English For Everyday: Public Transportation
| This entry is the beginning of the Public Transportation series. We’ll learn more English on this subject all week. This entry is available as a Adobe Acrobat file for printing or use in a class.This entry is spoken, so that you can listen to it while you read. (MP3) |
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We’ve talked about cars in the past here at Bite Sized English and, while I do have a car, I’m not a big fan. When I can, I like to take public transportation to work. Public transportation are the ways you can move around the city without a car: buses, trams and trains. If these words seem new to you, don’t worry. We’re going to pick up some basic vocabulary to discuss public transportation tomorrow.
I think this is really important English to learn, especially if you use public transportation often. When you’re learning English, it’s helpful to think about the things you’re doing in English, and that means learning the vocabulary to describe your day. Also, if you’re ever traveling and ask someone how to go somewhere, you’ll find the directions they give you often include public transportation.
Here’s our plan for this week: tomorrow we’re going to learn some basic vocabulary for public transportation. Then, on Wednesday, we’ll talk about the difference between the verbs ‘ride’ and ‘drive.’ That’s going to be an important lesson, because they might be used differently in English than you use the same verbs in your own language. On Thursday, we’ll learn more vocabulary associated with public transportation: think of it as ‘advanced’ vocabulary. More than what transportation you use, Thursday’s vocabulary will help you describe how you use it.
And, as you’re used to, on Friday there will be a listening segment in which I discuss my positive and negative experiences with public transportation here in Dresden. . . and there will be the listening quiz that I know you enjoy so much.
To get you started in the week, though, here’s a more thorough description of what ‘public transportation’ means.
Is there public transportation where you live? Do you use it? Why or why not? Do you think it’s a good idea? Why or why not? Tell us about your experiences with public transportation!
Vocabulary
Public Transportation: Not everybody has a car to move around in the city. And so, there have to be other ways to move through the city. The Taxi is a possibility, but they’re expensive. Most cities—at least, most bigger cities—offer a service that takes you from one spot in the city to another for a small price. Maybe it won’t pick you up in front of your apartment and take you to the door to your office, but you shouldn’t have to walk more than a few hundred meters. That’s public transportation. Public transportation usually includes busses, and sometimes includes trams and even trains. And public transportation is usually cheaper than owning a car.
Photo Credit
The photo above is from Flickr. It was taken by the Washington State Department of Transportation, who made it available under a Creative Commons license. Thanks to the Washington State Department of Transportation for making this photo available!
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May 18th, 2009 at 17:12
What a good topic is this after “gardening”. To prevent air pollution it’s good way to use public transportation. And also useful for global warming…
May 20th, 2009 at 04:55
Ali: I think it’s a great topic. Partly because I like public transportation. . . And I like topics that I enjoy talking about. And partly because I used this vocabulary in Paris to get directions from our hostel into the city, and to the airport. Do you have a lot of public transport in Turkey?
The English in your post was great. I only have one point: with the way you have it written, the first sentence should be a question. If you mean it as a statement, you need to reverse the words ‘is’ and ‘this:’ “What a great topic this is after. . .”