Let's Learn English! Topic: Personal Transportation 🛹⛸️🛴 (Lesson Only)

Well hello and welcome to this English lesson about personal

transportation. Now you might be wondering what is personal

transportation. Well I wanted to do a lesson on how we move

ourselves in the world. But I didn't want to talk about cars

and trucks and buses. I wanted to talk about all of the ways

we move or travel that are just for us. For one person some of

these sometimes you can have a second person. All of the

things that I'm going to talk about today. All of the

personal transportation things that I'm going to talk about

usually involve one person. Sometimes with some of these

things there is room for a second person but never more

than two. So once again welcome to this English lesson about

personal transportation. If you're still a little bit

confused as to what this lesson is going to be about you'll see

in just a moment. Skateboard. So a skateboard is a small I

was just going to say it's a small piece of wood with four

wheels on it. This is something that I never learned to do. I

never learned to skateboard. Um but skateboarders usually have

a skateboard and they go to places like this. This is a

skateboard in Canada and in big cities in North America. There

there will often be a skateboard where people who

like to skateboard can go. Um skateboarding's pretty cool but

when you grow up out in the country side there are things

you don't get to do. There's not a lot of pavement out here.

There's not a lot of flat surfaces so I never ever had a

skateboard and I never learned to use one. My brother had one

though and he used it in the barn for a little while.

Because the barn has concrete floors. But first personal

transportation device skateboard sometimes used to

get somewhere. But more often used just for fun. Hoverboard.

So this is a newer device. I think 20 or 30 years ago these

would have been impossible. If I tried one of these I would

fall off. But it's basically a flat thing with two wheels and

the computer inside tries to keep it balanced while you're

standing on it. Again if I was to use one of these it would

probably zip really quickly in one direction and I would fall

off and I would most likely have to go to the hospital with

some sort of broken bone. But I have C these at school from

time to time. Students do have these. They're not allowed in

our hallways but I have also seen people using them outside

occasionally. Um there's a park near us with pavement paths.

And I saw someone using one last summer. I would never use

one. A segue. Now this is more my style. I have not tried a

segway. Uh a segue is a little more let's see what's a good

word for it. A little safer perhaps. Although I have seen

some fail videos on YouTube where people have crashed off

the path with their segway. But again a segway is a

transportation device where the computer inside and the sensors

allow it to stay upright. So even if you lean back or

forward it doesn't fall over. It simply makes you drive

forward backwards. So this is motorized. I should mention as

well that a hoverboard is motorized. And we'll talk about

electric skateboards in a bit. So this is a two wheeled

motorized. That means it has a motor. Um and like you don't

have to pedal or anything like that. Now this is something I

would love to try. Um a one wheel is something that would

work on my property. Uh you don't have to be on a perfectly

flat surface. But I hear that these are also things that

older people fall off of sometimes. Maybe I should have

said this lesson was about things old people fall off of.

But no. Uh a one wheel basically like it says it has

one wheel. It's in the middle. And again it uses sensors and a

computer inside to balance. When you tilt forward or lean

forward it would go Let me rephrase that. When you tilt it

forward or when you lean forward it goes forward and

then if you go the other way it slows down or stops. So

skateboards are cool. But as we become more and more modern in

the world people like to make electric versions of things.

This is an electric skateboard. This is called a boosted board.

And if you see on top there's a little controller. The the

electric skateboard itself has a battery and it has motors. So

it has electric motors. I think just on the back wheels but it

might be all four wheels on some of them. And you use the

Controller to adjust the speed. So you stand on the electric

skateboard and you don't have to like push with your foot or

go down a hill. You simply use the little controller to adjust

your speed. Lots of fun. Ice skates. Now this is something I

do know how to do. I do know how to ice skate. A lot of

Canadian kids learn to skate maybe less now than when I was

young. But when I was young we would often go skating in the

winter. I do have a pair of ice skates. I have a nice black

pair of hockey skates. These are called figure skates by the

way. There are two different kinds of skates but I won't get

into it. Um but yes ice skating is when you have like there's

the part and then a metal blade. And the metal blade is

sharp. And I don't know if you knew this but the blade

actually melts a tiny bit of the ice. So when you're ice

skating it's actually the melted ice under the blade that

makes things slippery. Ice skating is a lot of fun. I

haven't been ice skating this year. Uh I did go to the arena

but I didn't bring my skates. I should do that. They do need to

be sharpened. And of course there's roller skates which

have four wheels. And rollerblades which also have

four or five wheels but they're all in a straight line.

Hopefully you can see the difference here. Let me make it

bigger. Roller skates are something I would consider an

older version of skates with wheels. Roller blades would be

a relatively newer. But what I mean by that is these are from

the 70s and 80s rollerblades are from the mid 80s onwards

people decided. So a rollerblades is more like a

hockey skate but it has a single line of wheels on the

bottom. If you can skate with ice skates it's very easy to

skate with rollerblades. They feel very similar. It's a

little harder to push. It's a little harder to get up to

speed. But definitely rollerblades. Again some of

these items are used for actual transportation. Uh when I was a

Kid. I did skate to town once to buy some chocolate bars on

the river. Um but generally roller skates are for fun and

rollerblades are for exercise or for fun. People don't often

rollerblade to work or school. Although you could if you

wanted to. Uh then we have the traditional bike or bicycle. Uh

I think everyone knows what a bike is. It has two wheels,

pedals and a handlebar and brakes. Good thing it has

brakes and a shifter so you can shift into different gears but

this is definitely a personal transportation device that you

could use to get to work or school or you could just use

for fun. And then there is of course the unicycle. So simply

one wheel not like the one wheel. But one wheel with

pedals. And you have to have a good sense of balance in order

to use a unicycle. But certainly interesting. I have

never tried riding a unicycle. This actually interests me

though. I should maybe try this someday. I think it would be

lots of fun. And then of course we have electric bikes or

e-bikes. Sometimes we take the word electric and we just use

the first letter. So an e-bike looks a lot like a normal bike.

But if you look at the middle part above the pedals you'll

see it's really thick. Because it prom has a large battery in

it. And the back wheel at the centre has a small electric

motor. So as we move further and further into the modern age

people are doing things like making bikes electric making

them into e-bikes. Motorcycle. So if any of you have been

watching my lessons for a while you'll know that I actually had

a motorcycle when I was much younger. It looked exactly like

this one. It was a Yamaha 400 maximum. It was red. This is

exactly the motorcycle that I own. This is not a picture of

mine. I just found one on the internet. A motorcycle is kind

of cool. It's very cheap to drive. Gas is really cheap. It

gets really good gas mileage we would say. Um and it's I don't

know. It was just fun because when you drive somewhere you

can it feels like you're outside. It feels like you're

flying a little bit. The only thing I would say though is a

motorcycle is very very dangerous. Um so I would be I

would be cautious if I were you driving a motorcycle.

Let's see here. There is another type of motorcycle

called a dirt bike. So a dirt bike is a motorcycle but it's

built especially for going off road. So a motorcycle is made

for driving on the road. A dirt bike can drive on the road but

it can also drive off the road. And we call that an off-road

vehicle. So a dirt bike has really nubby tires we would say

if you see the tires. Um it's very high off the ground and it

has really good shocks. That's what makes the ride smooth. So

dirt bikes are actually fairly common out here in the

countryside. My neighbor's kids have dirt bikes and sometimes I

see them driving out in the field with their dirt bike. So

again motorcycle goes on the road. Dirt bike goes anywhere.

Pretty much anywhere. So this next little section is going to

be kind of funny. At least it was funny for me. This is a

scooter. This is a scooter. This is a scooter. We use the

word scooter for a variety of things in Canada. This scooter

is a small two wheeled motorized vehicle. It's not a

motorcycle. It's much smaller than a motorcycle and it goes

much slower. They're very common in some parts of Europe.

They're not very common here. But if I saw this I would say

oh nice scooter. I love the colour blue. This is something

that kids use and it's similar to a skateboard except that it

only has two wheels and it has handle bars. They'll do little

tricks and they'll drive it around on the sidewalk and

they'll even take it to the skateboard. And there is an

electric version of the scooter as well now where you can

actually drive the scooter around without having to push

with your foot. This is the type of scooter that older

people use when they have trouble walking. Sometimes when

I go to the grocery store there's a man there who shops

and buys his grocery but he uses a scooter. So he has a

little scooter to scoot around. By the way scoot is a verb as

well. So for me in English at least in my part of Canada.

This is a scooter. This is a scooter. And this is a scooter.

They're all scooters. Do you like that word by the way

scooter? It's fun to say. This is an ATV or four wheeler. ATV

stands for all terrain vehicle. This is kind of what they

invented when people were getting tired of falling off

their dirt bikes. That's that's how I would describe it. It's a

vehicle used to drive off road. Some of them have four-wheel

drive where all four tires turn at the same time like all four

tires have power. Some are just two wheel drive. Just the back

tires have power. But an ATV is a fun vehicle to drive. There

are many many farmers that own ATVs and use them to drive

around on their farms. And there are many many young

people teenagers who have them because they just like going

out off road and driving and having fun. So ATV all terrain

vehicle. This is a moped. You do not see these very much

anymore. It's very rare to see a moped. A moped is like a

bicycle and like a motorcycle. It's kind of a combination of

the two. If you look closely you'll see that it has pedals.

So you can pedal a moped. Or you can put gas in it and start

the motor and drive the moped. So it's a combination of a

motorcycle. See the MO and pedals. Ped. So moped. So

motorized pedal bike. Maybe that was the long version of

the name. Uh but again we don't see these very often anymore.

They're very rare in Canada. I think they've gone out of gone

out of fashion. It's not fashionable anymore. I think

other things have replaced the moped. But still a fun word to

say isn't it? Moped. So sometimes people need a

wheelchair to get around. So this is a way of transporting

yourself if for instance you have injured your legs. Or

maybe you have another condition that prevents you

from walking. Maybe you were born and it's difficult to walk

because of a certain condition you have. Maybe you were in an

accident and you're unable to use your legs. In all those

situations you would use a wheelchair to get around. And

if you are injured just temporarily you might need to

use crutches. Crutches are what you use when you twist your

ankle or break your leg. You might need to use your arms

with crutches in order to help you walk everywhere. I was on

crutches once when I was a little kid. Uh because well no

I wasn't a kid. I was I was almost in my 20s, actually.

Actually twice I was on crutches. Once a cow fell on my

leg and once I injured my ankle playing baseball. I don't know

if I've ever told the story of the cow falling on my leg? I'll

tell it sometime but not right now. A cow fell on my leg once.

I grew up on a farm. If you're older you might use a cane. Uh

cane is simply like a stick with a nice handle on it. It

might be made out of wood or metal. Usually it's made out of

aluminum. By the way in Canada we say aluminum. In the United

States we say aluminum. In Britain they say aluminum. We

don't say that here. We say aluminum. It's a little easier

to say I think. But a cane is something that you use that

assists you when you need to walk. Let's go out on the water

for a bit. You can use a kayak. A kayak is a small boat made

for just one person and you sit in the middle of it and you

paddle. I have two kayaks and last summer we went kayaking

quite a bit because I live on the river. It's smaller than a

canoe. It's smaller than a rowboat. It's smaller than a

motorboat and it doesn't have a motor. So a kayak looks like

this. It's a very fun I guess we would call a personal

watercraft. It's like a mouthful to say that. Um and

it's similar to a canoe. But a canoe is actually more open. A

canoe has room for more people. And when you go in a canoe you

also paddle. Both kayaks and canoes are usually used on

rivers and lakes. And not usually used in the ocean. It's

a little too dangerous to go in the ocean with it. But for me

going kayaking on the river is fun. Sometimes a friend of mine

will come down with his canoe and we will go canoeing on the

river. That is fun as well. Fun to do. I would never do this

but this is a hang glider. A hang glider is like a giant

kite. If you don't know what a kite is you have a string and

then there's a two pieces of wood with some fabric or

plastic and a little tail and you fly it in the wind. Um a

hang glider is kind of like a kite kind of like a wing above

you. Uh and you jump off a cliff or mountain and then you

you just fly down. I I say that like I know how to hang glider.

I have never been hang gliding. I would never go hang gliding.

But this is definitely a form of transportation that you

would do for fun. It is a leisure activity. And this is a

wingsuit. I would not do this ever. I'm afraid of heights. So

I'm scared of heights so I would never do this. Uh but a

wingsuit makes your entire body into a wing so that you can fly

for a little bit. And I think at the end you have a

parachute. It looks like this guy has a parachute on his back

right? I think so for sure. Uh and then we have a surfboard.

So you can go surfing on waves. I have never tried surfing but

it is something I would like to try someday. Um but yeah you

find big waves in the ocean. You swim out to the waves and

then you get on your surfboard and you surf. Lots of fun.

Again a form of transportation that is mostly used for fun. I

have never done this but I would love to do this. A

zipline is when you hook yourself onto a rope that goes

from a high spot to a lower spot. And you zip along. There

is a zipline in Niagara Falls. And Brent and I before the

pandemic talked about if he came to Niagara Falls we should

do the zipline. I'm still to do that someday Brent. There is a

zip line in Niagara Falls that takes you from a very high

point on a rope to a low point. You clip yourself on and then

you slide along the rope or you zip along the rope. Um yes I

would do that. Even though I'm afraid of heights. I think I

would go zip lining. This is something of course though many

of you know I would never do. I would I would never jump out of

an airplane. I would never go parachuting. It's just this

terrifies me. There's no way I would do this. But it is

another way of moving through time and space right? Time.

Yeah I guess time. It's a way of transporting yourself from

one place to another. Um you do this by putting a parachute on

your back and it's packed in. And then you jump out of a

plane and you either pull the ripcord or as you jump it's

pulled for you and the parachute deploys and you float

down to earth. So I'm I'm not ever doing this one. Snowshoes.

You may not be familiar with these. Snowshoes are special

shoes you wear on top of your boots or below your boots so

that you can walk on deep snow. Uh Jen and I have a pair of

snowshoes but it hasn't been there hasn't been deep enough

snow to actually use them. But when the snow gets really deep

when you try to walk on it without snowshoes your feet go

in. It's very difficult to walk. Snowshoes Make it easier.

It's still difficult to walk. They do make it a little bit

easier though. But if you look at this person's feet you'll

see they have kind of these flat webbed platforms that

allow them to walk on snow and they are called snowshoes.

There are two kinds of skis there are downhill skis and

cross country skis. They're somewhat similar but also not.

If you saw them you might think they're the same but they're

not. Cross country skis allow you to ski along flat ground

and up and down small hills. Downhill skis are made simply

for going from the top of a hill to the bottom at a high

rate of speed. So cross country skis are more exercise.

Downhill skis are also exercise but a lot more thrilling. You

can have a lot more fun downhill skiing. Although I do

like cross country skiing. I don't have cross country skis

though. Um actually I think there might be a pair in my

garage I should check. When you live in a with winter.

Sometimes you own things and don't even realize it. Uh I do

know how to downhill ski but when I go skiing I rent skis. I

rent skis and poles and a helmet. Um but downhill skiing

is a lot of fun. You go up the chairlift and then you ski

down. Lots of fun. And then if you are wanting to do something

a little different you can go snowboarding. Snowboarding is

probably similar to skateboarding and similar to

surfing but you're doing it on snow. So a skateboard is a

flatboard with wheels. A surfboard is a flatboard that

you use on the water and a snowboard is a flatboard that

you use when you go down a ski hill. So if you're wondering

you go skiing and snowboarding at the same place. You go to a

ski resort and you buy a lift ticket that lets you go up the

ski lift and you can go skiing or snowboarding all day. At

home though we usually just go sledding. We use a sled to

slide down the hill behind our house. Um there is one video

where I go sledding if you ever want to watch that. Not sure if

Dave can find it. It's the let's learn English in the

winter. But there's two of them. It's the one with the

thumbnail of me on you know the round sled Dave. The blue round

sleds. I'm on one of those. Um so anyways a sled is just

something you sit on in order to slide down a hill. Let me

make it bigger for you. Uh a lot of times kids will go

sledding and their parents will go with them. It's not a common

thing for adults to do. Usually adults do it with their

children. Um but not with other adults. I don't meet my friends

at the park to go sledding anymore. I did do that as a kid

though. Uh and then there's something called a toboggan.

And this is the same as a sled except it's made entirely of

wood. So if you look at what these kids are sitting on it's

kind of a traditional type of sled called a toboggan. But I

will say this. When we go sledding we use little plastic

sleds. But sometimes we actually say we're going

toboggining. Even though we're not actually using a toboggan.

There's another fun word to say by the way toboggan. I loved

tobogganing as a kid. Um and I did love sledding and

tobogganing with my own children when they were

younger. Lots of fun. And this is the last slide. Feet. So one

of the most common ways to get from one place to another is to

simply walk. Is to use your feet. Humans are kind of cool

in that way. That we are this walking talking thinking entity

person. Uh if I want to go somewhere I can just walk

there. I can put one foot in front of the other. I can take

as many steps as I need to to get there.