Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1,126, Using a Pawn Shop.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 1,126.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
I don't know.
Not enough coffee this morning.
Sorry.
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This episode is a dialogue about using a pawn shop, a store where you can bring your old items and get money for them.
Let's get started.
I'm thinking of hawking a few things.
You've used the pawn shop down the street before, right?
Yeah, a few years ago when I lost my job.
Is the place legit?
It seemed to be.
I have no complaints.
That's good.
How would I go about pawning something?
It's pretty simple.
You bring the pawnbroker something that's worth money to use as collateral.
And then you get a loan for a fraction of its value.
Then you have 90 days to repay the loan, plus interest and fees.
How do I redeem my items?
You just show them your pawn ticket.
That sounds pretty simple.
What if I can't repay the money by the deadline?
Then you forfeit your item.
The pawn shop tries to sell it to recoup the money they lent you.
Okay, I'm going to do it.
I'm going to pawn my collection.
Your collection of what?
Action figures.
I have the entire collection of ESL podcast action figures.
There's Jeff, Lucy, Warren, Jessica, Adriano, Paul, Leanne, Allison.
I said something worth money, remember?
Jamaica says to Nolan, I need to raise some cash right away.
To raise, R-A-I-S-E, cash or to raise money means to get money for some specific purpose.
Certain organizations, for example, try to raise money to support the goals and activities of the organization.
If a person, an individual, says that she wants to raise cash or needs to raise some cash right away, as Jamaica says, usually she means that she needs money for some specific reason.
Jamaica says I'm thinking of hawking a few things.
The verb to hawk H-O-C-K means to leave something, usually at a place called a pawn P-A-W-N shop, in exchange for money.
Basically, what you are doing is giving the pawn shop say, a ring or a computer or something valuable in exchange for money that the pawn shop gives to you.
Now, usually a pawn shop will keep what you give them for a certain number of days or weeks.
And if you don't come back and buy it back, give them money to get your item back.
Well, the pawn shop will then sell it to someone else.
Pawn shops are popular still in the United States in some neighborhoods, especially poorer neighborhoods, where people often need to get money, and so they try to sell or we would even use the verb pawn their items.
The verb to pawn means the same as the verb to hawk.
Jamaica says, you've used the pawn shop down the street before, right?
Nolan says, yeah, a few years ago when I lost my job.
People don't usually use a pawn shop unless they really need money badly.
They don't want to get rid of their valuable things, but they don't have a choice sometimes.
Nolan says, That is, a new job.
Many people use pawn shops basically as a way of getting a loan for something they need money for right now.
Then they try to get money together to buy whatever it is that they gave to the pawn shop back.
Nolan says he needed a short-term loan, meaning money that you give someone for only a short period of time.
It might be a month, it might be two months, it might be a year.
To tide someone over means to help someone through a difficult situation.
If someone says I need 100 to tide me over until tomorrow, the person is telling you that he needs 100 in order to pay his bills and expenses until tomorrow.
If you're lucky, you'll get your money back tomorrow.
Nolan says he needed a short-term loan to tide him over until he could find a new job.
Jamaica says, is the place legit?
The word legit, L-E-G-I-T, is short for, in an informal way of saying, legitimate job.
L-E-G-I-T-I-M-A-T-E.
Legitimate means real.
Something that is not fake.
Something that is what it says it is.
Nolan says it seemed to be.
I have no complaints.
A complaint.
C-O-M-P-L-A-I-N-T is a statement that you are dissatisfied, disappointed or unhappy with something.
If someone says I have no complaints, the person means that he was happy with, in this case, the pawn shop.
Jamaica says that's good.
How would I go about pawning something?
To go about means to do.
How would I pawn something is what Jamaica is asking here.
Nolan says it's pretty simple, meaning it's very simple.
You bring the pawnbroker something that's worth money to use as collateral and And then you get a loan for a fraction of its value.
A pawnbroker, P-O-N-B-R-O-K-E-R, is a person who owns...
A pawn shop.
Nolan says you give the pawnbroker something that's worth money, something that has value, maybe an old ring or a phone or a computer.
That thing, that item, is used as collateral.
Collateral, C-O-L-L-A-T-E-R-A-L, is something that you give someone in order to get a loan.
It's something that we would say secures the loan.
For example, if you want to buy a car and you want to get a loan for the car...
A bank may ask you for collateral.
They may ask you, in other words, for something that's worth money.
So, in case you don't pay the loan back, they can get their money back.
Now, the car itself may serve as collateral.
For example, when you buy a house and you get a loan to buy the house...
The house itself is your collateral.
If you don't pay the loan back, the bank will take your house.
So collateral is something worth something that allows you to get a loan in a pawn shop.
Whatever you bring to the pawnbroker is your collateral, and the pawnbroker will then give you money as a loan.
But the pawnbroker won't give you 100% of what the item is worth.
The pawnbroker will only give you a fraction of its value.
A fraction F-R-A-C-T-I-O-N is a term from mathematics that refers to a part of something.
A portion of something.
One half, one third, one hundredth.
Those are all fractions, percentages of the whole amount.
Value, V-A-L-U-E, is what something is worth, how much money it is worth.
Nolan says, then you have 90 days to repay the loan plus interest and fees.
To repay, R-E-P-A-Y, a loan means to give the person who gave you the loan the money back.
You're giving him the money that he gave you.
Now, when you go to a pawnbroker, you have to give the money that the pawnbroker gave you, plus interest, which is basically the price of the loan.
It may be 1%, it may be 10%.
Jamaica says, how do I redeem my item?
To redeem, R-E-D-E-E-M, in this case means to get something back that you originally owned.
At a pawn shop, it means to get back what you gave the pawnbroker in order to get the loan.
Nolan says you just show them your pawn ticket.
When you give something to a pawnbroker, the pawnbroker will give you a little piece of paper called a ticket that usually has a number on it.
And you bring that back and the pawnbroker can find your item in order to give it back to you after, of course, you've paid the pawnbroker the money that he lent you.
Jamaica says, that sounds pretty simple.
What if I can't repay the money by the deadline?
That is, what if 90 days goes by and you don't have money to get your item back?
Nolan says, then you forfeit your item.
To forfeit F-O-R-F-E-I-T means to lose something, especially as a punishment for failing to do something.
In this case, it means you no longer own the item that you gave to the pawnbroker.
You can no longer get it back, at least not by just paying the loan amount.
Nolan says the pawn shop tries to sell it to recoup the money they lent you.
So if you give the pawn shop your wedding ring in order to get a short-term loan and you are not able to pay the loan back, the pawn shop will sell your wedding ring to someone else.
Maybe your wife will buy it.
Who knows?
Nolan says the pawn shop sells things to recoup their money.
To recoup, R-E-C-O-U-P, means to recover something, to get something back that was lost.
In this case, the pawn shop needs to get back the money that they lent you, that you did not pay them back.
Jamaica says okay, I'm going to do it, going to pawn my collection.
A collection is a set of objects that are related to each other.
Some people like to collect coins, some people like to collect dolls, some people like to collect old magazines.
What does Jamaica collect?
Action figures.
Action figures are little toys that are in the shape of a person or some character.
Often in movies for children.
The movie studio, the company that makes the movie, will sell little toys, little action figures.
And you can move the little arms and the little legs.
And of course, your children are going to want to buy them because they saw the movies.
Jamaica collects action figures of ESL podcast characters.
She says there's Jeff, Lucy, Warren, Jessica, Adriano, Powell, Leanne, Allison.
In other words, Jamaica has apparently action figures of those of us who work on ESL podcast.
I didn't even know these existed, but I guess they do because it's in the dialogue.
Jamaica wants to sell these things, or pawn these things rather, to the pawn shop.
But Nolan interrupts her and says, I said something worth money, remember?
Nolan is, I think, making a joke here.
He's saying that action figures from ESL podcast would not be worth any money and the pawnbroker wouldn't give you any money if you tried to hawk or pawn them at his pawn shop.
Oh, I think they'd be worth a lot of money, don't you?
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a native rate of speech.
I need to raise some cash right away.
I'm thinking of hawking a few things.
You've used the pawn shop down the street before, right?
Yeah, a few years ago, when I lost my job, I needed a short-term loan to tide me over until I could find a new one.
Is the place legit?
It seemed to be.
I have no complaints.
That's good.
How would I go about pawning something?
It's pretty simple.
You bring the pawnbroker something that's worth money to use as collateral, and then you get a loan for a fraction of its value.
Then you have 90 days to repay the loan, plus interest and fees.
How do I redeem my item?
You just show them your pawn ticket.
That sounds pretty simple.
What if I can't repay the money by the deadline?
Then you forfeit your item.
The pawn shop tries to sell it to recoup the money they lent you.
Okay, I'm going to do it.
I'm going to pawn my collection.
Your collection of what?
Action figures.
I have the entire collection of ESL podcast action figures.
There's Jeff, Lucy, Warren, Jessica, Adriano, Pao, Leanne, Allison.
I said something worth money, remember?
It's impossible to repay our scriptwriter for her wonderful work, but we can say thank you to Dr Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again right here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2015 by the Center for Educational Development.
