Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 746, Traveling Over the Holidays.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 746.
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.
Go there to download a learning guide for this episode and take a look at some of the other courses we have on our website.
This episode is called Traveling Over the Holidays.
It's a dialogue between Sabrina and ying, using vocabulary that we might use in talking about traveling during a busy season such as Christmas or Thanksgiving.
Let's get started.
You look like you're getting ready for battle.
In a way, I am.
I'm flying home next week to be with my family over the holidays, and you know what holiday travel is like.
I've flown during peak travel season before, and now I try to avoid it at all costs.
Well, I can't this year, so I'm arming myself for the experience.
I booked my flights back in September, and I have my seat assignment.
I'll print out my boarding passes before I head for the airport.
And I'll keep checking the flight status to make sure the flight is on time.
I hope you don't have any tight connections.
I change planes in Chicago, but I have two hours in between flights.
I'm hoping that'll be enough.
What's in that huge bag?
Those are my supplies.
If I get snowed in, or if my flight gets cancelled, I'm ready to spend the night in the airport.
Wow, you really thought this out.
You're ready for the worst-case scenario.
Forewarned and forearmed.
You won't catch me napping.
Sabrina begins by saying, you look like you're getting ready for battle.
Battle B-A-T-T-L-E is when two people, or usually two groups of people, are fighting, such as two different armies from different countries.
It's a big fight.
Sabrina says that Ying looks like he's getting ready for battle.
Ying says, in a way, I am.
In a way means in some manner.
Sort of, I am.
I'm flying home next week to be with my family over the holidays.
That is, during the holidays.
And you know what holiday travel is like.
Holiday travel in the United States usually refers to the months of November and December.
In late November, we have the Thanksgiving holiday.
And in December, it's the Christmas and Hanukkah holidays.
So when people refer to holiday travel, they're usually talking about one of those two events.
Sabrina says, Peak.
P-E-A-K is the highest part of something.
We can talk about the peak of the mountain.
There's a famous peak in Colorado called Pike's Peak.
Well, this is the peak travel season, so it's the busiest travel time.
And that is what Sabrina is talking about.
She says that she's flown, meaning she has flown in an airplane.
Flown, F-L-O-W-N, is the past participle of the verb to fly.
I fly.
I flew in the past.
I have flown.
Well, Sabrina has flown during the peak travel season and now she tries to avoid it.
Get away from it at all costs.
At all costs means no matter what is required, regardless of how difficult or challenging it is.
I'm going to make sure I pass my test tomorrow at all costs.
I'll do anything, well, almost anything, to pass my exam.
Sabrina tries to avoid traveling during the peak travel season at all costs.
Ying says, well...
To arm, A-R-M, as a verb means to prepare yourself by having all the necessary things you need.
Usually, it refers to someone who is going to be fighting.
And to arm yourself means to have a gun or perhaps a sword or a knife.
In fact, we call things that you can use to harm other people weapons.
We often call them arms in the plural.
The verb to arm then means to have, to get yourself one of these weapons.
Of course, Ming isn't actually bringing a gun on the plane.
That's not allowed in most airlines.
However, he is getting himself ready.
He says, I booked my flights back in September and I have my seat assignment.
To book B-O-O-K means to make a reservation, to make arrangements.
I booked a flight.
That's a very common expression, meaning I made reservations on an airplane to go somewhere.
Flights, F-L-I-G-H-T-S, are trips on an airplane from one place to another.
Be careful you get to the airport on time so you don't miss your flight.
That is, you don't miss your airplane that is going to be leaving.
So flight can mean the travel between one place and another.
Sometimes it's used informally to mean simply travel. the airplane that you are getting on.
Of course, you can't go somewhere unless you get on the airplane, so they're related.
Ying booked his flights back in September.
Back in means way back several months ago.
Now it's November or December.
If he's speaking about something that was a long time ago or a while ago, then you can use this expression back in.
Back in the 1960s when I was born, there were no podcasts.
True.
True.
Ying says that he has his seat assignment.
In most airplanes, they give you a specific seat to sit in.
A seat is like a chair on an airplane.
The airplane has different rows, lines of seats.
Each row has a number, and each seat typically has a letter.
So if you're in 22A, you're probably sitting in row 22.
A is usually a window seat, a seat next to the window, and so forth.
Ying says, I'll print out my boarding passes before I head for the airport.
A boarding pass is an official document, usually a piece of paper, although now some airlines, some companies have cell phone apps that you can use.
But a boarding pass is sort of like your official ticket to get onto the plane.
It's not the same as the ticket, but...
It's basically your permission to board the plane.
To board means to get on an airplane.
So Ying has his boarding passes and he's going to check his flight status to make sure the flight is on time.
The status of something is the state or condition of the situation involving that thing.
Flight status would be whether the plane will be leaving at the time it's supposed to leave on time or whether it's late.
Sabrina says, I hope you don't have any tight connections.
A connection when we talk about airplane travel is when you fly to one airport, you get off your plane, you get into a different plane and travel to the next airport.
So it's stopping in one airport on the way to another airport.
So if you're flying from Los Angeles to New York, you may make a stop in Chicago and and you may have to change planes.
That would be called making a connection.
A tight connection is when you don't have very much time to get the next flight.
Let's say you fly into Chicago at 12 o'clock noon and you have to be on another plane leaving for Atlanta at 1230.
Well, you only have 30 minutes to get to your next plane.
That would be a very tight connection.
Ying says, I change planes in Chicago, but I have two hours in between flights.
So he has lots of time before his next plane will leave.
I'm hoping that'll be enough.
I'm hoping that will be enough time.
Sabrina says, what's in that huge bag?
What's in that huge piece of luggage, we might also say.
Ying says, those are my supplies.
Supplies are the things you need to do something else.
Often it relates to food.
Ying says if I get snowed in or my flight gets canceled, I'm ready to spend the night at the airport.
If you are snowed in, you are unable to leave the airport because it is snowing so much.
The planes can't take off or land.
They can't leave the ground because there's too much snow.
To have your flight canceled means that the airplane will not go.
The airline says, no, we're not going to fly that plane today.
That is having your flight canceled.
It's a terrible thing.
It happens.
Then you have to find a new plane to get on, a new flight to take.
Sabrina says, wow, you really thought this out.
To think something out is a phrasal verb meaning to spend a lot of time thinking about something, a problem and how you're going to solve it.
Sabrina says, you're ready for the worst case scenario.
A scenario is a possible situation, something that might happen.
Worst case would be the worst possible thing that could happen.
So, for example, if you are flying and you get snowed in and you can't leave the airport for two days.
That might be considered a worst-case scenario, a situation that would be the worst possible one you could have.
Ying says forewarned and forearmed.
To be forewarned means that you know about something bad that's going to happen before it happens.
Someone tells you, someone warns you.
Forearmed means to be armed or to be prepared before it happens.
The more common expression is forewarned is forearmed.
If you know about it, then you can prepare for it.
But it's also possible to say, as Ying says, forewarned and forearmed.
He's both of those things.
He knows something bad might happen, and he's prepared.
He says To nap N-A-P means to sleep a short time, usually sometime in the middle of the day, in the afternoon perhaps.
You nap for 10 or 15 minutes.
You go... into a chair or lie down on a couch and you fall asleep.
To catch someone napping, however, means to find someone who is sleeping and therefore unprepared.
So the expression to catch me napping would mean to find me unprepared to be in a difficult situation, and I wasn't ready for it.
Ying says, you won't, you will not catch me napping.
He will be, in other words, prepared.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
You look like you're getting ready for battle.
In a way, I am.
I'm flying home next week to be with my family over the holidays, and you know what holiday travel is like.
I've flown during peak travel season before, and now I try to avoid it at all costs.
Well, I can't this year, so I'm arming myself for the experience.
I booked my flights back in September, and I have my seat assignment.
I'll print out my boarding passes before I head for the airport and I'll keep checking the flight status to make sure the flight is on time.
I hope you don't have any tight connections.
I change planes in Chicago, but I have two hours in between flights.
I'm hoping that'll be enough.
What's in that huge bag?
Those are my supplies.
If I get snowed in or if my flight gets canceled, I'm ready to spend the night in the airport.
Wow, you've really thought this out.
You're ready for the worst-case scenario.
Forewarned and forearmed.
You won't catch me napping.
You won't catch our script writer napping.
She's always prepared with a wonderful script.
The wonderful Dr. Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2011 by the Center for Educational Development.
