Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast, number 815, Buying Dinnerware.
This is English as a Second Language Podcast, episode 815.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Home of Hollywood, home of ESL Podcast.
On this episode, you will listen to a dialogue.
But what if you want more?
And don't we all want more in this life?
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Go to our website at eslpod.com to find it.
This episode is about buying some new things to eat with, what we would call dinnerware.
Let's get started.
We need some new dinnerware.
Nearly all of our plates and bowls are cracked or chipped.
All right, you do that.
Aren't you going to help?
I trust your judgment.
Whatever you like, I'll like too.
But I need your input.
For instance, this set has eight place settings, eight dinner plates, eight salad plates, eight soup bowls and eight mugs.
Everything is microwave safe, too.
What do you think of this pattern?
It's great.
Let's get that one.
Wait!
This set is a little more formal, and the plates are bigger, about an inch larger in diameter.
It has a nice blue pattern, see?
Yeah, it's perfect.
Let's buy that one.
Oh, but look at these other options on this website.
I don't think I can decide unless I can see them in person.
Let's go.
Go where?
To the store.
I don't want to buy something half-assed.
We'll be using these dishes for many, many years.
You're not coming with me?
Come on.
What can I do to get you to come with me?
You want me to go with you shopping on my day off and while the game is on?
Dream on.
Wendy begins our dialogue by saying to Jason, we need some new dinnerware.
Dinnerware, D-I-N-N-E-R-W-A-R-E, one word, includes plates, bowls, cups, cups, silverware, a knife, a spoon, a fork, all of the things that you use, what we would call the dishes, to eat a meal.
Dinner, of course, is one of the three meals during the day.
Breakfast in the morning, lunch at noon, and dinner in the evenings.
Wendy says, nearly all, almost all, of our plates and bowls are cracked or chipped.
To be cracked, C-R-A-C-K-E-D, here means to have little lines through it.
It's broken, but it isn't completely broken.
You could have a glass with a crack in it.
You would see a little line in the glass indicating that it might break completely soon.
To be chipped C-H-I-P-P-E-D means there's a little hole or a little bit of the object that is missing.
Usually this happens with a piece of glass or other material hard material and there'll be sort of like a little hole in it, not completely not going through it, but just on the outside, on the surface of it.
We would say that is chipped.
Jason says, all right, you do that, meaning, yes, you go and get some new dinnerware.
Wendy says, aren't you going to help, you lazy husband?
Well, she just says, aren't you going to help?
Jason says, I trust your judgment.
To trust someone's judgment works means that you believe that whatever this person does will be right.
They will do the right thing.
So you're not going to go with them or help them.
You don't need to.
You say to them, you do what you think is right, and I'm sure that will be just fine with me.
He says, whatever you like, I'll like too.
This, of course, is what all husbands want to do when their wives ask them to help them buy things for the house, for example.
You know, I really don't care what color the table is or what kind of rug we have.
Just go ahead, buy it.
If you're happy, I'm happy.
That's what Jason is saying.
Not me, Jason.
Jason... says, whatever you like, I'll like too.
Wendy says, but I need your input.
Input, I-N-P-U-T, means your opinion about how to do something.
We might also use the word feedback, F-E-E-D-B-A-C-K.
Wendy says, for instance, this set has 8 place settings, for instance Meaning.
For example, this set, this collection of plates or dinnerware, has eight place settings.
A place setting is what one person sitting down at the table would need to eat with.
So it would be a cup, a plate, a fork, a spoon, a knife, and so forth.
Each one of those would be a place setting.
Wendy says this set of dishes has eight place settings, so enough for eight people.
Eight dinner plates, eight salad plates, eight soup bowls, eight mugs.
A dinner plate is a large plate where you can put usually all of the main dish, the entree, we would say the main course for your meal.
A salad plate quite obviously is a smaller plate used for eating.
Salad, a mixture of small pieces of vegetables usually, when we talk about it in an American context, a salad.
A salad plate is smaller than a dinner plate.
Wendy also says this set of place settings has eight.
A bowl is a small container that you use to put something in, usually liquid, often liquid.
In this case, it's a bowl for eating, of course, soup.
Wendy says, everything is microwave safe, too.
To be microwave-safe means that you can put it in a microwave and you won't damage it.
You won't hurt it.
You know, sometimes you put things in a microwave, which is a special little oven that heats not using a flame, a fire or some sort of hot piece of metal, but it heats food using microwaves a special kind of radiation really.
Well, if you put some things in a microwave oven, sometimes they can melt or you can hurt them.
You can damage them.
These plates, however, according to Wendy, are microwave safe, meaning it's okay.
It won't damage the plates and the bowls.
Wendy says, what do you think of this pattern here?
A pattern P-A-T-T-E-R-N is a decoration, usually a repeating design of colors or shapes on an object.
So you might have a shirt that has lines that go up and down, black and white lines.
That would be a pattern.
Kind of a strange pattern, but...
It would be a pattern.
Or you might have a dress that has flowers on it, small little flowers on it.
That flower pattern repeats itself.
So you have one, two, three, and then next to that you have three more flowers and so forth.
That's the pattern.
Wendy asks Jason what he thinks of the pattern.
Jason says, it's great.
Let's get that one.
Let's buy that one.
Wendy says, wait.
This set is a little more formal and the plates are bigger, about an inch larger in diameter.
So Wendy says, oh, wait a minute.
There's this other set of dishes.
It's a little more formal.
It's perhaps for more formal kinds of dinners.
Maybe when you have your boss over to your house for dinner.
The plates are bigger, about a half an inch larger, I'm sorry, an inch larger in diameter, D-I-A-M-E-T-E-R.
Diameter is the distance across a circle, the length of a line that goes through the center of a circle and touches both sides of a circle.
You learned about that back in geometry when you were in school.
And if you didn't, well, you can read a man named Euclid, an old Greek who wrote all about it.
Jason says, yeah, it's perfect.
Let's buy that one.
Jason, of course, doesn't care.
He just wants to make the decision and be done with it.
Wendy, however, says, oh, but look at these other options on this website.
She's showing him more examples of dinnerware.
She says, let's go.
Jason says, go where?
Wendy says, to the store.
I don't want to buy something half-assed.
To do something half H-A-L-F hyphen asked, A-S-S-E-D, means not to do a very good job at it.
To attempt it, but not to be very serious about it.
This expression is a vulgar one.
I wouldn't use it really myself.
I would probably never use it.
But if you did use it, it would only be in your family or with your spouse, or The word ass is a vulgar word A-S-S, and so any terms that have that word in it are probably ones that you don't want to use very often, if at all.
Wendy says, we'll be using these dishes for many, many years.
Dishes is the same as dinnerware, the plates, the bowls, and so forth.
Jason says, like I said, like I said before, I trust your judgment by whatever you want.
Wendy says, you're not coming with me?
Come on, meaning let's go.
What can I do to get you to come with me?
Jason says, you want me to go with you shopping on my day off, on a day I don't have to work?
And while the game is on, the game would be some sporting game, soccer, baseball, football, etc.
Jason says, dream on.
The word dream D-R-E-A-M has a couple of different meanings in English, as does the word pattern which we mentioned earlier.
Go to our learning guide for some additional definitions of those two terms.
The expression dream on or the phrase dream on is an informal sort of rude phrase where you are telling a person that whatever they are asking for or whatever they are hoping for is impossible.
It's not going to happen.
You think you're going to win the lottery and be a millionaire and have a million dollars.
Dream on.
I'm saying that's ridiculous.
That's impossible.
That's not going to happen.
That's what Jason is saying to Wendy.
He's not going to go with her to buy dinnerware on a day where he doesn't have to work and there is a sport event on the television.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
We need some new dinnerware.
Nearly all of our plates and bowls are cracked or chipped.
All right, you do that.
Aren't you going to help?
I trust your judgment.
Whatever you like, I'll like too.
But I need your input.
For instance, this set has eight place settings.
Eight dinner plates, eight salad plates, eight soup bowls, and eight mugs.
Everything is microwave safe too.
What do you think of this pattern?
It's great.
Let's get that one.
Wait.
This set is a little more formal, and the plates are bigger, about an inch larger in diameter.
It has a nice blue pattern, see?
Yeah, it's perfect.
Let's buy that one.
Oh, but look at these other options on this website.
I don't think I can decide unless I see them in person.
Let's go.
Go where?
To the store.
I don't want to buy something half-assed.
We'll be using these dishes for many, many years.
Like I said, I trust your judgment.
Buy whatever you want.
You're not coming with me?
Come on, what can I do to get you to come with me?
You want me to go with you shopping on my day off and while the game is on?
Dream on.
We trust our scriptwriters' judgment when it comes to writing good scripts with real dialogues.
Thank you, 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 2012 by the Center for Educational Development.
