Georgie Hello! Welcome to Real Easy English from BBC Learning English. I’m Georgie.
Neil And I’m Neil. And in this podcast, we have real conversations in easy English to help you improve your English. Remember you can read what we’re saying on our website: bbclearningenglish.com
Neil How are you today, Georgie?
Georgie I’m pretty good, Neil, thank you. I’m happy that it’s Friday.
Neil Me too! So today we’re talking about holidays and our dream destinations.
Georgie Great, I love this topic. But can you explain what you mean by destination, Neil?
Neil A destination is what we call a place we are going to, a place we would like to go to.
Georgie OK. So, if we are on a train to visit London, London is our destination. But we often use it when we’re talking about holidays or special journeys.
Neil That’s right. So, a dream destination is somewhere we would really like to go and travel on our holiday.
Georgie OK, so, where is your dream holiday destination, Neil?
Neil I like two different kinds of holidays. I like interesting cities… interesting old cities, like European cities. But I also like mountains and countryside and those kind of places like in South America.
Georgie Yes, I also have two different types of holidays that I like. If I want to relax, I usually want to be in the sun by the beach, but I also love to see new and interesting places, places that you can’t see in your own country.
Neil, where’s your favourite place you’ve ever been to?
Neil Oh, well, I really, really liked Japan when I visited Japan.
Georgie OK, so if I go to Japan, what should I do there?
Neil You should eat as much food as you can, ‘cause the food is fantastic. And you can eat in a little noodle shop or you can eat in a big, posh restaurant and it’s all amazing.
Georgie Mmm that sounds so good, and I love food!
Ok so, you said I should try some Japanese restaurants. What is this word should? What does it mean?
Neil It means I think it’s a good idea for you to do that. That’s my advice to you.
Georgie Ok so it’s kind of like a recommendation in this case?
Neil Yeah. So when you go to Japan, you should eat sushi. When you go to Japan, you should visit Kyoto to see Zen gardens.
So how about you, Georgie? What’s… what’s the best place you’ve ever been on holiday?
Georgie I really love Edinburgh in Scotland. I love it because it’s very green. The city is very close to nature and it’s very beautiful. The buildings are really beautiful.
Neil OK, so Edinburgh, Georgie. What could I do in Edinburgh?
Georgie Well, in August, for example, you could go to the Fringe Festival, which is a comedy and arts festival. So you could see some shows. Or you could go for a walk in the national parks outside of the city. Or you could go to see some of the museums they have. There’s lots of things you could do.
Neil Yeah, and when we use could, we’re talking about things that are possible.
Georgie Yes, and that’s different from should, because when I say you should do something, it means that it’s a good idea or I’m giving you advice. But could, I’m just giving you some options, things that are possible for you to do.
Neil Now, we don’t always go to another country on holiday or even a different city, do we?
Georgie No, now it’s actually quite popular to go on holiday inside your own country and we have a word for this, don’t we Neil?
Neil Yes, we do. It combines two words. The word stay and the word vacation. Put them together and you have staycation. And a staycation is a holiday at, actually in, your house or near your house.
Georgie Have you ever done a staycation, Neil?
Neil Yes, plenty of times! Often on a staycation you might do day trips, so go and visit places in the area, but come home in the evening.
Now the problem with holidays is they are expensive. We probably need to save up money if we want to travel to all these places, apart from the staycation.
Georgie Yes, we should save up some money, exactly.
Let’s recap the language we learned during the conversation.
Neil We learned destination, which we use to talk about a place we are going to, or we would like to go to.
Georgie** Could**, which we use to talk about something that is possible.
Neil** Should**, which we use to talk about something that it’s a good idea to do. This is advice.
Georgie And staycation which is a fun word to talk about a holiday at or near home.
Neil That’s it for this episode of Real Easy English. Visit our website for more activities and courses to help you with your English: bbclearningenglish.com
Georgie Next time. We’ll be talking about work and jobs.
Neil See you then, goodbye.
Georgie Bye.