Real Talk #054 – Joining a gym

Kassy: And I’m Kassy.

Andrew: And this is the Culips English Podcast. Hello friends, welcome back to Culips. You’re listening to Real Talk, which is the Culips series for beginner and intermediate English learners, where we teach you the English expressions that you need to know for real-world situations. Joining me today is my cohost, Kassy. Hello there, Kassy.

Kassy: Hey, Andrew, and hey, listeners. Guys, today we’re going to talk about useful expressions and vocabulary that you need to know when joining the gym.

Andrew: That’s right. So, Kassy, could you tell us what the plan for this episode is?

Kassy: Sure thing. So more than ever, people around the world are interested in living healthy lifestyles, right, Andrew?

Andrew: Yes, absolutely.

Kassy: And a great way to accomplish that is by regularly working out and exercising at a gym. So, we’re going to start by listening to an example conversation where a guy visits a gym to sign up for a membership. After we listen to the example, Andrew and I will go through it again to break down and explain the key parts and important expressions in this conversation.

Andrew: Perfect. OK, let’s get started by listening to that example.

Andrew: So in that conversation, we just heard a guy visit a gym and ask about different membership options at the gym. And he learned that the gym offers a variety of services and that they have monthly membership options or a yearly membership option. You can save a little bit of money by becoming a yearly member. And he also learned that there was a trial membership at the gym.

And that’s what he decided to do, was to sign up for a trial membership so he could test the gym to see if it’s a good fit for him. So, Kassy, we’re going to go through this conversation now one more time, and take a look at some of the important expressions and key vocabulary that we heard in this conversation. So at the start, it’s just like a pretty normal conversation, right?

The guy arrives at the gym, he talks to the front desk staff, “Hey, how’s it going?” “I’m good. And you? How are you?” This is kind of like the little small chat that you have to have when you have a conversation of this kind. You can’t really just walk in and say, “How much is the gym membership,” right? You have to be a little friendly, “How are you?” “I’m good, how are you?” “I’m good.” That kind of thing.

But then, eventually, the customer, he asks about a gym membership. And he said, “I wanted to sign up for a membership.” I wanted to sign up for a membership. We’ve talked about this on Real Talk in the past. And that’s when we are making requests like this, we sometimes put it into the past tense, because it sounds a little bit more polite, it’s indirect. And because it’s indirect, it feels more polite.

So he’s not saying, like, I wanted to sign up for a gym membership last year and I didn’t and now I want to, it doesn’t have that feeling of being in the past tense. It’s just how we communicate politely that we want to do something in this kind of situation. I wanted to sign up for a membership. So I came here, right? It’s kind of that that meaning. So, Kassy, after he explains that he wants to sign up for a membership, the staff tells him about some of the different membership options.

And, thankfully, this gym has a very straightforward membership plan. You get unlimited access to everything in the gym, all of the equipment, the swimming pool, the sauna, classes, everything. And there are just two different ways to pay for that service. You can pay monthly or you can pay yearly. One of the perks of this gym is that you get 24/7/365 access to the gym.

We heard the staff members say that, that you can get 24/7/365 access to the gym. Now some of our very intelligent members may already have guessed what this means, but maybe some people are still scratching their heads. What does it mean, 24/7/365? Could you break it down, Kassy, and explain it to us?

Kassy: Sure. So, 24 stands for 24 hours in a day. 7 stands for 7 days a week. And 365 stands for 365 days a year. So, 24/7/365 access means this gym is open rain or shine, day or night, all year, all day long.

Andrew: Yeah, it’s just another way of saying they never close, right? It’s always open. OK, excellent. And now when it comes to the membership options, there are two different ways to pay for joining the gym, there’s a month to month plan and a yearly contract plan. Kassy, what does it mean month to month? If you join a service, like maybe Netflix or a gym or even sometimes if you rent an apartment, you can pay month to month. What does this option mean?

Kassy: Month to month means that you have a monthly subscription fee, which means you’re paying a small amount each and every month instead of a large amount once.

Andrew: Exactly. And usually when you join a service and you pay month to month, there are no contracts, right? So, for example, I’m not sure if it works the same way in the United States where you’re from, Kassy, but where I’m from in Canada, when you rent an apartment, you always have to sign a contract for the first year.

But then after that 1-year contract is finished, then your housing agreement automatically goes to a month by month agreement where you or your landlord, the owner of the apartment, who you are renting it from, can change the agreement at any time. So it starts with a contract but then after the contract is finished, it goes month to month. So, that is one of the characteristics of a month to month agreement is that there’s no contract and anybody can cancel at any time.

Kassy: Yeah, it’s similar in the US. It depends on the landlord, but a lot of situations are like that.

Andrew: Personally, I like month to month options. It’s very flexible.

Kassy: Flexibility is always nice.

Andrew: Especially at a gym, where maybe I think a lot of people are like this, maybe I’m not alone in saying that you start with big goals and big plans but then, you know, after a few months, it can get hard to keep your motivation up. And sometimes, unfortunately, we stopped working out as much as we want. So, yeah, in this kind of situation, a month to month plan can be a great deal. However, there’s also a yearly contract option at this gym.

And we heard the staff member tell the customer that he can save some money, the price is only $480 a year, if he signs a 1-year contract. But then the customer, he asks a very good question, Kassy. What question does he ask the staff?

Kassy: He asks if there are any cancellation fees if he wants to quit early.

Andrew: So, a cancellation fee is some money that you are required to pay if you want to break your contract. And break your contract is just another way of saying cancel your contract, right? And a lot of services will have cancellation fees in place because they don’t want the customer to take advantage of them, right? They don’t want the customer to sign up for a 1-year contract, pay the cheaper rate, and then break the contract and just save money that way and kind of take advantage of the goodwill of the gym.

So to protect themselves and make sure that they can still make an income, the gym has a requirement that if you break the contract, if you cancel it early, then you do have to pay a $200 early cancellation fee. Early cancellation fee, that’s what we call this kind of money that you’re required to pay if you break your contract.

Kassy: After they talked about the cancellation fees, the customer asked if there were any free trials available. Sometimes it’s hard to part with your hard-earned money. You don’t know, is the facility worth the $50 a month or $480 a year? Can I test it out first? Can I do a free trial?

Andrew: Exactly. So a free trial is just another way of saying a test, right? And I think many gyms in North America have a free trial. When I did some googling to prepare for this episode, Kassy, I noticed that most gyms offer a 3-day free trial. It seemed to be the standard of having 3 days for free. So, I thought that was really great. Next time I need to sign up for a gym membership, what I’m going to do is just do a 3-day trial at many different gyms around the city. That should give me at least a free month of workouts.

Kassy: Yeah, that’s not bad. I know a lot of gyms, even if they don’t have free trials, they also have a very nominal trial fee. For example, you could test out the gym for a daily fee of $3 or $5 instead of paying, like, a whole month upfront.

Andrew: Yeah, that’s a great point. And we usually call that a 1-day pass, a 1-day pass. So if you’re interested in maybe just going to the gym for 1 day, you could go to the front desk and ask the staff, “Do you have a 1-day pass?” “Do you have a 1-day pass?” And see if that’s an option at that gym. Or, of course, if you wanted a free trial, you could ask, “Do you have a free trial and can I try it?”

Kassy: And if that doesn’t work, then move to the day pass question.

Andrew: Yeah, so first asked about the free trial. And then if they don’t have the free trial, then you can ask about the day pass. Exactly. So, Kassy, the customer eventually decides that he would like to sign up for the free trial membership and test the gym and see if it’s right for him, see if it’s good for him and his workout goals. So he asks to sign up and the staff member says, “Yeah, sure, absolutely. You can have a free trial membership.”

She passes him an iPad and asks him to fill out some information on the iPad form. This is usually pretty basic stuff, your name, your phone number, your email address, where you live, how old you are, etc, etc. But then he also has to sign a release form. OK? The staff member says, “Please sign the release form.” What exactly is a release form?

Kassy: Release form is a release from liabilities. And liabilities are, you know, fees or damages that could occur by getting injured at their gym. So if you sign that form, you’re saying that the gym is not held responsible for any injuries that you may receive at this facility.

Andrew: Yeah, so, if this customer signed up for the free trial in the gym and then went into the gym and tried to pick up an extremely heavy dumbbell, and then dropped the dumbbell on his foot, because it was too heavy, and then broke his foot, he couldn’t then say, “Oh, you guys are responsible, you owe me money, because now I’m injured,” right? He can’t sue the gym, because he signed the release form, which says, if I get injured in this gym, it’s my responsibility, the gym is not responsible.

That’s what release form is all about. Now, usually release forms are very dense and thick and long, and big legal documents. And if you want to try, you could read the whole thing, but these kinds of documents, we actually call them legalese. They’re written in legalese. And to be honest, even for English native speakers, they’re very difficult to understand. So, unfortunately, most people usually just skip to the bottom and sign without really reading the details very closely.

Kassy: I’m sure we’ve all done it.

Andrew: Yes, I definitely have. So, Kassy, that was pretty much it for this conversation. The staff signed the customer up, and then gave him a gym card. And to enter the gym, he has to scan his barcode at the front door to enter. And I guess that is because it’s a 24/7/365 gym. So they probably don’t have staff working at the gym 24/7/365, maybe some of the early-morning hours, for example, are with no staff and if you want to enter the gym, then you just have to scan your barcode.

A barcode is the information that’s displayed with a bunch of black and white lines that you can see on the back of many different kinds of cards, maybe your identity card, or your driver’s licence, or your credit cards, even. All of these kinds of cards will have some kind of barcode on the back. So, you just need to scan that on the computer, and then you can enter the gym and begin your workout. Kassy, I’ve got one question for you before we wrap this episode up.

And that is the difference between the words workout and exercise. I know many English learners find this distinction to be a little bit difficult. What’s the difference between working out and exercising?

Kassy: You know, it’s pretty darn similar, but I guess the difference I would say is, like, a workout I would think of as like a routine of some sort. Like going to the gym and doing a weightlifting workout or a full body workout or a leg workout, leg day, you know. An exercise could be any form of movement.

Andrew: Yeah, Kassy, exactly. I pretty much see them as being exactly the same. And I personally use them interchangeably all the time. So, listeners, there’s no real big difference between workout and exercise. You can consider them as having exactly the same meaning.

Kassy: Yeah, I think workout maybe just sounds more colloquial sometimes. There’s a song where the singer goes, “Ah, ah, I workout.” So, every time I hear that word, it pops into my brain. That’s the only difference, in my opinion.

Andrew: Yeah, I think workout does sound a little hipper, a little cooler compared to exercise. And so for that reason, maybe I tend to use workout more but, in terms of meaning, they both have exactly the same meaning.

Kassy: Well, we’re almost at the end of today’s episode, but before we go, let’s summarize what we’ve covered.

Andrew: Yeah. So today we learned about how to join a gym using English.

Kassy: Yes, we talked about some of the expressions and vocabulary you’ll hear and use when doing that, such as 24/7/365, a free trial, cancel any time.

Andrew: Month to month, an early cancellation fee, and scanning a bar code to enter.

So, everyone, that brings us to the end of this one. Thank you for listening. We hope you learned a lot with us today.