B: I’m just browsing; seeing what’s on the lot. My daughter wants a car for her birthday, you know how it is.
C: Dad! I’m sixteen already and I’m, like, the only one at school who doesn’t have a car!
A: She is right, you know. Kids these days all have cars. Let me show you something we just got in: a 1996 sedan. Excellent gas mileage, it has dual airbags and anti lock brakes; a perfect vehicle for a young driver.
C: Dad, I love it! It’s awesome! Can we get this one please?
B: I see... What can you tell me about this one?
A: Oh, that’s just an old World War Two tank that we use for TV commercials. Now about this sedan...
B: Whoa, whoa wait a minute. Tell me more about this tank.
A: Well, Sir, if you are looking for quality and safety then look no further! Three inches of reinforced steel protect your daughter from short range missile attacks.
B: Does the sedan protect her from missile attacks?
A: It does not.
B: Well, I don’t know. Let me sleep on it.
A: Did I mention the tank is a tank?
B: I’ll take it!
C: Dad!
M: Hello English learners! Welcome back to EnglishPod! My name is Marco.
E: And I’m Erica.
M: And today we’re bringing you another great lesson for all of you, who are interested in shopping.
E: Especially those of you, who are interested in shopping for a car.
M: A car.
E: Uhu.
M: Exactly. So, we’re gonna give you some great language about describing a car or characteristics of a car.
E: Yeah.
M: And also some really interesting language for shopping.
E: Yes, especially buying something really big and expensive.
M: Yeah, like a car.
E: Yeah.
M: So, before we listen to our dialogue let’s take a look at “vocabulary preview”.
Voice: Vocabulary preview.
M: On vocabulary preview today we’re brining two words. The first one is vehicle.
E: Vehicle.
M: Vehicle.
E: Vehicle.
M: So, again a vehicle is a machine, right?
E: Right, a machine that carries people from one place to another.
M: So, it’s important to say that a vehicle could be an airplane…
E: A car.
M: A car.
E: A boat.
M: Boat.
E: Even a bicycle.
M: Right.
E: Yeah.
M: That’s a vehicle. Our second word is sedan.
E: Sedan.
M: Sedan.
E: Sedan.
M: So, a sedan is a type of car.
E: Exactly. It… it’s a type of car with four doors that can fit five people inside.
M: So, to make it more clear, most taxies are sedans.
E: Exactly.
M: Right?
E: Yeah.
M: They have four doors.
E: Yeah.
M: Five people can fit in there…
E: Yeah.
M: Including the driver. Except taxies in Mexico.
E: They’re not sedans?
M: They’re little Beetles.
E: Oh.
M: The Volkswagen Beetles.
E: Okay.
M: So, those are not sedans. But, yeah, most, uh, countries have sedans as taxies.
E: Yeah.
M: To give you some examples, like a Toyota Corolla or a Toyota Camry is a sedan.
E: Yeah, yeah. Maybe like, uh, a Volkswagen Jetta is that a….
M: A Jetta, yeah…
E: Yeah.
M: A Jetta is the sedan.
E: Yeah.
M: Now, we could listen to our dialogue and it’s gonna be at a normal speed, the first time, but you don’t have to worry about it.
E: We’ll come back and teach you some of the important words from the dialogue.
DIALOGUE, FIRST TIME
M: I think she’s really lucky. She’s…
E: Really?
M: She’s getting a tank to go to school. How awesome is that?
E: Uh, I would be so embarrassed if I had to drive to school on a tank.
M: That’s like the coolest car.
E: Oh, you’re such a boy.
M: Hehe. Alright, a surprising ending to, uh, relatively easy shopping day.
E: Yeah.
M: Uh, let’s take a look at some… language that we saw in our dialogue on “language takeaway”.
Voice: Language takeaway.
E: We have four words for you today. The first one is gas mileage.
M: Gas mileage.
E: Gas mileage.
M: Gas mileage. So, gas mileage is how many miles you can travel on a gallon or liter of gasoline.
E: Well, you know, it’s interesting in some English speaking countries like Australia, New Zeeland, Canada, we use kilometers…
M: Right.
E: To measure distance. But we still talk about gas mileage.
M: Uh.
E: Yeah.
M: I guess you can’t say gas kilomiliage.
E: No.
M: Or… or some like that. But, yeah, it’s… yeah, basically, how many kilometers or how many miles you can travel on a tank or on a liter or gallon of gas.
E: Exactly.
M: Okay.
E: The next word is airbags.
M: Airbags.
E: Airbags.
M: Airbags.
E: These are like big bags of air that fill up and come out of the car when there’s a crash.
M: Right, so, that way you don’t hit your head against…
E: Yeah.
M: The steering wheel or…
E: Yeah.
M: Something like that.
E: So, they protect you.
M: Right, I’ve heard that Volvo has like eighteen airbags now in their cars.
E: They are very safe cars, you know.
M: Hehe. Like a big balloon.
E: Aha.
M: Okay, our third word today is brakes.
E: Brakes.
M: Brakes.
E: Brakes. So, what are brakes?
M: Brakes are little… What are breaks? Breaks are what make your car stop.
E: Okay, so, that the little machines maybe that stop your car.
M: Yeah, they’re on the wheels.
E: Yeah.
M: They make your car stop.
E: Aha.
M: You have brakes on your bike.
E: Yes.
M: On your car, etcetera.
E: Uhu.
M: Our last word today on language takeaway – reinforced.
E: Reinforced.
M: Reinforced.
E: Reinforced.
M: So, we have some examples of how we use reinforced, because it’s a little bit weird.
E: Yeah, these will help you understand the meaning.
Voice: Example one.
A: So, I reinforced all the walls; there’s no way they’re gonna fall down.
Voice: Example two.
B: This plastic is reinforced with the glass, so it’s both light and strong.
M: So, basically, anything that’s reinforced is made stronger.
E: Perfect.
M: Reinforced steel…
E: Yep.
M: Reinforced table.
E: Aha.
M: Anything. Okay. Great, so now we could listen to our dialogue again. You can practice all these words that we just talked about and we’ll come back shortly.
DIALOGUE, SECOND TIME (slow)
E: So, we have a couple of interesting phrases to talk about shopping.
M: Right.
E: Let’s look at these in “fluency builder”.
Voice: Fluency builder.
M: The first one is I’m just browsing.
E: I’m just browsing.
M: I’m just browsing.
E: I’m just browsing.
M: This is a really useful phrase, because usually salespeople will come up to you and ask you “can I help you?” or…
E: Yeah.
M: “Are you interested in something?”
E: Yeah.
M: And you’re just looking, so…
E: Yeah, you maybe… you don’t really wanna buy today.
M: Right.
E: Yeah.
M: So, you’re just “uh, I’m just browsing”.
E: Uhu.
M: So, then they’ll just leave you alone and…
E: Yeah, they won’t bother you as much.
M: Yeah, it’s a good, good phrase.
E: Another good phrase.
M: Sleep on it.
E: Sleep on it.
M: Sleep on it.
E: Sleep on it
M: So, we have some examples of how we use sleep on it.
Voice: Example one.
A: I don’t know if we should buy that house. It’s perfect for us, but it’s so expensive.
B: Let’s sleep on it.
Voice: Example two.
C: Why don’t you sleep on it and tell me tomorrow?
Voice: Example three.
D: This is a bit more than what I can afford; let me sleep on it.
M: To sleep on it means to…
E: Like to think about it overnight.
M: To think about it, right?
E: Yeah.
M: So, maybe you wanna buy this really expensive car.
E: But you need to think about it.
M: Right.
E: So, you’ll sleep on it.
M: So… yeah. You go home, sleep on it, think about it twice and then make a decision.
E: Exactly.
M: Okay, great words and great dialogue, so…
E: Yeah, I love this dialogue.
M: Yeah, it was… it’s kind of funny. So, we could listen to it again and then we’ll come back and talk a little bit about it.
DIALOGUE, THIRD TIME
E: So, Marco, have you ever driven a tank?
M: Hehe. Well…
E: I… I mean know you were in the army, so…
M: Yeah, yeah. Um, yeah, actually I did… I did drive, uh, a tank before.
E: Really?
M: A really… yeah, a really old one…
E: Really?
M: Kind of like a World War Two type tank. But, yeah, they’re really fun and interesting. You have… it’s not like driving a normal car. You have pedals and you have…
E: So, there’s no steering wheel?
M: No, no, no. You have, um, levers…
E: Yeah.
M: And, uh… what many people don’t know is that actually tanks are… manual transmission, so you have to change gears.
E: Oh, really?
M: And it’s really hard to change gears on those things.
E: And what’s the gas mileage like on a tank?
M: Hehe. I don’t know, maybe like five miles per gallon, well…
E: Okay.
M: They run on diesel…
E: Aha.
M: Witch is a different type of fuel, right?
E: Yep. Okay, well, very cool. I never knew that my podcast partner had driven a tank. That’s pretty awesome.
M: Yeah, well, it was… it was fun, definitely and… I hope I get