hey lindsay how are you awesome aubry how are you doing excellent i'm wondering about shopping
i've had to go shopping quite a bit with my kids lately and i find it torturous it is torturous oh
you feel the same you don't like browsing at stores no i'm not a browser not at all if i'm
gonna go shopping i'm gonna have a list of things i need to buy and i will quickly lose momentum
if i don't if i don't have success early on i'll get bored really quickly and tired you know what
i mean i think we're the exception though i feel like a lot of people love to just sort of browse
peruse the merchandise more power to you guys that like to do that i'm like you lindsay in and out
get what i need and leave me out get me out window shopping right is the common phrase that a lot of
people use yeah i especially think about new york for that because you have like the macy's wins
yeah yes from the street there's all this beautiful stuff you can see in the windows
but we do we'll just say i'm gonna go window shop and you're actually going to go in the store and
look around it's sort of a general term we use for just looking just browsing yeah i remember
when i was living in japan a lot of my students i would often say oh would you do over the weekend
the comment opener right in a class and a lot of students said they had gone window shopping
that was a very common response so i guess it's pretty popular in japan which is interesting a
big shopping culture in tokyo yeah yeah yeah a lot of countries that are like that and
maybe depending on your age and how busy you are you have time to browse right but i think
we got this question as a follow-up to episode 650 where we were giving you this great um vocabulary
for when a salesperson is being pushy right we shared some great phrases so if you missed that
one go back and check out episode 650 for that and then this question came as a result of that
and they were a listener was just asking well what can i say if i'm not ready to make a purchase so
this is sort of different vocabulary if we want to say we're just looking and we maybe are going to
purchase eventually we're holding something we're going to buy but we're not ready yet yeah should
be different phrases yeah this is so good we've done a couple episodes guys on shopping so go back
to episode 1286 which is how shopping for jeans is like finding a new city very interesting episode
there i love that comparison yeah i know you have to dig into the episode to see what it's all about
check it out guys but yeah you know what sometimes people come up to you in a shop and you're just
not wanting to engage like you're not ready to buy how does that feel to you when that happens aubry
when a sales person comes up to you i because i have the phrases i need that we are going to teach
you today i don't mind you know i know what to say to let them know that i'm just looking i'm just
browsing and then they're very polite and they'll say okay let me know if you need help right if i
didn't have that vocabulary if i didn't know what to say i could imagine that being a stressful
situation because i i need to know how to let them know like i don't want to leave i'm going
to buy something but i'm not ready yet and that's tricky you need the vocab yeah oh my gosh i love
that idea right vocab is your armor in situations where maybe you feel pressured or maybe you just
it is your armor guys and in that moment you know we talk about connection not perfection but you
don't want to connect but you don't want to create you don't want to feel cold to the person right
you don't want to be rude or dismissive you want to be kind but what can you say yes that's the key
all right so where are we going to get started today aubry let's give it to our listeners our
first expression this is ideal is to say i'm just looking thanks really i love that thanks right i'm
just looking thanks and you don't have to share what you're looking for what you're shopping for
this expression just is telling them that you don't need help you're not ready to buy yet
you're still looking it's very polite and it's going to be appropriate no matter what store
you're in yeah so what is the intonation so you said the intonation is really important here so
can you demonstrate it for our listeners again sure yeah you do want to be sort of polite and
respectful in your tone because listen to the difference if i say we're just looking thanks
you want to be polite and respectful to say we're just looking thank you we're just looking thanks
oh we're just looking thanks yeah that sounds friendly i'll smile and it sounds more kind
yeah smiling is huge you know it's not easy working in customer service especially in retail
clothing retail i would think i've never done it have you done it yes i have i worked for a
sporting goods retail place art sports i think it was called when i was in college and it was
difficult you know people are busy and so sometimes they don't remember to be kind and
part of my job description was to ask them if they needed help and yeah i got some you know impolite
ways of people saying that they didn't need help they were just looking and then
people who would respond like this right kindly respectfully just letting me know they're looking
and i definitely preferred that i appreciated that yeah i mean i think the key is we have to
remember everyone's human right we're all human and we're gonna feel hurt
even if you just see them as a salesperson they're a human being and they deserve respect so guys
we wanna make sure you have the words to give that respect you wanna give in the world
okay definitely okay let's dive into our next one here okay what is it aubrey this is i'm just
browsing right so to browse means to look through items that are for sale in a casual way
so it's very similar to i'm just looking just a synonym for that to be browsing yeah browsing
thanks yeah i like how this implies like you're not you're probably not ready to buy
something so you probably don't need any help because you're not looking to get a fit right
you don't need the fitting room you're just kind of browsing you're not committing it's very
non-committal would you say yeah for sure i think about this if you're going to like a flea market
you really are interested in just seeing what's for sale you're browsing you're wanting to see
everything you're not looking for something in particular right lindsay and i rarely
browse because yeah shopping we know what we need we have a list we're not browsing no
i would rather stay home look online and see what i need and then go to the store or better go to
amazon yes i shouldn't say that small business saturday no we do have this thing small business
saturday a couple times a year i like that right because then downtowns won't go out of business
you see downtowns because of online shopping being kind of run down in the us nowadays
right oh and it is so sad i love to support those smaller shops yeah but it is it's harder
for someone like me who doesn't like to browse to want to go and and check out the shops and
see what they have it's so much easier just to go to walmart or oh my gosh amazon and you have a big
family you have you know kids around the house you're just going back and forth from sports and
school and i don't even know how you get it all done i know i don't either i don't i don't get it
so yeah i mean okay so yeah that is what it is support your local businesses if you can guys
but these are the words you're going to need in that situation okay we have that third let's go
to the next one okay all right so this is the word peruse okay which this is really interesting i am
excited to talk about this word because the meaning has changed in the past it meant to
inspect something very carefully but the meaning has changed and dictionaries are even being
updated that oh my gosh it means to just look over something to glance you might talk about
perusing a magazine article just skimming it and you might peruse the shoe selection right we're
just perusing your shoe selection thank you oh i didn't know that it had changed so before do you
know what we would inspect carefully exactly are we talking about something we were about to buy
or just any kind of thing right yeah i was i found this on a list of it was like the 25 words that
we use incorrectly and peruse was on there and so i looked in the dictionary and it's like if
a machine if you were wanting to make sure it was working correctly or if you're going to buy a car
yeah you're really going to inspect the car oil and then you're going to peruse the car
and we just use it that way anyway so this is fascinating how language changes dictionaries have
to be updated to match how we actually use it well it kind of makes sense if you think about it how
our countries move from the industrial age into kind of the consumer age right we're a consumer
consumer society right we're not doing as much production manufacturing industrialization
and so that makes sense why it changed with economies interesting has changed but if you are
learning english in a textbook you likely would have an outdated incorrect meaning of this word
not incorrect i mean it used to be correct but as far as how natives actually use it today
we always use peruse now to mean to glance at something to look it over briefly it does not
mean inspecting in detail like you might see a definition for it we'll use it that way that's
another great episode idea guys hit follow so you don't miss these ideas they're just coming
from everywhere so good um peruse and by the way that sounds very high level to me you know this
is very native and natural this word peruse so if you guys are working towards that 99 fluency level
add this to your vocabulary yes definitely it's impressive right use it at work use it because it
is impressive not every native even uses it all the time they're going to understand it they're
going to know what it means they see it on the news they see it in news articles they hear it
on the movies but the average person might not say it very often so it is impressive because of that
yes i love it so good so should we what should we do aubry should we jump into a role play for a
yes let's do a role play here so in this role play lindsay you're shopping at a flea market
and i am a vendor at one of the stalls okay ready all right here we go may i help you
oh no thanks i'm just looking okay let me know if you need any help i was actually just perusing
your jewelry here oh yes all of it is handcrafted oh it's beautiful thank you well don't mind me
i'll just be browsing oh so common this feels so real right exactly and yeah it doesn't even feel
forced to use all of them in this conversation because exactly we would right so first
when i asked if i could help you say oh no thanks i'm just looking letting me know don't need help
don't need extra information but then i kind of love this that you sort of do want to engage in
a conversation you're letting me know i'm not ready to buy right now but then you said i'm
actually just perusing your jewelry here meaning i'm just like looking over it i'm appreciating it
admiring it yeah usually i think that's kind of the psychology of interactions when someone comes
on strong and then you kind of push them back and then you go back they're likely to move forward
it's kind of like a dance right that's true good point that's a great phrase to pull them back in
but yes i actually do want to talk to you right exactly so confusing customers right um and then
at the end finally i said it's beautiful and it's guys by the way pro tip here if you're going to a
place like a flea market or a farmer's market or a craft fair you do want to be complimenting you
know the artist or the chef or something on their thing it's really important because these are
personal these people have crafted these things in their homes usually right right a lot of them
have made these things by hand so it's handcrafted yes not they're spending time collecting something
they love and think is beautiful so this would be really an appropriate place to criticize
right yeah you're going to say anything make sure it's nice make sure it's a compliment exactly and
maybe make that extra effort to say something to connect maybe they have a story to tell you
right if you show a little interest they'll tell you about the fact that they live by the ocean
and the sunrise looks like this in the morning so they painted it right so you can have a nice
chance to practice english and connect here guys yeah okay i love it if you're looking for
interesting people to talk to man flea markets are a gold mine right because they're right
interesting people who have explored interesting places and are artistic often great people to
strike up a comfort and often i find they like to chat so actually that's a good point maybe
we'll talk about that another day is how can you just go to a flea market and practice obviously
be in the market to buy something too but it's a really cool place to have those conversations
yes so most people have time to chat cause they're there with their stall if there's nobody around
they're gonna love to talk to you yeah i love it i love it and then at the end this is a good phrase
a bonus phrase for today guys i said well don't mind me i'll just be browsing so guys write that
one down aubrey what does that mean don't mind me don't mind me don't worry about me don't let
me bother you my presence right if they're busy doing something else this is a great thing to say
don't mind me don't let me bother you yeah i'll just be browsing meaning i'm going to continue
looking here but you don't have to feel like you need to assist me yeah i love how natural
that is that is so good guys write that one down this has been so good aubrey what's the
takeaway for our listeners yes these phrases are so great if you're shopping and need that
vocabulary to express that you're just looking or that you're not ready to buy you also need to keep
in mind with the peruse we saw language is always evolving and changing you want to be finding your
information in the right way like a podcast like ours the way natives actually speak
don't rely on textbooks that can be outdated yeah and don't forget when you're shopping it
is a good opportunity to connect if you want to right connection not perfection imagine how much
you could practice just in a short exchange with a salesperson right this these are opportunities
they're everywhere guys if you just look for them okay look for them and be willing to put yourself
out there a little bit and yes you can make those connections with really fun interesting people
yeah good stuff aubry all right i'll talk to you very soon have a good day you too bye