Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 386, Learning How to Drive.
This is ESL podcast number 386.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development at.
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This episode is called Learning How to Drive.
It's a dialogue between Xavier and Brandy and it includes a lot of vocabulary you would use in talking about driving a car.
Let's get started.
Look out.
Put your foot on the brake.
I am braking.
No, your foot is on the gas pedal.
Oh, there's the brake.
You just took ten years off my life.
I was sure you were going to hit the median or the railing.
I didn't know what I was getting into when I agreed to teach you how to drive.
Relax, I'm really getting the hang of this.
Shifting gears isn't as hard as I thought it would be.
It's cool to parallel park, and driving in reverse is fun.
Would you please keep your hands on the steering wheel instead of playing with the radio?
And you stop working yourself into a tizzy.
I'm a fine driver.
I don't think those people you're about to hit would agree with you.
If they don't like the way I drive, they should get off the sidewalk.
Our dialogue begins with Xavier saying to Brandy, Look out!
Meaning, be careful.
Put your foot on the brake.
The brakes slow and stop the car.
They slow and stop the wheels from turning.
When we say the brake, we mean really the brake pedal, which is a little piece of metal that you press down with your foot in order to make the brakes work.
So Xavier is saying put your foot on the brake, meaning press the brake pedal down.
Brandy says, I am braking.
Notice to brake can be a verb as well, to slow something down.
Xavier says, no, your foot is on the gas pedal.
The gas pedal is the opposite in some ways of the brake pedal.
It makes the car go faster.
Of course, that would be a big mistake to make.
Brandy says, oh, realizing her error, there's the brake, meaning now I have found the brake.
Xavier is teaching Brandy how to drive.
In the United States, you can get your driver's license beginning at the age of 16.
But if you get a license at 16 or 17, you have to take formal classes.
Someone has to teach you how to drive, and you have to pass a test.
If you are 18 years or over in most states, you don't have to take classes.
You can, if you want to, but you can teach yourself or, better yet, have someone else teach you how to drive.
You can't drive without someone in the car with you to help you until you get your license.
Getting a driver's license in the US requires two tests a written test and a road test, or what sometimes is called a behind-the-wheel test, where you are actually in a car and someone is testing your driving.
But in our dialogue, Brandy is still learning to drive from Xavier.
Xavier says to Brandy, you just took 10 years off my life.
To take 10 years or 5 years off someone's life is a phrase we use to say that you were very scared by what another person did.
The idea is that because you became so scared, so frightened, your health got worse and you will die 10 years earlier than you would have otherwise.
So it's obviously not a compliment.
It's something of a criticism when you say something like that.
You're saying that the person did something very dangerous or very scary.
Xavier says, The median...
M-E-D-I-A-N.
Here means the space between the two sides of a highway or another large or important street.
Usually the median has either grass or cement that separates the two sides, so the eastbound and the westbound.
The cars going in one direction and the cars going in the other direction are separated by a median.
Median has a couple of different meanings in English.
Take a look at that learning guide for some additional explanations.
Xavier also talks about the railing.
The railing is a short piece of metal that is along the side of the road to prevent cars from accidentally going off the road and into the area next to the road.
Usually you will find these on freeways and highways.
Railings will prevent cars from damaging roads parts of the property that are next to the highway.
It'll also prevent the car from perhaps going down into an area where they could get killed more easily.
Of course, if you hit the railing at a very high speed, you can get killed as well.
Xavier says I didn't know what I was getting into when I agreed to teach you how to drive.
The expression to not know what you are getting into means to do something without knowing all of the details ahead of time.
To do something without realizing perhaps how much work it was or how dangerous it was.
People often say this about marriage.
Brandy then says, relax.
I'm really getting the hang of this.
Once again, we have an idiomatic expression.
To get the hang of something means to begin to understand how to do something and be able to do it better.
If you just start a new type of activity driving or flying a plane or anything that requires a lot of learning you may use this expression as you start to get better at it.
Or if you're learning to play a musical instrument and you start to sound better, you could say I'm getting the hang of this.
Brandy says shifting gears isn't as hard as I thought it would be.
To shift gears means to change the speed and power of the car usually by moving a small stick.
In the U.S., as in most countries, there are two kinds of cars.
The kind of car where you have to move this stick, what we call a stick shift back and forth between the different positions, the different gears.
This is called a stick shift or simply a stick.
Someone says, I'm driving a stick.
They don't mean a real stick, which is a long pole.
They mean a stick shift car.
The opposite would be an automatic transmission.
And there you don't have to use a stick to move things, usually back and forth between the gears.
You do need to move it from park, from the stop position, to the drive position.
But it's not the same as a stick shift where you have to move it as you go faster and slower.
Brandy also says that it's cool to parallel park.
To park your car means to put your car on the side of the road and stop it and leave it there.
To parallel park means that you park your car in between two other cars.
And usually this means that you have to pull up in front of the second car and then go in reverse.
We would say back up into this empty space.
It's often considered one of the more difficult things to learn how to do when you first learn to drive.
Brandy says driving in reverse is fun.
Reverse means going backwards.
Xavier says to Brandy would you please keep your hands on the steering wheel instead of playing with the radio.
The steering wheel is the large circle, a large wheel that the driver holds onto to move the car left or right.
You turn the wheel.
That's called a steering wheel.
The verb to steer means to take something and put it in a certain direction.
In this case, the car.
Xavier is telling Brandy to keep her hands on the steering wheel instead of playing with the radio.
People, of course, often do other things while they are driving, and this can be very dangerous.
Xavier says keep your eyes on the speedometer and stop using the rear view mirror to look at yourself.
Keep your eyes on the speedometer.
It means look at the speedometer.
The speedometer, which looks like it's spelled speed-o-meter, but we say speedometer, is a small display in the front of the car that you can look at that tells you how fast you are going, what your speed is.
The rear-view mirror is the mirror that hangs in the center front of the car.
That allows you to look behind you to see what is behind you.
Xavier is telling Brandy to stop using the mirrors to fix her hair or to look at herself.
Sometimes women do that when they drive.
Men do it too, I guess.
Not me.
I don't wear makeup. normally.
Brandy says to Xavier, and you stop working yourself into a tizzy.
This is an expression to work yourself into a tizzy, T-I-Z-Z-Y.
That means to become very worried or very anxious, to have a lot of stress.
It's a sort of old-fashioned word that, But you'll still hear people use this expression to work yourself into a tizzy.
Brandy says, I'm a fine driver.
Xavier responds, I don't think those people you're about to hit would agree with you.
So he's making a joke, saying that Brandy is about to hit some people who are walking and And they probably don't think she is a good driver if she does that.
Brandy says, The sidewalk is a narrow part next to the road that people walk on.
So if you go down a street, on both sides of the street normally in an American city you will have sidewalks, places where people can walk.
Of course, Brandy is sort of making a joke here, we hope.
Cars should never, ever be on the sidewalk.
That would be very dangerous to people who are walking on the sidewalk.
She says well, if they don't like my driving, they shouldn't be on the sidewalk, suggesting that it's okay for her to drive on the sidewalk.
Again, we hope she's joking.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Look out!
Put your foot on the brake.
I am braking.
No, your foot is on the gas pedal.
Oh, there's the brake.
You just took ten years off my life.
I was sure you were going to hit the median or the railing.
I didn't know what I was getting into when I agreed to teach you how to drive.
Relax.
I'm really getting the hang of this.
Shifting gears isn't as hard as I thought it would be.
It's cool to parallel park, and driving in reverse is fun.
Would you please keep your hands on the steering wheel instead of playing with the radio?
Keep your eyes on the speedometer and stop using the rearview mirror to look at yourself.
And you stop working yourself into a tizzy.
I'm a fine driver.
I don't think those people you're about to hit would agree with you.
If they don't like the way I drive, they should get off the sidewalk.
The script for this episode was written by someone who certainly has the hang of scriptwriting, 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 2008.
