Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 986, Buying and Selling Family Heirlooms.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 986.
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, become a member of ESL Podcast, and download the Learning Guide for this episode.
This episode is about buying and selling things that belong to your family that are usually old and valuable.
Let's get started.
Where are you going with that?
I'm taking this clock to an antique dealer.
Rather than having it gather dust on the mantelpiece, I thought I'd get it appraised and maybe sell it.
You can't sell that.
It belonged to our grandfather.
It's a family heirloom.
It's not a family heirloom.
It's just a clock that Grandpa had in his house.
He didn't mean for it to be passed down from one generation to another.
I don't even know if it's valuable or collectible.
These clocks could be a dime a dozen.
But it's valuable to me.
It has sentimental value.
As a little girl, I remember visiting Grandpa. and seeing that clock on his shelf.
If I had inherited it, I know I wouldn't be looking to sell it to make a quick buck.
What if Grandpa left it to me because he knew I would be able to put the money that it would fetch to good use?
Well, are you?
Are you going to put the proceeds to good use?
Sure, of course I am.
Are you going to tell me what you're spending it on? not on your life.
And begins this dialogue by saying to Ivan, where are you going with that?
Ivan says, I'm taking this clock to an antique dealer.
Antique, A-N-T-I-Q-U-E, refers to something that is very old.
An antique dealer.
D-E-A-L-E-R is someone who buys old things such as jewelry, pieces of furniture, artwork or other things that are old and perhaps valuable.
An antique dealer of course tries to buy things at a low price and then sell them at a high price, just like any good business person.
Antiques with an S at the end is used to describe these items, the things that you would bring to an antique dealer.
Ivan says, rather than having it gather dust on the mantelpiece, I thought I'd get it appraised and maybe sell it.
Ivan has taken a clock to an antique dealer in order to get it appraised.
He says, rather than having it gather dust.
To gather dust, D-U-S-T, means to sit unused for a long time.
Dust refers to the little pieces of dirt that accumulate, that collect on top of something if you don't move it for a very long time.
That's why every week or two, you may need to dust your house.
You may need to go around and clean the little bits of dirt off of your tables and other things that would collect dirt.
If something has a lot of dust on it, it hasn't been moved or used in a long time.
And that's the real meaning of this expression.
Although, in the case of an old clock, it might have literally, actually been gathering dust.
A mantelpiece M-A-N-T-E-L-P-I-E-C-E is a shelf, a place to put something above a fireplace, usually in
The living room, or sometimes it might be called the family room of a house.
A mantelpiece is a place where you might put old photographs and an old clock.
Ivan says he wants to get this clock appraised.
To appraise A-P-P-R-A-I-S-E-D means to assess or to give a value to something, to give an opinion about how much something is worth.
You could have your house appraised if you were trying to get a loan.
Someone would come and tell you how much your house is worth.
When you go to an antique dealer to get something appraised, you're asking the antique dealer how much money you could get if you sold that item.
Anne does not like this idea at all.
She says, you can't sell that.
It belonged to our grandfather.
Our grandfather owned it.
It's a family heirloom.
A family heirloom.
H-E-I-R-L-O-O-M is something that belongs to your family, that has been passed on or given from one generation to another.
Usually it's something that's considered valuable.
So, for example, if your grandfather had an expensive ring or your grandmother had some nice jewelry, that might be considered a family heirloom.
Your grandmother gave it to your mother, and your mother gives it to you, and you give it to your daughter, and so forth.
Those are family heirlooms, valuable things that sometimes are valuable not because they're worth a lot of money.
Sometimes they're valuable for what we might call sentimental reasons, and we'll explain that in a second.
Ivan says it's not a family heirloom.
It's just a clock that Grandpa had in his house.
He didn't mean for it to be passed down from one generation to another.
Ivan says grandpa didn't mean for it, meaning he wasn't intending, he wasn't planning for it to be passed down from.
To be passed down means to give one object, usually something that is old, to someone younger than you or to the next generation.
For example, when I die, my microphone that I use for podcasting will be passed down to one of my nieces and nephews.
It's going to become a family heirloom I'm sure.
Generation refers to a group of people who are born at approximately the same time.
In a family, a generation would be all of the brothers and sisters in a family.
Your father and mother are another generation.
And your grandparents are another generation.
And your nieces and nephews are a younger generation.
You have younger generations and older generations.
Ivan says this clock was not meant... to be passed down from one generation to another.
He says, I don't even know if it's valuable or collectible.
To be collectible C-O-L-L-E-C-T-A-B-L-E is to be something that people want to own.
Things that are collectible are usually things that are worth some money, that have some value.
Ivan says these clocks could be a dime a dozen.
That expression a dime D-I-M-E a dozen is refers to something that is very common, very popular and therefore not worth a lot of money.
A dime is 10 cents in American currency.
A dozen is 12 of something.
So if you can buy 12 of something for a dime, it's probably not a very valuable item.
We usually use this expression to refer to things that are not rare, of which many have been made.
Anne objects.
She says, but it's valuable to me.
It has sentimental value.
Sentimental S-E-N-T-I-M-E-N-T-A-L value is refers to your emotional attachment to some object.
Might not be worth anything to anyone else, it might not be very valuable in itself, but it's something that means something to you.
So the first love letter that your husband wrote you or the first rose that you gave your wife, These would be things that might have sentimental value.
No one else is going to buy an old rose or a piece of paper that has a love letter on it.
These are things that are valuable to you.
They have sentimental value.
Ann continues.
As a little girl I remember visiting Grandpa and seeing that clock and If I had inherited it I know I wouldn't be looking to sell it to make a quick buck.
To inherit, I-N-H-E-R-I-T, is to receive money or objects from someone who has died.
You can inherit something from your parents, for example.
They may give you things or give you money when they die.
To make a quick buck, B-U-C-K, means to try to make money quickly and easily.
A buck is a dollar.
It's an informal term for one American dollar.
To make a quick buck is an old expression meaning to try to make money quickly and easily.
Ivan says, I'm not looking, I'm not trying to make a quick buck.
But what if grandpa left it to me because he knew I would be able to put the money that it would fetch to good use?
To fetch, F-E-T-C-H.
Here means to bring money or to bring something to you.
When we talk about what price this will fetch, we mean how much money will we get?
What price will it be?
What Ivan is saying here is that Grandpa may have left this clock to him.
Because Grandpa knew that Ivan would put the money that he would get from it, the money he would fetch, to good use.
To good use here means for a good purpose.
Ann says, well, are you?
Are you going to put the proceeds to good use?
Proceeds, P-R-O-C-E-E-D-S. is money that you get from selling something.
There's always an S on the end if it's used as a noun in this way, proceeds.
Ivan says, sure, of course I am.
Of course I'm going to put it to good use.
Anne says, are you going to tell me what you're spending it on?
Anne wants to know what Ivan is going to do with the money he gets from selling the old clock.
Ivan, however, refuses to tell her.
He says, not on your life.
That expression, not on your life, means no way.
It's a phrase used to show that you are not going to do that no matter what happens.
Of course, we suspect that perhaps Ivan is not going to put the money to good use, but is going to go gambling, or perhaps go drinking with his friends, or something that we would not normally consider to be a good use.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Where are you going with that?
I'm taking this clock to an antique dealer.
Rather than having it gather dust on the mantelpiece, I thought I'd get it appraised and maybe sell it.
You can't sell that.
It belonged to our grandfather.
It's a family heirloom.
It's not a family heirloom.
It's just a clock that Grandpa had in his house.
He didn't mean for it to be passed down from one generation to another.
I don't even know if it's valuable or collectible.
These clocks could be a dime a dozen.
But it's valuable to me.
It has sentimental value.
As a little girl, I remember visiting Grandpa and seeing that clock on his shelf.
If I had inherited it, I know I wouldn't be looking to sell it to make a quick buck.
I'm not looking to make a quick buck.
But what if Grandpa left it to me because he knew I would be able to put the money that it would fetch to good use?
Well, are you?
Are you going to put the proceeds to good use?
Sure, of course I am.
Are you going to tell me what you're spending it on?
Not on your life.
We hope you put our dialogues to good use.
They're written by a wonderful script writer, you know, 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 2014 by the Center for Educational Development.
