Hey everybody, welcome to this week's phrasal verb episode.
I hope that you're doing great and I hope that the phrasal verbs that you've learned with me so far have become part of your vocabulary now.
Hopefully you've heard them.
You've heard some of them in just your normal listening practice that you do and you've been able to recognize them, or maybe you've even been able to use some of them in your own speech.
So I hope that you've enjoyed these phrasal verb episodes.
And in today's phrasal verb episode we're going to look at at the phrasal verb apply for.
So we're just going to look at this one today, and this is a phrasal verb that we use a lot.
We use it to mean that we are making a formal request for something.
When you apply for something, you make a formal request for that thing.
It's like you want that thing and you have to request it in some formal way.
So for example, I could say, I applied for a job at McDonald's.
So there's a job that McDonald's is offering and I want that job.
So I have to fill out the job application that paper or maybe it's online and then I have to go to an interview and do all that.
So I applied for a job at McDonald's.
Or I could say I applied for unemployment benefits.
So maybe I lost my job, my company laid me off and now I want to receive benefits from the government, so I apply for those unemployment benefits.
Okay, so I'm going to talk about two specific things now.
I'm going to talk about university or college, as we usually say here in the US, and I'm going to talk about buying things but not being able to afford them.
So first let me talk about university here in the US, and of course I'm going to use college.
The phrasal verb apply for again and again.
So in the US, when people go to college, it's not the same as it is in many other countries.
In many countries around the world, College or university is something that is affordable, or maybe it's a little expensive, but people save money so that they can pay for that or whatever.
Maybe their parents can pay for that.
And I'm not saying that it's cheap everywhere.
I know that it's expensive in many places.
However, in the US, going to college is very, very expensive if you go to a traditional four-year university.
And because of that, many people aren't able to just pay the money for their tuition.
The word tuition refers to the money you have to pay for to attend a university.
So many people probably most people don't have the money to just pay the whole tuition fee for their college.
So what they have to do is they have to find that money somewhere else.
They have to apply for... some other thing, some other money that might be given to them.
So we often refer to this as financial aid.
So people might need to apply for financial aid when they want to be a student at some university, but they don't have the money to do so.
They need to apply for financial aid.
So some people, depending on their background, their economic situation, even their ethnicity, where their parents are from or whatever, they might be able to apply for some grants and receive money, a grant.
What is a grant?
Well, this is money that is given to someone for a specific purpose and in this context uh, it's money that is given to someone who is gonna study at a university.
So The government might give a grant to someone who applies for it, depending on different criteria.
Like I mentioned before, a lot of it is related to your economic situation or your ethnic background.
So, depending on a number of factors, you might choose to apply for a grant based and it's like free money that you get.
So you apply for this and if the government decides to accept your application and give you this grant, then suddenly you have this money that you needed and now you can pay that money for your tuition.
But most people probably don't get big grants from the government.
Some people do.
A lot of people apply for grants here in the U.S.
However, for many people, they don't qualify for these grants.
So they might apply for scholarships here.
And a scholarship is like money that's given to you, kind of like a grant, but it can come from a lot of different sources, not just the US government.
So it might come from a certain organization or a school or something like that, where they want to give money to a student or to different students so that they can afford their tuition.
So this is often based on different maybe achievements or skills that you have.
So maybe someone gets a scholarship because they're a really good athlete.
They're a really good basketball player or football player or tennis player or whatever.
And they might get a scholarship.
They might receive money to go study at a certain school.
And really, if they're an athlete, it's more so that they can play that sport at that school.
Um, But it's not just for sports.
You might be able to apply for different scholarships for other reasons, more academic reasons or whatever.
So that's something that is available to a lot of people.
People can apply for scholarships.
And so that's another option.
And just in general, if people can't get enough scholarships or grants and they can't afford to go to a university, they can simply apply for financial aid that phrase that I used before.
Really, this is money that the government will give you, but you have to pay it back.
So unfortunately, this isn't free money, and people go into debt in order to study at universities.
So if you can't find the money elsewhere...
The word elsewhere means somewhere else.
If you can't find the money elsewhere, you can always apply for financial aid, and the US government will give you this money, and then you have to pay it back over many years after you graduate.
Once you graduate from college, you'll get a letter in the mail or an email from the government saying Congratulations on graduating.
Now let's talk about how you're going to pay back the money to the government.
So that's something you need to keep in mind when you apply for financial aid, when you want to go to college.
So it's not free money, right?
It's not like a grant or a scholarship.
So now let me talk about another subject.
Let me talk about people who can't afford things that they want to buy not university in this case, but just other things, other items, other possessions, other things that they want, right?
So one thing that people apply for is credit cards in order to pay for things with money that they don't have.
Of course, credit cards don't have to be used in this way.
It's not like you only apply for a credit card because you want to spend money that you don't actually have.
Many people do this for sure, but This is not the only way to use a credit card.
In the US many, many people, probably the vast majority of adults who have a stable economic situation, use their credit cards for everyday purchases because they earn points.
You earn cash back, as we say, like your credit card company gives you some money back when you use that credit card, or they might give you some type of reward.
Okay.
I love using my credit cards to pay for everything because I get these points, this cash back, and that's a great benefit.
So like I receive like 1.5% back on all my purchases.
And with some credit cards, like with one of my credit cards, If I use it at a restaurant it gives me, I think, 3 back.
I forget if it's three or two.
I think it's three.
So that's a great benefit.
So some people apply for certain credit cards based on the rewards right and not necessarily because they just need money that they don't have.
And credit is very important in the US because we have credit reports and credit history here that everyone is supposed to have.
It's very important to build credit history and to try to have a good credit score.
As we say, this simply means that you have been able to maintain good habits and pay your credit card payments on time and not go deeper into debt.
And when you have a good credit score, then when you apply for different loans, when you apply for a mortgage, this is a loan that you get to buy some type of property.
Property, right, like a house.
So when you apply for these things, if you have a good credit score, then this helps you because the lender will probably give you a lower interest rate on your loan because they see that you have a good credit score, you're a reliable person, you're responsible, so they're not taking that big of a risk when they lend money to you.
So because you're not a big risk, they'll give you a lower interest rate.
For example, Or maybe if you have bad credit, you just can't even apply for certain loans.
They just reject you because your credit score is so low, right?
So credit is a big thing in the US and your credit score affects you in many ways.
Like I said, especially when you're applying for different loans.
People apply for loans for many reasons.
Maybe they want to buy a car.
And in the US it's common for people to buy really expensive cars that they have to pay off over a long period of time so that the monthly payment is low, so maybe they'll buy a brand new car.
It looks amazing, but really they're in debt now.
They have to pay that off, maybe over six years.
Maybe it's like a 72 month loan or something that they've applied for and they have a low monthly payment, but they have to pay that off over a long time, right?
So people might need to apply for loans to buy things that they really can't afford.
And honestly, many people in the US buy cars that they really can't afford and they just try to apply for this loan.
That needs to be paid off over a long period of of time, not a short period, because if that loan needed to be paid back in two years, the monthly payment would be much, much higher and the person would not be able to afford that.
So it's common for people to have a five year, six year, even seven year auto loan now to buy a car and pay it back over a long time.
So cars are things that people tend to buy when they can't really afford them, right?
Of course, houses are also things people buy with a loan.
They apply for some mortgage, some loan for this house that they want to buy or just other things that they want to buy.
They might just apply for certain loans that will give them money that they need to buy whatever they want.
Or another solution if they can't afford certain things is to simply apply for jobs.
Apply for a job that pays more.
Maybe, instead of applying for some type of loan or another credit card, you can apply for a job that pays better.
That's probably a good solution.
If you're not earning enough money, then you should apply for another job that pays better.
That will give you more room for growth, so that you won't need to do other things and go into debt and have all of that right.
So this is something that can solve a lot of problems if you just have a better job, right?
And so you can apply for a job that will give you more money, a higher salary, right?
So you heard me use the phrasal verb apply for many times as I was talking, and I think now you get the feel for it.
You apply for something.
This means that you make a formal request quest for that thing, so I hope that you're able to use this more comfortably now in your own speech when you're talking about applying for certain programs or schools, applying for jobs, applying for credit cards or whatever.
So hopefully you feel like you can use this phrasal verb now.
So i hope you enjoyed this episode and i really want to encourage you to use my advanced episodes as well, so you can practice listening to real english, spoken fast spoken, at normal speed.
If you want those episodes, you can become a listening time family member and you'll receive two new advanced episodes every month, And so the link to sign up is down below.
And you can also sign up for my US Conversations podcast to take your listening to the next level, the level at which you can understand more than one person talking, when you hear two people having a conversation and you're able to understand them.
That's why I made my US Conversations podcast.
So check that out.
The link is also down below.
All right.
Thank you so much for listening to this phrasal verb episode, and I'll talk to you in the next one.
