Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast
Number 34. This is English as a Second Language
Podcast Number 34. I'm Jeff McQuillan coming
to you from the Center for Educational Development
in Los Angeles, California. Visit our website
at www .eslpod .com for more information on this
podcast. Today's topic is going to the cafe.
Let's get started. favorite hangouts is a cafe
near where I live called Bolivar in Santa Monica.
It's only five minutes away and it's never too
busy to find a table. Sometimes it can be bustling,
but that's usually just in the morning during
rush hour or at lunchtime. The owners are from
Venezuela and always have some cool music playing
in the background. Yesterday, I decided to take
my New York Times and my laptop and kill a few
hours there. I ordered the usual as a regular
The folks there know I want a vanilla latte with
a double shot of espresso. Hold the whipped cream.
Sometimes I'll order a coffee cake if I'm feeling
a little hungry. The cafe also has a soup and
sandwich menu you can order off of. Cafes are
great for people watching. Sometimes, I just
sit and watch the people come and go. You get
all types at this café. Yesterday, for example,
a mother comes in with her three daughters, and
one of the little girls orders a latte. Well,
this being Los Angeles, you have your typical
mix of screenwriters, out -of -work actors, and
various Hollywood wannabes. They make for a colorful
mix most of the time. Me? I just sit and read
my paper. I'm no actor. But someday I would like
to direct In talking about Cafe living or spending
time at a cafe I said that it was one of my favorite
hangouts a hangout is a place where you spend
time remember the verb to hang out is an informal
expression meaning to spend time somewhere usually
relaxing not working I said that this cafe where
I like to hang out is near where I live To say
it's near where I live is the same to say it's
near me. I could have said it's near to where
I live. There's really no difference between
those expressions. This particular cafe that
I like to go to is only five minutes away. When
talking about how the distance between two things,
especially in a city like Los Angeles, we tend
to talk about the time rather than the miles
because there's so much traffic that it's better
to think about how long it takes. So I say it's
five minutes away, meaning it will take five
minutes from my house to get or to arrive at
the cafe. I said that sometimes the cafe can
be bustling. To be bustling means to be very
busy, to have lots of people coming in and out.
This usually happens during rush hour or the
time when people are going to work or coming
back from work to home or at lunch time. Lunch
time is of course in the U .S. around noon, 12
noon, and we use the expression lunch time or
dinner time. That's all one word, lunch time,
meaning the time we eat lunch. Yesterday when
I went to the cafe, I was going to kill a few
hours there. To kill a few hours or to kill time,
to kill a day which means to spend it doing relaxing
enjoyable things often but mostly it means to
use up that time to waste the time not to spend
it very productively not to be working I'm going
to kill a few hours at the mall means I'm going
to go to the shopping mall, spend a few hours,
but not work very hard or do anything very important.
I said that when I ordered my drink at the cafe,
I ordered the usual. When someone says, I'll
have the usual, that means I'll order what I
usually get. This is an expression. That's very
closely related to another word. I used which
was a regular When you say I'm a regular at this
cafe that means I go to this cafe all the time
I go there regularly and The people there know
me So when I come in they know what I want I
want the usual what I usually order I said I
usually order a latte a latte is you probably
know a coffee drink with milk I get mine with
a double shot of espresso a shot of something
is a small amount we use this term for espresso
a type of coffee. We also use it for alcohol.
I'll have a shot of alcohol means I'll have a
couple of ounces, a small amount of alcohol.
Usually in bars they have shot glasses. These
are small little glasses that have a few ounces
of alcohol that they use, a shot glass. But here
I wasn't drinking alcohol. I was just drinking
coffee, and I told them in making my latte To
hold the whipped cream to hold something when
you're at a restaurant or a cafe Means to do
not means do not add it do not put it on there
So if you go to a restaurant and the menu says
that the hamburger that you're going to order
has lettuce and tomatoes and mayonnaise, and
you don't want the mayonnaise, you say, I'll
have the hamburger, but hold the mayonnaise,
meaning don't put any mayonnaise on it. I mentioned
that I was hungry. If I get hungry, I sometimes
order a coffee cake. A coffee cake is just a
pastry. That you can get at a cafe looks a little
like a cake small This cafe that I go to has
a soup and sandwich menu that expression soup
and sandwich Means they of course carry different
soups and they have different sandwiches but
it also implies that they don't have a regular
kitchen a regular place to serve hot meals. So
you can have a soup and sandwich place, a soup
and sandwich cafe, but you won't be able to order,
for example, a steak or mashed potatoes or any
sort of formal or more difficult to prepare food.
I said that cafes were great for people watching.
To people watch, as you probably know, means
to watch, just to sit and to watch the people
go by, walking on the street or coming in and
going out of the cafe. At this cafe, I said that
you get all types. That means you get all types
of people. I later said that this being Los Angeles,
You have a typical mix of screenwriters, out
-of -work actors, and various Hollywood wannabes.
That first expression, this being, means related
to Los Angeles, or what you would expect from
Los Angeles. This being September, the children
are going back to school, meaning means this
is September so we expect that the children will
go back to school. The kind of people you see
at this cafe are some of them are screenwriters.
A screenwriter is a person who writes a script
or the text of a movie or a television program.
We call those screenwriters. An actor you already
know, an out -of -work actor, is an unemployed
actor, someone who doesn't have a job right now.
And finally I used an informal term wannabes.
A wannabe or is someone who wants to be something
but isn't. So if you want to be a famous actor
but all you can get The only job you can get
is working at a cafe in Hollywood. Well, you're
a wannabe. You want to be something that you're
not. It's somewhat of a negative expression.
I also said at the end of the discussion, I said,
me, I just sit and read my paper. Notice that
this is grammatically incorrect. I should just
say, I sit and read my paper, not me, I sit and
read my paper. But in informal expressions, in
informal English, we often, as native speakers,
use things that aren't necessarily grammatically
correct. It just means here that I'm talking
about what I do. I like to watch television at
night. Me, I like to take a walk in the evenings.
It's usually when you are comparing yourself
to someone else. You're distinguishing yourself.
You're saying what is different about you. Finally,
I ended the discussion by saying that I'm no
actor, but someday, would like to direct This
is something of a joke here in Los Angeles Because
to direct means to be the director of a movie
or the director of a television show The director
is the person in charge He's the boss or she's
the boss So to say well, I'd like to direct means
I'd like to be in charge of a movie or a TV show
Well, I'm not in charge of a movie or a TV show,
but I do appreciate all of you listening to our
ESL podcast and ask that you email us. Our address
is eslpod at eslpod .com. I'm Dr. Jeff McQuillan
from Los Angeles, California. We'll see you next
time. ESL podcast. ESL podcast is produced by
the Center for Educational Development in Los
Angeles, California. This podcast is copyright
2005.