节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2012-01-13
难易度:Low
关键字:responsibility, scary, barrier, invest, option, restaurateur
(Music).
Hello, friends.
Welcome back.
Today we are talking about starting a business.
Have you ever wanted to start a small business?
Well, today we are talking about Starting a Restaurant.
Now I think starting a restaurant would be very exciting.
I've never had the opportunity to work at a restauran.
But I'm enjoying learning about the challenges and the reward of starting your
own restaurant.
Let's continue talking to Francis Beauvais on the challenges and the fun of
running his own business on line 14.
Starting a Restaurant.
The local market is very different than the market back home.
The idea of failing was also scary, but I was very focused on what I wanted to
do.
I invested everything I had in this business.
So for me, failing was really not an option.
How did you prepare yourself to open the business?
I've worked in restaurants nearly all my life.
My dad was a restaurateur, and I started working with him when I was 14.
So we've talked about a language barrier being a problem when you start a
business in a new country.
But what else can get in the way?
Well, Francis Beauvais was telling us about the scariest thing.
Of course, language barrier was difficult for him.
But he also says the local market is very different from the market back home.
Now that makes a lot of sense, especially if you're starting your restaurant.
There are all different kinds of people who want different things.
And in different countries, things are run, well, differently.
Exactly, yeah.
Now Kaylah, we're talking about starting a small business.
It's not an easy thing to do.
But even more so, starting a restaurant is even harder than starting most other
businesses.
And this is one of those reasons - you have to know what is in the market you
are selling to.
Absolutely. It's important to understand the people that you want to be bringing
in.
He said, "The idea of failing was also scary, but I wasn't... I was..." He says,
"I was very focused on what I wanted to do." He wasn't concerned.
He didn't let the fear stop him.
He was so focused on what he wanted.
Yeah. When you are focused on something, that means you are... you know
everything you need to do and you're not distracted by other things.
Are you a focused person?
When you study or when you go to work, do you focus?
Are you focusing, friends, on your English as you study?
I know it is hard for me to focus on life a lot of the time.
Yeah, actually me too.
But we hope that you can focus now as we learn how Francis Beauvais wanted... he
knew what he wants to do,
and he's telling us how he actually started his new business.
He said that he was so focused; he was a little bit scared of it, but he decided
to go for it.
He invested everything he had in this business.
All right. Now he invested everything.
If you "invest," it means you spend time and effort to do something, or even
more, you can spend money.
Usually when you invest money, you spend money to try and get money back.
And that's exactly what he did.
He spent the money to build a business to get money back.
He said, "So for me, failing was really not an option," because he put all of
his money into this.
So if he failed, he would lose everything.
So it was not an option.
Right. And "option" is referring to a choice you have.
And so he said, "Well, if I fail, that is not a choice." It's like saying I can
not fail.
And that's a good way to think about it.
When he was starting his business, if he thought, "Maybe I could fail," then he
should not do it.
But he was confident and he has focused.
And you should focus because here's Liz with our Grammar on the Go.
Hi, friends. How are you doing today?
My name is Liz, and it's time for Grammar on the Go.
In today's article, we read: So for me, failing was really not an option.
That's our Grammar Tip sentence for today.
And our focus is on the phrase at the end of the sentence, not an option.
An option is a choice.
When you have several choices that you can choose from, you have several
options.
But when we say something is not an option, we're saying that something would
not be considered.
In the case of today's sentence, failing was something that could never be
considered.
In other words, failing was really not acceptable.
Let's look at some other example sentences.
Even though Rose was not doing well in her studies, she knew that quitting
school was not an option.
Or: Knowing that surrendering was not an option, the soldiers fought to the
bitter end.
If you have a copy of this month's magazine with you, be sure to take a look at
today's Grammar Tip section for more example sentences.
That's all the time we have for today.
I'll see you next time.
Until then, this is Liz with Grammar on the Go, signing off. Bye-bye.
Thank you, Liz.
So now Studio Classroom is asking their next question to Francis Beauvais.
They say: How did you prepare yourself to open the business?
This is a very important piece of the story.
If you're not ready to open a business, you should not open a business.
That's right.
Many people might think, "Well, I have the money and I have the resources that I
need, so let's just go!" But, no.
There is more planning.
And so we're going to see how Francis planned now.
I can tell you from experience, my family owns a small business where we build
things, and my dad runs it.
He prepared himself by studying under other construction people.
He studied how to build things.
But if you're starting a restaurant, you need to study really hard on how to
work well in a restaurant.
Yes. Well, Francis did have a lot of experience.
He says: I worked in restaurants my entire life.
And so he's had a lot of time to learn how to run a restaurant.
He says: My dad was a restaurateur, and I started working with him when I was
14.
That's great.
A "restaurateur" is someone who owns and operates a restaurant.
You can actually see the word "restaurant" in that word.
That's right.
If you think about it, he's just a restaurant owner.
But we have this very fancy way of saying it.
Yes. I think actually, Kaylah, this comes from the French language, and so...
That's right. It's like the word entrepreneur.
Exactly, yeah And that's why we pronounce it - restaurateur.
It's not fully in English, but English has taken that word from French.
Exactly. And so now we see Francis spent a lot of time working with his dad at
the age of 14.
He's had a lot of time to get experience working in a restaurant and now
managing a restaurant.
Ryan, did you work at age 14?
No. I was too busy sleeping in at age 14.
Oh. So we see here that Francis Beauvais was also a hard worker if he started
working at... at the young age of 14.
Yes. You can tell he really has what it takes to own a business, to start a
restaurant if he spent so much of his life working, but also working in a
restaurant.
Well, I'm excited to see how his restaurant works so well and what he does to
keep it running.
We're going to talk about that more tomorrow.
But I would like to visit the Chat Room.
Hey, Bryan.
Hi, Ken.
Wow! Those fruit look so fresh.
Where did you get them?
I just went to the farmer's market in Wellington and got them there.
Wellington? That's like 30 miles away.
Why travel all that distance when there's a perfectly nice supermarket right
across the street?
Uh, Ken, the farmer's market is very different than the supermarket across the
street.
They grow their fruit and vegetables right there on the farm.
Oh, I see.
Um, Bryan, why did you say "different than"?
Isn't it supposed to be "different from"?
Ah. That's a great question, Ken.
Why don't we have Studio Classroom Editor-in-Chief Doris explain this one for
us.
OK.
Both "different from" and "different than" are standard, so both are acceptable.
In England, you'll even hear people say "different to." But if I have to pick
one,
I would choose "different from," especially when using it in the formal speaking
or writing.
OK, I see.
So if I'm not sure which one to use, I should just use different from.
That's right.
"Different from" is preferred by most people.
OK, got it.
Well, thanks for the lesson.
You're welcome, Ken.
Here. Have one of the guavas.
Wow, thanks.
Now this is really different from the ones they sell at the supermarket.
Isn't it, though?
(Chinese).
(Chinese).
And you won't have any language barriers if you keep listening to us.
I'll see you next time. Bye-bye.
Thanks for those tips, Michelle.
Friends, starting any business is hard.
Starting a restaurant is really hard.
Consultants in the restaurant business say that if you want to open a place to
eat and you're not a little scared, then something is wrong with you.
When you open a restaurant, everything matters, even something as simple as the
name.
It could very well influence your success.
A restaurant name should be easy to remember, easy to spell, and it should set
your restaurant apart from your competition,
like the name "Steve's Place," for example.
Friends, we have three more questions for our restaurateur tomorrow.
Join us then, and have a great day.
Bye-bye.