[0:01]All right. Hello, hello, everyone. Hi, everyone. Hello, high level listeners. Welcome back. Uh, this is episode two of our first season of Advanced English Live Classes, where we give you advanced vocabulary, expressions, and phrases to help take your English up to the next level. Yes, uh, we're very happy to join you today. My name is Mark or Mark Teacher. I'm from the UK. Specifically, I'm from the southeast of England, quite close to London, and, uh, I've been a teacher for just over ten years. All right, and hey everyone, uh, my name is Kat, or Kat Teacher, and I've been a teacher also for over a decade. And we at High Level Listening are here to give you real English, practical English, and something that you can use, hopefully, every day in your daily lives. We have an interesting topic today. We're going to be commuting. Commuting. So, commuting is the act of getting to work and coming home from work. So, some people take the bus. People take a taxi. Some people walk, some people drive. This is how you get to and from work. Yes, and it's only work. You can't commute to the supermarket or commute to the bank. That's a good point. It is just going to work and coming back. So, only that journey. You say, my commute. My commute is very long, or my commute is, yeah, quite short. It's also a verb. I commute to work by train. Uh, he commutes, she commutes. In the past tense, I commuted, or I used to commute. My dad, for example, used to commute two hours to work. That's one way. From home into London was two hours. On the, by car, then by train, then by subway, then walking. So that's one way. It's two hours. And then he used to commute all the way back home. So four hours of commuting every day. Commute is that sometimes long journey to and from work. Absolutely. And a little bit more casually, if you don't want to use the word commute, you can say get to work, get home from work. So, how do you get to work? I take the train. I take the bus. How long does it take you to get to work? How long does it take you to get home from work? So, to get to work, to get home is also another way that we would use, um, get to replace this word commute. So, um, I more naturally kind of go with the get to work. How long does it take for you to get to work? How long does it take for you to get home? But if you wanna use a short and simple word, we can use the word commute. What's your commute like? So we're gonna actually answer this question. Um, both of us are going to answer it in a little bit of our different style. Um, now we kind of noticed each of us doing these dialogues, uh, these little monologues that, um, we didn't actually use a lot of different vocabulary. Um, of course Americans and British Speakers, um, tend to have a little bit of different vocabulary, but not all the time. So this is a little bit easier lesson, because if you are studying British English or particularly American English, you can use almost all these phrases with both. So we kind of noticed that when we started making this one. So, um, I'm gonna go ahead and lead in with a question for Mark. I'm going to say, hey, how do you usually get to work? Uh, being in London, I catch the tube to work. I try for the 7:45am train, but some days I end up missing it and I have to wait for the next one. It's about 20 minutes into the city centre, so I usually take the chance to catch up on the news or text some mates. Usually off the train by 8:15am, and then after a couple of minutes of walking, I'm at work. The journey back in the afternoon is virtually the same, just with a few more commuters, I'd say. All right, excellent. And how about you? How do you usually get to work? In the city, I rely on the subway, so I usually aim for the 7:45am train, but sometimes if I'm a tad late, I miss it, and I have to wait for the next one. The journey's roughly 15 minutes, and I try and use this time to read. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't, uh, by 8 am I'm a short walk away from my office. The evening commute is pretty similar, uh, though sometimes more crowded. Okay, so similar to last week, if you remember, uh, Kat and I have pretty much the same kind of story. Our journey to work, or our commute to work, is pretty much the same, but I used some phrases and vocabulary, and she used some different phrases and vocabulary. So, we will Go through those short answers, and we will look at some of the different phrases and words that we used, compare them and see if they are similar or different, and give you some more examples so you can use them yourself. So, the first part of that script was, how do you get to work? Like, what kind of transportation do you use? The bus, the train, the subway. Uh, Kat, what did you say in your one? So, um, I said that I rely on the subway. I rely on something. Now, when you rely on something, you are, you know, you're dependent on that. You need that to go about your daily life. It's very important in your life. So, for me, um, I live in the city. Perhaps I don't have a car. Maybe it's quite far away if I drive or take a taxi, so I rely on the subway. That means if the subway is broken, that's going to be very difficult for me to catch another type of transportation. So I rely on the subway. I take it every day. I try to take it at a certain time, and it makes my life more convenient and easier. Also totally describes my sister who lives in London. Uh, yes, she is 35 years old, doesn't have a driver's license because in London, you don't need a car. There's the bus, the subway, or the tube, which we'll talk about in a second. Um, yeah, you can, there is such a good public transport network that you don't need a car because you can rely on public transport. So yes, when I lived, uh, near my mum's home, or with my mum when I was younger, I used to rely on the bus because I didn't have a car and that was the only way I could get into the city centre. So I used to rely on the bus. My sister still relies on public transport in London. Uh, my script was a tiny bit different. I used a different verb. I said I catch. I take the bus, I catch the bus. I take the train, I catch the train. Um, kind of of the image is that the train is coming past, like it's not stopping and you have to like catch and it'll pull you into the city. Um, catch is another word for take. Um, because I'm from the UK, and I mentioned London. I also used a specific word for the subway transport system in London, and it's the tube. Yeah, that was one word that would be different, but it is very specific just to London. Yes. Uh, you'll also hear it in a British accent. It starts with the T U, so it makes a CH sound. The tube. Yeah. I catch the tube. Um, this is specifically the London system. The system in Paris, the subway in Paris is not the tube. The metro. Um, in the one in Moscow is not the tube. The one in New York is not the tube. Only the London one is the tube. I think literally because the tunnels are shaped like a What about, what about other cities in the UK? Do you also catch the tube, the tube, do you catch the tube? I can't say it with tube. It just sounds more natural to say the tube. Do you, you know, and because it's so quintessentially British that I have to say the tube because there's no other way it feels like to say it. Um, there are other, I think there's only one or two other subway systems in the UK, but the tube is only London. That's like London's one. So yeah, the tube transports hundreds of thousands of people every single day. And yeah, if someone says the tube, they're talking about the London system only. Uh, so yeah, my dad used to commute On the tube in London and like many other people do, including my sister again. Uh, I catch the bus, I catch the train, I catch the tube, and we can catch other things as well. It, it's kind of like, you know, we catch a taxi, catch a bus, uh, catch the train. So it's funny 'cause if it's your specific bus line, I catch the bus. If we just, we don't know what bus line it is, we just need to take a bus, any bus, we can catch a bus. So, um, because Mark and I have specific trains that we take in the morning, we catch the train. We catch this specific train. We catch the train in the morning, meaning my specific train line, my specific bus line. Um, we would never say catch the taxi because we never have a specific taxi. It could be any taxi in the city. So we often say catch a taxi. I try to catch a taxi early in the morning to get to the airport, or something like that, or to get to work. So, um, just a, kind of those little words sometimes are a little difficult for some of my students. Catch a taxi, catch a bus, catch a train. If you are taking any train, any line, but if you have your specific routine in mind, I catch the train, I catch the bus. It's the same bus we always take. Yes, uh, that's a good point. That comes up in the next section we're going to talk about. We use the, the article, the, to mean a specific one or the same one that we usually take. And in the next lines, what time do you try to get the train? What did you say? Actually, Mark, we have a quick question from Maria. Um, is there the overground also in London? Oh, yes, that's right. Uh, there's the underground, which I'll write here. The underground is the tube. That's the same thing. But recently, yeah, they upgraded and added some new lines that go overground. Uh, these are ones that don't go through the tunnels. I think if you want to get to some famous landmarks, like, um, the O2 Arena, which is a big concert hall and event center, then you can take the overground, or the DLR. They have a few different names. But yeah, it's basically two different types of trains. It's all part of the rail network in London though. So yeah, the overground or the underground, they'll both take you wherever you need to go. Oh, that's interesting. I didn't even know they had that. So you were mentioning, uh, what time do you get the train? Or what time do you try to get the train? And I said that I aim for. Okay, just like when you are shooting an arrow, and you want it to go somewhere specific, I aim for something, meaning I try to leave my house on time. I really want to try to catch that train in particular. So I really aim for the 7:45 AM. Um, I know that I can arrive just on time and catch it. Or, if I'm running a little late, I'm really trying to hurry up to catch that one, because I'm really aiming for that one. If I don't catch it, I might be a little bit late. So, I'm aiming for the 7:45, or I'm shooting for, okay? So, that's the same thing. If you shoot an arrow, you aim, okay? You are aiming for something, and then you shoot it, okay? So, I shoot for... Yeah, I usually shoot for the 7:45 because then 15 minutes, I arrive at my building at 8am, I'm not late, right? So I aim for this or I shoot for this. That means I'm really trying hard to get there and to succeed at catching that train in particular. It's also a good phrase if you're making plans with someone and, you know, you want to go out and, meet at the cinema and you know, the movie starts at seven, so you arrange to meet a little bit earlier so you can buy the tickets and buy your snacks. Maybe when you're texting your friend, you can say, yeah, the movie starts at eight, so let's shoot for seven thirty. So around seven thirty, try to arrive around seven thirty. Let's shoot for them. That's exactly right. So, yeah, if we're, hey, let's aim for 8 o'clock, meaning 7:55 is okay, 8:05 is okay, but please don't be much later. Let's really, really try. Let's aim for 8 o'clock, okay? So, yeah, let's shoot for 8 o'clock. If it's not exactly 8 o'clock, that's okay. Let's aim for that. Let's shoot for that. In my version of the script, I said, I try for the 7:50 train. Aim for, shoot for, try for, they all have the same meaning, the same preposition. To go back to what we were saying about articles with the tube, the subway, or the train. I try for the 7:50 am train. Again, the is the specific one, the one at 7:50. I need an article before the time, the 7:50 train. There's only one train on the platform at that time. Um, if someone says, what time is it? Oh, it's 7:50. But I need the 7:50 train. The means it's the specific one. This is also true for other public transport types. When I go back to my mum's village in the UK, I take the 66 bus. There's only one of those, and there's only one of those going around, so it's the specific one, the 66 bus. It's true before any time, the 1pm train, the 5 o'clock. Think of the time as like an adjective, like I want the red bus, I want the 6:50 bus, I want the big bus, like I want that specific one, so the time there is almost acting like an adjective, so we're saying this specific one. The red bus, the 7:50 bus, the bus that goes to London. Okay, so we're looking for that one in particular. Okay, uh, sorry, I just saw the comment from Maria. The overground goes from Enfield to Clapham in London, and Maria knows the Tube, because she lived in East Finchley for a while. Awesome. You probably know more about it than I do. You probably know more about it than me, too, as an American. I've never lived in London, so that's very cool. We've learned a lot. Uh, let's have a look at, back at our lesson. Uh, what do you do during the ride? What do you do during the ride? Now, the ride, meaning I'm riding the train, I'm riding the bus. What do you do during that time that you are sitting on the train, sitting on the bus, sitting in the taxi ride even? So what do you do during the ride? I usually take the chance to catch up on the news or text some mates. Yes, like me and probably a lot of other commuters. When I'm commuting, I'm probably just looking at my phone. I maybe I don't have time during breakfast.
[17:35]Um, I'm eat my breakfast. I'm out the door and then sitting on the train is the first time I have to open my phone, and actually catch up. So, I take the chance to catch up on new stories, new headlines, announcements, or posts from my friends, and maybe I message some of my friends. I text my friends. Uh, this is the most British word in my script, my mates, my friends. Yeah, we would, we would definitely not use my mates in America. Uh, the first time I ever heard it, I thought it was a little weird, to be honest. So, um, yes, in America, mates are romantic love interests, so when you say my mates, I think people you are romantically involved with. And so, but in, in British English, my mates, my friends, and in America, my friends are just my friends. So, um, what do I do during the ride? I try and use this time to read, but I usually just end up scrolling on my phone. So, um, I have good intentions. I want to do something productive, but I end up doing something. Maybe I don't want to get my book out. Maybe I think, oh, it's just a short ride. Maybe I'm finishing a conversation with a friend. So I end up doing something. So I wanted to do this. But I ended up doing this instead. In other words, what did you finally, at the end, end up doing? What did you finally do? Instead of reading a book, I ended up scrolling on my phone instead. So, uh, good intentions, but maybe next time I'll try and read when I'm on the bus or on the train. We wanted to add some other phrases, especially in this moment, where you're going to work and you're, maybe you haven't woken up yet. Mentally, you are still a bit of a zombie. Maybe you haven't had any coffee yet. So, you're on autopilot. You are going to work. And when you arrive at work, maybe you won't remember this journey. And if you sit on the train in the morning and you look at other commuters, maybe some people are zoned out. They just zone out. Maybe they're not looking at their phone, they're just staring at the window or they're staring at the floor because they're still tired. It's early in the morning. Maybe they're not super excited about going to work. Sometimes I do that too. I just zone out. Um, some people are like, asleep. Some people try to catch up on some sleep. Me too. I try to catch up on some sleep. Maybe I have time for 5 minutes or 10 minutes of sleep. So I have a bit more energy at work. Uh, other people, maybe they have a big presentation, a big meeting, or a really important thing today. So, they are thinking about the meeting. They're going over the script again and again. I'm mentally preparing myself for the day. So some people are quite focused, mentally preparing themselves for the day. Or, one more phrase, I have to psych myself up. Psych myself up. Like, get myself ready. Build up my energy, build up some confidence to take on the day. Again, maybe because I have a difficult day or an important day, I psych myself up. So some people are drinking lots of coffee or they're, you know, looking at some confidence boosting videos on YouTube to make themselves feel big. There's lots of things that people are doing during this ride.
[21:42]Okay, so, um, one thing that students often get wrong, or a mistake that we often correct as teachers, is the word work. Work as a place. So, this is tricky because the prepositions are a bit different, sometimes the articles are not where you think they'd be. So, how did you say it in your script? Okay, so, um, I think a lot of our students like to use the word job, office and work, but we do use a little bit of, you know, the different articles in each one. So, you know, my office, the office, um, my job, my work, um, but however, so I'm a short walk away from my office.
[22:35]I'm a short walk away from my building. Okay, so my office building, my office, I'm a short walk away from this place, my office, but if you wanna use the word work, we don't usually say my work, my my the work, we would just simply use the word work.
[23:00]So I'm a short walk away from work. I'm a short walk away from the office. I'm a short walk away from my job. Okay, so if we are a short walk away, my work, my job, my office, we just need the word. Okay, so I'm at work. I'm a short walk away from work. All right, so that's one of those words like from school, from home, from work. These are really easy ones that we use all the time and they don't usually need an article. Yes, so those are the only three correct ones. My office, I'm at my office, the office is okay. I'm at the office, or I'm at work, at work, work is the place. Obviously, if you work in an office, then I'm at my office. I'm at the office. If you work in a supermarket, if you work in a bank, if you work in the post office, I'm at work. Work covers everything. Any place where you do your job or do your work. So yeah, my work is wrong. Um, I'm at my job wrong. It's I'm at work or I'm at the office. If someone calls you and says, hey, uh, where are you? What do you want? So. In my sentences, in my script, I said, after a couple of minutes of walking, I'm at work. I arrive at work at 8:30. Or, I take the subway to work. I take the bus to work. I catch the tube to work. So, work is the place. But the last point, uh, that we'll discuss is coming home, coming back, about coming home again. What did you say in your scripts? Okay, so how about coming home again? So now of course part of your commute is not just getting to work, but it's coming back from work as well. Now oftentimes it's just the opposite, right? So you go to work, you take the train. You come home, you take the train. But sometimes people hit rush hour, especially early in the morning or late in the evening when people are all coming home from work at the same time. Some people can leave their house early, and they get there early, so they don't hit rush hour. Um, but some people don't have as much flexibility with coming home. You want to try to get home as soon as possible, but you might run into some rush hour. So, my evening commute, meaning when I'm coming home. My evening commute is similar, though sometimes more crowded. So, I can talk about my commute in two pieces. My morning commute, when I'm going to work in the morning, and my evening commute when I'm coming home in the evening. Absolutely. Uh, in my phrase or my script, I said, the journey back in the afternoon is virtually Try again. The journey back in the afternoon is virtually the same, just with a few more commuters. So in my script, a few more commuters, those are passengers coming home from work. Again, you're only a commuter if you're coming home from work, or you're only a commuter if you're going to work. Everyone else is just, everyone else are just passengers. The journey back. The journey back, the journey home, is virtually the same. If you take the same train at the same time every day, you might start to recognize other commuters around you. They might become your sort of secret commuter buddies. Uh, you might also hear commuter trains. If it's a train during the morning rush hour, people will call it a commuter train because most of the passengers on that train are commuters. So if you're a tourist, uh, you want to avoid commuter trains because they're packed, they're full of people, and sometimes they're more expensive as well. So if you can avoid the commuter trains in the morning, you could have a more relaxing journey. You may get a seat and you might save some money at the same time. So yes. I think we also use this too because we actually live in a neighborhood with lots of young families. So a lot of the people, a lot of our neighbors are commuters. Oh, right outside our neighborhood. All most people are back to waiting in line to drive their car out, uh, to connect to the highway to get into the city. So, even though we chose to live in a, in a suburb, we have a lot of commuters here. They leave around 8 o'clock in the morning. The traffic is from 8 o'clock to 9 o'clock that rush hour traffic. And then we could probably say the same thing in the evening, although a little bit more flexible in the evening. It's not a designated time. Since a lot of commuters might go out to eat after work, or they might stay late to work a little bit late. So there's not as much rush hour. Um, in the evening time, during the evening commute, but definitely the morning commute. So many commuters leaving the neighborhood that it gets pretty packed in the morning. Okay, so those are the five main points we wanted to discuss about our little scripts today. There's one more thing we wanted to do in the last few minutes to give you some takeaway sentences. These are sentences that me and Kat will repeat and then give you a moment to repeat the sentence too. It's, it includes all the vocabulary that you've seen and heard so far in the scripts. We've got some high level sentences that you can use to talk about public transport in your own life. Cat will read a sentence that's in the present tense, because it's a routine, and it's your usual commute. I'll read one in the past tense, if you're telling a story. So, listen to Kat and try to repeat after her. Okay, I, I catch the train to work. I catch the train to work.
[29:51]In the past, this morning, I caught the train to work.
[29:58]I take the subway to the office.
[30:04]This morning, I took the subway to the office. I usually aim for the 7:45 am bus. This morning, I aimed for the 7:45 bus, but I missed it. I usually just zone out. This morning, I just zoned out.
[30:31]I try to catch up on some sleep. This morning, I tried to catch up on some sleep. I mentally prepare myself for the day.
[30:47]This morning, I mentally prepared myself for the day.
[31:03]All right. Thank you so much, everyone, for joining us for our class today. Um, you can watch the replay as soon as we close out this section. And I hope to see you again next week for our very next High Level Listening, Episode 3. So we'll see you, uh, next week on Monday. Mm hmm.
