Welcome to ESLPod.com's Using English at Work, Lesson 5.
I'm your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan, from the Center for Educational Development.
In lesson 4 of this course, we learned vocabulary related to working at your desk.
In this fifth lesson, I'm going to talk about taking a break and eating lunch.
We'll begin by listening to the story read at a slow speed.
I want to get some coffee, so I walk into the break room.
My co-workers, Diana and Van, are standing next to the water cooler, talking about a show on TV last night.
I pick up the coffee pot and pour myself a mug of coffee.
I am feeling really hungry too, so I walk over to the vending machine.
I'm looking over the candy bars and potato chips when Diana says, we're taking an early lunch.
Do you want to join us? I say yes, and the three of us walk across the street to a restaurant.
I'm happy that we came early because we beat the rush.
The host is seats us at a table and takes our drink orders.
Our server comes over with our drinks and we place our food orders.
I choose the lunch special and so does Diana.
Van picks the all you can eat soup and salad bar.
While Diana and I wait for our orders to arrive, Van goes to the soup and salad bar and gets a really big plate of food.
Do you mind if I start? He asks.
Of course not, Diana and I say.
When we finish eating, the server comes over to clear our plates and to give us our bill.
We forgot to ask for separate checks so we all pay together.
That was a good lunch. It was certainly better than the bag lunch I usually bring from home.
When the story begins, I want to get some coffee so I walk into the break room.
A break room is a room in an office building where employees can go to relax when they aren't working during the day.
Most break rooms have comfortable chairs or couches and coffee, water and snacks or small things for you to eat.
In this break room, my co-workers or colleagues, Diana and Van are standing next to the water cooler talking about a show that was on television last night.
A water cooler is a machine that keeps the water in a large container cold.
Some water coolers are able to keep water hot too for tea and other hot drinks.
I pick up the coffee pot and pour myself a mug of coffee.
A coffee pot is a container for holding coffee and keeping it warm for drinking later.
When you go to a restaurant, the waiter brings a coffee pot to your table and pours coffee into your cup.
A mug, MUG, is a large cup with a handle, something you hold, that people drink out of.
A mug is often a little bigger than a normal cup.
If it's cold outside, you might want to drink a mug of tea or hot chocolate, for example.
In the story, I'm feeling really hungry, so I walk over to the Vending Machine.
A Vending Machine is a large machine that you put money into to buy a drink or food.
Vending comes from the verb to Vend, which means to sell.
Vending machines with cold sodas are probably the most common type you'll see, but there are also Vending machines that sell hot drinks like tea and coffee.
Many Vending machines sell sweet and salty snacks, which are small pieces of food that we eat between meals.
You're not supposed to eat too many snacks, but sometimes they're so good you can't stop.
I'm looking over the candy bars and the potato chips.
I'm looking over means I'm examining.
I'm looking at them. A candy bar is normally a long rectangular sweet type of food, usually made from sugar and chocolate.
Potato chips are thin slices of potatoes that have been fried and salted.
Candy bars and potato chips may not be healthy foods, but they are very tasty.
Before I buy one of these snacks from the Vending Machine, Diana says, we're taking an early lunch.
Do you want to join us? To join someone means to do something that other people are doing.
For example, you may say to your friend, I hear that you're going to see a movie tonight.
Can I join you? You're asking if you can do the same thing that your friend is doing.
Diana is inviting me to have lunch with her and some other people by asking me to join them.
I say yes and the three of us walk across the street to a restaurant.
I'm happy that we went to the restaurant early because we beat the rush.
To beat the rush means to do something or get somewhere early before it gets very crowded.
In this case, we get to the restaurant early before most people go there to eat lunch.
At lunchtime, the busiest hour for a restaurant in the U.S.
is normally between noon or 12 o'clock PM and 1 o'clock PM.
You might beat the rush for a concert by buying your tickets very early rather than waiting until the day of the concert.
Both of these are cases of beating the rush.
When we get to the restaurant, the hostess seats us at our table.
The hostess is a female restaurant employee who welcomes customers to the restaurant, takes them to their table and often asks what they would like to drink.
If this employee is a man, he's called a host.
Our hostess takes our drink orders.
A drink order is what you ask for to drink at a restaurant or a bar, just like a food order is what you ask for to eat.
Your drink order might be soda, juice, beer or some type of alcohol.
Next, our server comes over with our drinks.
A server is the same thing as a waiter or a waitress.
A waiter is a man, a waitress is a woman, a server can be either a man or a woman.
This is a restaurant employee who serves or brings food to the customers.
When the server comes with our drinks, we place our food orders.
I chose the lunch special and so does Diana.
A lunch special is a combination of foods that are offered for a lower price during lunchtime hours, usually Monday through Friday.
Many restaurants have lunch specials to get people to come to the restaurant during the week.
However, on the weekends, on Saturdays and Sundays, they usually are not any lunch specials.
A lunch special often has a salad, an entree or main course, a drink and sometimes a small dessert.
Diana and I choose the lunch special, but Vaughn picks the all you can eat soup and salad bar.
If something is all you can eat, it means that you pay one price and you can eat as much of something as you want.
Another word for all you can eat is a buffet, B-U-F-F-E-T.
In this case Vaughn will be able to eat as much soup and salad as he wants.
A salad bar is a long table at a restaurant that has many different vegetables, fruits, salad dressings, cheeses and other foods so that customers at the restaurant can build or make their own salads.
The best salad bars are the ones that have a lot of variety, so you can choose the vegetables and other things you like best.
And Diana and I wait for our orders, the lunch specials to arrive, Vaughn goes to the soup and salad bar and gets a really big plate of food because he's allowed to take all that he can eat and because he's a very big person.
Then he asks, do you mind if I start?
He's asking for our permission to begin eating his food before our food has arrived.
This is a polite thing to do when you are eating at a restaurant with other people, since people eating together usually wait until everyone is served or has their food in front of them before starting to eat.
Diana and I say of course not, meaning it won't bother us if he eats first, it's okay.
So Vaughn being hungry begins eating while we are waiting for our food.
When we finish eating, the server comes over to clear our plates.
To clear one's plate means to pick up the dirty plate from the table and take it to the kitchen after someone has finished eating.
The server also gives us our bill.
A bill is a piece of paper that shows how much a customer needs to pay.
In this case, our bill shows the cost of the food and drinks that we ordered.
We forgot to ask for separate checks.
Separate checks are when each person at a table gets his or her own bill so that each person pays only for what that person ate directly to the server.
Asking for separate checks is sometimes a good idea when there are many people eating together but each one wants to pay separately.
But we forgot to ask for separate checks so we all pay together.
Finally, I say that it was a good lunch.
It was certainly or definitely better than the bag lunch I usually bring from home.
A bag lunch is the food that you bring from home to either school or work to eat during your lunch period.
Usually the food is put in a brown paper bag.
So I guess this means I am not a very good cook if the lunch at the restaurant was better than the bag lunch I usually bring to work.
That's true, I'm not a very good cook.
That covers all the new vocabulary in this lesson so now please join me as we listen again about taking a break and eating lunch.
This time we'll listen to the story at a normal speed.
I want to get some coffee so I walk into the break room.
My co-workers, Diana and Van are standing next to the water cooler talking about a show on TV last night.
I pick up the coffee pot and pour myself a mug of coffee.
I am feeling really hungry too so I walk over to the vending machine.
I'm looking over the candy bars and potato chips when Diana says, we're taking an early lunch do you want to join us?
I say yes and the three of us walk across the street to a restaurant.
I'm happy that we came early because we beat the rush.
The hostess seats us at a table and takes our drink orders.
Our server comes over with our drinks and we place our food orders.
I choose the lunch special and so does Diana.
Van picks the all you can eat soup and salad bar.
While Diana and I wait for our orders to arrive, Van goes to the soup and salad bar and gets a really big plate of food.
Do you mind if I start? He asks?
Of course not, Diana and I say.
When we finish eating, the server comes over to clear our plates and to give us our bill.
We forgot to ask for separate checks so we all pay together.
That was a good lunch. It was certainly better than the bag lunch I usually bring from home.
I hope that you have learned some new vocabulary that you can use the next time you want to take a break or eat lunch during the work day and speak English, of course.
This is the end of our fifth lesson.
In the sixth lesson, we're going to continue talking about my day at work.
We'll be talking about my problems, my computer problems.
This course has been a production of the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Visit our website at PSLPOD.com.
This course was produced by Dr.
Jeff McQuillan and Dr. Lucy Saye.
Copyright 2008.
