Learn how to make a simple complaint
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Michael: Hi everyone, and welcome back to FinnishPod101.com. This is Beginner Season 1 Lesson 12 - Is There a Problem with Your Finnish Meal? Michael Here. |
| Nico: Hei. I'm Nico. |
| Michael: In this lesson, you’ll learn basic expressions that are useful for making a request at a restaurant. The conversation takes place at a restaurant. |
| Nico: It's between Jukka and a waitress. |
| Michael: The speakers are in a customer service situation, so they'll be using formal Finnish. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Jukka: Anteeksi, tarjoilija! |
| Waitress: Niin, miten voin olla avuksi? |
| Jukka: Olen odottanut pääruokaani jo yli puoli tuntia. |
| Waitress: Voi, pahoitteluni. Tarkastan heti, mitä on tapahtunut. |
| Jukka:Kiitos. |
| ... |
| Waitress: Tilauksenne oli vahingossa jäänyt välistä. Olemme todella pahoillamme. Tässä on kuitenkin annoksenne, olkaa hyvä. |
| Jukka: Kiitos. Ai mutta, yksi ongelma vielä. Annoksessa on persiljaa, vaikka pyysin, että se poistetaan. Olen allerginen persiljalle. |
| Waitress: Voi, olen todella pahoillani. Talo tarjoaa teille uuden annoksen! |
| Michael: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Jukka: Anteeksi, tarjoilija! |
| Waitress: Niin, miten voin olla avuksi? |
| Jukka: Olen odottanut pääruokaani jo yli puoli tuntia. |
| Waitress: Voi, pahoitteluni. Tarkastan heti, mitä on tapahtunut. |
| Jukka:Kiitos. |
| ... |
| Waitress: Tilauksenne oli vahingossa jäänyt välistä. Olemme todella pahoillamme. Tässä on kuitenkin annoksenne, olkaa hyvä. |
| Jukka: Kiitos. Ai mutta, yksi ongelma vielä. Annoksessa on persiljaa, vaikka pyysin, että se poistetaan. Olen allerginen persiljalle. |
| Waitress: Voi, olen todella pahoillani. Talo tarjoaa teille uuden annoksen! |
| Michael: Listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Jukka: Excuse me, waitress! |
| Waitress: Yes, how may I help you? |
| Jukka: I’ve waited for my main course for over half an hour already. |
| Waitress: Oh, my apologies. I’ll check and find out what happened right away. |
| Jukka: Thank you. |
| ... |
| Waitress: Your order was accidentally skipped. We’re terribly sorry. But here’s your main dish. Here you are. |
| Jukka: Thank you. Oh, but there’s one more problem. I asked for this without parsley, but there’s parsley here. I’m allergic to parsley. |
| Waitress: Oh, I’m terribly sorry! The new meal will be on the house! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Michael: It’s quite common nowadays for people to have different diets and also allergies. Do Finnish restaurants offer alternative options? |
| Nico: Yes, they definitely offer a variety of choices for people with different diets, and requesting changes to dishes is not usually a problem. |
| Michael: And how about vegetarians? |
| Nico: Being vegetarian or vegan is relatively common in Finland, and restaurants usually have at least one vegetarian or vegan option. Also people with lactose intolerance will always have options included on the menu. |
| Michael: What if you can’t find something you can eat? |
| Nico: In those cases, making a special request is normal, and the waiters will almost always at least check with the chef to see if a dish can be altered. |
| Michael: What’s a useful word to know for these types of circumstances? |
| Nico: One good word is Ruokavalio |
| Michael:Which means "diet." Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Michael: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Nico: tarjoilija [natural native speed] |
| Michael: waitress, waiter |
| Nico: tarjoilija [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nico: tarjoilija [natural native speed] |
| Michael: Next we have.. |
| Nico: odottaa [natural native speed] |
| Michael: to wait |
| Nico: odottaa [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nico: odottaa [natural native speed] |
| Michael: Next we have.. |
| Nico: pääruoka [natural native speed] |
| Michael: main course |
| Nico: pääruoka [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nico: pääruoka [natural native speed] |
| Michael: Next we have.. |
| Nico: pahoittelu [natural native speed] |
| Michael: apology |
| Nico: pahoittelu [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nico: pahoittelu [natural native speed] |
| Michael: Next we have.. |
| Nico: tilaus [natural native speed] |
| Michael: order |
| Nico: tilaus[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nico: tilaus [natural native speed] |
| Michael: Next we have.. |
| Nico: jäädä välistä [natural native speed] |
| Michael: to be skipped |
| Nico: jäädä välistä [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nico: jäädä välistä [natural native speed] |
| Michael: Next we have.. |
| Nico: annos [natural native speed] |
| Michael: portion |
| Nico: annos [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nico: annos [natural native speed] |
| Michael: Next we have.. |
| Nico: ongelma [natural native speed] |
| Michael: problem |
| Nico: ongelma [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nico: ongelma [natural native speed] |
| Michael: Next we have.. |
| Nico: poistaa [natural native speed] |
| Michael: to remove |
| Nico: poistaa [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nico: poistaa [natural native speed] |
| Michael: Next we have.. |
| Nico: tarjota [natural native speed] |
| Michael: to offer |
| Nico: tarjota [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Nico: tarjota [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Michael: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Nico: pääruoka |
| Michael: meaning "main course." |
| Nico: It’s made up of two parts- pää meaning "main" and ruoka meaning "food." |
| Michael: Literally this means “main food.” You can use this word whenever you’re talking about a main course. What about the other dishes? |
| Nico: When you replace the pää, meaning "main," with either alku, meaning "start," or jälki, meaning "after,” you can say alkuruoka and jälkiruoka. |
| Michael: They literally mean “starter food” and “after food,” so you can see they’re the equivalent of “appetizer” and “dessert.” Can you give us an example using “main course”? |
| Nico: Sure. For example, you can say.. Pääruoka oli herkullinen. |
| Michael: ..which means "The main course was delicious." Okay, what's the next phrase? |
| Nico: Talo tarjoaa, |
| Michael: ...meaning "on the house" |
| Nico: literally it’s "the house is offering." The latter part of the expression, tarjoaa, stems from the verb tarjota, meaning "to offer." |
| Michael: When can you use it? |
| Nico: This is used to express that something is being given for free by a shop or a restaurant. |
| Michael: We learned a similar phrase a few lessons ago - are they interchangeable? |
| Nico: Ah, you mean kaupan päälle, which we saw in lesson 10. The English translation is the same, but this phrase literally says “the house is offering,” so it usually refers to an establishment of some kind. It would be kind of funny if a street vendor or individual entrepreneur said this. |
| Michael: I see. Can you give us an example using this expression? |
| Nico: Sure. For example, you can say.. Talo tarjoaa tänään ilmaisen lasin viiniä. |
| Michael: .. which means "A glass of wine is on the house today." Okay, now onto the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Michael: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to make simple complaints. In the dialogue, Jukka was in a restaurant and he had been waiting for his main course for a long time. Sometimes this can happen, so it might be necessary to approach the staff and tell them something is wrong. |
| Nico:Jukka started by getting the waitress's attention by saying Anteeksi, tarjoilija! |
| Michael: “Excuse me, waitress!” |
| Nico: Very often, the waiter or waitress will then ask you Miten voin olla avuksi? |
| Michael: “How may I help you?” This is when you can politely but firmly tell them what’s wrong. |
| Nico: And in Jukka’s case, he had been waiting a long time and so he said Olen odottanut pääruokaani jo yli puoli tuntia. |
| Michael: “I’ve waited for my main course for over half an hour already.” |
| Nico: If the dish you ordered is very late, you can start by saying Olen odottanut… |
| Michael: Meaning “I have waited…” Could you repeat it? |
| Nico: [slowly] Olen odottanut…then insert the dish you are waiting for and how long you’ve been waiting. You can also replace the expression for time with an expression for “quite long,” which is melko kauan. |
| Michael: Please give us an example. |
| Nico: Olen odottanut jälkiruokaani jo melko kauan. |
| Michael: “I’ve been waiting for my dessert for quite a long time.” In some unlucky instances, there may be additional problems with your food. Let’s hear some common expressions for these occasions. |
| Nico: Sure, here’s one. Tämä on kylmää. |
| Michael: “This is cold.” |
| Nico: Tämä on raakaa. |
| Michael: “This is raw.” |
| Nico: En tilannut tätä. |
| Michael: “I didn’t order this.” If you’re allergic to a particular ingredient, or simply just don’t like it, you may want to request a change to a dish in a restaurant. What can you say to ask whether a dish contains a particular ingredient or not? |
| Nico: If you’re allergic to, say, nuts, you can ask Sisältääkö tämä pähkinää? |
| Michael: meaning “Does this contain nuts?” |
| Nico: The structure of this sentence is Sisältääkö, meaning “to contain,” in question form plus tämä, meaning “this,” and pähkinää, “nuts.” |
| Michael: That sentence used “nuts,” but you can replace the ingredient with whatever you need to ask about. Let’s try with milk. How do you say “Does this contain milk?” |
| Nico: Sisältääkö tämä maitoa? |
| Michael: In the dialogue, Jukka didn’t want parsley in his dish. |
| Nico: So to ask whether he can have the parsley removed, he could say Voisitteko poistaa persiljan? |
| Michael: Which means “Could you remove the parsley?” |
| Nico: The verb here is in the polite conditional form, voisitteko. To make the question even more polite, you can add kiitos to the end of the sentence. |
| Michael: Can you give us a simple structure for this too? |
| Nico: Sure! You can use this structure- Voisitteko, “could you,” plus poistaa, which is “remove” in the basic form, and then the name of the ingredient. For example, Voisitteko poistaa sienet, kiitos? |
| Michael: “Could you remove the mushrooms, please?” When you’re making these requests, it’s good to mention if you are allergic to something, so the staff understand how important it is. |
| Nico: In this case, you can say something like Olen allerginen kalalle. |
| Michael: “I am allergic to fish.” What’s the structure? |
| Nico: It’s Olen, which is “to be” in present tense and in the correct person, plus allerginen, meaning “allergic,” then the name of ingredient in allative form. Remember that the ending for the allative form is -lle. For example, Olen allerginen tomaateille. |
| Michael: “I’m allergic to tomatoes.” Ok! To wrap up, could you give us some more sample sentences with simple complaints? |
| Nico: Sure! Annoksessani ei ole tarpeeksi suolaa. |
| Michael: "There isn't enough salt in my dish." |
| Nico: En tilannut tätä annosta. |
| Michael:"I didn't order this portion." Listeners, remember to check the lesson notes for more examples and explanations. |
Outro |
| Michael: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Nico: Hei hei. |
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