Hello, English learners. Welcome back to the English Pod. My name is Marco. And I'm Erika. And today we're looking at some more romance（传奇故事）. We're talking about dating（注…日期）.

  Dating, exactly. And not only dating, but asking someone to become your boyfriend or girlfriend. Yep, that's true. And so we're going to be focusing on language to express your romantic（浪漫的） feelings. And also maybe some phrases you can use to ask someone out. Very good.

  So I'm sure you guys are excited about this one. So let's listen to the dialogue for the first time. Hey, you're early. Where is everyone? Well, I told them not to come. I made a reservation（预约） just for the two of us.

  I thought we could have a quiet evening all to ourselves. Oh, why Jennifer, there's something I want to ask you. Sure. What is it? Okay（好）, here's the thing. I've always seen you as more than just a friend.

  And I can't take it anymore. I know you better than anyone. I know the pros and cons（反对论） of your personality. I even know what's out of the bed is yours. I think we would be great together, don't you? Are you serious?

  We've been friends for years. We can't just change that overnight（一夜）. I know. I never had the guts（内脏） to tell you until today. So what do you say? Are you willing（愿意的） to give me a shot（发射）?

  All right. I wonder（想知道）, is she going to say yes? I don't know. She seems a little bit confused. Well, I guess it's always strange when your best friend suddenly wants to be your boyfriend or girlfriend. It does happen though（ 虽然）.

  It does happen. So why don't we take a look at some of the vocabulary that was used in this dialogue to express these feelings and let's start with Fluency（流利） Builder（建筑者）. Fluency Builder. Okay, so we're doing things a little differently today. We're looking at phrases and not just vocabulary words. So he used some wonderful phrases to ask her to be his boyfriend.

  And he started with this. Here's the thing. Here's the thing. Here's the thing. All right. That's a very strange phrase.

  Here's the thing. Is he giving her something? Not quite. He's not giving her an object, but he's giving her some information. Okay. So it's a very common way to start an idea.

  That's right. You're about to tell the person the main problem or the main piece of information. Right. So you would start with here's the thing and then start explaining. Okay. Why don't we do an example?

  For example, you could say, all right, here's the thing. People don't like you. All right. Well, I hope they don't say that to me. But another example. Marco, here's the thing.

  We're behind in our podcasting. We have to work overtime（[劳经] 加班时间）. Okay. So the main idea. Yep. Very good.

  Moving on to our next phrase. He said, I can't take it. I can't take it anymore. I can't take it anymore. So he can't take it anymore. Take what?

  Well, why don't we find out by listening to some examples? Example one. The man next door has been so loud. I can't take it anymore. Example two. My boss always yells（大叫） at me.

  I can't take it anymore. Example three. I can't take it anymore. I'm going to quit（离开）. All right. So basically（基本上） is you can't stand it.

  You can't tolerate（忍受） it anymore. Exactly. This is a phrase we use when we are really frustrated（挫败）. Yeah. When we're frustrated（失意的） or when we just can't handle（拿） it anymore. And well, after he finished his declaration（（纳税品等的）申报） of love, she responded by saying, are you serious?

  Are you serious? Are you serious? Are you serious? Okay. So what does she mean? She's just saying really.

  Exactly. It's another way of saying really. Yeah. So this is a phrase that's really, um, it's quite informal, isn't it? Yeah. I guess you wouldn't use it in a business context.

  No. And it's also something that's used mostly by younger people. Right. If you say something that's amazing or that's incredible, hard to believe, you might get this response. Are you serious? Right.

  So he is very serious, but he confessed（供认） that he never had the guts（内脏） to tell her, have the guts. I never had the guts to tell you. I never had the guts. All right. So to have guts, that's to be brave（勇敢的）, courageous（有胆量的）. Yep.

  So we have some examples of how we would use guts in different situations. So let's listen. Example one. I don't have the guts to go skydiving. Example two. I don't have the guts to give a speech.

  Example three. I've never had the guts to say no to my boss. All right. So to have the guts to do something. Hey, but Marco, this word guts, it's an interesting one. Yes, it is because guts can also mean your internal（内的） organs（器官） like your stomach and your intestines（肠） and your lungs.

  Exactly. Those are your guts. Yep. So when you have guts, you're really brave. Exactly. You're courageous.

  All right. Very good. Why don't we listen to the dialogue for the second time? We're going to slow（ 放慢速度） it down a little bit and we'll come back and look at some phrases and putting it together. Hey, you're early. Where's everyone?

  Well, I told them not to come. I made a reservation just for the two of us. I thought we could have a quiet evening all to ourselves. Oh, why? Jennifer, there's something I want to ask you. Sure.

  What is it? Okay. Here's the thing. I've always seen you as more than just a friend and I can't take it anymore. I know you better than anyone. I know the pros and cons of your personality.

  I even know what side of the bed is yours. I think we would be great together. Don't you? Are you serious? We've been friends for years. We can't just change that overnight.

  I know. I've never had the guts to tell you until today. So what do you say? Are you willing to give me a shot? All right. So that's a little bit clearer this time, but while I was listening, I noticed that there's some more great phrases that you can use together with different words.

  So let's look at those now and putting it together. Putting it together. All right. Let's take a look at the first one. He said, "I made a reservation just for the two of us." The two of us?

  Just the two of us. So just the two of us, quite simply（简单地）, it means you and me, just us, right? Right. Just us. So why is this phrase important? I think it's a great way to show the idea of only us, right?

  Right. And we can use it together with any number we want. So what about the four of us? Mm-hmm. Just the four of us. Okay.

  Just the eight of us. Okay. So it suggests the idea of only us, you know? Okay. So he made the reservation just for the two of us because he thought they could have a quiet evening all to ourselves. All to ourselves.

  All to ourselves. All to ourselves. If you have something all to yourself or we have something all to ourselves. We have that thing all alone. We don't have to share it. We don't share.

  Very good. So I guess you can say, "My parents are out of town, so I have the apartment, I have the house all to myself." Mm-hmm. Or even, "She wants to eat the cake all to herself." Very good. So that's a very good phrase.

  And you can use it with any pronoun（代名词）. Well, so the guy is explaining that I've always seen you as more than just a friend. I've always seen you as. I've always seen you as. So basically, is the perception（理解感知） or the way you consider that person? The way you think about that person.

  So I can say, "I've always seen you as a good friend." I've always seen you as a leader. Okay, so our last phrase is also the last thing we heard in the dialogue. He said, "Are you willing to give me a shot?" Are you willing to give me a shot? To give me a shot? Give me a shot.

  All right, I think we have some more examples of how we could use "give me a shot" in different situations, so let's listen. Example one. I know I can do this drawing better. Just give me a shot. Example two. The HR manager wasn't going to hire（租借） me, but he decided to give me a shot.

  Okay, so when you give someone a shot, you take a chance, right? Give that person or give an opportunity. All right, so we don't know if she will give him a shot or not, but why don't we listen to the dialogue once more to hear these phrases in action. Hey, you're early. Where's everyone? Well, I told them not to come.

  I made a reservation just for the two of us. I thought we could have a quiet evening all to ourselves. Oh, why? Jennifer, something I want to ask you. Sure. What is it?

  Okay, here's the thing. I've always seen you as more than just a friend, and I can't take it anymore. I know you better than anyone. I know the pros and cons of your personality. I even know what side of the bed is yours. I think we would be great together, don't you?

  Are you serious? We've been friends for years. We can't just change that overnight. I know. I never had the guts to tell you until today. So what do you say?

  Are you willing to give me a shot? All right, so an interesting dialogue and it opens up a cultural（文化的） point. That's right. So in the dialogue, the guy was asking her if she would be his girlfriend, right? Right. But I guess it's not very common among adults, at least, in English-speaking countries.

  Yeah, we don't say like（喜欢）, "Okay（好）, so please, will you be my boyfriend now?" Right, right, right. You would do that maybe in high school. Yeah, but even then, I think it's a little funny. I think for us, when we start to have romantic relationships, it just sort（种类） of happens naturally（自然地）, right? You never really have this conversation, "Will you be my boyfriend?" Right. I guess afterwards（ 后来）, we just start talking about other things which you just consider that you guys are already boyfriend and girlfriend.

  But there's no real... There's no official（官员） starting point. Yeah, there's no official point that says, "Okay, now we are boyfriend and girlfriend," which is interesting because in other countries, they do go through the formality（遵守礼节） of asking somebody to become their boyfriend. Yeah, but even like 20 or 30 years ago in English-speaking countries, you would do this. Oh, yeah, of course. And it was called going steady（稳固的）.

  Going steady. So you would ask, "Will you go steady with me?" That means, "Let's become a stable（稳定的） couple." Exactly. All right, so we want to hear your stories and, well, how do you do it in your country? Do you ask someone out? Do you maybe just give them the first kiss（吻） and that's an automatic（自动的） yes?

  Well, I don't know, but I'm looking forward to hearing from our listeners.