Learn New Vocabulary – Sightseeing, Landmarks, Sunset and Sunrise
Learn to navigate in English, learn about Cardinal Points, landmarks, learn about sightseeing, sunrise and sunset. Today’s episode will help you expand your vocabulary. I hope you enjoy today’s show! :)
Transcript
Hey amigos, you are listening to the English Made Simple podcast, this is episode number #87, numero ochenta y siete
Whoa, Is this really number 87, I am slowly losing count.
Well hello there amigos, my name is Milena from www.www.englishmadesimple.net.
Qué onda? Como estan? How are you? I hope you are doing fantastic! Excellent, glad to hear!
Well, It’s been a busy few months down at the EMS Headquarters also known as my living room.
A few episodes ago, I think it was the Short and Sweet episode, # 59) I announced that English Made Simple was changing its look and feel, the website was changing its look and feel…. And guess what? The English Made Simple website has a new design, EMS had a makeover and it is almost complete.
I am soooo excited – check it out, when you have time! I think it shows off my personality quite well. If you are listening to this episode in February or March of 2017 – you will notice that the website is still not finished, I am still tweaking it, fixing it a bit. Thanks to Horacio from Bolivia who gave me a great idea on improving the design of my home page. Thanks man.
I am still playing with my website, anyhow it’s easy to use, and I love it and that’s what counts! That’s what matters!
Thanks to everyone who supported me, gave me moral support in continuing with the podcast, believe it or not – it will almost be a year since I launched my very first episode! I know!! Time flies!
How quickly it goes! Oh my God!
Oki doki, enough of this gibberish, welcome to today’s short and sweet episode, episode #87.
I am going to use this Short and Sweet episode to carry on from the previous episode and introduce you to some very important keywords and these will be useful to you when you, yourself, will need to give directions to someone in the future.
I hope today’s episode will help you expand your vocabulary – so listen carefully amigos!
And we will learn how to give directions in the next episode, number #88 so stink around for that.
First things first, when it comes to asking or giving directions – we need to understand the Cardinal points in English. Ok, what did you say Milena? It sounded like you were speaking a language of Science!
Cardinal points…look, I am not a scientist or an astrophysicist or a physicist …. I am not that clever – I just read horoscopes, that’s about it – I can’t even count properly haha
Ok what do I mean by Cardinal Points? It sounds like it’s a scientific word. In Spanish this is Puntos Cardinales.
We use these cardinal points for orientation. The cardinal points guide us in the right direction.
I think by having the compass with you, orientation would be much easier.
But how many of us carry compasses when we go out? I don’t have one…I just follow the stars at night…
Back to the topic now.
What are Cardinal Points?
Cardinal Points are the four main directions of the compass. Compass in Spanish is compas or brujula.
On the compass we have the north, south, east and west points.
North…norte, sur, este and oeste in Spanish.
Everyone knows that The Sun rises in the East and it sets in the West.
The sun goes up in the East and it goes down in the West. A proper way to say this is: The Sun rises in the East and it sets in the West.
We use verbs to rise, and to set in this case.
BTW, Sunrise is a noun – in Spanish this is Amanecer, and Sunset and also a noun and it means la puesta de sol.
Oki doki, easy peasy japanesey!
Why am I telling you all this? Well sometimes when people give you directions they would say things like: hey Carlos, if you want to go to the museum you need to head north. Which means, you need to go towards the north.
If someone gave me those instructions and I didn’t have a map with me, I would be like, whaaat? What did you say? Where the hell is north from here? I would immediately say: Sorry, can you please point me in the right direction? I don’t know where I am.
I would feel like I am in one of those episodes of Game of Thrones, you know, just head to the east and there you will find King’s Landing, the largest city of the Seven Kingdoms. Can’t wait for the next season of Game of Thrones!
Righto, let’s continue amigos. More new words coming your way!
When you go travelling and visiting new places, you will most likely be spending time sightseeing.
Sightseeing – an interesting word. It is one word, it’s a noun and according to Weon Inteligente or the Online Dictionary: sightseeing is the activity of visiting places of interest in a particular location. I don’t know if there is an equivalent word in Spanish, I haven’t found it yet. I would say: visitar o ver nuevos lugares.
People like to go sightseeing when they travel and see new places, people like to explore new places.
That’s what makes travelling so interesting.
What I like to do when I travel is remember different landmarks. As soon as I leave my hotel or a hostel (or hostal in Spanish), where I happen to be staying at – I would establish a reference point so I that I wouldn’t get lost.
In this case I would look around me and try to find (any) distinct landmarks, for example, an interesting building or a place that I could easily remember.
So, my advice for you when you go travelling is to pay special attention to landmarks when you are out and about, you know: sightseeing
So, what is a landmark?
It’s a prominent landscape feature, it could be a building or a garden something that is easily recognisable, and it’s a point of reference. It will help you easily identify your location.
I do this all the time when I travel, it just makes it easier to find my way back to the hotel or wherever I happen to be staying.
An example of a landmark would be, a museum, a monument, a fountain – una fuente de agua, a tree even – it’s a recognisable feature, it could be man-made or a natural feature. It’s used for navigation, I guess.
In Spanish this would be Puntos o lugares de referencía.
It’s important to notice landmarks around you because they will help you when you have to ask for directions. And they will also help you when other people give you directions. They could say things like, walk two blocks from here and when you pass the Post Office you will reach your final destination.
And of course we will learn more about this in the next episode, we will learn about giving directions and receiving directions, so hang in there guys, be patient!
So I’d like to quickly summarise today’s episode.
We have learnt about the Four main Cardinal Points and the names of each point, this will help you later on when we learn about giving directions. We’ve also learnt new words such as sightseeing, landmark, sunrise and sunset. Right?
Cool bananas!
In the next episode which will be episode #88 I will teach you how to give directions…
So, guys and gals…Thank you for joining me in today’s Short and Sweet episode, you’ve been jamming with Milenita. Until Next time amigos, hasta la proxima.