to give it to (one) straight

Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast number 512: Changing the Subject in Conversation.

This is English as a Second Language Podcast episode 512. I’m your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.

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This episode is a dialogue between Laura and Gaius talking about common expressions and phrases we use to change the subject (the topic) of our conversations. A very useful episode, I think you will find. Let’s get started.

Laura: I think that’s all we need to talk about regarding last month’s report. Let’s turn to this month’s report, shall we? I didn’t get a copy of it. Could someone hand me one?

Gaius: By the way, I have just one last comment before we shift our focus to this month’s report. It seems to me that we need more information on how