English, baby!

What's Your Sign?

Date: Jan 19 2007

Intro

1. Learn Vocabulary - Learn some new vocabulary before you start the lesson.

2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.

In the world of dating, everyone seems to have different desires and expectations. The pressure is usually on the man to ask a woman for her phone number, or ask her out.

Of course, women ask men out too. But one thing is for sure: whoever does the asking has to have a little courage. When you ask someone out, you risk being rejected or even humiliated. It never feels good when someone says no.

Listen to Mason and Toby talk about being single.

Dialog

1. Listen and Read - Listen to the audio and read the dialog at the same time.

2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.

Mason

Toby

Mason: So, I’m back on the singles market again.

Toby: Yeah, it’s brutal out there, isn’t it?

Mason: Yeah, uh, and it’s just kinda got me thinking about how, how you go meeting new people and asking people out on dates.

Toby: How do you? I mean, it’s kind of… even though, you know, the feminist movement, women’s liberation… it seems like it’s still expected… I still expect, I expect the guy to make the move.

Mason: Do you?

Toby: Absolutely.

Mason: I’ve had girls, uh, definitely ask me out before, you know, but I also agree, it seems a lot of time, it’s my responsibility. Uh, and so I suppose I should ask you what is it that you want? What do you really want from me?

Toby: I think women just want to know that you’re genuinely interested.

Mason: Uh-huh.

Toby: You know, and, and I think, you know, women tend to be the communicators so, of course, we have no problem being, like, “Hey, you wanna go have a beer?” But for some reason, men are so much more afraid of rejection.

Mason: Yeah. Well, and I think… I mean, I like what you said there because I hate the idea of pick-up lines. And just, like, “Hey, baby, what’s your sign?” You know, something all sleazy like that.

Toby: Come here often?

Mason: Right? Like, it, it takes a bit more gusto but to just go up and say, “Hi.”

Toby: Yeah.

Quizzes

Go Super to take Quiz

Lesson MP3

Go Super to download full lesson MP3

Go Super to Ask Ebaby! teachers your questions!

The iTEP^® test

Sponsored by

Schedule an iTEP^® test and take the official English Practice Test.
Take Now >

Discussion

When Mason asked Toby what women really want, he touched on a feeling shared by many men: They don’t know exactly how they should approach a woman. He has occasionally had a woman ask him out.

Toby thinks that men are more afraid of rejection and have a hard time initiating contact with women. But many women expect men to make the first move.

Mason doesn’t mind making the move, but he says it’s hard not to seem sleazy when he tries to talk to a woman he doesn’t know.

Many men use pick-up lines. Pick-up lines aren’t always offensive. They are usually just things that many men say. “What’s your sign?” was popular in the 1960s and 70s when the hippies made astrology more mainstream. “Come here often?” is an easy way to start a conversation, but it is used so often that it is now known as a pick-up line.

What do you do when you want to meet someone?

Do you think it’s OK for women to ask men out?