffs uncountable by the way. 

Rafaela: Yeah yeah good stuff, exactly. Thank you. And that it was this way. So he proposed me this and we make some plans for the future. And after a while, we married here in Houston. No ceremony, no wedding day. Just us and the judge. 

Rich: Nice…

Rafaela: Yeah. So I moved to Houston and I saw this opportunity to do all this stuff.  Was very nice. 

Rich: Just one other quick point here. So you said he proposed me this, I think you said that, but in English it would be, he proposed this to me. 

Vocab: proposed - verb
1. put forward (a plan or suggestion) for consideration by others.
2. make an offer of marriage to someone.

Rafaela: Ahhh..

Rich: So this is an interesting thing, actually. 

Rafaela: Yeah…

Rich: Maybe we can talk about this quickly. So in Portuguese, you can have the like reflexive verb right?

Rafaela: Perfect

Rich: But in English, it must be subject, verb, object, which is an interesting difference between the two languages, because often in Portuguese speakers will miss the object.

Rafaela: Hmmm exactly. 

Rich: So they miss the final part or, or they'll put like that reflexive. But yeah, I think that's quite some journey that you have had. I want to talk to you a bit about what it was like the first time you arrived in the US. So you get on the plane. You get off the plane. Look around. What happened?

Rafaela: I want to say this before moving my, yeah.

Rich: We’ll come back to this. 

Rafaela: I visited my husband a couple of times and my perceptions are that everything here is better than what I already have back home. 

Rich: Mhmmm

Rafaela: So it is, I think everybody thinks this way. I visited some museums. I mean, NASA is here. We live in the museum district, so they have more than 25 museums.

Pictured: Museum district in Houston

Rich: Wow.

Rafaela: I saw a lot of things, good parks. Everything is green...flat. There is no ups and downs on the roads. So it's very nice. So this, when I came here, like the first time, my perception was that it is perfect. So I started to wonder what kind of life I will have, I would have here. 

Rich: Mhmmm

Rafaela: All right, so I got back to Brazil. I prepare everything to, to the move…

Rich: ...for the move. 

Rafaela: ...for the move. And then I moved. So, I mean when you move, you bring with you your responsibilities. And for me, it was quite different because I as I said, I was living alone. I had my own car and my apartment, my job, everything. And here I had nothing.

Rich: Yeah...

Rafaela: ...and mortgages. So I had to build everything from scratch. 

Vocab: mortgages - noun - a legal agreement by which a bank, building society, etc. lends money at interest in exchange for taking title of the debtor's property, with the condition that the conveyance of title becomes void upon the payment of the debt.

Rich: Yeah...

Rafaela: And build a life. 

Rich:  I just want to explain that, that phrase, by the way, cause it was quite interesting. So you said, I have to start things by scratch. So can you explain what you mean to start something by scratch? 

Rafaela: Start everything from zero. 

Rich: Zero. Yeah. 

Rafaela: Nothing. Yeah. 

Rich: To start something from scratch to start from zero, right?

Note: To start something from scratch means to begin from a point at which nothing has been done yet Nothing like this had ever been done before, so we had to start from scratch.

Rafaela: Yeah. To start from zero. Exactly. So yeah. And more than this, I had to learn to be a wife also, because when you’re married, everything is different. It is not the same. That is when you were in a date.

Rich: Yeah...When you are dating...how did that change them? Can you talk about that? 

Rafaela: Yeah. Change the way that you see the other...the person that you are.

Rich: Yeah. 

Rafaela: Changes how you do the things inside your home because your home is not my...just your home. It's you have to share, split the things... your time.  You have to listen. And other times you, you complain so. It is..it is interesting. I mean, I like. ??? 10.28 I think married is very, growth. For people that wants to grow together. 

Rich: Very, very, what? Sorry. Very growth. Very…

Rafaela: How can I say? It's rich. It's…

Rich: Rich. That's a good word. Yeah. Or challenging. Maybe. 

Rafaela: Yeah challenging, but in a good way. 

Rich: I just want to go back to one comment you said. So you had another example of this classic Brazilian error. So for anyone who speaks Spanish or Portuguese, this is very interesting. So you just said, I like...but then you miss the object. So it's that S V O subject verb object thing again. 

Rafaela: Mhmmm..

Rich: So obviously in some of the romantic languages, there is no need to say what it is you like. But in English, people will always be thinking, what do you like? 

Rafaela: Yeah. It is not clear. Yeah, I know. I know this because I had...I have some friends. American friends here, and sometimes they say it again. I don't get it. 

Rich: Yeah. What is it? Yeah. Because, yeah, I think actually this is a very interesting difference between the languages because in like Portuguese or Spanish, you can say so much more. With like one word, like you can get the subject the time, so the auxiliaries, you can get everything, the object, all in one word. Whereas in English, it's very slow. You have to say every word for it to work. 

Rafaela: I would say… it is slow. You have to put everything right. 

Rich: Yeah…

Rafaela: Sometimes it's concise also. 

Rich: Concise…

Rafaela: I don't know what concise is exactly. 

Vocab: Concise - adjective - giving a lot of information clearly and in a few words; brief but comprehensive.

Rich: Mhmmm

Rafaela: So I see sometimes, like when they said things, they have a lot, um, phrase that it's already done.

Rich: Mhmmm

Rafaela: So very connections between, among the phrases…

Rich: Mhmmm

Rafaela: but they speak in a very, very common way. Everybody speaks the same. It's interesting when you, when you stop to observe how people….and especially for me that, I'm trying right now of course to learn more the right...how the right way to speak the language, but I'm trying to get more the pronunciation also because they are very, very strong.

Rich: Yeah. 

Rafaela: Yeah. 

Rich: Well, in America as well, I think pronunciation is maybe more important because when I was in America, I was in Ohio and some Americans could not understand me. 

Rafaela: I remember...yeah yeah...

Rich: I think I told you so. I went to a restaurant and I asked for butter to put on bread, and the girl looked at me like, what? I said, butter…

Rafaela: Butter...

Rich: And about five minutes went by and then she went, “Oh, butter”. 

Rafaela: Yeah butter… 

Rich: I think it's because Americans mostly consume only American culture. So they find it more difficult to listen to other accents sometimes I think. 

Rafaela: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I agree. 

Rich: Depending on the place… 

Rafaela: Yeah...And if you pay attention, people don't say it like wrong. They don't say it even the pronunciation is not like so wrong for Americans that don't understand them. 

Rich: Yeah

Rafaela: I saw it in a...sometimes I saw some situations. I see, Oh, come on, you can, God it is. ??? 14.16  It is not so hard, but no, they don't understand. 

Rich: Yeah. It's difficult. I think. So listen, I think we should transition now to some idioms I have prepared for those who are planning to live in the U.S and want to become a bit more Americanized. So, Rafaela I think you have a great idiom for me, right? 

Rafaela: Yeah, yeah. Some of them. 

Rich: Okay. So what's, what's the idiom you have for us today? 

Rafaela: Alright. Do you know what means two peas in a pod? 

Rich: Do you know what two peas in a pod means?

Rafaela: Yeah… do you know what two peas in a pod means...

Rich: No...Please, please explain. 

Rafaela: It's something that it's very similar. For example, Tony and Angela are like two peas in a pod. I always see them together. 

Rich: Perfect. Yep. 

Rafaela: Yeah…

Rich: Are we two peas in a pod? Do you think we're very similar? 

Rafaela: I think some ….subjects. 

Rich: On some subjects...Okay. You didn't want to say yes. I will remember this. So the next idiom I have for us is to ruffle feathers. So this is a very interesting idiom. So feathers are what birds have on their skin. So it's kind of like a fur….something they have on their wings. It's the very soft stuff that's outside of their skin. And to ruffle is to move something back and forth. So if you put your hand on a bird and you move your hand back and forth, that's ruffling its feathers.

Now, this is kind of annoying for a bird. So not like a dog when you can, you know, touch a dog's head and they like it.

Rafaela: Petting yeah…

Rich: It's much more like, um, is much different cause they get really annoyed by this. So if something or someone ruffles your feathers, it means that they really annoy you or the situation annoys you.  So for example, I cannot believe the guy did not give me a refund. He really has ruffled my feathers, for example. So I'll just spell out ruffle as well for those who are interested cause it's an unusual word. And that's R U double F L E. Ruffle, and that means, again, to move something back and forth almost like you're...you're patching it or you're stroking it with your hand.

Rafaela: Yeah. Can I use this idiom to just say that I'm angry at something also.

Rich: Yeah. Yes, you can use it for anger. So like let's imagine that someone does not turn up for work, you can say, oh they have ruffled my feathers. 

Rafaela: Mhmm… 

Rich: They've made me very angry. So yeah, you can use it in this way. The final one I have for today is to call it a day. So this just means to finish for the day. So when you've done everything, you call it a day, and that's the end. So what do you think Rafaela? Should we call it a day today?

Rafaela: Ohh...I think we’ve done a very good job. So yeah. 

Rich: Alright, perfect. So thank you so much. 

Rafaela: Thank you

Rich: Take care. I'll see you next time. Bye-bye.

Rafaela: See ya. Bye-bye.

If you notice any errors or would like me to add something to the transcription please email me at info@lovetolearnenglish.com