Fluency News #5 – How much is a McDonald’s burger in your country?

Hello everyone!‍

Welcome to another episode of Fluency News! Here, you’ll practice your listening and get informed on all that’s happening in the world; all the major headlines of the week, all in English! During the episode, we make sure to explain the things that we believe need extra attention, so you don’t miss any details!

In this episode we’ll talk about business news! How Brazilians studying English transform a $1.2 billion market in Ireland, Best Buy unveils first ever small-format, digital-first store, McDonald’s raises price of a cheeseburger in the UK for the first time in 14 years.

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‍Episode Transcript‍

What’s up, guys? Welcome back to Fluency News! I’m your host Chris Schliewe, and it’s great to have you here. If you’re new here, this podcast is made for listeners who just need a brief rundown of the most important news. When you listen to our Fluency News episodes, you’re staying informed, practicing your listening skills, and learning tons of new vocabulary, all at the same time!

Having frequent contact with the language you are learning is very important to ensure your success. You can do this in different ways, and one of them is by taking an English course! Did you know that Fluency Academy has a complete online course for you to boost your vocabulary and take your English to the next step? To sign up for our waitlist and unlock your English, just click the link in the description of this episode.

Now, let’s get started! In this episode, we’re going to talk about some of the hottest business news of the month, and we’ll get to some explanations too!
This is a very special episode, because the first news we’re going to talk about is studying English and living abroad! We love this topic!

Did you know that immigrants from Brazil form the largest community of English learners in Ireland? That’s right! There are 27,192 Brazilians living in this country, according to the Irish Department of Statistics. For the record, the English language courses sector funnels around 1,2 billion euros annually to the Irish economy, employs over 3,000 full-time workers and, between 2016 and 2020, recorded over 150,000 international students in the country, according to a survey by the specialist education company. Of that total, 75% were Brazilians. Mexicans came in second place, with 10%. Amazing, right? There are so many people learning English around the world!

Let’s learn the names of nationalities in English, as well as the countries they originate from and the language that is spoken there. But first, it’s important to know the word “nationality” is not used very often in everyday conversation. It is a more formal word and it’s more often seen in written form in documents like immigration documents or tourism papers. Almost no one will ask “What is your nationality?” in a normal conversation in English. Instead, you might hear “Where are you from?”. Got it? Good!

Alright, you heard me saying the words Brazilian, Irish, Mexican… ok, so Brazilian is the nationality and Brazil is the country. You can say for example: “I’m Brazilian” or “I’m from Brazil”. The official language in Brazil is Portuguese, so you can say: “I speak Portuguese”. Now Irish is the nationality of people from Ireland, and they speak English there. If you are from Ireland, you could also say you are an Irishman or an Irishwoman. Mexican is the nationality of people from Mexico, and the official language in Mexico is Spanish.

Another interesting thing is that we also use nationalities to describe the things that come from a country, not just the people. For example: Swiss chocolate, French cheese, Italian cars, Indian food (by the way, that’s my favorite) and so on.

Remember that learning the names of nationalities and countries will come naturally the more you practice, ok? Now tell me… where are you from and what language do you speak over there?

Moving on to our next story… technology and something we all love: shopping!

Last fall, the famous company Best Buy shared how they were testing new store models in Charlotte, North Carolina and how all of them work together to meet their customers’ varied and changing needs. Now they’re introducing another piece to that pilot: their first ever small-format, digital-first store. This new 5,000 sq. ft. store, which opened on July 26 in Monroe, features a curated selection of their best in-category products, the expert services customers know and love like Geek Squad. Plus, they’re testing a new digital-first shopping experience that encourages customers to do everything from shop, select your product and get advice digitally while in the store.

Ok so, we are talking about Best Buy. Best Buy is a multinational retailer, which provides consumer electronics, home office products, entertainment products, appliances and many more. I said that “now they’re introducing their first ever small-format digital-first store” and also that “they’re testing a new digital-first shopping experience”. So pay attention: they are introducing… they are testing… I’m using the verb and adding “ing” at the end: introducing, testing.

That is called the “continuous” or the “progressive” form of the verb in English. You use the verb + ing when you want to talk about activities you are doing at the moment, something you are doing right now. For example: “I am recording this podcast right now” and “you are listening to it at the moment”. You can also use the progressive form to make future plans. For example: “I am working tomorrow”, “she is visiting her mom next month” or “what are you doing next week?”.

One important thing to remember is that you always need to use the verb “be” with the continuous tenses, ok? She IS eating dinner right now, they ARE watching TV at the moment, you ARE studying a new language now. Got it?

Now let’s go over some news about the most favorite fast-food restaurant in the world: McDonald’s. They raised the price of their cheeseburger in the UK for the first time in 14 years! Can you believe it? The cost of a cheeseburger has risen 20% from 99 pence (around U$1.19) to £1.19. For the record, the last time McDonald’s hiked the price of their cheeseburger in Britain was in the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis.

How much is a McDonald’s burger in your country?

So let’s talk about prices because business is all about money. You may find yourself frequently asking about prices or costs whether you are at work, shopping or just talking to your friends. The most common way to ask about prices is by using the expression “how much”. So if you want to ask the price of something you might say “how much does it cost?”

One interesting thing about the word “cost” is that we can say “a cheeseburger costs £1.19 in the UK” and we can also say “it cost me £1.19 to get a cheeseburger in the UK”. So, a thing can “cost” money and it can also “cost you” money.

Now, that’s pretty cheap for a Mc Donald’s burger huh? But let’s imagine you are buying something way too expensive and you don’t want to pay that much money for it. If something is too expensive, you would naturally suggest lowering the price. To do this, we usually use polite and indirect language. You might say, “would you take a lower price?” For example, if something costs 300 bucks and you only want to pay 200 bucks for it, you could say: “would you take 200 dollars for that?”.

Alright guys, we’ve come to the end of this episode. We’ve learned how to talk about nationalities, continuous tenses using verbs with “-ING” and how to talk about prices and costs. I’ll be back soon with more useful English tips.

Don’t forget that if you want to unlock your English fluency, start speaking confidently and also watch a lot of remarkable English tips, just follow us at @fluencytvenglish. I’ll see you soon. Byeeee.

‍Stories:‍

‍How Brazilians Studying English Transform a $1.2 Billion Market in Ireland
‍https://www.bloomberglinea.com/english/how-brazilians-studying-english-transform-a-12-billion-market-in-ireland/‍

‍Best Buy unveils first ever small-format, digital-first store
‍https://corporate.bestbuy.com/small-format-store/‍

‍McDonald’s raises price of a cheeseburger in the UK for the first time in 14 years
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/07/27/mcdonalds-raises-price-of-uk-cheeseburger-for-first-time-in-14-years.html#:~:text=Business%20News-,McDonald’s%20raises%20price%20of%20a%20cheeseburger%20in%20the%20UK,first%20time%20in%2014%20years&text=McDonald’s%20hiked%20the%20price%20of,marking%20a%2020%25%20price%20increase.