Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast, number 619.
Packing clothes for a trip.
This is English as a Second Language Podcast, episode 619.
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 called Packing Clothes for a Trip.
It's a dialogue between Nick and Mariah.
Using vocabulary you would associate with travel and clothing.
Let's get started.
Aren't you done packing yet?
We need to leave for the airport in 15 minutes.
I'm almost done.
I just need to finish packing my garment bag.
You're bringing a garment bag?
What for?
For my dresses, of course.
I don't want them to get wrinkles in them.
I have a bag for shoes belts, handbags and other accessories, two suitcases for clothes swimsuits, underwear and socks, and a carry-on for my makeup and toiletries.
What do you need all that for?
I should have expected this when I married a clothes horse.
I'm surprised you didn't bring your entire wardrobe.
I was thinking about it.
I'm sure I can make room.
All of my bags are expandable.
Nick asks Mariah, Aren't you done packing yet?
Aren't you done meaning aren't you finished packing yet?
To pack P-A-C-K means to put things in a box or a bag or a suitcase which you could also call luggage especially for traveling.
So if you are going on a trip, you need to put clothing and other things in some sort of bag or suitcase so that you can carry it.
Nick says we need to leave for the airport in 15 minutes.
We need to go to the airport immediately.
I'm almost done.
I'm almost finished.
I just need to finish packing my garment bag.
A garment, G-A-R-M-E-N-T, is in the general sense a piece of clothing, something you wear.
Here.
Garment bag is a special kind of suitcase that is used for dresses or formal jackets that a man or a woman might wear.
The top of the garment bag has a hanger, which is that Y-shaped thing you put your clothes on when you put them in a closet, for example.
So a garment bag is used for transporting your clothes, so they don't get all wrinkled in the suitcase.
We're going to talk about wrinkled in a moment.
Nick says, you're bringing a garment bag?
What for, meaning why.
Mariah explains for my dresses.
Of course I don't want them to get wrinkles w-r-i-n-k-l-e-s in them.
A wrinkle as a noun or the verb.
To wrinkle means, in this case, to have these lines, thin lines, in the material of the clothing when it isn't put into the suitcase properly.
When, for example, you would take a shirt and instead of folding it, that is, instead of making it smaller and flat in a neat way, you would take it and just roll it up in a ball and throw it in your suitcase.
Well, that's going to result in wrinkles.
So it's when your clothing isn't straight or flat.
Wrinkle has a couple of different meanings, and those can be found in the Learning Guide.
Mariah is taking a garment bag so her dresses don't get wrinkles in them.
She says, I have a bag for shoes, what she wears on her feet, belts... a long piece of leather or fabric that you put around your waist, usually to hold up your pants, so a man would have a belt.
I wear a belt with my pants so they don't fall down.
That would be embarrassing.
Belt has a couple of different meanings, and those, once again, are in the learning guide.
So, Mariah has a bag for shoes, belts, handbags, and other accessories.
A handbag, H-A-N-D-B-A-G, one word, is also called a purse.
It's a bag that a woman has in her hand or over her shoulder, that she puts her money and her wallet and her makeup and all sorts of mysterious things that men never understand.
That's called a handbag.
Accessories are...
Anything you wear in addition to your basic clothing a shirt pants, a dress anything extra that makes you perhaps look more beautiful never makes me look more beautiful.
It's not necessarily a piece of clothing.
It could be the belt.
It could be a hat.
It could be a piece of jewelry.
All of these are possible accessories.
Mariah says she's also bringing two suitcases for clothes, swimsuits, underwear, and socks.
A suitcase is the same as luggage.
We talked about a suitcase in the first sentence of the dialogue.
Swimsuits are clothing that you wear while you go swimming.
For a man, it's usually just a pair of shorts.
For a woman it could be either a one-piece or a two-piece swimsuit.
The two-piece is usually called a bikini.
There's a part on the top and then there's a part around the bottom.
A one-piece swimsuit is just one piece of material that that is not broken or separated in the middle, so you can't see the woman's stomach in a one-piece swimsuit and in a two-piece swimsuit you can, even if you don't want to.
Underwear is also something Mariah is bringing.
Underwear is what you wear underneath your shorts or pants or dress that covers the bottom middle.
It covers all of those things that you should keep covered in public.
Underwear actually has a broader meaning.
It's not just what you would put on underneath your shorts or dress.
It could also refer to things that you would put on your breasts if you are a woman.
Bras, that is.
It also includes just about any kind of clothing you put on underneath your another piece of clothing.
So a t-shirt, a plain white shirt that you might put on underneath a more formal shirt that would also be considered underwear.
Finally, Mariah says that she has a carry-on, c-a-r-r-y hyphen o-n, for her makeup and toiletries.
A carry-on is a small piece of luggage, a small bag or suitcase that you can take onto the plane with you.
That is, you don't have to put it underneath the plane.
When you put luggage underneath the plane, we say that you have checked your luggage.
A carry-on is a bag or a suitcase that you take with you to your seat, putting it either above you or in front of you, underneath the seat in front of you.
Makeup is what typically women put on their faces to make them more beautiful.
Toiletries, T-O-I-L-E-T-R-I-E-S, refers to things that you would use to clean yourself.
Soap.
It might also include toothpaste.
It might include creams and lotions other liquid things, typically that you put on your face or body for cleansing or to make them look better.
Nick says, What do you need all that for?
Why do you need all of those things?
Mariah says, I'm preparing for all contingencies.
A contingency.
C-O-N-T-I-N-G-E-N-C-Y is a dangerous, difficult situation that might happen in the future, something you need to be prepared for.
Here in southern california, we have to be prepared for the contingency of an earthquake.
It could happen in the future.
Mariah is preparing for all contingencies, all the things that could go wrong.
She says, To be equipped.
E-Q-U-I-P-P-E-D means to have all the necessary things, supplies and tools, for example, that you need for a particular situation.
We might even say you are well-equipped for.
Sometimes we use that expression in talking about the capabilities intellectual, for example of someone.
It might even refer to training or education they have received.
We hope the lawyer is well equipped to defend a man accused of or said to have committed a murder.
Nick says A clothes horse like the animal two words is a person who likes clothing and has too much clothing.
It's definitely usually a negative way of describing someone.
Nick says, I'm surprised you didn't bring your entire wardrobe.
In this case, wardrobe W-A-R-D-R-O-B-E refers to all of your clothes and all of your shoes, all of your accessories, everything related to clothing that you own.
That is your wardrobe.
Someone might say when I get a new job, I'm going to have to buy a whole new wardrobe, meaning all of my clothes need to be different.
Mariah says, I was thinking about it.
I was thinking about bringing my entire wardrobe, she means.
I'm sure I can make room.
To make room is a two-word phrasal verb meaning to make.
Arrange to put things in a certain area so that you have enough space for something else.
You could also make room for a person, for example, in a crowded elevator.
Mariah says that all of her bags are expandable.
Expandable means you are able to increase something in size.
It comes from the verb to expand, which means to make bigger.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Aren't you done packing yet?
We need to leave for the airport in 15 minutes.
I'm almost done.
I just need to finish packing my garment bag.
You're bringing a garment bag?
What for?
For my dresses, of course.
I don't want them to get wrinkles in them.
I have a bag for shoes belts, handbags and other accessories, two suitcases for clothes swimsuits, underwear and socks, and a carry-on for my makeup and toiletries.
I'm preparing for all contingencies.
You never know what situation you'll be in when you travel, and I want to be equipped with anything I'll need.
I was thinking about it.
I'm sure I can make room.
All of my bags are expandable.
Someone who is well-equipped to write dialogues is our own scriptwriter, Dr. Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us next time on ESL Podcasts.
English as a Second Language podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2010 by the Center for Educational Development.
