Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 502, Storing Luggage on an Airplane.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 502.
I'm your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development.
How are you today?
Well, good.
Thank you for asking.
I'm fine, too.
Our website is eslpod.com.
Go there to download a learning guide for this episode that contains all of the vocabulary definitions, sample sentences, additional definitions, comprehension questions, cultural notes and a complete transcript of everything we say on this episode.
On this episode we're going to be talking about taking notes luggage, which are your bags where you put your clothing and so forth on an airplane.
It'll be a dialogue between Yoshi and Tatiana, using a lot of common vocabulary we use to describe luggage for traveling.
Let's get started.
Can you hold my jacket while I try to get my roller bag down the aisle?
All right, but I have to roll my own bag down the aisle, you know.
Fine.
Give it back to me.
All of these overhead bins are full.
Where are we supposed to store them?
Look, there are two spaces in the back of the plane.
You put our big bags in those bins, and I'll put our carry-ons under the seats in front of us.
Fine, but these seats are already cramped, and now I'll have no legroom for the entire flight.
Great!
That's what we get for not getting seats in the emergency exit row.
If we had seats in the emergency exit row, you'd be complaining about not being able to recline in your seat right now.
At least we don't have bulkhead seats.
Stop grumbling and get moving before somebody else snags those overhead bins and we have to check those bags.
Whose idea was it to go on vacation?
It was mine.
We both need some time to get away and unwind.
Yeah, right.
I can't remember the last time I felt this relaxed.
Our dialogue begins with Yoshi saying to Tatiana Can you hold my jacket, my coat, while I try to get my roller bag down the aisle?
A roller, R-O-L-L-E-R, bag is a suitcase that is on wheels.
It has typically a long handle, something that you can pull it so you don't have to carry it.
It has wheels so you can just pull it along the ground, along the floor.
That's why it's called a roller bag, because it rolls.
Something that rolls is something like a wheel that goes around and around.
Yoshi is on the airplane and in the center of the airplane.
On a small airplane there are seats on both sides, typically three seats on each side.
And in the middle, where you walk up and down the airplane, is called the aisle, A-I-S-L-E.
Notice that Yoshi says that he wants to get his bag down the aisle.
We use down the when we are talking about walking, usually on a flat surface, such as on the street or on the floor.
You can walk down the street.
That means you are walking on the sidewalk next to the street, we hope.
So down is just indicating that you are walking on or along a certain place.
Down and up are sometimes used for directions as well.
You can walk down the stairs, meaning you are going from a higher place to a lower place, or you could walk up the stairs, meaning you were going from a lower place to a higher place.
But here, down the aisle simply means along this particular path.
Tatiana says, all right, but I have to roll my own bag down the aisle, you know.
Yoshi says, fine, give it back to me, meaning his jacket.
Tatiana is complaining that she doesn't have an extra hand, an extra arm, because she has to roll her bag down the aisle.
Yoshi says all of these overhead bins are full.
On an airplane.
Inside the airplane, above the seats, there are spaces where you can put your luggage, your bags.
And then after you put your bags in, you close the door.
Those things are called overhead bins, B-I-N-S.
A bin is simply a container, a large container.
Overhead refers to the fact that they are over your head.
You are sitting in the chair and they are above you.
So overhead means above.
Yoshi complains that the overhead bins are full.
There's no more room.
He asks, where are we supposed to store them to store our luggage?
To store as a verb means to keep something in a safe place for a period of time, something that you are planning on using later.
So I may have lots of extra books that don't fit on my bookshelf.
I put them in a box and I store them in my garage.
I keep them there until I'm ready to use them again.
Tatiana says, look, there are two spaces in the back of the plane.
You put our big bags in those bins, and I'll put our carry-ons under the seat in front of us.
So Tatiana is telling Yoshi to take the two large bags and put them in an open space, an open bin space.
She will then take their two smaller bags, what we call carry-on bags, because you can carry them onto the plane, you can bring them onto the plane.
She's going to store the carry-on bags underneath the seat in front of them, because there's a space in the airplane in front of the seat that you are sitting in typically, where you can put a small bag or your shoes or purse, or young child who is not behaving?
Who is making noise?
You can put all those in the space in front of you.
I'm just kidding about the child, of course.
Yoshi says fine, but these seats are already cramped and now I have no legroom for the entire flight.
This Yoshi does nothing but complain, I'm telling you.
Yoshi says these seats are cramped.
To be cramped means to be crowded.
There's not enough room.
He says that he has no legroom for the flight.
Legroom is space in front of you where you can, especially if you have long legs, extend your legs.
But if you have something below the seat in front of you, well then you don't have any room to put your legs there.
Yoshi says, great, that's what we get for not getting seats in the emergency exit row.
Each line of seats is called a row.
Typically they'll be anywhere between 25 and maybe 55 or more rows in an airplane, in a big airplane.
The emergency exit is the place where, if the plane has a problem, if the plane has to land or if the plane goes down before you get to the airport something that I don't recommend then you may have to escape.
You may have to get out of the airplane through the emergency exits.
They aren't the exits that you normally take to get out of the airplane, but in an emergency, especially if it's in the middle of the plane, those are the ones that you would use.
The emergency exit rows are always a little bit roomier.
That is, there's more space between the row of seats and the row of seats in front of it, so there's more room for your legs.
That's why many people try to get the emergency exit row seats.
Tatiana says, if we had seats in the emergency exit row, you'd be complaining about not being able to recline in your seat right now.
In the emergency exit row, especially if there are two emergency exit rows, typically one or both of the rows will have seats that do not lean back.
Normally in an airplane, when you sit down, you can press a small button and you can put your seat back farther the top part of your seat, so you can rest or sleep.
But in the emergency exit rule sometimes you can't do that because they want to have nothing in the way in case of an emergency.
So people can get out the emergency exits.
To recline means to put the seat back.
We have a noun, a recliner.
That's a big chair, usually in your living room, that you can push the back all the way, so it is almost flat.
That's what you can do in an airplane or in most airplanes.
You can recline your seat using recline as a verb here, meaning to lean backwards.
Tatiana then says, at least we don't have bulkhead seats.
A bulkhead.
B-U-L-K-H-E-A-D is a word that describes a type of wall that separates different parts of the plane.
It can also separate different parts of a ship.
Usually, if you have a seat in front of the bulkhead, in front of some wall on the airplane, you can't put anything in front of you because there is no seat directly in front of you.
That would be a problem for Tatiana and Yoshi, since they don't have enough room for their bags in the overhead bins.
Tatiana then says to Yoshi, stop grumbling and get moving.
To grumble G-R-U-M-B-L-E means to complain, to say something negative, but not in a loud voice, in a quiet voice.
You may say, oh, those people with those kids that keep yelling, that cat keeps screaming.
That would be to grumble.
You say something negative, you complain, but you don't say it very loudly.
Well, Yoshi is grumbling, so Tatiana tells him to stop grumbling and get moving, meaning start to walk forward.
Hurry up and begin what you are supposed to do which, in this case, is to move forward to their seats.
Move has many different meanings in English.
Take a look at our learning guide for a further definition of that and the word store that we used earlier in the episode.
Tatiana says that Yoshi has to get moving before somebody else snags those overhead bins.
To snag, S-N-A-G, means to grab or get something quickly, especially before someone else...
So when you walk into a movie theater, you may want to snag the best seats as soon as you walk in.
You're going to find the best seats so that no one else sits there before you.
Tatiana wants Yoshi to snag the overhead bins, to go and put their bags in the overhead bins.
Because if they don't fit in the overhead bins, then they have to typically check their bags.
To check your bag means to give your suitcase, your luggage, to the airline employee and they put it underneath the plane.
This means that you have to wait when you get to wherever you're going in order to get your bag back.
So many people don't like to check their bags.
Though now with new security regulations, many people, probably most people who are staying overnight check their bags.
Yoshi says, whose idea was it to go on vacation?
Tatiana says, it was mine.
We both needed some time to get away and unwind.
To unwind, U-N-W-I-N-D, means to relax, to stop being anxious, to stop feeling stressed.
Of course, Yoshi is not unwinding.
He says, yeah, right, I can't remember the last time I felt this relaxed.
He's making a joke.
I can't remember the last time I felt this.
Relaxed means.
This is a very rare thing for me to be so relaxed.
Of course, he isn't relaxed.
He's very stressed and complaining and grumbling all the time, even though he is on his vacation.
Now let's listen to the dialogue this time at a normal speed.
Can you hold my jacket while I try to get my roller bag down the aisle?
All right, but I have to roll my own bag down the aisle, you know.
Fine, give it back to me.
All of these overhead bins are full.
Where are we supposed to store them?
Look, there are two spaces in the back of the plane.
You put our big bags in those bins, and I'll put our carry-ons under the seats in front of us.
Fine, but these seats are already cramped, and now I'll have no legroom for the entire flight.
Great.
That's what we get for not getting seats in the emergency exit row.
If we had seats in the emergency exit row, you'd be complaining about not being able to recline in your seat right now.
At least we don't have bulkhead seats.
Stop grumbling and get moving before somebody else snags those overhead bins and we have to check those bags.
Whose idea was it to go on vacation?
It was mine.
We both need some time to get away and unwind.
Yeah, right.
I can't remember the last time I felt this relaxed.
The script for this episode was written by somebody who never grumbles about her work, Dr. Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us next time on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2009 by the Center for Educational Development.
