Here we talk about buying a gift for someone that is really difficult to find a good gift for. Learn great vocabulary for English and learn about a new technology.
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A: What are you getting dad for his birthday?
B: I don’t know yet. He’s really hard to shop for. He seems to already have everything he wants.
A: How about we get him a joint gift. I saw these really cool noise cancellation headphones that I think he’ll like for the airplane or to use when mom is cleaning the house.
B: A joint gift is a good idea, but isn’t that noise cancellation thing a gimmick?
A: No. I tried them on in the store and they really work. I checked into it though and I saw that they had the same ones for much cheaper on amazon. If we order them now they will arrive before dad’s birthday.
B: Are they the ear buds or the big ones that cover the whole ear?
A: I think we should get the big ones. Dad’s weird about putting things in his ears.
B: Sounds good. How about you put them on your credit card and I’ll give you the cash for them.
A: Ok.
Phrases and Vocabulary used:
He’s really hard to shop for: If someone is really hard to shop for it means that you think it is hard to find a gift that you think they would enjoy. They either already have everything, they are really picky, or you don’t really know what kinds of things they like.
Joint gift: A joint gift is a gift that two or more people buy together. Some gifts are too expensive for one person to buy, so a couple people might "pitch in" and buy someone a gift together.
Noise cancellation headphones: This is a relatively new techology where the background or outside noise is greatly reduced, so that you can hear your ipod or mp3 player more clearly.
Gimmick: an advertising trick to try to persuade people to buy a product. Gimmicks seem cool and useful when you first hear about them, which makes people want to buy the product.
Amazon: This is a shortform for the famous online retailer www.amazon.com
Ear buds: A type of earphone that fits directly into the ear. Portable earphones are often ear buds. The kind of earphones that come with an ipod are earbuds for example.
Weird about: If someone is "weird about" something it means they are uncomfortable with or unusually sensitive about something. This is slang spoken English.
Make sure you don’t use his favorite coffee cup. He’s really weird about other people using it for some reason.
I’ll put them on my credit card: We often use the verb "put" when we talk about paying for something with a credit card. "I’ll put it on my credit card" means the same as "I’ll use my credit card to pay for this".