Kitchen Appliances

Hello everyone and welcome to EnglishPod.

My name is Marco.

My name is Catherine and today we have an elementary level lesson about things that

you buy for your kitchen.

That's right.

Today we are going to buy a lot of machines and devices for our kitchen.

So let's jump into the dialogue.

Let's see what we are buying and we'll be back in a bit.

I have been looking at this online catalog for over an hour and I still haven't finished

getting all the kitchen appliances that we need.

What are you getting?

Well, the first thing on my list is a new blender.

I decided to also get a juicer and a new coffee maker.

Don't forget to also get a new mixer.

I lent the old one to my brother and he broke it.

Yeah, I know.

I also decided to throw away the old toaster and get a new one.

I am also getting a rice cooker and a steamer to make some nice steamed fish or veggies.

I'm actually thinking of completely refurnishing the kitchen and getting a new stove, oven,

dishwasher and trash compactor.

That's a good idea.

The kitchen will look amazing.

All right, we're back.

So now let's take a look at some of those strange machines on Language Takeaway.

Language Takeaway.

Okay, so the kinds of machines you buy for your kitchen are called kitchen appliances.

Okay, so the word appliance, an appliance is basically a machine or device that is

used for the home, right?

That's right.

So there are many different kinds of appliances.

You can usually plug these in.

They usually need electricity to work.

But the ones we're talking about today are special.

They're for the kitchen.

So that's why we call them kitchen appliances.

That's right.

Okay, very good.

So the kitchen appliances that we are looking at or we're trying to buy is, well, the first

one we have is a blender.

A blender.

So a blender is a kitchen appliance that you use normally to make drinks.

So this is a glass jar that is, that's usually on the top of a little machine.

Now when you put in, for example, some ice and some tea and some lemonade and you can

mix it up and you have this special mixed drink.

So it's called a blender.

That's right.

So as you mentioned, it's usually used to make some sort of juice or drink.

But we also are getting a juicer which is specifically to make juices.

Now what is the difference between a blender and a juicer?

Well a blender is a machine that turns the things inside it around.

So it mixes them together.

But a juicer is different because a juicer will actually take the juice from the fruit.

So for example, if I have an orange and I cut the orange in half, I put that half on

the juicer and it turns around so that the juice will come down.

Because otherwise I have to use my hands to squeeze it and that takes time.

So this is an electronic appliance that helps me get the juice from my fruits.

That's right.

Okay.

So we have a juicer to make juice, a blender to make different drinks and now to make coffee

we have a very simple machine, a coffee maker.

Okay so a coffee maker is just a simple machine that you put water and coffee into and it

will make the coffee for you.

Usually it's called a drip coffee maker because the coffee drip, drip, drip, drips down.

But there are many different kinds of coffee makers.

Okay.

Now this next appliance can be a little bit confusing because now this one is called a

mixer.

So what is the difference between a blender, a juicer and now we have a mixer?

Well there are different kinds of mixers actually but usually the kind of mixer that we are

referring to, that we're talking about is one that is electronic and it looks like it

has these two funny spoons on the end.

And when you turn the mixer on, you put it into a bowl and you mix the things in the

bowl.

So for example, if I want to make pancakes, I put some flour and some water and some eggs

into a bowl.

And I could stir it with my hand, with my spoon, but it's very tiring.

So there's a mixer that's electronic to turn those ingredients around on its own.

That's right.

So it's quicker and obviously you don't get as tired.

Very good.

So I think we should take a break.

Let's go back to our dialogue.

Let's check out some more appliances and we'll be back to talk about the rest of them.

I have been looking at this online catalog for over an hour and I still haven't finished

getting all the kitchen appliances that we need.

What are you getting?

Well, the first thing on my list is a new blender.

I decided to also get a juicer and a new coffee maker.

Don't forget to also get a new mixer.

I lent the old one to my brother and he broke it.

Yeah, I know.

I also decided to throw away the old toaster and get a new one.

I am also getting a rice cooker and a steamer to make some nice steamed fish or veggies.

I'm actually thinking of completely refurnishing the kitchen and getting a new stove, oven,

dishwasher and trash compactor.

That's a good idea.

The kitchen will look amazing.

All right, we're back.

Now, let's take a look at more kitchen appliances on Language Takeaway Part 2.

Language Takeaway.

Well, this first item, this first appliance is something that I know a lot of people all

over the world are familiar with.

It's called a rice cooker.

Now, a rice cooker, as the name says, it is used to cook rice but it does it in a very

simple and automatic way.

That's right.

You put the rice in the water in the rice cooker and you turn it on to, what, 20 minutes

and then later, 20 minutes later, it's already cooked.

It's done.

Done.

Easy.

Right.

It's actually very convenient and very simple to make.

Now, along with a rice cooker, sometimes we also get a steamer.

Okay.

So a steamer is something that we normally use with vegetables or in Asia, a lot of times

we use it with dumplings, these little foods that are stuffed.

And so, a steamer is something that you use to cook a food but with the steam from hot

water.

That's right.

You don't put the food in the water, you don't fry the food, but you use the steam, that

hot air, to cook the food inside.

That's right.

So it's actually considered to be some of the, one of the healthiest ways of cooking

food because it's not as oily.

That's right.

Okay.

Now, an interesting appliance that is actually not very popular in any other place except,

I think, North America, is a trash compactor.

Okay.

So, trash means garbage.

It's the things that you want to throw away that you won't use anymore.

And a compactor is something that actually takes the trash and it makes it very small.

Okay.

Compact means small.

And so, a trash compactor is like a special garbage bin.

You put your garbage in it and you close it and you say, compact, and then it makes a

loud noise.

That's right.

And then when you pull it out, you open it up, the trash is very, very small.

Very small.

So it's very easy to throw away.

So as we said, I've never actually seen this appliance in any other country except the

United States and Canada.

I don't think I have either, but it's pretty popular in American homes because it helps

save space and it's very easy to throw things away that way.

Yeah, that's right.

You can make a little bundle of trash and it's much easier than throwing a big bag of

trash away.

Exactly.

Okay.

And well, we're doing all this because we are kind of refurnishing the kitchen.

We are giving it new furniture.

That's right.

So we want to change the appearance.

And to do this, we will refurnish.

So to furnish something means to put furniture in it to make it look nice.

To refurnish means to change the furniture because we already have some, but we don't

like it.

That's right.

And so you can do this with your whole house.

That's right.

So maybe you throw away the old couch and the table and the kitchen cabinets and you

put a new one.

So you are refurnishing your home, refurnishing the kitchen.

That's right.

To refurnish.

Okay.

So a lot of great vocab here.

I think this is very useful for the kitchen, especially if sometimes you don't really know

what appliance you need to buy or what the instructions of a recipe say.

So why don't we listen to the dialogue again and we'll be back in a bit.

I have been looking at this online catalog for over an hour and I still haven't finished

getting all the kitchen appliances that we need.

What are you getting?

Well, the first thing on my list is a new blender.

I decided to also get a juicer and a new coffee maker.

Don't forget to also get a new mixer.

I lent the old one to my brother and he broke it.

Yeah, I know.

I also decided to throw away the old toaster and get a new one.

I am also getting a rice cooker and a steamer to make some nice steamed fish or veggies.

I'm actually thinking of completely refurnishing the kitchen and getting a new stove, oven,

dishwasher and trash compactor.

That's a good idea.

The kitchen will look amazing.

All right, we're back.

Now another appliance that I think is also not very popular in other countries, apart

from the trash compactor, we saw in the dialogue a dishwasher.

A dishwasher, that's right.

So this is something that you find in many American homes.

So why do you think trash compactors and dishwashers are not so popular in other places?

I'm not sure.

It's possible it's because they're not very energy efficient.

I'm not really sure.

I never had a trash compactor in my home in America, but we always had a dishwasher and

a dishwasher.

This was very, very nice to have because you don't have to wash the dishes by yourself.

You put them in the machine and the machine washes them.

But you have to do some work before you put the dishes in the dishwasher, right?

You have to put them in the sink and water for a while and then you take them out and

then you put it in the dishwasher, right?

No, what we usually did is if there was food on the plate, we'd take the food and we'd

put it in the trash.

And if it's, you know, sometimes you leave the plate for like a day or two and it's very

dirty, you put some water on it because otherwise it will be hard and it will never come off.

But if it's recently used, you put all the plates, all of the cups, all of the knives

and forks into the dishwasher and it uses hot water and some soap and it will wash those

dishes in about 30 minutes.

So how well does it wash?

It washes very, very well.

Some work better than others, but of course, if you have food that's two days old on a

plate, then it won't wash very well.

I think it also has to do with the type of instruments that people use around the world

to cook.

For example, big pots.

I don't think you can put pots in the dishwasher, right?

No, you can't.

You could not put a wok in the dishwasher.

But I think it also has to do with the fact that dishwashers are very big.

And if you have a small apartment or like me, a very small kitchen, it's impossible

to make room for a dishwasher.

But it seems like a very convenient thing.

And of course, there are so many other kitchen appliances that, well, if we started to mention

all of them, we would run out of time.

But if you have any questions or any comments about this lesson or you have maybe some other

kitchen appliances, you can come to our website EnglishPod.com and leave those there.

We hope to see you at EnglishPod and until next time.

Bye.

Good.