Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 675, Having Furniture Delivered.
This is English as a Second Language podcast, episode 675.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Visit our website at eslpod.com and download a learning guide for this episode.
And for life, really.
It will help you in many things.
This episode is a dialogue between Zooli and Danny about when you buy furniture a bed, a couch, a chair and the company or store delivers it to your house.
We'll see what happens when there are some problems in that process.
Let's get started.
I was waiting patiently for the furniture store to deliver my new bed.
I was given a window of 1 o'clock to 4 o'clock.
At 4.50, the delivery truck pulled up in front of my house.
Hello?
Hi, we're from Reliable Furniture.
We're here to deliver your new bed.
I thought you'd never get here.
The new bed should go in the bedroom.
Follow me.
You'll haul away the old bed, right?
We will for an extra charge.
Let me check the paperwork.
Oh, I guess it is.
We'll take away the old bed and bring in the new one.
Okay, this way.
You can bring the bed right in here.
Okay, here you are.
We're all done.
Aren't you guys going to remove the bubble wrap, assemble the pieces, and set up the bed?
We can, but it'll cost extra.
I'm sure that's included in the price of the new bed.
Let me check.
Okay, I guess we'll set it up.
We're just running a little late, that's all.
We got a late start from the warehouse this morning, and it's already past quitting time.
Zuli begins by telling us the background, the setting of our story.
She says.
I was waiting patiently for the furniture store the place where she bought a piece of furniture such as a bed, a couch or a chair to deliver my new bed.
I should say that furniture is always singular.
We would never say furnitures, even though it refers to many different objects, many different.
We would say pieces of furniture.
She's waiting for the store to deliver her bed, to take it from their store and bring it to her house.
She says, I was given a window of one o'clock to four o'clock.
A window in this case means a period of time during which something will happen.
It's very common in the US, when you have someone delivering furniture or someone coming to your house to fix your telephone for lots of different services, that the company will give you not a specific time but a range of time, what we would call a window period.
In this case, they could come any time between 1 o'clock and 4 o'clock.
It's very inconvenient for the person who is buying the service or thing, but that's just the way a lot of companies do things here.
I always find it rather annoying.
In any case, Zully says at 450, meaning 50 minutes after the end of the window, 50 minutes late, the delivery truck pulled up in front of my house.
The delivery truck is the large vehicle that will deliver things.
To pull up is a two-word phrasal verb meaning to drive to a place and stop there, especially in front of a building or a house.
To pull up.
It's used with your car.
So, the truck pulled up in front of her house.
And then we get the actual dialogue.
Zooli says, hello.
Danny, who works for the delivery company or the store, says, hi, we're from Reliable Furniture.
We're here to deliver your new bed.
Something that is reliable is something that is dependable, that you can count on.
Of course, they're 50 minutes late, so they're not actually very reliable.
Zully says, I thought you'd never get here.
The expression I thought you'd never get here is one you would use to let someone know that they are much later than you expected.
Normally it communicates a certain annoyance, a certain anger perhaps at that person.
Zooli says the new bed should go in the bedroom.
That's where beds go, usually, in the bedroom.
Follow me, she says.
Walk behind me and go where I am going.
You'll haul away the old bed, right?
To haul H-A-U-L away.
Something is to take something away.
Take something from say, a house or a building that is very large.
Typically, it may be very heavy to lift.
It's something that you don't need anymore, right?
So if your refrigerator breaks and you can't fix it, you can buy a new refrigerator and then have your old refrigerator hauled away.
Someone will take it away.
It's a phrasal verb we use especially in this circumstance.
So Zooli wants to make sure the movers will haul away her old bed, will take her old bed away and get rid of it, throw it out or do whatever one does with old beds.
Danny says, we will haul it away for an extra charge.
An extra charge is an additional amount of money.
Zooli says, I thought that the hauling away was included in the price of the new bed.
Zooli didn't think she had to pay extra or additional money.
Danny says, let me check the paperwork.
Let me look at the paper or the forms that were given to him, with instructions about what to deliver, where and what services are included.
Paperwork is a general term that describes forms, pieces of paper you have to put information on, we would say to fill out.
That's a general term that would be used in businesses and government offices.
Government offices typically have lots of paperwork if you ever want to get anything from them.
Danny checks his paperwork and realizes that he should not charge her more money for hauling away the old bed.
So he says, oh, I guess it is.
It is included in the price that she already paid.
We'll take away the old bed and bring in the new one, he says.
Zooli then says, okay, this way, meaning follow me, walk after me.
You can bring the bed right in here.
So she walks, we guess, from the door of the house, the front door, and goes to the bedroom and shows them where to put the bed.
So they bring the bed in.
Danny then says, okay, here you are, meaning this is what I am giving you.
It is right here.
This is a very common expression.
Someone may ask you for a pen to write with.
You take out a pen and as you're giving it to the person, you may say, here you are or here you go.
In that case, they mean the same thing.
Danny says, we're all done.
We are finished.
We've completed our job.
But Zooli doesn't think they're finished.
She says aren't you guys, you men in this case?
Perhaps aren't you going to remove the bubble wrap, assemble the pieces and set up the bed.
Bubble wrap are large pieces of plastic that have been put together to And they have lots of little well bubbles, which are sort of like little balloons that have air in them.
And they're all attached.
And they're put around something to protect it.
They're often used when you are mailing, for example, something that could break easily.
To assemble means to put together something, to take things that are apart and put them together so that whatever you have is working.
To set up something, in this case means to put something into the correct position, put it where it's supposed to be.
Set up as a phrasal verb can also be used to mean to put something together, to organize something, to get something ready.
Danny says, we can, we can do that, but it'll cost extra.
It'll be an extra charge again.
Zooli again doubts this, doesn't think this is true.
She says, I'm sure that's included in the price of the new bed, meaning I already paid for that.
You should do it.
Danny looks at his paper again.
He says, let me check.
And realizes that yes, they're supposed to do the things that Zooli is asking them to do to set up the bed.
He says, OK, I guess we'll set it up.
We're just running a little late.
That's all.
To run a little late means to be behind schedule, not behind to have made very much progress in what you are doing.
You planned to be finished by 5.
It's 5.30 and you're still not finished.
You're running a little late.
Danny says, Meaning, we left the warehouse later than we were planning to.
A warehouse W-A-R-E-H-O-U-S-E, one word is a large building where many objects or items are stored until they are needed.
So if you go to the store to buy a bed...
They won't usually have the bed there in the store for you.
They will have it in another building, which we would call a warehouse, where they put things until they can sell them.
Danny says it's already past quitting time.
Quitting time is the end of your workday, 5 o'clock at night, 6 o'clock at night.
When you finish working, when you go home after working, that's quitting time.
Zuli says, I wasn't too happy to say the least.
The phrase, to say the least, is used to show that what you just said is an understatement, that you actually feel much more strongly than you have indicated.
So someone, for example, wins a million dollars and they say well, I'm very happy, to say the least, meaning they're more than just very happy.
Zooli says she wasn't too happy.
She wasn't very happy to say the least, meaning she was really angry.
But I was at their mercy and didn't say anything.
To be at someone's mercy M-E-R-C-Y is to be in a situation where someone else has control of what is happening, that you have to depend on another person to get something done.
It's usually used when you're in a situation you don't want to be in, that you don't have the power that you want.
She says as soon as they're finished, as soon as Danny and his other workers finish setting up the bed, I'll be ready to give them a piece of my mind.
To give someone a piece of your mind is an expression meaning to tell someone what you really think, especially when you're angry and upset when you're mad.
Oh, I'm going to give that guy a piece of my mind.
I'm going to tell them what I really think, usually because you're angry.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
I was waiting patiently for the furniture store to deliver my new bed.
I was given a window of 1 o'clock to 4 o'clock.
At 4.50, the delivery truck pulled up in front of my house.
Hello.
Hi, we're from Reliable Furniture.
We're here to deliver your new bed.
I thought you'd never get here.
The new bed should go in the bedroom.
Follow me.
You'll haul away the old bed, right?
We will for an extra charge.
I thought that was included in the price of the new bed.
Let me check the paperwork.
Oh, I guess it is.
We'll take away the old bed and bring in the new one.
Okay, this way.
You can bring the bed right in here.
Okay, here you are.
We're all done.
Aren't you guys going to remove the bubble wrap, assemble the pieces, and set up the bed?
We can, but it'll cost extra.
I'm sure that's included in the price of the new bed.
Let me check.
Okay, I guess we'll set it up.
We're just running a little late, that's all.
We got a late start from the warehouse this morning, and it's already past quitting time.
I wasn't too happy, to say the least, but I was at their mercy and didn't say anything.
But as soon as they're finished, I'll be ready to give them a piece of my mind.
Our scriptwriter is a very fine writer, to say the least.
We think she's wonderful, and we thank Dr. Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
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.
Copyright 2011 by the Center for Educational Development.
