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Hi.
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Welcome to www.engvid.com.
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I'm Adam.
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In today's video, I want to look at ten words and expressions from the French culinary world.
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Okay?
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These are French culinary words; means they're talking about cooking, and eating, etc.
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But the reason that I chose these ten is because they are very commonly used in everyday English,
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and not only to talk about food; they have very different contexts... excuse me.
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Very different contexts as well.
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So, we're going to look at "� la carte".
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Oh, and by the way, for the French speakers watching this video, if I butcher the language,
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I apologize in advance.
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Okay?
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"� la carte", "piquant", "prix fixe", "savour/savor".
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Now, we have with the "u" and without the "u", so British Canadian spelling, American
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spelling.
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"Menu", which a lot of you already know.
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"Du jour", "� la mode", "pi�ce de r�sistance", "caf�", and "cuisine".
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Okay?
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Now, we're going to go one by one, and I'll show you in what other contexts they can be
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used.
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Now, "� la carte" basically means according to the menu, but what it does is it allows
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you to order things individually as opposed to a set or a package.
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Okay?
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So, if you go to a restaurant, they have a meal plan, like a set meal; all these things
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are included.
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For example, you have appetizer, main course, dessert.
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You can also order other items on the menu individually and pay for them separately.
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So, whatever is in the menu...
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In the set, in the dinner set, for example, comes with it.
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If you want to add anything, you order it separately and pay for it on top of the meal
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set.
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But we also use this to talk about any package deal.
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Okay?
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So, for example, you go buy a smartphone, a mobile phone and the company offers you
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a full package with all the features that are available for this phone.
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Now, you don't need all...
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For example, if you don't need all these features, you can buy a basic plan and then choose your...
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The features you want � la carte.
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Okay?
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So, we don't only use it for food; we use it for any situation where you can pick individual
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features to...
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And pay for each one separately.
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Okay?
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"Piquant".
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"Piquant" means spicy, but not spicy like burn your head off; spicy in a good way, like,
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just enough of a sting on the tongue to make it enjoyable.
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Okay?
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So that's when we're talking about food.
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We can also use "piquant" to talk about a person.
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You could say: "The woman is dressed in a piquant way."
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Or somebody speaks with a little bit of a piquant attitude.
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Basically, he means with a little bit of attitude; a little bit risky, a little bit racy, but
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in a way that has a good effect.
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It's a bit charming, you could even say.
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It's piquant; it's not...
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It's not bland, it's not boring.
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It has a little bit of flavour, even though you're talking about a person or something
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a person says or does, etc.
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"Prix fixe", so again, let's go back to the restaurant.
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You go to a restaurant and they have a prix fixe - means they have a set price.
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It means fixed price and you pay this much...
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You pay $50 and these are all the things you get.
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Okay?
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You don't...
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You can't add anything; there's no � la carte menu.
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There's one set, one price - that's what you pay.
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Again, going back to the mobile phone, you can buy a package and it's a fixed price;
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you can't make any changes to it, no substitutions, no add-ons, no extra features, etc.
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Or you can just buy the � la carte items as you need them.
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Okay?
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"Savour".
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Now, "savour" basically means to really feel or really enjoy the flavour of something.
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Okay?
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And when you talk about "savour" as a noun, it has that special flavour that makes a dish
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really good.
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And many of you might know "savoury".
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Savoury or sweet.
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You can have, like, a savoury crepe or a sweet crepe.
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"Savoury" means more of the salty flavour.
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But when we savour something...
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We can savour anything.
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You can savour the sunset, you can savour a book, you can savour a good wine or food,
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and you can savour something.
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It means you take the time to really, really enjoy it, and appreciate everything that it
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has to offer.
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Okay?
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I think everybody...
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Well, most people know "menu", but "menu" is not only in a restaurant.
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You can go into a store and you want to buy something, and you want to know all the products
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they have available - they show you a menu of items.
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So, basically, a "menu" is just a list of available products for purchase, or available
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services for purchase.
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So, many companies just use the word "menu" because everybody understands it; they know
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it's a list of available things to buy, and you choose your items.
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Now, "du jour".
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Some of you may have seen my older video about foreign words commonly used in English, and
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I already spoke about "du jour", but again, it's very relevant to this lesson, but you
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can also watch that lesson to get other foreign words that are used in English.
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"Du jour" means "of the day".
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So, the most common use is "soup du jour", "soup of the day".
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But we talk about all kinds of other kinds.
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So, anything that is du jour is what is popular today.
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You can talk about general things.
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So, for example, even in politics, the scandal du jour.
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There are so many scandals lately that you don't know how to keep up, so the scandal
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du jour is what is happening today.
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Tomorrow there'll be a new scandal, last week there was a new scandal.
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Today's scandal, the one that is most popular, the one that is on the news is the scandal
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du jour.
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Okay?
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Of the day.
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Related, but different: "� la mode" means of the fashion.
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"Mode" is fashion.
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So, something that is � la mode is what is fashionable today.
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And, again, it doesn't have to be food.
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Now, if you go to the US, for example, or even in Canada, and you go to a restaurant
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and you order pie � la mode, for some reason, that means pie with ice cream.
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"� la mode" has been...
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Somehow translated into "with ice cream", if you go to a restaurant.
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But "� la mode" means of the fashion.
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So, basically, what is trendy.
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Right?
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So, you're going to wear something, like if you're talking about clothes...
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It could be food, whatever is trendy in food, or it could be fashion.
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You have to dress � la mode; you have to dress according to the fashion.
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You have to speak according to the fashion.
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You have to write books � la mode; according to the fashion, according to what is popular
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and trendy today.
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"Pi�ce de r�sistance", so this is the main feature, like, when you're talking about
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food, you have your appetizer, your salad, your soup, your entr�e, your dessert, but
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then the pi�ce de r�sistance usually is the one dish that is the most amazing; the
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most beautiful, the most delicious.
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Right?
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But we also use this for anything that is the main feature.
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So, if you go to a conference and there's a...
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You know, a whole list of speakers giving speeches or keynote addresses, and then you
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have the pi�ce de r�sistance; like, the main speaker.
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The main event of the night, we also call it the pi�ce de r�sistance.
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"The thing that is hard to resist", you can say it in that way.
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Everybody knows "caf�".
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You go to a caf�, you have a coffee.
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Right?
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Or you go to a caf� and you have...
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You sit down, you order something to eat and a little coffee, but this word has become
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so common in so many different contexts; we have internet caf�s, we have...
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Sorry, we have a fly in my face.
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That's not in a caf�, though.
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Internet caf�s.
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We have all kinds of caf�s that specialize in something.
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So, a caf� used to specialize in coffee; now you have caf�s for anything...
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Any boutique store.
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And "boutique" is also a French word, by the way.
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So, anything that is boutique, anything that is specialized, we just call it a caf� these
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days.
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Now, "cuisine".
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In French, "cuisine" means kitchen, but now "cuisine" basically means anything to do with
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cooking or food.
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All right?
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So we...
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If you like to eat French cuisine, you like to eat French dishes; if you like Italian
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cuisine, Chinese cuisine, if you like Portuguese cuisine...
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We use "cuisine" for anything to do with cooking and the style of cooking.
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So, it's not only French anymore; it belongs to everybody.
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It's a very common word in English.
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Okay?
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So, there you go.
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This...
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You've learned more vocabulary.
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Even though you didn't learn English words, you learned French words, but again, used
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in everyday English as well, and not only about food, lots of different contexts.
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So, if you want to make sure you understand all these words, go to www.engvid.com and
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take the quiz, test your knowledge of these words.
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If you have any questions, ask in the comments section below.
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And please subscribe to my YouTube channel.
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Don't forget that in engVid, you can go to the search box, you can click on my name there
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as well.
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I have lots of different videos; lots of other teachers with lots of other videos to help
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you improve your English.
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Don't be shy, look around, watch the videos, come back for even more videos to help you
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improve your English.
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I'll see you again very soon with something new.
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Bye-bye.