📙 Part 2: Describe a person you met at a party

You should say: what party it was, who this person is, what you talked about, and explain why you enjoyed talking with him/her.

This episode's vocabulary

• Flat warming (noun) - a party that you give when you move into a new house.
• To come along (phrasal verb) - to arrive or appear at a place.
• Quiet the (phrase) - used for emphasis.
• Character (noun) - someone whose behaviour is different from most people's, especially in a way that is interesting or funny.
• To rock up (phrasal verb) - to arrive somewhere.
• Remarkably (adverb) - used to emphasize how surprising or unusual something is.
• To come away (phrasal verb) - to have a particular feeling or idea or be in a particular condition at the end of an experience.
• Interspersed with something - having something in several places among something else.
• To top up (phrasal verb) - to add liquid in order to fill to the top a container that is already partly full.
• To integrate (verb) - to mix with and join a society or a group of people, often changing to suit their way of life, habits, and customs.
• To be smooth sailing (idiom) - to be easy and without problems.
• Gesture (noun) - an action that expresses your feelings or intentions, although it might have little practical effect.
• All the same (idiom) - despite what has just been said.

Questions and Answers

R: Oh, God, I mean, it's been a while since I've met anyone at a party. I mean, I usually meet them in quieter environments. Oh yes, I met my friend Ani at one of my flat warmings. Actually, that's rather ironic, since you'd think you'd meet people before you let them into your home. But this was the rare exception because my best friend had met him and asked if he could come along. So I said yes, and I'm very glad I agreed to it, actually, since he turned out to be quite the character. He's just moved to my hometown from England to join the marketing department at one of our universities, and he didn't know many people. Anyway, when he rocked up at my house with my other friends, we got to talking, and it turned out we had remarkably similar views about how things should work and the reasons why they didn't, especially when it comes to running a business. They also compared music tastes, and even though we had nothing in common in that area, we still enjoyed the conversation and came away with a few recommendations. This is interspersed with occasional breaks to top up drinks and chat to other people, but I still really enjoyed coming back to talking about different things with him and making him feel involved. It was good to help someone integrate better into the local community and see them enjoying themselves. He wasn't quite all smooth at sailing, though, since he accidentally knocked over a champagne glass, but I wasn't terribly bothered about it, frankly. Where I'm from, they're quite cheap. Despite that, the next day, a delivery of new champagne flutes turned up from him to say sorry, which was completely unnecessary, but a very nice gesture all the same. And it was actually quite helpful, because I discovered I didn't have enough champagne flutes for other parties, so it really helped. So I'm really glad I decided to make friends with him, and we've met for coffee and drinks a few times since then, and hopefully we will in the future. It's nice to meet someone new.

M: And do you often meet this person now?

R: Yeah, like I say, we go for coffee quite regularly.

Discussion

M: Hey, thank you, Rory, for your story! So dear listener, a person you met at a party. So you describe a past situation.

R: Yeah.

M: But you can describe the person in the present. So I met this person, I went to this party, but now like this person is, looks like, now we meet every week, or I've never seen them since this party, for example. So it could be like maybe your friend, who you met at a party, and now you're friends, or a person you met once, and then you've never seen them after the party. So... Rory started the story with it has been a while since I've met anyone new at a party. So it's been a while. It has been a long time since I have met anyone new at a party. A nice start. I usually meet people in other places, not at parties.

R: It's difficult to meet people at parties. It's always very loud. It's hard to have a conversation, usually.

M: But I met my friend, or I met this person at one of my flat warmings. So what is a flat warming?

R: Well, it was actually at one of my flat warmings. And a flat warming is when you have a party to celebrate the start of living in a new place, specifically an apartment. A housewarming is for a house.

M: Yeah. Re have different kinds of parties. So a flat warming party, a birthday party, a wedding party. And this was ironic, irony, because it was Rory's flat warming and a new person Rory had never seen before came to the party. Yeah, this was a rare exception. So Rory doesn't do it normally. He lets only people he knows into his house.

R: Usually, or people I've met before.

M: So this Ani. Ani, right?

R: Yeah, it sounds like a girl, but actually it's a man. It's Ani.

M: Yeah. So this Ani came along, so he just came to the party.

R: Yeah, not uninvited, though. I made sure that I explicitly invited him after that.

M: So he turned out to be quite the character.

R: An interesting person to talk to.

M: Yeah, and here it's positive because we can mean it in a negative way. Oh, he is quite the character. He's negative and he's difficult to talk to, but here it's very positive. So Ani turned out to be. So he was like quite the character. He rocked up at my house with other pals. Pals like guys, my friends, other pals. This is an informal word, my pal, my friend. And what does it mean, like he rocked up at my house with my friends?

R: Oh, if someone rocks up, it just means they arrive, usually in a very informal manner.

M: Like rock up to arrive somewhere. So, like they rocked up two hours late, so they came to my party two hours late. And also you can say, like they turned up late, so they came to the party late. It turned out that we had similar views about many things, or you could say, it turned out we had a lot of things in common. So we have common interests and similar views about different topics. We also have similar tastes in music, music tastes. And we enjoyed the conversation. And even we came away with a few recommendations. What does it mean? Come away with. If you come away with a few recommendations, it just means that you finish the conversation and hand something from it to follow up on.

M: For example?

R: Well, if you come away with a few recommendations, then you have some recommendations that you can look at or check out afterwards. Or you can come away with some information, you can learn something new that you haven't before.

M: Yeah, like come away with something, to have a particular feeling or idea at the end of the meeting, or this experience, and then Rory describes the party. So we chatted to other people, and while we were talking, we had some breaks to top up our drinks. Top up drinks, like pour some more wine into my glass, or have some more drinks. And then we enjoyed coming back to talking about different things. So we kind of kept talking, and you can say we were enjoying ourselves. And then something happened, so it wasn't all smooth, so it wasn't quite all smooth sailing.

R: Yes, not everything went well.

M: And could you give us another sentence with this like smooth sailing?

R: Oh, it could be anything, like a university application or working somewhere, just say, I love my job, but it's not all smooth sailing. Sometimes things go wrong with the schedule.

M: Yeah, it's an idiom. To be smooth sailing. Sailing? Like this yacht and sail. So to be smooth sailing, to be easy and without problems. It was smooth sailing. For example, we got into traffic, but then it was smooth sailing. There wasn't any traffic after that. And the party wasn't quite smooth sailing, because this person I met knocked over a champagne glass. So he broke a glass

R: But it was just an accident, so it wasn't such a big deal. That's why I said I wasn't terribly bothered by it. If you're not terribly bothered by something, then it doesn't upset you so much.

M: Yeah, and then you can finish off with I'm really glad I decided to make friends with him. Okay? I'm happy that I made friends with this person. And then Present Perfect. We've met for coffee, we've met for drinks after that, so a few times since then. So since that party, we've met. Right, dear listener, make sure you use phrasal verbs, okay? And maybe some adjectives. So Rory, could you give us three adjectives to describe this person you met at a party?

R: Engaging and unconventional and friendly, I think, that would be the best ones.

M: Unconventional, meaning not ordinary, interesting, unique. Sweet. And dear listener, you can always describe Rory. Imagine that you met Rory at a party. You went to Rory's flatwarming party, and you met Rory.

R: One of the many flat warmings.

M: Or Maria. You can talk about me. Hey! Imagine that we met at your, I don't know, birthday party, for example. Thank you very much for listening, and we'll get back to you in our next episode!

R: Bye!

M: Bye!

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