Neil Hello and welcome to Real Easy English. In this podcast we have real conversations in easy English to help you learn. I’m Neil.
Georgie And I’m Georgie. Remember, if you want to read along to this podcast, you can find a script on our website: bbclearningenglish.com.
Neil Hi, Georgie. How are you doing?
Georgie I’m fine thanks, Neil. How are you?
Neil I’m very well, thank you.
Georgie What’s today’s conversation about, Neil?
Neil Today we’re going to talk about travel. We talked about holidays in another episode. But today we’ll talk about everyday travel and compare our journeys to work.
Georgie So, Neil. What is your journey to work like?
Neil Well, because we live in London and it’s a big city, it’s quite long. But I get a bus to a tube stop. The tube is the underground train. And then I get the tube to near the BBC and then I walk.
Georgie Nice. I walk to work. I don’t like using the tube, the underground train, because there’s so many people on it. I prefer to get some fresh air in the morning.
Neil Ah, you walk to work. That’s interesting in London. Tell me about your walk to work.
Georgie Well, my walk starts with walking along some streets towards a park and then I walk across a park and then I walk through some more streets because there is a little bit of time between the park and the office and then I arrive at the office.
Neil Very nice. So you don’t like public transport?
Georgie I use it sometimes when there’s an emergency like if it’s raining or if I don’t have time. But if I have time I like to walk to work.
Neil And how long does your journey take?
Georgie My journey takes me one hour if I walk and thirty minutes if I take the tube.
Neil That’s pretty good for London.
Georgie What about you?
Neil My journey takes at least an hour, sometimes more.
Georgie And Neil, you have to get a bus and a train. What’s your journey like?
Neil Well, it can be good, but sometimes there’s traffic jams on the roads and so the bus can take a long time. But once I get on to the tube, it’s usually OK as I travel across London.
Georgie Ooh, Neil, can you explain what we mean by traffic jam?
Neil Yeah, so a traffic jam is when there are too many cars and buses on the road and so the traffic can’t move very quickly or can’t move at all.
Georgie Oh yeah traffic jams are so rubbish. Are there times of the day when there are more traffic jams?
Neil Yes, so during rush hour. Rush hour is when most people are going to work so the roads are busier. And also, if it’s the school run. School run time, so lots of people on the roads, taking their kids to school, then the bus journey takes a long time.
Georgie OK. So, that’s in the morning and in the afternoons?
Neil Yeah. That’s right.
Well, Georgie, your journey to work sounds nicer than mine, probably more relaxing.
Georgie Yes. Not when it’s raining, though.
Neil Let’s recap the words we learned during the conversation.
Georgie We had towards - travelling in the direction of.
Neil** Across** - travelling from one side to the other.
Georgie** Rush hour** - a time when a lot of people are moving around the city, usually for work or school.
Neil And an expression for something I hate: traffic jam, which we use to talk about a big delay when you’re driving.
Georgie Thanks for listening to Real Easy English. Visit our website for more activities and courses to help you with your English: bbclearningenglish.com.
Neil Next time, we’ll talk about the news.
Georgie See you, then. Bye.
Neil Goodbye!