Welcome to a new episode of english vocabulary booster.
My name is lara and i'm a salsa certified english teacher.
Learning new vocabulary usually takes a long time, but we'll do it in a way that's easy, quick and efficient.
In every episode, we'll learn how to use five new english words or expressions, so that you too, can start speaking like a native.
So let's get learning.
Hello, you guys.
How are you?
I'm doing pretty good.
I'm excited because I'm going to be leaving Valencia soon in just a couple of days.
All right, so today I've got a special episode.
I reached out to one of you, Manuel, or Manuel, because he purchased my pronunciation course.
And so we got to talking and he told me that his wife Lourdes, his seamstress and the name of her shop, by the way, is Rosa's Designs and Alterations and so yeah, he asked me if I could come up with a story about clothing and fashion, and so I did my best, and that's what we're talking about today clothing and fashion.
So here we go, mom.
Can we go to the mall now?
Yeah, of course, honey.
There's just a couple things I gotta do.
And then we can go.
What?
What is it?
Well, I gotta go to the post office to send this.
And then I have to go get my jeans altered.
I promise it won't take long.
Look, I already took all the measurements.
I just gotta drop them off.
Actually, why don't you drop them off for me?
Look.
The shop is right over there.
This way I can go to the post office and we can get to the mall faster.
Fine.
What do I tell them?
Well, tell them those jeans need to be hemmed.
Okay.
Alright, I'll see you in a bit.
Thanks.
Hello?
Bonjour, ma chérie.
Hi.
Are you the tailor?
But of course.
Tell me, what do you need?
I need to have these jeans hemmed.
Let me see.
Okay.
Alright, listen.
These jeans are very boring.
They need a little bit of bedazzling.
Bedazzling?
Bedazzling?
I don't know if my mom would... Listen to me.
Your mom is going to look 10 years younger with these jeans when I'm finished with them.
Um, okay.
Voila!
Your mom is going to love them.
Claire, what took you so long?
Here are your jeans, mom.
Okay, great.
Let me... What in the world is this?
Um, a little bedazzling?
A little?
A little?
These things are converting rhinestones!
Sorry, Mom.
But guess what?
I think you're gonna look ten years younger in them.
So let's begin right away with expression number one to have something altered.
I have to go get my jeans altered.
If you need to have a piece of clothing altered, does that mean it looks good on you or not?
No, if you buy a piece of clothing a pair of pants, a shirt, a skirt, whatever and you need to have it altered, that's because it's not looking great on you.
So maybe it's too big, maybe it's too small, maybe it's too long or too short, but you need to make some changes to it.
That's why you say that you need to have it altered.
And if you need to have something altered, where do you take it?
Well, I personally give it to my mom because she's really good at sewing.
So she knows how to do these types of things.
But a lot of people usually take them to a shop.
And when was the last time you had to have something altered?
So pretty much every time I buy a pair of pants I have to have them altered because I'm really short.
I'm only five feet.
And so chances are if I buy a pair of pants, they're going to be too long for me.
So I think the last time...
Well, I bought a pair of pants that I need to have altered, but I haven't seen my mom yet.
So they're going to have to wait.
But the last time that I got something altered, I was back in Italy and it was a pair of jeans that, like I said, were too long.
And actually I brought them to the shop because my mom said she couldn't do it because it was jeans.
So she needed to have a special sewing machine.
And I brought them to a shop to have them altered.
And they were like, well, no, like we have to do it, but we're going to do it our way.
I wanted to do something a little different and they wouldn't listen to me.
They wanted to do it like the proper way.
And so my mom was like, oh, never mind, I'll do it.
And so she found a way and did it.
Expression number two, hem.
Well, tell them those jeans need to be hemmed.
If a pair of pants or a skirt needs to be hemmed, What are you going to alter?
The bottom part or the top part?
If a pair of pants or a skirt need to be hemmed, you want to alter the bottom part.
So the part that's closer to the ground, so to speak.
And why do pants and skirts need to be hemmed?
So, whenever you are making a pair of pants or a skirt from scratch, or even a shirt um, Or maybe say that you bought something and it's too long so you got to cut it.
So anytime that you got a piece of fabric that's been cut basically, it's not going to look great right?
Because it's going to be all frazzled.
You're going to have threads coming out of it.
That's why you need to hem the fabric.
So you're going to basically take the edge of this piece of fabric or this piece of clothing and you turn it under and you stitch it down.
So you sew it.
And this way, it's going to look much cleaner.
There's not going to be any threads coming out of it.
It's going to last longer.
So that is good.
Why you need a hem.
Would you be able to hem a pair of pants?
I mean, I guess I could do it.
I don't know if I would say that I could hem a pair of pants well.
I could definitely cut them.
I've done that before and I didn't hem them because it was too lazy to do that.
But I guess I could sew them so that, you know, they're hemmed.
But it's definitely not going to be a great job.
So I'm going to say no.
I cannot hem a pair of pants.
I probably should learn at some point.
Expression number three, tailor.
Hi, are you the tailor?
What does a tailor do?
Do they alter clothes or do they make custom clothing?
So I actually had to do a little bit of research because I wasn't sure, because you also have the term seamstress.
That's pretty similar.
It turns out that a tailor can both alter clothes in general or even make custom clothing.
Some tailors apparently only decide to do alterations just because it's faster and they can make more.
So that way, probably they can make more money.
But you know, there's always the option for them to decide to make clothes, custom clothing.
Have you ever taken a piece of clothing to a tailor?
Like I said, I did take a pair of jeans and then they told me that they would cut them a certain way and I didn't want them to be cut that way.
And I told them and they're like sorry, but this is how it's done, and I'm like sorry, I'm taking away my jeans, I'm gonna do it my way.
So yeah, that didn't go well.
Expression number four bedazzling.
They need a little bit of bedazzling.
I love this word.
If a piece of clothing or an accessory is bedazzled, is it decorated or is it left plain?
If something or like a piece of clothing or an accessory can be a purse, it can be even a phone, not like a phone, but like a phone cover.
Is bedazzled, that means that it's decorated.
And if something is bedazzled, what is it decorated with?
So now you're probably going to be able to understand the story.
If something is bedazzled, it's decorated with, I would say like sparkly stuff.
So it can be beads.
It can be sequins.
It can be rhinestones.
And the way people apply these things is usually with glue, or sometimes they sew it together onto the piece of clothing or the accessory that they want to bedazzle.
Why do some people choose to bedazzle their clothes and accessories?
I think that when someone chooses to bedazzle something like a piece of clothing or an accessory, they do it because they find whatever they're bedazzling kind of plain, kind of boring.
They want to, you know, spice it up.
They want to make it maybe more unique, a little bit more fun.
And so they will take – a lot of people do it, for example, with – denim jackets or jeans.
So you take something that's pretty boring, let's face it, and you just add something that will make it more fun.
That's why I think a lot of people choose to bedazzle their clothes.
Do you own anything that's bedazzled?
No, I don't.
That's really not my style.
If you look at my wardrobe, it's so boring.
Everything is black or gray.
There's really nothing sparkly in there.
I'm a very tomboyish kind of woman.
So I just don't like anything that's bedazzled.
I do like it on other people, but I feel very uncomfortable wearing something that's bedazzled for some reason.
Expression number five, rhinestones.
These things are covered in rhinestones.
Is rhinestone another word for diamond or not?
Well, there's a big difference between a rhinestone and a diamond.
So everybody knows what a diamond is, right?
It's a very precious rock.
On the other hand, a rhinestone looks kind of like a diamond, meaning it's sparkly.
It looks like a little piece of see-through rock, but really isn't valuable at all.
It's a piece, I believe, of plastic.
Let me Google it.
Yeah, so it's basically made from crystal, glass, or even plastic.
What are rhinestones used for?
Well, they're used to bedazzle stuff.
So if you go get a pair of jeans and they're full of something sparkly, you know like these little sparkly gems, chances are unless you're paying 3000 for those pants that those are rhinestones.
They're also used in cheap jewelry.
So maybe earrings or necklaces that are not really expensive.
If there's something like I said, like a little stone that looks very sparkly and see-through, it kind of looks like a diamond, then that's probably a rhinestone.
Do you have anything with rhinestones?
So I know, I said I don't have anything bedazzled, but I have a belly button ring that has two rhinestones in it.
So yeah, it turns out I do have something sparkly on me.
It's just not in my wardrobe.
It's literally on me, on my body.
And that is it for today.
And remember, if you want to access the transcript, as well as lots of other resources, visit enboocom.
That is E-N-B-O-O-O dot com.
Have a great day.
