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So, there are three things in life that are very, very expensive.
Maybe you need to buy a car.
Maybe you need to buy a house.
Or maybe you want to go to school and get an education.
In this English lesson I'll talk about those three big purchases, and I'll teach you all the English words and phrases that you'll need to know to be able to talk about them.
Let's start by talking about buying a car.
You can buy a car privately from a relative or a friend, but you can also buy a car from a car dealership.
This is a very common way to buy a car in Canada.
Behind me you can see there is a car dealership.
We might also call this a car lot.
You would come to the car dealership or car lot in order to see all of the different cars that are for sale.
And you might even talk to a salesperson because you might be interested in taking one of the So if you want to buy a car you might come to a car lot, also called a car dealership, talk to a salesperson, and maybe go for a test drive.
So there are two kinds of cars you can buy when you're looking for a car.
You can buy a new car.
This is a car that no one else has ever owned before.
It's a car that might be somewhere like at this dealership.
It was made in the factory and came straight here, and it has hardly any kilometers on it.
So if you want a new car you would come to a car dealership like this one and buy a new car.
Sometimes you just don't have enough money to buy a brand new car, and in that situation you can buy a used car.
We sometimes also call this a pre-owned car.
This is a car that someone else used to own, and they decided at some point in time that they didn't want it anymore, and so they sold it to the dealership.
So if you have lots of money, or if you can get a big enough loan, you can buy a brand new car.
But if you don't, you can always come to a used car lot, and you can find a used car that will work just right for you.
Now when you go to buy a car you might not have enough money.
In that situation what you might need to do is you might need to get a car loan.
A car loan is when the bank, or even the car dealership, will lend you money so that you can buy the car, and then you need to pay them back.
So maybe you have enough money, maybe you have enough money to buy a brand new car, but maybe you don't.
In that situation you're going to need a car loan, and you're going to need to get it from the car dealership or from the bank.
Now maybe you have a car and it's still in really good shape, but you want to buy a new car.
You can always trade in your car.
When you trade in a car it means you go to the dealership and they give you a certain amount of money for your car, and then you can use that money to help pay for the new car that you want to buy.
So if you have an older car and it has really low kilometers and it's still in really good shape you might consider trading it in to help pay for the new car.
So cars are expensive.
But you know what's more expensive?
A house.
A house is a very expensive thing to buy.
If you wanted to buy a house though, this is how you would start.
You might just look online.
There are websites that show you what houses are for sale in different areas.
Or you might just drive around and look for a house with a for sale sign.
When someone is selling their house we say it is for sale, and the sign that goes up in front we call a for sale sign.
So this house behind me is for sale.
I'm not sure if it's going to sell quick though.
The market is a little slow right now in Canada.
Houses are not selling very quickly.
So the name of a person that helps you sell a house or buy a house in Canada is called a realtor.
When you look at a for sale sign you can see the name of the realtor.
This is the person that is helping the people who own this house to sell this house.
So if you want to sell a house you call a realtor and they help you by putting a for sale sign up and they do what are called viewings.
People can come to this house and see the inside of it.
Similar to test driving a car you certainly want to see a house before you buy it.
So if you want to buy a house or sell a house you call a realtor.
If you want to see inside a house you ask for a viewing or sometimes they have what's called an open house.
An open house happens usually on a weekend and it's a day when the house is just open for two hours and the realtor will be there for those two hours and anyone who comes can come inside and see the house.
So you might be wondering how much does a house cost in Canada?
Well where I live in my area you would need about $500,000 to buy a house and that would be a cheap house.
If you wanted a really nice house you would probably have to spend $700,000 or $800,000 or maybe if you were in Toronto even over a million dollars to buy a house.
So most people don't have enough money when they decide they want to buy a house and so what they'll do is they'll go to a bank to get a mortgage.
A mortgage is a special kind of loan.
It's a really long loan.
You can take 20 or 25 or 30 years to pay off the loan.
And it's a loan designed specifically for buying a house.
So if you don't have enough money, like most people, you might need to go to the bank to see if you qualify for a mortgage.
In order to qualify you'll have to have some money in the bank and you'll have to have a steady job at least for the last year or two.
And then the bank will decide whether they will give you a mortgage.
So I just want to talk a little bit about the difference between lend and borrow.
In the situation of getting a mortgage the bank will lend you money and you will borrow money from the bank.
So do you see the difference?
The bank is the lender.
The bank will give you money.
The bank will lend you money.
You are then the borrower.
You will take money from the bank.
You will borrow money from the bank.
And then of course you do have to pay it back.
Another really expensive thing in life is a university education.
If you go to university here in Canada it costs between $20,000 and $40,000 a year.
And you might have to stay for four or six years or more in order to get your degree.
Now when we talk about the cost of a university education there are three things that you're actually paying for.
You're paying tuition.
This is the cost for the classes that you take.
You are paying for housing.
This is if you live on campus in something called a residence and you pay to live there.
And then number three, you might have to pay for a meal plan if you are going to eat on campus.
So all three together ends up costing quite a bit, but you can save some money by living off campus and buying your own groceries.
Then you only need to pay tuition.
You might be wondering, how do you pay for a university education when you're really young and you don't have any money?
Well there's four ways that you can pay for this.
Number one, maybe you have some savings.
In English when we talk about savings we mean money in the bank.
Maybe you've worked part-time and you've put money in the bank every week and you have some savings.
You can use that to pay for some of the tuition costs.
Maybe you got a grant.
In Canada the government will give grants to students when they go to university.
Not all students get grants, but some students do.
A grant is money that you get that you don't have to pay back.
It's the best source of money for going to university that I can think of.
Or maybe you did really well in high school and you got a scholarship.
A scholarship is when a university or another organization gives you money because you're really smart.
Or maybe you were really involved and did a lot of volunteering.
Again, this is money you don't have to pay back.
And then lastly you might need to get a student loan.
In Canada you can get a student loan from the government.
You can get a student loan from the bank.
These are nice in that you don't have to pay interest while you're a student, but once you're done, once you've graduated, you do have to pay the money back.
So four ways to pay.
Either you have savings, or you get some grants, or you get a scholarship or two, or you simply get some student loans, or a combination of all four.
That's probably the most common.
Well hey, thank you so much for watching this English lesson about buying a car, or buying a house, or getting yourself a university education and figuring out how to pay for all of those things.
I hope you were able to learn some new English words and phrases that you can use in your next English conversation.
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