Ronnie: SHOPPING

Oct 272014

When you are in an English-speaking country, you will have to go to a store. You will have to shop. Maybe you LIKE to shop! But people at shops and stores are very busy. They speak very quickly. They speak so quickly that it can be really hard to understand what they are saying. In this practical English lesson, I will teach you some of the common expressions and phrases you will hear when you are shopping. Most importantly, you will learn how these phrases are actually said by native speakers, so that you will understand when you hear them. Watch, then go to the supermarket or mall and finally understand what the cashiers are saying to you!

Learn Real English – SHOPPING video

_______Show Transcript______

Hello. Do you need help with your listening skills in English? I think you may do. Today, I’m going to teach you how to improve your listening skills. But it’s going to be fun because you’re going to do it when you go shopping. Who likes shopping? Good. Okay. Shopping. Wow, I’m so excited.

So you’re going to go shopping. You’re going to improve your listening skills, and — three in one today. It’s on sale — you’re going to learn how to understand all those native speakers. So crazy. Don’t understand.

So if you go shopping or you actually buy something, you have to go to a cashier. Or if you’re going shopping for food, you’re going to go to the checkout. Now, in my city of Toronto, our lovely government has put a five-cent tax on a simple plastic bag. So if I want a bag, I now have to pay five cents. Now, you might be thinking to yourself, “Ronnie. Five cents?” And I say, “Yes. Five cents. One nickel. There’s a beaver on it. I’m not going to give the government five cents. It’s my five cents. I will put things in my pocket and carry it in my shirt before I give someone five cents.” Yes. Yes. I am that cheap.

So when you go shopping, especially at a grocery store in Toronto, they’re going to ask you this question. They’re going to say, “Doya wanna bag?” “What? Yes. Yes. Sure. I don’t know. Okay.” “Jim bag?” “Jim bag? I’m not Jim. What? Hang on. What?” You have no idea what this person said to you, and they’re standing there like — what’s happening? So I know, probably, automatically, you would say, “Yes.” Five cents right out of your pocket — gone. Maybe you need five bags. That, ladies and gentlemen, is 25 cents. You get more of those, that’s one dollar. That’s a lot of money for Ronnie. So what they really are saying to you — but they speak so quickly, and they are native speakers — is “Do you want a bag”? Or, “Do you need a bag?” But, of course, they don’t say, “Do you need a bag? Do you want a bag?” They’re going to say this, “Doya wanna bag?” “Doya wanna bag?” Your turn. “Doya wanna bag?” You say, “No. I brought my own bag, thank you.” Or they might use the verb “need”. It’s the same idea, except instead of saying “wanna”, they’re going to say “needa”. So they’re going to say, “Doya needa bag?” “Doya needa bag?” “Do you need a bag?” No. They say, “Doya needa bag?” You try. “Doya needa bag?”

So first step is done. Now, at this point, if I were you, I would just want to get out of the store with my beautiful cupcakes and eat them. But no. They’re going to ask you more questions that you don’t know the answer to and hope that you can just buy things on the Internet. They’re going to ask you — because they’re very nosy — “Do you have airmiles?” “Do you have an Optimum card?” “Do you have a points cards?” “Do you have a Sobeys card?” “Do you have a Target card?” “Do you have a Sears card?” “What? What? What?”

So, “do you” — that you can either say “doya”, or really, really fast, “juya”. So it’s going to sound like this, “juya”. So they might say to you, “Juya have airmiles?” “Juya hav. Juya hav.” So we actually take out the H. You say, “jav”.

“Jav airmiles?” Airmiles is a points card — it has an airplane on it — that if you buy enough products at one store or various stores, you can, by some stroke of imagination and luck — fly on an airplane for free. I don’t have enough points to do this because I always forget my stupid card. And they say, “Jav airmiles”? And I say, “Yes.” So they’re waiting for me to — I’m like, “I don’t have it here. I do have one, though.” So pretty frustrating for me.

An “Optimum card” — there’s a really big, huge, supermarket that’s actually a drugstore in Ontario called “Shoppers Drug Mart”. It has everything. I understand in most countries a drugstore only has drugs. Our Shoppers Drug Mart has everything: cosmetics, food, snacks, cleaning supplies, toilet paper — everything you want right there, except for drugs.