🍽️ The Vocabulary Show: Dining out - Learn 28 English words and phrases in 10 minutes!

87,735 views ・ 2024-01-07

BBC Learning English


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

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Are you hungry to expand your English vocabulary?
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Then grab a seat and get ready to chow down
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on lots of useful new English words and phrases.
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From ordering your meal to paying the bill,
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we've got all the vocabulary that you need
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to navigate a restaurant like a true English pro.
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We'll take a tour of the menu and explore some key words and phrases
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that you will need if you are dining out in an English-speaking country.
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So, without any further ado, let's get ready to eat out.
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Our first piece of vocabulary is the phrasal verb 'eat out'.
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It is a common and relatively informal way
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to speak about going to a restaurant or café to eat
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and is usually used to talk about casual meals.
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"I don't want to cook today. Let's eat out."
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Personally, I like to cook dinner almost every day,
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but I do love to eat out at lunchtimes
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and my favourite place to eat out is in sushi restaurants.
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Tell me in the comments where's your favourite place to eat out?
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So, now we've decided to eat out, let's make a reservation.
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This means to reserve a table or spot at a restaurant
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and is usually used for popular restaurants, special occasions
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or for larger groups.
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For example, "Should we make a reservation for Saturday night?
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It can get really busy."
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A slightly less formal way of saying this is 'make a booking'.
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An alternative form of 'make a reservation'
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is 'reserve a table'.
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So, we might say, "There's ten of us. I think we should reserve a table."
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If you go to a nice restaurant without a reservation,
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you might try asking, "Do you take walk-ins?"
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And a 'walk-in' is someone who visits a place without an appointment or reservation.
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This can be used in restaurants,
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but can also be used in other situations
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where you need a reservation or appointment,
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such as seeing a doctor or a lawyer.
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There are many places where you do not need a reservation at all
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and this includes at a 'fast food restaurant'.
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These are restaurants that specialise in cheap meals
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that are quick and easy to make and serve.
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These are popular all over the world
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and they tend to sell meals that we think of as rather unhealthy.
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I try not to eat in fast food restaurants too often
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because I don't think they're good for my stomach or my diet,
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but they are very tempting
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and they're a lot more common than they were when I was young.
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Has fast food culture come to your country?
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And do you think that fast food restaurants
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are a good thing or a bad thing?
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Let us know in the comments.
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Next, we're going to look at cafés
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and we're going to look at two very different types of café.
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One is European style and one is a more British style.
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A European style café is a small establishment that sells coffee,
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maybe some alcohol,
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maybe some snacks and a few bites to eat.
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It is pronounced 'caff-ay' and is spelt with an accent over the 'e': 'café'.
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A British cafe is a little bit different
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and can be pronounced as 'caff-ay' or as 'caff'.
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It is different culturally too.
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A British cafe often specialises in cheap, fried food
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and would be the perfect place to find a traditional English breakfast.
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We sometimes call these cafes a 'greasy spoon'.
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But maybe you don't feel like going to a café or a cafe,
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you're a little bit hungrier than that and you want something substantial.
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So, why not try out an 'all-you-can-eat buffet'?
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This is a restaurant where you pay a set amount for an unlimited amount of food.
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But let's get back to the restaurant where we made our original reservation
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and let's order a 'starter'.
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A 'starter' is a small portion of food that you eat before your main meal.
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For example, "We had the prawn cocktail as a starter".
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Now, you might hear speakers of American English call this an 'appetizer'.
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It is very, very similar,
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but here in the UK, in British English, we call it a 'starter'.
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Next, it's time to order the 'main'.
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The 'main' is the most important or biggest part of the meal.
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For example, "For my main, I think I'll have steak and chips, please".
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We can also say 'main course'.
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For example, "Angelica ordered the spaghetti bolognese as her main course".
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Again, in British English, we would say 'main' or 'main course',
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but in American or Canadian English, you are more likely to hear 'entrée'.
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English is a language where we often try to keep
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an element of the original language when we take a word,
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so you can hear 'entrée' has a touch of the original French,
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where the word was taken from.
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Now, when ordering a 'main' or a 'main course' or an 'entrée',
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you might want to check whether the restaurant has a 'special' available.
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A 'special' is a meal that is not on the usual menu.
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It is available for a limited time only.
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This might be because the ingredients are seasonal,
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the chef wants to try something new,
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or because the restaurant wants to add
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a bit of variety and spice to their typical menu.
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So, you might hear something like, "Today's special is chicken vindaloo".
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So, next time you are in a restaurant,
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why not try asking, "Do you have any specials?"
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and you might discover something wonderful.
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We also commonly put the definite article 'the' before the word 'special'.
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For example, "I'll try the special, please".
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Wow, learning all these new words has been thirsty work, hasn't it?
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I think it's time to order some drinks.
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Now, if you don't want to spend too much money,
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you might want to order the 'house wine'.
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This is a relatively cheap wine option
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and you won't know too much about it until it arrives.
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The only thing you are likely to know is that it costs less
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than the other wines on the menu.
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But maybe you don't drink or you don't want to drink alcohol.
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What should you order then?
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How about a nice, refreshing 'soft drink'?
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A 'soft drink' is a non-alcoholic drink.
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It is usually served cold, has bubbles and contains sugar
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and a natural or artificial flavour, like orange or lemon or cherry, for example.
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Or maybe you want to stay very healthy and you can order a 'sparkling water'.
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This is carbonated water that has lots of bubbles in it.
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You might also hear it called 'fizzy water'.
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But wow, I am hungry!
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In fact, I'm so hungry, 'I could eat a horse'.
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'I could eat a horse' is an idiom meaning that you are very, very hungry.
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You can use the full idiom 'I'm so hungry, I could eat a horse'
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or you can use the shortened phrase 'I could eat a horse'.
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Ah, the food has finally arrived.
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Let's eat!
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Before we start our meal, we need to decide which cutlery we need to use.
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'Cutlery' are the tools that we use to eat,
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so let's go through some of the most common ones.
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We have a knife and fork.
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A spoon.
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A teaspoon.
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We might use a pair of chopsticks.
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To serve a soup from the middle of the table,
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you might use a ladle.
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So, we've used the correct utensils to finish our starter and our main
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and now it's time for my favourite part of the meal:
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the dessert.
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'Dessert' is a 'sweet dish served at the end of a meal',
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so think of ice cream or fruit or cake.
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It can be countable or uncountable.
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If you are talking about your individual dessert, it is uncountable:
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"I'd like some dessert, please".
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But if you are talking about different types of dessert,
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it becomes countable:
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"We had three different types of dessert between us".
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Wow, that was a good meal.
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We had a nice starter, a lovely main and a delicious dessert,
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we had some fantastic drinks.
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But now, unfortunately, it is time to get the bill.
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A 'bill' is a written or printed statement, given to you by the restaurant,
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that shows you how much money you owe
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for the drinks and food you have just consumed.
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So, at the end of the meal,
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you might catch the eye of the waiter and ask, "Can I get the bill, please?"
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In American English, you are more likely to hear the word 'check':
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"Can I get the check, please?"
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It's time to pay and now comes the decision
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on whether you want to split the bill.
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'Split the bill' is when you pay evenly between all the members at the table.
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So, if there are five people and the bill is £100,
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everybody puts in £20.
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But if you're feeling a little bit more generous,
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you can say it's 'on me'.
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This is a useful phrase
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for if you'd like to volunteer to pay the bill for everybody.
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"Put your wallet away, Raheem. This one is on me."
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Once you've paid, it's time to decide whether you want to leave a tip.
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'Leaving a tip' means 'giving extra money to the server or staff'
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to thank them for their service.
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Now that you've feasted on these delicious dining vocabulary words,
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you're all set to confidently savour your next meal at a restaurant.
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Enjoy your appetisers, relish your mains
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and, of course, always remember to appreciate good service.
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You can find all of today's vocabulary scrolling down the side,
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so be sure to practise them.
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Why not write your own example sentences in the comments below
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to practise them and put these words into your long-term memory?
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It is time to hit that like button, subscribe and let us know about
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your dining stories and experiences in the comments section.
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If you enjoyed today's lesson,
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I'm sure you would love our lessons on travel or going to the supermarket.
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Bon appetit, happy dining and see you next time. Bye!
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