Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 51, Eating Fast Food.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 51.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
In this episode, we're going to discuss eating at a fast food restaurant.
Let's get started.
My friend Julia called me the other day.
She wanted to grab some lunch and asked me if I wanted to go to the local fast food place down the street.
I said sure, even though I knew it wouldn't be good for me.
I hopped in my car and swung by to pick her up at her work.
When we got to the restaurant, there was already a long line in the drive-thru.
It was lunch hour, so that is to be expected.
We inched forward in the driveway and finally reached the order station.
Welcome to McApple's restaurant.
How can I help you?
I leaned over to shout into the little box Uh, I'll have a cheeseburger and my friend will take a regular hamburger.
Would you like anything to drink with that? she asked.
She had a very low voice.
Two Diet Cokes, please, I said.
And would you like any fries with that, she asked again.
No, just the hamburgers, thanks.
That'll be $8.75.
Please pull forward.
We drove up to the pickup window and paid the cashier.
Our food was ready in about 30 seconds.
Thank you, I said as we drove away.
We pulled over to the side of the road to eat our hamburgers.
I knew I was going to regret it, but it sure did taste good.
I told the story about going to a fast food restaurant.
A fast food restaurant is one where you get your food really fast.
McDonald's, for example, is a famous American fast food restaurant.
I said that my friend Julia called me the other day.
The expression the other day just means some day recently, within the last perhaps week or two.
She said she wanted to grab some lunch.
To grab, you probably know, means to reach out your hand to pick something up.
But here, to grab some lunch means to go and eat lunch, to go to get your lunch.
I said I hopped in my car.
To hop normally means to jump up and down, like a bunny rabbit.
We say the bunny rabbit jumped or hopped up and down.
A kangaroo, like you would find in Australia, hops.
But when we use the expression I hopped in my car, we don't mean that we actually jumped, but that we got into our car fairly quickly, right away, in order to drive away.
I said that I swung by to pick my friend up.
To swing by means to go to that place.
We use this expression a lot.
When you are coming home from work dear, would you swing by the grocery store and buy me some chicken.
Meaning, I want you to stop at the grocery store and get some chicken.
If you don't, you won't eat tonight.
So I do.
Which is, of course, I was going to have her come with me in my car.
When we got to the restaurant, there was a long line at the drive-thru.
A drive-thru restaurant is a restaurant where you can stay in your car.
You don't even have to leave your car.
You can pull up to a little driveway or a little place where cars go and you can order your food and pay for your food.
It's called a drive-thru restaurant.
Not all fast food restaurants have a drive-thru, but most drive-thru restaurants are fast food restaurants.
I said that it was the lunch hour, meaning of course it was around noon, which is when Americans eat their lunch.
I said that we inched forward in the driveway.
To inch forward means to move very slowly, inch by inch.
So we inched forward and we finally reached the order station.
And that's the place where they have the menu of the items for the restaurant and a little box that you have to shout into to place or to give your order.
The woman at the restaurant said welcome to McApple's restaurant.
Welcome to is a very common thing that you would say to someone who is entering a restaurant or is coming into a store.
I said that I leaned over.
To lean, L-E-A-N, means to bend over, to take your body and bend it down towards the ground.
Here, I leaned over means that I went over the side of my car in order to talk into the little box.
I said, I'll have a cheeseburger and my friend will take a regular hamburger.
When we are ordering at a restaurant, the most common expression is to say I'll have a, and then what you want.
You can also say, I will take the filet mignon and the shrimp because I'm a very big eater.
That is the expression we use then, I'll have or I will take.
I said that the cashier had a very low voice.
A low voice is someone who speaks down here.
And a high voice is someone who speaks up here.
I don't have a high voice or a low voice, I don't think.
The cashier told me that that'll be $875.
When someone is telling you how much money you owe them at a store or sometimes at a restaurant, they'll use the expression that will be 575 to fix your car, please.
That is the expression.
It means, this is how much you have to pay me or give me.
She told us at the restaurant to pull forward.
To pull forward just means to move your car forward.
Up, forward, going a little bit farther.
We use this expression usually for cars, automobiles.
Please pull forward.
You'll hear that in a fast food or drive-thru, rather, restaurant.
It usually refers to cars.
I said that we drove up to the pickup window and paid the cashier.
To drive up really just means to drive to a place.
Once again, it's that use of the preposition to emphasize the word.
We drove up to Sacramento is the same as saying we drove to Sacramento, but it gives it a little more emphasis.
The pickup window, you can guess, is the place where you pick up or get your food in a fast food restaurant.
In some fast food restaurants you have a cashier that you pay in one window or one place and then you move forward or pull forward a couple of feet and there is someone to give you your food.
After we got our food, I said that we drove away.
To drive away means to drive away from a certain place.
It is always related to where you are going from.
She drove away from my house and laughed.
Means she was at my house and now she is leaving my house.
I said that we pulled over to the side of the road to eat our hamburgers.
To pull over means to stop, to get out of the street or the lane where you are driving and to stop.
The side of the road means the place where you can park a car or stop a car in a street.
Finally, I said that I was going to regret it, but the hamburger sure did taste good.
To regret something means that you wish you would not have done it.
I wish I didn't eat all those french fries.
Now I feel very sleepy.
The expression it sure did taste good.
Sure here S-U-R-E sure means is another way of emphasizing.
It sure was hot yesterday means it was really hot yesterday.
Now let's take a listen to the story read at a normal speed.
My friend Julia called the other day.
She wanted to grab some lunch and asked me if I wanted to go to the local fast food place down the street.
I said sure, even though I knew it wouldn't be good for me.
I hopped in my car and swung by to pick her up at her work.
When we got to the restaurant, there was already a long line at the drive-thru.
It was lunch hour, so that is to be expected.
We inched forward in the driveway and finally reached the order station.
Welcome to McApple's Restaurant.
How can I help you?
I leaned over to shout into the little box Uh, I'll have a cheeseburger and my friend will take a regular hamburger.
Would you like anything to drink with that? she asked.
She had a very low voice.
Two Diet Cokes, please, I said.
And would you like any fries with that?
She asked again.
No, just the hamburgers, thanks.
That'll be $8.75.
Please pull forward.
We drove up to the pickup window and paid the cashier.
Our food was ready about 30 seconds later.
Thank you, I said as we drove away.
We pulled over to the side of the road to eat our hamburgers.
I knew I was going to regret it, but it sure did taste good.
Thanks to our wonderful scriptwriter, Dr. Lucy Say, for her hard work.
And thanks to you for listening.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Come back and listen to us again here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
This podcast is copyright 2006.
