Transcription
Hey there, Highle listeners. If you are learning English and you want to sound more natural in real conversations, you are in the right place. This is Highle Listening, our English learning podcast where we teach you everyday conversational English through American and British stories. I'm Cat, an American English teacher from the United States. And I'm Mark from the UK. And today we're talking about going to the park and the things you can see, the things you can do and enjoy there. So, this will help you talk more confidently about going to the park in English. Through this episode, you'll hear natural expressions, casual vocabulary, and a few American and British differences along the way, which we'll highlight with our little flags. So, like normal in our episodes, we will each read a short story about visiting a park. Cats will be in more American English and mine will be in more British English. So Cat will read her story first and the question is, when was the last time you went to the park?
Actually, we went to the park just last weekend. We walked along this gravel trail that winds past the tennis courts and towards this forested area, which is perfect cuz it's always shady. The kids didn't even wait for us. They headed straight for the playground. They were on the swings racing each other down the slide, hanging off the jungle gym. I just prayed they wouldn't fall. I grabbed a table at one of the pavilions and I realized I hadn't been to the community sports center in a while. So, we stopped by on our way back to the parking lot to pick up a flyer for the monthly and weekly events.
Okay, sounds like a very nice day out. About you, Mark. When was the last time you went out to the park? We took our kids to Castle Park on Saturday because we hadn't had a day out for a while. We turned off the high street and strolled past the flower beds which were all in full bloom and then over to the big open green where we spread out the blanket. The kids dashed off chucking a frisbee about playing it and then joined some other kids with a kickabout. Uh when they'd worn themselves out, we wandered down to the boating lake to feed the ducks and then tucked into our packed lunches. After that, we found a 99 and cooled down in the shade of the old castle. It was just nice to get some family time.
Okay, so those are both of our stories today. Don't worry if you didn't catch everything the first time. We're about to go back to the start and go through our stories once more, focusing on vocabulary and expressions about going to the park. We've also got some extra goodies for you this week. You can get all of our weekly PDF transcripts by joining us as a member here on YouTube, which is super simple. You can also get weekly study guides and picture dictionaries by becoming a vocabulary builder member as well. We've also got over 85 study guides for you to download today in our highle listening store on PayHip. We've got speaking clubs, new brand new courses coming up next month and more. Just come and join our email list.
Okay, so let's go back to the start of the story. Uh, Cat, when was the last time you went to the park? Actually, we went to the park just last weekend. So, this is a pretty simple sentence, but I want to note some of the pronunciation. We went to the park just last weekend. Do you kind of hear how went just last? We're not actually saying the T at the very end. So, unlike Mark, how would you say those three words? went just last. I would actually say it in a similar way. I went to the park just last weekend. I don't pronounce the T very strongly. Isn't Isn't that interesting? I don't say went to. I say went. So, it's really cutting that sound nice and short. So, we went to Now I'm connecting it to the next word. Went to the park just last weekend. Why am I using the word just there? means very recently. Just last weekend. Very recently. What about you, Mark? Where did you go last weekend? Well, we took the kids to Castle Park on Saturday because we hadn't had a day out for a while. So, it's very common in the UK for parks to have names. There's Hide Park in London and one in my hometown. This is a real park, Castle Park. So, you go to Castle Park or which park did you go to? Oh, we took the kids to Castle Park. So, me and the kids went together. Why did we go? Because we hadn't had a day out for a while. This is the past perfect. Last Saturday, we went to the park. Before last Saturday, it had been a long time since we went. Maybe a few weeks. Maybe we had been busy. So, we hadn't had a day out before last Saturday. A day out is time outside with your family and often a couple of hours doing an activity or enjoying yourselves. And you have a day out. So, I hadn't had a day out in a while. So, we went to Castle Park. Yeah, I know that's always a little bit confusing because we have had hadn't had. It seems a little weird to have these back toback, but that was a good explanation for why. Okay, so back to your big American park. Uh, where do you normally go at the big park?
So, we walked along this gravel trail that winds past the tennis courts and towards this forested area, which is perfect cuz it's always shady. So, we walked along we walked along this gravel trail. Now, we've got a couple of words. You could go down paths, trails, and this one is a gravel trail. And a gravel trail has tiny little rocks. Instead of concrete or instead of grass, it could be a grassy trail or a grassy path. So, we walked along this gravel trail that winds. Something winds. That means it you can kind of think of a snake, okay? It goes around, comes around, it curves as well. We walked along this gravel trail that winds past the tennis courts and towards this forested area. Forested area, that means an area with lots of trees. Okay? So, forested area. Sometimes instead of using the ed, you might just hear forest area. That's also correct. Forested area. forest area, which is perfect because it's always shady. Okay? When you've got trees, you've got shade, right? So, it's shady, meaning it blocks us from the sun, right? So, when you're sitting in the cool area, that's shade or it's shady. Uhhuh. And so, it's perfect because it's always shady. So, I know exactly where to go to cool down, right? Like a nice shady spot. A shady forested area sounds really nice. Oh, it sounds perfect cuz you can smell the trees, lots of fresh air, and blocks it blocks the sun, right? Nice and shady. All right. Well, Castle Park sounds really nice. I I I think I've actually heard of it before because it sounds quite popular from your hometown. So, what did you do first?
Well, we turned off the high street and strolled past the flower beds, which were all in full bloom. So again, in the UK, it's quite common for parks to be in the center of a town or in the center of a city. London has lots of parks, for example, and my hometown as well has a big park right in the middle. So we turned off the high street. So we were walking down the high street, which is the main street in the center of the town. So you don't have to go a long way to find a park. We maybe took the bus and then got off on the high street, then turned off. We left the main road or exited the road and we strolled past. To stroll is a nice fun casual walk. I'm not walking quickly. I'm enjoying the fresh air, enjoying the sunshine. I am strolling. You might hear, "I'm going for a stroll, but I am relaxed and I'm walking slowly. I strolled past the flower beds." Flower beds are large sections of flowers. It can be in a square shape or it can be quite large. Yeah, the flowers are not sleeping, but we call it a flower bed. Many parks, especially in the summertime, make arrangements of flowers. They put decorations or shapes. They even write words in the flowers and you'll find them in the flower beds. And summer is a popular time at the park because the flowers are in full bloom. When a flower opens and shows its pretty colorful petals, it's in bloom. Full bloom means all the flowers are fully open. So, it's the most beautiful, the prettiest it is all year round. So yeah, we strolled past the flower beds which were all in full bloom. Maybe we took some pictures there or selfies there as well.
Okay, so you went to the park with your kids as well. What do they like to do there? Honestly, the kids didn't even wait for us to get to the area we were supposed to go to. They headed straight for the playground. So the kids didn't even wait for us. Hey, you didn't even wait for what? They just ran straight ahead. Okay, they just went straight to the playground. We often use this word head when we actually mean go. So they headed straight for the playground. Now the playground is in the park, right? So I just kind of wanted to mention that kids play on the playground in the park, right? So we are in the park, right? inside kind of inside the boundaries. But then because kids play and climb and do all sorts of things, they are on the playground. On the playground. So, uh, the kids didn't even wait for us. I I said, "Okay, fine, fine. Go, go, go. Just get out of here. Go." They headed straight for the playground. They were just so excited. Okay. Bye, B. Bye. Okay. Okay. Bye.
So, after you saw all those beautiful flowers, uh, where did you end up going? So, we strolled past the flower beds and then over to the big open green where we spread out the blankets. So, in the UK there'll often be big open spaces with grass and you can sit anywhere you like. So, there is the color green like cat shirt is green but green is a big field and it's meant for you to enjoy. You can sit down, you can have a picnic, you can play games on the green. A big open green is a large field where you can sit. And there's one in Castle Park or there's one really big field. So, it's the big open green where we spread out the blanket. Sitting on the grass, it's not always super comfortable. Maybe there's ants or bugs and instead you can bring a blanket and a lot of people spread out the blanket. You have it in a bag, take it out and spread it out so you have a space you can sit on there. H and it's much more comfortable. No bugs, no grass, no grass on your hands or feet. So that's what we did. We went over to the big open green where we spread out the blanket and we sat down.
Okay, so back to your American park. You mentioned the playground. What's there to do on the playground? The kids, they were on the swings racing each other down the slide, hanging off the jungle gym. I just prayed they wouldn't fall. Kids, kids go a little nuts, right? Kids go a little nuts on the playground. They're young. They can spin themselves around until they they don't even get sick, right? It's it's really kind of crazy. But you could say they were on the swings. So the swings, you swing back and forth, back and forth. Usually kids want to be pushed on the swings. Push me. Push me. Push me on the swings. Okay, so they were on the swings. We could say they were on the swings or swinging on the swings. We use the same verb. Uh, so racing each other down the slide. Okay. You start up at the top and you kind of slowly smoothly jet off into space. Um, so you kind of smoothly slide down. So you slide on the slide, swing on the swings and they were hanging off the jungle gym. Okay, so a jungle gym. Well, first let me tell you guys what a jungle gym is. A jungle gym is a set of bars. It's a set of metal pieces that are all connected together. Kids can climb them. Kids can go under them. Kids can go through them. It's sometimes the biggest part of climbing on the playground. Do you guys not have jungle gyms? Yeah, we do. They're called climbing frames. Uh, climbing frames. Yeah, the climbing frame. So you can play on the climbing frame, swing on the climbing frame, go up the climbing frame, fall off the climbing frame. That's what kids do in the UK. Oh, okay. Okay. So, they were hanging. So, like a monkey, you're hanging, right? You're hanging off the jungle gym. I just prayed they wouldn't fall. Okay. Now, nobody fell, right? Nobody fell, but I just I just hoped and prayed that they wouldn't. Right. So, this is in the past. Nobody fell. It was okay. But I really prayed that they wouldn't. It's fine. Kids bounce generally. And then in parks and playgrounds in the UK on the ground, it's not hard. It's usually bark like tree bark, little bits of kind of brown soft uh soft covering. Do they do that in this US as well? Yeah, we we do have that too. It kind of sometimes they have this like spongy material as well. It really just depends. But a lot of places just it's just the ground, right? It's just the ground. So you learn hard. Those kids grow up fast. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So they really have to be careful. Uh, what about your kids? Did they enjoy it?
Yes. They dashed off chucking a frisbee about playing it and they joined some other kids for a kickabout as well. So many British words in that one. So many. So the kids dashed off. If you dash, you run very quick. So we spread out the blanket. We sat down and the kids dashed off immediately. And they played. They played with a Frisbee. That plastic disc that you can throw. To throw is to chuck. You can chuck a ball. Chuck a Frisbee. I also want to share that they were having lots of fun. So chuck it about means they were playing with each other, maybe with us and having more fun. About makes that more fun. The next thing they did was play it. Does that get a flag, too? Do you know what I mean? Yeah. So, I know what you mean because we when we play tag, we say you're it. You're it. So, you call it playing it. We say playing tag. Exactly. the oldest game in the world where you chase your friend, you touch them, they are it, and they have to touch someone else and you're chasing each other around. You don't want to be it. And yeah, when you tag them or touch your friend, you say, "You're it." and then run away. So, they were chucking a Frisbee about, playing it, and they joined some other kids for a kickabout. A kickabout. That's one word. In the UK, football is a very, very popular sport. So, people bring a football to the park. And we don't have goals and we're not keeping score. There's no referee with cards. You just kick the ball to each other. That is a kickabout. You might have a kickabout. Enjoy a kickabout. And maybe my kids saw some other kids playing with the football and they said, "Hey, can we play?" Sure. They joined some kids for a kickabout. So, it's just a really casual, fun way to kick a football around. So, yeah, the British kids did lots of very British activities. That makes sense. And the Americans did a lot of American activities. Mhm. Right. Okay. So, after the playground, uh, where did you go next?
Well, I grabbed us a table at one of the pavilions. Okay. So, this is quite popular in the United States. a pavilion. It's usually a large open covered area. It usually has a big roof and it's usually for community events or it's for it has picnic tables. Like my friend's um little girl is turning two. She's hosting the birthday party at the pavilion at the park. meaning she rented out the pavilion so that lots of people can come and enjoy the little girl's birthday party. So the pavilion itself is just a big covered area. Probably can hold over a hundred people really pretty easily. It's a large space. So I grabbed a table at one of the pavilions. Remember this is a local park. It's just open to the public. So I grabbed a table, meaning I put all of our stuff at the table and I said, "That's mine. That's my table. Before anyone else come in. Exactly. Exactly. I grabbed a table at one of the pavilions. All right. So, after your kids were done playing, uh, what did you guys do next?
Well, when they'd worn themselves out, we wandered down to the boating lake to feed the ducks. That's so fun. Yes, that's nice. So, the kids played a lot and now they're very tired. They are worn out. In the past, they wore themselves out. And I'm using the past perfect again. After they had worn themselves out. So after they played, after they had worn themselves out, we wandered to the boating lake. Earlier I used stroll. We strolled past the flower beds. Another casual walking verb is we wandered. Again, we walked slowly, in no rush. We wandered to the boating lake. Another common thing you'll find in British parks is a lake. And if it's a boating lake, then there might be small boats. You can usually rent these boats. You can fit two or four people and you can go around the lake. It's very popular. Like the little paddle boats. Yes. Or you have to kick your feet, right, to paddle around. Exactly. Yeah. Usually dad or the parents do most of the work at the same time, right? You might have um boats and animals too. In the UK, you'll see swans and often geese and ducks in the lakes. So, some people bring bread or bread crumbs and feed the ducks. Kids like doing it, families like doing it. You get lots and lots of ducks and geese all around you, so you get some funny pictures. And it's a good chance to be around animals. So, we wandered down to the boating lake to feed the ducks. When When you said animals, because I'm from Texas and we have lots of dangerous animals, I was thinking, "Oh, crocodiles, snakes, alligators, snakes, the Texas, the swans and the ducks." And I was like, "Oh, that's much nicer. That's much nicer." You know, swans are swans can be rude. Swans are pretty mean. They're dangerous. Oh, believe me, I know. I feel you. Right. Okay. So, did you do any sports at your local park?
So, as I was grabbing a table at one of the pavilions, I realized I hadn't been to the community sports center in a while. I realized I hadn't been to the community sports center in a while. So, our community sports center, I think this is a good way to talk about just a a neighborhood area where everyone is welcome to play sports. Yes, a lot of them are for kids, but sometimes they have adult classes. Sometimes they play soccer, sometimes they play baseball, sometimes they play volleyball. Sometimes you can go there for an exercise class. You can go to the gym. It's often much less expensive than going to a big gym or a big sports center. So, that's why I said community sports center. Usually it's uh a little bit paid for by the government, so the prices are a little bit cheaper. Now, what about you guys, Mark? Did you Man, you guys sound exhausted. You had a lot of fun at the park. Did you bring anything to eat? Did you have like a little picnic? We did. After we went to the boating lake and fed the ducks, we tucked into our packed lunches. Oh, nice. So, we tucked in to our packed lunches. we tucked into, we ate them. So, we knew we were going to the park. And in parks, there's not guaranteed any food. There might be snacks and ice cream and stuff, but real food, you may have to bring it yourself. So, we brought packed lunches. So, if you prepare food at home, you make a packed lunch. Don't forget the ed. You might make a packed lunch and give it to your children before they go to school. Or if you go on a picnic, you might bring a packed lunch. I imagine something like sandwiches, some fruit, maybe some bars, some grain bars, oat bars, and things like that. So, typical picnic foods. So, we tucked into alpaced lunches as in we ate and we enjoyed them. If you tuck into something, you eat it quite fast because you're happy to eat it and maybe you're quite hungry and you must be hungry. Yeah. Right. The kids were worn out. I'm sure you guys were ex. Yeah, exactly. Super hungry.
Okay, so last part of your story, Ken. What sort of things does this community sports center offer? Well, I wasn't sure. So, we stopped by on our way back to the parking lot to pick up a flyer of the monthly and weekly events. So, uh what sort of things do they offer? Meaning, what do they have at the sports center? And because I realized I hadn't been there in a long time, I don't actually know anymore. So, we stopped by. We stopped by, meaning go quickly. We stopped by on our way back to the parking lot. Now, this is the probably the most American part of going to the park. You almost always have to drive. Okay? So, uh we parked our car in the parking lot and then when we finished we returned to the parking lot or we stopped by on our way back to the parking lot. So, we go to the park and on our way back to the parking lot, we picked up a flyer. A flyer. Now, a flyer is usually just a piece of paper, but it gives you some information. What's going on this month? What's going on this week? So, I picked up the flyer of the monthly and weekly events. So, uh maybe they've got a summer class where they're teaching kids to play baseball. Maybe they have something for adults in the evenings, maybe weekly yoga, maybe they have something monthly like a book club or something where we can all meet up together. So, I looked at the monthly and the weekly events. And yeah, I was pretty happy with that. I'm I'm going to probably join the community sports center again.
All right. So, what about you? What did you guys do after lunch? Afterwards, we found a 99 and cooled down in the shade of the old castle. It was just nice to get some family time. Okay, so there might be some very British things in here. We found a 99. What is that? I'll probably put a picture of this. I actually have no idea what that is. A 99. It's got different names. Uh, in the US, I think it's called soft serve ice cream. Oh, it's that white ice cream that comes out in a swirl and you call it a 99. Yeah, 99 because it's supposed to cost 99 so it's cheap. Although a lot of them cost more nowadays, but the name is still a 99. So, we found a 99. In most parks in the UK, especially during summer, there will be a few places, maybe kiosks or cafes selling ice creams or maybe an ice cream van, we found a 99 and cooled down in the shade of the old castle. Again, in English, shade is talking about the temperature. If it's a cool, dark area, that's shade. You go in the shade to cool down. It's Castle Park because there is an old castle and it was just nice to get some family time. Oh, I use the word get on purpose. I could say it was nice to have some family time, but it was nice to get some family time. Get sounds like this was a special or rare opportunity. Maybe I wanted to go to the park last week, but we were busy. We didn't have time or the weather was it was raining. Yeah. Yeah. Right. More likely. And but this time I managed to get Yes. Okay. We can do it. We have this chance, this opportunity to have and enjoy a family day at the park. So, if you get some time, it's something that's a bit special or not always guaranteed. So, I managed to get some family time and that was nice, too. That's so nice.
All right, now that you've heard our park stories, let's go back and listen again so you can practice the vocabulary and the expressions.
Actually, we went to the park just last weekend. We walked around this gravel trail that winds past the tennis courts and towards this forested area, which is perfect cuz it's always shady. The kids didn't even wait for us. They headed straight to the playground. They were on the swings racing each other down the slide, hanging off the jungle gym. I just prayed that they wouldn't fall. I grabbed a table at one of the pavilions and I realized I hadn't been to the community sports center in a while. So, we stopped by on our way back to the parking lot to pick up a flyer of the monthly and weekly events.
And here's my park story one more time. We took the kids to Castle Park on Saturday because we hadn't had a day out in a while. We turned off the high street and strolled past the flower beds which were all in full bloom and then over to the big open green where we spread out the blanket. The kids dashed off chucking a frisbee about playing it and they joined some other kids for a kick about as well. When they'd worn themselves out, we wandered to the boating lake to feed the ducks and then tucked into our packed lunches. Afterwards, we found a 99 and cooled down in the shade of the old castle. It was just nice to get some family time.
All right, so we would love to hear from you guys. Please tell us in the comments when was the last time you went to a park and what's your favorite thing to do there? Yes, and don't forget you can join our YouTube memberships to get PDF transcripts of this episode and every other episode as well. There's also a higher level where you get bonus materials like listening activities, some picture dictionaries, and more. And you can find all those links in the description below. Thank you so much everybody for listening and we'll catch you next time on Highle listening. Bye-bye. [Music]