VIP Class Notes (Raph)[S][R]

Vocabulary

Cuisine (n): 1- a style of cooking:
E.g.: French cuisine is famous all over the world.
E.g.: I always enjoy trying cuisines from different countries.

Raw (adj): 1- (of food) not cooked.
E.g.: In Heilongjiang province, people eat raw fish for breakfast.

Rip-off (v/n): 1- something that is not worth what you pay for it:
E.g.: That taxi driver tried to rip me off.
E.g.: $300 for that shirt? – That’s a complete rip-off.

Diner (n): 1- who is eating a meal, especially in a restaurant. 2- in the US, a small informal and inexpensive restaurant, often at the side of the road
E.g.: The diners finished their meals, paid the bill, and left the restaurant.
E.g.: We stopped at a diner to have lunch on the way to San Francisco.

Mayor (n): 1- the head and main leader of the city government
E.g.: The mayor has promised to fix the roads as soon as the rainy season is over.

Episode (n): 1– a single event or group of related events; something that happens. 2- one of the single parts into which a story is divided, especially when it is broadcast on the television or radio
E.g.: That was one of the funniest episodes of my life.
E.g.: Zoe has watched all episodes of the first season of Big Little Lies.

Disgraceful (adj): 1- very bad.
E.g.: She thought that their attitude was absolutely disgraceful.

Scam (n/v): 1- an illegal plan for making money, especially one that involves tricking people.
E.g.: This scam has left many people with no money in their bank accounts.
E.g.: He was scammed by the salesman.

Q: What do you do for a living?
A: I work for two different French companies, doing many different things.

Speaking exercise

Original:

When I was a intern that was my first time to came to Shanghai, and when I eat some food in my company it was really sweet and in my hometown we like some dishes that are really salty, not sweet. There is one time I eat some kind of noodles and they will put the eggs and tomato on top of the noodles, it’s really strange to me. We always eat eggs and tomato as a dish, we would never put it on top of noodles. In my hometown we always eat some fresh fish without cooking, and sushi style, but when I talked this to my colleagues they are from Shanghai they are quite shocked about this. And for breakfast we eat some kind of soup with tofu in it. In my hometown, it is spicy, but here in SHanghai it is sweet, they will put sugar in it.

Edited:

Shanghainese cuisine is quite different from the one in my hometown.  The first time I came to Shanghai was when I was an intern, and when I ate some food in my company, it was really sweet. In my hometown we like dishes that are really salty, not sweet. One time I ate some kind of noodles with eggs and tomatoes on top. It was really strange to me, because we always eat eggs and tomatoes as a dish, and would never put it on top of noodles. In my hometown we always eat fresh raw fish, sushi style, but when I talked about this to my Shanghainese colleagues they were quite shocked. For breakfast we eat a kind of tofu soup. In my hometown, it is spicy, but here in Shanghai it is sweet, because they put sugar in it.

Reading

Japanese Tourists Call Police Over Rip-off Restaurant Bill
(Source: breakingnewsenglish.com/1801/180124-rip-off-restaurant.html)

Four Japanese tourists are very angry after a restaurant in Venice, Italy charged them €1,100 ($1,350) for a dinner of steak, fish and water. In fact, the four tourists say they were ripped off (overcharged) for their meal. The four diners are students and study in the city of Bologna. They were on a day trip to Venice and decided to have dinner at a restaurant near the world-famous St Mark’s Square on Friday. As well as the police looking into this incident, the mayor of Venice has promised he would also take action. The mayor said: “If this disgraceful episode is confirmed, we’ll do all we can to punish those responsible. We are for justice – always.”

It is common for tourists to be overcharged anywhere in the world. Tourism groups in Venice are worried about the Japanese tourists saying they were ripped off. This is because there have been many similar cases recently of rip-off prices in Venice. One tourism group tweeted: “Whoever puts the good name of Venice at risk, harms all Venetians.” The restaurant has a very low 1.5 (out of 5) rating on the website TripAdvisor.com. A huge 83 per cent of visitors gave it a “Terrible” rating. One TripAdvisor user complained that: “The food was very average….They added almost €50 in taxes and a tip – these are the hidden fees that they don’t tell you about. And the service wasn’t that good. I feel scammed.”

Grammar

As more as I can – As many / much as I can.

When I back to China. – When I came back to China.

Pronunciation

Tomato: /təˈmeɪ.t̬oʊ/

Sushi: /ˈsuː.ʃi/

Style: /staɪl/

Cuisine: /kwɪˈziːn/

Dinner: /ˈdɪn.ɚ/

Diner:  /ˈdaɪ.nɚ/

Punish: /ˈpʌn.ɪʃ/

Disgraceful: /dɪsˈɡreɪs.fəl/

Hide: /haɪd/

Hidden: /ˈhɪd.ən/

Episode: /ˈep.ə.soʊd/