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we'll show you how to become fearless and fluent by focusing on connection not perfection with your American hosts Lindsey McMahon the English Adventurer and Michelle Kaplan the New York Radio Girl coming to you from Colorado and New York City USA to get real -time transcripts right on your phone and create your personalized vocabulary list try the all ears English app for iOS and Android start your 7 -day free trial at allyearsenglish .com forward slash app.
In your culture, are there many different things you can say to start a meal?
Today find out what we say and don't say in English when we start eating with a group.
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Hey there, Michelle, what's going on today?
Not too much, Lindsay.
Lindsay, what's the best meal you've had recently?
Does anything stand out in your mind?
Definitely. So just last weekend, I went to a Vietnamese place and had an amazing tofu banh mi sandwich, and it was very simple and it was it was cheap, but it was good and that is.
And I've been to some restaurants in the last couple of weeks.
But to be honest, that banh mi sandwich was the best. That sounds delicious.
I love that. Lindsay, do we say anything, like in American English, is there anything specifically that we say at the start of a meal?
Oh, good question, Michelle.
We say a lot of different things, and it depends on our personality.
It might depend on what we heard growing up.
Depends on who we're with.
But I might just say enjoy is something I might say, right?
What do you say? Yeah.
Um, well, that's what we're going to talk about today because I mean, we don't, I think in English there's not really a specific formal thing to say.
So in French, I always think of bon appetit, which actually, I mean, Lindsay, would you, do you ever say that Bon appetit?
Sometimes some times we do carry that over.
I remember in Japanese, we used to say tabi washo tabi washo means let's eat, right.
Um, there's, yeah. And you know, in many cultures and countries we have something that we say.
In Spanish, Salud, I think we used to say, right?
So good. Yeah, I don't feel that there's a complete English equivalent, right?
So we might say different things, but I don't think we kind of have a direct one to one.
Oh, this is what we say, right?
Dude, what do you think?
It's true, it's true.
Yeah. It doesn't quite mean the same thing.
We don't, yeah. Yeah, and that makes sense because cultures are so different, right?
Cultures are so different.
And before I get too much further into this topic, we do want to make sure that we say thank you because manners are important.
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Very nice. All right, Michelle where to go from here.
All right, so we're gonna talk also about you know, if if Some are used not just about starting a meal but about eating in general So we're gonna get more into this in just a second But we did teach a couple of good ones In this episode you did with Aubrey which was episode 23 86 was wait up English phrasal verbs for softening imperatives.
And in that one you guys talked about eat up and dig in.
Yes. Yeah. Yes. And maybe drink up as well.
Um, so yeah, so guys there are some good ones over there.
So check that episode out.
So yeah. Let's, let's get into what we might say.
So what's the first one Lindsay?
Okay. We might say shall we, and this is nice.
I mean, We just did an episode last time we recorded Michelle about what happens when one person gets their food before the other.
This is continuing on that theme kind of, maybe you're sitting in a restaurant and you've both gotten your food at the same time, right?
Right, and I'm gonna give you the number for that episode towards the end of today so we'll let you know which one that was but definitely a super -good one to listen to along with this.
So yeah, that looks amazing, shall we or shall we?
It looks amazing. Do you, does that feel natural to you, Lindsay?
Yeah, it does. I like shall we, it's kind of polite and elevated a little bit, but again, it's communicating with the person in front of you, right?
It could also be useful if you're dining in a group and maybe someone has spoken some words or something, there's some kind of announcement and then you're ready to transition into actually picking up our forks and eating someone might say this Shall we?
Shall we right? We don't need to say shall we eat if we know what we both are our forks You can't hit you could you could say shall we eat but you don't have to yeah, we know what we're talking about All right.
So let's get a lot more casual here for the next one.
Yes. Oh, that's true We're taking another turn The next one is chow down and that one is very casual.
Lindsey, what do you think of this one?
Yeah, it's like between shall we and chow down, you're in two totally different households, right?
Different kind of norms in the home, right?
So you could say, okay, everyone, now, let's all chow down.
Tammy, this looks amazing.
Tammy, Tammy. She's.
It must be a good cook.
Yeah. So, but yeah.
And chow down. It doesn't have to be the let's chow down.
You could also say, oh, you know, my, we, we were chowing down and this amazing dish.
Right? So you could use it in that way as well.
Yeah. I guess you could use it that way.
For sure. Yeah. All right.
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All right. And then another way, another thing you might say with your family or friends And just indicating that we can begin eating, is let's eat.
Yeah. Simple as that.
You can say. Let's see it, everyone.
I hope you're hungry, but save room for dessert.
Mm hmm. Lindsay, do you got like full from your meal and then you still you're you're not full for dessert.
Yeah, I used to say that as a kid, I'm I'm full for dinner, but not for dessert.
That's what we used to always say to our parents.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.
It's like two different stomachs.
Yeah, I have a second stomach waiting for my chocolate ice cream or my chocolate lava cake.
Right. Yeah. And then we might just say simply enjoy.
Right. I like that one.
Hmm. So, but we would always kind of just say it like, enjoy.
Right. Um, and I think that servers like waiters and waitresses will use this a lot as well.
So here's an example.
So here's your salad.
Oh, thank you. It looks amazing.
All right, enjoy. Right, and just to be clear, waiters and waitresses would not say, chow down or shall we, those don't apply.
Enjoy is something that you could say as one of the people dining to the group or the waiter or waitress could say it but this is the only one that would work for that scenario.
Okay? Right. Yes. Right, right.
Exactly. Or you could just say, what's another example Lindsay of how you might use this.
This is about Thanksgiving, yes.
This is a beautiful Thanksgiving meal.
All right, enjoy. So yeah, so this could just be me.
We were just served, or maybe a family member just got the plates out, and we all have our plates and we're waiting to eat.
And then someone says, alright, enjoy, or people say it at the same time, maybe.
Right, right, exactly.
So which one of these feels the most natural to you?
because I do think that generally we say, especially if it's more formal, like we're about to start Thanksgiving or something that we generally say something before eating.
Yeah, I think enjoy sounds the most, feels the most natural to me.
I didn't grow up in a religious household.
Some people do say prayers before they eat if they're religious, for example, so there might be other things they might say, but we didn't do that when I was growing up.
So, Enjoy is pretty neutral, friendly, not overly fancy, but not overly casual, either.
Yeah, yeah, it's definitely a good catch all.
So, it's a safe one to use.
So, Lindsey, let's do a role play with some of these.
Here we are, we're getting food at a restaurant.
Okay, here we go. So, oh, wow, I'm so happy I ordered the pasta.
looks delicious so does your Pete so does your pizza okay shall we let's I've been waiting to chow down on pizza for a while all right let's eat enjoy this is a very natural roleplay right so guys go back and listen again to the how this went because it's incredibly natural let's go through it Michelle so what did I say first you said that my pizza looks Delicious, and you said, okay, shall we?
Yeah, and I said so does your pizza.
Yeah, often that's the other thing that we haven't talked about yet, people comment on each other's food, and I've made a couple of comments on this show.
Don't say, don't do like, ugh, when you look at someone's food, right?
Don't yuck somebody's yum.
Don't yuck someone's, yeah, don't do that, that's really rude.
I like to eat things that are pretty healthy, like tempeh, or maybe tofu, and sometimes I'll get like a ugh when it comes to the table I was like I'll do that to someone.
I remember that when steak comes to the table to someone else if they do that to me, you know?
Right. I was buying tofu, some sort of tofu something at the grocery store recently and the cashier said, Oh, I made a reaction.
I'm like, come on, man.
That is not good for sales.
Oh my gosh. That's shocking from the cashier.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
So, yes, you said, okay, shall we?
And then I said let's, I've been waiting to chow down on pizza for a while.
Yeah, and then I said, all right, let's eat, right?
And I said, enjoy. Lindsay, do you ever have buyer's remorse over what food you order when you see what somebody else got?
Yes, because I feel like I always order the wrong thing.
I always order the wrong thing, I order very poorly, So that happens you Michelle.
Do you order one? Oh, yeah.
Yeah. Sometimes I sometimes I try and anticipate that feeling So I'll think about what the person is ordering and I think oh am I gonna be jealous of what this person orders Yes I'm sure that's a very human feeling that our listeners can relate to as well Yeah, for sure guys go back and listen to episode 24.
Oh 9. Don't let it get cold restaurant English for connection so good so good there are so many norms around sitting down at a restaurant or at a family's home and eating with the people that we want to know this right so we think the connection can truly begin through the conversation.
Yeah exactly yeah so these are really good again just for takeaway we don't you might say bon -up like Bon Appetit right People throw it around and they know what it means.
But yeah, I wouldn't say that we have one specific thing that is really sad.
I mean, listen, I don't want to generalize either because I don't know if in French everybody's just all the time saying bon appetit, like I don't know.
It's possible. So if we have any listeners who speak French or in France, let me know, is this really the common expression or is that what everybody thinks people say?
Yeah, that but in English you do have a lot of choices so use them all try it out See which one feels right and go with that.
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Okay good. All right.
Thanks for talking about this with me, Lindsey I'll see you next time.
All right. Take care Michelle.
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