Welcome to English as a second language podcast, number eighteen.
From Los Angeles, California, Your listening to English as a second language podcast.
My name is Dr. Jeff McQuillan, your host from the center for educational development.
Before we begin our podcast today, I want to thanks one of our listeners “Johannes” from Germany who gave us some useful technical help over the weekend for our podcast.
So, thank you Johannes and thank everyone for writing in and emailing us.
If this is the first time listening to this podcast, please go to our website at “www.eslpod.com” for more information.
Today’s topic is going to be about transportation and getting around, particularly here in the united states.
As usual, we’ll discuss the topic and then come back and look at some vocabulary.
Now let’s get started.
Getting around in the United States is sometimes not very easy. Most people own their own cars, but not everyone can foot the bill for the car, plus the insurance, gas, and maintenance. Most big cities have buses, but they are much slower than a car. Several cities in the U.S. have subway systems, but many do not. There are even fewer trains that transport daily commuters. In cities such as Los Angeles, public transportation is much more limited than in other countries.
If you take some form of public transportation, you need to pay a certain fare. In most big cities, the fare is anywhere from 1 to 2 dollars. But don’t expect the bus driver to change a bill for you. You usually need exact change if you’re going to ride a bus, train or subway. Whatever you take, you always have to pay for it!
My friends here in Los Angeles all have different ways of getting to work. One friend who lives out in the boonies, rides the train every day. He takes the train because it’s easier for him than driving or taking a bus. Another friend I know who works close to where he lives, rides a bike every day. Still another friend drives his car. I don’t know anyone who rides the bus, but I’ve taken it once or twice when my car was in the shop. Worse comes to worst, you can always hop in a taxi. Taking a taxi is expensive here, though, so be prepared for a big fare, not including the tip!

We’re talking today about ways of getting around in the united states.
To get around means of course to travel, to go from one place to the other.
I started off by talking about how limited transportation -public transportation- is in the united states. Public transportation is anything that is run by the government such as: busses, trains and subways.
I mentioned that people who own their own cars, have to foot the bill.
“To foot the bill” means to pay for the bill.
It’s an informal expression.
“Who’s going to foot the bill for this dinner?” means who’s going to pay the bill for this dinner.
In talking about cars, we often associate words like insurance.
“Insurance” is what you buy in case you have an accident, the insurance company will pay for your repairs.
Gas is of course gasoline, “the petrol” the fuel for your car. Maintenance is anything you need to do for your car to fix it or to keep it running well.
Changing the oil for example, checking the air pressure in your tires, this is all part of maintenance.
I mentioned that, “There are very few trains in the united states that transport daily commuters.” A commuter is a person who has to travel usually a long distance between his or her home and where they work.
Public transportation I mentioned is limited. public transportation, we of course have already covered.
In any sort of transportation other than your own car, you have to pay what’s called a fare.
A fare is the term we use for a taxi cab, it’s a term we use for a buss, it’s a term we use for a train, airplane, subway. All of these use the term fare.
I said that, “Bus drivers in the united states will not change a bill for you.”
To change a bill here means simply to give you the change. So, if the fare is fifty cents and you only have one dollar, you would have to change your bill.
The bill of course is any paper denomination, any paper money.
So, changing a bill we sometimes also use the expression “to break a bill”.
It means the same. To break a bill, for example a twenty-dollar bill and get two ten-dollar bills.
That’s breaking a twenty.
Exact change of course means that you have the exact amount that is necessary.
In talking about my own friends in Los Angeles, I said that, “One of my friends lives in the boonies.”
The boonies is an informal expression. It means way far away from the main part of the city.
The suburbs which are places outside of the central city, the central part of the city, can sometimes be called the boonies.
It’s a somewhat negative term. You don’t want to tell someone that they live in the boonies because it means they live far away from civilization.
In talking about trains and cars and bicycles and busses, we often use similar verbs to express what it means to go on that transportation.
For example, for train we say we ride the train.
We use the verb “ride” for trains, for subways, for busses.
We don’t use the term “ride” for taxi cabs, for your own car or for planes.
You can drive your own car and we only use the term “drive” if you are the person, driving the actual car.
So, I drive to work, but if I go with someone else, they drive me.
For a plane, we use the verb fly.
I’m going to fly to San Francisco.
We can also use the verb “take” for almost any kind of transportation.
He takes the train. He takes the buss. He takes the subway. We don’t say though, “He takes the plane.”
With plane, we use only fly.
For a car, you can also say take. I’m going to take my car today. Meaning, I’m going to drive my car.
So, drive is just used for cars. Ride and take can be used for busses, subways, trains.
Take can be used for a taxi cab. I’m going to take a taxi or I’m going to take a cab. And for planes we use fly.
For bicycles, usually we say ride a bicycle.
He rides his bicycle to work every day, but it’s possible to say he takes his bicycle to work, but that’s not very common.
Much more common to say, “he rides his bicycle.”
A couple of more expressions, I said that, “I take the bus if my car is in the shop.”
To be in the shop for a car means to be at the mechanic. The person who fixes my car.
So, when your car breaks down, you take it to the shop.
Sometimes, we’ll say the mechanic or sometimes we’ll say the shop.
Shop is short for mechanic’s shop.
Notice: It has nothing to do with the verb “shop” which means to buy.
A shop is any place where something is fixed, usually cars.
I used another common expression at the end of my discussion, “Worse comes to worst”
This is a very old, but a very common expression.
“Worse comes to worst” means in the very worst case possible.
We sometimes say, “Worst case scenario.”
Meaning, the worse situation.
We use this when we’re trying to say what the most negative or the worst situation would be, but it’s usually followed by an expression of how we can get out of that situation.
I said that, “Worse comes to worst, you can always take a taxi.” Meaning, even in the worse situation, you have an alternative.
Another way to use the expression, “I go to the doctor’s office and I need to pay for my visit, i need to pay for the doctor and I forgot my credit card or my check book. Worse coms to worst, I can ask the doctor to send me a bill which I will pay later.”
So, Worst comes to worse is always followed by a solution to that worst problem or that worst situation.
Finally, I said that, “You can hop in a taxi.”
This is a verb a little informal, but we say hop. In this case means the same as take.
So, it gets a little confusing.
We usually just say, “Hop for a taxi cab”, but you can also say it for a bus or a train or a subway.
I’m going to hop the subway to down town. Means, I’m going to take the subway.
We don’t use hop for car and we don’t use hop for bike and we do not use hop for plane, but you can say hop for the other types of transportation.
That’s going to do it for today’s English as a second language podcast. As always, we would love to hear from you. Please email us and tell us who you are and if you have suggestions for topics for future podcasts, please email them. We have had many people email us and we are going to use most of your suggestions. It’ll take some time for us to get to everyone’s suggestion, but we will try to do as many as possible.
Our email address is on our website or you can simply email us at “eslpod@eslpod.com”
My name is Dr. Jeff McQuillan.
I wanna thank you for listening.
We’ll see you next time on Esl podcast.
Esl podcast is produced by center for educational development in Los Angeles, California.
This podcast is copyright 2005.