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Holiday Travel

Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast number 116: Holiday Travel.

You’re listening English as a Second Language Podcast episode 116. I’m your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.

The topic of today’s podcast is going to be travelling, and specifically, travelling for the holidays. Let’s go!

(start of story]

It’s hard to avoid traveling over the holidays, but the experience I had last week really takes the cake.

I flew back to Tucson, Arizona to be with my wife’s family, as we do every Christmas. I got to the airport an hour and a half before my flight, which I thought would be plenty of time. When I got there, though, I saw that the security line was out the door. Because it was the holidays, people were traveling with a lot of extra packages. It took twice as long as it normally would to get to the front of the line. When I finally got to the gate, I found out that my flight had been oversold. The gate agent was looking for people to voluntarily give up their seats for a later flight in exchange for a $100 travel voucher. If she didn’t get enough volunteers, she would have to bump people from the flight. Luckily, several people took her up on the offer and the rest of us boarded.

What a hassle! I love the holidays, but I don’t love holiday travel.

[end of story]

We’re talking today about travelling, and specifically, about flying in an airplane. The title of our podcast is “Holiday Travel.” “Holiday” (holiday) means something different in the United States than in Great Britain. In American English, a “holiday” is usually an official day that the government says you don’t have to work. So, that would be a day like Independence Day, the 4th of July, or Christmas, or New Year’s Day - these are all official holidays. In Great Britain, a “holiday” is a vacation - what we would call in the United States, a “vacation” - where you go away somewhere with your family for two weeks. Now, you can _ take a vacation in addition to your holiday, but in the United States, “holiday” doesn’t mean a vacation necessarily. It just means a day that you don’t have to work. Now, in December we have the Christmas holiday. There are some who celebrate Hanukkah in the Jewish calendar and there are, of course, New Year’s Day celebrations. So, the “holidays” - when someone uses that plural, at least in the United States, they mean the Christmas, Hanukkah, New Years - that whole time is called the holidays. In fact, some people even include Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving Day, at the end of November as the beginning of the holidays.

Well, we are talking about holiday travelling and we begin by saying that “it’s hard to avoid travelling over the holidays.” “It’s hard to avoid” means, of course, it’s difficult not to do something. And with that particular expression - “it’s hard to avoid” – the verb that comes after is in the “ing” form. So, “it’s hard to avoid travelling.” “It’s hard to avoid talking to my sister.” “It’s hard to avoid paying your taxes.” “It’s very hard to avoid dying.” So, these are all things that take the “ing” - verbs that take the “ing.”

I also said that the experience, what happened to me last week, really “takes the cake.” The expression to take the cake” (cake) - “to take the cake” means that it was the worst possible, or it was in addition to all of the other problems. It was even more of a problem. Something that is the worst example of an experience would really take the cake. I go to the dentist and I have to get my teeth fixed. I have to have a work done on my teeth and when I am finished, the bill is a thousand dollars. So in addition to having pain of going to the dentist, I have the pain of paying a thousand dollars - “that really takes the cake” means it’s even worse than other problems.

I flew back to Tucson. And Tucson is a small city in Arizona, which is next to California. Tucson is in the middle of the desert. Arizona is a desert state. And I was going to go back to be with my wife and her family as we do, as we always do, every Christmas. And I got to the airport early, an hour and a half before my flight, which I thought would be “plenty of time.” “Plenty” (plenty) means a lot, more than enough, so, “plenty of time.” When I got there though, the “security line was out the door.” The “security” (security) line” is the line that you have to stand in - to be in - so that you can go through the X-ray machine and make sure you don’t have any weapons or any bombs or anything else. Well, the line was “out the door.” When we say something is “out the door” we mean that people are standing outside of the building - the line is so long it goes from inside all the way outside to the building. And at Los Angeles International Airport, there are actually eight terminals-eight places where planes can pull up - eight different parts of the airport, and usually, during the holidays, the security line is out the door in many of those terminals - many of those areas.

Well, one of the reasons that it was taking so long to get through security - “to get through,” meaning to pass through security - was people had a lot of “packages.” “Packages” (packages) here means boxes, things that are gifts for other people. Usually in the holidays, that’s what the packages are. Well, it took “twice as long” as it would, normally, to get to the front of the line. “Twice as long” - three words - “twice,” meaning, of course, two. So, twice as long” means two times the amount of time it would normally take to get to the front or the beginning of the line. When I got to the “gate” - the (gate) - the “gate” is - in the airport, that’s the door where you go out to get into the airplane. So, you go to the “gate” - that area - and I found out that my flight had been “oversold.”

“Oversold” is all one word “over” and “sold” - (oversold). “Oversold” means that the airplane company, the airline as we would call it, has sold too many tickets and this is something that happens in the United States. I don’t know about other countries. The airline thinks that it can sell more tickets than it has seats because people are always cancelling or changing their flights. So, they’re guessing, they’re betting that you will - some people will not come to the flight. So, they have a hundred seats but they sell, for example, 110 seats. So, if all 110 people actually get on that flight or try to fly that flight, then they have oversold. And when they oversold, the gate agent - and the “agent” (agent) - is the person who works for the airplane, airline - the person working there at the gate has to ask people if they would give up their seats. “To give up your seat” means that you will volunteer. You will say, “Okay, I won’t go on this flight.” And usually, they give you something if you do that. They give you something in exchange for your seat. The expression “in exchange for” means you give me something, I give you something. “In exchange for $10, I give you, you give me your car” – that’s not a very good deal. “In exchange for a hundred dollar travel voucher” - and a “travel voucher” - a “voucher” is (voucher) - a “voucher” is like a -it’s kind of like a coupon or a certificate. It’s a piece of paper that says you have a hundred dollars. It’s not a hundred dollar bill, it’s not a hundred dollars, but it’s worth a hundred dollars. And we use that term ‘voucher” for travel - tickets that the airline gives you if you give up your seat.

Well, if you don’t have enough people giving up their seat then the airplane - the airline - has to “bump people.” “To bump someone from a flight” -“bump” (bump) - means to say you can’t go. And the airplane - airline - has the right, legally, to bump people if they sell too many tickets, which surprises people when it happens. It has happened to me. I was flying once from St. Paul, Minnesota to, think it was Dallas, Texas and I was “bumped from my flight,” meaning I was told you can’t go on this flight. We have too many people. Well, luckily, several people “took up” the gate agent’s offer - ‘they took her up on the offer.” “To take _ someone up on an offer” means that you accept whatever deal, whatever idea that they present to you. So, someone says, “Why don’t we go to the beach this afternoon because it’s a beautiful day here in beautiful Los Angeles and I’ll buy you lunch.” And she says, “Oh, okay, I’ll take you up on your offer”- means agree to do that. Well, after other people took up the gate agent’s offer for travel vouchers, the rest of us “boarded.” And to board,” means just to get on to the airplane. I end the story by saying, “What a hassle.” “What a hassle” (hassle) - “What a hassle” means what a pain, what a problem. Something that causes a lot of problems is a hassle.

Now let’s listen to the story this time at a native rate of speech.

{tart of story]

It’s hard to avoid traveling over the holidays, but the experience I had last week really takes the cake.

I flew back to Tucson, Arizona to be with my wife’s family, as we do every Christmas. I got to the airport an hour and a half before my flight, which I thought would be plenty of time. When I got there, though, I saw that the security line was out the door. Because it was the holidays, people were traveling with a lot of extra packages. It took twice as long as it normally would to get to the front of the line. When I finally got to the gate, I found out that my flight had been oversold. The gate agent was looking for people to voluntarily give up their seats for a later flight in exchange for a $100 travel voucher. If she didn’t get enough volunteers, she would have to bump people from the flight. Luckily, several people took her up on the offer and the rest of us boarded.

What a hassle! I love the holidays, but I don’t love holiday travel.

[end of story]

From Los Angeles, California, I’m Jeff McQuillan. Thanks for listening. We’ll see you next time on ESL Podcast.

ESL Podcast is a production of the Center for Educational Development in Los Angeles, California.

This podcast is copyright 2005. No part of this podcast may be sold or redistributed without the expressed written permission of the Center for Educational Development.