Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 396, Dealing in the Black Market.
This is English as a Second Language podcast, episode 396.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Our website is eslpod.com.
Go there and you can find a learning guide for this episode, an 8 to 10 page PDF file that you can download and use to improve your English even faster.
This episode is called Dealing in the Black Market.
This is something that happens in most countries, I think, where people buy and sell things that they aren't paying taxes on or perhaps might even be illegal.
Let's get started.
Yeah.
He and I had lunch today to talk about some business opportunities.
What line of work is he in?
Well, I guess you could say he's in the import-export business.
Why are you being so shifty?
Isn't his business on the up-and-up?
He doesn't deal in the black market, does he?
Let's just say that he takes full advantage of a free market.
And there's nothing wrong with the gray market.
You're not telling me he deals in stolen goods, are you?
No, no, nothing like that.
Don't be so naive.
There is an entire underground economy in this country which serves an important purpose.
It gets people what they want.
Is he a smuggler?
Does he deal in counterfeit or pirated goods?
Is that it?
I'm not saying another word It was just talk.
Nothing is set in stone.
Yet.
Our dialogue between Jacinda and Thomas begins... by Jacinda asking, Was that your friend, Mitch?
And Thomas says, Yeah, he and I had lunch today to talk about some business opportunities.
Jacinda says, What line of work is he in?
Line of work means type of work.
What field, what area, what kind of job does he have?
If someone asked me what is my line of work, I would say teaching or education or sleeping.
Thomas says, well, I guess you could say he's in the import-export business.
To import means to bring something into a country.
The United States imports a lot of oil from other countries.
To export means to sell something to another country, to go from one country to another.
So the Middle East countries export oil to the United States.
The United States imports oil from those countries.
Import has a couple of different meanings.
Take a look at our learning guide for some additional explanations.
Thomas is saying that his friend Mitch is in the import-export business.
Jacinda says, hmm, why are you being so shifty?
To be shifty, S-H-I-F-T-Y, means that you are hiding something.
You are not being completely honest.
You're not telling the whole truth.
Someone may say, he looks shifty.
Meaning, I don't think we can trust him.
People say this about me all the time.
Jacinda says, isn't his business on the up and up?
To be on the up and up is an idiom which means to be legal, to be legitimate, to be honest.
He's on the up-and-up, means he's honest, what he is doing is legal, it is legitimate.
He doesn't deal in the black market, does he?
Yacinda asks.
The black market, as we explained, is the economic system for buying and selling things, often because they are illegal.
They are things you cannot buy in a regular store.
Sometimes the black market refers to when people buy things so that they don't have to pay taxes on them sales tax.
Thomas says, let's just say he takes full advantage of a free market.
Let's just say is an expression that means here is how I will express it.
Here is how I will explain it.
Usually, it's an expression we use when we are about to give another description of something that makes it sound better than it is.
In this case, Thomas is saying that Mitch takes full advantage, meaning he.
The free market is an economy where the prices are determined by the people who sell things, not by the government.
Many people think the US has a free market, although there are some things that the government does control.
Thomas says there's nothing wrong with the gray market.
The gray market is in between the free market and the black market, where buying and selling things is legal, but it somehow seems wrong.
Perhaps there is some doubt about whether it is completely legal or not.
It's not a term we use a lot.
Normally you'll hear about the black market or the free market.
Jacinda says, you're not telling me he deals in stolen goods, are you?
Stolen means taken from someone else.
Goods just means something that you would buy or sell.
So stolen goods would be things that were taken, stolen from someone else.
Of course, if you are selling stolen goods, you are doing something that is illegal, mainly because they were stolen.
Thomas says, no, no, nothing like that.
So he's not selling stolen goods.
Thomas says, don't be so naive.
Naive, N-A-I-V-E, means not sophisticated.
Someone who doesn't understand the world, how the world works, someone who is easily confused or tricked by other people.
That would be someone who's naive.
It's sort of like not very intelligent, but it refers specifically to not understanding the way society works, the sophisticated level of society.
Thomas says there is an entire underground economy in this country which serves an important purpose.
Underground economy is just another term for the black market.
Buying and selling things illegally and or not paying taxes to the government on what you buy and sell.
In most states.
In the United States you have to pay a tax, sometimes to the city, usually to the state.
Here in Los Angeles, I think our sales tax is 8.5%.
So most of the things you buy.
For example, if you go to a restaurant and buy a meal you, you will have to pay 85 tax on that meal.
Thomas says that the underground economy gets people what they want.
I should say that underground means below the ground, but it isn't actually below the ground.
It's just an expression to mean things that are not public.
There was, during the Civil War in the United States, an underground movement to help free slaves, to take them from the southern states and bring them to the northern states.
There was something called the Underground Railroad, where they would try to move these slaves from their owners to the northern states.
It was called underground because it wasn't public.
Jacinda then asks, is Mitch a smuggler?
A smuggler.
S-M-U-G-G-L-E-R comes from the verb to smuggle, which means to bring something into a country illegally.
A smuggler is a person who smuggles.
Yesinda asks, does he deal in counterfeit or pirated goods?
Counterfeit is fake, false, not real goods.
For example, you have a watch and it says Gucci on it, a very expensive watch.
But it isn't actually a Gucci watch.
It's a watch that somebody made to look like a Gucci watch and put that name on there.
This is a counterfeit good.
The word pirated refers to movies or music that were copied illegally.
© transcript Emily Beynon that you didn't pay for.
That's an example of a pirated good.
Movies, videos are often pirated and sold in the black market.
So Yasinda is asking if Mitch sells counterfeit or pirated goods.
Thomas answers by saying I'm not saying another word, meaning I'm not going to talk about this anymore.
Jacinda says, you did say that you were having lunch to talk about business opportunities.
You're not thinking of going into business with him, are you?
To go into business with someone means to begin to work for or with someone, usually as a partner, usually as someone who has half of the business or part of the business to go into business with.
You're not thinking of going into business with him, are you?
Notice that sentence is a common way of asking questions in English.
It's what we call a tag question.
Thomas says, It was just talk.
Nothing is set in stone yet.
To be set in stone means that it has been decided.
It is definite.
It is not going to change.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Was that your friend Mitch?
Yeah, he and I had lunch today to talk about some business opportunities.
What line of work is he in?
Well, I guess you could say he's in the import-export business.
Hmm, why are you being so shifty?
Isn't his business on the up and up?
He doesn't deal in a black market, does he?
Let's just say that he takes full advantage of a free market, and there's nothing wrong with a gray market.
You're not telling me he deals in stolen goods, are you?
No, no, nothing like that.
Don't be so naive.
There is an entire underground economy in this country which serves an important purpose.
It gets people what they want.
Is he a smuggler?
Does he deal in counterfeit or pirated goods?
Is that it?
I'm not saying another word.
He did say that you were having lunch to talk about business opportunities.
You're not thinking of going into business with him, are you?
It was just talk.
Nothing is set in stone.
Yet.
Our script was written by someone who's always on the up and up, Dr. Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thanks for listening.
We'll see you next time 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 2008.
