Real English: Using WHEN & WHERE to Make Plans

Hi. I'm Gill from www.engvid.com, and today we have a lesson on quite a nice social subject:

"Making Arrangements to Meet a Friend". Okay? And the idea is that this friend is

an English-speaking friend. They may be English, or American, or Canadian, or they may speak

another language, but you and they can only communicate in English. Maybe they're Chinese

and you're Spanish or something, and the only language you have in common is English. But

either way, you have to communicate in English, and this is one of the best ways to learn

English, is to have friends who speak English, and have to communicate with them in English.

So please make friends with English speakers, because apart from being friends, it will

be very good for your language learning. Okay, right.

So, first of all say you're phoning your friend and you're saying... First of all, you're

not going to just go straight in and say:

"Let's arrange to meet."

You want to first of all say things like: "Hi! How are you?" because if they're not very well, it's not

a good idea to start making arrangements to meet. So, just socially you need to say:

"Hello. How are you? How is everything going? I haven't seen you for a while.

Shall we meet up? Are

you free to meet up?" "To meet up" is to meet, but we often say "meet up", with the "up"

preposition. "Shall we meet up?" And the "shall" is used when you make a suggestion.

"Shall we? Shall we do something?" Okay?

So once you've done your little introductory part and they're feeling well, and they want

to meet you and go somewhere interesting, we can move on to the second part, you need

to decide when. When are you both free? Okay, so you might say:

"When are you free?" and

they might say: "Oh, well, I'm free on Tuesday afternoon, Thursday morning, Saturday afternoon",

so you decide between yourselves which is the best time for both of you.

"I'm free on" and the day.

Okay? You use "on" with the day. "I'm free on Tuesday, on Saturday". Okay?

And then just to check: "Is that okay for you?" You have to check with the other person:

Is that okay for them as well? And then if they say: -"Yes." -"Great. Great."

Useful word: "Great", whenever you're pleased about something. "Great."

So, you've got the day, you now need to decide on the time. "What time shall we meet?" Again,

using "shall" as the suggestion. "What time shall we meet?" And because you're meeting

a friend, you don't want to make it like:

"Oh, I start work at 9:30 in the morning, I have to be there."

This is a nice, social occasion. You don't have to say:

"Be there at 2 o'clock." As it's a friend and it's a social meeting, you can be a little bit more

casual about it and say: "Oh, around... Around 2 o'clock", which means just before 2, just

after 2. "Around" is a very useful word for time. "Let's meet around 2 o'clock." Okay?

So you've decided on the day and the time.

So thirdly, you have to then decide where to meet, somewhere interesting maybe that

you haven't been before. "Where shall we meet?" So "shall" again. "Where shall we meet?" And

your friend might suggest:

-"Oh, an art gallery. I haven't been to that art gallery for a while.

Shall we meet there? Have you ever been there?"

-"No, I haven't been to that one."

-"Oh, okay then. Well, let's meet there. I think you'd like it." Okay?

So, once you've decided on the location, the art gallery... An art gallery is a big place,

and there's an outside and an inside. You have to decide exactly where, so: "Whereabouts?"

is a useful word. "Whereabouts?" It's just like saying: "Where?

Where shall we meet around the building?

Whereabouts shall we meet? Inside or outside?"

But if it's in the UK, because

of the weather, it's not always a good idea to meet outside somewhere because it could

be bad weather, so you say:

"In case it's raining, in case it's cold it might be better to meet inside",

so you can be dry and warm while you're waiting for your friend. So:

"In case" means "if", "if". It might be raining, it might be cold, so: "In case it's raining,

in case it's cold, we'd better meet inside." Okay?

Always a good idea. And you can sit

down as well usually if you want to. So, say it's an art gallery, there are different places.

And I'm thinking of a particular art gallery here so I'm thinking of different parts of

it that are good places to meet someone. The foyer,

which is just inside. You go through

the door and it's like the hallway of open space called the foyer, which is a French

word actually, but we all use it to mean the inside, just inside the building, just inside

the entrance. In the foyer, in the café. Always a good idea, start in the café and

have a nice chat first, a nice talk with your friend before you go off to look at some pictures. Café.

In the gift shop, because if you're in the gift shop you can be looking around

at the things before your friend comes. You might want to buy a few things as presents

for people. Gift shop. A bookshop, you can be looking at books. Always something to look

at. Books in English hopefully. Okay? On a particular floor of the gallery, you could say:

"Well, let's meet on the second floor because there's a good exhibition there at the moment."

On the second floor or the first floor. Or in the basement. Down... Downstairs

in the basement below the ground. Okay? So different places you can meet in the building.

So once you've decided when and where to meet, you then have to finish off your phone call,

and so you can say: "Okay, that's great. See you on..." On the day.

"See you on Tuesday around 2 o'clock." Okay?

And something nice to end with, like:

"Looking forward to seeing you",

when you're going to meet someone or you're going to work with somebody.

"Looking forward to" is a good phrase. "Looking forward to seeing you." Okay?

So, I hope you make lots of English-speaking friends and arrange to meet them, and learn

lots of language from them.

And there is a quiz on the website: www.engvid.com.

Please go and try the quiz. And that's it, really.

So hope to see you again very soon.

Okay, bye.