Go Shopping With Me: English Vocabulary Lesson

Today, I want to invite you into a cute small  shop in a town near me in Western North Carolina.  

We're just going to be walking around the  shop and I hope that if you visit the US,  

you'll be able to get a little slice of  real life as well. Hi, I'm Vanessa from  

SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com and like always, I  have created a free PDF worksheet with all of  

today's important vocabulary, expressions, and  cultural ideas so that when you visit the US,  

you'll feel more comfortable and you'll have  a great time exploring real American culture.  

You can click on the link in the description  to download that free PDF worksheet today.

All right, let's get started by walking around  this cute shop. I'm going to be talking about  

some items that I see, anything that comes  up along the way. So I hope that you'll  

learn some real daily life vocabulary.  All right, here we are outside the shop  

where you can buy things to put in your  yard. Let's take a look at some of them.

So these are little statues that are... Very  loud motorcycle passing by. They're just like  

little stone statues that you can put in your  yard or in your garden because most people  

in the US have a yard, which is the big green  grassy area. We like to decorate it. You might  

decorate it with these exciting plates or with  little statues. I know when I was growing up,  

my parents had a little stone turtle just  like this, and ours actually had a secret.  

You could open the shell and inside was  a hidden key to our house. So this house,  

we don't live there anymore, so I'm not giving  away any family secrets, but these types of items  

are pretty popular in yards. All right, let's go  inside the shop and I'll walk around with you.

So here I am in the doorway with some cute...  Oh, these earrings are so cute. And you know  

what? I'm a sucker for earrings. This  is what I usually buy when I go to  

a new country or when I visit somewhere.  I like to buy earrings because I wear them  

every day and it reminds me of the place  that I visited. All right, let's go in.

So in this shop, there's a lot of cute  household items like this tea towel,  

and there's some candles. I also saw when I  was in here before, some local items that were  

with the name of the town or locally made. So  that's also fun. Let's take a look over here.  

Oh, look at this. Is this made for me? Best mom  ever. You can even buy a mug with the town name  

on it. And usually these types of items are  locally made, including a little bear because  

this area has lots of black bears. Bears  regularly wander down our street through  

our neighborhood. It's very common. You can even  buy little trinkets with the town name on it.

Cute little honey packets as a little gift. If  you visit the US and you want to bring home gifts  

for your friends and family, a shop like this is a  perfect place because there's I think so many cute  

little things that aren't from a big box store.  So a big box store is like Walmart or Target,  

and there's nothing personal there. It might be  American kind of, but this type of thing is really  

the perfect type of gift shop. So we have lots of  dog and cat items. Let's go over here and see. Oh,  

adorable. Oh, this is so cute. This says  Mother's Day cards. Take a look at this.  

These adorable made with little pearls and  lace. Oh, and little bunny rabbits. See,  

moms are suckers for things like  this. Me included. So cute. All right,  

let's go back to this section. You can see  some more tassel type earrings if you're into  

that kind of thing. If you're a nurse or know  somebody who is, a little cute gift for them.

Some paper crafts. Ooh, this is very cool. Take a  look at this. This looks like it was made... I'll  

try to take it off carefully. This looks like  it was made with maybe like a magazine and it  

was curled into a rose or a flower that could be  a decoration or a necklace. Very creative. And  

it is springtime now, so it looks like lots of  great spring decorations. Cute, cute, cute. So  

many cute things. Do you know what this is called?  If you have a hot pan or a hot pot on the stove,  

you're going to need something like this to  protect your hands. I would call this a pot  

holder, but you can put your hand in it, you can  set your pot on it, and little cute spring ones.

Something else that's popular in the US is  to have tea towels for different seasons.  

So this is something that, for example, my  mother-in-law loves to do is whenever it's summer,  

she'll have a tea towel like this that has  a watermelon on it. Or if it's Christmas,  

she'll have a Christmas tea towel. And  we don't use them actually for tea. It's  

something that is maybe over the edge  of your oven and you can dry your hands  

with it after you wash your hands and it  stays in the kitchen. But you could have  

different seasonal tea towels. Let's take  a look. Ooh, let's take a look back here.

So back here we have some edible goods.  This is a very exciting section because  

we have one of my favorite local tea companies,  Asheville Tea Company. I love drinking their tea,  

Mountain Chai. If you come to Western North  Carolina, definitely try their tea. These  

teas are locally made, and I think at least in my  opinion, these are the best type of gifts. It's  

the kind of thing that you can't get anywhere  else. So there's some local tea. It looks like  

some locally made seasonings. Now, seasoning  is kind of the same thing as herbs or spices,  

but sometimes we say seasoning if it's a mixture.  So this says honey, garlic, sriracha, dip, spread,  

dressing, and cheeseball mix. And there's  different types of spices or herbs in this type  

of seasoning mix. And over here there's some local  coffee if you want to come back and take a look.

Now, I'm not a coffee drinker, my husband  is. Have you ever had this coffee?

Oh, yeah.

Is it any good?

Yeah, it's good.

Okay, well, you can get locally.

It's coffee.

It's coffee, so it's good. You can get locally  made coffee as well, and some jams. And always,  

of course, little trinkets, salt and pepper,  little napkin ring holders. This type of store  

is chock-full of those little goodies. You could  really spend hours and hours in a place like this.

If you're a woman.

Maybe if you are. A little pillow that says mason  jars. I don't know why, but it's cute. Mason jars  

are these type of jars, these type of glass jars  that all have the same type of lid. So sometimes  

we use these for storage of food where you might  say, oh, I have a mason jar in the cupboard,  

and you can fill it with some leftovers. Or  you might save a mason jar like this after  

you finish this Roan Mountain peach jalapeno  jam, you might save the jar, the mason jar.  

Sometimes we also call those ball jars, but  ball is the brand name. And this, I don't know  

if it's actually a ball jar, but we sometimes  call it that by the brand name. I'm so hungry.

Do you know what this is? It is a bath bomb. I  don't know if this is popular around the world,  

but in the US these are pretty popular. Not  in the donut form, I've never seen that. But  

you put it in the bath and it fizzes and kind of  explodes. So if you want a cool donut bath bomb,  

you know where to find it. Let's  go over here to the kids section.

Oh, you can get your local shirt with the  town name on it. So if you have children,  

this type of place is very dangerous because  everything is so cute. Look at this. Adorable,  

adorable, adorable. So dangerous. That's why you  bring grandparents to places like this because  

grandparents will always buy something and all you  need to say is, "Oh, look at that cute dress." And  

the grandparent will automatically say, "Oh, I'll  get it." So around here, there are some... I'll  

just tell you some of the vocabulary. This is a  stuffed animal, but kids also call these stuffies  

to cuddle and sleep with. There are dresses  and tote bags, some games, this looks like  

a jigsaw puzzle. And these cute little things.  My daughter's hair is not long enough for them,  

but soon enough, a little clip in her hair.  There are books. Now, these type of books that  

have thick kind of cardboard-like pages, these are  called board books. And when your baby's really  

small and all they want to do is rip and chew on  things, these books are perfect for little babies.

And this one you can press on it and  it makes bird sounds. Cool. All right,  

let's continue over to this section where there  are more earrings. So dangerous for me. Some  

cute hair clips for adults, necklaces, jewelry,  some decorations. Looks like spoons and forks.  

And here we have some locally made soap. So this  is another common gift that you might get when you  

visit the US. Make sure you're allowed to bring  it back into your country. But a lot of people in  

this area make soap and they all have different  fun names like goat milk, goat milk soap,  

love me tender soap, warm vanilla sugar, dark  amber and rosewood soap. Smells pretty good.

You can even buy little bits  of art. So this type of art,  

it's on a canvas. So this is like a mini  canvas. That's the type of material that  

it's been painted on. A little canvas here.  If you want to take home that to decorate  

your home. Some headbands if you'd like  to wear. Headbands, for me, headbands are  

always uncomfortable. I think they're so cute,  but they never feel good on my head. Here we  

have some more locally made soap. Can't beat  lavender, right? Lavender is always the best.

Some sundresses, sundresses for the adults. Can't  resist those. And it looks like some other kid  

things. Bring your grandparents. We have some kid  books, some children's books as we say. And this  

is not a board book. This has real paper. So it  is just a regular book. Looks like there's little  

kids sensory dough magical jar with little goopy  goodies in there. Your kids can squeeze little  

diamonds and sharks. They can squeeze and play  with. Sounds like a good grandparent gift gift.  

There are some journals, that's what these are.  Inside, you can write all of your English notes,  

all of your English words and dreams inside here.  I love buying journals. I think they're so cute.  

There are lots of greeting cards. In fact, look  at this. You can buy a greeting card of this shop.

So when you write home to all your friends,  you can say, I am here. I bought this here,  

this exact card. How cute. And here we are  back at the beginning of the shop. We missed  

all of the vintage jewelry. More dangerous  jewelry. Look at that. We've got pins,  

we've got cute little pins you can put  on your jacket, boingy pearl bracelets,  

necklaces, all sorts of vintage  things, which generally just  

means cool old stuff. So let's go back on  outside and I'll finish up this lesson.

Well, thanks so much for joining me on this tour  of a cute little shop. I hope you learned some  

useful English vocabulary words for daily life.  Don't forget to download the free PDF worksheet  

with all of today's important vocabulary and  expressions so that when you visit the US you  

will be prepared and you will be able to use these  real daily life expressions. You can click on the  

link in the description to download that free PDF  worksheet today. Well, thanks so much for learning  

English with me and I'll see you again next Friday  for a new lesson here on my YouTube channel. Bye.

But wait, do you want more? I recommend  watching this video next where you will  

join me around town as I go to various  places, including the bank. There is a  

surprise waiting for you at the bank. So I'll  see you in that video to find out what it is.