[0:00]right. Hello, hello everyone. Hello, High Level Listeners. Thank you so much for joining us for episode seven of our newest podcast here on High Level Listening.
[0:12]Let's get started with a quick intro. I'm Kat, the American voice and the American teacher here on High Level Listening. I focus Usually on pronunciation, easygoing conversation, and fun slang and expressions along with my American culture. I'm Mark Teacher, the British voice, here on High Level Listening. I'm trying to give you vocabulary, phrases, and expressions, you're more likely to hear in the United Kingdom. So, with both our accents and backgrounds, we should be able to give you a really rich, full English class, full of lots of interesting information and interesting differences between our languages and culture. Today, in Episode 7, we're talking about taking your kids to school. . We're just going to focus on this part, just taking them to school, getting them there because we know that can be stressful and difficult and complicated enough. We can spend a whole episode just on getting to the school. Like usual, we'll read. Uh, script each. I'll read my version, which might have some more phrases that are more common in the UK, and then Kat will read hers, and we'll compare the two expressions, vocabulary, and break it down and teach you what it means, and you can use it in your own life. Absolutely, I think a lot of our students and a lot of our listeners love the fact that we have British and English side by side, um, British and American side British and American. by side, because then we get to investigate kind of both sides of the English accent. Uh, the very popular British accent. And then of course the very popular American accent. And we want to send a massive thank you to, and welcome all of our new YouTube subscribers. We are absolutely blown away by all of your, uh, lovely comments and everything that you guys have done for us, uh, this past week. So we hope that we can continue making great episodes for you. So, uh, Mark, are you ready? Let's go ahead and get started. Yes, the question for today is, what's it like taking your kids to school in the morning? Honestly, taking my kids to school in the morning isn't too bad, even with two kids at two different schools. My oldest is in middle school and my youngest is still in elementary school, and since their schools are pretty close to each other, I can drop my oldest off first and then drop my youngest off right around the corner. Yeah, sometimes the car line gets a bit long, especially if we're a little late, but ideally we leave the house around, what, 6:45, and I get them both to school by 7:30, so I can get myself to work on time before 8. Alright, so that was my script, uh, kind of the more American style. Mark, do you want to share with us your British version? What's it like taking your kids to school in the morning? School runs are always a bit manic when we're getting the kids ready for school. My oldest is at secondary while the younger is in primary. We pile into the car and set off at about 8:15. Both of their schools are only a short drive away, but we try to leave early because there's a lot of traffic since everyone else is on their school runs or commuting as well. I tend to drop off my oldest first, then my youngest afterwards, and then I head off to work. All right, excellent. So, you can see that we have two scripts side by side. They are a bit similar, but of course, Mark has taken his script and given us some good vocabulary and expressions in more of the British English style.
[4:10]And then my side, my script, is more of the American style. And they are pretty similar. We try to give you a very similar look into our different lives. So, I'm going to start with Mark. Uh, what's it like getting ready in the morning with those kids? Our school runs are always a bit manic. There's two things in this phrase. I think both of these phrases might be more common in the UK. The first one is Our school runs. My school run, our school run, or the school run. The school run is the journey to school. When you take your kids and you drive in a car, and you take your kids to their school, your kids get out, you say bye, have a good day, and then you drive home. So the school run is like your commute. A school run is only going to school, a commute is going to work. So if you take your kids in your car and you drive to the school, you are doing your school run. Uh, the second word in that phrase, a bit manic, a bit manic. Manic means it's stressful or it's a bit disorganized or chaotic. Yes, getting a child, even one child ready for school with their backpack, their uniform, tying their shoes, eating breakfast, brushing their hair. There are so many different things to do in a very short time. So that's manic. Maybe your kids forget their backpack, or they forgot their book, or they can't find their shoes, or they can't tie up their laces. There's lots of little things you need to do. It's a bit manic. So, just the very first step can already be quite stressful and manic. Anyway, uh, how about your script? What's it like getting ready in the morning with kids? So, while you focused on your school run, we definitely know what that means in America. I think I would more casually say, taking my kids to school. Taking my kids to school. Taking my kids to school. Now, I know that for British English, the school run, that is way easier to say, honestly. Um, but more naturally in kind of the more, uh, with the American parents, taking my kids to school. So, honestly, taking my kids to school in the morning isn't too bad, even with two kids at two different schools. So, we were kind of saying, you know, what's it like? You know, it isn't too bad. It isn't too bad, even with or despite, even with two kids at two different schools. So, taking my kids to school in the morning, or the British style, your school run. Taking my kids, the activity of getting my kids to school. Taking my kids to school. Other parents are taking their kids to school. I'm taking my kids to school. So, let's keep going. Now, um, Mark, you mentioned that you have two kids. So, what schools do they go to? How old are they? My oldest is at secondary, while the younger is in primary. So, we're from different countries. They have different school systems, different levels, and different names. Even though we share the same language, the systems are totally different. I'm talking about the British system. Uh, so my oldest, that's my oldest child, is at secondary. My, sorry, while the younger is in primary. So maybe you can guess primary is first. So that's the first level of school. When you're 5 to 11 years old, British kids go to primary school. Then from 11 to 16 years old, British students go to secondary school. So that means my youngest child is between 5 and 11, my oldest child is between 11 and 16. You can say different prepositions, they're both correct. At secondary or in secondary, that's fine. My son is in secondary. My son is at secondary. They're both correct. Another thing is I didn't say school. You just say primary. You just say secondary. So, he is at secondary. He is in primary. We often don't say the school. Yes, what schools do your kids go to? So, similarly, my oldest is in middle school, and the younger one is still in elementary school. Now, unlike in the UK, we will need those extra words there.
[9:25]My oldest is in middle school. So I have two kids, I have two kids, yes, we do say my oldest. My oldest, even if we only have two kids, my older doesn't really sound right. My oldest, I think it's because it's so important to be that first kid. You're going to be the oldest, even if you only have one sibling. You're going to be the oldest. So my oldest is in middle school. We don't just say middle, we don't just say elementary. We say middle school, elementary school. So, elementary, elementary school, elementary school, is usually between 5 to 11 years old. And middle school, they are in middle school, in elementary school. Middle school is usually going to be 11 to 13 years old. So, very similarly, in, in America, elementary school, in the UK, in primary, in America, in middle school, and in the UK, in secondary. Is that right Mark? Very good. Yes, very, very well done. Very good. Was in the post. Um, I like the pronunciation of elementary. The last syllable is spelled TARY, but tree elementary. And if you want to try a British accent, you do the same. Uh, re sound at the end of primary. Again, it's A R Y, but we say re, primary. My daughter is in primary. I would say primary. Sure. And then same with secondary. Oh. It's A R Y, but we just say secondary. Primary. Secondary. Very nice. My daughter is in primary. I'm British. Well done. Yes, exactly. Yeah, anyway, uh, continuing on the journey of getting your kids to school, um, what time do you usually leave? Oh, ideally we leave the house around 6:45. Now when I use this word ideally, I would mean in a perfect world. Okay, so ideally that means that that would be the best time to go. Ideally, we leave the house around 6:45. But, in reality, we might not leave around 6:45, we might leave more like 7, 7:05. I can imagine that I'd be rushing around the house trying to get everyone out the door, and in a perfect world, that best time would be 6:45, though ideally, we leave the house around 6. So, ideally, we leave the house around 6:45, but it could be between 7, 7:05. Right. And absolutely. Making plans with children is optimistic. At best, yeah. Optimistic at best. And what time do you usually leave the house? Uh, we pile into the car and set off at about 8:15. In the UK, primary and secondary schools start at the same time, uh, which is usually 8:30. So, in this case, we set off at 8:15. Set off means to leave your house and start your journey. So, we set off for school at about 8:15. Or we set off in the morning at around 8:15. Another good phrasal verb in there was we pile into the car.
[13:29]If you pile into the car, I'm using this phrase because you have the kids. Their backpacks, their lunchboxes, maybe their P. E. kit, or their P. E. clothes, extra shoes, an umbrella, all this stuff. Kids, like, carry a lot of stuff, like little soldiers going to school. So, when you throw all that into the car, pile into the car, you're also moving quickly, because, yeah, you don't have a lot of time. I have to go to work too, so I can't be late. So all their stuff and the kids, we pile into the car quickly. Maybe it's a bit of a mess in the back, but we're on a schedule, so we just have to go quickly. We pile into the car. We set off about 8:15. I can imagine if 2 or 3 kids are piling into the car that 1 kid is kind of sitting on the other kid who's sitting on a backpack and it's just this sandwich of kids and backpacks and we're all piling in here. Just just get in, get in, get in. Okay. Put your seat belts on, but All right, pile in everybody. No, no, no, really. You got to get in the car. Just get in, just get in, just pile in. Nice. Um, so we're, we're in the car and we're driving towards the school. Is there a lot of traffic? So, I would say most of the time in the United States, yeah, there are people heading off to work, people taking their kids to school. I would say that sometimes those car lines do get a bit long. So, in my script I said, sometimes the car line gets a bit long. Now, this is a particular kind of traffic. Just when you're taking the kids to school. So the car line is you, is when in front of the school, cars are backed up, one behind the other, and we're all waiting in line in our cars. Okay, so this is very specific to going to school, taking your kids to school. The car line is where we are all each in our cars. In a line. So, of course, that creates some traffic, right? Now, we have school zones. where you have to go slower, and once that car line starts, if you're not standing in line, if you're not waiting in line to drop your kids off at school, you get stuck in the school car line. So, you have to be careful. Maybe you don't even go that direction because you know that it's a school zone. So, waiting in that car line, sometimes there's lots of, especially if we're kind of late, or if we're just about to, you know, we're just about to hear the bell, we might be waiting in that car line with everyone else who's late. So, yeah, sometimes that can create a bit of traffic, but hopefully it doesn't take too long to get through and we can get our kids to school on time. Right. I think I remember seeing a car line in the States and it was really long. It was car behind car, car, car. It was really, really long. I thought it was, there was an accident or a crash, uh, but it was just parents taking their kids to school. Absolutely. We are talking mostly today about taking your kids, uh, in the car to school, but of course we have school bus options, but at the same time. There are just so many Americans who drive that they might take their kids to school and then head off to work right after. That so many Americans drive their cars, of course the car line is going to be quite long. So that car line is basically all the parents with the kids in the car waiting to drop their kids off. So it does get a bit backed up for sure. You can tell that The States is the land of cars because we don't have this phrase in the UK. Ah, I see. Okay. I, I know what you mean, but it's not something I would say, but I can tell that this is so normal and so common in America that you called it the car line. The car line. Like, the one that everybody knows, right? We all know about it. Yeah. So it's so common you gave it the, because everybody, you expect everyone else knows what you're talking about. Totally. I have to wait in the car line. And that's before school and after school. We wait in the car line. We get in line. We get in the car line. And we wait. We just wait until we can drop the kids off or later in the afternoon, pick them up. Fair enough. All right, now, what about for you, Mark? I know you don't really have the same car line, um, but is there a lot of traffic when you're dropping your kids off? Uh, so one of the reasons we set off at 8:15 is we try to leave early because there's a lot of traffic since everyone else is on their school run or commuting as well. So, I want to highlight the preposition. In this phrase, everyone else is on their school run.
[19:05]So, on is the preposition. Um, if you're driving your car, and you get a phone call and someone says, where are you? Say, Oh, well, I'm on the school run right now. Um, maybe we turn on the radio and listen to the radio on the school run. Ah, right. While you're doing the school run, you are on the school run. Yes. Right. So when you're driving to school, you're sitting in traffic, you're on the school run. I see. I see. There's always a spike in traffic or a big increase in traffic. Around 8:30 or 8:15, like you said, if there's a school on your commute, you'll probably find a way to go around the school and just avoid it because there'll be loads of people. Same in the US. If you're, if you're just commuting to work, you don't need to drop kids off at school. You don't need to take your kids or any kids to school, then yeah, I would definitely try to weasel around or get around the school zone for sure. Okay, so now, I think, uh, for a lot of our students, the, the phrasal verb, drop off, drop your kids off. Can be a little confusing. Um, do we separate it? What do we put in the middle? Do we keep it together? Can you share a little bit, Mark, about the kind of the grammar structure without getting too grammatical about it? Right. Yeah, so this is where we've arrived at the school. You open the door, and the kids get out. Um, but because we're talking about school, the phrase is drop off. So you drop off the kids. I drop off my oldest first, then I drop off my youngest afterwards. So you can keep these two words together. Drop off my oldest. Drop off my son. It's also one of those phrasal verbs where you can separate it and say drop him off or drop her off. You can put the object in the middle. My advice, the easiest advice, I think, is to put a pronoun in the middle. So drop him off. Drop them off, if it's two kids at the same time. Uh, drop her off, drop me off. Do you want me to drop you off? So, if you're going to put a word in the middle, to me, the most natural way to do it is to put the pronoun in the middle.
[21:44]Anything to add? Do you want to expand on it? Or we can do the pronunciation. I, so I absolutely think that if you're going to use any pronoun, and what we mean by that is him, her, them, us, me, Did I miss any? You? Yeah. If you're going to use the pronoun, it has to go in the middle. It doesn't sound natural if you put it at the end. So, we can easily say drop off the kids, but if you're going to use that pronoun, drop them off. So, I want to talk about these a little bit because I want to talk about the pronunciation. When we use these pronouns, drop him off, drop my son off. Drop my kid off. Drop him off. We kind of lose that H at the beginning. Drop him, drop him off, drop him off, drop him off. Drop him, drop him off. Drop him, drop him off. Same with her. We drop the H. We drop her off. We drop her off. It almost sounds like we're saying dropper. Drop her off. Now, I like this one, drop them off, drop the kids off, drop the students off, drop the boys off, drop them off. The T H goes away, drop him, drop him, drop him off, drop him off. I can see why it's a little bit confusing for listening. Drop him off, drop him off, drop him off. Is it, is it, is it one kid? Is it, is it a boy or is it two kids? I see why that can get confusing because we literally drop it off. We drop those letters off. We drop them off. Same in a British accent. The H will disappear. Drop him off. Drop him. Drop him. Yeah, definitely. Drop her, drop her off. Yeah. Where do you want me to drop her off? Them. The T H disappears. Drop him off. Where did you drop him off? Or just drop him off over there. Um, it's also a case where it's the last letter of the word sort of joins the next word and you actually put a, a bit of stress on that one. So, drop her, per, and then her off. The letter R goes with off. So, it's rough, drop her off, drop her off. Same with him, him off. The M joins off, so it makes moth, drop him moth. I think I put, maybe this is a British thing, put a bit more stress on that. Drop him moth, drop it. Drop him moth. Same with them. Drop him, moth. Drop em off. So, yeah, these syllables are moving around, they're joining, they're sneaking into other words. That may be why it can be difficult to catch when native speakers say it really quickly. So, to just kind of recap, if we're going to use a pronoun, you have to put it in the middle. Drop em off, drop her off, drop em off. But, if you want to use the students, my kids, um, we could say my oldest, my youngest. You could say drop off my oldest, or drop my oldest off. That one is up to you. The pronouns, you can't change it. But the other one, whatever feels a little bit easier for you. Really nice. Um, we have, um, so actually I'm going to ask you, Mark, so what do you tend to do? Who do you drop off first? I tend to drop off my oldest first, then my youngest afterwards. Then I head off to work.
[26:19]That's a phrase we've talked about before. Head off to work. Go to work. So, how about you? Um, what time do you try and aim for? What time do American schools start usually? You know, to be honest, that actually changes from town to town and city to city. Um, usually the elementary schools get started earlier, and then up to the oldest kids that go to high school, they would probably go to school a bit later, but honestly, it changes from city to city and town to town. So, for me, I get them both to school by 7:30, so I can get myself to work on time before 8. So, I get them to school, and I get myself to work. That's kind of like, if I get you somewhere, if I get myself somewhere, that's really, I'm, that's making sure that I have them arrive at school on time.
[27:45]Okay, so I get them both to school by 7:30. I get them both to school by 7:30, so I can get myself to work on time before 8. So I get them to school, and I get myself to work. Yes, you can say that in the UK as well, I've got to get my kids to school before 8:30. Uh, yeah, I've got to get them to school. Um, not to go too far off, but I've got to get them dressed. I've got to get them ready. But yeah, this phrase is get them to school. Nice and simple. Absolutely. And then just one more phrase that we weren't really sure where this was going to go in the explanation, but just one little final phrase right around the corner, right around the corner. I like this phrase, this is a pretty common phrase. Um, most, most towns in America, smaller cities, um, they're set up usually in a square. So when we talk about things being close by, they're always just right around the corner, right around the corner. Since we usually talk about the block, or where things are located, yeah, um, so their school is here. And the other school is right around the corner. Now, that could be literally right around the corner, okay? So here, we have the corner. We go right around the corner. Or it could be down the road, not too far away, close by. So that's what we mean when I was, I said something like, I can drop my oldest off, and then drop my youngest off right around the corner. So, not too far away, they're close by. Sure. The primary school near my mum's house is literally right around the corner. It is, isn't it? You go straight, you turn right, and the school is there. And that's perfect because right around the corner, because in English, you can be right around the corner to the left, or right around the corner to the right. Um, the right doesn't mean the direction, necessarily. It means that it's just, just around the corner. Right around the corner. Uh, the very first thing that you see, it's right there. It's right around the corner. The funny thing is, my mom's neighbor still drives. To that primary school. It's right around the corner. It's literally like 300 metres. But they pile in the car in the morning and they do the school run, one minute and drive around the corner and drop the kids off. Oh, they're not even, I've thrown them under the bus. But yeah, I watch them do that and it's funny. I mean, maybe in winter when it's really cold, okay, but they do it all the time. So they're probably, they're probably dropping the kids off and then heading straight off to work right after that. That would make sense, right? Yes. Otherwise it's the shortest school run in history you've ever seen. Yes. Um, so thank you so much for joining us today for taking our kids to school. Uh, we absolutely love making these classes for you. We love seeing your comments. If you have any questions or comments or just lovely, nice things to say to us, we do appreciate hearing from you.
[31:21]It keeps us motivated. We want to keep making these videos for you and we're just going to keep going. And we hope that you continue to like them in the future. Yes, thank you so much for joining us. We'll be back very soon with another episode and, uh, we hope you can join us then. Thank you very much. Bye. Bye.
