Learn English Travel and Tourism Vocabulary and Phrases in Niagara Falls!

100,686 views ・ 2020-08-25

Learn English with Bob the Canadian


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

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Hi, Bob the Canadian here.
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Let's learn English at Niagara Falls.
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(cheerful music)
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Hi, Bob the Canadian here.
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Welcome to this English lesson
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where I'm going to teach you a few words and phrases
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about tourism and travel,
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and I'm going to do it while I show you
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some of the city of Niagara Falls
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and the waterfall that is also called Niagara Falls.
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If this is your first time here, though,
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don't forget to click that red subscribe button,
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and gave me a thumbs up
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if this video helps you learn
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just a little bit more English.
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I should get out of the way, shouldn't I,
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so you can actually see Niagara Falls.
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(waterfall roaring)
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So just a couple of things about Niagara Falls
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before we get started.
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There are actually two falls at Niagara Falls.
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There is the Horseshoe Falls,
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which is on the Canadian side of the border,
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and if I actually turn way over there,
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you will see the American Falls,
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which is on the American side of the Niagara River.
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So again, the river that is flowing over the falls
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is called the Niagara River.
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This is the Horseshoe Falls.
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I'll give you a little bit better view.
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And the falls way over there is called the American Falls.
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(waterfalls roaring)
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So let's talk a little bit about tourism and tourists
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and what it means when a place is a tourist area,
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or what touristy means.
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A tourist is simply someone who visits places
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that are cool to visit.
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There are not a lot of tourists here today.
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If you look behind me, you will see one or two tourists.
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Tourists usually come from other countries,
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but you can be a tourist in your own country as well.
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Tourism refers to the entire industry,
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all of the businesses that are involved
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in helping tourists find places to stay places to eat,
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and of course, all of the places that you can see.
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When we say that something is a tourist area,
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for instance,
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this area in Niagara Falls is considered a tourist area,
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what we mean by that is that many people visit this area.
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Niagara Falls is a huge tourist attraction.
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A tourist attraction is similar to a tourist area,
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but it simply includes the word attraction
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because people really want to come here.
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People are attracted here.
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And then lastly, we have a word, touristy.
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This is a word that people like I, like me use
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when we talk about tourist areas.
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We'll say, "Oh, Niagara Falls is becoming really touristy.
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It's so touristy in Niagara Falls."
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And what we mean by that
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is that there's a lot of tourists there.
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Sometimes when we say it, we're not being kind.
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I like coming to Niagara Falls in the winter
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when there are less tourists,
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because sometimes it's just too touristy here for me.
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A very common activity when you are a tourist
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is that you might go sightseeing.
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There are many sights to see when you are a tourist,
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and you might go sightseeing in order to see all of them.
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If you look down behind me,
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you will see that there are people on a boat.
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They are currently sightseeing.
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They are here because they want to see the falls up close,
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so they are seeing the sights.
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They are sightseeing.
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So last year I came to Niagara Falls with a friend of mine
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and we went on the boat down there
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to see the falls up close,
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and that was the highlight of my trip.
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When something is a highlight,
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it means it is the part that you enjoyed the most
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when you were on a trip.
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So sometimes when you get back from a trip,
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people will say, "What was the highlight of your trip?"
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And what they mean is, what was your favorite part?
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(waterfalls roaring)
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So you might be wondering why I'm not wearing a mask
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while I'm here in Niagara Falls.
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Well, all of the videotaping I am doing, I am doing outdoors
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and I am being as safe as I possibly can.
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I am staying as far away from people as I can,
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and I don't plan on going into any buildings.
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If I did, I would need to wear a mask.
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If you are a tourist visiting a large tourist attraction,
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there will probably be a hotel district.
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A hotel district is simply the area
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where you will find most of the hotels,
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because as a tourist, you will need accommodations.
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Accommodations is just a general term that we use
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to refer to the places you stay
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when you're visiting somewhere.
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You could stay in a hotel,
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which is a large building with many floors and many rooms,
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with the doors on the inside.
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You might stay at a motel,
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which is a smaller place with one or two floors
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and the doors on the outside.
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You might stay at an Airbnb,
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which is when you simply rent a room or an apartment
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or a house from someone else,
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or you might stay at a bed and breakfast.
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A bed and breakfast is when you pay someone
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to sleep in one of their bedrooms
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and they give you breakfast the next day, before you leave.
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Here I can show you a quick example.
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This is a hotel.
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It has many rooms and many floors
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and the doors are on the inside.
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This is a motel.
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A motel has one or two floors
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and the door to your room is on the outside.
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So, motel.
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Hotel.
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So behind me, you can see some hotels.
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If you were to get a room on this side of the hotel,
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we would say that you have a room with a view.
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A room with a view is a room at a hotel
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that has a clear view from the windows
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of whatever you came to see in that tourist area.
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When you go on a trip,
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you might go on little tours while you are on that trip.
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A tour is where you go around
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and you see all of the important tourist attractions
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while you are visiting.
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You can go on a self-guided tour.
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A self-guided tour is a tour that you give yourself.
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Usually before you do this, you will buy a guidebook,
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and the guidebook will show you all of the places
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that you should really see
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when you're visiting that city or that tourist attraction.
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You might go on a guided tour.
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You might go on a tour where there is a tourist guide.
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A tourist guide is someone who knows the area well
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and takes people either on a walking tour of the area
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and shows them all of the tourist attractions
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or all of the sites,
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or you might go on a bus tour.
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I did want to show you a bus tour today,
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but there are no bus tours in Niagara Falls right now
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because of COVID.
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But a bus tour is where you get on a bus
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and the bus drives you to different tourist attractions,
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and you usually have a tourist guide
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who tells you about all of the places
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you are visiting along the way.
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If you go on a guided tour,
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you will probably have an itinerary.
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An itinerary is basically a list of all the things
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that you are going to do that day.
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Usually when you go on a trip and you buy a package
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that includes several tours during the trip,
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you will have an itinerary for each day
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so that you know what places you will be visiting.
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Cities like Niagara Falls
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that have a lot of tourists visit every year
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will have an area that's called an entertainment district.
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An entertainment district is an area
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where people generally go at night
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after they've spent the day looking at the falls
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and other tourist attractions.
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The entertainment district has things like a wax museum.
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There are bars and restaurants here.
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There's just a lot to do here at night
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when you're visiting this city.
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So this tower behind me is called the Skylon Tower,
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and it's one of the tourist attractions
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here in Niagara Falls.
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It is in what we would call the entertainment district.
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You can go to the top of that tower
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and then you can see all of Niagara Falls,
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the city and the actual waterfalls,
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really, really well from up there.
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So I am gonna start wearing my mask, though, in this area.
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There's not a lot more people here,
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but it's just a little harder to keep my distance.
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I wore my mask with airplanes on it for this video,
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because I thought, since it was about tourism and travel,
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it would be a good mask to wear.
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And of course there are many souvenir shops.
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A souvenir is something small that you buy
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to help you remember the trip later.
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In Niagara Falls, there are many, many souvenir shops
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where you can buy souvenirs.
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So there are a few phrases you might hear
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if you ever go on a tour.
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Your tour guide might tell you,
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"Tomorrow we are leaving bright and early."
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That means that you are probably leaving
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at six or seven a.m.
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Your tour guide will tell you the actual time,
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but bright and early or first thing in the morning
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means that you are doing something the next day,
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and it's going to be really, really early.
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You might also be told to travel light.
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This simply means don't bring a lot of things along.
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If you are going on a walking tour or a bus tour,
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you probably don't want to bring
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more than just a small backpack.
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So if someone tells you that you need to travel light,
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maybe your tour guide says,
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"I'm picking you up. first thing in the morning.
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Make sure that you travel light,"
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it means don't bring a lot of things along.
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If you go on something like a bus tour,
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you might be told quite often
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to watch your step as you get on and off the bus.
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This simply means that you should be careful
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because you might be stepping up into the bus
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or down off the bus,
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and it might feel a little bit funny and you might trip,
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so you might be told to watch your step.
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And at the end of a long day, your tour guide might say,
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"I think we're going to call it a day."
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When you say you are going to call it a day,
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it simply means that the day is over.
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It means that you are deciding to not see anything else,
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and you'll probably go back to your accommodations,
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either your hotel, your Airbnb,
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or maybe you're staying at a nice motel.
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Well, hey, thank you so much for spending some time with me
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here in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada.
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I hope you learned just a little bit more English
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in this lesson.
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If you did, please give me a thumbs up.
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And if you're new here,
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don't forget to click that red subscribe button below.
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And if you have a little bit more time, why don't you stick around and watch another video?
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