Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast, number 509, Going on a Cruise.
This is English as a Second Language Podcast, episode 509.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Our website is eslpod.com.
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This episode is called Going on a Cruise.
It's an episode that has a dialogue between Connie and Robert.
Using vocabulary you would use if you went on a big ship going on a vacation, which is what a cruise is.
Let's get started.
I'm so excited.
We're finally taking a cruise.
Are you sure this is the embarkation area?
Yes, I'm sure.
We go on board right here, see?
Come on, let's find our cabin.
Okay, but I want to go up on deck as soon as possible and look around the entire ship.
Do you think they'll let us go on the bridge and meet the captain?
I don't think so.
You know, I think we're going the wrong way.
I can't find our cabin number.
Let's see if we can find the purser or a steward to help us.
Oh, never mind.
Here it is.
Wow, this cabin is really small.
No worries.
We won't be spending much time in the cabin.
When do we eat?
We can go down to the buffet right now for lunch and I put us down for the main seating at seven o'clock for dinner.
Whoa, what's that?
That's the ship setting sail.
You're not going to be seasick, are you?
I don't think so, but I'm really looking forward to our first port of call.
Connie begins our dialogue by saying, I'm so excited.
We're finally taking a cruise, a vacation where you eat, sleep and are entertained in a very large ship.
Here in Los Angeles, you can take a cruise down to Mexico.
You can take a cruise up to Alaska.
You can take a cruise to South America or to Hawaii.
All of these are places where you can go on a cruise.
I've been on a cruise once.
It was the worst experience of my life as a vacation.
But hey, doesn't mean you will have a bad time.
Connie says, are you sure this is the embarkation area?
Embarkation is when you get on the ship.
It's the process of getting on the ship when you first get to the ship.
You park your car or you get out of your taxi and then you walk onto the ship.
That's the embarkation.
Robert says, yes, I'm sure.
We go on board right here, see?
To go on board means to be on the ship.
Or it could mean on a boat.
But here it means the big cruise ship.
Robert says, come on, let's find our cabin.
Your cabin is your little room, and I do mean little room, small, very small, where you sleep.
Connie says, okay, but I want to go up on deck as soon as possible.
To go on deck means to be on top of the ship.
It's a large, flat top of the ship.
There's nothing above you, in other words.
There's no roof, no ceiling.
By the way, cabin has a couple of different meanings in English.
Take a look at our learning guide for some additional explanations of that word.
And our next word, which is bridge.
Connie says she wants to look around the entire ship and ask do you think they'll let us go on the bridge and meet the captain?
On a large ship, the bridge is the highest part of the ship, usually, where people are.
And these are the people who control the ship.
They control its speed and its direction.
That's where you would find the captain.
So the captain is on the bridge.
Notice we don't say in the bridge.
We say on the bridge.
The captain is, of course, the leader of the people who work on the ship, the person who is in charge.
Who's the boss?
Robert says, I don't think so.
I don't think we can meet the captain.
You know, he says, I think we're going the wrong way.
I can't find our cabin number.
Connie says, let's see if we can find the purser or a steward to help us.
On a ship, on a cruise ship, the purser P-U-R-S-E-R is the person who works on the ship and whose job it is to help you have a good time and to make you more comfortable.
Usually, the purser is assigned a certain number of cabins.
In other words, they're responsible for everyone in, say, these 20 cabins.
The steward is the person who brings food and drink to people in their cabins.
On American cruise ships, you usually can eat as much as you want.
They have buffet lunches, dinners, and breakfasts.
On many cruise ships, you can also order food.
You can have food delivered to your little room, your cabin, for free.
It's not good food, but they definitely deliver it.
So Connie says, Oh, never mind.
Here it is, meaning she's found their cabin.
Never mind means...
What I said before isn't important or is no longer important.
Don't worry about it.
She doesn't need to find the purser and the steward, in other words, because she found her cabin.
And what does she say when she sees her cabin?
Wow, this cabin is really small.
She should have asked me.
I could have told her.
Robert says, no worries.
The expression no worries has become popular a lot in the last 10, 15 years in the United States.
It means no problem.
There is nothing to worry about or simply don't worry about it.
Robert says, we won't be spending much time in the cabin.
We won't be here very much.
When do we eat?
That's a good question because that's pretty much all you do on a cruise ship.
You eat and eat and eat and watch other people eat.
Connie says, The buffet is, you may know, a style of eating where...
You have a long table and you put all the food on the table and everyone comes and takes as much food as they want.
Connie says, Because there are so many people on a cruise ship, they assign you or give you a time when you can come and eat if you are going to eat in the dining room in the main area where people eat.
Connie says she put her and her husband down for the main seating at 7 o'clock for dinner.
To put them down means to sign them up, oddly enough.
It means the same.
To put us down means to write our name down or to say that's when we want to do something.
Or if you're volunteering for something, you would put your name on a list, for example.
The expression put me down can also be used when, for example, someone is selling something to you and you need to order it, and then they'll go and get it.
You might use this expression, for example, if my niece is selling cookies for her Girl Scout troop, a group of girls that get together and I don't know what they do.
Anyway, you would say, perhaps, put me down for three boxes of mints, a type of chocolate cookie.
But here Connie means that she simply signed them up or wrote their name down for the main seating.
Seating here means the time that you go into a restaurant and sit down to eat.
As I said before, on a cruise ship they have different times, different seatings for each meal because there are too many people on the ship for everyone to fit.
There's no room in the dining room for everyone at the same time.
Robert says, whoa, what's that?
Whoa means I'm surprised, I'm perhaps scared.
Connie says, that's the ship setting sail.
To set sail is for a boat to leave the land and go out into the water.
Connie says, you're not going to be seasick, are you?
To be seasick is a type of motion sickness when you are on the water in a ship.
You feel nauseous, your stomach doesn't feel good, you feel dizzy, and so forth.
Some people take special pills to prevent them from being seasick.
I got seasick when I went on a cruise, even though I took the pills, so it doesn't help me.
But I'm sure you'll have a good time.
Robert says, I don't think so.
I don't think I'm getting seasick.
But he says, I'm really looking forward to our first port of call.
Your port of call is a place where the cruise ship stops, usually for a short period, but it could be overnight or more.
It allows you to get off the ship and to visit the place where it is stopped, and then you go back on the ship and then you go somewhere else.
If you take a cruise ship around the Mediterranean, the sea between Africa and Europe, you could go to many different ports of call, many different places you could stop and visit.
Now let's listen to the dialogue at a normal speed.
I'm so excited.
We're finally taking a cruise.
Are you sure this is the embarkation area?
Yes, I'm sure.
We go on board right here, see?
Come on, let's find our cabin.
Okay, but I want to go up on deck as soon as possible and look around the entire ship.
Do you think they'll let us go up on the bridge and meet the captain?
I don't think so.
You know, I think we're going the wrong way.
I can't find our cabin number.
Let's see if we can find the purser or a steward to help us.
Oh, never mind.
Here it is.
Wow, this cabin is really small.
No worries.
We won't be spending much time in the cabin.
When do we eat?
We can go down to the buffet right now for lunch and I put us down for the main seating at 7 o'clock for dinner.
Whoa, what's that?
That's the ship's setting sail.
You're not going to be seasick, are you?
I don't think so, but I'm really looking forward to our first port of call.
The script for this episode was written by the captain of our ESL podcast ship, Dr. Lucy Say.
If you'd like to support us, become a member of ESL Podcast or send a donation.
You can go to eslpod.com for more information.
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.
