Learn how to ask for advice and suggestions
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| INTRODUCTION |
| David: Where in the UK Should You Celebrate Your Birthday? David Here. |
| Kellie: Hello. I'm Kellie. |
| David: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to ask for advice and make suggestions. The conversation takes place at Katrina’s university. |
| Kellie: The speakers are friends. |
| David: So they will use informal English. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Katrina: It's your birthday next week, isn't it? Do you have any plans yet? |
| Phil: Not yet! What do you think I should do? |
| Katrina: You should have a party. |
| Phil: That takes too much organising at short notice. How about going to a restaurant? |
| Katrina: That sounds good! The new Chinese restaurant has discounts if you go on Thursdays. |
| Phil: Okay, let's go on Thursday! |
| David: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Katrina: It's your birthday next week, isn't it? Do you have any plans yet? |
| Phil: Not yet! What do you think I should do? |
| Katrina: You should have a party. |
| Phil: That takes too much organising at short notice. How about going to a restaurant? |
| Katrina: That sounds good! The new Chinese restaurant has discounts if you go on Thursdays. |
| Phil: Okay, let's go on Thursday! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| David: Sounds like it’s party time! |
| Kellie: Sure does! There are many reasons to party though! |
| David: What are popular reasons to party in the UK? If I get invited to a party, what kind of present will I have to buy? |
| Kellie: Is that all you’re worried about? Birthday parties are popular, of course, and especially those special years, like 18 and any round number like 30, 40, 50... |
| David: I’ve been to a 50th wedding anniversary party before. |
| Kellie: Wow, that’s a big anniversary! Yeah, people don’t always celebrate their wedding anniversaries with friends, but often big milestones like their 25th or 50th will be celebrated. You might also get invited along to parties for new jobs, new houses, retiring, or pregnancy. |
| David: Where do people usually have these parties? |
| Kellie: Anywhere and everywhere! Most towns have public places that can be reserved, like a community hall or hall attached to a church. A lot of pubs have large rooms that can be reserved too. |
| David: I guess wedding parties might be at hotels and house parties at houses. |
| Kellie: That last one makes sense, yeah! For the bigger and more formal parties you will probably get a paper invitation with the details. You’ll usually be asked to RSVP. |
| David: What does that mean? |
| Kellie: It’s from the French phrase, now excuse my bad pronunciation here, ‘répondez s'il vous plaît’, and means “reply please.” So you should reply in writing. |
| David: Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| David: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Kellie: plan [natural native speed] |
| David: something that someone intends to do |
| Kellie: plan[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kellie: plan [natural native speed] |
| David: Next we have.. |
| Kellie: next week [natural native speed] |
| David: the seven day period following the current seven days |
| Kellie: next week[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kellie: next week [natural native speed] |
| David: Next we have.. |
| Kellie: should [natural native speed] |
| David: used to indicate responsibility |
| Kellie: should[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kellie: should [natural native speed] |
| David: Next we have.. |
| Kellie: to have [natural native speed] |
| David: to possess, to own |
| Kellie: to have[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kellie: to have [natural native speed] |
| David: Next we have.. |
| Kellie: party [natural native speed] |
| David: social gathering of guests for celebration or entertainment |
| Kellie: party[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kellie: party [natural native speed] |
| David: Next we have.. |
| Kellie: to organise [natural native speed] |
| David: arrange into a structured whole |
| Kellie: to organise[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kellie: to organise [natural native speed] |
| David: Next we have.. |
| Kellie: notice [natural native speed] |
| David: information or warning of something |
| Kellie: notice[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kellie: notice [natural native speed] |
| David: And last.. |
| Kellie: restaurant [natural native speed] |
| David: a place where food and drinks can be bought |
| Kellie: restaurant[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Kellie: restaurant [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| David: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Kellie: have a party |
| David: meaning "to hold, or arrange a party" |
| David: It looks like this is made from the verb “have” and the noun “party”. |
| Kellie: It is! “To have” means to possess or own, and a party is a gathering of friends for social reasons. We use the phrase “have a party” to refer to whose party is. |
| David: Oh, like “Sam is having a party”. |
| Kellie: Yeah. We could say “Sam is holding a party” or “Sam is organising a party”, but they’re kinda stiff and formal ways of saying it. This is more common. |
| David: Who wants to be stiff and formal about parties? |
| Kellie: Exactly! |
| David: Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Kellie: Sure. For example, you can say.. Mark is having a party next week to celebrate his 50th birthday. |
| David: ..which means "Mark is organising a party next week to celebrate his 50th birthday." |
| David: Okay, what's the next word? |
| Kellie: short notice |
| David: meaning "informing somebody of an action they need to take without much warning.” |
| Kellie: We have the adjective “short” that is used to describe things that are small in length or time. |
| David: We just discussed “notice” in the vocab section and said that it meant information or warning of something. |
| Kellie: Right. So the two put together means that there hasn’t been much advance warning of what is happening. Like, you’ve just been told that you’re having a test in ten minutes. |
| David: In ten minutes? That’s short notice! |
| Kellie: Exactly! But, if the test was in two weeks, we couldn’t say it was long notice. That sounds weird. |
| David: Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Kellie: Sure. For example, you can say.. I want to go but it's too short notice. |
| David: .. which means "I want to go, but there isn’t much time before it happens." Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| David: In this lesson, you'll learn how to ask for advice and suggestions. |
| David: I think that asking for advice is very important. |
| Kellie: I agree. I think that everybody needs to ask for advice at some point, and to do that in English we need modal verbs. |
| David: What is a modal verb? |
| Kellie: It’s a special verb that describes the potential of something happening, the ability for it to happen and whether it can happen. So, it’s words like “must,” “shall,” “should,” “will” and “would.” |
| David: Oh, Katrina gave a suggestion in the dialogue when she said “You should have a party.” |
| Kellie: She did! She could have made the sentence negative just by adding “not.” “You should not have a party.” |
| David: Who would ever suggest that? How do we use modal verbs in a sentence? |
| Kellie: They are used in front of the base form of the verb, such as “have” in that party sentence. Other examples are “I must go home” and “I will eat cake for lunch.” |
| David: You should not eat cake for lunch! |
| Kellie: Is that an actual suggestion or just an example? |
| David: A bit of both! |
| Kellie: We can also use modal verbs with the perfect form to talk about possibility in the past. “He must have learned English in England.” See? That uses “learned” instead of “learn”, so we know it’s talking about the past. |
| David: Is there a way of talking more specifically of the present? |
| Kellie: Of course! We can use a modal verb plus the progressive form. “You must be speaking English.” |
| David: Why, yes I am! |
| Kellie: If we go back to the dialogue, when Katrina advised Phil that he should have a party, she also suggested the Chinese restaurant because it has discounts “if you go on Thursdays.” |
| David: I wonder why it’s only Thursdays? |
| Kellie: I don’t know. If you call the restaurant, maybe they will tell you. We call these sentences “conditional if clauses”. |
| David: Because they use the conjunction “if”? |
| Kellie: Yes. And because it is a sentence where A will happen, but only if B happens too. So, you can find out the reason for the Thursday discount, but you have to call them. In that sentence, it’s highly likely that if you asked they would answer, so we use “if” plus a simple present form verb, and then “will”. |
| David: “If you call the restaurant, maybe they will tell you.” The simple present is “call” and in the second clause there was a “will”. |
| Kellie: Yes. Here’s another one. If they go to the restaurant, they will eat Chinese food. |
| David: “Go” is the simple present. It’s also very likely as it is a Chinese restaurant! |
| Kellie: Yeah, it’s a safe bet! |
Outro |
| David: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Kellie: Bye. |
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