Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 958.
Selecting a neighborhood to live in.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 958.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
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This episode is a dialogue about choosing a place to live in a city or town.
Let's get started.
I want to live close to downtown.
We can get everywhere on foot and walk to most amenities.
Downtown is always bustling and noisy and the crime rate is really high.
I'd rather have proximity to parks and open spaces.
If we lived downtown, we wouldn't have to worry about commute time and traffic.
I could walk to work and you could take public transportation.
That's true, but there aren't any good schools near downtown.
Hello, we don't have any kids.
Not yet.
I want to settle down somewhere for a while, not move every couple of years.
Is that why you want to live in the suburbs?
The suburbs have no character.
Everything is cookie-cutter.
That's not true.
That's less important to me than a place in a quiet neighborhood.
I think you're planning for a family that we don't have.
Yet.
Our dialogue begins with Leona saying to Jeremy, I want to live close to downtown.
Downtown D-O-W-N-T-O-W-N is the center of a city, especially a larger city with a lot of businesses in it.
But really any city or town can have a downtown.
Sometimes in a small town, the downtown area is very small, only two or three blocks long.
But in a big city, the downtown area can be very large, such as here in Los Angeles.
Leona wants to live close to downtown.
She says, we can get everywhere on foot and walk to most amenities.
To travel on foot means to walk.
It's just another way of saying you can walk to these places.
What kind of places?
Well, Leona tells us that they can walk to most amenities.
Amenities.
A-M-E-N-I-T-I-E-S are usually features or aspects or things about a certain area or a certain place that make it more comfortable, more enjoyable.
Normally we talk about amenities in a hotel, for example.
The hotel might have a swimming pool and a spa.
Those would be amenities, nice things that add to the pleasure of being in the hotel.
We don't usually talk about amenities in terms of places where you live, but it is possible, and that's what Leona is doing here.
She's saying that they can walk to all the interesting things that they want.
They will not have to get in their car and drive to different places.
Jeremy says, To be bustling, B-U-S-T-L-I-N-G, means to be very busy.
A place where a lot of people are coming and going could be described as bustling.
Noisy of course is when there is a lot of loud noise.
Noisy is usually a bad thing when you are thinking about where you want to live, and that's certainly Jeremy's opinion.
He doesn't want to live in the downtown area.
He says the crime rate is really high.
The crime rate, R-A-T-E, refers to the number of crimes that take place in a certain area.
If the crime rate is high, that means there is a lot of crime in that area.
A lot of people who are being robbed or killed or having their cars stolen and so forth.
Jeremy says, I'd rather, meaning I would prefer to, have proximity to parks and open spaces.
Proximity P-R-O-X-I-M-I-T-Y to something is closeness to something, how close you are to to a certain thing.
Proximity to refers to distance.
We could say we are in close proximity to several stores and gas stations.
Those things are close to us.
They're not very far from us.
Open spaces refers to places like parks or areas where there aren't any buildings.
Jeremy doesn't want to be downtown.
He wants the opposite of downtown.
He wants to be in a place where there is a lot of open space.
Leona says, if we lived downtown... we wouldn't have to worry about commute time and traffic.
To commute, C-O-M-M-U-T-E, means to travel from your house or apartment to the place where you work.
Your commute time would be how long it takes you to get there.
For example, I used to work at the university and, And when I did that I had to commute about 45 minutes to an hour each way.
So 45 minutes to get there and then 45 minutes to come home by car.
That was my commute time.
Leona says if they lived downtown they wouldn't have to worry about commute time because they would be close to their jobs.
One supposes
Leona says, I could walk to work and you could take public transportation.
So Leona works downtown and Jeremy works somewhere close to downtown where he can take public transportation.
Public transportation refers to a government-owned bus or subway or train, that Anything that the average person can get on and use, could be called public transportation.
It might not be owned by the government, although usually in the United States the buses and trains and subways are owned by the local government.
The word public can mean owned by the government.
Or it can mean something that anyone can use, that you don't need any special permission to use.
You could have a private museum that is open to the public, meaning anyone can go there.
Jeremy still doesn't like Leona's idea.
He says that's true, but there aren't any good schools near downtown.
Leona says, hello, we don't have any kids.
The use of the word hello is supposed to be funny.
When a person says something that indicates that he hasn't thought of something very obvious, that he's not considering something that should be very clear to him.
We might use this expression or this word hello, but we say it in a certain way, the way that Leona says it.
Hello meaning you are forgetting something or you are not remembering something that is very obvious or that should be clear to you.
In this case, Jeremy is talking about schools for children and Leona reminds him that they don't have any children.
Jeremy says, however, not yet, meaning we don't yet have any kids, but we might in the future.
He says, I want to settle down somewhere for a while, not move every couple of years.
To settle down is a two-word phrasal verb meaning to move to a place and stay there for a long time.
To move to a certain community or neighborhood and stay there for many years.
Sometimes the...
Expression to settle down refers to a lot of different things that a young person might consider doing as they become adults and more mature, such as getting married, buying a house, having children.
Those might also be considered part of settling down somewhere.
Leona says, is that why you want to live in the suburbs?
The suburbs, S-U-B-U-R-B-S, are the areas outside of the main city.
Leona says the suburbs have no character.
Character here refers to things that make a person or a place interesting.
If you say this house has a lot of character, you mean it's interesting.
Perhaps it's old and has some historic interest to you.
Or it might just be decorated in a way that makes it interesting.
Those would be uses of the term character in describing a place.
Leona says everything, meaning everything in the suburbs, is cookie cutter.
Cookie C-O-O-K-I-E, hyphen cutter C-U-T-T-E-R is an expression that means the same boring, not very original.
If you think about making cookies the things you eat, you might think about something that you use to make sure all the cookies are the same shape.
That little kitchen instrument, that kitchen tool, is called a cookie cutter.
It makes sure that all of the cookies look the same.
So if you want to make cookies in the shape of a bunny, then you would have a cookie cutter in the shape of a bunny and you could make each cookie look that way.
That is what cookie cutters are, but the expression used in general conversation refers to things that are identical but usually different.
More than that.
They're things that are considered not interesting, that lack or don't have character.
Jeremy says that's not true, what Leona said about the suburbs.
Leona says downtown has character and it's close to nightlife.
Nightlife N-I-G-H-T-L-I-F-E.
One word refers to things that you would do at night for excitement, such as going to a bar or going dancing.
That would be all part of nightlife.
We usually associate the idea of nightlife with younger people who are going out and drinking and dancing and having a good time.
All of that ends when you get married.
Jeremy says, Jeremy is saying that nightlife is not important to him.
He says, To lounge, L-O-U-N-G-E, means to relax, usually by lying down in a chair or on a couch.
Jeremy is talking about lounging in the backyard, in the place behind your house.
He says, we can raise our kids in a close-knit community.
Close C-L-O-S-E hyphen knit K-N-I-T refers to a group or a place where everyone is very close to each other.
They're all friends.
They all care about each other.
They all know each other.
A close-knit community would be a neighborhood or an area where everyone knows each other.
Everyone is friends with each other.
Jeremy wants to live in a close-knit community because it would be good for their children.
Leona says, I think you're planning for a family that we don't have.
And Jeremy responds by saying, yet.
Meaning, we don't have one yet, but we will have a family someday.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
I want to live close to downtown.
We can get everywhere on foot and walk to most amenities.
Downtown is always bustling and noisy, and the crime rate is really high.
I'd rather have proximity to parks than open spaces.
If we lived downtown, we wouldn't have to worry about commute time and traffic.
I could walk to work, and you could take public transportation.
That's true, but there aren't any good schools near downtown.
Hello, we don't have any kids.
Not yet.
I want to settle down somewhere for a while, not move every couple of years.
Is that why you want to live in the suburbs?
The suburbs have no character.
Everything is cookie cutter.
That's not true.
Downtown has character, and it's close to nightlife.
That's less important to me than a place in a quiet neighborhood.
Imagine lounging in the backyard or taking a walk in the park.
We can raise our kids in a close-knit community.
I think you're planning for a family that we don't have.
Yet.
Our scripts have character and are never cookie-cutter.
That's because they're written by our wonderful scriptwriter, Dr. Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thanks for listening.
Come back and listen to us again right here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2013 by the Center for Educational Development.
