A: Do you two have any plans for the evening? B: We were thinking of checking out a restaurant in the neigbourhood. Do you have any suggestions? A: I know this really nice Italian place. The food is fantastic, and the décor is beautiful. I’d recommend giving it a try. C: Actually, I’m not all that crazy about Italian food; I’m in the mood for something a bit lighter. A: In that case, I know a great little bistro. They make a really tasty seafood platter; the fish is outstanding. B: It sounds fantastic, but I’m allergic to seafood, so... A: Okay, well, let me think... Oh, I know this great little place. It’s just a hole in the wall, but they do the most amazing sandwiches. You gotta give them a try. C: Ella, you took me there last time I visited, and I got food poisoning, remember?
M: Hello everyone! Welcome back to another great lesson with us here at EnglishPod! My name is Marco. E: And I’m Erica. M: And today we’re going out to eat. E: Yes! Good thing to, because I’m hungry. M: I know it’s almost lunchtime. E: Yeah. M: So, today we’re gonna be talking about eating at a restaurant and giving some great recommendations and suggestions. E: Yes! We have language for describing food, for describing restaurants, and for making suggestions. M: Great! So, let’s start with our “vocabulary preview” for this lesson. Voice: Vocabulary preview. E: We have two words today from our dialogue which you’ll need to know to understand the dialogue. M: Great! The first one that we have today is food poisoning. E: Food poisoning. M: Food poisoning. E: Food poisoning. M: So, food poisoning is… E: Not a good thing. M: Not a good thing. E: It is when you eat some bad food and that food makes you sick. M: Yeah. E: So, you get food poisoning. M: Okay, so, food poisoning, yeah, not a good thing. E: Okay, the next word. M: Allergic. E: Allergic. M: Allergic. E: Allergic. M: So, when you’re allergic to something… E: Um, it makes you sick… that one thing makes you sick. M: Right. E: For example, I’m allergic to seafood. M: Right. E: If I eat seafood, I cannot breath. M: Oh, okay, so, you definitely wanna stay away from fish. E: Yes, yes. M: Some people are allergic to nuts like peanuts or… E: Or maybe milk. M: Milk. E: Yeah. M: Cool. E: So, when one type of food makes you sick, you are allergic to that food. M: Okay, great, so, with this in mind, now we can listen to our dialogue for the first time at its normal speed, but don’t worry if you don’t get everything now, because… E: We’ll come back and teach you the important language. DIALOGUE, FIRST TIME E: Well, I’m getting hungry just thinking about all of those great restaurants. M: Yeah, some really good recommendations… E: Aha. M: Except for food poisoning, right? E: No, not so good. M: Let’s start with our “language takeaway” for this lesson. Voice: Language takeaway. M: Our first word on language takeaway is check out. E: Check out. M: Check out. E: Check out. M: So, we have some great examples on how we can use check out in different situations and then you can understand the meaning. Voice: Example one. A: Have you been to the new café next door? B: Yeah, I checked it out yesterday. The food was great! Voice: Example two. C: Hey, check out my new car. Voice: Example three. D: I’m going to check out the new shopping mall this weekend. E: So, I can understand that it just means “look at”. M: Yeah, “look at” or yeah… or “go see” as well… Let’s go check out that new bar in town. E: Yeah, okay. M: Okay. E: Cool! Next word is bistro. M: Bistro. E: Bistro. M: Bistro. E: So, what’s a bistro? M: It’s kind of complicated, but it’s like a small restaurant that’s not really cheap though. E: Not so cheap and not so expensive. M: Aha. And, um, it’s usually French. E: Yes. M: So, yes. E: Yeah, small informal restaurant. M: Yeah, bistro. E: Uhu. M: Okay, so, our third phrase for today is not all that crazy about. E: Not all that crazy about. M: I’m not all that crazy about. E: Okay, again, kind of a funny phrase, but we’ve got some examples that will help you understand the meaning. Voice: Example one. A: Do you want to go shopping with me tomorrow? B: I’m not all that crazy about shopping. I don’t like spending money. Voice: Example two. C: I’m not crazy about jazz music. Can I change the song? M: So, this is just a really polite way of saying you don’t like something. E: Exactly. M: But now the opposite of this would be tasty. E: Tasty. M: That’s our forth word – tasty. E: Tasty. M: So, when something is tasty… E: It’s good. M: It’s good. E: Like delicious. M: Delicious. E: Yeah, you know what, in English we almost never say “the food is delicious”, but we always say… M: It’s really tasty. E: Yes. M: This is really tasty. E: Yes, okay. M: Tasty. And our last phrase for language takeaway – in the mood for. E: In the mood for. M: In the mood for. E: Let’s listen to some examples of this phrase and we’ll understand the meaning a little bit better. Voice: Example one. A: We always eat hamburgers for dinner. I’m in the mood for something different. Voice: Example two. B: Let’s watch movie. How about Texas Chainsaw Massacre? C: I am not in the mood for a horror movie. M: So, if I’m in the mood for something, I feel like doing or eating or… E: Watching or… M: Watching. E: Yeah, it means you wanna do that now. M: Uhu. E: Yeah. M: I’m in the mood for. E: Okay, some great language we just looked at and I think it’s time for us to listen to the dialogue a second time. DIALOGUE, SECOND TIME (slow) M: Okay, some really great and useful phrases there and I know you wanna talk about specifically some of these phrases. E: Yes! Today’s lesson is all about making recommendations, right? M: Right. E: So, let’s look at some useful phrases in “fluency builder”. Voice: Fluency builder. M: So, in the dialogue we heard a great way of asking for a suggestion. E: That’s right. M: Let’s listen. Phrase 1: Do you have any suggestions? Do you have any suggestions? M: So, that’s how you would ask for a suggestion or you can say something else like “do you have any ideas?” E: Yeah, or you might say “do you have any thoughts?” M: Uhu. Okay, so, that’s… E: Three great ways. M: Asking for suggestions. E: Yep. M: In response to this you can say something like this. Phrase 2: I’d recommend giving it a try. I’d recommend giving it a try. E: We also heard another phrase that we use for giving suggestions. Phrase 3: You gotta give them a try. You’ve got to give them a try. M: So, these two phrases are great - I’d recommend or you gotta give them a try. E: Yeah. M: Great ways of suggesting. E: Yes. M: Now, what’s really important here is the pronunciation of these words, right? E: Yeah, you’ll notice that we don’t say I would recommend. M: Right, we use the contraction - I’d. E: I’d. M: I’d. E: I’d recommend. M: I’d recommend. E: Similarly, in the phrase you have got to we shorten that… M: Yeah. E: To say… M: You gotta. E: You gotta. M: You gotta give them a try. E: You gotta. M: Uhu. E: You know what, guys? If you can shorten your phrases like this, if you can push the sounds together, you’ll sound a lot more natural, hey? M: And also you’ll be able to understand, because in movies or in shows they will never say “you have got to give them a try”. E: Yeah, yeah. M: So, if you know how to use this form, you’ll understand what they mean. E: Exactly. M: Okay, great. E: Well, why don’t we listen to the dialogue a third time? And you’ll hear some of these contractions in the dialogue. DIALOGUE, THIRD TIME M: Okay, great dialogue and Erica, I know that you have some food poisoning stories for us. E: I don’t know about stories, but I’ve definitely had food poisoning before, um… M: Yeah. E: One of the worst times that I ever had food poisoning was, uh, when I was traveling in Morocco. M: Okay. E: I had some really amazing orange juice, really fresh, squeezed that day in the morning. Um, and then I got on a bus. M: Okay. E: I think you can see where this is going, hey? M: Hehe. E: Yeah, so I was on the bus and then I started to feel really sick, um, and I was just hoping and hoping and hoping that the bus ride would be over soon. M: Yeah. E: But unfortunately it wasn’t. M: Oh, no. E: All I can say is that… I was sick and it wa… All I can say is that I was pretty sick and really, really unhappy. M: Yeah, I bet. Well, that’s very strange that you got sick form, uh, orange juice, ha? E: Well, yeah, ma… maybe it was with some dirty water or something like that… M: Yeah. E: I don’t know. It was just… It was a te