Shadowing Practice: Order PIZZA in English: Daily Life English Lesson - Learn English Speaking with Video

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are you ready to join me in an american pizza restaurant today you are invited to join me

and my husband dan as we go into the restaurant i'm going to teach you what kind of customs

and etiquette you need to know how to order so

that you can be more confident when you visit the us

and you go into a restaurant plus we are going to order a very unusual pizza

that you have probably never heard of

if you're new here hi i'm vanessa from speak englishwithvanessa .com

and I have been teaching real life English here on my

YouTube channel for over the past 10 years to now more than 7 million of you.

Thank you so much for learning English with me

and today like always I have created a free PDF worksheet with everything that you are about to learn,

everything that will come up here in the bottom of the screen plus I have added 50 questions

and answers that a server in a restaurant will ask you during your dining experience.

You might not get asked all 50 of these questions, but you can review this before you go into a restaurant

so that you can be absolutely prepared and ready when you come visit the US.

So all you need to do to get

that worksheet plus the bonus 50 questions and answers is click on the link in the description, enter your name and email address, and voila, it will land in your email inbox.

It is my gift to you.

All right are you ready to join me as we go into the restaurant let's go

oh there it is hello my friend

okay cool we'll probably just sit in the corner thank you hello hi

how are you guys great awesome how's it going pretty darn

good i'm rachel i'll be taking care of you can i

get you both something to drink um i'll just have water

but what do you want dear water please all right you

got it thank you thanks absolutely do you guys need a

couple minutes to let things over any questions for me yeah this is the only big menu do you have any

recommendations so I love all of our pizza okay my favorite is well

so the mountain extravaganza is super popular my favorite actually is the cow chipper oh

which is very unique parmesan crust it doesn't have a red

sauce it has a garlic olive oil base oh sometimes I'll

get like a side of marinara to dunk it it's like

it doesn't feel like pizza I don't have my red sauce

but either way it's super good because it has steak tips

and like a balsamic glaze I just feel like you never

see steak on pizza oh cool um our calzones are also

super good um they take some extra time they take like

a little like 10 15 minutes longer okay this bianca is

crazy good it's like a rucola ricotta whoa nice um okay

see yeah i mean our salad salad wise i love the strawberry salad oh nice um

and then i also really love the blue mountain salad it's really unique cool okay i'll take a look at

that and talk to dan okay

and do either one of you guys want to hear what

we have on draft oh yeah sure all right i just

got here i'm pretty sure they're all the same as they

were yesterday that's more dance territory okay yeah we've got ginger's

revenge a ginger beer it's a lavender hibiscus a bird song jalapeno pale ale

which has actually been pretty popular well um it looks like

we're out of this check oh no we still have the

lookout tech pilsner heist brewery brunch junkie stout um we've got flat rock peach cider

and we have voodoo ranger um ipa cool look at

that bird song all right sounds good all right you ready my friends we're ready

and we're gonna splurge

because this is a business expense sounds good to me we're

gonna get a side strawberry salad okay as per your recommendation you guys want to share

that sure okay i mean just we'll probably eat off the

same plate it's pretty big okay something uh we're also gonna get the extra large mountain extravaganza

and get this extra large couch you got it dude good

choice take it all home to the kids yep it heats up very nicely yeah thank you

so yes of course i'll get that rolling right now okay

that salad will come out first okay

and cheers okay great thanks hi hi i worked at a

restaurant before oh yeah tell me about the restaurant you worked at well i worked at a country club

which was a little bit different than a regular restaurant here

in america for instance they weren't supposed to tip there oh we worked on commission

so we were trying to upsell them things oh did it work

uh it wasn't a great fit for me i don't like

pushing things on people yeah i don't like the sneaky upsells

so i probably would have preferred to be tipped but that was my most mainstream restaurant experience.

Otherwise, I was a barista and sold coffee.

which they do tip you there nowadays.

Yeah, it's pretty good.

I worked at a lot of different restaurants when I was in college, and some were a lot better than others.

And like Rachel said in our previous conversation, it really depends on the atmosphere of the place you work,

and if the bosses kind of treat people well and foster that good environment.

One thing I've noticed about any restaurant environment I've worked at, because i was also a dishwasher once most kitchen workers are

maniacs like the the chefs the cooks the line cooks yeah

they're just always the fast -paced job the hardest people like hard knock people yeah yeah

but they're doing their job doing a good job they're doing the salt of the earth kind of work yeah

so what about being a customer

because most of my students won't be working in a restaurant maybe they will i have some students

that have in america yeah have come the u .s

and have worked part -time jobs in restaurants but for customers what do you think

is something important that international students people should know

when they're coming to a restaurant in the u .s well

i would say the biggest thing is tipping yeah it's got to be tipping yeah otherwise the waitress

or waiter is going to walk you through you know what you should do

but the tips is always just like the unspoken rule right yeah

and you gotta to you can always ask them to like uh what's this

or i don't know what this means or what's in this

or uh can i order this like you can always ask questions

and it's their job to help you so even

if you don't understand something can you repeat that please like all of that is totally acceptable

at a restaurant it's especially important to tip at least 20

and i'll give you a little trick Like what you can do if your bill is $40, if you go out to eat and your bill is only $40,

you must have found some magical place because it's always more than that.

Spend $40 on a burrito nowadays.

I mean, that's a little crazy, but if your bill is $40, you take the first number, multiply it by two.

So your tip is $8.

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Or if your bill is $72,

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dollars okay you take the first number seven multiplied by two is fourteen yes

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and so your tip is fourteen dollars if you want to go up

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if it's like seventy six dollars

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and you want to go up you could say fourteen you

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know plus one you always round up you could give them

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fifteen dollars you're you're a generous person of course you're a generous person

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and this is you can leave the restaurant you will not be arrested

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if you don't tip but the culture is that in the u .s

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but the people who work there will think you should be arrested yes

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because servers are only making like two dollars per hour well i think that's changing no she said

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that oh it's like two dollars and like 15 cents

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or something i've heard mixed things about it's to cover tips okay

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but it's to cover taxes i mean yeah but so everything

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that they're making is because of tips

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so this is a really essential part of their pay so

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if you cannot afford to do

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that just don't go out to eat that's probably why you should be a barista like i was

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because you get paid at least minimum wage

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and then people still tip you anyways yeah that's true that's true so

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if you are going to work in a restaurant in the u .s it's worth asking what is the pay

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and they'll say oh it's you know two dollars and 15 cents

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but you get that will definitely change the equation you could get paid a lot of money

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if that restaurant gets good tips

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and you can even ask like what do the what does

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the average server make in tips per night okay that's a good question

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and it will actually tell you what you'll get paid

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because you're doing a job to get paid yeah tell me

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about joe's crab shack oh the worst restaurant i ever worked

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at the problem in my mind it was a crab restaurant

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so they served crab but the worst thing was

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that the the food was expensive this is like a chain restaurant all across america the atmosphere was very cheap

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so people who went there did not know

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or care about tipping it was expensive

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but the atmosphere the atmosphere was cheap like the servers were singing were clapping it's a very casual feeling

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but the food is relatively expensive like for one person it

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was like maybe minimum like 25 dollars whereas the pizza we're getting the whole pizza is 30 dollars

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and could feed our whole family we ordered more than usual yes thank you

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so at that restaurant i got tipped so little

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and it was the worst serving job i've ever had

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but um i've had better serving jobs Where I got paid

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more What did you say Flat Rock was better Flat Rock Girl was better i worked at a moroccan restaurant

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that was probably not authentically moroccan vanessa has more actual server experience than i yeah

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that was a good place because they had a good atmosphere

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that was like an expensive atmosphere they had cool like uh art on the walls the lights were low

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and it felt more expensive and the food was expensive

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so the people who went there were expecting to spend a lot of money

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and which a lot of money was like a hundred

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and fifty dollars honestly really you just want to you know serve relatively wealthy people

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if you want to make money yeah

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or even just a place like this place what rachel was saying is

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that at blue mountain pizza everybody shares the tips which is unusual

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so if one person makes no money on a table

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because those people we say it they the term we use is stiffed youth

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if they stiffed you

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which means they paid no tip well it's not going to hurt you as much

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because you're sharing tips with everybody so they call

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that tip pooling you're pooling all the tips p -o -o -l in a bucket

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and you're sharing it together okay i would like to take

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a look at this lovely salad should i zoom it in are you

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has strawberries and arugula

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and this strawberry vinaigrette dressing this is an american classic yeah

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every restaurant i worked at almost oh yeah had something like this oh yeah strawberry vinaigrette dressing okay

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and uh the pecans pecans there's pecans candied pecans there's some

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goat cheese a little bit of sweet a little bit of

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sour a little bit of bitter yeah i would only eat

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this in the summertime i feel scared of strawberries me too we had a bad strawberry experience but it's great

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we're teaching my students how to go to like a restaurant

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in the u .s you could teach the american students i

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mean i'm learning a lot too every time you teach something you learn something

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so yeah i really appreciate rachel was uh um i teach online and

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so my students are just all around the world maybe someone

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will end up here who knows tell them to ask for patty okay

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and i'll guide them through thank you i feel very embarrassed filming in public

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so uh i hope that enjoy this video me on the other hand i have a very uh high embarrassment threshold

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i don't really care but yeah that's why we're perfect for each other

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i don't feel like i get embarrassed easily but it's more about filming

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i don't get embarrassed by you as often as most people would

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yeah well i probably do less embarrassing things now than i used to

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be honest probably also having children makes you more tolerant to being embarrassed in public

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because our kids do ridiculous things and sometimes everybody's staring and you just have to get over it

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holy cow holy cow right enjoy it y 'all wow ranch

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hot sauce anything thanks um do you want anything no i'm good this looks like a lot

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and amazing thank you whoa man this pizza looks like unreasonably

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big in this camera it is pizza pizza pizza i have

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to eat this with a fork it is really hot right now That's unusual Steak,

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balsamic vinaigrette No tomato sauce No tomato sauce The Italians would call this An abominational I like

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Tomato sauce on pizza But Because she recommended it Because we're making this video Honestly,

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that tastes really good

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Caramelized onions and steak caramelized onions you can't go wrong with um there's also this

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so at a pizza restaurant you get parmesan

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and red pepper flakes those are your classic pizzas i'm gonna

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put it on do you want some no no not one this one hey there's also salt

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and pepper but you definitely don't need salt you never eat pizza with a fork and a knife that's illegal

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What's the winner guys?

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I'm feeling like this is the winner for me.

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That's good.

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That's really good.

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Do you want another brisky?

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Oh man, I kind of do, but I don't think we have time.

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I know, it's a bummer.

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We booked our sitter for two hours.

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It's coming close.

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We need boxes, clearly.

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We'll just eat this for the next week.

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I guess it's just water, so we need to go cut.

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Yeah, that would be great.

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Time for dessert

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or anything no no okay we'll take some we got banana

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pudding s'mores chocolate you know better whoa uh s'mores you got

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it oh look at you wow wow free ice cream yeah what who free ice cream everybody

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okay so you can see that the bill is 76

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because we got two pizzas and a salad and a beer

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and there's a room for the tip

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so we're going to use my little trick seven times two is 14

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and then it's kind of halfway to eight to 80

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so I'm going to add another dollar and call it $15

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but you know what I'm going to give Rachel a little more

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so we're going to just say um nothing

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and the total is 76 19 and do you know why i did

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that because because we're going to give her cash

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and cash is one of the most important type of tips

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that you can give um

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so i'm going to give her cash sitting right here on top of the bill

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so if you have cash do not write it on here

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because this will come out of your credit card um

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and then you'll be charged double for the tip so

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if you have cash give it to them for the tip

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and if you don't you can write it in there and they'll take it off of your cart.

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Okay well thanks so much.

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Money out.

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Just giving her a 20.

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Wow so generous.

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Okay so in conclusion from this restaurant experience how often do you go out to eat now

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and was there a time in your life

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when you went out to eat more well actually yes nowadays we go out to eat probably

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maybe once a week once a week

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if you average it out okay maybe i would say like

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twice a month yeah maybe one other time every now

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and then we'll go out twice a week

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so i'm just averaging it out

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if you include getting pizza yeah like where do we go out to eat we get pizza we get tacos

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that's about it sometimes we get sushi sometimes sushi definitely i

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guess we could take out more options oh thank you otherwise like the next size is

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that in your fridge oh yeah yeah we'll just layer it

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in there everyone will happily eat it oh yeah i'm gonna take that though oh yeah i want it Okay,

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yeah, we'll keep, sure, we'll keep all of it.

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I, kids, would absolutely eat this.

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Yeah, thanks. So, yeah.

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I mean, yeah, once a week, I'd say.

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I think if we go on a date, that's going out to eat, and that's like once a month.

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We go out to eat on a date, and then we get sushi like once a month,

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because we can get takeout and we can eat it at home with our kids and that's a fun thing to do.

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Thanks so much.

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And then I'd say that's kind of it.

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Maybe one other time, like we'll get tacos or pizza.

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Yeah.

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Maybe three times a month.

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There might be one other time thrown in there, but it's not like every Friday we go out to eat.

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Yeah.

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It's with the kids is very rare.

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Well, thank you

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so much for going out to eat with me this is

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the american pizza dining experience yeah thanks for uh joining us to eat pizza

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and i hope that you could learn something about american culture

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and also yeah have more confidence when you go to the u .s

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and you either go to a restaurant

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or who knows maybe you'll even work in a restaurant all right thanks

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so much and if you enjoyed today's lesson i'd like to invite you to join me in my course,

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The Fearless Fluency Club, where this month we will be studying the full real conversation with Rachel about restaurants.

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You will practice using the vocabulary that Rachel uses,

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and you'll be able to imitate her pronunciation so that you can have clear American English pronunciation when you speak.

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Plus, I'll be your teacher guiding you every step along the way.

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Every week, you'll have the chance to join me for my weekly live stream lesson and our weekly Zoom calls.

274

So you will not only be learning real English, you will be using it and speaking as well.

275

If you'd like to try out the Fearless Fluency Club for just $5 for your first month,

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all you have to do is click the link in the description and you can join us in the course.

277

I hope to see you there.

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Well, thank you so much for joining me at this pizza restaurant.

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I hope you learned a lot and don't forget to download today's free PDF worksheet.

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I have included 50 questions that a server will ask you

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and some answers that you can use when you go into a restaurant.

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I want you to feel totally confident when you come visit the US.

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So all you need to do is click on the link in the description and to your name and email address, and it will land in your email inbox, my gift to you.

284

So thank you again for learning English with me and I'll see you again next time.

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Bye.

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But wait, do you want more?

287

I recommend watching this video next where you will join me in a real American coffee shop.

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You will learn the best way to order coffee in English without being rude.

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You can click on that video to find out and I'll see you there.

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This video has 289 sentences and 3464 words to shadow. The speech runs for 20:55. The speaker talks at a natural 166 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 84% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 less common words from the video, with pronunciation and meaning:

pizza /ˈpi.tsə/ (noun) — A baked Italian dish of a thinly rolled bread crust typically topped before baking with tomato sauce, cheese, and other ingredients such as meat or vegetables.
salad /ˈsæl.əd/ (noun) — A food consisting principally of raw vegetables (especially greens, e.g. lettuce), other savoury ingredients (typically cooked), fruit, or confectionary; often…
strawberry /ˈstɹɔˌbɛɹi/ (noun) — The sweet, usually red, edible accessory fruit of certain plants of the genus Fragaria.
atmosphere /ˈætməsˌfɪɹ/ (noun) — The gases surrounding the Earth or any astronomical body.
server /ˈsɝvɚ/ (noun) — A program that provides services to other programs or devices, either in the same computer or over a computer network.
embarrassed /ɪmˈbæɹ.əst/ (adjective) — Having a feeling of shameful discomfort.
steak /steɪk/ (noun) — Beefsteak: a slice of beef, broiled or cut for broiling.
unusual /ʌnˈjuːʒ(u)əl/ (adjective) — Not usual, out of the ordinary.
generous /ˈd͡ʒɛn(ə)ɹəs/ (adjective) — Noble in behaviour or actions; principled, not petty; kind, magnanimous.
nowadays /ˈnaʊ.ə.deɪz/ (adverb) — At the present time; in the current era.
fourteen /ˈfɔɹ.tin/ (noun) — A group of fourteen items.
tomato /təˈmeɪ.toʊ/ (noun) — A widely cultivated plant, Solanum lycopersicum, having edible fruit.
whoa /woʊ/ — Stop (especially when commanding a horse or imitative thereof); calm down; slow down.
crab /kɹæb/ (noun) — Any crustacean of the infraorder Brachyura, having five pairs of legs, the foremost of which are in the form of claws, and a carapace.
sushi /ˈsuːʃi/ (noun) — A Japanese dish made of small portions of sticky white rice flavored with vinegar, usually wrapped in seaweed and filled or topped with fish, vegetables or…

Phrasal verbs you will hear

work at (verb) — To make a physical or mental effort to progress some specified task; to endeavor or struggle on an issue or project.
go into (verb) — To get involved in; to investigate or explore.
look at (verb) — To observe or watch.
work in (verb) — To find time or space for, amid other things.
go up (verb) — To move upwards.
ask for (verb) — To request; to order.
come out /ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/ (verb) — To be discovered; to be revealed.
come up (verb) — To emerge or become known, especially unexpectedly.

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 102 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, I'm, we're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: wealthy /ˈwɛl.θi/, threshold /ˈθɹɛʃ(h)oʊld/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: unusual /ʌnˈjuːʒ(u)əl/, sushi /ˈsuːʃi/, recommendation /ˌɹɛkəmɛnˈdeɪʃən/, pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/, conclusion /kənˈkluːʒən/
Long words — get the stress right: unusual /ʌnˈjuːʒ(u)əl/, recommendation /ˌɹɛkəmɛnˈdeɪʃən/, pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/, ridiculous /ɹɪˈdɪk.jə.ləs/, acceptable /əkˈsɛp.tə.bəl/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like pizza, salad, strawberry.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result	if you enjoyed today's lesson i'd like
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	have probably never heard · have created · have added
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	are invited · be tipped · will not be arrested
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	people who work · people who went · tips which is

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: Order PIZZA in English: Daily Life English Lesson - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

Grammar in this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?

2 Tips For Improving Your Listening Skills