You are learning arriving at the restaurant: you will read the scene it happens in, learn 10 words and phrases, take apart the pattern behind them (arrival + seating vocabulary), hear them in a conversation, rehearse them, and finish by saying one thing out loud to be graded.
Walking into a Shanghai restaurant — from the greeting at the door, to being seated, to ordering aperitifs, to the first look at the menu. The opening ritual of a Chinese dinner.
The restaurant is on the third floor of a building near the Bund. A woman in a qipao meets them at the elevator. 「欢迎光临！」 The stranger steps forward. 「你好！我们订了位子，两位，七点半，叫[名字]。」
She finds the name. Nods. 「请跟我来。」 The table is by the window — the Pudong skyline visible through floor-to-ceiling glass. A pot of pu-erh tea arrives without being requested.
The stranger looks at the menu. It is in Chinese, with photographs. His companion, who has been to Shanghai before, takes it. 「今天有什么特别推荐？」
The server lights up. Live Taizhou crab arrived this morning. The braised pork ribs are today's special. The steamed fish is the restaurant's signature. 「可以帮我们点几道菜吗？我们相信你。」 She beams. The best four words a server can hear.