📙 Part 2: Describe a new shop that recently opened in your city/town

This episode's vocabulary

To be out of the loop (idiom) - to not be one of a group of people who have particular knowledge, make important decisions, or deal with important situations.

Eatery (noun) - a restaurant.

Suburb (noun) - an area on the edge of a large town or city where people who work in the town or city often live.

Branch (noun) - one of the offices or groups that form part of a large business organization.

Out of the way - a place that is out of the way is far away from areas that are central.

To happen on/upon something/someone (phrasal verb) --to find or meet something or someone by chance.

Questions and Answers

M: Rory, give us your story.

R: Oh, well, I am a bit out of the loop when it comes to the ins and outs of shop openings in Broughty Ferry, to be honest. But one place that comes to mind would probably be the new eatery that's just opened on the main street of my hometown. Well, the main street of the suburb of my hometown. It's called The Ferry Selkie and it's actually a branch of a restaurant which started out in Edinburgh, which is the capital city of Scotland. They've been doing rather well there apparently, so it seems like they've decided to expand. As you can probably guess it's a type of restaurant. And with a traditional name like that, my guess would be that it sells traditional Scottish cuisine like Cullen skink, which is a kind of fish soup, or haggis, which is probably our most well-known national dish. I say it's a traditional name because, well, a selkie is a sort of creature from old Scottish folk tales. And the ferry is a short way to refer to the whole of Brodie Berry. As for the kind of customers, I'd imagine they'd mostly be locals, to be honest, since Broughty Ferry is sort of out of the way. Tourists might happen upon it, but we don't get many compared to a place like Edinburgh, for example. It's for that reason that I think it will be reasonably successful, assuming it builds up a decent client base, since people in my hometown are pretty loyal to good businesses and tend to chase out any chains which come in. Even though this place is a branch, it's just the one branch. I mean, we only have two places so far, and one of them is extremely far away. And they're both in Scotland. So I doubt that will be a major issue. But I've been wrong about these things before. I think it might be an interesting place to try out when I get back to Broughty Ferry after Turkey, now that I think about it. Although if I don't get the chance to go there, and it fails miserably before I get back, then I won't be too upset because there's lots of other traditional places that... Sorry, traditional eateries in the local area.

M: And do your friends like this shop?

R: I haven't heard them talk about it, frankly.

M: Hey, thank you, Rory, for your story!

Discussion

M: A nice start off with "I am a bit out of the loop when it comes to the ins and outs of shop openings".

R: But that's just like the fine details of what it's like to shop there.

M: So to be out of the loop means like I don't know?

R: It just means that I don't know much about it. And yes, largely I'm ignorant of what happens.

M: So you can be in the loop or out of the loop. It's an idiom, dear listener, informal, so we can use it in speaking, not in essays. So to have or not have the special knowledge or power that belongs to a particular group of people. So for example, she's in the loop. Like she knows stuff. Okay? So I am out of the loop. I don't know stuff. So Rory is in the loop when it comes to IELTS. He knows stuff. Alright? Rory is out of the loop when it comes to fashion. He has no idea what is fashionable, fashionable trends, he has no information, right? Sometimes we say, okay, keep me in the loop. So keep me in the loop means what?

R: Just keep me aware of the current developments.

M: And here Rory says like I don't know anything or I don't know much when it comes to shops in my village, cities, town. What do you call it?

R: Suburb. Whatever. Small part of the area. I don't know. I don't know how you would refer to it.

M: And you can say that I am a bit out of the loop when it comes to new shops in my area. Or Rory told us to the ins and outs of shop openings. Rory, what did you mean?

R: That just means the fine details of shop openings.

M: Yep. And Rory told us about... Oh, how do you even pronounce this? Broughty Ferry.

R: Oh, Broughty Ferry.

M: Broughty Ferry. Oh, boy...

R: That's not difficult. It's brought. You can see the word brought there.

M: Yeah, so Broughty Ferry is a suburb of Dundee. Dundee is a city in Scotland, according to Wikipedia.

R: Maybe.

M: A fishing village according to visitscotland.com.

R: Yes. So you can see there's a diversity of opinions. From the 19th century. I love how you followed that up with the in the 19th century. 200 years ago.

M: So yeah. So I'm a bit out of the loop when it comes to the ins and outs of shop openings, to the details to new shops, to shop openings. To be honest, one place that comes to mind. So one place that comes to mind that I remember, would probably be the new eatery. The new eatery, the new kind of restaurant. Yes?

R: Yes.

M: And what's the difference between a restaurant, a cafe and an eatery?

R: I have no idea. I think eatery is just a way to describe a place where people eat, whereas a restaurant is usually where you have dinner.

M: Really? Okay, so an eatery, informal. A restaurant, a little eatery just off the main road. Yeah, I think like a restaurant could be a bit bigger, and eatery could be, I don't know smaller.

R: I think it's more about the time of day. I think usually people go to restaurants for like later in the day, whereas an eatery is just open all the time. That is a very, very broad distinction, though. I don't think that accounts for everything.

M: Yeah, use the word eatery when you talk about a cafe or a restaurant. A local eatery for a burger, it's just like casual or informal word. So eatery is more informal than a restaurant. So the task says a new shop that recently opened and Rory told us about a new eatery. Okay. Well, if an eatery also sells stuff, like a shop, it's okay. Because if like really, you don't have any idea about a new shop, nothing opens up, you can say, okay, I don't have any shops, I don't know anything about new shops, I'm going to tell you about a new eatery. And that's fine. Can you just tell the examiner that, listen, there are no shops opening, I'm going to tell you about an eatery. Which has just opened in the main street of my hometown. It's called blah, blah, blah. It's a branch of a restaurant. It could be a branch of a shop. And they've been doing quite well there. So they have been doing quite well for a week. So they opened last week. And since then, they've been doing quite well. Or you can say that they've just opened up, they've been there for only a week. Right? And again, you can lie about that. And they've decided to expand. So this brand decided to expand. So they opened up a new branch of a shop or of a restaurant in my town. And then Rory told us that it sells traditional Scottish cuisine. Cuisine like food. So the place sells Scottish cuisine, Scottish food.

R: I mean, I guess it does. I don't know much about this place, to be honest with you.

M: What's Cullen skink?

R: Cullen skink? It's a fish soup. Yes, I explained.

M: Haggis, hey! Traditional Scottish haggis, yum, yum, yum. A national dish. As for the kind of customers. So customers, people who go there, visitors, and a nice transition, as for the customers, I'd imagine, I would imagine that they would mostly be locals. Okay? So local people go there. As for the kind of customers, I'd imagine, they'd mostly be locals. Tourists might happen, but mostly locals.

R: Might happen upon.

M: Ah, might happen upon it.

R: Yes, like come across.

M: So tourists might visit. But rarely.

R: Yeah, they might come across it by accident. Well, they might discover it by accident. But that's not why they would be there, I don't think.

M: But we don't get many tourists compared to a place like Edinburgh. You can say, oh, we don't get many tourists or we get many tourists. And that's why the place will be successful because it's crowded with tourists. And if it builds up a decent client base. So if a shop or a restaurant builds up a decent client base, so pretty much if a shop has many clients, the base of clients, they will be successful. Because people in my hometown, local people in my hometown are pretty loyal to good businesses. And a shop is a local business. Right? So who goes? Local people who are loyal to good businesses, and they tend to chase out any chains which come in. So chase out, they what?

R: They... Well, they discourage chains from being set up there. So they won't be very, like negatively review the place or they just won't give it any business, so that fails.

M: So it's kind of like chase out, same as phase out? Remove or stop using something, yeah? Because usually, local people don't like big corporations, they prefer small local businesses. And they want to kind of phase out any huge chains which come in, and they prefer small local businesses. Yeah? Okay?

R: Yes.

M: Or, for example, if, dear listener, you are speaking about a big shop, maybe, I don't know, Marks and Spencers opened up, or Louis Vuitton boutique has just opened up in your area for some reason.

R: Where would that happen?

M: I don't know. Maybe if you live in the centre. Yeah, but usually we talk about our local shops, yeah? Which sell, I don't know, maybe a fruit kiosk or a flower shop, I don't know.

R: Or a cafe, something like that.

M: Or you can talk about just a grocery store, which has been there for ages, but you just lie about when it was opened. Even though this place is a branch, it's just like one branch, okay. So wait, so there are like two shops, two eateries like this, yeah?

R: Yeah, the main one is in Edinburgh, and then the branch is in... Well, I guess you would call them branches at that point.

M: And I think it might be an interesting place to try out when I get back to my hometown, like an interesting place to go to when I get back to my hometown. Sweet. What helped you to organize this answer?

R: Trying to follow the task as much as possible. Because I wound up talking about a restaurant rather than a business. But I did still explain where it is what it sells, and the people that usually go there. But I did start off by saying why I was going to have to talk about this particular thing, because I'm out of the loop. And this was the closest thing I could find. For moving into the place it's called. And then I didn't say it's a restaurant, I said, as you can probably guess it's a restaurant based on the description I gave beforehand. And then talked a little bit more about the products based on that. And then I didn't say the kind of people that go there are, I said the kind of customers because people that go to a business are customers. And then based on the customers, I was able to say whether or not I thought it would be successful, because you can tell how successful a business will be by the kind of customers that use it.

M: Yes, dear listener, and this is a very good example to illustrate the fact that in the exam it's going to be fine if you talk about not a shop, but about a cafe or a restaurant, or an eatery, okay? Because in the criteria the examiner doesn't have, like, you have to stick to the topic. So you can just go a little bit off-topic, but if Rory described his favourite cat, or if Rory talked about our podcast, or his favourite drink, this would be strange. Yeah? And the examiner would be surprised. But as long as you are kind of kind of on topic, but talk about a different thing, it's fine. This is true, especially in difficult topics, but really, like I have no idea about freaking shops, which just opened. You explain the situation. I don't know, I'm out of the loop when it comes to new places in my town. I'm going to tell you about this new eatery. Okay? Yeah? So this is a nice strategy. Thank you very much for listening! And we'll get back to you in speaking part three where we talk about shopping in general. Bye!

R: Bye!

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