Travel & Tourism: The Tube

Introduction

Jack: Hello my name’s Jack

Rowan: My name’s Rowan

Rich: and I’m Rich and welcome to this week’s Premier Skills English podcast.

Jack: In the Premier Skills English podcast, we talk about football and help you with your English.

Rowan: Don’t forget you can find the transcript for all our podcasts on the Premier Skills English website.

Rich: This podcast is one in a series of podcasts that focuses on travel and tourism. Last week we spoke about the language we use in restaurants.

Jack: This week we want to help you with some of the language you need when you take the tube.

Rowan: The Tube? What is that?

Rich: The Tube is what we call the underground train system in London.

Rowan: In this podcast, you will learn phrases you can use to suggest the best way to get to a place.

Rich: You’ll learn words and phrases that will help you pay for tickets at a tube station and find the right train.

Jack: You will learn words and phrases for giving directions.

Rowan: In the roleplay, we are in London and we decide to take the tube.

Rich: And your task this week is to describe a route from one famous place in London to another.

Jack: If you are listening to us on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or any other podcast platform, you should also check out our website.

Rowan: On the Premier Skills English website, you’ll find the transcript, examples and activities to help you understand the language, and a task for you to complete with other listeners.

Jack: Before we do the roleplays let’s look back at last week’s football phrase.

Last week’s Football Phrase 

Rich: OK, our football phrase. If you’ve not listened to the podcast before, every week we set our listeners a language challenge. We explain a football phrase or word and you have to guess what it is.

Rowan: When you know the answer, go to the Premier Skills English website and write the word or phrase in the comments section for this podcast. If you’re correct we’ll announce your name on next week’s podcast.

Jack: We had lots of correct answers last week but nobody was faster than Alex from Ukraine who was first with the right answer. Well done Alex!

Rich: And congratulations to these other listeners who also got the correct answer to our football phrase: MoBeckham from Turkey, Luibomyr from Ukraine, Stefano Mac from Italy, Hayato from Japan, Marco Zapien from Mexico, Fathi from Malaysia, Elghoul from Algeria, Bertoldt from Indonesia, Max Alex from Vietnam and HSN also from Turkey.

Rowan: If you didn’t hear last week’s football phrase the answer is at the end of this podcast but we’re going to give you one more chance to guess last week’s football phrase. Are you ready?

Jack: The phrase was * ********** ****. With VAR these seem to happen more and more. * *********** **** is when a player scores but then the referee or VAR doesn’t permit it because of a foul, offside or another infringement.

Rowan: Remember that the answer and our new football phrase is at the end of this podcast.

Rich: If you remember, our last podcast was all about restaurants.

Jack: We asked you to order some food from our Premier Skills restaurant. We had a waiter waiting to serve you.

Rowan: Abdlrhmn from Egypt was very happy with the service in our restaurant. He gave us five stars and ordered Koshory - a delicious Egyptian dish of rice, vegetables and different spices covered in a tomato sauce.

Rich: HSN from Turkey asked for an eggplant salad with stuffed meatballs for starters with some lahmajoun on the side which is a type of bread topped with minced meat and spices. It sounds absolutely scrumptious.

Jack: Thanks for all your comments and for completing the tasks. If you haven’t heard this podcast and want to order some food from the Premier Skills English restaurant it’s called Travel and Tourism: Restaurants and you can find it on the Premier Skills English website or on Apple Podcasts.

Introduction to roleplay: 

Rowan: We have one roleplay for you this week which you will hear in three parts. The three of us are in London doing some sightseeing and Jack wants us to go and see something very, very special.

Rich: London is a big city and it’s best to use public transport. One of the best options is the underground or as we said earlier The Tube.

Jack: We catch the Tube in this roleplay and have lots of useful language for you to learn.

Rowan: In the first part, we’ll focus on phrases we need to suggest the best way to get to a place and how.

Rich: In the second part, we’ll be paying for our tickets and finding the right train.

Jack: And in the third part you will learn words and phrases for giving directions.

Rowan: Before each part of the roleplay we want you to answer two questions. Here are your questions for the first part:

Rich: Question one: Why does Jack want to go to the football stadium?

Jack: Question two: Which station do we need to get off at?

Roleplay 1: Finding the best route

Rich: OK, so we’ve already seen Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament and Covent Garden. What’s next?

Rowan: I wouldn’t mind going to a museum. Maybe the Natural History or the British Museum?

Jack: Good idea but later. Remember I said that I’d take you to the Emirates.

Rowan: But Arsenal aren’t playing today.

Rich: He doesn’t want to see a match. Jack wants to show us the image of John Radford that’s on the side of the stadium. His uncle.

Jack: He’s not my direct uncle but he is a relative. There are 32 ex-Arsenal players on the side of the stadium - Thierry Henry, Ian Wright and John Radford - my uncle.

Rowan: I thought you said he wasn’t your uncle.

Jack: You know what I mean - he’s a relative - a distant relative maybe but part of my family. I think now would be a good time to go.

Rowan: Come on then. We can do the museums tomorrow.

Rich: Get your phone out, Rowan and look it up. Let’s see the best way to get to the Emirates.

Jack: We’re quite close to Piccadilly Circus if that’s any help. It might be better to hop on a bus. We’d get to see the sights that way, too.

Rowan: I think we’ll be better off jumping on the tube. It says there’s loads of traffic in North London.

Rich: The nearest underground station is probably Piccadilly Circus - we walked past it a couple of minutes ago.

Rowan: That’s what it says. Piccadilly Circus to the Emirates - we need to get off at Holloway Road Station - that’s eight stops. We want to take the Piccadilly line. That’s the blue one.

Jack: I thought there was a station called Arsenal?

Rowan: There is but it says Holloway Road drops us off nearer the stadium.

Rich: Come on then. Let’s go.

Language focus 1: Finding the best route

Rowan: Before the roleplay, we asked you two questions. The first question was: Why does Jack want to go to the football stadium?

Jack: The answer was that I wanted to show Rich and Rowan an image of one of my relatives at Arsenal’s football ground.

Rich: And the second question was:  What station did we need to get off at? The answer was Holloway Road Station.

Rowan: Let’s look at some language. In London, there are usually a few ways to get to a place on public transport but two of the options are usually the bus or the underground.

Jack: Ah, yes. The underground or The Tube as it’s called in London. Do you know why it’s called The Tube?

Rich: I could guess.

Jack: And you’d probably be right. The Tube is called the Tube because many of the tunnels where the trains run are long and round - tube-shaped.

Rowan: The official name however is the London Underground. When you’re in London you can call it the Tube or the underground.

Rich: In the roleplay, we spoke about catching the Tube and going to an underground station. We can also go to a tube station or catch the underground - they are interchangeable.

Jack: Outside of London, people don’t tend to use the word tube so it’s best to go with underground or in American English - subway.

Rowan: Or in some other places like Paris, Moscow, Newcastle and Madrid you might use the word Metro.

Rich: Let’s look at a few phrases connected to deciding the best way to get somewhere. Listen to this part of the roleplay again. How do we know which way is best?

Rich: Get your phone out, Rowan and look it up. Let’s see the best way to get to the Emirates.

Jack: We’re quite close to Piccadilly Circus if that’s any help. It might be better to hop on a bus. We’d get to see the sights that way, too.

Rowan: I think we’ll be better off jumping on the/a? tube. It says there’s loads of traffic in North London.

Rich: When we want to know which way to go the first thing we do is to reach for our phones. I told Rowan to get her phone out and look it up.

Jack: To look something up is a phrasal verb which means to find or look for information. We might look up a word we don’t know in an online dictionary or look up the details of a footballer or football team we might be interested in.

Rowan: We spoke about two possible transport options: the bus and the underground.

Rich: Jack said it’d be better to get the bus but Rowan said we’d be better off getting the tube.

Jack: These are a couple of useful phrases: it’d be better to and we’d be better off.

Rowan: Both of these phrases are used to give advice and to give suggestions: it would be better to get the bus or we’d be better off getting the tube.

Rich: Both phrases mean the same but grammatically they are slightly different. When we use the phrase better off it is followed by the -ing form. We’re better off getting the tube.

Jack: I said it’d be better to hop on a bus and Rowan said we’d be better off jumping on the tube.

Rowan: Yes, these are nice informal ways of describing getting on transport. To hop or jump on a bus. We don’t literally jump or hop on one leg when we get on a bus but it’s what we often say informally.

Jack: Let’s listen to another part of the roleplay again. Listen for the words that help you know when to start and finish your journey on the underground.  

Rich: The nearest underground station is probably Piccadilly Circus - we walked past it a couple of minutes ago.

Rowan: That’s what it says. Piccadilly Circus to the Emirates - we need to get off at Holloway Road Station - that’s eight stops. We want to take the Piccadilly line. That’s the blue one.

Jack: Let’s start with two useful phrases you might have heard already today: get on and get off.

Rowan: We use these phrases to say where we start and finish a journey by public transport. We need to get on at Piccadilly Circus and get off at Holloway Road.

Rich: Many big cities have underground systems and most of these cities have a number of different routes which we call lines.

Jack: In the roleplay, we had to take the Piccadilly line. We can take, get or go on a specific line. The London underground has lots of lines. All of them have different names and most of them are quite complicated.

Rowan: You can take the Piccadilly line, go on the Hammersmith and City line or get the Waterloo line and then there are other lines such as the Bakerloo line and the Jubilee line.

Rich: This can be very confusing if it’s your first time in London. I do what Rowan did in the roleplay and call them by the colour the line is on the map. I go on the blue line or the yellow line.

Jack: I think other cities make it easier for visitors. In Paris and Madrid, their metro lines are called line one and line two and so on. Simple.

Rowan: But not as interesting?

Rich: Remember you can check your understanding of all this vocabulary on the Premier Skills English website.

...

Jack: Let’s move on to the second part of our roleplay. We’ve just arrived at the underground station and we need to buy tickets and find our train.

Rich:  Here are two questions we want you to answer as you listen.

Rowan: Question one: How do we pay for our tickets?

Rich: Question two: Which side of the escalator should you stand on?

Roleplay 2: The underground station

Rich: Has anyone got an Oyster card or anything?

Jack: An Oyster card?

Rich: To pay. You need a card to get through the turnstiles. We should be able to get one from one of the machines over there.

Rowan: Ah, yes. OK - an Oyster card is £5 and then we need to top it up when we need more credit.

Jack: Why don’t we just buy single tickets?

Rich: It’s expensive and we’ll probably use the underground all weekend. We’re here until Monday.

Rowan: That’s probably best. Hold on - look. You can pay with your normal card - contactless.

Jack: That’s easiest. Let’s do that. No need to queue at these machines then. Tap your card. Through the turnstile. Let’s go.

…

Rowan: These escalators are massive. How far down are we going?

Stranger: Excuse me, please.

Rich: Always stand on the right, Rowan.

Jack: OK, so it’s the Piccadilly line we need. Follow the signs. Piccadilly line this way.

Rich: Here we go. Which platform is it? Eastbound platform or Westbound?

Rowan: This one. The Eastbound platform towards Cockfosters.

Rich: Cockfosters? Is that a real place?

Jack: What did you say?

Rich: Nothing. Just being childish.

Language Focus 2: The underground station

Rowan: Before the roleplay, we asked you two questions. The first question was: How did we pay for our tickets?

Jack: The answer is we used our normal bank cards. On the underground in the UK, you can use your regular debit or credit card if you have contactless to enter and fares will be charged automatically when you finish your journey.

Rich:  Our second question was: Which side of the escalator should you stand on?

Rowan: The answer is the right-hand side. Rich told me to stand on the right during the roleplay because someone was trying to get past me.

Jack: Escalators, if you’re not sure, are the moving stairs that carry people up and down in stations and other places such as shopping centres.

Rich: Let’s look at some more phrases connected to paying on the underground. Have a listen to this part of the roleplay again:

Rich: Has anyone got an Oyster card or anything?

Jack: An Oyster card?

Rich: To pay. You need a card to get through the turnstiles. We should be able to get one from one of the machines over there.

Rowan: Ah, yes. OK - an Oyster card is £5 and then we need to top it up when we need more credit.

Jack: Many people still buy and use an Oyster card to travel on public transport in London.

Rich: An Oyster card is a special card that allows you to enter and leave the underground. You buy the card from a tube station or shop and then top it up when you need more credit.

Rowan: You probably heard these words in the part of the roleplay we just played: to top up and credit.

Jack: To top up means to increase the amount of something so it’s at the level you want or need. If you only have £5 on your Oyster card and the price of a journey is £10 you will need to top up your Oyster card.

Rich: We often top up our mobile phones if we have a pay as you go phone.

Rowan: Topping up is adding credit to something. We need more credit if we don’t have enough money on our card or phone.

Jack: Credit is the money you have available in an account. If you have £10 in your account you have £10 of credit. You may need to add more credit as you use the money in the account.

Rich: We often use credit in the negative form when using mobile phones and Oyster cards. Listen: I don’t have any credit, I need to top it up.

Rowan: A final word from the part you just heard are turnstiles. These are the gates that you need to push or that open automatically when you enter the underground system.

Jack: We use the same word in football. Turnstiles are traditionally the tall, narrow gates you have to push to enter a football stadium and where you pay and show your ticket.

Rowan: Let’s think about some of the words you might need once you go through the turnstiles and you're looking for your train. Listen to this part of the roleplay again:

Jack: OK, so it’s the Piccadilly line we need. Follow the signs. Piccadilly line this way.

Rich: Here we go. Which platform is it? Eastbound platform or Westbound?

Rowan: This one. The Eastbound platform towards Cockfosters.

Jack: When you are in the tube station you will need to follow lots of signs. These will be on the walls of the station and will tell you where to go.

Rich: In bigger stations, there are lots of signs and multiple lines. We had to follow the signs for the Piccadilly line.

Rowan: And then we needed to find the correct platform. The platform is where you stand and wait for your train.

Jack: It’s very important that you stand on the correct platform otherwise you’ll take the train going in the wrong direction.

Rich: We had to go to the Eastbound platform because our train was going east.

Rowan: Each line will have either a westbound and eastbound platform or a northbound and southbound platform.

Jack: When we are talking about travel bound is used to show that something is travelling in a certain direction or towards a specific place.

Rich: We were on the eastbound platform which means all the trains from there were travelling east.

Rowan: You will usually see a sign which says all the stations where the train stops on its journey.

Jack: Remember you can check your understanding of all this vocabulary on the Premier Skills English website.
…

Rowan: Let’s move on to the final part of our roleplay. We’ve just arrived at our destination and need to find the football stadium.

Jack:  Here are two questions we want you to answer as you listen.

Rich: Question one: What station do we get off at?

Rowan: Question two: Who do we see a statue of?

Roleplay 3: Directions on foot

Announcement: Mind the gap.

Rowan: Come on. This is our stop.

Rich: But it says Arsenal is the next stop.

Rowan: Trust me. This is quicker. Come on up the escalator.

Stranger: Excuse me, please.

Jack: Stand on the right, Rowan.

...

Rich: Have we come out at the right exit? I don’t see the stadium.

Rowan: There was only one exit, Rich. Hold on I’ll get my phone out.

Jack: So are you ready to see the great John Radford, then?

Rowan: It says it’s a five-minute walk. This is Holloway Road. Which way are we facing? OK, we need to go this way and then turn left on to ... Hornsey Road.

Rich: Just here. Hornsey Street.

Rowan: No, we need to turn left on to Hornsey Road.

Jack: Yeah, I know the way. Straight on up here. We need to turn right at the roundabout and then cut through the park.

Rich: Oh, look a statue of Theirry Henry. Cool. Where’s John Radford?

Rowan: Not good enough for a statue, hey?

Jack: Quiet. Look there’s the stadium. I’ll show you John Radford now.

Rich: I’m sure we’ll see the family resemblance!

Language Focus 3: Directions on foot

Rowan: Before the roleplay, we asked you two questions. The first question was: What station do we get off at?

Jack: The answer is Holloway Road Station. Arsenal station was the next stop but Holloway Road is actually closer to the stadium.

Rowan: You’ve actually got a bit more information, haven’t you?

Jack: Yes, on match days you have to get off at Arsenal Station because Holloway Road station is closed.

Rich: Don’t say you weren’t warned. Our second question was: Who do we see a statue of?

Rowan: Well, I was half expecting to see a big statue of John Radford, Jack’s relative but in fact, we saw a statue of the other Arsenal legend - Thierry Henry.

Jack: Let’s look at some of the language we used in the roleplay.

Rich: One famous phrase that you might hear on a tube train is mind the gap.

Rowan: This means be careful when getting off the train because there is a space between the train and the platform.

Jack: Once we got out of the station Rowan used her phone again to find the way to the football stadium.

Rich: We used some phrases that you probably know such as turn left and turn right but there might have been a few phrases connected to directions that you are not sure about.

Rowan: Have a listen to this part of the roleplay again:

Rich: Just here. Hornsey Street.

Rowan: No, we need to turn left onto Hornsey Road.

Jack: Yeah, I know the way. Straight on up here. We need to turn right at the roundabout and then cut through the park.

Rich: Rowan said we needed to turn left onto Hornsey Road. When we are talking about directions and turn to change roads we use the preposition onto. Turn right onto White Hart Lane; turn left onto Elland Road.

Rowan: Straight on means to keep going in the same direction and we might say an informal phrase like ‘up here’ to emphasise this. Jack said ‘straight on up here’ in the section you just heard.

Jack: Another preposition we use when we turn is ‘at’. I said turn right at the roundabout. We turn right at the bank, at the post office or at the corner.

Rich: The roundabout is the circle where two or more roads meet. In American English, it’s called a traffic circle but I prefer roundabout - it’s nicer and also describes a round circle that you push around and around and children play on in the park.

Rowan: Our final word connected to directions is a bit trickier but very useful. The word is cut through. Jack said we can cut through the park.

Jack: It’s a phrasal verb and it means to go through the middle of something to make a journey shorter. It’s much quicker to cut through the park than going around it.

Rich: Remember that we’ve got vocabulary activities for you to check your understanding of everything we’ve looked at today on the Premier Skills English website.

TASK

https://tfl.gov.uk/maps/track/tube

Rich: In this week’s task, we want you to listen to some directions to a London football stadium.

Jack: You have to tell us which football stadium I’m trying to get to.

Rowan: Then we want you to give some directions of your own from one famous place in London to another famous place in London.

Rich: We want you to use the London underground and on the website we have a link to an interactive tube map to help you with this task. You might want to use other maps too.

Rowan: OK, here’s the first part of your task. Listen and tell us in the comments section which London football stadium Jack and Rich are trying to visit.

...

Jack: OK, we’re at King’s Cross & St.Pancras International station. Can you see the map?

Rich: Yes, I can see it.

Jack: So, we’re at King’s Cross & St.Pancras International station. We need to get on the Circle line or we can take the Hammersmith & City line. Westbound line not eastbound. We need to stay on it for four stops and change at Edgeware Road where we need to get on the district line towards Wimbledon. If it doesn’t say Wimbledon we might need to change at Earl’s Court. It’s seven stops - we need to get off at Fulham Broadway and then the stadium is a five-minute walk away.

...

Rowan: Which stadium are Jack and Rich trying to visit? Write your answer in the comments section on the Premier Skills English website.

Rich: When you have done this we want you to write some directions of your own. Choose a starting point and write some directions to a famous place in London. It can be a football stadium or other famous landmarks such as a museum, park or other attraction.

Jack: Try to use some of the language we have introduced in this week’s podcast and read other listener’s directions and reply with their destinations.

Football Phrase

Rowan: It’s time for this week’s football phrase. Have you got one Rich?

Rich: I have. This week’s football phrase is to *** *** ** * *****. This phrase means to start something very, very well. If a team scores in the first few minutes you might say they have *** *** ** * ***** or if a team wins the first six matches of a season you might say they have *** *** ** * ***** - they have had a really, really good start to the season.  

Jack: It’s difficult, this one. The last word describes someone who is on a plane or in the air and the phrase has the same meaning as a flying start.

Rowan: Too much help, I think Jack. Oh, well.

Rich: Let’s see if anyone gets it right and who is first this week. If you are still wondering what the answer was to last week’s football phrase it was a disallowed goal.

Rowan: Right, that’s all we have time for this week! Don’t forget to write your answers to our questions and make a guess at our football phrase in the comments below. If you get it right, we’ll announce your name on next week’s podcast.

Jack: If you have a question for us about football or English you can email us at premierskills@britishcouncil.org

Rich: or you can leave your questions and comments on the website in the comments section or on our Facebook page.

Rowan: or you could give us a rating and a fantastic review on Apple Podcasts.

Jack: Bye for now and enjoy your football!