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Traveling Off-Season

Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast number 238: Traveling Off-Season.

This is English as a Second Language Podcast episode 238. Hello, I’m your host Dr. Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.

Just a reminder that ESL Podcast now has a store on our website, where you can download several new premium courses. These are special courses that we think you’ll be interested in. Take a look at our website at eslpod.com. You can also sign up for the Learning Guides for this podcast. This is a 10-page guide to each episode of the podcast. You can now also purchase individual Learning Guides from our ESL Podcast Store.

Our topic in this episode is taking a trip or a vacation. Let’s get started.

[start of story]

Kavita: What I wouldn’t give to get away for a little vacation!

Bill: Me, too, but we can’t afford it.

Kavita: Oh, I don’t know. It’s off-season in a lot of popular places right now, so it may be doable.

Bill: Maybe. We’d have to find some pretty deep discounts. There is a big advantage to traveling during the low season, though. It’s a lot less crowded.

Kavita: Yeah, I like that. I’ll see if I can find a package deal that includes airfare and lodgings. That may give us the best deal.

Bill: We have one thing going for us. We have flexible travel dates, which should make it easier to take advantage of any special promotions.

Kavita: That’s true. I’m start looking online and I’ll let you know what I find.

Bill: I know what a good bargain hunter you are, so if anyone can find a good deal, it’s you.

Kavita: I’m not at all sure I can find something we can afford, but it won’t be for a lack of trying. I really need that vacation!

[end of story]

Bill and Kavita are taking a vacation in this episode. The title of the episode is “Traveling Off-Season.” The expression off-season refers to traveling somewhere during the months when it isn’t busy - when there aren’t very many people there. The opposite of off-season is high season, “high,” high. High season is usually the summertime for most places. June, July and August in the northern hemisphere, and off-season are the months outside of that particular season, or those particular months.

Kavita begins the dialogue by saying, “What I wouldn’t give to get away for a little vacation!” This expression, what I wouldn’t - or would not - give, means I really want to do something - I would do almost anything to be able to do something.

So, you could say, “What I wouldn’t give to travel to Los Angeles and lay on the beach in Santa Monica.” What I wouldn’t give means I really want to do that - I would do anything to do that.

Kavita says that she wants to “get away.” To get away usually means to take a vacation - to leave your work for a short time, not a long vacation, usually a short vacation. Kavita calls it “a little vacation.” The expression to get away has a couple of different meanings in English; take a look at the Learning Guide for today for more information.

Bill says, “Me, too,” meaning I as well, but in conversational English, we say, “me, too” even though it isn’t grammatically correct. Bill says, “but we can’t afford it.” To be able to afford something, “afford,” means to be able to pay for it - to have enough money to do it.

Kavita says, “Oh, I don’t know,” she thinks that they may be able to afford it. She says, “It’s off-season in a lot of popular places right now, so it may be doable.” The word doable, “doable,” comes from the word to do, which means it is possible - it is able to be done. If someone says, “That is doable,” they mean that it can be done. For example, “Can anyone teach Jeff McQuillan to sing?” And someone says, “Well, it’s going to be very difficult but it’s doable” - it is possible - maybe in about a thousand years!

Bill says, “Maybe. We’d have to find some pretty deep discounts.” A deep, “deep,” discount is a large or big discount, so you would get a lot of money off you would save a lot of money. Bill says, “There is a big advantage,” or a large advantage - a major advantage, “to traveling during the low season. It’s a lot less crowded.” The low season, “low,” means the same as the off-season.

Remember, the opposite of off-season and low season is high season.

Bill says, “It’s a lot less crowded.” When we say it is crowded, “crowded,” we mean there are a lot of people, usually too many people in a small area. “I went to the dance club last night and it was very crowded” - there were lots of people there.

Kavita said, “Yeah, I like that,” meaning I like the idea of going during low season. She says she’s going to try to “find a package deal that includes airfare and lodgings.” A deal, “deal,” is an agreement usually for buying something or selling something. A package deal, “package,” means a deal - an agreement that includes many different things. We usually use this expression when talking about vacation. We say, “I’m going to get a good vacation package,” or “a good vacation package deal.” It means I’m going to buy something that includes my airplane ticket and my hotel and, maybe, a car rental; that would be part of a package deal.

Kavita uses the word lodgings here, “lodgings.” Usually, this is a singular noun.

We say, “I’m looking for lodging tonight,” that means I’m looking for a place to sleep - a place to stay. It can also be in the plural.

Kavita says, “This may give us the best deal,” once again, the deal being an agreement. This word deal has a couple of different meanings; take a look at the Learning Guide for some additional meanings of that word.

Bill says, “We have one thing going for us.” The expression to have one thing going for you means that we have an advantage - we have something that will help us do something. Bill says, “We have one thing going for us. We have flexible travel dates.” When we say flexible, “flexible,” we mean that it is easy to change them - it is easy to adjust them - to make them different. So, flexible travel dates means there are different days that they can travel - they don’t only have to travel on certain dates.

Bill says this makes “it easier to take advantage of any special promotions.” Special promotions usually are lower prices for something. You could say, “It’s a special deal,” meaning you are going to get a discount. So, special promotions means the price is lower. Companies will often - we use the verb - run promotions to get people to buy more of their product, and they lower the price to do that.

Kavita says that she will “start looking online.” Bill says that he knows that Kavita is “a good bargain hunter.” A bargain, “bargain,” is a good deal - when you get something for a low price. A hunter, “hunter,” is someone who, in this case, looks for something, so a bargain hunter is someone who looks for a low price. I, for example, am a bargain hunter; I love to save money!

Kavita says, “I’m not at all sure I can find something we can afford, but it won’t be for a lack of trying.” This is a common expression; it won’t be for a lack, “lack,” of trying. A lack of something means that you don’t have something. So, when Kavita says, “it won’t be for a lack of trying,” she means if it doesn’t work, the reason will not be because I didn’t try hard enough. Sometimes when people talk about something that is very difficult that they tried but were not successful at, they’ll use this expression. For example, when I was in high school I could not get any of the girls to go on a date with me, but it wasn’t for lack of trying.

Actually, that was true in college, too!

Well anyway, now let’s listen to the dialogue, this time at a native rate of speech.

[start of story]

Kavita: What I wouldn’t give to get away for a little vacation!

Bill: Me, too, but we can’t afford it.

Kavita: Oh, I don’t know. It’s off-season in a lot of popular places right now, so it may be doable.

Bill: Maybe. We’d have to find some pretty deep discounts. There is a big advantage to traveling during the low season, though. It’s a lot less crowded.

Kavita: Yeah, I like that. I’ll see if I can find a package deal that includes airfare and lodgings. That may give us the best deal.

Bill: We have one thing going for us. We have flexible travel dates, which should make it easier to take advantage of any special promotions.

Kavita: That’s true. I’m start looking online and I’ll let you know what I find.

Bill: I know what a good bargain hunter you are, so if anyone can find a good deal, it’s you.

Kavita: I’m not at all sure I can find something we can afford, but it won’t be for a lack of trying. I really need that vacation!

[end of story]

Our wonderful script today was by the wonderful Dr. Lucy Tse.

If you have a question or comment for us, you can email us at eslpod@eslpod.com.

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

English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr. Lucy Tse, hosted by Dr. Jeff McQuillan. This podcast is copyright 2007.