Contents
=> “Market Talk” - vocab and gap-fill activity
=> “Dear Reader” - a question about money in Russia
=> What’s Happening
=> In the Next Issue

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“Market Talk” - vocab and gap-fill activity
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Here are 7 expressions about money. Most of them are negative, which shows you how suspicious we are about doing business!

1. LOSE YOUR SHIRT (verb) = to lose a lot of money in a bet or investment. “We really lost our shirt putting money into that Flouridated Candy Company.”

2. PEANUTS (noun) = very little money. “She works for peanuts.”

3. RIP OFF = (verb) to cheat someone. “They ripped me off at the market when they sold me that sour milk.” (noun) That store is a rip-off (e.g. too expensive).

4. SCAM = (noun) A program to cheat people of their money. “You should hope to make big money fast; if someone promises you that it’s probably a scam.”

5. SHORTCHANGE (verb) = when someone gives you less change than they should. “That cashier shortchanged me.”

6. SUCKER (noun) = someone who is not smart, gullible, who is easy to cheat. “Con-men are always on the lookout for a sucker.”

7. TALK SOMEONE DOWN (verb) = to bargain with a salesperson until he lowers the price. “It took a while, but I talked them down to 150 dollars on that TV.”

SENTENCES AND GAP-FILL

Can you put the above expressions in the blanks below, in their proper form? All the sentences below are authentic English. Kevin didn’t invent them. He searched through internet chat rooms and list-serves and extracted these real-life sentences.

<>VOCAB<>
yucky = slang for unpleasant, disgusting.

1. This bus tour only cover 30 miles and it cost $70 just for one day. I was expecting around 20 dollars. $70 dollars is way too expensive. This is pure ___________.

2. I might try once in a while to ____________________ on a price but overall, I find it pretty yucky if I’m expected to haggle.

3. It matters that you get your maths right because if you don’t, you’ll get _____________ at the newsstand/hotdog vendor/appliance store.

4. Have things gotten so desperate that we are willing to work for _____________ in jobs that we are overqualified for? Like, be thankful you’re working at all?

5. They all promise to make you rich overnite. Don’t believe them or you will _____________by tomorrow night.

6 and 7: I decided to compile a list of morons who have demonstrated through past deeds that they will buy just about anything from anyone. [C]ountless
con-men who make billions of dollars a year off of the _________ whose names, addresses, and telephone numbers are all they need to get their _____________ started.

Answers after “Dear Reader.”

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“Dear Reader”: An Advice Column Story
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In America we have lots of Advice Columns, where readers of a newspaper write in with problems such as: “My boyfriend thinks I should grow my hair long. But I like it short. He is always looking at girls with long hair. What should I do?”

So this time, I am asking your advice.

A few nights I ago I came home from Ussuriisk, and went into a shop to get some food. The total was 38 roubles. I gave the clerk 50 roubles. She
gave me back 2 roubles, and then a 50 rouble note. Obviously she thought that the 50 was a 10-rouble note.

I told her that she was giving me too much change. She didn’t say anything. She just took back the 50 and gave me a 10.

One nice thing about doing the right thing is that you know you have done the right thing. Another nice thing is when you get recognition for doing the right
thing. But this scenario has occurred to me 3 or 4 times in Russia, and the sales people have NEVER said thank you. It makes me feel as if they think I’m an idiot for telling the truth.

Or is it because they have lost face? Can my Russian readers write and give me advice. Why is this? And next time, should I say nothing and take the extra money?

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What’s Happening
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The WINTER METHODOLOGY SCHOOL hosted by FEELTA (the Far Eastern English Language Teacher’s Association) will be held in Vladivostok on January 29-31.

The cost is 50 roubles per day, and those who attend all three days will receive a certificate.

Presenting alongside qualified local methodologists will be Americans Jennifer Crandall (Senior English Language Fellow from Khabarovsk), Nelson Thacker
(Instructor at FESU), and Kevin McCaughey (that cute guy).

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Answers to “Market Talk” gap-fill
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1. rip-off
2. talk someone down
3. shortchanged
4. peanuts
5. lose your shirt
6/7. suckers, scam

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In the Next Issue (around January 11th, 2004)
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New People Types! And what’s a Caucasian?

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Copyright 2003 Kevin McCaughey & I.M. Poosheesty
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