껄끄러운 문제 영어로 The Elephant in the Room
Power Warm-up: First Visit to the Dentist in Years: My Tooth Was Starting to Hurt
Angela has a toothache that she can no longer ignore. The dentist can see immediately that she has a cavity and asks her how long it’s been since she has seen a dentist
Kristen: Thank you so much for joining us today.
Cameron: Yes, yes. Okay.
Kristen: You had a quick question for me.
Cameron: Oh, yeah. So, I had a conversation with a Korean friend recently. It was, we were talking, if you could only eat one country’s food for each season.
Kristen: Okay.
Cameron: What would it be? So, if you ate one country’s food for spring, you couldn’t eat it again for the rest of the year. You had to go to another. So, one country, one season. So spring, summer, fall, and winter.
Kristen: Oh, wow. this is a very unusual question.
Cameron: It was kind of fun to think about, though.
Kristen: It’s fine.
Cameron: I’m interested, what would you do? So, you’re basically picking four of your favorite foods, four favorite countries’ foods, and which seasons you would put them in.
Kristen:
This is really tough yeah okay so first I’m thinking like what’s good winter food okay I feel like Korean could be like good winter food but then I’m thinking maybe Mexican too because it’s very comforting, a lot of cheese you know like it’s you know like it’s kind of dense you know, and you don’t eat need to eat too much of it right.
Cameron: Right, right.
Kristen: But I definitely think for summer, it would be like Vietnamese or Thai food for summer.
Cameron: Yeah, because they’re already like hot countries. Yeah. Yeah.
Kristen: I think for fall, I’m going to have to go with kind of traditionally American. Like turkeys and like, you know. Yeah.
Cameron: The turkey, the pumpkin, the turkey.
Kristen: Pumpkin.
Cameron: Squash. Yeah.
Kristen: Then spring. Oh, that’s a tough one.
Cameron: What would you do?
Kristen: Okay, spring I’ll go for Korean because of all the namul.
Cameron: That’s true. So you are similar to me. Okay, So winter, I did Korean. Okay. Because of the jjigae. Yeah. Plus that’s when you do kimchi. So you can get some really good kimchi.
Kristen: Okay.
Cameron: For fall doing American food. Oh yeah? Because like cinnamon and stuff. Okay. For summer, I actually do Mexican
Kristen: I can understand that.
Cameron: Like tacos yeah but I totally understand the Thai right, and for spring I chose Japanese.
Kristen: Okay.
Cameron: They have a lot of the similar vegetables that Koreans use in Spring.
Kristen: Yeah.
Cameron: So you get that nice, fresh, green namul.
Kristen: Yes.
Cameron: Type of.
Kristen: Oh, that’s a great question. Okay, so we got to wrap it up.
Cameron: Well, yeah. Send us on social media what you think.
Kristen: Yeah, let us know. It would be great for each season.
Power Expressions
Okay, so every Thursday we have this topic. First visit to the dentist in years.
Kristen: My tooth was starting to hurt. You know, a lot of you out there, you need to go to the dentist, but you don’t want to. Maybe this will encourage you. Okay, here are some expressions that we’re going to learn. Put something off.
Cameron: You’re delaying something.
Kristen: How about the elephant in the room?
Cameron: It’s something that needs to be talked about. Everyone knows. But they have not talked about it. Okay.
Kristen: Get back on track.
Cameron: You got distracted, you were doing something else, and now you need to return to the thing you need to be.
Kristen: Okay, very good. All right, let’s go ahead and listen to our dialogue.
Power Dialog
Angela: Hi Dr. Nick. I’m glad you were able to see me. My tooth was starting to hurt.
Dr. Nick: Let me see. You have a bad cavity right near the gum line.
Angela: Yeah, I can feel it with my tongue. It’s been there a while, but I’ve been putting off seeing you.
Dr. Nick: I can tell. But let’s address the elephant in the room.
Dr. Nick: How many years has it been since you saw a dentist?
Angela: I think it’s been five years.
Dr. Nick: We’re going to get you back on track starting today.
Kristen: Angela begins the dialogue. Hi, Dr. Nick. I’m glad you were able to see me. My tooth was starting to hurt. Okay. When something starts to hurt, basically, it’s not like, oh, my God, I’m in so much pain. But it’s like, oh, it’s bothering me.
Cameron: Yeah, there’s like a buildup. Yeah. Right?
Kristen: Yeah.
Cameron: It’s not, if something happens all at once, I would not say it’s starting to hurt.
Kristen: It’s like sharp pain.
Cameron: Yeah. Slowly the pain becomes larger and more severe.
Kristen: What does Dr. Nick say?
Cameron: Let me see. You have a bad cavity right near the gum line.
Kristen: Cavity, C-A-V-I-T-Y, is our power vocab, and that is 충치.
Cameron:
Yes. It’s interesting. 충치 means bug tooth in Korean. I know. Yeah. But in English, cavity, it literally means empty space.
Kristen: That’s right, because that’s what a cavity is.
Cameron: Right. So cavity, if you just say cavity, we think tooth.
Kristen: Cavity, yes.
Cameron: But you can also sometimes like the word cave 동굴, it has the same roots.
Kristen: Yeah.
Cameron: Cave cavity you can also talk about your nasal cavity, which is the space in your nose right so it’s not this word cavity ,it just means hole but we often use it for holes in your teeth.
Kristen: Right. And this word can also be used in maybe like buildings or like engineering, you know, certain equipment, like there’s cavity within buildings.
Cameron: A certain like a building has a giant right cavity, and maybe a little awkward expression.
Kristen: Or like an equipment or I don’t know, it could be very technological. Okay all right, so you’ve so she has a cavity and Angela says yeah I can feel it with my tongue. It’s been there a while but I’ve been putting off seeing you. Isn’t it true that we know it’s there yeah something’s not something’s wrong but you put it off. Yeah so put off.
Cameron: Put off means to push it back in your schedule. I’ll delay it. I’m not going to do it now. Put it off. I can do it.
Kristen: Yeah, another time. Yeah. Okay. It’s not so bad. Right. So you can put off many things. You can put off, you know, going to college right away. In America, a lot of students take a gap year, which means they just take a year off and don’t go to college and they travel or do whatever.
Cameron: It’s not smart to do that though.
Kristen: Yeah.
Cameron: Because you don’t get scholarships. Oh. If you take that break, you lose your ability to get a lot of scholarships.
Kristen: Oh my gosh. You know, not in my entire life have I thought about getting a scholarship.
Cameron: Oh my God, that was my whole school career.
Kristen: Wow, Cameron, you’re so amazing. Like I’ve never gotten any sort of scholarship. I’ve never even tried.
Cameron: Oh no!
Kristen: Yeah. I couldn’t, wouldn’t make it.
Cameron: Maybe you can go back to school.
Kristen: No, thank you.
Cameron: Yeah.
Kristen: Thank you. Okay. So to put off means to delay. We’ll give you more examples in just a bit. Dr. Nick says.
Cameron: I can tell. But let’s address the elephant in the room. How many years has it been since you saw a dentist?
Kristen: So when Angela says, I’ve been putting off seeing you. So when she says, oh, you know, I’ve been postponing this appointment. Okay. And Dr. Nick says, I can tell.
Cameron: Yeah.
Kristen: This is our power pattern. What does he mean?
Cameron: So this is tell, even though that’s, you know, talking. Yeah. Right. This has nothing to do about talking. It’s saying I can see and know.
Kristen: I know.
Cameron: Right? I see your teeth and oh yeah, yeah that’s a hole. That’s a cavity.
Kristen: Right, right.
Cameron: I can tell. Mm-hmm.
Kristen: Okay, but let’s address the elephant in the room.
Cameron: I think maybe you should learn this whole sentence. Oh, my gosh. Let’s address the elephant in the room. Okay.
Kristen: Address is A-DDRESS.
Cameron: So here we’re not talking about like 주소, the location of something. Here, address as a verb means to talk about. Often a situation or a problem. Let’s talk about this problem. And specifically, he uses the phrase, the elephant in the room.
Kristen: Yes. So this is a very, and I’m telling you, this is a very common expression that people use. It’s a great expression. What does this mean?
Cameron: It’s kind of weird if you think about it.
Kristen: Yeah.
Cameron: But imagine you walk into a room and there is a giant elephant sitting in the corner. Like a real elephant. Like it’s live. It’s eating peanuts. Like it’s a breathing elephant. Boo! Yeah, it’s making noise. And people are talking, but no one is talking about the elephant. Everyone knows it’s there. It’s really weird or uncomfortable that there’s a giant elephant in the room, but no one is saying anything.
Kristen: Yes.
Cameron: That is the image you need for this expression, the elephant in the room. It means a problem or a situation everyone knows about, but no one is talking about it.
Cameron: So like let’s say there’s a scandal. Let’s say like the CEO gets arrested.
Kristen: Yeah.
Cameron: And everybody in the company knows about it. But they’re not talking about it. No one talks about it. That is the elephant in the room. So whatever Dr. Nick is saying, let’s address the elephant in the room. He’s like, OK, let’s we know you got cavities. Let’s talk about the cavity.
Kristen: Okay. Okay. And Angela says, how long has it been? Or Dr. Nick asks, how long has it been since you last saw a dentist? I think it’s been five years. And Dr. Nick says, well, we’re going to get you back on track starting today. Okay. So if the dentist says, we’re going to get you back on track, what does this mean?
Cameron: He’s going to correct her teeth, and they are, in the future, going to come to the dentist every six months to get checked and make sure that she’s always doing what she needs to be doing.
Kristen: So she was off track because she didn’t go to the dentist for five years. And so he’s saying, let’s get you back on track. And have some sort of schedule, annual schedule. Let’s go ahead and listen to that one more time.
Power Dialog
Angela: Hi Dr. Nick. I’m glad you were able to see me. My tooth was starting to hurt.
Dr. Nick: Let me see. You have a bad cavity right near the gum line.
Angela: Yeah, I can feel it with my tongue. It’s been there a while, but I’ve been putting off seeing you.
Dr. Nick: I can tell. But let’s address the elephant in the room.
Dr. Nick: How many years has it been since you saw a dentist?
Angela: I think it’s been five years.
Dr. Nick: We’re going to get you back on track starting today.
Power Note
1. Put something off: -을 미루다
Kristen: It’s time for Power Note. We’re going to do a quick review. We’re on pages 28 and 29 of our Power English book. Okay. Put something off means to delay something. Okay. Let’s see how it’s used. Yes.
1)
A: Your brakes sound terrible. You need to take your car to a mechanic.
B: I was putting it off until I got my paycheck.
Kristen: I think when you need to spend money, like a big chunk of money, you tend to put it off.
Kristen: Because… If money’s not involved, or maybe you have a fear of something, then you put it off.
Cameron: Yeah, your car is making a weird sound. You kind of don’t want to take it to see what the weird sound is.
Kristen: Well, because it might be–
Cameron: Super expensive.
Kristen: 300만원. Or something really big.
Cameron: Or you have to get a new car. Right.
Kristen: You just don’t want to know.
Cameron: I don’t wanna know.
2) Don’t put off calling your mother any longer.
Cameron: You have to Have an awkward conversation with your mom Yeah.
Kristen: You know, people don’t have close relationships, so they have bad relationships with their parents. Say, for example, you found out that your parents are really sick. They have a terminal disease (불치병). They’re about to die soon.
Cameron: Yeah.
Kristen: But you really are putting off the phone call because you haven’t spoken to them in years. You know, I mean, of course you want to put it off. You don’t want to do it.
Cameron: Yeah, those awkward things. Or maybe you’re putting off a doctor’s appointment.
Kristen: Yeah.
Cameron: Maybe there’s something wrong with your body.
Kristen: Right.
Cameron: You don’t wanna know.
Kristen: Yeah, you don’t wanna get tested. Sometimes I think there’s like more fear in knowing.
Cameron: Yeah. Just die without knowing. Sometimes, you know?
Kristen: It’s true.
Cameron: I mean, it’s like morally, ethically, that’s a hard… question to answer.
Kristen: Yeah.
Kristen: Yeah, that’s right.
Cameron: So we’ve been using some really kind of deep, very heavy examples, but it could be as simple as putting off studying. You have to study for a test, but you don’t feel like it, so you keep pushing back when you are going to study.
Kristen: I’m a big, big procrastinator (미루기 대장). Oh, totally. I used to put off everything until the last minute.
2. The elephant in the room: 껄끄러운 문제, 누구나 알고 있지만 꺼내기 힘든 금기 사안
Okay, the elephant in the room is basically, okay, the elephant is the issue. It’s a very big, serious issue. And no one is talking about it. Okay.
1)
A: Will someone please address the elephant in the room?
B: Fine, I will. Marsha, can you please explain why you shaved your head?
Kristen: Okay. So like you meet and then like someone, they shave their head.
Cameron: Yeah
Kristen: A woman or a man, you know? And it’s like, no one’s talking about it.
Cameron: Yeah, right? I had something when I was younger. Uh-huh. This girl. She pierced her tongue. Like put a ring through her tongue.
Kristen: Yeah, sure, sure.
Cameron: It was, but no one talked about it for the entire two hours. We were at someone’s house and we just tried our best to ignore it. It was, it was the elephant in the room. Like she was trying, she was doing like the rebellious day. She’s like rocker girl.
Kristen: Sure.
Cameron: So she wanted attention. Right. And everyone just said no.
Kristen: Really? Yeah.
Cameron: It was the elephant in the room.
Kristen: It was the elephant in the room.
Cameron: The whole two hours.
Kristen: Oh my gosh.
2) At the family dinner, John’s expulsion from school was the elephant in the room.
So basically, expulsion means you get kicked out.
Cameron: Yeah, 퇴학
Kristen: Yeah, from the school. Okay? And nobody talked about it.
Cameron: Don’t say anything.
Kristen: Hey, how’s it going, John? Yeah. Okay, great. You got a girlfriend, Jenny? Yeah. I like your shirt.
Cameron: Yeah. So, I mean, I think depending on the type of family you are. When big things like that happen, like you just don’t talk about it. And it’s usually almost always bad things that happen. That are awkward to talk about.
Kristen: Right, right. Very uncomfortable.
Cameron: Yeah, but it’s like you ignore it and so the awkwardness just continues?
Kristen: Continues to build.
Cameron: But when you address the elephant in the room, everyone can talk about it, and then you can move past it, right?
Kristen: Yeah. But that’s very hard to do.
Cameron: Oh yeah, oh yeah.
3. Get back on track: 정상으로 돌아가다. 정상 궤도로 돌아가다
Kristen: Get back on track means to get back to a regular activity.
1)
A: Now that the holidays are over, we need to get our sales back on track.
B: How can we? The holidays were the best sales period.
Kristen: Yeah, which is true holidays in America. They’re huge.
Cameron: Oh my gosh.
Kristen: They make most of their money.
Cameron: Black Friday yeah some businesses survive only because of Black Friday wow oh my gosh yeah.
2) After a two-week break, the coach worked hard to get the team back on track.
Kristen: True. If a team, if you’re an athlete and you don’t train for two weeks, right? Yeah. You can get a little, you know, slower. Right? Your body’s not quite the same. So you need to get back on track.
Cameron: Yeah, it’s like some teams when they’re in like a tournament, you know, we give what’s called a bye(부전승), which means like it’s like a free round. Like there wasn’t an opponent for that round for them. So they skip it. Sometimes it’s not good for the team. Because they get out of the rhythm. So I’m like, round three, this team gets to go ahead to round four. Sometimes it’s bad because they aren’t able to get back on track.
Kristen: Track.
Cameron: After having that round off.
Kristen: That’s right. So taking a break sometimes is not a good thing. Okay.
4. I can tell: 딱 보니 알겠네
I can tell is our power pattern, which means I see it.
Cameron: And I know.
1) I know. I can tell you have been limping for two days,
Kristen: so you can’t walk straight.
2) I can tell. She doesn’t talk to any of us anymore.
Cameron: She really doesn’t like us.
Cameron: She was really mad at that conversation. Right.
Kristen: Cavity is our power vocab. Please check out the definition on page 30. Let’s thank our sponsor.
5. Cavity: 충치
A cavity in the context of the dialog is an infected spot on a tooth. A cavity can be small enough to drill out and cover with a filling or so big it requires the tooth to be removed.
욕심부리다 영어로 Bite Off More Than I Can Chew