Money | English learning podcast Conversation | Episode 4

[Music] hello English Learners and welcome to another great podcast with English pod my name is Marco and I'm Erica and today we have another really great lesson for you Elementary lesson that's right and it's another lesson about money we have no money here at English pod we are in debt here in debt yes okay in Deb so what does that mean why don't you tell us if I owe you money I'm in debt in debt in fact I think I am in debt to you you owe me 250 for a Coke Zero today that's true

all right okay so let's get started let's take a look at our vocabulary preview vocabulary preview we have two words today in our vocabulary preview and the first one is recession recession recession recession so recession everyone's talking about about it right now and what does it mean I don't know that's your job I don't know I really don't know why don't you tell me Erica cuz this isn't my topic for today okay recession is a period of time when the economy of a country is doing badly in a recession the country is making less money

that's true so maybe we can give a few examples of things that happen in a recession to just show the meaning of this a little bit better right so for example in a recession many people lose their jobs because uh companies might close or go bankrupt exactly and also people start spending less money that's true and the stock prices of companies um fall pretty yeah they they fall a lot hey yeah yeah and that's what's going on now in the United States very true Okay so let's take a look at our second word and it

has to do with recession it's broke broke broke I'm broke broke it means that you have no money you're broke I am broke right so these are our two words for vocabulary preview today and you're going to hear them in dialogue this dialogue is about a man who is in debt he's broke let's find out what happens [Music] hello I'm here to see Mr Corleone right this way [Music] sir charie what can I do for you Mr Corone I'm really really sorry to trouble you but I need your help anything for you Charlie your father

was like a brother to me well sir you see this recession has hit me pretty hard I lost my job and I'm in a lot of debt I see yeah you know I've got credit card bills car payments I've got to pay my mortgage and on top of all that I have to pay my son's college tuition so you're asking for a loan well I just thought maybe you could help me out what at a time like this I'm broke too you know you're not the only one who's been hit by the recession I lost

half my money and the stock market crashed go on [Music] get okay so that was a bit unexpected yeah that was certainly strange he didn't go to the bank to ask for money did he no he went to the Mob and the mob is broke oh no you know it's a bad recession when even the mob runs out of money all right so why don't we start by looking at our language takeaway language takeaway all right so for today's language takeaway we have four words from the dialogue which we think are really important yes so

why don't we start with the first one loan loan loan loan so Erica tell us about Al loan what is a loan okay when you borrow money you get a loan a loan yes not to be confused with alone like by myself no so this is l o a n loan right okay great let's take a look at our second word mortgage mortgage mortgage mortgage now this is very common I'm sure many of you have mortgages what is a mortgage a mortgage is a type of loan basically it's a loan that helps you to buy

a house a house or a property yeah so this is a funny word I mean there's this strange mortgage with a t yeah it has a t in it but you don't pronounce it you say mortgage morgage so not Mort morgage not mortgage morgage morgage yeah I had trouble spelling that one for this lesson so I learned it well now okay let's move to our third word today hit me pretty hard hit me pretty hard hit me pretty hard hit me pretty hard I think we have some examples that will help us understand this phrase

example one my divorce hit me pretty hard I'm so depressed example two this cold has hit me pretty hard I've been in bed for a week example three the news of Fluffy's death hit me pretty hard I've been crying for days okay so that's a lot clear yeah great why don't we take a look at our last word for language takeaway tuition tuition tuition tuition so this is the money you have to pay to your school so that you can study there right um usually it's in college right or university yeah but sometimes in some

countries you have to pay tuition for public school okay great so it's time to listen to our dialogue again and it's going to be slower so we can listen to all the words that we just talked about [Music] hello I'm here to see Mr Corleone right this way sir Charlie what can I do for you Mr Corleone I'm really sorry to trouble you but I need your help anything for you Charlie your father was like a brother to me well sir you see this recession has hit me pretty hard I lost my job and I'm

in a lot of debt I see yeah you know I've got credit card bills car payments I've got to pay my mortgage and on top of all that I have to pay my son's college tuition so you're asking for a loan well I just thought maybe you could help me out what at a time like this I'm broke too you know you're not the only one who has been hit by the recession I lost half my money in the stock market crash go on get out of [Music] here okay so I think a lot of

the key language we just talked about is a lot more clear now but you know I also noticed some really interesting phrases in this dialogue yes I did too so let's start with fluency Builder fluency Builder fluency Builder is a tool that we use to help you sound more native right so you can sound more natural when you're speaking so we take a really common phrase and we show you some great natural ways of expressing that same idea exactly and today we have three of these examples let's start with the first one so this phrase

we use when we want to ask somebody can I help you what can I do for you what can I do for you yeah that sounds really really polite and really natural right so instead of saying can I help you or I don't know what do you need we can just say what can I do for you exactly great so let's move to our second phrase this phrase we use when we need something when we want to say I'm sorry to bother you or I'm sorry to interrupt Okay let's listen I'm really sorry to trouble

you I'm really sorry to trouble you I'm sorry to trouble you this phrase might be a little bit more difficult to understand how it's used um but we've got some examples yes so let's listen example one can I trouble you for a moment I just need you to sign this form for me example two I'm sorry to trouble you but may I go home early today example three can I trouble you for a pen mine is not working anymore okay so now let's take a look at our last phrase for fluency Builder on top of

all that on top of all that on top of all that this is a really useful phrase Marco how would you use it well for example today I lost my job oh no my car got stolen oh my God and on top of all that my girlfriend broke up with me that was a terrible day it was but don't worry you can use this phrase also in a positive way that's true you could say so today was a really great day it was my birthday and all my friends came to visit me and on top

of all that I got a million presents that is a great day so you can use on top of all that in this way it's like and also and also yeah yeah so on top of all that so we are ready to listen to our dialogue a third time we can hear all the words that we just talked about and all the phrases and you'll definitely be able to understand a lot better [Music] now hello I'm here to see Mr coronia Right This Way sir [Music] tell what can I do for you Mr Corone I'm

really sorry to trouble you but I need your help anything for you Charlie your father was like a brother to me well sir you see this recession has hit me pretty hard I lost my job and I'm in a lot of debt I see yeah you know I've got credit card bills car payment I've got to pay my mortgage and on top of all that I have to pay my son's college tuition so you're asking for a loan well I just thought maybe you could help me out what at a time like this I'm broke

too you know you're not the only one who's been hit by the recession I lost half my money in the stock market crash go on today's dialogue was all about being in debt right yes and and different people have different attitudes or different viewpoints on being in debt yes that's true for example in North America and in Canada it's a really common thing yeah it's actually almost good to be in debt it's more than good it's necessary to be in debt that's right unless you have a history of being in debt and regularly paying off

your debts you can't actually borrow money you can't get a mortgage you can't get a a car loan so you can buy buy a new car right that's called a credit history so you must have a good credit history in order to be able to like you say buy a car or buy a house yeah and you know the funny thing is um when I was in university maybe I was 18 years old the first thing that happened at University was you know Banks came to our University and started offering you credit cards so you

can get a credit card when you're 18 no problem and not only do they offer you credit cards they give you like free gifts if you sign up for a credit card I know they really want you to have a credit card of course they want you to spend more money that's the trick yeah but you know what it's totally different in Europe for example I used to live in Switzerland and there they're really careful with debt like it's a bad thing to be in debt well yeah I mean it's bad to be in debt

definitely for example if I want to have a credit card in Switzerland and let's say I want to have a limit of um 500 Franks that I can spend every month I need to put in my bank account 700 Franks before I can even spend that credit card money so it's totally opposite from North America well yeah I mean in North America it's crazy the way that people are in debt and it's showing now with the recession right yeah that's true so everyone be sure to handle your money carefully don't be in debt unless you

really really have to Good Financial advice from English pod English pod Financial advising service okay everyone thanks for listening now remember if you have any questions or comments please visit our website at English pod.com right Erica and I are always there to answer all the questions and we really like to receive comments and suggestions from all our users so be sure to go and leave us your comments okay Marco it's been fun yes it has but sadly we have to go now so until next time it's goodbye bye [Music] the English pod audio review listen

to the meaning then say the vocabulary word disturb or bother trouble a period of time when the economy of a country is bad recession had a strong negative effect on me hit me pretty hard the amount of money you owe to a person Bank company Etc debt besides that in addition to on top of all that not have any money broke let let's try that faster the amount of money you owe to a person Bank company Etc debt besides that in addition to on top of all that disturb or bother trouble not have any money

broke disturb or bother trouble besides that in addition to on top of all that had a strong negative effect on me hit me pretty hard a period of time when the economy of a country is bad recession not have any money broke had a strong negative effect on me hit me pretty hard the amount of money you owe to a person Bank company Etc debt a period of time when the economy of a country is bad recession now say the word and hear it in a sentence trouble can I trouble you for a moment I

just need you to sign this for me recession the recession is causing many businesses to close down hit me pretty hard my divorce hit me pretty hard I'm so depressed debt my uncle just bought a new house and now he's in a lot of debt on top of all that my car was stolen yesterday and on top of all that my house burned down broke I spent all my money on a new TV so now I'm broke recession the recession is causing many businesses to close down hit me pretty hard my divorce hit me pretty

hard I'm so depressed on top of all that my car was stolen yesterday and on top of all that my house burned down [Music]