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English as a Second Language Podcast
www.eslpod.com
ENGLISH CAFÉ – 100
TOPICS
Traveling in the U.S., gimmick versus trick, to call ‘em like you see ‘em, in
demand versus on demand
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GLOSSARY
the open road – the idea that roads in the United States are open for anyone to
explore and have an adventure or vacation
* Last summer, we hit the open road, driving from Washington to Florida.
spats – a short argument or fight about something that isn’t very serious
* Melissa often has spats with her younger brother, but they usually stop being
mad at each other within the hour.
KOA – Kampground of America; a network of places for people to camp around
the United States
* This weekend the Hansons are going camping at a KOA in Idaho.
hitch – trailer hitch; a small, round piece of metal that is placed on the back of
one’s car and used to connect to and pull a trailer
* Sometimes it’s difficult to connect the trailer to the trailer hitch on this car.
GPS – global positioning system; a technology that uses an electronic device to
show one where one is on the planet
* If you go far into the mountains, the park ranger recommends carrying a GPS
device so that you don’t get lost.
pop-up – pop-up trailer; a small, flat type of trailer that can be opened and made
taller, so that people can sleep inside it
* This pop-up trailer looks very small from the outside, but once you set it up,
there’s room for five people to sleep in it.
AAA – Automobile Association of America; an organization that provides maps
and emergency road service to drivers who are members
* When Janet locked her keys in the car, she called AAA and someone came to
help her open the car in less than 20 minutes.
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English as a Second Language Podcast
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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 100
bicentennial – the 200 th anniversary of something; relating to the day that
something happened 200 years ago
* The United States celebrated its bicentennial on July 4, 1976, 200 years after
the Declaration of Independence was signed.
gimmick – something that is said or done to get people to do something,
especially to get people to buy something
* One common sales gimmick is to advertise a car at a low price, but then, when
people come into the car dealership, tell them that the car has already been sold
and try to sell them a more expensive car instead.
trick – something that is done to make people believe something that isn’t true
* The children played a trick on their classmate, telling him that everyone was
going to wear their pajamas to school the next day.
to call ‘em like (one) sees ‘em – to say the truth about what one thinks; to say
what one honestly thinks, without softening the statement to make other people
happy
* The referee said that the ball was out, and when the players became angry, he
just said, “I call ‘em like I see ‘em” and wouldn’t change his mind.
in demand – something that people want to have or buy; wanted by many
people
* Wide-screen televisions are in demand right now.
on demand – when and how one wants something; done whenever and
however one wants it to be done
* Charlene is tired of having to bring coffee to her boss on demand.
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English as a Second Language Podcast
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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 100
WHAT INSIDERS KNOW
RVs and RV Parks
Many Americans like to take vacation in an “RV,” or “recreational vehicle,” which
is a large vehicle that people can live, cook, and sleep in while they are traveling.
Some people call them “houses on wheels,” because large RVs have everything
that one would find in a house, including a bathroom, kitchen, and even TV.
RVs are expensive to buy and “maintain” (to keep something in good condition).
They also use a lot of gas, but many people like RVs because they’re cheaper
than staying in hotels. Some people even choose to travel around in RVs during
their “retirement” (the time in life when older people have stopped working).
Some “campsites” (places where people can stay overnight, usually in tents)
have special sections for RVs. But many people with RVs choose to stay in “RV
parks” that are “exclusively” (only) for RVs. RVs need “water and sewage
hookups” (connections to receive water and get rid of waste water), and RV
parks offer these for a small fee.
Some popular movies are about RVs and “road trips” (long driving vacations,
often across the country). National Lampoon’s Vacation , for example, is a
comedy where the Griswold family goes on vacation driving across the country.
They have many problems on their vacation, such as getting lost, having
accidents, and running out of money.
Another, more recent movie about RVs is simply called RV . In this comedy, a
family “rents” (pays money to use something for a short period of time) an RV to
go on vacation. They have many problems with the RV, including its “brakes”
(the things that slow down or stop a car) and its water and sewage hookups.
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These materials are copyrighted by the Center for Educational Development (2007). Posting of
these materials on another website or distributing them in any way is prohibited.
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English as a Second Language Podcast
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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 100
COMPLETE TRANSCRIPT
You're listening to ESL Podcast's English Café number 100.
This is ESL Podcast's English Café episode 100. I'm your host, Dr. Jeff
McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in
beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Number 100! We have been doing these English Cafés, now, for more than a
year. I hope you have enjoyed them; I know we have!
If you'd like to get a transcript for this episode, as well as all of the vocabulary
words, definitions, sample sentences, additional definitions not found on the
audio portion of the podcast as well as cultural notes, you can go to our website
at eslpod.com and take a look under Learning Guides.
The topic in this Café is going to be traveling in the United States. During the
summertime, many people travel. I'm going to talk a little bit about my own
experience as a child traveling with my family; talk a little bit about the trips we
took and the things we saw. As always, we'll answer a few of your questions as
well. Let's get started.
The summertime is a popular time for people to take a vacation. One popular
way of taking vacations is to take what we would call a “road trip,” where you get
in your car and you drive to the vacation spot that you have selected. The United
States is a big country; it takes several days to travel from one side of the country
to the other by car.
I grew up in the state of Minnesota, which is located in the middle of the United
States at the very northern border with Canada. My father was a schoolteacher;
he taught from September until May or June, so he had the summer free to
travel. He and my mother enjoyed the open road. The expression “open road”
means going out and traveling outside of the city or between cities, or simply
going and traveling in your car.
When I was nine years old, actually I was eight years old, back in 1972 – so you
can calculate how old I am now – we went on a trip, our first big trip. It was a
camping trip. Now, we didn't have a tent, which is what many people use to
“camp,” to go out somewhere away from the city and you put up your tent and
you sleep inside of it. It's like a little portable place – room – for you to sleep.
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English as a Second Language Podcast
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ENGLISH CAFÉ – 100
We had something called a “camper,” and a “camper” usually is something on
wheels that is more permanent.
We had a – a big car. Of course, I come from a big family; I am the youngest of
11 children. After I was born, my parents looked at me and said, “Okay, no more
children!” It's a good thing I wasn't born first, but we were talking about our car.
It was an old car; it was a 1963 Chrysler Imperial – that was the name of the car.
This was 1972, so it was nine years old. But it was big; at least we could put
about half of the family in the car because we were small. I was 9, my brother
was 10, my sister was 12, my other brother was 14, and I had an older sister who
was 19, in college, who also went with us on our first trip. So, we had seven
people in this one car: my mother and father and one of the children in front, and
then the other four people in back.
The car had a hitch on it. A “hitch” (hitch) is something you connect to the back
of your car, and it allows you to pull a trailer. A “trailer” is another vehicle that
has wheels on it that is separate from your car. So you have the hitch, and then
you connect the trailer with the hitch, and the car pulls the trailer. In this case,
we had a camper trailer, and we slept in the camper. So, we didn't sleep outside;
we slept in this little camper.
Now, when you travel in a camper, you need to find a place where you can have
your bathroom and a place to shower, and so forth. This would be called a
“campground.” There was a popular company that had campgrounds; they were
called “Kampgrounds of America,” but they spelled “campground” with a “K,” so
the name of these campgrounds was “KOA.” And, you could go and pay $10-
$15 each night, and you could put your camper in their campground and use
their bathrooms and showers. Sometimes these campgrounds had other games
or a swimming pool.
Most people use these campgrounds just as places to sleep at night. They
would then go and visit and travel to other places near the campground. So for
example, when we came to Los Angeles in 1972 – we drove from Minnesota to
Los Angeles, it took several days – couple of weeks, actually, because we
stopped at many different places. When we came to Los Angeles, we stayed in
a campground outside of the city, and then drove into the city.
In 1972, we took a trip out to the western part of the United States. This was a
six-week trip, so you can imagine having seven people traveling in a car every
day for six weeks together. Sometimes we children would have some “spats”
(some disagreements). A “spat” (spat) is a small argument, we might also call it
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