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Asking for Recommendations

Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast number 247: Asking for Recommendations.

This is English as a Second Language Podcast number 247. I’m your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Honolulu, Hawaii - no, just kidding! In beautiful Los Angeles, California, but Honolulu is very beautiful, too!

This podcast is going to be about “Asking for Recommendations,” when you want someone to help you, and you’re asking for their opinion or their advice about something. In this particular dialogue Victor is going to be talking with someone at a hotel - a person who works for the hotel - to try to get some recommendations about things in that area.

Let’s get started

[start of story]

Hotel Clerk: Can I help you with something?

Victor: Yes, I was hoping you could recommend a restaurant nearby.

Clerk: What kind of food would you like?

Victor: I’m not picky. I’m looking for something moderately priced that’s within walking distance.

Clerk: There’s a good seafood restaurant called “Galeno’s” about two blocks away. Would you like me to make a reservation for you?

Victor: Thanks, but that won’t be necessary. I need to check with my guest before deciding. By the way, I’ll be in town for four days, and I’d like to see the sights.

Clerk: Is this your first time here?

Victor: Yes, it is.

Clerk: Then, I’d suggest seeing our museums and the botanical gardens, and don’t miss the shopping district near downtown.

Victor: Can I get there on foot?

Clerk: I’m afraid not. You can take a taxi or a bus. We have a very good bus system. The other option is to take a tour. There are several tour companies that have day tours leaving from this hotel. Help yourself to their brochures.

They’re over there.

Victor: Do you have a map showing where those sights are?

Clerk: Sure. Here you are. Is there anything else I can help you with?

Victor: No, that’s all. You’ve been a big help. Thanks.

[end of story]

Our episode begins with the hotel clerk asking Victor, “Can I help you with something?” That would be a very polite, standard thing that an employee of a company, such as a hotel or a store, might ask you when they are asking if you need some help - “Can I help you with something?” Or, they may say, “Do you need some help?”

Victor says, “Yes, I was hoping you could recommend a restaurant nearby.” There’s another polite expression - “I was hoping” - “I was hoping you could help me.” The use of the “I was hoping” is, again, a little more polite. You’re not demanding - you’re not saying you must help me, you’re saying I was hoping that you would be able to help me.

The clerk asks what kind of food Victor likes, because he’s asking for a restaurant recommendation. Victor says, “I’m not picky,” “picky.” To be picky means to be very selective - difficult to please. Children are sometimes picky about the kind of food that they will eat. When I was young, if you were picky, you just didn’t eat anything because my brothers and sisters would eat whatever food you didn’t want.

Victor says, “I’m looking for something moderately priced that’s within walking distance.” The phrase moderately, “moderately,” means not too expensive. Not necessarily something with a very low price, but not something that is very expensive - something in between - moderately. So, he wants a restaurant that is not too expensive but still pretty good, in terms of the quality, and he wants something “that’s within walking distance.”

Walking distance is the distance you can walk, usually a person means within 15, 20, maybe 25 minutes of walking. It depends on who you are and how far you want to walk, but I would say that if you were at a hotel and you asked for a restaurant within walking distance, you’re looking for something within 10, 15, maybe 20 minutes from your hotel. You could also say how many blocks it is from your location, but even though the expression is walking distance, we usually give the person the amount of time it would take for the average person to walk. So, perhaps we should say, “walking time,” but we don’t.

The clerk says, “There’s a good seafood restaurant called ‘Galeno’s’ about two blocks away. Would you like me to make a reservation for you?” To make a reservation means to call the restaurant and to say, “I am going to becoming and eating there.” Usually you tell them how many people there will be and the time that you will be coming.

Victor says, “Thanks, but that won’t be necessary. I need to check with my guest before deciding.” To check with someone means that you need to ask someone’s opinion before deciding what to do. If you’re married and you’re a man, you know that you can’t do anything important unless you check with your wife. I know that’s true in my life!

So, Victor is going to check with his guest - the person he is with - before he decides. To check with actually has a couple of different meanings; take a look at the Learning Guide today for some additional definitions.

Victory then says, “By the way, I’ll be in town for four days, and I’d like to see the sights.” The expression by, “by,” the way, “way,” is used when you want to say something or ask something that isn’t necessarily connected or related to what you just said. So, it’s a way of changing the topic in a conversation.

Victor is answering the clerk by telling him that he needs “to check with his guest before deciding,” then he thinks of something else he wants to ask the clerk that is not related, so uses the expression by the way. “By the way, I’ll be in town,” meaning I’ll be here, in this city “for four days, and I’d like to see the sights.” To see the sights, “sights,” means to see the important or interesting places in the city - the places that someone who is visiting the city would want to see. So, if you go to Paris, you would want to see the Eiffel Tower. If you come to Los Angeles, you would want to see Hollywood, and of course, the Center for Educational Development!

Victor says that he’s going to be in town for four days, and the clerk asks, “Is this your first time here” - the first time you visited this city.

Victor says, “Yes.” The clerk then says, “Then, I’d suggest seeing our museums and botanical gardens, and don’t miss the shopping district near downtown.” A museum, “museum,” is a place where you can see famous art. You could also see some historical information - some historical objects - in a museum. You can have an art museum; you can have a history museum and so forth. Famous museums include, here in Los Angeles, the Getty Museum, as well as, in New York, the Metropolitan Museum. Those are two art museums.

Botanical gardens, “botanical,” are places where you find flowers and trees; usually a very large area that has many different interesting plants. Here in Los Angeles, we have the Huntington Gardens. These are botanical gardens that you can go and visit, that have different kinds of plants and trees.

The clerk also recommends that Victor visit the shopping district. The expression she uses is “don’t miss.” If someone says to you, “Don’t miss this,” they mean you must do this - this is very important - you must go here - I strongly recommend that you see or do this thing. You can say, “Don’t miss the movie, ‘LA Story,’ by Steve Martin; it’s a very funny movie.” That is an example of using that expression - you really should see it, I strongly recommend it.

The shopping district, “district,” is an area in the city where there are many stores. Most big cities have several different shopping districts. Victor says, “Can I get there on foot?” The expression on foot is the same as by walking.

Can I walk there? There are a couple of meanings, again, of this expression, on foot; take a look at the Learning Guide for more information about those other definitions.

The clerk says no, but he says it in a polite way, he says, “I’m afraid not.” When you want to say no to someone, but you want to be polite, this is a good way to do that - “I’m afraid not.”

He says, “You can take a taxi or a bus,” that the city has, “a very good bus system.” The bus, “bus,” system is the system of public transportation in a city that uses buses. You can have a subway system; you can have a bus system.

Both these are ways of getting around the city.

“The other option,” the clerk says, “is to take a tour. There are several tour companies that have day tours leaving from this hotel.” These are companies that come with their own bus and pick you up at your hotel and take you to the important sights in the city. A day, “day,” tour is usually a short tour - four, five, maybe eight or nine hours that you go with a group of other tourists, and you have a person that explains all the different places you are going, we would call that person a tour guide.

The clerk says, “Help yourself to their brochures.” He’s talking about the brochures or printed information about these tour companies. The expression, help yourself, means go ahead and take whatever you want.

Victor then asks if the clerk has a map. The clerk does, and gives him one, and Victor thanks him. He says, “You’ve been a big help.” That’s another way of saying you have helped me a lot.

Now let’s listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.

[start of story]

Hotel Clerk: Can I help you with something?

Victor: Yes, I was hoping you could recommend a restaurant nearby.

Clerk: What kind of food would you like?

Victor: I’m not picky. I’m looking for something moderately priced that’s within walking distance.

Clerk: There’s a good seafood restaurant called “Galeno’s” about two blocks away. Would you like me to make a reservation for you?

Victor: Thanks, but that won’t be necessary. I need to check with my guest before deciding. By the way, I’ll be in town for four days, and I’d like to see the sights.

Clerk: Is this your first time here?

Victor: Yes, it is.

Clerk: Then, I’d suggest seeing our museums and the botanical gardens, and don’t miss the shopping district near downtown.

Victor: Can I get there on foot?

Clerk: I’m afraid not. You can take a taxi or a bus. We have a very good bus system. The other option is to take a tour. There are several tour companies that have day tours leaving from this hotel. Help yourself to their brochures.

They’re over there.

Victor: Do you have a map showing where those sights are?

Clerk: Sure. Here you are. Is there anything else I can help you with?

Victor: No, that’s all. You’ve been a big help. Thanks.

[end of story]

The script for this podcast was written by Dr. Lucy Tse.

From Los Angeles, California, I’m Jeff McQuillan. Thanks again for listening.

We’ll see you next time on ESL Podcast.

English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr. Lucy Tse, hosted by Dr. Jeff McQuillan. This podcast is copyright 2007.