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!
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All right time for the story, and today we're talking about clouts.
Uh hello, hello.
How may i help you?
Well, I have to go to a wedding.
It's not my wedding.
But yeah, I never dress up like this is what I usually wear.
I was wondering if you could help me find a dress.
Absolutely.
Let's see.
Oh, I think this dress would be perfect.
Try it on.
Oh.
And I think these shoes would look great with it.
What's your size?
Um, a seven, I think.
Aw, we only have a six, but they should be fine.
Here you go.
The dressing rooms are over there.
Alright, what do you think?
I feel like everything is too small.
I mean, my feet are hurting already.
Nah, you shouldn't worry about that.
It always feels that way when you first try on a pair of shoes.
You just have to break them in.
And the dress.
It looks fabulous.
It's so flattering.
You look great in it.
It does?
But I can't breathe.
Are you sure?
Yes, I'm sure.
All right, well, let's try something different then.
Um, do you mind helping me?
I can't unzip it.
Of course.
Here, let me try.
I can't.
It's stuck.
Ow, my feet.
Um...
Why don't you start taking off your shoes, ma'am?
I can't.
These shoes are too small.
Oh, I'm sorry, ma'am.
But if they don't come off, you're going to have to pay for everything.
What?
I'm not... Oh, fine.
Do you take credit cards?
Yes.
Man, if there's one thing that I hate is when clothes don't fit because they're too small.
I hate that.
I hate that feeling.
I feel like I'm being strangled and smothered.
All right, let's listen to, well, not listen.
Let's talk about the first expression, dress up.
But yeah, I never dress up.
If you dress up, do you wear nice clothes or casual clothes?
If you dress up, you wear nice clothes.
We're talking about fancy clothes.
And what kind of events usually require you to dress up?
Um...
So I think I don't really know much about this.
No, I'm going to tell you how I feel about dressing up.
But it's usually things like weddings, for example.
Funerals, unfortunately.
But yeah, you kind of have to dress nicely.
So you have to dress up.
Then on to some more fun things.
For example, graduation ceremonies. or maybe a very fancy birthday party, you have to dress up.
You have to wear nice clothes.
When was the last time you dressed up?
I was trying to think of that when I was writing this question, and I couldn't remember it.
I think maybe it was at my, I would say at my sister's wedding. like years and years and years ago.
I don't even know how many years ago.
Um, I hate dressing up.
I feel so silly every time I put on like a pair of nice shoes maybe you know high heeled shoes or a dress.
I just feel like it's not me.
So I prefer super comfortable clothes.
And yeah, I do not like to dress up for special occasions.
Expression number two, dressing rooms.
Here you go.
The dressing rooms are over there.
Where do you find dressing rooms?
In a store or in your house?
You only find dressing rooms in stores, all right?
Not in your house.
Well, I don't think you do have dressing rooms in your house.
If you do, you probably have a very big house.
What is the purpose of dressing rooms?
Well, the idea is that you take a bunch of clothes from a store that you would like to try on because you don't know if they fit.
You go into a dressing room, you try them on, decide if you like them, take them off and then either pay for them or leave them there.
How many people are usually allowed in a dressing room?
I think usually only one.
Yeah, only one person per dressing room is allowed.
Sometimes if you're with a friend, they let you go in with a friend.
But it gets a little messy and usually they're pretty small.
So I think one is enough.
Do you take pictures of the clothes you're trying on in a dressing room?
Not really.
I spent all the time in the dressing room feeling bad about how I look in the clothes that I'm trying on.
The last thing I want to do is take a picture of myself feeling miserable because, you know, a pair of pants don't fit me.
No, but all jokes aside, no, not really.
I just quickly, you know, put them on.
I immediately know in the dressing room if I like the clothes or I don't.
And then I decide to either buy them or leave them.
Expression number three, break in new shoes.
When you first try on a pair of shoes, you just have to break them in.
If you need to break in your shoes, is it because they're comfortable or uncomfortable?
If you have to break in your shoes, it's because they're uncomfortable.
And they're uncomfortable because they're new.
So you know the feeling when you just bought a pair of shoes.
They look so pretty but so clean, but a lot of times they're also very uncomfortable.
And that is why, because they're new, because they haven't been worn yet.
So how are the shoes after you break them in?
Well, they're new shoes.
Then you put them on a couple of times, maybe three times, four times, you walk in them and then you, You break them in so they become comfortable.
They become, they stretch maybe a little bit and so they feel more comfortable.
How long does it usually take for you to break in your shoes?
I think maybe...
I think maybe three times, not more than three times.
In the past it used to be more, because I would pick the most uncomfortable shoes in the whole world.
Now I've gotten better at picking shoes.
So I pick some really good ones, but obviously it still takes time.
You know, at least one or two times for me to break them in.
Expression number four, flattering.
It looks fabulous.
It's so flattering.
If something you try on, such as a shirt, a dress, a pair of pants, etc.
Is flattering, will it make you look better or worse?
If something is flattering, that means that it looks good on you.
It highlights all the good things and it kind of hides all the flaws or the bad things.
I don't like this term, flattering, because, you know, at the end of the day, who cares?
But it's a term that many people use to indicate the fact that You know a certain clothing item looks good on you because it hides the bad things, so to say.
And it really highlights the good things about your body.
Do you try to wear clothes that are flattering or do you not care?
I used to be obsessed with this.
I used to only buy clothes that were flattering.
And then I kind of reached a point in my life I think maybe it was like a year ago when I just stopped caring.
And now I don't care if it's flattering or if it's not flattering.
If I like it, I'm going to wear it.
I don't care if it shows, you know, some of my flaws or a little bit of belly.
I don't care if it's flattering.
I just wear whatever I want now, almost.
Expression number five, unzip.
Do you mind helping me?
I can't unzip it.
When do you unzip a zipper?
When putting on your clothes or when taking them off?
You unzip a zipper when you are taking off your clothes.
Obviously, you need to make your clothes bigger.
You need to, I guess you could say, open them.
You're not really opening your clothes.
But yeah, so you unzip it so you can take off whatever you want to take off.
It can be a jacket.
It can be a dress.
It can be a skirt, pair of pants, jeans.
What do you do if you're unable to unzip a clothing item you have on?
It's happened to me once.
I got stuck in a dress because I couldn't reach the zipper.
So I managed to put it on, but I knew if I would take it off without unzipping it, it would break.
And I didn't want to break it, obviously.
Okay.
So I was there a few minutes struggling, trying to be as flexible as I could be to reach, you know, the back.
And then in the end I just went to my mom and said Mom, please help me and take this thing off of me, because I can't.
So, yeah, it's always a good idea.
If you don't know if you're going to be able to unzip something, always try it on when somebody else is in the house so they can help you unzip it.
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.
