Hello everyone and welcome back to EnglishPod.
My name is Marco.
And my name is Catherine and we've got a special announcement to make today.
That's right, this is lesson number 200.
So good job EnglishPod, we have over 200 lessons already in our library so that's that's like enough for like six months of continuous learning I think.
But the lessons keep coming and they keep getting better so of course you should continue to listen to us we just thought we would mention that today is the special number 200.
Exactly and because it's a special number we're going to talk about a very laid-back topic but very interesting nonetheless we're talking about junk food.
You might argue that it's actually too laid-back and is the cause of many problems in America and other places in the world.
Junk food is unhealthy food so let's take a listen to today's dialogue and we'll be back in a moment to talk about what's going on.
I'm hungry let's go grab a bite to eat.
Sure how about we go home and prepare a couple of sandwiches.
Now let's get a burger and fries.
What you ever do is have unhealthy fast food.
Pizza, fries, burgers and hot dogs.
You have to start eating better.
What are you talking about?
I have salads sometimes.
Yeah right, I'm serious.
You should also cut down on your sugar intake as well.
You drink carbonated drinks that are high in fructose syrup.
It's really not healthy.
Fine I'll start drinking water and having home-cooked meals that are low in fat.
Are you happy now?
It's a start but I'll be happy when I see you stick to your promise.
Alright we're back so let's take a look at some of the great words and phrases all about junk food now in language takeaway.
Language takeaway.
My favorite.
This stuff makes me hungry but it's not very good for you.
It's not, it's terrible and especially his favorite food was burger and fries.
Oh I had it for dinner last night.
Really you had burger and fries?
Yeah maybe well it's not very healthy and there's a great way to describe this the word is unhealthy.
Alright so yes as you say it's very unhealthy.
Well yeah because you get fat they're very high in calories so it's unhealthy so that means it's not good for you.
That's right so just a reminder in English when we hear the word unhealthy or unhappy this means not healthy.
Not happy.
Un is a prefix that means not.
Mm-hmm okay and talking about unhealthy food in general what are we talking about?
We're talking about fast food.
Okay so this might require a story.
What is the meaning behind fast food as opposed to slow food because there is no slow food right?
I think now they have it in like France or something like that they talk about slow food but anyways fast food is food that is prepared very quickly so you go you order in two or three minutes you have your entire order ready to go.
Okay so maybe this is the food that I could get at McDonald's or Burger King where they make it very very quickly and I can go home or I can go to the office with my food ready.
Exactly so fast food very popular among countries very popular nowadays among busy people who have no time to sit down at a restaurant or eat or sit down and have a proper lunch.
Fast food and one of the important drinks at a fast food restaurant is a carbonated drink.
So this carbonated what does this mean?
This is actually the fancy word for soda or for fizzy drink.
Fizzy okay so something that's carbonated has bubbles.
Yeah it has bubbles.
For example a lot of Europeans drink carbonated water that means water with bubbles in it.
That's right so actually the bubbles are caused because the drink has a high concentration of a certain gas such as carbon so that's why it has all these bubbles and it's fizzy like Coca-Cola.
Right Coca-Cola or Sprite these are carbonated drinks.
Very good.
So you have carbonated water and you have carbonated soda what is the thing that makes soda different what is it that makes soda taste so good?
It's sweet and the ingredient that makes it sweet is called fructose syrup.
Fructose syrup is essentially sugar.
Yeah and it comes from corn I believe right?
That's right so you can also hear the name corn syrup and this is a sweet syrup that comes from corn that makes drinks like Sprite and Coca-Cola taste so good it's also very unhealthy for you.
Yes because it has a lot of calories so that is one of the main ingredients in soda now you know you have fructose syrup.
All right so that's all we've got for language takeaway let's take another listen to today's dialogue we'll be back in a second.
I'm hungry let's go grab a bite to eat.
Sure how about we go home and prepare a couple of sandwiches?
Nah let's get a burger and fries.
What you ever do is have unhealthy fast food pizza fries burgers and hot dogs you have to start eating better.
What are you talking about I have salads sometimes.
Yeah right I'm serious you should also cut down on your sugar intake as well you drink carbonated drinks that are high in fructose syrup it's really not healthy.
Fine I'll start drinking water and having home cooked meals that are low in fat are you happy now?
It's a start but I'll be happy when I see you stick to your promise.
All right we're back so now we have a couple of great phrases that we heard along the dialogue so let's take a look at those now in fluency builder.
Fluency builder.
All right so starting off this is a very interesting phrase because we saw it in the first sentence and it says let's go grab a bite to eat let's grab a bite to eat.
So to grab is to hold something with your hand okay to do it quickly.
He grabbed my arm so to grab a bite to eat a bite is a small taste we're going to have a quick meal.
So after work you want to go grab a bite to eat that means let's go have something to eat quickly.
Yeah I'll be there soon let me just grab a bite to eat.
So bite is a little bit it's a small amount of food.
Now for our next phrase it's very important because I've noticed that a lot of our English learners make the mistake of using this phrase it's how about.
How about so in today's dialogue the phrase is how about we go home and prepare a couple of sandwiches.
So how about is used as a suggestion is how do you feel or what do you think of going home and preparing a couple of sandwiches.
So another way to say this is why don't we go home and prepare some sandwiches.
Exactly but commonly English learners make the mistake of using how about as a way of saying how was it or how is it so for example how about your weekend.
Wrong okay so how was your weekend.
Exactly so how about is usually used when we make a suggestion.
How about we go see a movie on Saturday or how about we go to my parents house for Christmas this year or finally how about you get another job so that we can have more money to spend on going out to eat.
Very good.
So how about these are all suggestions why don't you get another job why don't we go to our parents house for Christmas so you can't say how about your weekend you say how was your weekend.
So there's a big difference there.
Very good so make sure to stay away from that typical mistake using how about.
Now moving on we were talking about fast food and how it's bad for you and she said you know what you should also cut down on your sugar intake.
So to cut down that's a phrasal verb.
That's right cut down so that means to decrease.
I'm trying to cut down on the amount of soda that I drink.
Or I'm trying to cut down on how much I spend on the weekends.
Okay so to cut down means to decrease or to lessen.
Very good and for our last phrase the whole thing that we're talking about and one of the favorite meals for everyone burger and fries.
Okay so this is one of many combinations for meals you can have a burger and fries which is a hamburger and french fries so oftentimes you say hey let's go grab a burger and fries.
Yeah another combination especially in England is fish and chips.
Yeah fish and chips.
Fish would be a fried fish sandwich and chips would be french fries as well.
That's right so and actually in England they call french fries they call them chips.
So if you're confused by the word chips or potato chips and french fries these are different things in different places but if you're talking to an American french fries is the way to go.
Or for a while they were called freedom fries.
Well we don't need to talk about that we can talk about that in a later lesson but for now the phrase is burger and fries.
All right so let's listen to our dialogue for the very last time.
I'm hungry let's go grab a bite to eat.
Sure how about we go home and prepare a couple of sandwiches.
Nah let's get a burger and fries.
What you ever do is have unhealthy fast food pizza fries burgers and hot dogs you have to start eating better.
What are you talking about I have salads sometimes.
Yeah right I'm serious you should also cut down on your sugar intake as well you drink carbonated drinks that are high in fructose syrup it's really not healthy.
Fine I'll start drinking water and having home cooked meals that are low in fat are you happy now.
It's a start but I'll be happy when I see you stick to your promise.
We're back Marco you're laughing I know you like junk food what's your favorite junk food of all time.
Actually I am a big big fan of fried chicken.
I love fried chicken.
Yummy.
It's I don't know it's I think it's really greasy and oily and it's very very bad but I can't help it it's very good.
You can buy bags of it in America.
I know.
Get like a pound bag.
You buy it by the pound in America right.
Yep you pay you pay for how much it weighs.
Wow that's amazing I actually really enjoy it but places like Kentucky Fried Chicken they're too expensive for a fried chicken.
Yeah you don't necessarily want to go there there's other places that are a lot more maybe traditional that are pretty good.
How about you what is your favorite junk food.
Chicago style hot dog and french fries.
Like a you know when you go to see a baseball game you get a hot dog but Chicago style is good it's not too much stuff on it you have a poppy seed bun so it's a bun a piece of bread with some seeds on it and a lot of ketchup mustard and ketchup and onions.
I really enjoy hot dogs but the one thing that I cannot have on a hot dog is mustard or relish.
Oh my gosh those are the two best things.
Okay I can't talk to you anymore.
Well tell us what your favorite junk food is and tell Marco that he's crazy if he doesn't like mustard.
Our website is EnglishPod.com ask us questions as well we're happy to answer them.
Until next time.
Bye everyone.