Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1038.
Types and Characteristics of Apartments.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 1038.
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 between Lily and Omid about kinds of apartments.
Let's get started.
Thanks for coming with me to meet the rental agent to view an apartment but I think I'm lost.
I'm supposed to be there in 10 minutes but I can't find it.
There are four different apartment complexes located next to each other and they look identical.
Don't you have the address?
Yes, but all of the complexes in this subdivision look the same and I don't see a street number on any of them.
Are you sure we're looking for a block of apartments?
Maybe the apartment is in a mixed-use building, like that one over there.
I'm pretty sure.
At least I know it's in a high-rise building, and the apartment is on the eighth floor.
That mixed-use building is only three stories high.
Oh, then it's not a duplex or triplex like those over there.
No, it's definitely not one of those.
I'd better call the rental agent and get directions.
Hey, look over there.
I see a couple of the residents of that building walking out.
Let's ask them.
Excuse me.
Excuse me.
Oh, they didn't hear me.
I'll just make the call.
Well, you can be sure of one thing if you move into one of these complexes.
What?
The bill collectors will never be able to find you.
Our dialogue begins today with Lily saying to Omid Thanks for coming with me to meet the rental agent to view an apartment.
A rental agent is a person whose job it is to help people find a home or an apartment to rent.
It's a person who helps people who are renting also to find someone to rent their apartment or home.
The word agent A-G-E-N-T when describing a person, often refers to someone who represents the interests of another party, another person or organization.
We have real estate agents who are responsible for buying and selling homes or helping people buy and sell homes.
Lily is going with Omid to meet a rental agent who's going to show them an apartment.
When we say apartment in American English, we're usually referring to a or set of rooms in a building.
The rooms are all connected.
There's typically a bedroom and a living room and a kitchen and a bathroom.
Usually the rooms are on one level or one floor.
An apartment is what someone can rent to live in.
There are other kinds of properties that you can rent.
Condominiums are also one level, typically living units or areas.
However, an apartment is rented, whereas a condominium is typically owned by someone.
Now, you could own a condominium and then rent it, so the distinction gets a little fuzzy.
It gets a little difficult to make.
There are a couple of other terms that we use when talking about rental properties.
One of them is townhouse.
A townhouse is typically a, An apartment.
That's more than one level, that's more than one story, that has a first level and a second level.
Possibly even a third level.
Here, however, we're looking at an apartment.
Lily says, I think I'm lost.
I'm supposed to be there in 10 minutes, but I can't find it.
Lily says she's lost, meaning she doesn't know where she is.
She then says there are four different apartment complexes located next to each other and they look identical.
An apartment complex.
C-O-M-P-L-E-X is a set of buildings, usually that look identical, the same or very similar, that are next to each other and usually owned by the same company.
An apartment complex usually implies that there is more than one building, at least two and often several buildings next to each other.
Because these buildings are all built by the same company, they often look identical.
Identical I-D-E-N-T-I-C-A-L means exactly the same.
You can have identical twins.
Two babies born at the same time that look almost exactly alike.
I have two brothers who are identical twins.
But back to our story.
Omid says, don't you have the address?
Lily says yes, but all of the complexes in this subdivision look the same and I don't see a street number on any of them.
A subdivision is an area of land that is usually divided and developed by a single company.
When I say developed, I mean the company that owns the land, builds either houses or apartment buildings and then sells the houses to people, individual families and people wanting to buy houses.
Or it owns a set of buildings that have apartments in them that are rented.
Lily says she doesn't see a street number on the buildings.
A street number is the numerical part of an address, the numbered part of an address.
So if the address were 1257 Main Street, the street number would be 1257.
Notice we don't say 1,257.
We just say either the individual numbers, 1, 2, 5, 7, or we group them in groups of 2 or 3.
So 12, 57.
Omid says, are you sure you're looking for a block of apartments?
A block.
B-L-O-C-K is normally, when we're talking about a town or a city, a square or rectangular area that is surrounded by four streets.
Some of these apartment complexes are so big that they take up an entire block.
Omid says that perhaps the apartment is not, Maybe it's a mixed-use building like that one over there.
He says
Mixed-use is a building that has both businesses and apartments or condominiums in it.
In big cities it's often the case that, especially in the downtown or central area of town, a building will be built where the first and perhaps second floors of the building are businesses stores offices, And the upper stories, the upper levels of the building, are condominiums or apartments.
This is called a mixed-use building.
But Lily says I'm pretty sure, meaning she's fairly certain that she's looking for a block of apartments.
She says, at least I know it's a high-rise building and the apartment is on the 8th floor.
That mixed-use building is only three stories high.
A high-rise RISE building is a very tall building.
If it's a business building and it's really tall, we might call it a skyscraper.
A high-rise could be a tall apartment building.
Usually, the building is several floors tall.
A floor is the same as a level.
The word story is also used to mean level or floor when we're talking about a building.
Lily says that the apartment she's looking for is on the eighth floor.
Now, in the United States...
The ground level, the level that you walk into from the street, is considered the first floor.
In other countries, the first floor is actually the floor that's one above the ground floor.
That's why Americans sometimes get confused when they go to Europe, for example, and someone says it's on the first floor.
But the floor is not the one that's on the ground.
It's the one that's above the one on the ground.
Americans would call that the second floor.
We don't have a floor zero.
We just have a first, second, third, fourth, and so on floor.
The mixed-use building that Omid is pointing out to Lily is a three-story high building.
Lily says the building is only three stories high.
That means it's three levels, three floors high.
Omid says, oh, then it's not a duplex or a triplex like those over there.
A duplex.
D-U-P-L-E-X is a building with two apartments, usually one on the first floor and one on the second floor.
Each apartment has its own entrance.
They're separate living areas, and they're rented separately.
A triplex, you can probably guess from the prefix T-R-I, is a building with three apartments.
We also sometimes use the word fourplex for a building with four apartments.
Lily says, no, it's not a duplex or a triplex.
She says, I'd better call.
I ought to.
I should call the rental agent and get directions.
Omid says, hey, look over there.
I am a resident of Los Angeles.
That's where I live.
That's my permanent home.
Omid says that there are a couple of residents walking out of one of the buildings, and so perhaps he and Lily should go over and ask them.
Omid goes over and says, excuse me, excuse me.
That's how we get someone's attention in a polite way.
Oh, they didn't hear me, Omid says.
Lily says, I'll just make the call, meaning I'll just call the rental agent.
Omid says, well, you can be sure of one thing if you move into one of these complexes.
Lily says, what?
Omid says, the bill collectors will never be able to find you.
Omid is making a joke here.
He's saying that it's so difficult to find these buildings that no one would be able to find them, even people who are looking for you, such as bill collectors.
What is a bill collector?
A bill collector is a person who goes and finds people who haven't paid their bills money they owe to a company and gets them to pay them.
If, for example, you buy a telephone and you use the telephone but then you don't pay for the minutes that you use, the telephone company will try to find you and get you to pay for that.
They will usually hire another company, a collection agency, that will go and try to find you and call you and go to your house to get the money from you.
That is a bill collector.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Don't you have the address?
Yes, but all of the complexes in this subdivision look the same and I don't see a street number on any of them.
Are you sure we're looking for a block of apartments?
Maybe the apartment is in a mixed-use building, like that one over there.
I'm pretty sure.
At least I know it's in a high-rise building, and the apartment is on the eighth floor.
That mixed-use building is only three stories high.
Oh, then it's not a duplex or triplex like those over there.
No, it's definitely not one of those.
I'd better call the rental agent and get directions.
Hey, look over there.
I see a couple of the residents of that building walking out.
Let's ask them.
Excuse me?
Excuse me?
Oh, they didn't hear me.
I'll just make the call.
Well, you can be sure of one thing if you move into one of these complexes.
What?
The bill collectors will never be able to find you.
Our script writer is also a resident of Los Angeles, California, the wonderful Dr. Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you 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 2014 by the Center for Educational Development.
