Welcome to a new episode of English Vocabulary Booster.
My name is Lara and I'm a SALSA certified English teacher.
Learning new vocabulary usually takes a long time, but we'll do it in a way that's easy, quick and efficient.
In every episode, we'll learn how to use five new English words or expressions, so that you too can start speaking like a native.
So let's get learning!
Hi everyone.
I hope you're doing well.
I am doing pretty good.
It looks like the weather is finally getting better even here in the south of Italy.
So I'm a little more hopeful.
And I don't know, I just feel like I wake up and I'm in a better mood just because the sun's out.
So yeah, I hope the weather is nice where you are and I hope you are ready for a new story, because I've got a new topic for you.
Today we're going to be talking about getting lost.
Gosh Michael, we've been driving around for hours.
Can we just, I don't know, ask somebody?
No, no, I've got this, Rachel.
You do?
Oh, okay.
So you meant to wind up in this tiny little town in the middle of nowhere, right?
Listen, I, um, we'll figure it out, okay?
I've got a pretty good sense of direction.
Yeah, right.
Listen, if we could just check, just real quick what the GPS says.
Maybe... Uh-oh.
No.
No GPS.
You know how I feel about that thing.
Yes.
You don't want to use it because you think the government is using it to track us.
That's right.
That's exactly right, sweetie.
Plus, I know how to get to Garden City.
We just need to go south.
Yeah.
South.
So, we're gonna go left here and... What?
That is not south.
How do you... Yes.
Yes, it is.
No, it isn't.
Um, Wilson, do you... Do you happen to have a compass on you?
A... A compass?
Do I look like a Girl Scout?
No, of course I don't have a compass.
Not sure if you noticed, but I'm not a pirate, and we're in the 21st century.
So, no.
No compass.
Wait.
There's someone.
Just stop the car.
Stop the car.
There's a man over there.
We can ask him.
No, we don't need to.
I said stop the car.
Fine.
Um, sir, excuse me?
Hi.
Do you happen to know how to get to Garden City?
Garden City?
Why, ma'am, you are in Garden City.
We are?
We told you I could find it.
All right, ready to do this?
Let's begin with expression number one, wind up.
So you meant to wind up in this tiny little town in the middle of nowhere, right?
If you wind up somewhere, are you focusing on the fact that you arrived somewhere or that you just left?
If you say that you wound up somewhere, that means that you're focusing on the fact that you arrived somewhere.
So It's basically another way to say that you arrived somewhere with a slight difference that we're going to take a look at in a second.
So what is the past of wind up?
I don't know if you noticed, but when I was answering this question, I used it.
So maybe you know the answer to this, but it's actually wound up.
So it's an irregular verb.
The present is wind up and the past is wound up.
W-O-U-N-D.
If you say you wound up somewhere, do you imply you arrived where you are after a quick trip or after a lot has happened?
This is the difference that I was talking about.
When you say oh, we wound up there, you are also saying that a lot has happened that led you to where you are now.
It conveys a lot more than just saying...
You know, we arrived there.
If you say we wound up there, you already know that a lot has happened.
You went through a bunch of different things.
Maybe you got lost.
Maybe you went to a lot of different places.
And it's almost like you... don't really have a lot of control in terms of where you wind up.
It's almost like it happens without you really planning it.
It's kind of like saying we ended up there.
It's very, very similar.
Can you remember a time when you wound up somewhere unexpected?
Yes.
So this is really funny.
My boyfriend and I were in Cambodia and we had rented a bike, a scooter.
So we went to a couple of different beaches that were on the island.
And then we had to come back.
But I think at one point, we took a wrong turn.
But my boyfriend was like, comfy.
He's pretty good, like at telling which way to go.
So he was like, no, no, but I think we can figure it out.
And so we kept going, we were looking to go back to our apartment.
And we just kept going.
And at one point we wound up on the beach.
We had the, the sea just a few feet away from us, and i remember the guy that there was a guy standing there and he looked at us like where the heck did you just come from?
How can you be writing?
And it was impossible to write that thing on the beach, obviously.
Um, it was super funny expression.
Number two in the middle of nowhere.
So you meant to wind up in this tiny little town in the.
If a place or a town is in the middle of nowhere, is it very close to the nearest big town or very far from the nearest big town?
If a place or a town is in the middle of nowhere, that means that it's very far from the nearest big town.
It's not like you're really in the middle of nowhere.
You know, there might be other towns.
It's just an expression to say that you're in a pretty isolated place.
Have you ever lived or stayed somewhere that was in the middle of nowhere?
Well, there was this one time a few months ago when we started our trip and we went to France.
And at first we just picked this random town because it was cheap.
It was pretty close to where we had to go in the end.
But then, you know, we didn't want to drive too much.
So in the end, we found this place.
I forget the name of the town right now, but it's a very small town in the, I want to say, south of France.
And it was, it really in the middle of nowhere.
Like it was, maybe in that town is just us, a couple other houses, and then a ton of cows.
I don't even know how much you would have to walk to get to the Nearest big town, but yeah, we were definitely in the middle of nowhere.
Expression number three, have a good sense of direction.
We'll figure it out, okay?
I've got a pretty good sense of direction.
If you have a good sense of direction, can you get around without looking at a map or not?
Yes, if you have a good sense of direction, that means that you can easily get around a town or a place without looking at a map.
And now, do you have a good sense of direction?
I wish my boyfriend was here to answer this question for me.
I am probably the person with the worst sense of direction.
I could get lost in my own house.
I'm not even kidding.
It's just, it's so bad my boyfriend always just cannot believe how bad I am at just telling which way to go.
And he'll quiz me.
And even after a few weeks or months that I've been somewhere, that I've lived in a place, he'll ask me okay, which way is this thing?
And I'm like, I have to pull out my phone and open Google Maps and answer him.
It's just, it's really, really bad.
And I don't know if it's something that I can train and I can improve at, but I'm pretty sure I can't.
Like I've given up at this point.
I'm just really happy that right now we're in the 21st century and I can just rely on my phone.
Expression number four, GPS.
Listen, if we could just check just real quick what the GPS says, maybe what does the GPS do?
Does it help you drive your car or does he tell you how to get to places?
The GPS is that wonderful, wonderful instrument that tells you how to get to places from where you are.
You can have it on your phone.
You can have it in your car.
I think that's it, right?
Yeah, that's probably it.
Do you use GPS when driving?
Well duh, of course, there's no way I could get around, whether I'm walking, whether I'm driving, whether I'm riding my bike.
There's no way I could get around without, you know, looking at the GPS.
Expression number five, compass.
Listen, do you happen to have a compass on you?
The compass is an instrument that does what?
Tell the time or show directions.
The compass is an instrument that shows you the four cardinal directions.
So he has a needle that always points north.
And based on that, you can tell where south, east, and west are.
Do you have a compass?
No, I definitely do not have a compass.
Although I think I'm pretty sure that every phone has a compass, meaning like it's got an app that acts as a compass.
But if you're talking about like the... round, the little round thing that you hold in your hand.
No, I do not have a compass.
Also, I don't really know what I would do with it because it's like, okay, great.
This is where North is.
What am I going to do with it?
What am I going to do with that information?
I love it when – I think especially in the US people like to give directions using northwest, south and east.
So they're like, and then you go south, and then you go west.
I'm just like –
Like, seriously, can you just, like, can you point your finger in the direction I need to go?
Because this is not helping.
And that is it for today.
And remember, if you want to access the transcript, as well as lots of other resources, visit enboocom.
That is E-N-B-O-O-O dot com.
Have a great day.
