Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 298, Visiting a Museum.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 298.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Remember to visit our website at eslpod.com.
You can download a learning guide for this episode that contains all of the vocabulary definitions, sample sentences, additional definitions not found on the podcast, cultural notes and a complete transcript.
This episode is called Visiting a Museum and we're going to follow Rudy as he goes to a museum, asks some questions of the guard that is working there.
Let's get started.
I wanted to visit the National Museum. but when I arrived, it was closed.
Can you tell me the hours of operation for the museum?
It's open from 10am to 5pm, Monday through Saturday.
It's closed on Sunday.
Thanks.
I'll be back tomorrow.
The next day I arrived at the museum at 10 a.m. and the same guard was there.
Hello again.
Can you tell me if the museum has any tours?
The museum has a self-guided tour.
You can get information at the ticket window.
Oh, thanks.
Do you know if I can use my flash to take photos in the museum?
You can take pictures, but flash photography is prohibited.
Food and drinks are prohibited, too.
Oh, I guess I need to get rid of this bottle of juice before I go in.
Do you know if all of the exhibits are open to the public today?
The East Wing is under construction, but the rest of the galleries are open.
The sculpture and painting galleries are to your left, and the artifacts are to your right.
Thanks a lot.
How much is the admission charge?
It's $10 for adults, $3 for children, and $5 for seniors and students with picture ID.
The people at the ticket window can help you with that.
Thanks.
Just one more question.
Yes?
If I leave after I pay, can I come back in?
Yes, you just have to show your stub.
Anything else?
Oh, no.
Thanks a lot.
Sorry to have bothered you.
No trouble at all.
Our dialogue in this episode covers some basic vocabulary you would need if you were going to visit a museum.
Here in Los Angeles we have a couple of good museums.
We have the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
We also have two museums called Getty the Getty Center and the Getty Villa.
Of course, there are also great museums in New York and in Washington, D.C., in Boston.
Several cities have very nice museums.
This episode begins with Rudy saying that he wanted to visit the National Museum.
That's not a real museum.
Here in the US, the National Museum is the Smithsonian Museum, and that's what we would call it in Washington DC.
Actually, there are several museums there.
Rudy goes to the museum, but when he gets there, when he arrives, it is closed.
So he asks the guard or the security guard, the person who is like a police officer, who is protecting the museum.
Rudy asks the guard, Can you tell me the hours of operation for the museum?
The expression hours of operation means the time that the building is open to the public.
We call them the hours of operation.
For example...
A bank's hours of operation are usually Monday through Friday, 9 o'clock in the morning to 530 in the afternoon.
The guard says that the museum is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Monday through Saturday.
It's closed on Sunday.
This would be somewhat unusual.
Museums are normally open on Sunday.
Some museums are open seven days a week.
Other museums are closed one day.
Rudy says, I'll be back tomorrow.
So he goes back the next day and sees the same guard there and says to the guard can you tell me if the museum has any tours where they take you around and explain different parts of the museum?
The guard says the museum has a self-guided tour.
A self-guided tour is when you don't have a guide, a person who goes with you and explains things.
They usually give you either a piece of paper that explains things, or now you can get audio receivers.
They are kind of like iPods that you walk around with, and when you come in front of a piece of art, you will hear an explanation through your headphones.
The guard says that you can get information about the self-guided tours at the ticket window.
Rudy says, oh, thanks.
Do you know if I can use my flash to take photos in the museum?
The flash is what is on a camera that produces a very bright light.
In case it is dark, the light will make a better picture for you.
Flash has a couple of different meanings.
Take a look at our learning guide for some additional explanations.
The guard says you can take pictures, but flash photography is prohibited.
Prohibited means not allowed, against the rules.
You could also say forbidden.
So like in most museums, you can't use a camera with flash.
There are some museums where you can't use a camera at all.
The guard says, food and drinks are prohibited too.
Again, that's pretty typical of a museum.
Rudy says, oh, I guess I need to get rid of this bottle of juice.
To get rid R-I-D of something means to throw it away to do something so that you no longer have it with you.
Usually it means throwing it away.
Rudy says I have to get rid of this bottle of juice before I go in.
He then asks another question of the guard.
Do you know if all of the exhibits are open to the public today?
An exhibit is, in a museum, a group of objects that are similar.
Usually, museums have different exhibits, different themes, different topics, perhaps different time periods.
Sometimes they have special exhibits.
These are usually pieces of art from other museums.
Rudy asks if the exhibits are open to the public, meaning anyone can visit.
You don't need any special permission.
The guard says that the East Wing is under construction, but the rest of the galleries are open.
The wing of a building is one section or one part of a building.
The White House in Washington DC, where the President of the United States lives, is divided into an east wing and a west wing.
In fact, there was a famous TV show called The West Wing.
That refers to that side of the White House, that side of the building.
There are other meanings of this word wing.
Take a look at our learning guide for some additional explanations.
The guard says the east wing is under construction, meaning they're doing work on it.
It's not finished yet.
They're still building or changing it.
The guard says the rest of the galleries are open.
The rest of the galleries are the other rooms in the building.
A gallery is just a name of a large room in a museum.
We also use this same word gallery to talk about a place where you can go and buy art.
These are called art galleries.
That's different.
That's more like a store where you can go look at and buy pieces of art.
In a museum, a gallery is simply a room of the museum or a collection of rooms.
The guard continues by saying that the sculpture and painting galleries are to your left and the artifacts are to your right.
Sculpture is a solid object of art, usually made from stone, such as marble or metal, possibly wood or even clay.
These are all possible materials for sculpture.
Michelangelo's famous sculpture is of David in Florence, Italy.
That's an example of a piece of sculpture.
Notice that when we are talking about one work of art, one sculpture, we say typically a piece of sculpture.
We use the same for art, a piece of art.
Painting is, of course, when you have colors, either what we would call oil-based or water-based colors, different kinds of paints that you put on a piece of again typically white fabric, a white material.
We call that a canvas, C-A-N-V-A-S.
A painter paints on a canvas.
That's the white piece of material that they use to paint their painting, their picture.
We don't say a piece of painting, however.
We just say a painting.
Artifacts A-R-T-I-F-A-C-T-S are things that were made by humans many years ago, that were not necessarily meant to be pieces of art, but are now put in museums so that you can look at them and some people consider them pieces of art.
Rudy then asks the guard, because Rudy has lots of questions, how much is the admission charge?
The admission charge is how much it costs to get into the museums.
You could use that same expression for a park or a zoo or a similar place.
The admission charge.
In Los Angeles, the admission charge for most museums is around $10, maybe $15.
Some museums, such as the Getty Museum, are free.
The guard tells Rudy how much it costs to get into the museum.
He says it's $10 for adults, $3 for children, and $5 for seniors and students with picture ID.
A senior is someone who is normally more than 65 years old.
Picture ID is short for picture identification.
And this is something like a driver's license that has your picture on it and your name.
Your passport is also a picture ID.
Many schools give their students IDs little cards with their name and their picture on it, so they can prove that they are a student.
Rudy then finally asks, if I leave after I pay, can I come back in?
And the guard says, yes, you just have to show your stub.
S-T-U-B.
Your stub is the small part of the ticket that you keep in.
Usually, when you buy a ticket for a museum or a movie theater, they give you a ticket and they rip it in half, or they give you one part and they keep the other part.
The part that you keep is called the stub, the ticket stub.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
I wanted to visit the National Museum, but when I arrived, it was closed.
Can you tell me the hours of operation for the museum?
It's open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Saturday.
It's closed on Sunday.
Thanks.
I'll be back tomorrow.
The next day I arrived at the museum at 10 a.m., and the same guard was there.
Hello again.
Can you tell me if the museum has any tours?
The museum has a self-guided tour.
You can get information at the ticket window.
Oh, thanks.
Do you know if I can use my flash to take photos in the museum?
You can take pictures, but flash photography is prohibited.
Food and drinks are prohibited, too.
Oh, I guess I need to get rid of this bottle of juice before I go in.
Do you know if all of the exhibits are open to the public today?
The East Wing is under construction, but the rest of the galleries are open.
The sculpture and painting galleries are to your left, and the artifacts are to your right.
Thanks a lot.
How much is the admission charge?
It's $10 for adults, $3 for children, and $5 for seniors and students with picture ID.
The people at the ticket window can help you with that.
Thanks.
Just one more question.
Yes?
If I leave after I pay, can I come back in?
Yes, you just have to show your stub.
Anything else?
Oh, no.
Thanks a lot.
Sorry to have bothered you.
No trouble at all.
The script for this podcast was written by Dr. Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thanks for listening.
We'll see you next time on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
This podcast is copyright 2007.
