Learn to talk about directions
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| INTRODUCTION |
| Sadia: Hello there from New York. This is Sadia. |
| Keith: And I’m Keith. “Get Insider Information from the Locals” |
| Sadia: In the last lesson, Lesson 11, you learned how to talk about the weather. |
| Keith: And you also learned about the conjunction, "but," the future tense, and adjectives with nouns. |
| Sadia: In this lesson you’ll learn how to commute using a taxi and how to engage in small talk. |
| Keith: This conversation takes place in a taxicab. |
| Sadia: The conversation is between our main character, Zo, and the taxi driver. |
| Keith: Alright, well let’s listen in to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Taxi driver: Good morning. Where to? |
| Zo: Good morning. To the Altman Building, please. |
| Taxi driver: What's the address? |
| Zo: Here it is. |
| Driver: Where are you from? |
| Zo: Oh—I’m from Cape Town— South Africa. |
| Driver: Oh yeah? Are you visiting? |
| Zo: Yep. |
| Taxi driver: You speak English well! |
| Zo: No, not really. Just a little! |
| Taxi driver: No—you're pretty good! |
| Zo: No, not yet. Where are you from? Your English is pretty good, too! |
| Taxi: Yeah, well, I’ve been here for 15 years now, so, you know. The Altman Building? There’s a very good restaurant near there. |
| Zo: What's the name? |
| Taxi driver: Afroasia. |
| Zo: Can you write it down? |
| Taxi driver: Sure. Hold on a minute. |
| Taxi driver: We're here. That’ll be $8.50. |
| Zo: Here you are. Thank you. |
| Taxi driver: Thank you! Here’s your change. |
| Zo: Receipt, please. |
| Taxi driver: Sure—here you are. |
| Keith: One more time, slowly. |
| Taxi driver: Good morning. Where to? |
| Zo: Good morning. To the Altman Building, please. |
| Taxi driver: What's the address? |
| Zo: Here it is. |
| Driver: Where are you from? |
| Zo: Oh—I’m from Cape Town— South Africa. |
| Driver: Oh yeah? Are you visiting? |
| Zo: Yep. |
| Taxi driver: You speak English well! |
| Zo: No, not really. Just a little! |
| Taxi driver: No—you're pretty good! |
| Zo: No, not yet. Where are you from? Your English is pretty good, too! |
| Taxi: Yeah, well, I’ve been here for 15 years now, so, you know. The Altman Building? There’s a very good restaurant near there. |
| Zo: What's the name? |
| Taxi driver: Afroasia. |
| Zo: Can you write it down? |
| Taxi driver: Sure. Hold on a minute. |
| Taxi driver: We're here. That’ll be $8.50. |
| Zo: Here you are. Thank you. |
| Taxi driver: Thank you! Here’s your change. |
| Zo: Receipt, please. |
| Taxi driver: Sure—here you are. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Sadia: So, Keith, would you agree that one of the most recognized icons of |
| New York is the yellow taxicab? |
| Keith: Oh, yes, definitely. Absolutely. I grew up here, but when I think of New York, I always think of yellow taxis. |
| Sadia: Wow, so it’s legit then. |
| Keith: Definitely. |
| Sadia: I have some really cool facts about taxis that I read recently. |
| Keith: Ooh, please, uh, teach us. |
| Sadia: OK, so it turns out that taxis, these yellow taxis, are called "medallion taxis." Medallion because they’re named after the licenses that taxi drivers have to have. |
| Keith: Oh, that’s right, on the hoods of the cars, or the taxis, you’ll see a flat piece of metal, that’s called a medallion. |
| Sadia: Actually I never noticed medallions on taxis. |
| Keith: Well, if you take a look, you’ll see it on the hood of the car. |
| Sadia: Yeah, I’m going to look as soon as we go outside. Also, I learned that yellow cabs are the only vehicles that are allowed to pick up passengers in response to being hailed on the street. |
| Keith: So what does that mean? To be “hailed” on the street. |
| Sadia: Like, to flag down, to hail a cab is kind of to raise your arm up and show them that.. |
| Keith: Hey, taxi, |
| Sadia: Right, Right. |
| Keith: I need a taxi. |
| Sadia: Exactly. |
| Keith: OK, well I got another fact for you. |
| Sadia: OK. |
| Keith: The first New York cab company was |
| The New York Taxicab Company. And that was first launched in 1907. |
| Sadia: Wow. Who knew? 1907. That’s a long time ago. |
| Keith: So more than a hundred years, yeah. |
| Sadia: Yeah, insane. These days it seems like cabs are kind of changing a little bit because a lot of new technology is being used by taxicabs. Because there are like hybrid taxis and like diesel-powered taxis. |
| Keith: Some of them use electricity.. |
| Sadia: Mm-hm. |
| Keith: Or a different kind of gas or fuel for the taxis. |
| Sadia: But, I think half the fun of riding in a cab in New York is talking to the driver! |
| Keith: Yeah, they’re actually kind of, mm, well, sometimes you can talk to the driver. |
| Sadia: Exactly. |
| Keith: Sometimes you can’t. Some people are nice, some people are busy. |
| Sadia: That’s true, that’s true. But I don’t know I feel like I have good luck because I’m always in a cab with some taxi driver who’s just hilarious. |
| Keith: Yeah. |
| Sadia: Very funny, very friendly. Yeah, I guess it’s true that they’re not all so friendly and |
| helpful, but, uh, Zo is lucky enough to find a really nice, fun driver who talked to him and who even gave him a restaurant recommendation. |
| Keith: Yeah some taxi drivers will do that. |
| Sadia: Interestingly, I also read that, something like, and don’t quote me on this number, but I read like 90 over percent of New York taxi drivers |
| are foreign-born, which is very interesting. |
| Keith: Well I think that’s very, very true, too. Living here, I think most of the taxi drivers I’ve run across are foreign born, so they’re not native English speakers. What’s another word for a taxi? |
| Sadia: Oh, cab. |
| Keith: Yeah, so sometimes you can say “cab,” c-a-b, or taxi. They’re both the same thing. Alright, let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| The first word we shall see is: |
| Sadia: building [natural native speed] |
| Keith: a roofed and walled structure made for permanent use |
| Sadia: building [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Sadia: building [natural native speed] |
| Next:" |
| address [natural native speed] |
| Keith: place at which a person or group can be communicated |
| with |
| address [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| address [natural native speed] |
| Next:" |
| Sadia: America [natural native speed] |
| Keith: the United States of America |
| Sadia: America [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Sadia: America [natural native speed] |
| Next:" |
| really [natural native speed] |
| Keith: truly, very |
| really [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| really [natural native speed] |
| Next:" |
| Sadia: little [natural native speed] |
| Keith: small amount |
| Sadia: little [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Sadia: little [natural native speed] |
| Next:" |
| pretty [natural native speed] |
| Keith: quite, fairly |
| pretty [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| pretty [natural native speed] |
| Next:" |
| Sadia: very [natural native speed] |
| Keith: to a high degree, truly |
| Sadia: very [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Sadia: very [natural native speed] |
| Next:" |
| restaurant [natural native speed] |
| Keith: a place where food and drinks can be bought |
| restaurant [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| restaurant [natural native speed] |
| Next:" |
| Sadia: near [natural native speed] |
| Keith: close by |
| Sadia: near [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Sadia: near [natural native speed] |
| Next:" |
| we [natural native speed] |
| Keith: I and the others in a group that includes me |
| we [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| we [natural native speed] |
| Next:" |
| Sadia: arrive [natural native speed] |
| Keith: to reach a destination |
| Sadia: arrive [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Sadia: arrive [natural native speed] |
| Next:" |
| change [natural native speed] |
| Keith: money returned when a payment exceeds the amount |
| due |
| change [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| change [natural native speed] |
| Next:" |
| Sadia: receipt [natural native speed] |
| Keith: a writing acknowledging the receiving of goods or money |
| Sadia: receipt [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Sadia: receipt [natural native speed] |
| VOCAB AND PHRASE USAGE |
| Keith: Well, how about we take a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson? |
| Sadia: OK, well the first phrase we’ll look at is, "Where to?" |
| Keith: Now what’s that mean? |
| Sadia: When Zo gets into the cab, the cab driver asks, "Where to?" This phrase uses an implied verb-- or, a suggested verb. |
| Keith: So what the driver means is, "Where are you going to?" |
| Sadia: Exactly. This is yet another, like, business transaction, so these kinds of really short phrases, they are kind of expected. |
| Keith: And the reason is, speed up things |
| Sadia: Mm-hm. |
| Keith: Make things faster. Next we’re going to go over how to tell the driver where you want to go. |
| Sadia: After he's asked where he is going, Zo responds with, "To the Altman Building, please." |
| Keith: This is a typical answer to any taxicab driver's question of "Where to?" |
| Sadia: You simply answer "to..." and fill in the name or the address of your destination. |
| Keith: For example, "To the Waldorf-Astoria." That’s a hotel in New York. Or, how about an address. You can say. "To 1515 Broadway." Next up is.. |
| Sadia: Next is, "What's the address?" |
| Keith: Zo tells the driver the name of the building he's going to, the Altman building, but he doesn't give the address. While |
| some taxicab drivers know buildings by name, some-- like the one in this dialogue, they don’t know the building by the name.. |
| Sadia: So the driver asks, "What's the address?" He |
| wants to know the number of the building and the name (or, since we’re in New York, the number) of the street-- he wants to know the address. |
| Keith: And the next phrase is, 'No, not really." The driver compliments Zo on his English. He says, “Oh, your English is so good, it’s so great,” but Zo, he’s a little embarrassed-- |
| Sadia: He’s a little shy. |
| Keith: Yeah, so he wants to be modest-- and so he says to the driver, "No, not really." My English is not that good. No, not really. |
| Sadia: When he knows, full well, that he speaks beautiful English. |
| Keith: Perfect English |
| Sadia: So the next phrase then is, "Just a little." |
| Keith: Zo tells the driver that he speaks |
| English "just a little," which means, "not a lot." |
| Sadia: And it seems, like we’re saying, that Zo’s being modest. As we've heard over the past 11 lessons, Zo's English IS... |
| Keith: Very good. Yeah. |
| Sadia: Yeah. |
| Keith: What’s next, Sadia? |
| Sadia: Next up is the phrase, "Wait a minute." |
| Keith: That has the same meaning as, "Just a moment, please." |
| Sadia: We're here! |
| Keith: Where? |
| Sadia: Here-- We’re here at the last phrase! This is what the cab driver says when they arrive at Zo's destination, The Altman Building. He says, "We're here!" |
| Keith: And that simply means, "We have arrived." |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Sadia: The focus points of this lesson are the verb, "to speak," |
| Keith: Also, questions with verbs. |
| Sadia: And finally, adjectives with nouns. |
| Keith: Let's start with the verb, "to speak." |
| Sadia: You know that "to speak" means to say or to utter. The driver is impressed by Zo's English, so he says to him, "You speak English well!" |
| Keith: Wait a minute-- let's take a look at the SIMPLE PRESENT TENSE of of the verb, "to speak." |
| Sadia: Good idea. Let's start with the singular-- |
| Keith: I speak, you speak, he speaks, she speaks. |
| Sadia: And now, the plural is -- We speak, you speak, and they speak. |
| Keith: All the forms of the verb "speak" seem to be the same here, except for one. |
| Sadia: The 3rd person singular, he or she SPEAKS. There’s an S at the end. The driver says to Zo, "You SPEAK English well!" which uses the subject + verb + object formula. |
| Keith: "You speak English well!" |
| Sadia: The driver is using the SIMPLE PRESENT TENSE of the verb, "to speak." |
| Keith: When do we use the simple present tense? |
| Sadia: We use it in a few instances - first, when the verb is general, or it happens all the time. |
| Keith: So maybe something like, "You, Sadia, SPEAK English." |
| Sadia: Exactly! Another instance when we use the SIMPLE PRESENT TENSE is when the verb is not only happening now. "You SPEAK English everyday, all day" That’s a perfect great example of that. |
| Keith: That definitely makes sense. Are there any other times we use the simple present tense? |
| Sadia: It's also used if the statement is always true. |
| Keith: If it’s always true, you say "You SPEAK English... ALL THE TIME!" |
| Sadia: Exactly! You got it. |
| Keith: Now that we've mastered that, let's move on to the second focus point of today's lesson, questions with verbs. |
| Sadia: This taxi driver is full of questions! First, he asks, "Where to?" which is short for "Where are you going to?" |
| Keith: And then he then asks Zo, "Where are you from?" |
| Sadia: He ALSO asks, "Are you visiting?" |
| Keith: Each one of these questions uses the present tense of the |
| verb, "to be." And because the driver is speaking about the person he is addressing, Zo, he uses the 2nd person singular of the verb, "to be," and what that is... "are." |
| Sadia: He says, “Where [ARE you going] to?” |
| Keith: And, Where ARE you from? |
| Sadia: and ARE you visiting? |
| Keith: The formula for forming a question is question word + auxiliary verb + subject + main |
| noun. "Are" functions as an AUXILIARY VERB-- and that means it’s a helping verb. |
| Sadia: What about question words-- we covered those in an earlier lesson, right? |
| Keith: That’s right. The question words are Who, What, Where, Why, When, and How. Sadia, can you make a sentence? |
| Sadia: OK, how about, Where + are + you + going? Where are you going? |
| Keith: Perfect. |
| Sadia: Last point is - ADJECTIVES WITH NOUNS. We've done this before, but we should probably review. |
| Keith: You all probably remember that adjectives are words that are used to DESCRIBE nouns. |
| Sadia: And there are a few great examples in the dialogue of adjectives being used to describe nouns. |
| Keith: There are! When the driver compliments Zo on his English and Zo disagrees, the driver says, "No-- you're pretty good!" |
| Sadia: So he uses the adjective, "good" (modified by the adverb, "pretty") to describe Zo-- or actually, to describe his English skills. He says, "You're pretty good!" |
| Keith: And the taxicab driver who talks a lot, he also tells Zo, that "there’s a very good restaurant near" And he’s talking about Zo's destination, The Altman Building. The word, "very" functions as an adverb and that just means how good the restaurant is-- it's "very good." |
| Sadia: Let's think of some more adjective and noun pairings. |
| Keith: How about. Great day. |
| Sadia: How about, romantic vacation. |
| Keith: Ooh, that’s nice. How about, wild party! |
| Sadia: Or, like, a thrilling adventure, maybe. |
Outro |
| Keith: Let's wrap this up! Thanks for listening, everyone. |
| Sadia: Thanks a lot. We’ll see you next time. |
| Keith and Sadia: Bye-bye. |
Comments
Hide