M: Hello English learners! Welcome back to EnglishPod! My name is Marco. E: And I’m Erica. M: And today we’re bringing you another great lesson about appointments. E: That’s right. We’ve got an elementary lesson about canceling an appointment. M: It’s a really common situation… E: Uhu. M: Sometimes you have an appointment at the doctor’s or something. E: Or at work. M: And you have to cancel it. E: Yes, so we’re gonna learn some great language to help you cancel appointments today. Let’s go straight to the dialogue then. We’re going to be listening as Samantha and Angela have a phone conversation and Angela is trying to cancel an appointment. M: And it’s gonna be a little bit fast in the beginning, but when we come back, we will explain all the great vocabulary. A: Hello, Samantha speaking. B: Hi Samantha. This is Angela calling. A: Oh, hi Angela, what’s up? B: I’m just calling about our meeting today. I wonder, is it possible to reschedule our appointment in the afternoon? I have a bit of an emergency that I need to take care of. A: Let me see, it shouldn’t be too much of a prob- lem... B: I’m really sorry, I hope it doesn’t inconvenience you too much, it’s just this thing came up, and ... A: Angela, you know what, I can’t make it to our meeting, either. Why don’t we postpone it to to- morrow afternoon at the same time? B: Sounds great. See you tomorrow. C: Angela..Angela, look up! See that lady over there who is trying on a red leather jacket? Isn’t that Samantha? B: What? No wonder she told me she couldn’t make it to the meeting, oh, no, I think she saw me... M: Okay, we have some really interesting words that you’ve probably listened to in this dialogue, so… E: Uhu. M: Let’s start with “language takeaway”. Voice: Language takeaway. M: Today on language takeaway we’re brining you three words. Ah, Erica, what’s the first one? E: The first word is reschedule. M: Reschedule. E: Reschedule. M: Reschedule. E: When you reschedule an appointment, you… M: Change it for another day or time. E: Exactly. M: Great, the second word that we have is inconvenience. E: Inconvenience. M: Inconvenience. E: Inconvenience. M: So, to inconvenience someone is to… E: To make things not convenient for that person. M: Hehe. Alright. So, to make things a little bit difficult… E: Yeah. M: Or to make things a little bit, uh… E: Uncomfortable. M: Uncomfortable. E: Uhu. M: Inconvenience. E: And our third word is… M: Postpone. E: Postpone. M: Postpone. E: Postpone. We have some examples of the word postpone that will help you to understand its meaning a little bit better. Let’s listen. Voice: Example one. A: Since Robert is late again, we have to postpone the meeting. Voice: Example two. B: I’m sorry Simon, but your vacation has been postponed until next month. Voice: Example three. C: Unfortunately, the flight will be postponed. M: Okay, so, basically, postpone is to delay. E: That’s right. Make it at a latter time. M: At a latter time. E: Uhu. M: Okay, some great words there and, ah, we can listen to our dialogue a second time at a slower speed. A: Hello, Samantha speaking. B: Hi Samantha. This is Angela calling. A: Oh, hi Angela, what’s up? B: I’m just calling about our meeting today. I wonder, is it possible to reschedule our appointment in the afternoon? I have a bit of an emergency that I need to take care of. A: Let me see, it shouldn’t be too much of a prob- lem... B: I’m really sorry, I hope it doesn’t inconvenience you too much, it’s just this thing came up, and ... A: Angela, you know what, I can’t make it to our meeting, either. Why don’t we postpone it to to- morrow afternoon at the same time? B: Sounds great. See you tomorrow. C: Angela..Angela, look up! See that lady over there who is trying on a red leather jacket? Isn’t that Samantha? B: What? No wonder she told me she couldn’t make it to the meeting, oh, no, I think she saw me... E: Alright, so, in this dialogue we had some really great phrases that we should look at in “fluency builder”. Voice: Fluency builder. E: We have three phrases for you today in fluency builder and the first one is so common, it’s a great phrase – what’s up? M: What’s up? E: What’s up! M: Hehe. So, this is a very common way of saying “hi”. E: Yeah. M: What’s up? E: How’s it going? What’s going on? M: Right, and now the interesting thing is it… th… many people don’t know how to answer this phrase. E: Yes, I see this all the time with my students. M: So, if you say “what’s up”, you should say… E: Not much. M: Not much. E: Nothing. M: Nothing. So, what’s up? E: Not much. Hehe. M: Not much. Hehe. Alright, so the next time someone’s tell you “what’s up”, now you know what to answer. E: Yeah. M: Okay, our second phrase is can’t make it. E: Can’t make it. M: I can’t make it. E: We use this phrase when we want to say “I cannot attend”, I… M: I cannot make it. E: Yeah, I can’t come. M: Right, so, if you’re having a party today, I say “oh, I’m sorry, I can’t make it”. E: Uhu. M: Ah, it means I can’t go. E: Exactly. Maybe one more example: so, Marco, we’ve got a meeting today at three o’clock. M: I can’t make it, I’m recording today. E: Oh, okay. M: Hehe. So, can’t make it. E: Uhu. M: Our last word for fluency builder – this thing came up. E: This thing came up. M: This thing came up. E: This is a great way of giving an excuse for why you can’t make it… M: Right. E: ???. M: So… E: Uhu. M: I can’t make today, because this thing came up. Like something… E: Something happened. M: Something happened. E: Yeah. Let’s listen to a few examples of this phrase, so we can see how it’s used in the wild. Voice: Example one. A: I’m sorry that I’m late, this thing came up at work and I had to stay to take care of it. Voice: Example two. B: I can’t talk right now, something came up. Voice: Example three. C: Sorry I missed the meeting, something came up. M: Okay, great examples and I guess it’s perfectly clear now. E: Yes. M: So, let’s listen to our dialogue a third time and now we’re ready to understand everything. A: Hello, Samantha speaking. B: Hi Samantha. This is Angela calling. A: Oh, hi Angela, what’s up? B: I’m just calling about our meeting today. I wonder, is it possible to reschedule our appointment in the afternoon? I have a bit of an emergency that I need to take care of. A: Let me see, it shouldn’t be too much of a prob- lem... B: I’m really sorry, I hope it doesn’t inconvenience you too much, it’s just this thing came up, and ... A: Angela, you know what, I can’t make it to our meeting, either. Why don’t we postpone it to to- morrow afternoon at the same time? B: Sounds great. See you tomorrow. C: Angela..Angela, look up! See that lady over there who is trying on a red leather jacket? Isn’t that Samantha? B: What? No wonder she told me she couldn’t make it to the meeting, oh, no, I think she saw me... M: So, Erica, have you ever canceled an appointment like this, uh, under false pretenses? [NOTE: or by false pretenses; doing something under/by false pretences means making sort of an intentional misrepresentation in order to obtain anything] E: So, for… for fake reasons? M: For a fake reason… to shopping. E: Um, well, I may not have… you know, told my boss “oh, I can’t make it to a meeting, because this thing came up” and then I really was going shopping… M: Uhu. E: I… I’ve never done that. M: Hm. E: But how about you, Marco? M: Well, you know in Ecuador soccer’s a really big thing. E: Right. M: So, um, when we were playing in the World Cup… Ecuador was playing and… E: Not you, but… M: Well, no like… E: Yeah. M: The… the Ecuadorian soccer team. E: Aha. M: I canceled an appointment, because I was gonna go watch the game. E: Really… M: Yeah E: A business appointment? M: A business appointment. E: Well, I guess that’s okay. M: Yeah, I mean it was like the first time we were ever in the World Cup and, you know, my boss didn’t really put up much of a fight, because I guess he also wanted to go watch the game. E: So, very similar to the… events in this dialogue. M: Very similar. E: Uhu. M: I guess that’s kind of the inspiration behind it. E: Alright, guys, I hope you found some these phrases helpful and useful. And remember if you have any questions about anything you heard in today’s lesson, please visit our website at englishpod.com. M: Right, there you’ll be able to find more resources and also a large community to interact with. E: Yes, including me and Marco. M: Right. E: Uhu. M: So, we’ll see you there, until then it’s… E: Good bye! M: Bye!