Learn English During Rush Hour
Have you ever experienced road rage before? I do all the time.
In today’s episode I explain what road rage is, we learn about commuting, and what is meant by off-peak and peak travel. Lots of new words here for you guys! Enjoy :)
Transcripts
Hey amigos, you are listening to English Made Simple, this is episode number #83, numero ochenta y tres.
Good morning, good afternoon and good evening to you all! Welcome to English Made Simple, my name is Milena from www.www.englishmadesimple.net.
Let me ask you this question: Do you have the problem with road rage?
I do! When the traffic is crawling or it is almost at a standstill, or if there is a bumper to bumper traffic on the roads – oh my goodness, I tell you, it certainly drives me crazy. I try to avoid the main roads as much as possible sometimes.
Some drivers can be really violent and aggressive towards other drivers, that’s a bit too extreme, I assure you I am not like that. I just get a bit annoyed and I swear inside my car, it’s the safest option haha I don’t want to pick a fight with other drivers. That’s just crazy Milena.
Road rage is when you are extremely violent and angry towards other drivers. I don’t condone it. Meaning I don’t agree with it or support it.
Although, I do get road rage when I am in the supermarket, actually I call it a “trolley rage” especially when I am in a rush and there are people blocking the aisles [in the supermarket.] Move out of my way. Haha
Trolley rage is a phrase that I just made up, it doesn’t exist, I invented it. But you can use it if you want to haha
Ok, let’s calm down everybody. Let’s carry on with today’s Short and Sweet.
We are going to talk about common expressions with traffic. I think this is useful if you are travelling overseas and need to get a rent-a-car for example, or if you are already in an English speaking country and you need to start driving to work. Well the following expressions and phrases will come in handy for everyone.
The traffic congestion or the traffic jam, which we learnt in the previous episode #82, usually happens during the peak travel times. During the peak hour.
The peak hour is when there are a lot of cars on the roads, when there is a long line of cars, all out at the same time, this usually happens when people travel to and from work. The peak hour in Australia is normally from Monday to Friday from 7am-10am in the mornings and 5pm-7pm in the evenings.
The Peak hour is also known as the Rush Hour in the US and the UK. ok?
Opposite of Peak time is called Off-peak. Peak is used as an adjective here, and is spelt as P E A K. And according to weon inteligente or the online dictionary, peak means at the highest level, or the maximum level.
For example: I prefer to travel off-peak as it’s not that busy on the roads.
The peak hour can also apply to public transport. For examples, when do you see the most people on the train? At what time of the day do you see the most number of passengers on the train or the bus? When does it get crowded on the trains? Well, during the peak hour.
New word for you guys: crowded.
A crowded place implies there is a lot of people gathering at that place. If you’ve been to the Guns and Roses concert recently, you were part of the crowd at the concert, you were somewhere among the crowd. In Spanish this is multitud de gente.
Another interesting term to remember is: commute.
A friend can ask you: How do you commute to work?
Cool!
Commute is a word that describes the journey that you take on a regular basis to and from work.
For example, imagine you live in Valencia in Spain but you work in the capital city Madrid.
Just a random example.
For example: It is exhausting commuting from Valencia to Madrid every day.
Commuting is a regular journey to and from work. Remember that guys!
And if you happen to be on the road somewhere driving for a long period of time, I mean driving long distance, it’s advisable to pull over and have a nap. Don’t drive when you are tired. Canzado.
Pull over is a useful phrase here. It means to move to the side of the road.
If you like watching Hollywood action movies, like the movie Fast and Furious for example, (that’s where I got the inspiration from, for the title of my previous episode #82, I called it Fast and Curious haha because it sounds like Fast and Furious, anyway) as I was saying, if you like watching Hollywood action movies, you would see a police car and the policeman speaking over the megaphone, something like: Pull over sir. Sir, pull over.
Pull over (phrase) is two words, means stop or move to the side.
Earlier in today’s episode I used another kind of an informal expression.
I said something like: It drives me crazy or drives me nuts.
It drives me crazy when I am stuck in the slow moving traffic.
On the weekends, my neighbours play loud music they really drive me crazy.
According to weon inteligente, to drive someone crazy means to make someone annoyed or upset. In Spanish it would be something like: me pone loco, o me vuelve loco, me altera.
And that’s it guys!
We are approaching the end of today’s short and sweet episode. I hope you learnt something new today, even if you only learnt 1 new word today, that’s more than enough.
If you haven’t noticed, my voice is a bit different, that’s because I’ve got a cold, resfrio. So I have a blocked nose, I’ve been sneezing yesterday and now I have a chesty cough. Go back to episode #78 to learn more about the terms related to the doctor’s [office] and you’ll understand what I mean by this.
And that’s it amigos. I hope your daily commute to work doesn’t drive you crazy, I recommend you tune into the English Made Simple podcast, it will make every-yyy thing alright. Just relax.
Awesome, you’ve been an awesome audience amigos. Until next time. Hasta la proxíma!