This is an All Ears English podcast episode 2297, traveling soon?
English phrases for the airport.
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Don't get lost in an international airport.
You can use your English in many international airports, so find out what to ask and when in today's episode.
Hey there Aubrey. What are we talking about today?
We are talking about travel, which is so fun.
One of our favorite topics, right?
You went to Slovenia recently, which sounded amazing.
Do you have any upcoming trips?
Oh my gosh, there's nothing on the calendar right now, which is not good.
We need to get something on the counter.
Yeah, but I recommend Slovenia.
Great hiking, great food, nice people, wonderful trip.
Yes. Amazing. Yeah, this came up recently in an episode where we're talking about needing to cut in line sometimes in security.
If you're really in a rush, and we promised to follow up with phrases for airport communication.
So here we are. This is going to be exciting.
Yeah. I had a drama.
I may have mentioned this before, but a drama almost missed my flight back to Denver from Munich, but luckily I have never run so fast in an airport honestly.
I mean, I thought my heart was going to explode, but we made it somehow.
We made that flight.
Literally they were boarding at the time we were getting on our other plane in Italy.
It's so stressful. I've been in that.
I almost missed. I did miss a flight in Athens and it ended up costing me.
I had to go get a hotel and it ends up being expensive.
It's such a high pressure, high stressful situation.
As I was planning this episode, I'm thinking about me in an airport trying to communicate in a language I'm learning, Spanish or French.
I don't have all of this language.
I'm like, I need to learn all of this before my next trip.
Yeah. How did you miss the flight?
What happened? Was it just a bad cab ride or something?
The taxi was stuck in traffic forever.
I did not anticipate how long we would be stuck in traffic on the way to the airport.
Okay. Got it. I'm that person that goes to the airport like four hours early.
So I don't have to have that stress, but we're going to get into this.
But before we get into all this essential travel vocab, we want to remind our listeners that very soon in the next few weeks we will be launching our new C1 advanced English fluency course.
Aubrey. Yes. So exciting.
This course is amazing.
So much great vocabulary coming out of conversations, interviews and conversations with native speakers.
These are unscripted.
This is how we really speak.
And it's amazing how much colorful, nuanced and sophisticated vocabulary comes out of that type of conversation.
Yeah. We're getting into a lot of layers of communication here at this advanced level.
So if that sounds right for you guys, if you joined B2 back in the spring or this fall, then you should be ready very soon for C1.
Even if you're in B1, you can level up and join C1.
You'll have lifetime access.
You'll have access to speaking opportunities.
So get on the list because that's the invite list to make sure you hear when it's available.
Go to allersenglish .com slash C1.
Yes. And if you aren't in any of our courses yet, you are missing out on amazing speaking opportunities.
We have open conversation club meetups on zoom every week, fluency parties where you can meet speaking partners, chat with us, the allersenglish team.
It's so fun. And anyone who's in any of our courses can join every week.
I know. I love the fact that we've added so many ways that we connect live with our students.
They connect with each other most importantly, right?
Yes, absolutely. Yes.
All right. So let's get into the very just nitty gritty vocab here, Hoppery.
So what is the first thing we need to know about vocabulary?
Why is it the airport?
Yeah. We sort of have this in buckets of the things you need to do when you're at the airport and the questions you might need to ask if you're stuck.
If you're not sure what to do, you can always find there are so many people working in every airport, but you might see someone but not know what to ask them.
What can I ask to get help here, right?
So first, getting a boarding pass.
This has changed recently, right?
Usually we have a mobile boarding pass on our phone, but we still, there'll be like usually a little machine we have to check in with.
Then if we're checking a bag, we might need to go and check it in with someone.
So it's sort of, it's been changing lately.
Yeah. I mean, for me, if I want to make sure I don't get stuck, I do the boarding pass on my phone, and then I try to go like economy rather than basic economy, so I can bring a carry on.
If it's a quick weekend, so I don't get stuck anywhere in the lines, checking bags, getting a pass, things like that.
I really avoid checking a bag.
I mean, you could lose.
I've lost luggage before it's such a pain.
So if possible, I'm like, Oh, I just might want to carry on.
Yeah, for sure. So there's some clear phrases that our listeners are going to want to write down here.
Because I think a lot of our listeners are global travelers, Aubrey.
Yes. And you might sort of be struggling with something that's changed.
Maybe you're very used to the system and then you go to travel and there's a machine you're unfamiliar with, so for the first thing you could ask, can you please help me use this machine?
And then this person could help you through the entire process.
Yes. Or could you show me how to get my boarding pass?
Sometimes it's not always clear what you're supposed to do with those machines.
And we're actually using can and could from yesterday's episode, Aubrey, which is very cool.
Exactly. These come up so often when we're asking questions.
It would actually be very impolite to say, show me how to use this machine.
Or there's, you know, this is the polite way to ask can or could.
That's an important point.
So because in some languages, if we're directly translating from our native language, we might say show me how to use this, show me how to use this better if you ask a question, but still not great.
Even will you, right?
Will you show me how to use this?
It's still very direct.
And so, yeah, we definitely suggest can and could even more polite.
Could you show me how to do this?
Yeah. We never want to translate directly from our language.
There's so much that goes into that culture, grammar structure.
All right, Aubrey, getting into the second.
Now we've gotten our boarding pass.
We're moving to the next phase of the day, which is getting through security.
Exactly. Right. And so first of all, you may be struggling to find where you go for security.
So you could find someone and ask, is security this way?
And they'll let you know if you're headed the right direction.
Mm -hmm. Yeah, for sure.
And then, yo, what if you're late?
What if you have to, you know, get through it faster?
I'm late for my flight.
Would you mind if I go in front of you?
And so this is a smart thing to do.
And usually people understand, right?
Exactly. Right. I know if anyone were running late behind me, and if they were at risk of missing their flight, there's a good chance that I have hours because a lot of people do get there very early.
So you can definitely ask to move in front.
But we also call this in English, cutting, cutting the line.
Why would you not say, can I cut in front of you, Lindsay?
Well, first of all, the word cut sort of implies cheating a little bit.
And if you, the problem though, really is you're not giving the backstory.
You're not giving the reason why, right?
Which is I'm late for my flight.
Right? You're just saying, you're asking me, why not just say, can I cut in front of you without giving any context?
I think you brought up two good reasons here.
First of all, definitely give the context, right?
If you say, I'm so sorry, I might miss my flight.
Could I, do you mind?
I love it. Would you mind if I go in front of you is really the nicest way you could say this.
But even if you give that context and say, I'm sorry, I'm late for my flight, I still wouldn't say, can I cut in front of you?
Because we've used this expression, cut in front of someone like you said, it implies it's very negative.
Something you shouldn't be doing something sneaky.
So instead you can say it so many other ways, like just can I go in front of you?
That's a good point actually, because it prefer native speakers, it probably brings up memories of kids saying that, Oh, this person's cutting in line when they're kids or something, right?
Just sort of cheating and doing things, right?
It has this negative connotation.
You know, you might say that person cut in line.
I can't believe this, you know, the column line cutters, there is this negative connotation.
So if you need to ask someone to go in front of them, avoid using that chunk that is, that is triggering these negative memories for people.
Yeah. And that actually brings up a whole other topic, which we could go into another day, Aubrey, which is the whole concept of lining up, which is very cultural.
And it's important to know that in the U S we do line up and we really respect that line, right?
Or people in line, we're not going to try and cut in front.
We are in the back of the line.
This would be the exception where if you're at risk of missing a flight, then absolutely can ask people if you can move to the front of the line.
Yeah. I mean, I know when I've traveled around the world, there've been countries I've been in where it's just kind of been like a group of people kind of converging on the thing, right?
All trying to come into the door.
And that's just because there's a different set of values and neither is right or wrong, but we want to know what airport are we in?
Are we in, you know, Asia?
Are we in the U S are we in South America?
Lining up is going to be a different experience.
That's a good point.
And I'm imagining in the United States, if there's a large crowd of people that's sort of funneling to a line, it also would be sort of against the rules against the culture to go to the front of that group so that you can get into the funnel quicker.
Yeah. Politeness dictates that we just get to the back because all of those people were there before us and we need to let them go ahead.
Yeah, we should, we should come back to this another day.
It is so fascinating.
Interesting. But for today, we're sticking to the facts, right?
So finding your gate, Aubrey, we've gotten through security now.
Hopefully you're in an airport that does security well.
How's your low house.
Phoenix force. Yeah.
Phoenix is great. Really quick getting through security.
They're never long lines, but I have been at airports where it's a mess and it takes forever.
Yeah. We're just always super crowded.
It depends on the airport.
Yeah. Logan is kind of Boston.
Logan is kind of a disaster, but we're getting, they're getting better.
They're trying to improve.
So I appreciate that.
Finding your gate. So where do we go from here?
So you might just ask someone, can you please help me find my gate?
And you can either tell them, usually it's like a letter number code in the States at least.
And you could just show them your boarding pass and they could see it on there.
Yes. Or can you point me toward gate B3?
Now that's less common, but I like it.
It's articulate. Can you point me toward something?
Yeah. I like this. Right.
To ask someone if you're headed the right direction, or can you point me toward it just means like, which way do I go?
You're not asking for every step of the directions.
You just want to make sure you're headed in the right direction because usually in airports, they're going to be big signs.
Once you know, you're going in the right direction, you'll probably be able to follow the science or can you confirm I'm in the right place?
And then you show. So it's always better to ask if you're not sure, especially when you're traveling abroad.
Yes. And I mean, a lot of airports are gigantic and there are several terminals.
So you could be totally in the wrong place without even realizing it.
If you're wandering for a little bit, not seeing signs, not understanding, just find someone who works there and ask one of these phrases to make sure that you're headed in the right direction or in the right place.
Right. And sometimes we need to combine this step with the previous step because some airports, they'll have different security for different gates.
I think, right. I know for Denver is just two securities and you can access all gates.
You can get to all the gates through the tram, but I think other airports, it's like you have to go through this security and then you end up only at these gates.
So we were making a good point to know that in the United States, every airport is different.
So if you're really familiar with one, you can't expect any other airports to work that way.
Some have shuttles, some have trams, some are all in one terminal.
You just never know.
Some are older than others.
Some are overcrowded.
I know DIA, the Denver airport, they build, they expanded, they built for expecting X number of people.
And now they have three X number of people every day.
The traffic is massive at DIA.
And so they're not ready for it.
No, they're going to need to expand.
That's tough. Yeah, it's crazy.
So just ask these questions.
Don't be sorry later, right?
Yes. And our fourth bucket is for more general help.
Like imagine you've lost a bag or lost something or maybe you're not even sure you're in the room.
Maybe you're looking for ground transportation.
There could be a lot of things that come up in an airport.
So some general questions, you could just say, could you help me?
And then I've misplaced something.
My bag didn't arrive, right?
There could be all kinds of things.
You can just start with that.
Could you help me? Yeah, could you help me?
I like that. My bag didn't arrive in the carousel.
Could you tell me where to go?
So there's always going to be a desk you're going to go to.
This happened to us when we came back from Slovenia.
Our bags were left in Munich.
So usually they do deliver your bags.
It took a few days, but we got them eventually, no problem.
But you will have to go to a desk, pull up your records.
There was some confusion around the numbers and this will happen.
So just stay calm when that happens.
Right? Yes. Right. This happened to me in Paris and at the time my French was not what it is today.
And this was difficult and stressful to be, you know, luckily a lot of the people in the airport spoke English.
I felt really lucky about that, but it's so tricky.
A lot of these, when something goes wrong and you're having to communicate that in a second language can be tough.
Oh my gosh. I know.
I mean, for us in Denver, it was very simple because it was in English, but if you're in another country and then you're worried, maybe you're at the beginning of your trip and now you need your bags.
Yes. That definitely compounds the issue.
Sure. Sure. And then I like our last example.
We're back to point me, right?
Do you want to just say that one again?
Yeah. Can you point me in the direction of, and then you can finish that with arrivals, ground transportation, rental cars, whatever you're looking for, start it with this, you know, question.
Can you point me in the direction of, and then share whatever you're looking for?
Yeah. I feel like that phrase is really coming through today across a lot of these categories.
Can you point me to XYZ?
Can you point me in the direction of it?
Sounds smart. Sounds articulate.
It's clear. It's a good one for our listeners.
Yes. I agree. Love it.
All right, Aubrey, we are here for a role play and you are working at the airport and I am stopping to ask a few questions.
Okay. Would you ever want to work at an airport?
Would you, is that something you would want to do?
You know, there are perks.
I have a friend who works at an airport and she flies for free.
She travels all over the world.
So yes, I know. I think it would be a very stressful job, but maybe worth it for all the perks.
I know I have a, my step brother in law was working at the airport in Utah when he was in college and he ended up going to India for free, going to Japan on a whim, you know, like, let me go to the airport and see if I can get a flight to Japan.
That's smart. I mean, what a great job for a young person who wants to travel.
It was fantastic. So, so it sounds like you have a good gig in this role play here.
So, all right, excuse me.
Can you help me? Yes.
Of course. What can I do for you?
I'm not sure what gate I'm supposed to go to.
No problem. Do you have your boarding pass?
Yes, it's here on my phone.
It looks like your gate B34 that's in the other terminal.
Oh, can you tell me how to get there?
Yes. You'll need to take a shuttle, go down this escalator and follow the signs for terminal B.
Thank you. Well, it takes some time to get there.
The shuttles run constantly and it's not far from here.
So you should be fine.
Yes. This is why we leave extra time.
I know. So stressful.
But oh, you're in the wrong terminal.
That potentially, sometimes it takes a while to get to another terminal.
Right. A hundred percent.
So what are the phrases we should pick out here, Aubrey, to show our listeners to review.
Yeah. So these first question, right?
Just, can you help me or could you help me is a great intro phrase.
If you're finding someone who works somewhere, this is the way to do it.
Very polite. And just to get their attention.
Yes. Can you, or could you help me?
Right. Yeah. And they're probably going to say, sure, what can I do for you?
And then we're diving into asking a question, right?
You're like, I'm not sure what gate I'm supposed to go to.
You could say, could you point me in the direction of this gate?
Show them the boarding pass.
Yes, we love that one.
Remember that one. Could you point me in the direction of yes.
And what else? Let's see.
And then you said, can you tell me how to get there?
Because I've said, oh, that's B34 the other terminal.
This sometimes will happen where staff working somewhere is they're so familiar with the place that they're maybe going to assume you are as well.
So it might just be like, that's the other terminal.
And it might be on you to say, okay, could you tell me how to get there?
I mean, that's a good thing to remember in life in general, when you're an expert in anything, we have to be careful that we don't assume other people just know things.
Don't take things for granted, right?
Yeah, it's so true.
And then another question you ask, as I'm telling you, Oh, we got to take a shuttle, go to this escalator, you may be short on time and you would have a tough time knowing how much time it's going to take you to get there.
So you could ask this question you asked, will it take some time to get there to give you an estimate of how fast you need to be moving?
Yeah. And you could reward that in different ways.
You could say, well, how long will it take to get there is another option.
We're just giving you some new and different options today, right?
Definitely. Absolutely.
There's so much that can come up at an airport.
You definitely want to think about this ahead of time.
If you're traveling, right?
It can be stressful if you get there and you haven't thought about the phrases that you need.
So today's phrases will really help with that.
Yeah. And I think allow making sure you set up the conditions so that you're not stressed out when you get to the airport, especially on busy days like Fridays or Sundays when you know, or Monday morning, work, commuting traffic, just set it up so that you're prepared so you don't kind of let off a vibe that stresses
out the other person.
So true. It's very true.
Right. Get there early.
Yeah. I know where you're going, but also, you know, don't hesitate to ask for help.
The second, you're not sure you're in the right place.
You're not sure what to do.
Find some, there's going to be people close by who can help you.
Aubrey travel is a great topic.
So I'd love our listeners, guys, if you have a travel question, send it in to support at allersenglish .com.
We'll make sure that we consider your question.
If it's very specific, we'll probably feature it.
Right. Yes. And don't miss, we had an episode not too long ago, allers English, 14 89 with phrasal verbs for travel, pick up these phrasal verbs for travel.
We use so many different phrasal verbs when we're traveling.
So don't miss that episode.
Yeah. And for today's takeaway, I mean, we kind of set it, set yourself up for the right conditions, be relaxed when you arrive so that these phrases come up in your mind naturally.
Right. Yeah. Don't hesitate to ask for help.
Yeah. If you're already set up to be pretty casual, all of these, you're, you've got time, you know, you're just asking, and then it's an opportunity to have a conversation with someone who works at the airport.
Yeah. Sometimes those can be really nice exchanges, you know, you can decide how it's going to go, right?
That's the totally if you're super stressed, it might not be such a fun exchange for sure.
So enjoy the travel.
And that's it for today.
I'll breathe. Thanks for being on the show.
Awesome. See you next time.
Talk soon. Bye. Bye.
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