LEARN ENGLISH PODCAST: WHAT? YOU CAN'T WALK THERE? (WITH SUBTITLES)

- This is Jack from ToFluency.com,

and this is episode 12

of the To Fluency podcast.

It's fantastic to have you here

listening to this episode.

Now, today, you're going to learn

a lot of vocabulary

all about getting around cities.

Okay?

So, to get around a city means

to move from one place to the other,

and you can do this by walking,

taking a car, driving your car,

getting on a bus,

taking the train, walking.

I think I've said that already.

Going on your bike, et cetera.

So we're gonna talk about this, though,

in a really different way

because I'm going to compare

different countries.

Because I grew up in the UK,

I lived in Spain for a couple of years,

and then I've been in America for 10 years now.

So these three countries are very different

when it comes to getting around a city.

And I'm gonna talk about

what I dislike about the US.

It's very specific.

But it's quite interesting as well, I think.

But yeah, today, you're going to learn vocabulary

related to this and just get some good listening practice

because I'm going to talk about this

in a more conversational and informal way.

But before we go too deep into it,

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Okay.

So, let's start with the UK.

I grew up in a place called Preston, Lancashire,

which is quite close to Manchester.

Now, it's not a big city

but it is a big town or a small city.

I think the population is around 150,000

but then there are lots of small towns and villages

that are part of the greater area.

So it's quite a big place.

But growing up, I used to go around

and get around the city on my own quite a lot,

from quite an early age.

And one of the things that I really liked

which looking back now I realize

is that there were pavements everywhere.

In American English,

you use the term sidewalks.

But growing up there, there were sidewalks

and pavements everywhere

meaning that I could, more or less,

travel around safely.

And there were also a lot of zebra crossings.

In the US, they call them crosswalks

where you can safely, hopefully,

in most cases, cross the road

and cars will stop for you.

And one thing about the UK is

cars do stop for you

if you go across as a zebra crossing.

There is this time,

you have to wait for them to slow down

but once they slow down and stop,

then you can, in most cases,

safely cross the road.

So when I used to go to my friends' houses

I used to walk there quite a lot.

But then, when I got a little bit older,

I started to ride my bike.

So I got a bike and rode my bike

everywhere for a certain amount of time.

Now, when we used to go to the city center,

the town center, we used to take the bus.

And it was the number 32 bus I remember.

And it used to, or maybe it was 23,

sometimes I get confused with numbers that way.

It was either the 23 or 32.

I think it used to cost 32 p,

32 pence, to take the bus

to the town center.

My friend and I used to save up money

and yeah, take the bus, go to the center

of town and just buy things

that we didn't really need.

And then even when I got older,

we used to take the bus to the center of town

to go to pubs and clubs.

So taking the bus in the UK is quite common.

Now, when we used to travel

to different cities and towns,

we used to either drive,

take the bus, or most likely take the train.

Trains are good in the UK.

So to get to different places,

it's quite common to take the train.

And I just want to say at this point as well,

when you get to bigger cities like Manchester

and especially London,

there are many different options

for you to get around the city.

So generally speaking, there's the subway,

there's also, in Manchester, there's the tram,

which is quite common now.

Buses are very common too,

and people take taxis.

But getting around big cities

it's not common to take a car

or it's not as common to take the car.

Now, let's move on to Spain now

because I lived in two cities in Spain,

firstly in Bilbao,

and secondly in Valencia.

And those two cities are big.

So very big in terms of the biggest cities in Spain.

I think Valencia is number four,

maybe Bilbao's five,

maybe it's even number three.

I can't remember now.

But two big cities.

And in these cities we had endless options

when it came to getting around them.

So when I had, when I was teaching language lessons,

I used to either walk to places,

take the bus that wasn't as common,

take the underground, or take a train.

There was also a tram in both places.

And I think actually took the tram the most

because of where the language school was.

But if I could and if I had time,

I would walk.

Generally speaking, I remember taking the tram

on the way there and then walking home.

And it took me about 40 minutes, I think,

to walk home after teaching for the night.

I used to like doing that

because at night it was a bit cooler.

It wasn't as hot.

And I used to really just enjoy the walk.

So all in all, the UK and Spain

are very similar when it comes

to getting around cities.

I hadn't, I didn't really live

in a place or spend a lot of time

in a smaller town.

So maybe that was different.

And I imagine it's probably quite similar

to the UK where when you're living in a town

you still have really good public transport options

and you can walk around the town

or take the bike, take your bike.

Now, let's talk about the US

because the US is very different

compared to the UK and Spain.

Not so much in some of the big cities.

So let's take New York.

If you've ever been to New York before

you'll know everyone takes the subway.

People take buses, people walk,

people take the yellow cabs.

People take Ubers now.

There are plenty of cycle lanes as well.

So the US big cities like New York

great for public transportation.

Other big cities aren't, aren't like that.

I've spent quite a bit of time in Atlanta,

and what I remember from it

is that the public transportation isn't as good.

Everyone seems to just get in their car

and drive even on short distances.

And the traffic in Atlanta is terrible.

They have lanes that are,

well, they have roads that have nine lanes,

and they're completely full.

And I remember there wasn't a good subway option.

I can't remember about the buses

but I've spent some time in Atlanta bus station,

the main one, and it's a scary place.

So people don't tend to take the bus

as much in the US.

And I think this is true of the big cities, too.

I'd spent a bit of time in Houston,

and there was a metro that you could take,

an overground tram system.

Austin wasn't the best

for public transportation either.

And let's go now to smaller cities

where obviously they don't have subways

because they're not big enough to have the subways

or train systems.

And generally speaking as well, the train system

in the US isn't as developed as Europe.

I think being such a big country

means that it's not as common.

There are a lot of train systems in the Northeast

between cities like Philadelphia,

Washington DC, New York, Boston,

but in the South where I live

and I'm sure in the Midwest

and some of the West coast, too,

trains just aren't popular at all.

There aren't, there isn't a train station where I live.

So you can't go to the train station

and get a train somewhere.

There is a bus station,

but again, the thought of getting on a bus here,

people tend, don't tend to do it.

If you're going to travel to another city,

most people either drive there

or take a flight.

So flying between cities in the US

is more common than Europe

from my experience.

Now, the US is, a lot of towns

and cities and suburbs,

they've been built with the car in mind.

So there are a lot of people who live in suburbs.

These are outlying districts

of a city and residential in nature

where there are lots of detached houses

that aren't terraces or condos

or blocks of flats.

But they're standalone houses

with a yard, a driveway, lots of garages,

and people don't tend to park on the street.

They tend to park on their driveway or in the garage.

But one thing that I find is that

there aren't sidewalks,

or pavements in British English,

in the suburbs.

So where we live, we live in the suburbs,

out of the sea,

and there are no sidewalks anywhere,

which I just still find very confusing

and I don't really like it too much

because with children and just walking around in general

you have to walk on the road.

So wherever you go, you're walking on the road.

And this can be annoying

because obviously it's not as safe

and taking children or dogs out,

it makes it even less safe.

So this is something that I find

that is all over America

when you get into the suburbs especially.

When you're in big cities,

there are sidewalks and pavements

but not in residential areas.

And another example

of explaining how everything is about the car.

A lot of bars and restaurants

are in places where you can only get to by car.

So in a lot of towns and cities

you have everything in the city center

and then some community bars and restaurants.

But here, a lot of restaurants and bars

and places to go,

grocery stores and different shops,

they're in places that are called strip malls.

A strip mall.

And I can explain a strip mall here

but I think it's also a good idea,

if you can multitask,

to go to Google images

and just type in strip mall,

because it's gonna show you examples.

They're basically like a big building

or two or three large buildings

with different shops and restaurants

and whatever you want to have in there,

and a big parking lot.

And these are usually in places

where again, there are no sidewalks to get there.

There are no sidewalks to get there.

So you have to take the car

in order to get there.

And this is something that I find quite strange.

We do have some of this in the UK,

but usually these are reserved

for things like cinemas

or bowling alleys, things like that,

where you need a big building

outside the city center in order for it to work.

But here, it's very common in the US

to have these strip malls.

And again, you can't get there on foot.

You can't really get there on your bike.

It's usually too dangerous.

And if you want to get there on bus

by bus, sorry,

a little preposition mistake there,

then again, they drop you off

at the side of the road,

usually on the grass.

And then you have to cross the road

with no crosswalk to try and get there.

So for pedestrians it's very dangerous in the US

and it's just, you just can't walk places.

And this is something I miss so much.

That's something I miss about the UK

and Europe in general, and Spain,

is that when I was going to a restaurant

or a bar, I walked there.

When I was going to my language school

or language lesson, I'd walk there if I could.

I'd walk everywhere.

We'd walk to get groceries.

We didn't have a car in Spain.

We just walked everywhere or took public transport.

And then when you move to the US,

especially if you go to the suburbs,

then you just can't, you just can't walk places.

It's impossible.

It doesn't have the sidewalks

or pavements to walk there.

For me to walk to a bar or a restaurant

or a coffee shop or anywhere,

it would be quite dangerous.

And I've done it once before

when I took my car to the mechanics

and I had to walk home.

I wanted to walk home to try it out.

And it was pretty dangerous

because there's not a lot of room

on the side of the road for you to walk

and you're walking on grass

or walking on someone's property

or the side of their property.

And again, it's just not as fun.

So that is what I would love to see change

in the US is something or cities and towns

that would really focus

on the pedestrian instead of the driver.

And I don't know if that is going to change or not.

It might change depending on different factors

or what people want to invest in.

And there is talk about investing

in more train stations and train lines

so that people can move around the city

or move from city to city on the train.

But again, the car rules here.

Everyone needs a car if they want to get around town,

and the whole city and cities

have been structured in a way

that benefits the car.

Things like no sidewalks,

no really good bus stops,

and lots of things that you can only get to

by car such as bars, restaurants,

and shops in strip malls.

Okay, so what I'll do is I'll leave

some of the key phrases from this podcast

in the description

so that you can just look that over.

And then I also just recommend looking at Google images

for things like strip malls and anything else

that you want to just have a good image in your head.

And then if you, again,

if you've enjoyed this podcast episode

then please leave me a review.

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All right, thank you so much for listening.

Bye for now.