ESL 257: Finding a book at a bookstore.

Learn how to find a book at a bookstore. The episode is about a customer walking into the bookstore and asking one of the employees where certain kinds of books are.

Dialogue:

Clerk: Can I help you find something?

Adrian: Yes. Can you tell me where the non- fiction books are?

Clerk: Are you looking for hardbacks or paperbacks?

Adrian: I’m not sure. I think hardbacks.

Clerk: Well, the non-fiction new releases are at the front of the store. The non-fiction section is behind the fiction shelves on your right. The hardbacks are on the top shelves and the paperbacks on the bottom ones. Is there a specific book I can help you find?

Adrian: I’m looking for an old book and I’m not sure of the title. It’s something like, “The Literary Crisis.”

Clerk: Do you know the name of the author?

Adrian: No, I don’t. I saw it mentioned online and I actually wrote down the ISBN, but I can’t find it now.

Clerk: Well, if it’s an old book, it may be out- of-print, but let me look it up in our system. If it was a bestseller at one time, there’s a chance that it’s still in print. Let me check…Okay, here it is. It was published in 1982, and unfortunately, it is out-of-print. You may want to try a used bookstore, like Bookwoman’s down the street.

Adrian: Thanks, I’ll give them a try. I’m also looking for a biography. Can you tell me where they are?
Clerk: Sure. The biographies are behind the reference section over there. Let me know if you need any more help.

Adrian: Thanks. I appreciate it.

Sentences:

Can I help you find something?

Yes. Can you tell me where the non-fiction books are?

ŸCan you tell me / Could you tell me..: is nicer way to ask question, it’s more polite.

Ÿnon-fiction books: are the books that they are true. The opposite of non-fiction is fiction.

Ÿfiction books: are imaginary, they are not real.

Are you looking for hardbacks or paperbacks?

ŸA hardback book: is a book that has a hard cover, one that does not bend easily.

ŸA paperback book: is the book that has a flexible paper on the cover, so the cover of the book is made of a soft, flexible paper. It isn’t hard.

I’m not sure. I think hardbacks.

Well, the non-fiction new releases are at the front of the store. The non-fiction section is behind the fiction shelves on your right. The hardbacks are on the top shelves and the paperbacks on the bottom ones. Is there a specific book I can help you find?

Ÿnew releases books: are the books that have recently been published. They became available very recently.

I’m looking for an old book and I’m not sure of the title. It’s something like, “the Literary Crisis”?

Ÿtitle : is the name of the book or a magazine or an article.

Do you know the name of the author?

No, I don’t. I saw it mentioned online and I actually wrote down the ISBN, but I can’t find it now.

ŸISBN: International Standard Book Number. This is a number that is given a book when it’s published. It’s a unique number; meaning it’s only for that book, no other book has that same number. This is the number that the bookstore and the library use to identify, locate and order books

Well, if it’s an old book, it may be out-of-print, but let me look it up in our system. If it was a bestseller at one time, there’s a chance it’s still in print. Let me check. Okay, here it is. It was published in 1982, and unfortunately, it is out-of-print. You may want to try a used bookstore, like Bookwoman’s down the street.

Ÿout-of-print: means the company that published the book is not making new copies of the book. It isn’t in print any more.

Ÿto look something up: means to search for something. Usually in a computer, a reference book, the book that gives you information about things. You’re trying to find something, usually a fact or a piece of information about the book on their computer.

Ÿa bestseller: a very popular book.

Ÿto publish: it was made, produced and then sold to the public, people who want to buy the book.

Ÿused; old, second hand.

Thanks, I’ll give them a try. I’m also looking for a biography. Can you tell me where they are?

Ÿto give something a try: means to do something to see if it will work, try to do something to see if you like it.

Sure. The biographies are behind the reference section over there. Let me know if you need any more help.

Ÿreference section: are places where they have books such as dictionaries, or encyclopedias . This would be a place where you sell the books that have lots of different kinds of information about a specific topic. In the library they have the reference section where have dictionaries, encyclopedias, telephone books and often books that you can’t take out of the library, you must use them in the library; those are sometimes called reference books.

Thanks. I appreciate it.

ESL 256: Looking for ideas

Dialogue:
Sam: What’s the matter?
Ling: I’m trying to jot down some ideas for the meeting tomorrow but I’m drawing a blank.
Sam: When I’ve got a block, I usually step away from it for a while and come back to it later. Then I can look at it with a fresh perspective.
Ling: I don’t have time to take a break. I need to come up with something quick or I’ll have to go into that meeting empty-handed. I can’t let Danielle show me up again. At the last meeting, all of the department heads loved her ideas and they’re starting to think she walks on water.
Sam: Well, I don’t think it helps to sit around worrying about it. Nothing will come to you if you work yourself up too much.
Ling: You’re right. I’m too wound up to think straight. It’s like my brain is in a fog.
Sam: Come on. We’ll go take a quick walk. I’m sure that’ll do the trick. If it doesn’t, I’ll help you work on your resume
Ling: Gee, thanks. I’ve known all along that you’re after my job.
Sam: Me? After your job? I wouldn’t touch your job with a 10-foot pole. I couldn’t take the pressure. I prefer being a lowly employee and giving you a hard time everyday.
Ling: Thanks a lot. Between you and Danielle, my days here are numbered.
Sam: Come on. Let’s go before you get even more depressed!

Sentences:

What’s the matter?

I’m trying to jot down some ideas for the meeting tomorrow but I’m drawing a blank.

• to jot down something: means to write something down quickly. usually it’s a note, a small message to yourself or to someone else. Someone may call you or give you their telephone number, you would jot it down, you would write it down quickly as they were telling you.

• to draw a blank : means not to be able to think of a good idea or an answer to something.

When I’ve got a block, I usually step away from it for a while and come back to it later. Then I can look at it with a fresh perspective.

• to have a block: means you are unable to think of something.
• to step away from something: means to stop what you’re doing and to work on something else for a short period of time and then go back again and work on it.
• a fresh perspective: a new or creative way to look at something. you can say fresh vegetables means the vegetables are not old.

I don’t have time to take a break. I need to come up with something quick or I’ll have to go into that meeting empty-handed. I can’t let Danielle show me up again. At the last meeting, all of the department heads loved her ideas and they’re starting to think she walks on water.

• empty-handed: means unprepared, without having anything. You may go to someone’s party and your friend says to you: “Don’t go empty-handed”, meaning you should bring something for other people to eat or drink at the party.

• to show someone up: means to do something better than someone else. It usually means to make the other person look bad by doing something better than them. It’s typically a negative thing to say about a person.

• the department heads: the bosses, the leaders of the department

• to walk on water: means to be perfect, to be very good, to do everything perfectly, to do something that is a miracle (something that is extradinary)

Well, I don’t think it helps to sit around worrying about it. Nothing will come to you if you work yourself up too much.

• Nothing will come to you…: means you won’t think of anything

• to work yourself up: to become very worried or anxious about something, to think about something so much that you become very nervous about it.

You’re right. I’m too wound up to think straight. It’s like my brain is in a fog.

• to be wound up: means to be nervous, to be anxious, to be stressed out, to be very stressed about something.

• to be in a fog: to be confused, to be unclear, you can’t think straight, you can’t see the problem correctly.

Come on, we’ll go take a quick walk. I’m sure that will do the trick. If it doesn’t, I’ll help you to work on your resume.

• to do the trick: to do something that is supposed to do, to work to be successful.

• resume: is a list of your experience that you use for a interview when you need to get a new job.

Gee, thanks. I’ve known all along that you’re after my job.

• has know all along: means she has known for a long time

• after someone’s job: means to want someone else’s job, to try to get another person’s job.

Me? After your job? I wouldn’t touch your job with a 10-foot pole. I couldn’t take the pressure. I prefer being a lowly employee and giving you a hard time everyday.

• I wouldn’t touch ….. with a 10-foot pole.: means I don’t want to be involved at all. I don’t want anything to do that. I don’t want to be close to this thing.

• pressure: means the very stressful feeling of having to do something. you’re anxious or nervous because you have to do all these work.
• to be under pressure.

• lowly: means not very important, not in a high position

• to give someone a hard time: means to make jokes about someone, to make things difficult for someone by making fun of them, by telling jokes about them.

Thanks a lot. Between you and Danielle, my days here are numbered.

• to have one’s days numbered: means you will not be here very long that you’re going to lose your job soon.

Come on. Let’s go before you get even more depressed.

ESL 255 Questions about a product

Dialogue:

Paul: Could you help me? I have a few questions about this computer printer.
Clerk: Sure. I’ll try.
Paul: What I’m wondering is whether this machine can be used as a copier as well as a printer.
Clerk: Yeah, it can. This is a multifunction machine. It can be used as a printer, copier, and a fax machine.
Paul: Can you show me how that works?
Clerk: Well, it’s pretty straightforward. Just hook it up to your computer and you can use it like any other printer. If you want to make copies, just put your document on the glass or in the feeder and press this button.
Paul: That seems pretty simple. How do I use it as a fax machine?
Clerk: Just put your document in the feeder like you would for copying, but instead of pushing the “copy” button, press the “fax” button. Make sure it’s hooked up to a phone line, of course.
Paul: Okay. I think I’ve got it. Does this model come with a warranty?
Clerk: All of the machines made by this company have a one-year warranty against defects. If there’s a problem with it, the manufacturer will repair or replace it.
Paul: That’s good. If I change my mind or decide it’s not what I want, can I return it?
Clerk: You can return the item for an exchange or a refund within 30 days.
Paul: Is there a restocking fee?
Clerk: No, we don’t have a restocking fee. Just make sure you have your receipt.
Paul: I think those are all the questions I had. I appreciate your help.
Clerk: You’re welcome. Let me know if you have other questions.

Sentences:

Could you help me? I have a few questions about this computer printer.

• a printer: is a machine that puts an image or words that on your computer on a piece of paper.

Sure, I’ll try.

What I’m wondering is whether this machine can be used as a copier as well as a printer.

• What I’m wondering is: “I want to know. I would like to know. I’m curious about something.” Here it is a polite way of asking something, instead of saying “Can this machine be used as a copier as well as a printer? ”
• a copier: is a machine that makes a copy in a piece of paper that gives you another piece of paper with the same information on it.

Yeah, it can. This is a multifunction machine. It can be used as a printer, copier and a fax machine.

• Multifunction: means something can do more than one thing. It’s a common word that we used when we talk about a machine that can be a copier and a printer and something else.
• Multi: means many.
• a fax machine: is something you use to send an image or some words on a piece of paper to a machine somewhere else and that machine will make a copy of that page.

Can you show me how that works?

• Can you show me…..: means please show / tell me. Please demonstrate it.
• Can you show me where the bathroom is? I can’t find it. – you ask them to point you or to take you to where the bathroom is.

Well, it’s pretty straightforward. Just hook it up to your computer and you can use it like any other printer. If you want to make copies, just put the document on the glass or in the feeder and press this button.

• Straightforward: means easy to understand, not difficult, not confusing, basic.
• means: It’s easy to use. You don’t have a problem with it.
• to hook something up: means usually you connect two machines together or one machine to another machine using cables.
• Feeder: is the part of a copier or a printer or a fax machine that holds the paper so it enters automatically into the machine.

That seems pretty simple. How do I use it as a fax machine?

Just put the document in the feeder like you would for copying, but instead of pushing the copy button, press the fax button. Make sure it’s hooked up to a phone line, of course.

Okay, I think I’ve got it. Does this model come with a warranty?

• to come with: mean something that it includes, that it has. Here means it’s included in the price of the machine or the purchase of the machine.
• warranty: is an agreement from the company that sells you the product to repair it if something doesn’t work. So if the machine breaks, it stops working, you can bring it back and they will fix it.
• It’s under warranty.: means it’s still in the time that it covered or included in your warranty.

All of the machines made by this company have a one-year warranty against defects. If there is a problem with it, the manufacturer will repair or replace it.

That’s good. If I change my mind or decide it’s not what I want, can I return it?

• to change your mind : means you decide to do something different.

You can return the item for an exchange or a refund within 30 days.

• exchange: means you give the machines back and you get a different one. Maybe the same machine but the new model of the machine.
• refund: mean to give money back.

Is there a restocking fee?

• restocking fee: when you buy a machine and you bring it back to the store, sometimes the store doesn’t give you all of your money back. They keep 10% or 15% as a restocking fee, meaning they have to do something to make the machine can be sellable again, can be able to sell the machine again.

No, we don’t have a restocking fee. Just make sure you have your receipt.

I think those are all the questions I had. I appreciate your help.

• I appreciate your help.: It’s a polite way to say thank you.

You’re welcome. Let me know if you have any other questions.

ESL: English Café #78

This episode was so long that it took me a lot of time to finish it. When I was taking the notes from it, there were a couple of times that I really wanted to stop and gave it up, because the speaker seemed nagging all the time. And that made me wonder if it’s worthy to do so. But after I had done this task, I felt to be pleasure of doing this. I really hope that’ll do some help.

Topics:

• Daylight saving time: is popular in some countries, most states in the Unite States or in Europe, but not so popular in many countries in Asia.

Daylight saving time is when we move our clocks forward or backward depending on the time of the year in order to take advantage of or be able to use the amount of sunlight in the day. In northern countries, the day is very long during the summer time and it’s shorter in wintertime. When we say the day is long or short we mean the number of hours that the sun is shining, that there is light outside.

One of the things that happens in the early twentieth century was that some governments including many in the United States decided to change the clock in the spring by moving it forward an hour, so that you would not be sleeping through the time when the sun was out in the summer time.

We have the expression “Spring ahead”. The verb “to spring” means to move forward. So to remind people to change their clocks we have the expression “spring ahead” and “fall back”. Because in the fall we change our clocks back an hour in most states in US. To fall back means to move back. So daylight saving time is a way that helps us save energy and makes us spend less money because you’re up when the sun is out and you’re sleeping when the sun is not out.

There are many people dislike the daylight saving time. First of all, it’s very confusing. Some people forget to change their clocks. Normally the changes takes place in the US, and in the spring we move forward. This year for the first year we’re moving forward on the second Sunday of March. This is two weeks earlier than we used to do it. And we are falling back on the first Sunday in Nov. This is little later than we used to fall back. The US Congress change the law and the terms when the daylight saving time begins and ends. There has been some problems created by this, however, because the computer software was programmed to have daylight saving time in the US on the old days. So this year Microsoft and Macintosh, the two big computer operating systems have to make some changes in their software to adjust the new timing.

I’ve said that most states in the US have this daylight saving time but there are some states that do not follow the daylight saving time schedule. As we talked about before on the Café, although the US has a federal government, the national government, the individual state governments, the 50 states governments, have a lot of power, more power than individual states or provinces in other countries typically. And one of the things that the state can decide whether they want the daylight saving time in their states. Some states such as Arizona or Hawaii don’t have daylight saving time. This cause even more confusion because on some months, during some months of the year, California and Arizona have the same time when it’s 7 in Los angles, it’s 7 in Arizona. In other month there’s an hour difference. So depending on the time of the year you have to know what time it is in different states. They give you even more confusing when I lived in Arizona, I heard this story about one of the native American groups, we would call them tribes, on their lands decided to have daylight saving time, unlike the rest of the state. Native American what we called reservations, their areas and lands that they own have their own governments that is sometimes separate from or can separate powers from the state’s government. They can decide apparently whether they have daylight saving time. And this is a problem because you could be traveling in the same state and depending on the part of the state you are in, you could be in a daylight saving time or not. So be careful when you’re driving through Arizona, you never know what time it is.

• March Madness: is the name informally that we gave to the national basketball tenement, the national college basketball tenement. So these are universities that are playing against each other for the national championship in college basketball. This is extremely popular event every year and millions of people go and watch the games than watch them on television.

These are all amateur players (mean that they are not getting pay for it). You have professional athletes, people who play in professional sport leagues and you have the college leagues, and these are students at different universities.

The organization that runs or organizes the tenement is called the NCAA, which stands for the National Collegiate Athletic Association. (Collegiate means relating to college or university, and the college and university usually the same thing in the US English).

The March Madness is the tenements that begin in March with 65 basketball teams from 65 different universities. That play in a tenement that last precisely 3 weeks and they play in all sorts of different cities, depending on where the team is located. The entire country is breaking up into (means “divided into”) 4 regions. Each region has a part of the tenements. This is what we called a single illumination tenement. the term “single illumination” means that if you lost one game, that’s it, you are out of the tenement. In some tenements you get to play twice. Even if you lose once you can try and continue by play in different team. that would be called the double illumination tenement.

one of the reason that the basketball tenement is popular even with people who don’t like basketball or don’t like to watch basketball is because many people like to bet on the games. Usually this happens at your work place, at your office if you work for a company that has ten or twenty or thousands people. Someone will organize, called office pool. The office pool is where everyone tries to figure out who’s going to be the champagne. So you fill out a piece of paper that has all of the games on it, and you try to guess who’s going to be the champagne. And if you are correct then you win the prize, usually the prize is the totally amount of money that people bet. so let’s say it costs 5 dollars to be the part of the office pool, you pay 5 dollars and ten other people pay 5 dollars. And the one who is the most correct wins the 5o dollars. If you know about the teams or you like to watch the teams you may know what teams are favored to win. The team is favored to win means that people think they are going to win because they have a very good team. They may have won a lot of games already. If that is true, we’ll say that they have a good record or a winning record.

The games have different steps, different stages when they are only 16 teams left. That’s usually called the sweet 16 parts of the tenements. The term sweet refers to a party that a girl use to have when they turned to 16 years old. It’s not as common any more and it’s usually that sth at only very rich families still do for their daughters. But the name refers to when they are just 16 teams left in the tenements.

A tenement has quarterfinals, semifinals and finals. The finals are when there are just two teams left that they have beaten all of their opponents (opponents is the team you are playing). Before the finals you have semifinals. And those games when you have 4 teams left. Team A plays Team B. Team C plays Team D. and the winner of those two games goes into the finals. Before the semifinals you have the quarterfinals. So you have different parts of or different stages of the tenement.

When there is a team that no one expected to win, a team that is doing much better in the tenement than they may have done before the tenement, we sometimes call that a Cinderella team. The Cinderella team is the team that no one expected to win but is very successful in the tenement.

There are some schools that happen very successful for many years. The most successful team in NCAA is right here in Los angles, the university of California at Los angles, or what most people just called UCLA. UCLA has won more championships than any other universities in US. That is something that people often look at when they’re trying to determine who’s going to win. Other teams that have been very successful are the university of Kentucky, Indiana university, university of north Karolina and the private university called duke.

So if you enjoy basketball, this is an exciting time in American Basketball to watch the March Madness that is going on.

• to solve / to resolve:
• to solve sth: means to find the answer of sth, or to figure out the explanation for sth.
  We often use the expression “to solve a puzzle” or to solve a mystery. It means to find the answer.
  We also use this word in mathematics when we get the answers for the problem. You solve the problem. For example, If you have a party for your children, you may have some games, and one of the games maybe a puzzle. The puzzle is sth you ask the children to solve and whoever solves the puzzle wins the prize. Or you may have a problem, for example, in your kitchen, and you don’t know what the problem is, so you call a person who can help you. If it were a problem with sink, you would call a plumber that’s the person who fixes the sinks and toilets. And this plumber, you hope he will solve the problem, figure out what is wrong.

• to resolve: usually means to find the solution to a problem. Often in argument between two people who don’t agree. To resolve mean to come to agreement. You decide to come to agreement with these two people. It could be more people involved as well.
  Usually it’s for things that are negative matters when people disagree about things. For example, your neighbor has a dog, which makes noise all night, we would say he barks, and you can’t sleep. So you ask your neighbor to get rid of his dog and he doesn’t want to. Now you have this disagreement, we might call it dispute that you need to resolve.
  Resolution is a noun from the verb resolve. The noun from the verb to solve is solution. So you find the solution or you solve. You can find the resolution or you can resolve. They mean the same thing.

• smell good or to smell well:

Someone smells good.----mean that the person has a nice scent, which means that her body , clothes or hair she has, has a nice smell to it. It is sth that is pleasant to smell. When your girlfriend puts on perfume, you would say she smells good.

to smell well: means that the person is doing the smelling, and she can smell things very easily. She knows what’s she smelling. But you don’t hear that expression very often. It sounds a bit strange to say that a person smells well or touches well or tastes well. You can use it , however, for seeing and hearing. He sees well. He hears well. But you would not hear very often with the other senses. There are 5 senses, smell, taste, touch, sight and hearing. You will hear the word “well: with other words, for example, he cooks well, or he throws well. “Well” here means that the person does that action in a very good way or a very satisfactory way.

Have fun with your Enligh

(The article below comes from a blog which belongs to a guy from Shanghai. (you can look at Here ) It's actually a piece of comments in that blog. And when I read it, I totally agreed with his/her points on how to make you comfortable with a language. So I decide to post it here to let you read it. I hope it'll be useful for the people who are still struggling with the damn English, who are too worried about making mistakes and feel shy to speak or write in English, especially like us. So stop hesitating and begin to use whatever we can pick from English to express our thoughts and have fun with it. )

English is just a language, like Chinese is a language, Japanese is a language, French is a language and Swahili is a language. I don't think anyone has the right to boast just because he or she knows a language well, grew up with a certain language, or picked it up quickly. Languages exist because people need to express themselves and communicate. Let's not confuse the means with the end.

Sometimes I fear that I'm slowly turning into a "languageless person," meaning there's not a single language I feel completely comfortable with. I'm increasingly running into things I can't express quite well enough either in English or Chinese. I remember when I was younger, for a few years I didn't allow myself to read, speak, or think in Chinese at all, except when I talked on the phone with my parents. I was the only Chinese person at my school and eager to fit in. Over the years, however, I've come to appreciate Chinese more and more. Now I read Chinese news, watch Chinese TV, and check out Chinese books from Chinatown. It really is a very beautiful language, so is English, and so I'm sure of any other language in this world.

It's unfortunate that, at least when people of my generation were taught English, they really didn't try to make it fun. I know I learned English by cramming for TOEFL and GRE :), but I didn't *really* learn it until I allowed myself to feel comfortable with whatever English I knew and just used it (well, it was more like I was forced to).

so, guess my two cents on learning a language, if any, is the following--throw all your worries outta the window and just have fun with it. The hell with pronunciation and grammar!