Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1,128, Store Promotions and Giveaways.
This is English as a Second Language podcast, episode 1128.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Our website is eslpod.com.
Go there and Become a member of ESL Podcast and, if you do, you can download a learning guide for this episode that contains a complete transcript of everything we say.
This episode is a dialogue between Sonia and Paul about store promotions things that stores give away in order to get customers.
Let's get started.
What is all this?
These are entry forms and materials for our new store promotions and giveaways.
There are different kinds because we're running several promotions at once.
We have scratch-off cards to win instant prizes, including t-shirts.
Those t-shirts are really nice.
I'd like one of those.
We also have a collect and win game.
People collect codes printed on our products.
When they've collected a certain number, they win gift certificates to spend in our store.
Wow, that's great.
I'd like a gift certificate.
We also have a sweepstake.
Enter to win one of three grand prizes.
A TV, a Hawaiian vacation, and a brand new car.
Wow, I definitely want one of those.
No.
What?
Quit your job.
The rules say that employees and their families are not eligible.
I don't suppose I can find a way around that.
Not unless you're considering divorcing your husband or disowning your children.
Sonia begins our dialogue by asking Paul, what is all this?
Notice she says all this instead of just this.
We would use that word all, when someone has a lot of things and you are referring to a group of items, a group of things.
Paul answers, these are entry forms and materials for our new store promotions and giveaways.
Paul has more than one thing.
He has several items.
He has entry forms.
An entry.
E-N-T-R-Y form is a piece of paper usually that you put your name and address on in order to participate in some sort of contest or competition.
Stores sometimes will have a contest in which they will give away, that is, they will give as a gift for free, something for people who give the store their names and addresses.
We have a very similar concept on the internet.
Companies will give you something for free in exchange for your email address.
Well, Paul is getting some entry forms and materials for their new store promotions and giveaways.
A giveaway is when you give something to people for free, usually something that isn't very expensive.
It doesn't cost a lot of money.
A promotion is when you lower the price of something you are selling in order to get more people to buy it.
It's basically a sale where you cut or lower the price of something so more people will buy it.
Sonia says, what prizes can people win?
A prize, P-R-I-Z-E, is something that you win usually in some contest or competition.
Many states in the United States, including California, have what's called a lottery.
You buy a ticket, a piece of paper for a dollar or two dollars and you have a chance to win millions of dollars.
The Money that you win would be called the prize money.
Sonia wants to know what prizes people can win.
Paul says there are different kinds, meaning there are different kinds of prizes because we're running several promotions at once.
Notice he uses the verb to run.
We're running many or several promotions at once, at the same time.
You could say we are having different promotions, but the verb to run is more often the case, the one that we would use with this noun promotions.
Paul then explains the games, the contests they're going to have.
He says we have scratch-off cards to win instant prizes, including t-shirts.
A scratch-off card says, is a piece of paper that has numbers on it usually, but the numbers are covered.
And in order to find out what the numbers are, you have to use your finger or a small coin to rub off or scratch off the material that is covering the number.
This is how you find out if you have won a prize, if you have the right numbers.
Instant means immediately, right away.
Scratch-off cards, they're also called scratchers are used for contests in which you win money or you win a prize immediately.
You get your prize right after you scratch off what's covering up the numbers to see if you win.
Sonia says, those t-shirts are really nice.
I'd like one of those.
Paul says, A collect-and-win game is one in which you go around getting codes or numbers from different packages and once you have a certain number of them, you can submit them or turn them in for a prize.
The most common collect-and-win promotion that I remember growing up, anyway, was bottle caps.
Coca-Cola and other sodas often came in glass bottles and on the top of the bottle would be a covering, what we would call a cap C-A-P.
Sometimes stores would have a promotion in which if you brought in say, 25 or 50 of these caps, you would get a prize.
That's an example of a collect and win.
You go out and collect something and then you win a prize for turning in all of those things to the company, to the store.
This, of course, encourages you to go out and buy more things that would have these numbers.
That's how the company sells more of these things.
Paul continues.
A code C-O-D-E is a series of letters and or numbers that are used for some specific purpose.
In this case, the company puts these codes on things that it sells and you can collect them in order to get a prize.
I just thought of another collect and win promotion that uses codes.
Starbucks, the coffee company, sells coffee in the stores.
You can buy their coffee to make starbucks coffee at home.
When you buy a package of their coffee, Often it has a little sticker on it, a little piece of paper, the back of which has a code on it.
And if you enter that code into the website, Starbucks will give you a free coffee.
If you enter enough of the codes into the website.
I do this all the time, actually.
Paul continues, when they, meaning the customers...
When they've collected a certain number, they win gift certificates to spend in our store.
A gift certificate is a piece of paper that a company gives you that is worth a.
Nowadays you don't really see gift certificates so often.
Usually what you get is what's called a gift card.
The card has an electronic code on it, sort of like a credit card that you can then use at a store just as if you were using money.
There's money on the card, we might say.
Sonia says, wow, that's great.
I'd like a gift certificate.
Paul continues, we also have a sweepstake.
A sweepstake, more often used in the plural.
Sweepstakes is a promotion in which people fill out a form and and give it to the company and then the company picks a winner.
It's basically what we would call a lottery, L-O-T-T-E-R-Y.
Paul says, enter to win one of three grand prizes, a TV, a Hawaiian vacation, and a brand new car.
Paul is saying that the prizes for the sweepstakes are a television, a vacation in Hawaii and a new car.
Sonia says, wow, I definitely want one of those.
Paul says, do you know what you can do to win?
Sonia says, no, what?
Paul says jokingly, quit your job.
The rules or the regulations say that employees, people who work for the company and their families are not eligible.
To be eligible, E-L-I-G-I-B-L-E, means that you have the qualifications to do something.
You are allowed to participate in something.
Well, Paul is saying that employees and their families are not eligible.
In other words, if you work for the company, you can't enter these games and win jobs.
Sonia says The expression to find a way around something means to figure out a way of not having to do something, of not having to follow the rules.
We sometimes say, there's no way around it, meaning there's no way to avoid it.
For example, paying taxes in the United States, if you work at a job, there's no way around it.
The government won't allow you to do it.
Sonia says, I don't suppose, meaning I don't think, I can find a way around that.
Paul says, We now understand that Paul and Sonia are married.
That's why Paul again says jokingly, that The only way Sonia would be eligible would to no longer be his wife to divorce him.
To divorce, D-I-V-O-R-C-E, in this case means to end a marriage.
In order for Sonia not to be a member of Paul's family, she would have to divorce him.
She might also have to disown her children.
To disown D-I-S-O-W-N means to no longer have a relationship with someone, especially your children.
If a father disowns his children, he's saying to his children I don't want anything to do with you anymore.
This is a verb we often use when someone dies.
A parent dies and doesn't leave his or her children any money.
If you disown your children when you die, your will, your legal document that says what happens to your things when you die, says that your children won't get any money.
Fortunately my parents never disowned me, but since there are ten other siblings in my family I have ten brothers and sisters I probably won't get very much money anyway.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
What is all this?
These are entry forms and materials for our new store promotions and giveaways.
What prizes can people win?
There are different kinds because we're running several promotions at once.
We have scratch-off cards to win instant prizes, including t-shirts.
Those t-shirts are really nice.
I'd like one of those.
We also have a collect and win game.
People collect codes printed on our products.
When they've collected a certain number, they win gift certificates to spend in our store.
Wow, that's great.
I'd like a gift certificate.
We also have a sweepstake.
Enter to win one of three grand prizes, a TV, a Hawaiian vacation, and a brand new car.
Wow, I definitely want one of those.
Do you know what you can do to win?
No, what?
Quit your job.
The rules say that employees and their families are not eligible.
I don't suppose I can find a way around that.
Not unless you're considering divorcing your husband or disowning your children.
Each time you listen to ESL Podcast it's like winning a prize, because you get to listen to the wonderful dialogues by our wonderful scriptwriter, 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.
