this is an all-ears English podcast episode 1950 take these English expressions for a test drive
welcome to the all ears English podcast downloaded more than 200 million times are you feeling stuck
with your English we'll show you how to become fearless and fluent by focusing on connection not
Perfection with your American hosts Lindsay McMahon the English Adventurer and Michelle
Kaplan the New York radio girl coming to you from Colorado and New York City USA and to get
your transcripts delivered by email every week go to allearsenglish.com forward slash subscribe
have you ever bought a car today you'll learn four new Expressions
that are useful on the car buying lot and in dozens of other contexts like trying out
new software a job interview and more listen in to learn more today [Music]
hello Lindsay how are you hi Michelle how's it going my voice is a little bit down
today because I got a cold but I will bounce back very soon so all you are doing awesome
um have you do you have a car um actually at the moment I okay I have to be honest I
haven't owned a car in like 20 years well I have a car my partner and I share a car but
I don't have my own car like my own car you know yeah you too me too yeah well Dan drives to work
um and I never drive because I'm just in the city and uh so we so we have a car but uh yeah
so I but sometimes like I wish that I had a car because it could be helpful in some scenarios but
I don't know I really uh the I I probably need a car like once a month it would be nice you know
yeah I know I feel like um there's such a divide in the US between suburban and urban America in
the suburbs if you said that to someone that you haven't owned a car for 20 years they think you're
crazy just crazy but in the city and in a lot of international cities that's totally normal
yeah yeah I mean I I don't drive anywhere like sometimes on the weekend just to like keep up
my skills I'll be like you know for a drive I'll be like oh I want to try I'm like because I don't
want to get too rusty but um yeah but anyway um it would be it would be nice maybe to to have a
car I mean they're just so expensive especially nowadays oh my gosh after the Health crisis and
yeah the chip shortage and all this stuff that happened and I'm not really sure if those Supply
chains are quite evened out yet or what's going on there but I know that for a while used cars
were super expensive in the U.S yeah yeah yeah I was going to buy a car you know but like I thought
when I had my baby that I was gonna like when we had two kids like I wouldn't I wouldn't need
the car and I thought I was gonna have a car but but then um yeah I mean she's like 10 months old
and no car no car and like there's no plans of getting a car car free car free so you just do
a lot of walking right in the city with the kids yeah yeah oh a lot of a lot of walking so okay
um but uh you know we're gonna talk about this today we're gonna talk about I mean have you ever
I mean you have purchased the car or you have a car so you've been to like a car dealership yes
yep so what's what's your what is that experience like let's give our listeners well I think people
have sort of an impression of sort of walking onto especially a used car lot or just a car dealership
in general as being like you know you're gonna be people that you know the sales person might
try to take advantage of you and you're gonna have to negotiate and haggle and all this stuff there's
actually very few places in American culture that we bargain or that we uh negotiate actually this
is a huge but this is one of them I mean like if you if you just were to go in and be like oh
that's the price okay great I think that would be like what yeah but think about it like how many
other places in American culture can you really do that obviously we don't do that at the grocery
store uh you know we don't do that when we go to the pharmacy I guess when you buy a house you do
formal offers and counter offers but that's all written now I mean where else do we even do it
that's a really good question I think I mean like I think if you were to ask you know people like
what is the number one place you know in in the US like what like what's the number one things
that's negotiated I think car cars I think a lot of people would say that yeah very interesting
good to know because I know in other cultures I mean I know Michelle you've traveled the world
a fair amount other places negotiate on many many things right you went to India right and
I'm sure there's a lot more negotiation going on there yeah there was a lot there was a lot
um so yeah I mean it and it's it's interesting you know sometimes though there are instances where
you wonder like hmm could I negotiate on this like we were just talking about some the other day I
can't remember what it was and I was like you know would it be in a pro is this a in new situation
sometimes I still like will get confused like could I you know maybe throw away another number
I don't know yeah good question like what was the situation just out of curiosity well I'm trying
to remember what it was I I think some service that we were going to use I mean maybe that like
right okay like somebody coming into to Plumbing or something yeah something like that yeah yeah
maybe maybe like can you do it for he quotes you at 250 can you do it for 200 yeah I could see that
I could see that actually I remember I remember now we had someone installing a dishwasher and
they called us like a super high price and we did end up like negotiating a town so like something
like that might be but it's like it's hard because then if somebody like has a paper with I think
that's like if like if somebody doing some sort of work on your house has like a paper with a
price like that might happen but if they have like a if you see some price on paper I don't
know you know it's a it's a hard thing I will say that yeah in all my years of life there are still
times of uh of confusion as to if it's okay to negotiate I'll be honest yeah yeah we can do
other episodes on this even over on our business English podcast we could talk about this because
I mean this is why we probably pay like overpay when we travel abroad because we're not used to
so guys we also want you to listen to Ollie's English episode 1526 which is go
for a drive in English with Lindsay and Michelle so here's my father Driving Experience is there
um today uh today we're going to talk about some vocab you might hear when purchasing
purchasing a car but the cool thing is these are also useful for many different things yes
so we're gonna we're gonna talk about that today so we have a three really useful expression oh
actually Four uh that we're gonna go through and and and talk about it good for the car
dealership and good for Life yeah this is fun I'm I can see that these can really be useful
for other things as well beyond just cars so this is kind of cool so here we go all right
should I go into the first one Michelle let's do it all right take it for a spin
yeah well I mean what does that mean so literally speaking about car right yeah this is when you go
to the car dealership and you take it out they give you the keys if you want to just try out
that car or maybe your friend just got a cool car and then you can try out his car really
just testing it out but it's not just for the car right it could be for testing anything out
I think so I mean yeah well I mean so if it could be different things like for example I could say
oh I want to see if you like my new phone here take it for a spin I mean it's kind of a joke
because it's fun yeah it's just it's just fun we know it's it's mostly associated with cars but you
can you can play with it yeah I'm trying to think about horror okay I just got a new pair of skis
um and I demoed them and I'm you know I took so I took them for a spin right you could say that
you want to take these first spin see what you think that's similar to a car because you're
kind of moving but I mean you could take a lot of things like uh or even like oh here you know
we're testing out these new laptops at the office take it for a spin tell me what you think of this
laptop model right right right when you're giving something a try yeah giving it a try demoing it
but then if we want to come back to the actual car you can say okay you ready to take it for
a spin you can go around the block and come back mm-hmm exactly so yeah usually when you go to the
car dealership then you get to try out you know the cars and they usually I think they usually
come with you actually do they yeah probably yeah I think so um yeah so that's kind of a
fun thing you can do when you're shopping for a car um what's another another expression okay uh
test drive same idea Michelle what does this mean yeah test out test drive yeah I mean yeah exactly
so I mean that's that's basically what it is so you could say take it for a test drive and
then if you like it we can go over the special deal for Thanksgiving weekend right so again
um if you're talking like if we want to apply this to life different aspects of Life what would be
an example of something that we could say oh we're just taking this for a test drive this
new idea or this new plan what do you think well I I think that like this is really good for some
sort of like technology uh you know um like you know uh take let's think of a piece of technology
um I don't know I could see if I was like at you know a store looking at TVs okay and you
know some the the salesman might you know make a joke it's like oh take it for a test drive sit
down like watch them watch an episode or something you know it's not as common you know but I I think
that these are more just kind of cute cute jokes then right yeah for sure for sure well what about
I was thinking like um when you know whenever we bring on a new member of our team here we we do
some podcast recording just to see how things go right could that could that work there you know
take it for a test drive let's you know that kind of idea I'm just thinking about how this could
apply even to the Working World right right take this job for a test drive right right right you
said let's do it let's do a test drive see how it goes to see how this episode goes like something
like that exactly so just to keep it kind of fun because sometimes in a new job people can feel a
lot of pressure right so what we're words can we use to build the connection with someone to break
down that pressure a little bit not make them feel so nervous right right right test drive so that's
just kind of a fun way to do it and then the next one is just give it a try guys you've probably
heard this one right so this could be used at the car dealership or it could be used in life right
um very frequently about other things or even about food right uh like oh come on give it a
try it's homemade something like that right right I love it um okay good or you want to give my new
computer a try I know you were thinking of getting one right so just very straightforward mm-hmm
okay and we have one more Michelle what is it the last one is try it for yourself so this is just
another way of saying give it and give it a try so you could say uh you know the the car salesman
might say this is the best car try it for yourself nice all right so what's the general feeling of
these Expressions Michelle I think that these are very encouraging to use to show someone that they
can try something new like you talked about I mean I love that example of starting out you know like
somebody coming to all of his English and giving an episode a test drive or yeah something like
that I think they're in they're encouraging it's like oh let's try it out it's kind of exciting
even if you use something like test drive not in a car context it's kind of exciting and neutral and
I think it's just encouraging it shows that you're open and you're connecting like ah let's give it
a test drive yeah it's kind of funny I've never thought about it that way before but you could
do that you know we can be you know we're giving you guys permission to be a little bit um creative
with your language that's the key to connection you know you need to come up with the words that
the person needs in that moment that makes them feel connected to you right Michelle right right
right we always want to think about making people feel like welcome and especially like I mean the
sales person they want you to feel positive they want you to buy the car right so the so they want
to use language that's going to make you feel that way love it okay good so should we go ahead and do
a role play for our listeners let's do it so uh let's see we are at a car dealership okay we're
friends and we are looking for a new car okay so this time we're this is more in the literal
context of actually buying a car then in that case yeah we're doing the real the real thing here okay
ooh this one looks nice come on let's take it for a spin okay I guess a test drive would be helpful
oh for sure I can't wait to give it a try okay I'll try it then you can also try it for yourself
I need your opinion sounds good all right yeah oh I would want to bring many family members
if I went to buy a used car right like you know different people in my family who are better at
negotiating than I am uh yes that's what we did when we bought you know the car that Dan drives
um yeah I think both of our sets of parents were there oh my gosh I know for sure and there was
negotiating because you know sometimes sometimes parents are you know they if they've you know done
things before or bought cars before this is like our first you know real buying a car together as
adults and wow interesting you know it's funny how as adults use still like I mean this was a while
ago now but you know you still need your parents for those kinds of things if you haven't done it
before it's still helpful need your family you know I think well this is getting onto a whole
other topic that we don't have to go into right now but another time yeah I think in American
culture we're kind of like through not thrown out but we're expected to be super independent once
we're married like we go and figure everything out on our own but that's just not real and
that's internationally for our listeners I think people will rely more on their families you know
which is nice because there's all that wisdom you know that your parents have yeah so why go figure
it out for yourself when someone else could help you with it right right right right right I think
I think it's good too you know to admit when you you could need a little bit of help from somebody
who's done it before absolutely let's go through this role play real quick Michelle and then we'll
hop off the mic let's do it all right so here we go so I said come on let's take it for a
spin okay good yeah with enthusiasm too yes okay I guess a test drive would be helpful right and
then I said I can't wait to give it a try yeah and then I said okay I'll try it and you can
also try it for yourself I need your opinion all right all right good stuff so what's our takeaway
Guys these are fun these are useful and encouraging Expressions that can be used
you know we're talking about cars today but we were also talking about other things as well
and I like what you said Lindsay about being creative with it why not use test drive with
something other than a car right you might I mean I'm just imagining even if I was buying
a couch you know like and the salesperson said all right it's Dad give it a test drive you know
yeah is that does that completely fit no I'm not driving the couch like is it is it a traditional
thing to say no but sometimes you know just try it just try if it if it ends up you know totally
being like random to say that you know then no you know it's just like a it's just kind of a joke I
mean sometimes try and use like their expressions in different contexts and just experiment with it
yeah for sure I mean another context would be free trials for software there's a lot of free
trials out there or courses right like a free trial for a course can I take this for a test
drive and try the first lesson for free right so this is actually everywhere if you you know
look at your level guys to get to that 99 fluency look to apply literal terms in a more figurative
way that is how we get to that fluent level and connect better good stuff perfect love it
is fun and have a good day Lindsay feel feel good thanks Michelle I will take care bye [Music]
thanks for listening to all ears English would you like to know your English level take our two
minute quiz go to allearsenglish.com forward slash fluency score and if you believe in connection
not Perfection then hit subscribe now to make sure you don't miss anything see you next time