Improve your social skills with Bar English!!!

http://www.engvid.com/ Do you want to know "what's on tap" and save money while in your local bar? Then take this lesson and find out why! You'll also learn the meanings of "it's on me", "last call", "cut off", and other expressions you can use in a bar. Test your beer IQ with the quiz, too: http://www.engvid.com/bar-english/

TRANSCRIPT

Hi. James from EngVid. I've had a little to drink. Hold on. Sorry. James from EngVid. I had a little to drink with my friend Mr. E. Today we're going to do "bar talk", and why it's very important. You know what you're getting. So let me tell you a little story, okay?

I was sober when I started this video, and then, well, Mr. E invited me out to a bar. He said, "It's on me." I'm not a rich man, but I'm a smart man, so I said, "Sure, I'll go with you." So, you know, we go to the bar, and he said, "You know what? It's cheaper to get a pitcher than it is to buy a glass of beer." And I went, "That's great." So he goes up to the bartender, and he says, "Bartender -- barkeep, he said, what's on tap? What's on tap?" "Well", the bartender said, "Well, what can I get you? Bud? Blue? Ex? Amsterdam Light? Whatever." Mr. E -- pardon me. So Mr. E said, "Sure, but I've got my own drink, and it's my own creation. It's two parts beer, one part vodka, one part you don't need to know." Okay, so it doesn't matter. He brings this back. I'm sitting at the table. I drink it. After two seconds, I'm moving around like this about to fall because this drink was really potent, terribly potent. You can see the worm goes here. I got intoxicated in about five seconds. The police had to be called. And you know what? The bartender said, "Hey, dude, you're cut off, and take the worm with you." Long story.

Now, this is "bar talk". Because in Canada and many places across the world, we use a lot of the words I've given you, all this vocabulary, to explain or express things. And today, I'm going to let you into our secret world, so you can socialize and improve your English.

So let's go back to the beginning. What did I say? I said I was "sober". Well, if you don't have any alcohol whatsoever, which is this, okay? You don't have any of this, you're going to be "sober" -- no alcohol. I have no alcohol in my body. Now, here's the good thing: When you go to a bar, you want somebody to say to you, "It's on me". What that means is they are paying. Now, if you say these magical words, "it's on me", you're paying. Please take this from your vocabulary. Otherwise, they're always going to go, "Who's paying?" "It's on him." "Great. He's paying." Okay? So "sober" is the first word -- no alcohol. So when you're driving, you should be sober, really. "It's on me" -- somebody's paying money, right? Whoever says that, they're the one who's going to pay.

Now, here is a "mug". It's not a word I put in for your little quiz at the end. Don't forget you have a quiz. But there's a mug or a jug of -- a mug of beer. A pitcher is bigger. It's like a big thing. So it has two, three or four glasses of beer. Because it has so much in one container, it's called a pitcher, and it's cheaper. So you can go to a bar in Canada and go, "I want a pitcher of beer", and they'll give it to you, and it will be cheaper than buying bottles. Remember the bottle I showed you? Right? It would be two, three, four of these. Save money. Drink more.

"On tap": This is a -- well, it's because it's different. "On tap" means it's not from a bottle; it comes from, like, a "tap" -- in your house, where you wash your dishes. It comes from a keg. And a keg looks like this. I'm a really horrible drawer, so forgive me, okay? Forgive me, for I am about to sin in many ways. A keg looks like something like that, and it's on tap. So the beer comes out of that. Yeah, I know. Listen, this is an expensive special effects department we have here, okay? Imagine this, and your mug goes here. There's your pitcher, and they put the beer in there. So it comes from a keg. So if you say, "What's on tap?" -- at every bar, in Germany, and other places as well, in Japan, they have these taps, and they pour the beer. You've seen them do that. They pour the beer from there -- not a bottle, which is more expensive. So you go, "What's on tap, man? Give me some good Canadian stuff."

Next, the bartender will probably say -- if you're not talking about beer, which is the first part, but you want other alcoholic drinks, he or she might say, "What can I get you?" You think "get" is "go somewhere", and they're meaning, "Yes, I'm going to leave talking to you, go behind, arrange or make a drink for you, and bring it back." And they usually say, "What can I get you?" Yeah, you're slowing it down now, saying, "What did he say?" "What can I get you?" "What can I get you?" That is, "May I help you? May I serve you?" Cool?