Transcript: “Listening Time” Episode 72

Welcome to the Listening Time podcast. Hey everybody, this is Conner, and
you're listening to Episode 72 of the Listening Time podcast. I hope you're all doing well.
I hope you're enjoying these weekly episodes again. I hope that you appreciate that
you're getting an episode every week now. I hope I can keep this rhythm now. I really
want to upload episodes every week. So, hopefully, this will be the normal schedule
moving forward. So, I'm happy about that.
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today.
Alright, in today's episode, we're going to talk about transportation. This is an
important topic because all of us need to use some mode of transportation to move from
one place to another. And there are different ways that we can go to different places.
There are different types of transportation. So, I'd like to talk about some of those today.
And remember that you have the transcript available for this episode. That's below the
episode in the Episode Description. So, go down and click on that if you need it.
And remember that you should repeat these episodes many times until you can
understand everything that I'm saying without using the transcript. Okay? And if you like
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grow. Alright, let's get started.
Okay, so let's talk about transportation. In particular, I want to talk about the
different modes of transportation in different parts of the world that I have experience
with. So, I want to talk a little bit about transportation in the US, about transportation in
Mexico, and transportation in Europe. Obviously, I have more experience with
transportation in the US and in Mexico, but I've been to Europe a couple of times, and
so I've had the opportunity to also go around throughout these countries as well and use
different modes of transportation, so I can talk a little bit about that as well.
So first, let me talk about the US. You might already know this, but in the US,
cars are king. In English, when we say that something is king, we’re saying that it is the
number one thing in this field. So, when we talk about transportation in the US, we have
to start by talking about cars because cars are definitely the most important and the
most popular way that people get from point A to point B. This is another expression that
we use a lot in English. We say “get from point A to point B.” We just mean that you're
moving from one place to another.
So, the most common way for people to get from point A to point B in the US is
by driving. So, it's very common for people to have cars in the US. For example, when I
was younger, when I was living with my parents, but I was already driving… I was 16,
17, and my sister was also living with us for a time period, there were four of us in my
house. There were four of us living there, but we had five cars at our house. For a lot of
you, that might sound crazy. That might sound like we were super rich, but absolutely
not.
This is something that you can see with families in the US. The mother has a car.
The father has a car. Both kids have a car. In our case, we had an extra car because it
was a really old car that we just never sold, and it wasn't very good, but we still had it
with us. And so, that's why we had five cars instead of four. But remember that in the
US, you can buy used cars for pretty cheap. It's not like in other parts of the world where
cars are always pretty expensive. In the US, when you just want to buy a cheap
functioning car, it doesn't cost that much money. You can actually get a car for just a few
thousand bucks if you want. In English, the word “buck” just refers to dollar. So, if I say
“10 bucks,” I'm saying $10.
So, you can buy a used car for a few thousand bucks, maybe even 2000 bucks
and get a working car that will do its job. Of course, these will be old cars and not very
nice, not very beautiful, but they're cheap and they work if you buy the right one, of
course. And so, this is a great way for people to get their first car when they get their
license and start driving pretty easily. So, as you can see, cars are pretty accessible in
the US compared to in other countries. And the infrastructure in the US is made for cars.
So, the way that our cities are designed is for people that want to drive from point A to
point B. So, we have cities that are intersected by highways. So, we have highways that
go through our cities. And so, it's very easy to go from one part of the city, from one end
of the city, to the opposite end of the city.
Of course, there's traffic during certain times of day, but in general, it's very
simple to just go straight through a city using a highway, and you can get to the other
side very easily driving. This is different in other countries because in other countries,
cities don't have highways that go directly through them. So, it's much harder to drive
from one side of the city to the other side. But in the US, it's very simple, generally. So,
you can see that everything in the US is designed for cars. We have more parking
spaces than in other countries, so it's easy to find parking when you go to different
stores, different businesses. They usually have parking lots, and they're usually free.
So, it's much easier than in other countries.
However, since in the US, cars are king, this also means that there's little public
transportation. Of course, we have public transportation. We have buses and we even
have subway systems in some cities. But in general, our public transportation is not very
robust. In English, the word “robust” refers to something that is complete, thorough, it
has a lot to it. We don't have a robust public transportation system in most cities in the
US. We have some things like trolleys, which are like small trains. We have this in San
Diego, in my city, and I've taken it a few times before. And like I said, we have some
subway systems in major cities like in New York, but in general, most people in the US
don't rely on these types of things to get to work or to go different places. People drive.
It's pretty simple.
And of course, in the US, there are bikes and there are bike lanes. Bike lanes are
the lanes in the street that are specifically designated for bikes. So, we have a lot of
bike lanes. So, it's possible to do this, but our cities are pretty spread out. This means
that places are far from each other. So, it's not easy to bike to all the places that you
want to go. And so, that's not an option for most people. But you can go and bike to
places that are close by, no problem.
And in most cities, you can't really walk to most of the places that you need to go
to. Like I said, our cities are pretty spread out. And so, walking isn't the number one way
that you're going to get to different places. But of course, if you're in the downtown area,
or places like that, usually, it's pretty good for walking. You can go to the places nearby,
no problem. But in general, like I said, people drive.
Alright, let's talk about transportation in Mexico. In Mexico, people also use cars
a lot. Cars are a little less accessible than in the US because they might be a little more
expensive relative to people's salaries in Mexico. So, cars aren't quite as accessible as
in the US, but cars are still king in Mexico, I would say. People drive. If people have
cars, they definitely drive. And one big reason for that is because the public
transportation system in Mexico isn't very good. It's not very efficient. There's one city in
Mexico, which is Mexico City, that has a more robust public transportation system, but
most other cities don't have a really good system. So, it's kind of hard to just rely on
public transportation to get to where you need to go.
And in this case, when I talk about public transportation, I'm talking about the
subway system, because in Mexico City, there is a big subway system, whereas in other
cities, we don't have that. However, there are a lot of buses in Mexico. So, in my city,
there are many, many buses. And so, there are buses for everyone really. But as I
mentioned, the public transportation system isn't efficient. So, even though there are a
lot of buses, it still takes a long time to get to different places in the city even though we
have a lot of buses.
So, it's very common for people to have to take two buses or three buses to go to
work in the morning and to come back in the evening. And it might take them an hour
and a half or even two hours sometimes to actually get to their destination. So, that's a
long time. Even though we have a lot of buses, even though you can definitely get from
point A to point B using these buses, it’s not going to be efficient a lot of the time. You're
going to spend a lot of time on this bus just waiting to arrive. So, it's not very fun. So, if
people have cars in Mexico, in general, they use them. They drive these cars.
The bad thing about driving in Mexico is that the cities are not designed to handle
so much traffic and so many cars, and we don't have highways that go through the cities
like in the US. And so, it's much harder to get from one side of the city to the other side.
And there's always a ton of traffic during rush hour. In English, “rush hour” refers to the
time of day when people are going to work or coming home from work. So, there are
many cars on the road.
During rush hour, traffic is absolutely terrible in big cities in Mexico. It’s maybe
some of the worst traffic in the world. I've talked to people that live in Mexico City, and
usually, they think that Mexico City has the worst traffic they've ever seen, worse than
any other city, at least in North or South America. So, you can imagine that, during rush
hour, you don't want to be in your car driving home or driving to work because it's pretty
bad.
And in Mexico, it's not that easy to get around using a bike because it's not quite
as safe as in the US or maybe in Europe, because there aren't as many bike lanes, and
so, drivers can get closer to you, and you might not really have a lot of space to ride in
the street. And you don't feel quite as safe because people here aren't used to seeing
bikers everywhere in the streets. And so, they're not constantly looking left and right to
see if there are any bikers around them. They don't have that custom because it's not
that normal here. They're not used to it. And so, if you try to ride your bike in busy areas,
you'll definitely have to be very cautious. But there are some areas, like in my
neighborhood, that have bike lanes and that are more suitable for bikers. So, in my
neighborhood, you can definitely ride your bike and get from point A to point B, and it's
very convenient in this neighborhood, and you can rent bikes very easily. So, that's
good. And maybe that will expand to other parts of the city in the future.
But in Mexico, I would have to say that the best way to get around, if you can, is
through ride sharing. So, using apps that allow you to order a ride, and someone drives
you to another part of the city… these are great in many cities in Mexico because there
are many drivers with these apps. There are tons of people that use them. And the
prices aren't that high. They're actually not too bad compared to other countries.
And so, if you have the money to use these types of apps, they can be very
useful because you can avoid the buses, and you don't have to worry about finding
parking because parking is not easy in Mexico. And so, you can get to your destination
in the fastest way without having to worry about parking or things like that. And it's
usually very comfortable. So, that's my number one way of going to different places and
getting around the city in Mexico.
Lastly, let me talk about Europe. So, I've never lived in Europe, but I've been
there twice, and I've used their public transportation system, and it's pretty cool in a lot
of different cities. Like in Paris, for example, it's so easy to just get around the city, to go
wherever you want, using the different subway lines. In English, when we use the word
“line” when talking about subways, we’re talking about different routes. So, you have a
lot of different lines that intersect, and you can get off one line and get on another line at
certain subway stations. And these help you navigate to different parts of the city.
So, in Paris, for example, there are many subway lines, and it's very easy to go
from any area of the city to another area. Of course, you might need to walk a little bit.
Your subway line might not take you exactly to the point where you want to be. But if
you just walk a little bit, you can probably navigate the whole city pretty easily using
public transportation. So, this was great when I was traveling throughout Europe
because it was very easy to travel without a car. That was really cool.
I think that using a car in European cities can definitely be a headache. In
English, we say that something is a “headache” when it's something that's annoying. It
causes you stress or worry or problems. This is a headache. So, in Europe, driving
throughout cities can definitely be a headache if these cities are very crowded, like
Paris, for example. And so, it might not be very convenient to use a car and to find
parking and to pay for parking, and all of that.
So, I think that people that live in big European cities would probably prefer to
use public transportation if they can, and if they feel like it's comfortable enough. I know
that it's very comfortable to be in your own car, of course. And so, some people might
just prefer this no matter what. But other people might just value the convenience of
being able to go out, not take their car, not stress over the traffic or parking or things like
that. And in big European cities, you can often avoid this if you want to. So, that's pretty
cool.
 And in some European cities, bikes are very common, like in places like
Amsterdam, you can ride your bike all over the city, and there are tons of bikers. And if
you're in the middle of big European cities, it's very nice to walk, in my opinion, because
there's a lot of beautiful architecture around you. There are a lot of beautiful sights. And
so, I think that walking in these cities can also be very pleasant. It can definitely be
pleasurable because you're not just walking with the intention of arriving at your
destination. You're also taking in the sights around you and appreciating them. In
English, when we say that you “take in” some view or “take in the sights,” we're saying
that you actually pay attention to the view around you, and you appreciate it. So, this is
something cool about walking in European cities.
However, I've talked to students that live in really touristic cities, like Rome, for
example, who tell me that most people who live there, they walk right past these famous
monuments, and they don't even pay attention to them, and they don't even really care
about the fact that they're walking right past the Colosseum, or something like that. For
tourists, this seems crazy. We would probably think that this is awesome to see these
incredible monuments every day when you walk around the city.
But for locals who have lived there for many, many years, it's probably not that
exciting anymore. So, for them, they probably don't really take in all the sights every
time they walk outside. So, in Europe, in my opinion, I think that using public
transportation, walking, and in some cases, riding a bike could be the best ways to get
around because it might be hard to use a car in crowded cities in Europe. This might not
be the most convenient way to travel around the city.
Alright, well, why don't we stop there for today? I hope this episode was
interesting for you, and I hope it was good practice for your listening. Remember that if
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