Joining a gym

Listen to the conversation about joining a gym to practise and improve your listening skills.

Do the preparation task first. Then listen to the audio and do the exercises.

Preparation

Transcript

Receptionist: Hello, welcome to Shake it Off Fitness. How can I help you?

Customer: Yes, thanks. I've been meaning to come in and find some information about here for some time. I was wondering if you could help me?

Receptionist: Sure, of course. What would you like to know?

Customer: I saw on the sign outside that you have the best budget membership in the city. Is that right?

Receptionist: You've got that right, yes. If you find a better rate, then we'll match it. Also, we don't have any sign-up fees or cancellation fees.

Customer: Sorry, what was that last bit?

Receptionist: Cancellation fees. Some gyms charge you money if you leave before a minimum number of months or something like that. We don't do that.

Customer: That's useful to know. Ummm, what times do you have?

Receptionist: We open at 5 a.m. and close at midnight.

Customer: Not 24 hours then, I see.

Receptionist: No. Almost, though! We tried doing the 24-hour thing, but there really weren't a lot of people who wanted to do exercise at 2 in the morning.

Customer: Makes sense. Another question: do you have trainers? Like, will you do a personalised evaluation of me?

Receptionist: Sure we do. As we say on our brochure, we can show you what to do, how to do it and why you're doing it. Have you worked with a personal trainer before?

Customer: Err, no. No, I haven't. No.

Receptionist: So, it's very easy. For your first visits we'll assign you one of our expert personal trainers. He or she will design an exercise plan that's just right for you and show you exactly what to do. We even include nutrition advice in the plan.

Customer: Let me get this straight. All of this is included in the price?

Receptionist: Yes, it is. If you want to continue with your trainer after the first few classes, we can talk about that. It does cost extra though. OK?

Customer: Yeah. Sounds ... great.

Receptionist: Do you have any other questions?

Customer: Hmmm, yeah. Um, OK. Why should I choose here instead of any of the other gyms in the city?

Receptionist: What, you mean apart from our competitive rates and personalised attention?

Customer: Yeah, I guess.

Receptionist: Listen, here's a free day pass. Why don't you drop by and see for yourself? That way you can talk to other members, see the facilities and our staff.

Customer: OK, I'll do that. Thanks very much!

Task 1

Exercise

Task 2

Exercise

Discussion

What do you look for in a gym?

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Language level

B2 Upper intermediate

Topics

sport and exercise

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There are a lot of points I have to take them into consideration when I look for a gym, the most important thing is the location: After a long time of working, I would totally not have the wellness to spend another two hours on the road. Another thing is the membership cost: I would check out a few different gyms in my area. they may differ depending on the type of plan you are taking. I would ask cautiously about services, if there are any extra costs of hiring a personal trainer and whether they are a well qualified trainer and if the hall and facilities are super clean and enquire about the opening hour and finally check the quality of equipment

Well, three years ago I used to look for only two things. First, location, the closer gym the better. And second, the cost, the cheapest the better. But I changed my mind and now I prefer to train at home. I searched about alternatives ways of training then I started to practice calisthenics. I think it’s pretty good way to train as long as you have discipline and good habits. You are free to decide where and when train. And it’s for free!!

I don´t really like gym. I prefer doing exercise at home or running outside, but if I have to look for a good one I would like to find one near home and with qualified staff to help you in your training.

I look if the equipment is good and how long it works by day. Also, I would search for a gym near my house.

When I go to Gym, I always look to run on treadmill.

Good evening, I'm wondering why the last sentence is true: the customer wasn't convinced so the receptionist offered him a free pass for the day. I know that almost every gym give a free pass for a day but in this case it is not explicit. Thank you for your patience and for your answer :)

Hi andreaz98,

I understand question 8 as referring to this particular visit from this customer. So, I'd choose 'True' for this, because the gym does offer him a sample visit (i.e. the free pass).

We can also understand question 8 with a more general meaning, i.e. not only about this time and this customer. But, I would still choose 'True' for this. From the listening, we know that the gym can offer a sample visit - even if that offer is conditional on a customer being unconvinced, as you pointed out. But question 8 doesn't specify any conditions for offering the visit, so we should consider all possible offer situations as relevant. This is still an offer of a sample visit (although possibly on condition that the customer is unconvinced), so I'd consider question 8 to be true.

What do you think?

Jonathan

The LearnEnglish Team

First of all, I would choose a gym near my home as I don't possess my own car and I hate having to ask for a ride everytime or depending on someone elses's availability. Then, the monthly membership rates and the registration and cancellation fees. I don't really mind paying a sign-up fee since it is often a low rate to attract customers. However, I'd really appreciate being able to cancel or rescind whenever it is convenient for me. Lastly, but not least, the facilities and services, equipements, free classes, friendly staff and so on.

When I visit a gym to join I look for timings like if the gym is 24 hours only then I join so I can go to the gym at any hours. Other than that I find out there is enough exercise equipment to play around with. I also want to know how many active members in the gym so I can guess the right time when there are fewer people in the gym.

What can I say, I did work out in a gym for nearly two years at the end I had to stop because a get a lesion, groin hernia, for that reason I had to stop my training, l actually I was used to it so I want to come back when be posible, after this I’m thinking on made callisthenic instead use machines, and look for a good trainer because the lesion was for a specific mistake that I committed doing an exercise bad