Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1,253.
Using a ride-sharing service.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 1,253.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Visit our website at eslpod.com.
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This episode is a dialogue between Carl and Doris about ride-sharing services businesses that allow you to take a taxi without taking a taxi.
I'll explain when we get to the explanation.
For now, let's get started.
Let's get a taxi.
There's no need.
I've already ordered a car.
A limo?
That's too expensive.
No, I'm using a ride-sharing service.
It's cheaper than a taxi.
There's no meter and we pay a set price.
But how do we know it's safe?
How do we know the driver isn't a criminal or an unsafe driver?
Is he going to have car insurance?
Do they do background checks?
Even though it's a peer-to-peer service.
The drivers are carefully screened and the cars are tracked.
Trust me, this ride will be safe.
I have a credit card on file.
No cash will change hands.
Look, here's our driver.
Hello, Michael.
You know our driver?
He's my son.
But why are you paying for a ride if your son is available to pick us up?
He has his pride.
He won't take any money from me.
So we came up with a compromise.
I hire his car whenever I need a ride to or from the airport.
It works for us and there's a bonus.
What's that?
That seems like a strange arrangement.
But if you can't get your son to visit more often, what's a mother to do?
Our dialogue begins with Carl saying to Doris, let's get a taxi.
A taxi.
T-A-X-I is a taxi cab, a car that you can ride in and pay money to take you from one place to another.
Doris says there's no need, meaning we don't have to get a taxi.
She says I've already ordered a car.
She has already arranged for them to be taken from where they are now to where they want to go, but not in a taxi.
A taxi is a car that, in many cities, you can simply wave your hand at and it will stop and allow you to get in and take you to where you want to go.
In some cities like Los Angeles, you actually have to call to get a taxi or to go to a place where there are already taxis available waiting for you.
Called a taxi stand.
S-T-A-N-D.
Taxi stands in Los Angeles can be found at the airport as well as in front of some big hotels.
However, one way of getting from where you want to go is, instead of calling a taxi, to call for a limo.
A limo is.
L-I-M-O is a limousine, which is a very nice car, often a very long car that is more comfortable than a taxi.
In Los Angeles.
You can call for a taxi, or you can call and get a limo to come and pick you up from your house.
Limos or limousines are more expensive.
That's why Carl says a limo, that's too expensive.
Doris didn't say she ordered a limo.
She said she ordered a car.
Until recently, if someone said they ordered a car, you would think that they had ordered a limo.
But nowadays, you can order a car that's not a limo.
Doris explains.
She says, I'm using a ride sharing service.
Ride sharing R-I-D-E-S-H-A-R-I-N-G is a service where people who don't have a taxi license, who are just regular people who own cars, will give you a ride and you pay them for that ride.
It's cheaper than a taxi, Doris explains, which it is.
If you use one of these ride-sharing services, you call them up or go on your phone with an app and order a car to come and pick you up.
Someone drives his own car, picks you up, and takes you to where you want to go.
Dora says there's no meter, and we pay a set price.
A meter M-E-T-E-R here refers to a machine, a device that calculates or figures out how much you have to pay to Your taxi driver.
Taxi drivers in most cities use meters.
So they turn the meter on when you get into the taxi and turn it off when you arrive at your destination or the place you are going to.
Then that machine tells both of you how much money you need to give to the taxi driver.
But in a ride-sharing service, there's no meter.
Instead, you pay a set price.
A set price is an amount of money that doesn't change depending on how far you go.
Actually, ride-sharing services do charge you depending on the distance between where you are now and where you want to go.
But it isn't exactly based on the number of miles or minutes it takes.
So it's sort of a set price.
It's a set price before you start taking the trip.
In a taxi, you often get charged for time that the taxi has to sit in traffic, we would say.
So if there are a lot of cars on the road and it takes the taxi a long time to get there, you might have to pay more.
That's probably the biggest difference in terms of a taxi and a ride-sharing service for price.
Carl asks Doris, how do we know it's safe?
Meaning, how do we know this ride sharing service is safe?
How do we know, he continues, the driver isn't a criminal or an unsafe driver?
A criminal.
C-R-I-M-I-N-A-L is a person who has broken the law, who has done something against the law.
An unsafe driver would be a driver who is not safe, who is dangerous perhaps.
Is he going to have car insurance?
Carl asks.
Car Insurance I-N-S-U-R-A-N-C-E is an agreement you have with an insurance company that says that if you get into an accident, the insurance company will pay for all or some of the damage caused.
Carl also asks, Do they, meaning the ride-sharing services, do background checks?
A background check C-H-E-C-K is when a company looks at your government records or other information to make sure that you have not committed a crime in the past.
Background checks are quite common now when people are hired by companies or by the government.
You can check to make sure the person hasn't committed a crime before you hire him.
Carl is worried that the driver might be a criminal.
The driver of the car they get from the ride-sharing service, that is.
Dora says, even though it's a peer to peer service, the drivers are carefully screened and the cars are tracked.
Trust me, this ride will be safe.
Peer, P-E-E-R. refers to someone who is at the same level or who is in the same category as you are.
We often use the word peers to refer to those people who have the same kind of job as we have.
I might refer to my peers at the university, people who work in jobs similar to my job, although I no longer work at the university anymore.
Peer-to-peer however, refers to a new kind of, we would say business model, in which people sell their services to other people, even when they aren't professionals.
So in a ride-sharing service I may own a car and give you a ride, even though I'm not a professional driver, and charge you money to give you that ride.
That's an example of a peer-to-peer transaction, or a peer-to-peer exchange of money and service.
The drivers, according to Doris, are carefully screened.
To screen, S-C-R...
Here means to review or check someone to make sure that he is qualified, that he meets your requirements.
If cars are tracked T-R-A-C-K-E-D, They are being monitored or followed so that someone knows the location of that car.
Someone knows where that car is.
Carl says we don't have much cash on us, meaning we don't have a lot of dollar bills or coins with us.
Dora says, I have a credit card on file.
No cash will change hands.
A credit card on file.
F-I-L-E means that you have your credit card information in a computer database or in the system of the company that runs the ride sharing service.
If you order things, say, from a website like Amazon.com, you may have your credit card on file.
Meaning when you buy something, you don't have to put your credit card information into the system again.
It already has that information.
It is already on file.
Dora says, no cash will change hands.
To change hands here simply means that one person gives something to another person in exchange for money or some other object.
So if we say money changed hands, we mean I gave money to someone who gave me something back.
It's just another way of saying to pay for something, in this case, with cash.
That's why Doris says no cash will change hands, meaning we don't have to give him dollar bills.
We can simply use our credit card.
Then she says, look, here's our driver.
Hello, Michael.
Carl says, you know our driver?
He's surprised that Doris knows who Michael is.
Doris says, he's my son.
Carl says, but why are you paying for a ride if your son is available to pick us up?
I think this is a good question.
Doris doesn't really have a good answer.
She says he has his pride, P-R-I-D-E.
Pride here refers to one's feeling of self-respect or self-worth, that what you do is worth something.
He won't take any money from me, so we came up with a compromise.
I hire his car whenever I need a ride to or from the airport.
So Doris and her son have an arrangement.
He doesn't like taking money directly from Doris, from his mother.
I mean, what son would ask his mother to give him money to give him a ride?
So instead, Doris says that they came up with, or they found a compromise, C-O-M-P-R-O-S, M-I-S-E.
A compromise is an agreement between two people or two groups of people, in which each person or group gives something to the other.
They reach an agreement to exchange something.
In this case, Doris and her son... have a compromise.
She won't give him money directly.
She will give the money to the ride-sharing service, who will then give that money, or part of that money really to her son, Michael.
It sounds like a pretty dumb arrangement to me, but that's what Doris and her son have come up with.
She says, I hire, H-I-R-E, his car.
To hire here means to arrange to use or to be transported in his car.
She says, it works for us, and there's a bonus.
A bonus is B-O-N-U-S is some additional benefit, some additional thing you get in addition to the main benefit.
Carl says, what's that?
Dora says, I get to see my son every time I travel.
Carl says rightly, that seems like a strange arrangement, meaning a strange agreement that you two have or a strange, unusual situation to be in.
Dora says, that may be so, meaning maybe you're right.
But if you can't get your son to visit more often...
What's a mother to do?
Doris is saying that because her son won't come and visit her, she has this arrangement.
She doesn't know what else she can do.
That's what she means by that final expression, what's a mother to do?
You could say, what's a father to do?
Or what's a brother to do?
Or what's a boss to do?
The form of the expression.
What's a someone to do means you don't have any other options or any other choices.
This is the only thing you can do.
Doris thinks the only way she can see her son is to pay to have him take her to the airport.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Let's get a taxi.
There's no need.
I've already ordered a car.
A limo?
That's too expensive.
No, I'm using a ride sharing service.
It's cheaper than a taxi.
There's no meter and we pay a set price.
But how do we know it's safe?
How do we know the driver isn't a criminal or an unsafe driver?
Is he going to have car insurance?
Do they do background checks?
Even though it's a peer-to-peer service.
The drivers are carefully screened and the cars are tracked.
Trust me, this ride will be safe.
We don't have much cash on us.
I have a credit card on file.
No cash will change hands.
Look, here's our driver.
Hello, Michael.
You know our driver?
He's my son.
But why are you paying for a ride if your son is available to pick us up?
He has his pride.
He won't take any money from me, so we came up with a compromise.
I hire his car whenever I need a ride to or from the airport.
It works for us, and there's a bonus.
I get to see my son every time I travel.
That may be so, but if you can't get your son to visit more often, what's a mother to do?
The bonus in listening to the wonderful scripts by our wonderful scriptwriter, Dr Lucy Say, is that not only do you enjoy yourself, but you improve your English as well.
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 2016 by the Center for Educational Development.
