drop in

こんにちは。

英語カフェでの一節です。ごく基本的な会話です。

A: お客さん、S: 外国人スタッフさん、K: 私

A: How do you study English?

K: I study English by watching YouTube and sometimes visiting English cafes like this.

A: Really? This is the first time for me to visit an English cafe. Is it effective?

K: Yeah. It's a lot of fun to talk to many different people. 

A: I see.

S: Where are you from?

A: I'm from xxx.

S: How long does it take to come here?

A: It takes about one and a half hours.

S: That's pretty far.

A: Yeah. But this time, I had something to do here. So I just dropped in.

Aさんは英語カフェが初めての方で、近くに用事があったんで、ついでに寄ってみたとのこと。

「用事がある」は、

I have something to do today.

I have a thing to do today.

I have some plans today.

など。

「ちょっと寄る」は 

drop by/in

stop by

come by

など。

drop in の場合、前置詞が必要です。

人を訪れる場合は、

drop in on him

場所を訪れる場所は、

drop in at the cafe

のように言います。

「用事の前に暇つぶしで寄ってみた」は、

I have something to do near here today. 

Before that, I dropped by here to kill some time.

のような感じでしょうか。

結構使いそうな表現ですよね。