📙 Part 2: Describe an experience of online shopping

This episode's vocabulary

To pick up (phrasal verb) - to collect, or to go and get, someone or something.

Delivery (noun) - the act of taking goods, letters, parcels, etc. to people's houses or places of work.

Courier (noun) - a person or company that takes messages, letters, or parcels from one person or place to another.

Drop someone/something off (phrasal verb) - to take someone or something to a particular place, usually by car, as you travel to a different place.

Package (noun) - an object or set of objects wrapped in paper, usually in order to be sent by post.

Unattended (adj.) - not being watched or taken care of.

To assemble (verb) - to make something by joining separate parts.

Item (noun) - something that is part of a list or group of things.

Service (noun) - a government system or private organization that is responsible for a particular type of activity, or for providing a particular thing that people need.

Crime-ridden (adj.) - used for describing an area where there is a lot of crime.

Explicit (adj.) - clear and exact.

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Questions and Answers

M: Today, Rory is going to describe an experience of online shopping. He's going to say when it happened, what he bought, what problems he had while shopping online, and he's going to explain how he felt about it.

R: Well, I suppose my most recent experience was when I picked up a few things from Argos for my new apartment. I got a bed, a microwave and a vacuum cleaner. To be honest, there weren't any big problems, just the delivery was bad, and I was a little bit annoyed. Oh, to be more exact, the courier dropped off the packages at the front door and left them totally unattended for anyone to just steal without consequence. This was even more irritating since I'd left a note on the door when ordering them, like when placing the order, just to drop them off with my neighbours. And they weren't exactly hard to find, so I don't know what the problem was. Oh, thankfully, it was the middle of August, when the weather was decent, so nothing was badly damaged. But no one likes being ignored. Especially when you've gone out of your way to make it, well, to make it clear how to look after things. Okay. To go into even more detail about what I bought the bed was one of those easy-to-assemble ones that comes without nails. Everything just slots into place. The other electronic items were also rather simple since I don't do a lot of cooking or cleaning. Mostly they're for ready meals and light vacuuming. I'm glad I got them. I just hope the delivery service pays more attention next time because, well, like I say, while I don't think it's exactly a crime-ridden area here, it could have gone horribly wrong and, you know, everyone likes it when their stuff is looked after. Also, I paid for my delivery, so I think that that's quite important as well. If you're paying for a service and you like gave explicit instructions, then you should get what you paid for, don't you?

M: And do you often shop online?

R: I do, but I'm never shopping with this company again.

M: Thank you, Rory, for your story!

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Discussion

M: Dear listener, did you like this *cough*, *cough*?

R: I did not like the *cough*, *cough*.

M: Yeah, I made it horrible on purpose. Usually, the examiner doesn't do like this because the examiner is usually nice to you. So they can just gesture, right? Because again, you are in front of a real person. So they will gesture showing that, oh, come on, keep going, keep going. So they wouldn't do like *cough*, *cough*, come on, come on, off you go. No, they will not do that.

R: They'll look at you like you're a complete lunatic and you have to guess what they want.

M: So they can look at you like, come on, come on, like, keep going. Or they can use their hands to just gesture that come on, keep going. Right? Everything is recorded. So the examiner should not say things, right? And cough in an irritating, unpleasant way.

R: Well, they should say things, but they shouldn't say things which are not on the script.

M: Yeah, like come on. Are you stupid? What, cat got your tongue? Come on, continue. No, no, no, no. So, shopping online. Pretty much, I think most of people these days have some experience shopping online. Please, now, choose a situation. Choose a product that is easy for you to describe. Rory talked about a few things from Argos. Argos is a shop?

R: Well, it was a furniture store. They used to send out catalogues and now they just deliver things online. The catalogues used to be huge.

M: And you know, like, Rory said, like, oh yeah, a few things from Argos for my apartment, a bed, a microwave, a vacuum cleaner. Like massive things, you know, like expensive things. And Rory talked about them, yeah, you know, like some paper, a bottle of water, cheese, you know, a bed, a microwave. Yeah? A flat, a house, a car. Just a couple of things for my life.

R: It wasn't... Honestly, it sounds like it's a lot, but really, they're like very small items. And thank heavens, because if they hadn't been easy to store, then they would have been stolen probably.

M: And Rory said, I picked up a few things from Argos. So I picked up - I bought. I picked up a few books from Amazon, like I bought books. You said that the delivery was a little annoying and I was annoyed.

R: Yeah. So that just describes the feeling and it says, explain how you felt about it. So I said how I felt, but I didn't explain how I felt about it. So that was one thing that I needed to do. And thank heavens Maria coughed so I could go into more detail.

M: Yeah, you can say that okay, I was really happy with my purchase, with what I bought. I was annoyed, I was irritated if some negative feelings were there. Usually, it's because of the delivery. So we're talking about the delivery service. So you buy something online, and then you get it delivered, right? So you pay for the delivery service, you pay for delivery, you get the product delivered to your house, to get something delivered. Who delivers the item? What do you call this person?

R: Well, the courier does. Or the delivery person. Delivery man, delivery woman. Probably just easier to say courier. And that's an important thing. You said the items, but we could just talk about the packages, the delivery.

M: Yeah. And you said that the courier dropped off the packages. So the packages with the products, right? Packages. Dropped off. So they just left them at the door. Outside in the street?

R: No, just outside my house. It's like there's a driveway, so it's just off the street, but it's still a pretty open area.

M: Mhm. But are there any cameras where you live?

R: No.

M: Oh, so no cameras and like. ..

R: Thank heavens it's a very low crime area, so it's not so bad. But I was just like...

M: Yeah. So the courier dropped off the packages at the front door, unattended or the courier came in late, or they changed the date of the delivery. You know, usually, like this happens. And then you can also say, I placed an order. So you order things online, or you can say, I placed an order. I placed an order on clothes, for clothes?

R: Place an order for something.

M: So I placed an order for some expensive books, for example, and the courier just dropped them on the floor.

R: He didn't. Well, they dropped them off meaning they put them where they, well, where they thought they should.

M: Then you can give details about the quality of products. For example, Rory said, nothing was badly damaged. So kind of everything was in good condition. So nothing was broken because sometimes they deliver broken stuff to you. Right? I ordered a computer online and then it got delivered. I opened it and it's not working. So it's just, you know, dead. The computer was absolutely dead. You know, they just delivered a dead computer. Huh? I paid so much money.

R: That's you?

M: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

R: What kind of computer was it?

M: It's this computer I'm using right now.

R: That's great. So obviously it wasn't that bad.

M: Asus, Asus Zenbook. And I had to get it changed. I had to go to the official store, and I didn't buy it at the official store, surely, because of, you know, certain things. Money, obviously. Yeah. Dreadful stuff.

R: Jesus...

M: I know.

R: Well, at least it's okay now.

M: It's okay now. Yeah. So, you see, my computer was damaged because it just didn't work at all. And Rory bought some stuff. For example, a bed. He bought a bed, which was easy to assemble. What does it mean to assemble a bed?

R: To put together.

M: Without nails. Nails are...

R: Sharp things you need a hammer for.

M: Yeah, you usually kind of assemble furniture with nails. Oh, wow. So your bed is without any nails?

R: Yeah.

M: Huh?

R: Everything's like you could just clip everything into place, and it was fine. It took about, I don't know, 15 minutes.

M: Oh, wow. Did you use owner's manual?

R: Yeah. You have to know where the different parts are going, but it was pretty self-explanatory after the bed frame.

M: Oh, wow. Okay, so if you order furniture, for example, things, I don't know, to assemble, you can say, oh, it was difficult to assemble this, what, wardrobe or a chair or everything was fine. Electronic items, for example, if you order electronics or gadgets, electronic items for your kitchen, for cooking, cleaning, then you can say, I'm glad I got them, I felt happy, I was pleased with my choice. Or I wasn't pleased. I was very angry because the shoes I ordered were too big.

R: Going into more detail about when I was having problems thinking of ideas or keeping going, so I said a few things. To be more exact, to give additional information and to go into more detail. In this case, it was to go into more detail about what I bought. So that was just focussing on the different kinds of products. And then to clarify about the, well, when it happened, I said thankfully it was the middle of August, so the weather was decent or when the weather was decent. And I just kept talking about that aspect of it as well. So it's just, don't feel like it's just because you said something, you can't go back to it and add more information. You can just say like, oh yeah, I'm going to go back and talk a bit more about when it happened or what I bought or what problems I had.

M: Yeah. And when you don't know what to say, you just can say, to go into more detail about what I bought, blah, blah, blah, and then continue. Just add something.

R: Anything. As long as it's connected to what you were talking about. And I did say, like talk about what you bought. To go into more detail about what I bought or what I purchased.

M: Yeah. And you can say some extra details. Right? So how you use it, why you like it, what colour it is? Or maybe you didn't like it. You never used it. Right? So you can add additional details which are not on the card. That's fine. Hey! And grammar-wise, everything is in the past. Okay, so I bought it, I picked it up. It was cool or not cool. And also Rory used past perfect, dear listener.

R: Did I?

M: Yeah. You said this was irritating since I had left a note on the door. Mm. So the courier dropped off the packages at the front door, but Rory had left a note telling them to leave the stuff with his neighbours, you see. So it was irritating because I had left a note. First I left this note and then it was irritating, you see. So the first action, leave a note happened before it was irritating. That's why Past Perfect. Make sure you use Past Perfect once. If the card is about...

R: The past.

M: Yeah. The past. A past experience. It's a story in the past. Sweet. Oh, so you bought a bed, you bought a vacuum cleaner. And what, what, what, what, what else? Microwave. Anything else that you are planning to buy for your flat?

R: I need some decorations. The walls are pretty bare. There are just, like so far there are just nails sticking out where the old pictures used to be. But I should probably add something. I'm just looking around now thinking, yeah, I should probably have some pictures on my wall.

M: Should I send you my photograph?

R: To hang on the wall?

M: Yeah. Or it could be like a puzzle of my photograph. And you can put together this puzzle and then place it on the wall. No? Okay.

R: I think...

M: Or maybe a photo of us together. You can put it on the wall. A piece of art.

R: Maybe one of your paintings would be nice. Can you send it? Can you do that?

M: I can, I can.

R: No, you only got one.

M: Yeah, I have one. One of your paintings, Maria. Oh, yeah. Just a whole gallery of paintings. Invisible paintings. Ah... Oh, yeah, I can send you my painting. Hmm. Nice and sweet. Thank you very much for listening!

R: Join us again! Thank you very much for listening. Join us in part three, when we'll be talking about online shopping in more detail.

M: Bye-bye-bye-bye-bye-bye-bye!

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