Welcome to English as a second language podcast, number 24.
Hello and welcome to English as a second language podcast, number 24.
My name is Dr. Jeff McQuillan, from the center for educational development.
We are coming to you today from Los Angeles, California.
If this is the first time listening to this podcast, please go to our website at “www.eslpod.com” for mor information.
Before We start today’s podcast, a short announcement.
“Esl podcast thanks to you (our listeners) is now one of the most popular podcast in Europe and japan.”
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So, we thank you for listening to this podcast.
Today’s topic is going to be on driving and all sorts of vocabulary related to driving.
Lucy is going to tell us about her driving experiences here in Los Angeles.
Now let’s get started.
Driving in a big city like L.A. can be so stressful. It sometimes feels like I’m doing battle just to get to the grocery store, much less across town. What is it about getting behind the wheel that brings out people’s aggressive side? The most mild-mannered mother of three turns into a race car driver when she gets on the road.
In L.A., people rely on the freeway to commute to their jobs or just to get around town. I think driving on the freeway has it’s good and bad. On the one hand, there are no stoplights and the speed limit is over 55 miles per hour. So, you can get somewhere in a flash, But on the other hand, there are drawbacks, too. People like to gun their engines and cut off other cars to get ahead. The other day, I saw a guy in a Porsche get into the passing lane, race ahead of the Honda that was in front of him and cut that person off. Then, the guy in the Honda tries to catch up to the Porsche. They’re both zipping in and out of traffic, almost causing an accident. They were speeding and changing lanes without looking or signaling. I was sure they were going to cause a big pile up.
As an alternate to the freeway, I sometimes take surface streets. Of course, surface streets have their drawbacks, too. If you have a long commute to work or school, it can take you ages to get there. There are stop signs, stop lights and crosswalks to deal with and people sometimes tailgate if they think you’re not going fast enough. Now that I think about it, there’s sometimes even more congestion on surface streets than on the freeways!
There’s no getting around it living in L.A. We need better public transportation and more people to walk, bike or rollerblade to work, But as the famous song goes, “Nobody Walks in L.A.” [by the Missing Persons]

Lucy talked about driving here in Los Angeles.
Like many cities, Los Angeles can be very stressful when you drive.
To be stressful of course means to have allot of anxiety.
Lucy said that, “It sometimes feels like she’s doing battle just to get to the grocery store.”
To do battle literally means to fight.
When two armies fight each other, they do battle.
We sometimes use this expression though in daily life to talk about something that causes us allot of difficulty or something that we must struggle with.
Several expressions were used by Lucy that are particular to driving and locations.
She said that, “It was sometimes difficult to get across towns.”
In a city, to say across towns means on the other side of the city.
So, I live near the ocean here in Los Angeles. If I want to go to the mountains, that is going to be across town.
I have to go through the city to the other part of the city.
Lucy mentioned that getting behind the wheel can bring out one’s aggressive side.
To get behind the wheel means to get behind the steering wheel.
It means to drive.
You do not want to drink alcohol and then get behind the wheel.
Meaning, you do not want to drink and then drive.
The expression “aggressive side”, (Lucy mentioned bringing out people’s aggressive side.) To be aggressive means to be very forceful.
Like you are going to or ready to attack someone. That’s aggressive.
You can be aggressive physically by punching someone, by hitting someone or you can be aggressive in your actions verbally or by things you do.
The opposite of aggressive is “mild mannered.”
Lucy mentioned the mild-mannered mother of three.
To be mild mannered means to be very quiet, to be calm, to be peaceful.
Lucy mentioned that many people here in Los Angeles commute and commute -You probably know- means to go from your home to your job. It’s traveling from your home to your work, usually a long distance.
Lucy said that, “There are no stoplights on the freeway.”
A stoplight is another word for what in some countries they call “semaphore.” It’s three lights: red, yellow and green that causes people to stop at a corner, you find these at streets.
There are stoplights and then there are stop signs.
These are just octagonal (eight sided signs) that just say stop on that.
So, a stoplight is electric with lights stop sign is just a physical sign with the word stop on it.
A speed limit is how fast you can drive.
In the United States, on most freeways or highways, the speed limit is either 55 miles per hour or 65 miles per hour.
That’s the speed limit. In the city, on city streets, the speed limit is much lower and we talk about raising the speed limit and lowering the speed limit.
We lower the speed limit in the city, usually to 25 or 30 miles per hour.
Lucy said that, “She was able to get somewhere on the freeway in a flash.”
In a flash means very quickly.
I’m late for my doctor’s appointment. I’ll be there in a flash if I take the subway, Meaning very quickly.
She said that, “Driving on the freeway has drawbacks.”
A drawback is a disadvantage, something that will cause you difficulties.
There are many drawbacks to commute in Los Angeles: It takes allot of time, it is very stressful.
Those are disadvantages or bad things.
People according to Lucy like to gun their engines and cut off other cars to get ahead.
These are two expressions we use very commonly for driving.
To gun your engine means to go real fast suddenly, To accelerate very quickly, To take your foot and put it down on the gas pedal, so that your engine, the motor in your car begins to operate, to move very quickly.
To cut off a car means to pull in front, to go in front another car.
This is an expression, a negative expression that means that the person went in front of you without looking or without getting your permission or made you slow down because went in front of you.
So, many people, most people get angry. They get mad when someone cuts them off, Pulls in front of them in the freeway in a very aggressive way.
Lucy mentioned that she saw somebody in a Porsche. A Porsche is of course a luxury German car, very expensive.- Someone was in a Porsche and that person got in to the passing Laine.
The passing lane is in the United States, Usually the most left most Laine.
If you want to pass someone and there are three lanes on the freeway, three places where you can drive on the freeway, you go on to the one that’s most on the left to pass.
The rule is that you pass on the left not on the right, driving in the United States.
So, that’s called the passing lane.
Someone went in to the passing lane, The Porsche ahead of a Honda (and Honda of course is a Japanese car.) and the person in the Honda according to Lucy The person in the Honda tried to catch up with the Porsche.
To catch up means to get up to same place where the Porsche is on the freeway, To go behind them or go next to them and then to be right by them, right near them.
To catch up to someone means to get to the same place where that person is. So, if someone is running in front of me and I need to catch up to them, I need to run so that I am in the same right next to that person.
That is to catch up.
She said that, “People were zipping in and out of traffic.”
To zip has a couple of meanings.
Here it means to go in and out of different lanes on the freeway very quickly.
It can be very dangerous zipping in and out of traffic.
Lucy said that, “The drivers were speeding and changing lanes without signaling.”
To speed means to go too fast on the freeway or on any road.
If the speed limit is 55 miles per hour and you are driving 75 miles per hour, well, you are speeding! and you could get a ticket or a fine from a police officer.
Changing lanes means to move your car from one lane to the other.
I need to get off at the next exit on the freeway. The next place where I can get off of the freeway.
The freeway is called an exit. There are exits and entrances.
If I want to get off on the next exit, I have to change lanes. Means, I have to go over the right usually, sometimes we have exits on the left, but usually on the right.
Signaling means to use your turn signal.
So, when you are going to go right or to go left or go from one lane to another lane, you have a little stick, on your car on your driving wheel and you push it up and the arrow starts pointing the light, start flashing in one direction and you push it down and it starts going in another direction.
This is your turn’s signal and to signal means to use your turn signal on the road.
Lucy said that, “Sometimes cars when they drive dangerously, can cause a pileup.”
A pileup is a multi-car accident when many cars get in to a big accident: Three, four, maybe up to ten cars on the freeway get in to an accident together. This is called a pileup.
A couple of more terms that Lucy used.
She said that, “As an alternate to the freeway, she sometimes takes surface streets.”
An alternate is an alternative. We sometimes use the words “alternate road” meaning another way of going somewhere.
Not using that road, but using another road.
Surface street is a term we use in a city to refer to the normal streets that are not the freeway and not the highway.
So, there are two ways to travel on a city in a car: on the surface streets or on the freeway or highway.
I used those terms to mean the same thing here freeway and highway.
Lucy said that, “There are stop signs and stop lights.” (we’ve already talked about that), but she also mentioned that on the surface streets, there are cross walks.
“Cross walk” is a place where a pedestrian – a person who is walking- can cross or go the other side of the street.
We call those crosswalks (All one word, crosswalk.)
To tailgate (Also one word tailgate) To tailgate someone means to come up behind them and follow them closely.
Sometimes, aggressive drivers on the freeway want you to change lanes, so they can go in front of you and they will come right up behind you. That is called tailgating.
Congestion is when there is allot of traffic.
When it is very crowded, if there is an accident or during rush hour, (Rush hour is the time during the morning and the evening when many people are going on the roads to work or from work. There is morning rush hour and there is afternoon rush hour.)
If there is allot of traffic, allot of cars on the road, we call that allot of congestion.
finally, Lucy mentioned other ways of traveling in Los Angeles including: rollerblade.
To rollerblade means to put on some special skates that have special wheels on the bottom that move very quickly. Rollerblading is for only those people who know how to skate well. Heh I don’t know how to rollerblade, but many people rollerblade here in Los Angeles near the beaches specially very famous beach called “finesse beach.”
Finesse beach there are allot of rollerblade.
That’s going to do it for today’s podcast.
As usual, we ask you to email us and tell us where you are from and who you are.
Our email address is “eslpod@eslpod.com.”
Thank you again for listening. We’ll see you next time on English as a second language podcast.
Esl podcast is produced by center for educational development in Los Angeles, California.
This podcast is copyright 2005.