Essential Travel English: Phrases You NEED to Know

Welcome to the US! Wow, if this is your dream, to hear today's lesson is for you. Today's lesson is the ultimate travel English Survival Guide. Over the next hour and a half, you will immerse yourself in all the important English that you need to survive on your next trip abroad. Maybe it's to the US, maybe it's to another country. This lesson's for you.

Hi, I'm Vanessa from Speak English With Vanessa. And like always, I have created a free PDF worksheet. This one is a long one and extremely important. It is going to include every single survival travel phrase, definition, sample sentence, situation that you might need them, sample conversation. All of this is available in the free PDF worksheet. You can click on the link in the description to download this PDF worksheet today. I highly recommend doing this before you travel abroad. You can print it out and while you're traveling on the airplane, you're in a train, you can study this worksheet so that when you step off the plane, English will be easy breezy, no problem for you. This is my gift to you. You can click on the link in the description to download this ultimate travel English Survival Guide today.

All right, let's get started with our first lesson, which is a doozy. It is 21 essential travel English phrases. Then we'll go on to some other important travel lessons, including the final one where I make a lesson in a special new country. You will see where that lesson is at the end of this video.

All right, let's learn some essential travel phrases. First, today I'll help you with three common travel categories: eating out, shopping, and hotels. Plus, a bonus category that's especially for if you're traveling in the US, which is renting a car. Let's talk about all of these four categories so that you don't feel embarrassed and smacked in the face with language, like I was.

All right, let's get started with our first category, which is eating out at a restaurant. When you walk into a restaurant in the US, the server might ask you, "How many?" Well, they're wanting to know how many people are with you. Sometimes we say, "How many people are in your party?" Even if it's not a birthday party, it's just your group. And you can answer with, "Well, I'd like a table for four." "I'd like a table for four, please." Or, "Can I get a table for four?" Wonderful expressions.

When you sit down at your table, the server will ask you, "What would you like to order?" And maybe you're not familiar with a lot of the food on that menu, or you want to make sure you get the best thing. So you can ask this question: "Do you have any recommendations?" "Do you have any recommendations?" Of course, make sure that their recommendation is not the most expensive thing on the menu. Most servers are pretty honest and will tell you something that they think is really good, but it's a good way to be able to get the specialty of the restaurant or just something that maybe you hadn't thought about before.

A lot of restaurants in the US are aware that people have different eating diets or restrictions. So if this is you, you're welcome to say, "Are there any vegetarian options?" "Are there any vegan options?" "Are there any gluten-free options?" You could say, "I'm allergic to gluten. Are there any gluten-free options?" And sometimes even on the menu, you will see little symbols like a 'G' with a line through it, and that means this has no gluten, and that those will be special items that you would be able to order.

Something that's very American is ordering something and then customizing it to what you want. So you could say, "Can I get the cheeseburger and hold the lettuce and tomato?" or "Can I get the cheeseburger without the lettuce and tomato?" You're not ordering it as is on the menu. It says cheeseburger, lettuce, and tomato. It comes together, but in the US, it's perfectly normal and really common to customize it to what you want. So you could say, "Can I get the cheeseburger and hold?" That means don't give it to me. "Hold the lettuce and tomato." Or, "Can I get the cheeseburger without the lettuce and tomato?" And they'll say, "Sure, no problem."

Something else that the US is known for is gigantic portion size, and it's true. You get huge portions here in the US. So what happens if you don't finish all your food and don't feel like you need to finish all your food? You can just ask the server, "Can I get a to-go box, please?" "Can I get a to-go box, please?" It's perfectly normal. Sometimes they will take your plate away and they'll fill up the to-go box for you, or more likely, they'll just bring you the box and you can put what you would like in that box and take it home, and you've got lunch the next day.

The next phrase is one that you need to be a little bit careful about because it's different in movies and real life. When you're done eating, you don't really need to ask for the check. The server will eventually bring you the check. They'll probably bring you the check and say, "Take your time. There's no rush." Of course, they don't want you to sit there for five hours, but let's say that you are in a rush, you need to leave quickly. So when you finish your food, you want to ask them to bring the check immediately. You should not say, "Check, please." This is really common in movies and TV shows where you'll see someone say, "Check, please." This is pretty rude, actually, in real life, and it's much better to say, "Can I get the check, please?" "Can I get the check, please? Thanks." This is much more polite, and it's really the phrase that everyone uses. So I recommend not saying, "Check, please." It might be a little bit weird.

The next category of phrases are for when you're shopping. This is where I really got stuck in Costa Rica because I felt like I understood the questions that the people working in the shop asked me, but I just didn't know how to formulate a response. And I don't want you to be in that same situation. So let's go over some common shopping situations and those easy expressions you can use.

Usually, when you walk into a smallish shop in the US, the person working there will just say, "Hi, welcome." But they might also say, "Hi, are you looking for anything?" "Hi, can I help you?" "Hi, are you looking for anything special or anything in particular?" And with these questions, you need to know how to respond. The easiest response is to just say, "Just looking, thanks." or "I'm just looking, thanks." Very simple, clear, and straightforward. If they ask you, "Are you looking for anything special?" you can take that same word and say, "No, I'm not looking for anything special." Or if they use the word "particular," "Are you looking for anything in particular?" You can use that same word and say, "No, I'm not looking for anything in particular. I'm just looking." And this will get them off your back, and you can just browse around the shop however you want.

But what if you are looking for something in particular or something special, and do you need a little help? What can you say? You can use the phrase, "I'm looking for..." "I'm looking for some special chocolate to buy as a gift." That's what I was often doing in Costa Rica. I wanted to buy some special chocolate to bring back home to my friends and family. So you can say, "I'm looking for some special chocolate to buy as a gift." Or you could use it as a question instead. You can use the simple phrase, "Do you have any special chocolate that I could buy as a gift?" "Do you have..." or "Do you have any chocolate with strawberries in it? I think that's something I'd really love." "Do you have?" And then they might say, "Oh yes, it's right over here." You did it!

If you're buying clothes in the US, it's really common to be allowed to try them on. And I know in some countries, this is not the case. And for me, this is really frustrating because I want to try it on and make sure that it fits before I buy it. But in the US, this is really common. And usually, they will direct you to a fitting room or a dressing room. But let's say it's locked. This is often the case, and you need to ask someone for permission to go into the dressing room. What can you say? You've got two questions you can ask: "Can I try this on?" "Can I try this shirt on?" Or you can hold up the shirt and say, "Can I try this on?" Or you can say, "Can I have a dressing room?" "Can I have a dressing room?" And maybe they'll say, "Oh yes, right this way." And they'll unlock it and let you in. That's great to you use.

Fortunately, in the US, it's really common to be able to use a credit card or a debit card, like a Visa card, even at a small shop. Sometimes we call these mom-and-pop shops. And sometimes those smaller shops just have a minimum purchase of $5 because there's a fee involved. But you can ask if you want to be certain. You can ask, "Do you take credit cards?" And sometimes on the shop window, there will be little icons for Visa, Mastercard, and that will let you know that as well. But in the US, as long as you're buying something at a regular store, then you can use a credit card for a $1 purchase, $2 purchase. They don't really care. If you go to that small mom-and-pop store, usually you have to buy a minimum of $5 to use a credit card.

But let's imagine that you find a shop that does not accept credit cards. This is pretty unusual, but I'm sure they're out there. So I want to help arm you with that knowledge. If they say, "No, sorry, we don't take credit cards." In fact, I can only think of one store in my whole town that does not take credit cards, and everyone knows that that's the only store that doesn't. So it's, it's pretty uncommon. But if they say, "No, sorry, we don't." You need to ask, "Oh, is there an ATM nearby?" This is the term that we use in the US for a cash machine. Kind of magic money. You put your credit card in, then push some buttons, and money magically appears from the wall. We call that an ATM. It stands for Automated Teller Machine. "Is there an ATM nearby?" And they might say, "Oh yeah, just right around the corner." And usually places that only accept cash will know where all the ATMs are because they often get that question.

Well, let's imagine the worst-case scenario. You have fallen in love with something, and they don't take credit cards, there's no ATM nearby. What do you do? Well, you can ask them these two questions: "Do you have a website?" and "Do you offer international shipping?" And who knows, they might even ship it to your hotel if you're going to be there for another couple days. So you could say, "Do you have a website?" and "Do you offer international shipping?" They might say no, but it's always worth a try.

All right, let's go on to our third category for helping you to travel easily and with success, and that is talking about your hotel. Your reservation. You can even use a lot of these expressions for an Airbnb. This is the type of travel that, um, my family likes to do where we stay in someone's home or in a home that someone is renting out. You can cook easily. It feels more comfortable and relaxed because it's someone's home. There's a yard. Especially with children, this is great. They can easily play. But you can use these phrases for either a hotel or an Airbnb type situation.

If you've booked at a hotel, you'll walk up to the front desk and say, "Hi, I have a reservation under my last name, Proy." You'll say your last name. "Hi, I have a reservation under Proy." And you'll give them your driver's license or some kind of ID, and probably your credit card that you use to make the reservation or that you'd like to use to purchase your hotel package. So you can say, "Hi, I have a reservation under Proy." Great.

If you haven't booked a hotel in advance and you're pretty courageous, just walk into a hotel, go up to the front desk, and want to make a reservation. You might say, "I would like a..." or "I'd like a..." "I'd like a room with two queen beds, please." Or, "I'd like a room with one queen bed." Maybe you have some kind of special needs or special situation that you need. You might say, "I'd like a room with elevator access." Or, "I'd like a room on the first floor or the ground floor." And this way, it might be easier for you to access if you have trouble getting around. So this is just a nice, polite phrase that you can use. "I'd like a..." "I'd like a room with..."

This beautiful phrase, whether you're staying at a hotel or an Airbnb, you can ask, "Do you have a map?" or "Do you have any recommendations for food and attractions nearby?" These are great questions to ask of the hotel staff because, us, usually they have a list of all the interesting things or maybe some interesting festivals or things that are happening that week. And also your Airbnb host, most of the times you can text them. They might even come and talk with you. This is a great person to ask because they're a local, they know what's going on. So don't be afraid to use this question: "Do you have a map?" "Do you have any recommendations for food or attractions nearby?" And you will go to the best places.

I don't know about you, but sometimes when I travel abroad, especially my phone has difficulty connecting to maps or it doesn't always find the best way to get to places. So when you're asking, "Do you have a map?" or "What are some attractions nearby you recommend?" you might also want to ask this: "What's the best way to get there?" or "How do I get there?" Because maybe on your phone, it says you should drive on these roads, but really, there's a direct train that's pretty cheap and it's got great views. Well, you don't want to miss out on that. So you can ask these lovely questions of your hotel staff or your Airbnb host, and they will gladly help you.

Okay, so we covered three important categories: food, shopping, and sleeping. But what about renting a car? This is something that is really common in the US, but you also don't want to get jipped. Jipped means that you kind of feel like you're spending too much money and the product is not very good. So you want to make sure you have the right phrases, get, get the right car, and you don't pay too much. So let me help you.

If you have the chance to do a little bit of research ahead of time about what kind of car you might need, for example, if you're going off-road on a bunch of gravel mountain roads, okay, you're going to need a different kind of car than just for city driving. But let's imagine that you generally know what you need. You can ask this question: "I'd like a small sedan for five days." or "I'm looking to rent an SUV for five days." Great sentence. And if they offer you something that you feel like is too much for your needs, maybe it's too big or too fancy, you might instead say, "Do you have that in the compact size?" "In the smaller size?" or "In a mini size?" Or maybe you need something bigger. You could say, "Do you have that in the SUV size?" That's a bigger car. And this will help you to make sure you're getting exactly what you want and you're not paying too much for something you don't need.

Our final three words are expressions that you will often hear when renting a car, and you need to know how they're being used so that you can answer correctly and not waste your money. This is a common phrase that you will hear the agent who's renting you a car use: "There is a $100 deposit required, but it will be returned to your card as long as the car is returned in good condition." They'll probably say this very fast. So the key words that you're looking for here are "deposit" and "returned to your card," or they might say "refundable deposit." "There is a $100 refundable deposit." And that means that you need to pay $100 right now, and then when you bring the car back and it's not destroyed, then you will get that $100 back on your card. This deposit might be $100, it might be $3,000, depending on how long you're renting a car, how expensive the car is, a lot of different factors. So if you'd like to know this in advance, you're welcome to ask, "How much is the refundable deposit?" or "Is there a refundable deposit?" That way, you've got the money ready.

Let's talk about the word "cost." Often times the agent will tell you what the daily cost is, or they might use the word "the daily rate." "The daily rate for this car is $35." Okay, well, then there's also the refundable deposit, there might be insurance, there might be other fees added on. So you want to ask, "What is the total cost?" And when they tell you the total cost, if you feel like it's too much, you could say, "Is there any way to bring that number down?" or "To bring the cost down?" Because they might have added the special insurance that covers every possibility, and maybe you want to not pay for that full insurance package, or maybe your credit card has some kind of car insurance included in it. This is often the case. Well, you want to bring down that cost. So make sure that you listened for the total cost, not just the daily cost or the daily rate.

The final expression or expressions that we need to talk about are "return" and "drop off." You might hear the agent say, "When you come back, you can return the car over there." or "When you come back, you can just drop it off over here." But if they don't say that, or if you miss it, maybe they just said it quickly and there's a lot going on, you could ask these important questions: "Where should I return the vehicle?" or "Where should I drop off the vehicle?" or "the car?" "Where should I return or drop off the car?" Or maybe you're going from the airport and you're driving to the city of Chicago, far away, and you're not going to be going back to the airport. You might need to ask, "Is there another location that I can return or drop off the car?" "Is there another location that I can return or drop off the car?" These are both great words, and you need to know because, sorry, you can't keep the car forever.

Congratulations on learning those travel phrases! The next lesson is going to be about cultural tips that you need when you visit the US. These are essential to understand before you step foot in the US. Are you ready? Let's watch.

All right, let's start with the first category, which is airports. Number one: Airports are not the best representation of the US. Every time that I've landed in the US, coming from a foreign country, I've always had an unpleasant experience. Unfortunately, this is kind of a negative way to start our list today, but often I've heard people just say, "Get in this line, go over there, hurry up, let's go." Or maybe that was just the Atlanta airport. But no, I experienced that in Chicago, New York, DC, a lot of places. So if you have a kind of negative experience in an airport when you first landed in the US, take a deep breath. This isn't a good representation of American people.

I remember arriving back in the US from Korea, and in front of us in line at the customs office, or something like that, was this kind Korean grandpa. And I imagine he hardly spoke any English. At least when he tried to communicate with other people, it was, it seemed a little bit difficult. And when the customs officer was talking with him, he kept just speaking louder and louder and not really trying to understand or help him. I felt really bad that this was this man's first exposure to the US, and I hoped that he would have other pleasant experiences with other people on his visit. And I hope that's the same for you. If you have a negative experience, this is just an airport thing. I hope that you meet other people who are friendly.

Tips number two and three are about restaurants. Do you use Tripadvisor when you want to look for new restaurants? Do you, do you think that Americans use Tripadvisor when they want to find a new restaurant or a good restaurant in their city? Nope. Every American I know uses Yelp. If you want to find local places that local people have recommended, download the Yelp app. This video is not sponsored by Yelp, it's just a common thing that we use here in the US. Download the Yelp app and search for restaurants in your area, or if you need to get a haircut, maybe hairdressers in your area. Tripadvisor might be good for sightseeing, maybe some landmarks or things like that, but for restaurants or bars, for food, these types of things, we always use Yelp. So make sure that you use what local people are using, which is Yelp.

Tip number three: If you go to a restaurant or bar, you need to tip 20% if your service was adequate or good. If it was terrible, absolutely awful service, you don't have to tip at all. You could give them 10%, that's up to you. But if the service was at least normal, you need to give them 20%. In the US, the tip constitutes an essential part of the server's wage. In fact, the server's only money that they're getting are tips. So you need to give 20%. An easy way to calculate this is if your bill was $32, take that first number, three, multiply it by two, which is six, and there you have 20% - $6 is 20% of $32. So you can add that together, and your total bill is $38. You need to do this also when you get a drink at a bar. Typically, 20% is acceptable. But if 20% is like 30 cents, the best thing to do is still to give a dollar. A dollar is the minimum tip that is polite.

I've been a server a lot, especially when I was in high school, when I was in college, as part-time jobs. And if somebody left change on the table, which are coins, you felt like they were just trying to be rude to you. Because in American culture, if you leave coins, just coins, of course, if it's a big pile of coins, who cares, it's a lot of money still, but just a couple coins, it feels a little bit rude. So make sure that you give them at least a dollar.

When you take a taxi, tip 20%. For Uber, I don't use Uber that much, but from what I've heard, it's not required to tip with Uber. Uber drivers are paid a regular hourly salary, so, or per ride that they get, so you don't need to tip, but you can always tip. It is always accepted.

Tip number four is about transportation. I recommend renting a car when you visit the US, unless you're only going to stay in the middle of the city center, like in New York or San Francisco, really close, because the US is spread out. Even in LA, which is a huge city, it's hard to get from one side to the other. Or if you want to visit Yosemite National Park, that's going to be a four-hour drive from San Francisco. So you're going to need a car because Uber is not going to take you that far. So just think about your trip and realize that the US is really big, really spread out, so you'll probably want to budget for renting a car when you come to visit.

Tip number five has four different parts because alcohol in the US is a little complicated. If you buy alcohol in the US, don't be surprised if the person who's selling you the alcohol asks to see your ID. In the US, it is very strict that you must be 21 years old to buy alcohol. And if someone looks under the age of 40, the person selling you alcohol will say, "Can I see your ID?" Even if you are 50 years old, maybe even 60, they might ask to see your ID. So don't be shocked about this. In fact, sometimes Americans get a little bit offended if the other person doesn't ask to see their ID. So for me, I'm 31. Yes, I'm 31. I'm 31, and one time I went to the store and the cashier didn't ask to see my ID, and I thought, "Do I look like I'm 40 years old?" Oh no, maybe, maybe I look older than I am. But really, the cashier said, "Oh, you come in here a lot. I know you." So it wasn't really a negative situation, but sometimes people feel a little, little bit offended in this situation. Quite interesting. So make sure you have your ID ready.

Tip 5.1 about alcohol is that the person buying alcohol needs an ID. But sometimes, in some stores, in some states, the cashier will ask to see everyone's ID who is present. So if you're with your husband buying alcohol, this happened to me. We were at the grocery store, and we were buying a bottle of wine. He was paying for it, it's our money, but it was him who was making the transaction. The cashier asked to see my ID too. This happened to me only two times. One time I had my ID, no problem. The second time I didn't have my ID, and she just said, "It's okay, don't worry about it." So I guess this isn't too strict, but maybe if I had looked 16 years old or 15 years old, maybe they wouldn't have sold it because they don't want someone who is above 21 to be buying alcohol for someone who's a minor. We say a minor for someone who is under 21 years old because they're not allowed to drink alcohol. Do you think that people who are under 21 drink alcohol in the US? If you've ever seen a movie about colleges, the answer is definitely yes. But stores have to kind of follow these types of rules.

Tip 5.2 about alcohol is that in some states, you cannot buy alcohol at the grocery store. It's kind of a state law that you have to go to a specific alcohol store to buy alcohol. So this is called an ABC store. So if you're driving, driving, and you see an ABC store, and you're visiting somewhere like Pennsylvania, if you go to Philadelphia or Pittsburgh, I'm sure other states are like this too, you cannot buy alcohol at the grocery store. Sometimes there's specific grocery stores that have a little section where you can buy beer, and you have to pay for it in that section. You can't pay for it with all your groceries. Just check out this, check about this in advance to make sure that if you're going to the store, you can actually get what you want to get.

Tip 5.3 about alcohol is that in some states, you cannot buy alcohol on Sunday before a certain time. So in my state, in North Carolina, you cannot buy alcohol before noon on Sunday. One time I went to the store to prepare and get a bunch of stuff for a big dinner that I was having on Sunday night at my house. So I was getting lots of food, I was getting some wine, some beer, and when I went to buy everything, the cashier said, "Oh, I'm sorry, it's 11:45. I can't sell you alcohol until noon." So I just waited in the grocery store for 15 minutes until noon, and then I could buy it. I think that this rule kind of goes back to the idea that you should go to church instead of drinking. I'm not sure exactly, but I'll let you know something: it doesn't work. It doesn't stop people from drinking whenever they want. But you might encounter this, so just make sure you think about it in advance.

Tip 5.4 about alcohol is that you cannot drink in public places like the park or on the street. The beach is a little bit different sometimes, depending on the state. And of course, some beaches might be more isolated, or a lot of people drink there, so they're a little bit more relaxed about the rules. So just look this up before you go, because if you're going to a really popular beach in Miami or a popular beach in California, the rules are probably going to be different. And if you want to drink a beer on the beach, you want to be able to do that without worrying that someone's going to stop you from doing that. So just look up the rules in advance, or ask your friends if they live in those areas.

After hearing about all of those alcohol rules, is it any wonder that America gets called puritanical? I don't really think so. Let's go on to the next category.

The sixth tip is about people. Unlike the airport, I've heard from a lot of visitors to the US that American people are generally friendlier and smile more than they imagined. I've heard Americans often described as a peach, that on the outside were soft and easy to get to know. Maybe the first time we meet you, we'll invite you to our house for dinner. That's not uncommon. But maybe after we have dinner, if we have a great time, I might not call you for another month to get together again. It doesn't mean that I don't like you. It just means that maybe it's not a priority to get together right away. So there's some kind of hard center. Maybe that's just a generality, of course. But I think that when you walk down the street, especially in medium-sized cities, if you smile at everybody in New York, it's going to be a little bit weird. But if in a, if you're in a smaller or medium-sized city, like where I live, if I walk past someone on the sidewalk, I'll make eye contact. I might say, "Hey." Maybe, depends. But it's not unusual. If you did that in a really big city, people might think, "Mmm, it's a little bit weird." But don't be surprised if people are pretty friendly, pretty smiley. That's kind of the typical stereotype of the US, and personally, I think it's kind of true.

Tip number seven is about health. The US gets a pretty bad reputation for having expensive healthcare, and it's 100% true, unfortunately. So if you're in the US and you have some kind of minor health problem, like you need an antibiotic or you need a couple stitches, I recommend going to a place like a MedExpress. This is the brand of this type of clinic, but there's other brand names of that as well. But it's a kind of fast emergency room type service, but it's not the hospital emergency room. If you go to the emergency room at the hospital, that should be for serious issues. That's going to cost several thousand minimum. But if you go to a MedExpress, you can walk in, you can see a doctor usually within an hour, and your visit will probably be less than $200. That's what I do whenever I need something quick, and I don't want to, especially if I'm in a different city where I don't have a personal doctor there. I'll just go to a MedExpress, and it's a kind of quick fix.

If you're really concerned that something serious might happen while you're traveling in the US and you don't want to have to go to the ER and pay full price for something, you can always get travel insurance. I don't have any personal experience with buying travel insurance for the US because I'm a US citizen, and it, I've bought it for traveling to other countries. But you can always type into Google, "travel insurance for visiting the US," or something like that, and you could probably find some companies that will give you short-term insurance for one week or two weeks when you're visiting. And that way, you can kind of feel at ease that if something happens, you won't have to pay a lot of money.

Tip number eight is about sleeping. Of course, you could stay in a hotel when you visit the US, but it's really a great experience to stay at an Airbnb so that you can experience a real American home and feel a little more comfortable and at ease during your experience. If you've never used Airbnb, this is a service where homeowners can rent out one room in their house, their full house, or maybe they have a basement apartment. So you're kind of in a private area, and the people who run this, they live upstairs, something like this. So you have access to bedrooms, you have access to the kitchen, and usually you have access to your own living space. So you can feel a little more comfortable. And if you would like, you can always talk with the host. You don't have to. You can just send them a message, and they'll tell you how to get in. But if you would like to get tips or advice from the host, it's a great opportunity. Usually, they have a little notebook of ideas sitting in your Airbnb room so that you can see their personal recommendations, but you can always talk with them. So you kind of have this personal one-on-one advice travel tour guide who you're connected with, no matter where you're staying.

When you stay at this type of place, it's especially good if you have kids because for me, I have a toddler, and he goes to bed pretty early, like 7, 7:30. And usually at 7:30, I don't want to go to bed. But if you have a hotel room, there's nowhere else you can go. He's sleeping in the same room. So when you have an Airbnb, he can sleep in the bedroom, and you can still spend time in the kitchen, spend time in the living space, and you're a little bit separated in that way. Personally, I really love staying in these types of places. So just make sure that you read a lot of reviews and you write a nice message to the host so that they feel comfortable hosting you and letting you into their home.

Tip number nine is about safety. Despite what you see in the media about shootings and all of this, the US is generally pretty safe. Of course, there's going to be specific areas, specific streets that you don't want to walk on. But it's generally a good idea to walk around the city center. And I recommend being alert and aware as you're walking. Don't, don't listen to music and look at the ground. Look around you. Look alert so that if there is a bad person in the area, you're not an easy target. You're alert and aware. For me, I generally don't walk around after it gets dark in my city. I live in a pretty small city, but I don't feel comfortable walking around by myself at night. So when I go somewhere after dark, I drive my car to the destination, I get out of my car, and I walk inside to that place. I don't just wander around at night.

If you come from somewhere that is extremely safe, theft, murder, robbery, all of these things are uncommon. I'm looking at you, Korea and Japan. Just be extra cautious because maybe you're not used to keeping your purse with you when you go to a coffee shop. Maybe you leave your purse when you go to the bathroom. In the US, we don't do that. So make sure that you're just a little bit extra aware. But you don't have to be scared or worried. Just be alert, aware, and try to stay with someone else if you can.

Tip number 10 is about English. Let's end this video on a good note. So if you visit the US, you definitely need to use English. I imagine if you're watching this, you are a non-native English speaker because this channel is for learning English. So if you visit the US, make sure that you have a little bit prepared, mainly just some basics so that you can order at restaurants or ask some questions about safety, these kind of standard things. But overall, if you really want to use English and you want to interact with other people, this is a good chance to do it. Unfortunately, most Americans whose families have immigrated from other countries several generations ago, they don't speak that native language anymore. They only speak English. So this happened with my family. My great-grandparents came from Italy. My grandma can understand some Italian. My dad remembers Italian food, but he doesn't speak any Italian, and me neither. So in this situation, we have lost the ability to speak Italian, even though I have some Italian heritage. So if you are from Vietnam and you're visiting Portland, if you're from Brazil and you're visiting Texas, you're probably not going to find people who speak your native language. So it's really important to use English.

Now that you know more about American culture, let's practice going to a restaurant. In this funny but helpful English lesson, you're going to see me and a little animal friend, my friend, going into a restaurant and role-playing all of the vocabulary and the phrases and the scenarios that you are going to hear in a restaurant in the US. This is an important one. Let's watch.

Hi, welcome to Outback Steakhouse.

To yes. Do you have a preference inside or outside?

Uh, it's a little cold today, so maybe inside.

Okay, right this way. Is a table?

Okay, sure. Here's some menus. Your server will be right over to explain the specials and take your drink order.

Thanks.

Okay. Hi, welcome to Outback. I'm Dan, and I'm going to be your server today.

Hi. Have you been here before?

No, I haven't, but he has. Great. Thanks for dining with us. Our specials are on the menu board over here. We have a surf and turf grilled trout with a 4 oz filet mignon for $19.99 and a fried chicken plate with grilled seasonal vegetables for $15.99. Would you like either of those, or would you like help with the menu?

Uh, I'll just take a look at the menu for a little bit.

All right. Can I get you started with a drink? An appetizer, maybe our famous Bloomin' Onion?

I'll just have a glass of water, thanks.

Okay. Lemon?

Sure.

All right, I'll be right back with that. Here's your water.

Thank you. Have you decided what you'd like? Any questions?

Yeah, I think I'm going to go with the Fried Chicken special, but what are the seasonal vegetables?

Um, let's see. We have zucchini, squash, and carrots.

Okay, I like that. Can I also have a side salad? How much is it?

Um, the side salad is $1.99. What would you like for dressing?

What have you got?

Uh, we have Italian, Ranch, Thousand Island, and a Lemon Raspberry Vinaigrette.

I think I'll go with the vinaigrette. Can I have it on the side?

No problem. So we have the Fried Chicken special, a side salad with a Lemon Raspberry Vinaigrette on the side?

Yes, that sounds great.

All right, I'll put in your order and I'll be right back with the salad.

Thank you.

All right, here's your side salad with a side of dressing.

Thank you. I think I'm also going to get a beer. What do you have on tap?

We have Blue Moon, Bud Light, Corona, and a local beer, Highland IPA.

I think I'll get that local beer, the Highland IPA.

Great choice. Can I see your ID?

Sure. Here you go.

Okay, I'll be right back with that.

Thanks.

All right, here you go. Highland IPA.

Oh, thanks. Enjoy. I have the Fried Chicken special.

Thank you so much. Can I get you anything else right now?

No, this looks great. Thanks.

All right, enjoy.

How is everything?

Oh, it's good, thanks.

Would you like another IPA?

No thanks, I'm fine.

All right, enjoy.

How was your meal?

It was great, thanks.

Can I interest you in our dessert special? Cheesecake with fresh strawberries on top.

Oh, no. That was a big meal. Thanks.

Okay, here's your check, but take your time whenever you're ready.

Oh, I'm ready. You can take it now.

All right, thank you. Here you go.

Thanks for dining with us. Have a great night.

Thanks. Bye-bye.

Bye.

I hope you enjoyed that silly but useful restaurant lesson in English. Let's go to the next lesson, which is about helping you when you need directions, when you're lost, or maybe someone comes up to you and says, "Excuse me, do you know where the subway station is?" And you might say, "I don't know, I'm not from around here." Or maybe they ask you that in your own home country. You need to know how to reply. Let's take a look at some useful direction vocabulary and phrases in English.

Let's get started by asking some common questions for directions. The first set are very direct, but we can always add "Excuse me" to the beginning to be a little more polite. "Excuse me, my ticket says platform 6. Where is that?" What a lovely, direct question. "Excuse me, I'm a new employee. Where do I go?" This is a lovely question. "Where do I go?" If you get invited to someone's house and then you realize you don't know where it is, you can say, "I realize I haven't been to your house before. How do I get there?" "How do I get there?" Or in the office, you might ask, "Excuse me, where's the paper for the copy machine?" "Where's the paper for the copy machine?" Beautiful.

Let's go on to some more polite questions that are slightly longer, but you can do it. "Excuse me, can you tell me how to get to platform 6?" "Can you tell me how to get to platform 6?" "Excuse me, where can I find the toilet paper?" "Excuse me, where can I find the toilet paper?" If it's the year 2020, the answer is nowhere. "Excuse me, I'm looking for Dr. Smith's office." "Excuse me, I'm trying to find Dr. Smith's office." Now, this looks like a statement, but really, when you're approaching someone else, it is perceived as a question. So if you came up to me and said, "Excuse me, I'm looking for Dr. Smith's office," I would know, "Oh, you're lost. You can't find his office." And I might say, "All right, it's right over there." "Excuse me, can you help me find my classroom? I'm lost." "Can you help me find my classroom?" And our last question is a little bit long, but it's quite common. "Excuse me, can you point me in the direction of the exit?" "Can you point me in the direction of the exit?" So here, you're not asking them to go there with you and to show you exactly where it is. You just want them to point, "Hey, it's generally over that way." "Can you point me in the direction of the exit?" You might even ask this at the grocery store too, if you don't want the employee to have to stop what they're doing and then go all the way with you to show you where the breakfast cereal is. You might just say, "Excuse me, can you point me in the direction of the breakfast cereal?" This is a great question to ask.

Now that we've talked about some common questions for asking for directions, let's talk about giving directions, giving an answer. Now, these might be things that you need to understand because someone will tell them to you, and you need to remember them so you can find your way. Or, or someone might be asking you, "Hey, how do I get there?" and you need to know how to respond. We're going to be taking a look at a couple common situations where we still ask for directions.

The first one is inside a building, specifically in a school. What if someone asked you this question: "Excuse me, where's room 302?" "Excuse me, where's room 302?" Would you know how to respond to that? Well, let me give you an example: "Go up to the third floor, through the double doors, and down the hall, and it will be on the right." Here we use a lot of prepositions. "Go up to the third floor, through the double doors, down the hall." This is a fixed expression that we often use. "Down the hall." It's not exactly going downhill, but it doesn't matter. "Down the hall," and it will be on the right, or maybe it will be on the left. Great.

The next place where we often ask for directions is in a grocery store. What if someone asked you this question? Would you know what to say? "Excuse me, where can I find the organic breakfast cereal?" "Excuse me, where can I find the organic breakfast cereal?" Well, if you work at that grocery store, you could say, "The organic breakfast cereal is over on aisle three, near the canned fruit, on the top shelf." Here again, we are using wonderful prepositions in context. "It's over on aisle three, near the canned fruit, on the top shelf." If you'd like to learn more grocery store vocabulary, you can check out this video I made where I walked around an American grocery store and talked about everything that I saw.

And tried to give you a lot of common vocabulary, phrases, culture tips, and everything that you need to know about an American grocery store.

Let's go to our next scenario. Let's imagine that you're visiting a new city and you're staying with a host, and you'd like to ask the host some advice. What if you asked this question: "Can you help me find a good coffee shop?"

"Can you help me find a good coffee shop?" Well, first of all, great question! Congratulations on asking a good question. The next thing is you would want to understand the answer. And someone might say to you, "Head down the street a couple blocks. You can't miss it."

Oh, does this sound familiar? It sounds similar to "down the hall," right? It's a very similar expression. "Head down the street a couple blocks. You can't miss it." I hate it when people say that because usually, you miss it, right? But this is a common verb to "head" somewhere. It means you and your head are going in that direction. "Head down the street a couple blocks." This is usually for kind of defined streets, but you know what? We use this generally, too. Maybe you pass one street, or two streets, or three streets. This is a couple of blocks. This is a very American term. "Head down the street a couple blocks. You can't miss it."

Let's take a look at our next situation, which is in the zoo. We recently went to the zoo, and our kids were asking us non-stop the whole time, "Where's this? How can we see this? When are we going to see this?" So if you find yourself at a zoo, you might be asking a question like this: "Can you point me in the direction of the elephants?"

"Can you point me in the direction of the elephants?" And I can answer you by saying, "To get to the elephants, you need to go through the primate exhibit, turn left at the reptile house, and loop around the Safari exhibit." Oh, we've got lovely prepositions. "Through the primate house." So you got to open the doors, go through the primate house, and then you need to turn left at the reptile house and loop around. So this is imagining that there is probably like a sidewalk that goes around the Safari. "Loop around the Safari." And then over there, that's where you're going to see the elephants.

Next, let's look at asking for directions in a park. What if I asked you this question: "Would you know how to respond to me?" "Do you know where the park bathroom is?"

"Do you know where the park bathroom is?" All right, it might be an urgent situation, so you need to know exactly how to give the right directions. You might say, "You need to follow the path around the park, past the splash pad, and the bathrooms are right next to the merry-go-round." This is a common expression we often use: "right next to." We're not talking about right and left. We're talking about immediately next to the merry-go-round. So when someone says, "I'm right next to my car," it doesn't mean they're on the right side of their car. It just means they're immediately beside their car. So we could say, "You need to follow the path around, go past the splash pad." We often use this expression: "You're going to need to pass some things." "Go past the splash pad, and the bathrooms are right next to the merry-go-round." Good luck!

Let's take a look at the next scenario, which is at a concert or sporting event or at a theater where you have a ticket that has a specific, a specific seat saved for you, but the area is just too big, you can't find it. So you need to ask someone for directions. You might ask a really polite question like this: "Excuse me, could you help me find my seat?"

"Excuse me, could you help me find my seat?" The person who's working there might say, "All right, let me take a look at your ticket. Your ticket says, 'Okay, you are in Section 105, Row 12, Seats J and K.' Okay, so to get to Section 105, you need to go up the ramp to 105, then go up the stairs to Row 12, and then go about midway across the row, and you'll find Seats J and K."

This is going to be tough to find. We have some great expressions: "up the ramp," "up the stairs," and "midway over." "Midway over" means about in the middle of the row. You're going to find Seats J and K, and that will be where you need to go.

Let's take a look at our last situation where you might ask for directions, and that is on transportation. I know I have been lost countless times on transportation and have needed to ask for directions. Just because, especially when you're in a new place, transportation can be confusing. So you might need to ask a very polite question, something like this: "Excuse me, can you help me find where to go?"

"Excuse me, can you help me find where to go?" Let's imagine you're at a busy train station, but you are completely lost. So you asked someone for directions, and they say to you, "Oh, it looks like on your ticket, you need to go to Platform 6. Okay, go down the stairs, turn to the left, and follow the signs for Platform 6."

This is a common phrase that we often use: "look for the signs for Platform 6" or "follow the signs for Platform 6." You might even use this while you're driving: "Follow the signs for New York City. You can't miss it." "Follow the signs for Platform 6. Then look for Train 34." "Look for Train 34." This is giving you a specific piece of instructions, not just "look for the signs," but "look for Train 34," and that will be exactly where you need to go.

Great work practicing those directional sentences. Now it's time to move on to small talk. If you have a conversation with anyone in the US, particularly, you will need to use small talk. In this lesson, you're going to learn how to engage in small talk. What are some common phrases and sentences that are used so that when this happens to you, you will have no problem? Let's go.

Small talk means that you're not just saying "Hi, see you later, bye." Instead, you're having a short, light conversation, usually with someone in passing or before you're going to have a more in-depth discussion. So when you see someone you know at the grocery store, when you have a quick conversation with a coworker as you're eating lunch, or maybe when you're just wanting to make a new friend, you need to have good small talk skills.

The first topic is weather. Weather is a very simple, non-controversial, neutral topic, unless you're talking about climate change. In that case, it's a little more serious to talk about. But we often use this as an icebreaker. An icebreaker is a common expression we use when talking about introducing a conversation. You're helping it to become less awkward. You're having some icebreaker or small talk discussion, and then you can relax and have a normal discussion.

Some common weather questions you might ask are: "Isn't it a gorgeous day?" "Can you believe how rainy it's been?" "Is it hot enough for you?" This last one is a might seem a little strange, but it is a silly or humorous way to address how extremely hot the weather is, or maybe extremely cold. If you say, "Is it cold enough for you?" you're joking about the extreme temperature that you're experiencing, and it's a light way to introduce a conversation. Notice that all three of these questions are not open-ended questions. They are only yes or no questions, and this makes it a very simple way to introduce a conversation. The other person doesn't need to think about some kind of answer. They can just say, "Yes, it is a gorgeous day." "Oh, yes, it is so rainy." "Yes, it's really hot." Very simple, and it makes for a comfortable introduction.

If you would like to learn some more ways to talk about the weather, I made a lesson completely dedicated to the weather: "100 Expressions for Talking About the Weather," and you can watch that lesson up here to expand your weather vocabulary.

Our second small talk topic is where you're at, or your location. Now, you need to think about this, of course, in an understanding way. If you are at a hospital, you might not want to ask these questions because if you say, "Do you come here often?" and they're at the hospital, it might be a little bit too sensitive to talk about. But you can use these questions for any type of location, like a park, the zoo, a library, a museum, walking down the street. You can use these for most daily life situations.

So let's imagine that you see someone who you've met a couple times, but you don't know that well. You might talk about where you're at and you might ask: "This place is great. Do you come here often?" "How long have you been coming here?" "Do you live near here?"

If you're at a dog park, these are pretty common in the US. People bring their dogs, and their dogs can run freely together. Well, great! You already have something in common because that other person probably has a dog. Or if you're at the library, you both have an interest in books, so you have something in common. Your location, and you can ask these questions: "Do you come here often?" "How long have you been coming here?" "Do you live near here?" "Do you live in the area?"

Great. Let's say that you're somewhere that's not a regular hangout, like a coffee shop, or a library, or a park. Let's imagine that you're at the zoo or a museum. These kind of uh special occasion places. You could ask, "Have you seen the Da Vinci exhibit? It's really cool." Or, "Which exhibit do you like the most?" "Have you seen the the monkey exhibit? It's amazing." You can use this to talk about the location where you're at.

What if you're in transit somewhere? Maybe you're at an airport, you're at a train station, you're waiting for your subway to show up. Well, what are some questions you could ask to someone who maybe you don't know and you want to start a conversation with? You might ask, "So, where are you headed?" "Headed" is a verb that we often use to say which direction are you going to. "I'm headed to the office." "I'm I'm headed to San Francisco." "I'm headed to some place." This is a great question to ask. And I just want to let you know that if you ask someone this and say, "Oh, so where are you headed?" and they say, "To work." Okay, maybe they're not open to conversation. They just gave you a one-word answer, two-word answer. That's completely fine. Not everyone is going to be open to conversation. But I've started a lot of great conversations and even friendships by trying to just give it a try. Try to speak with someone else who you feel like might be open to having a conversation, and also respecting other people's distance if they're not interested.

When you have established that the other person might be interested in talking, if they say, "I'm headed to San Francisco," you can ask, "Are you traveling for business or pleasure?" Business is kind of obvious, for work. Pleasure might mean they're visiting family, or they're they're doing something for fun, for vacation, something like this. And this is a good way to continue the conversation. Of course, you have to be aware that if someone is traveling for a sensitive reason, for example, they're going to a funeral, don't push the topic too much, and you can just shift your questions accordingly so that the other person also feels comfortable.

Our third topic for small talk conversation is to talk about your plans. You can talk about the past, in the present, and in the future. In this first scenario, you run into someone who you kind of know, but you maybe don't know too well, or you haven't seen them in a little while. You can ask them, "Hey, how are you? What have you been up to?" You don't need to ask "How are you?" but it just feels really comfortable and it's kind of introduces the conversation instead of being like an interrogation: "Hey, what have you been up to?" Instead, when you say, "Hey, how are you? What have you been up to?" you can kind of smoothly introduce the conversation.

If you haven't seen this person in a while, you might say, "We have so much to catch up on. What are you up to this weekend?" This is asking about the future. This future weekend. "What are you up to now?" Of course, if you're asking this, it means that you would like to get together with the other person and catch up. This phrasal verb "to catch up" means that you are learning about what has happened to them in the past. Maybe you don't know. You haven't seen them since elementary school, so you have have a lot to catch up on. You want to know what's going on in their life. So if you ask this, be prepared to make some plans and to have some availability that way you can follow through on your question.

You can also ask the informal question: "Do you want to grab coffee?" "Do you want to grab a drink?" "Do you want to grab lunch, brunch, dinner, and catch up?" "To grab something" usually we use this in a very informal situation so that it doesn't seem like you need to sit there and talk for five hours. Instead, you're just going to grab a coffee, maybe a 30-minute conversation, one-hour conversation, very informal and spontaneous. And it's also potentially an easier way to not make someone feel uncomfortable if they say no, because it's not so serious.

Just a little note: if you are a guy asking a girl, or you know, any combination, I imagine if you say, "Do you want to grab coffee with me?" make sure that you say this very lightly if you don't want to ask them on a date. Because for me, if a guy tells me this and says, "Hey, do you want to grab lunch later?" and they don't know me, or they don't know that I'm married, then I will feel really uncomfortable because, is it a date? Is it not a date? Do I want to just talk with them? So make sure that if you are in this situation, you just ask in a very light and happy manner. Of course, if you do want to ask them on a date, this is a good question to ask.

And finally, talking about your plans, we have two very safe questions you can ask. The first one is: "I can't believe it's already time for some kind of holiday." Whatever holiday is coming up. "I can't believe it's already time for Thanksgiving." "I can't believe it's already time for Christmas, for the New Year, for spring break. Do you have any plans?" And this is asking them about the future. What are you going to do for the holiday season? Or you can simply ask, "Do you have any plans for this weekend?" Ask it very lightly so they know that you are just simply asking, "Hey, what are you up to this weekend? Do you have any plans for this weekend?"

Great. Small talk. Our next small talk topic is a job. Even if you're talking with someone who you work with, you can alter these questions slightly and still talk about your job with them. In fact, it might be the best option because it's something that you already have in common. If you're talking with someone you've never met before, this is a great question to ask: "So, what do you do?" or "So, what do you do for work?" Sometimes we leave off the last part, "for work," and we simply ask, "So, what do you do?" This might seem a little bit vague for English learners who've never heard this expression before, but it is extremely common. So I want to make sure that when someone asks you, "So, what do you do?" you might say, "What do I do? Well, um, I eat breakfast. I wake up. I breathe. I like to run." No, no, no. This is talking about your job.

"What do you do?" Next, you can ask them, "How long have you been doing this job?" "How long have you been an architect?" "How long have you been a nurse?" "How long have you been a builder?" Well, this is great. You're trying to ask some more details. If they haven't done that job for very long, you can follow that up with, "So, what did you do before this?" "What did you do before this?" This means this current job. What was your previous job? Or maybe you were a student, or maybe you were traveling. "What did you do before this?"

You might notice that I'm starting a lot of these questions with the word "so." And it just provides a kind of smooth entrance to your question so that it doesn't sound like an interrogation: "What do you do? How often have you done this? Where are you coming? How often do you come here?" If you ask questions like this, the other person will feel uncomfortable. So we often add these filler words like "so" to make it seem more casual and just more natural. "So, what did you do before this?" "So, how long have you done this job?"

Great idea. If someone really likes their job, you could ask, "So, what made you get into architecture?" "So, what made you get into teaching?" If someone is a teacher, I'm sure they'd love to share about how they became interested in teaching, and that's what the essence of this question is. "So, how did you get into teaching?" Especially if you have an unusual job, like my job, which is to teach you English online. A lot of people ask me this question: "How did you get into teaching English on YouTube and online?" So I tell a little background story about teaching English in the classroom, and then I was searching online for how to teach English in the US, and I found out I could teach English online, and I just started to dive into it and give it a try. This is a little background story to talk about how I became interested in my current job.

Not everybody likes their job, though. So if someone doesn't seem that excited about their job, and you want to learn more about them, you could ask them this fun question, which is: "If money was no object, what job would you do?" This means if you didn't need to make money, or you didn't care about how much money you have, what kind of job would you have? This is a a classic question, and it really gets to the heart of someone's passion. Maybe they love horses, but they just don't think they can make a career out of loving horses. So they might say, "Oh, I really wish I could be a horse trainer and teach people how to ride horses." Well, great! All of a sudden, you have a treasure, which is a piece of information about the other person. They love horses. Great. You want to make sure that when you learn something interesting about other people, you store that away because it's a great way to continue conversations or to bring up something interesting with them.

What if you're talking with someone who you work with? How can you talk about your job? Because you can't ask them, "What do you do?" Well, I guess unless you don't really know what part of the company they work for. But in general, we want to ask more specific questions. So let's imagine this scenario: You are in the lunchroom. Most offices in the US have a kind of break room or lunchroom with some tables and a microwave, maybe a sink, so that you can heat up your food or wash some dishes. And you are waiting for your food to heat up. You brought some leftover soup. This is a very detailed scenario. You brought some leftover chicken noodle soup and you put it in the microwave to heat up, but you've got two minutes, and there's somebody who works with you standing beside you. What do you do? What do you say? Don't worry, I'm here to save you. You can ask these three questions.

If you know which department they work in, you might say, "Hey, what's new in the marketing department today?" if they work in marketing. Or if they work in management, you might say, "Hey, what's new in management today?" Cool. Great. You know a little bit about them, but you're just having some small talk. Or if you know they're working on a project, you could say, "How's your project going?" "How's your project going?" Or if you have no idea what they're doing, you might say, "Do you have any fun or exciting projects coming up?" You're asking about the future. What kind of things they're planning for.

Not everybody is great at small talk, so they might just say, "No, not much." Okay. Not everybody is willing to have small talk. But who knows? Maybe they'll say, "Yeah, we're working on this really cool initiative. We're working with a charity, and we're going to try to raise some funds for this organization," and maybe they're excited about it and will want to share it. Maybe they've just been dying to share this with someone, and you were that opportunity. So it's worth a try. You never know. Give small talk a shot.

Before we go, I want to give you four tips for excellent small talk. These are general ideas about conversation, but they are essential for connecting with someone else.

Number one is: Put your phone away. This seems like a basic thing, right? But sometimes we don't realize how often we're opening our phone, checking our messages. There's a little buzz, and you open your phone. This is disconnecting you from the person you're talking with. So when you're trying to have small talk, keep your phone in your pocket. Keep your phone away. If you have an emergency or urgent phone call, you can just say, "Excuse me, I'm sorry, I have to take this," and that means you have to talk with that person. "I'm sorry, it's my boss. I have to talk with him. I'll be back," and you have to take that emergency call. But in general, for small talk, keep your phone away.

My second tip is to be curious about the other person. This is one of the great joys in life, I think, is getting to know other people and being very sincere about getting to know them. You're not just a robot blindly asking questions. No, you want to get to know another person, even if it's just for one minute while you're waiting for your food to heat up in the microwave, that chicken noodle soup. So you can get to know someone else. Be curious. A great way is to ask "why" or "how" questions. "Oh, why did you decide to get this type of dog?" or "How long have you had this dog?" Wow. This is a great way to ask further questions. Of course, don't interrogate them. "Why did you get this dog? How long have you had him?" No, you can just be friendly. Be yourself. But these open questions with "why" and "how" show the other person that you are sincerely interested in their choices and their life.

My third tip is what I just mentioned, which is: Do not interrogate the other person. Instead, just be genuine and interested in them. If you feel like you're asking too many questions, do you know what you can do? You can share about yourself. This is something that's also essential to do, but not easy for everyone. If someone says that they are a math teacher, you might say, "Oh, you know what? When I was in high school, I had an awesome math teacher who was a really special person." Okay, that's really short, but you're sharing some kind of connection from your personal life, and this helps you to not interrogate them. Instead, you are also giving. You're not just taking their question, their answers. Instead, you are giving from yourself as well.

My fourth tip for great small talk is to avoid your personal favorite topic. So if, for example, you're really into gardening and growing vegetables, but you have a feeling that the other person has no experience with this, well, you want to keep the conversation balanced. Of course, you can say, "Yeah, I'm really into gardening and I've been working hard to be able to grow lots of kinds of vegetables in the spring." Okay, that's great. But if you keep talking on and on and on about it, well, that's not a balanced conversation. Of course, you can share what you're interested in, but make sure that you don't get carried away lecturing the other person about your favorite topic.

Great work practicing small talk in English. That is so essential for visiting the US. The final lesson here is about talking about your vacation to another country. You're going to be using two important verbs: one is "get," and one is "have." And they seem rather simple, but these are advanced ways to use them to talk about your vacation. And this lesson is in Costa Rica. Hooray! There's even a little quiz in the middle of this video where I show you around the farm where we were staying. It's quite fun. I hope you enjoy yourself, and I hope that you're able to describe your vacations in more detail because of this lesson. Let's watch.

Today, I'm in beautiful, sunny Costa Rica. Usually, I don't film these videos outside, so I'm sorry if there's some wind. You're going to hear some birds, some trees rustling. It's all part of nature, right? Hopefully, it will help you to relax and enjoy today's lesson.

Let's talk about that first expression: "to get to do something." This expression has a sense of honor, of privilege, kind of a sense of, "Wow, I get to be in this beautiful nature. Wow, I'm so privileged. I feel honored to be here." You could just use the simple past or the simple present: "I am in beautiful nature." But if we want to give a sense of honor, of privilege, "Wow, I'm so lucky to be here," we can use "get to." "I get to be in this beautiful nature."

What about that second expression: "to have to do something"? Well, in order to get to this farm, we had to drive on some difficult roads. They weren't always paved. There were a lot of potholes. They were really windy. We had to drive on difficult roads. When we use "had to," which is the past version of "have to," this has a sense of something difficult, something undesirable. "I had to take out the trash." "I had to study for my exam." It's something that's a little bit of a burden.

So here we have a positive expression: "I get to see beautiful nature." "We got to see amazing iguanas on the trail." Or something negative: "We had to drive on some difficult roads to get here." "We had to pay $15 to get into the park."

Before I tell you a little story about my experience here in Costa Rica, let's go to our first question where you get to guess some of the plants around the farm. All right, first quiz question. We have this beautiful tree with these interesting things hanging down. Hmm, can you guess what this is? What kind of plant is this? Got three seconds. Three, two, one. It is a cacao. This is the outside sea, the outside pod where you'll find chocolate. I hope you enjoyed that first little quiz question. There's going to be three different quiz questions throughout this lesson.

Let me tell you a little story about the first night that we arrived in this city. When we got to the farm, the farmer helped us to find the house that we were staying at. It's a little bungalow, a little cabin on his property. And when he tried to open the gate, he couldn't open it. He tried one key, then he tried another, and he ran back to his farm, and we had to wait for about 15 minutes while he looked for the key. And then he came back with a key. He was so excited. He tried to open the gate, and it didn't work. Hmm. Well, he said, "You're probably going to have to wait for another hour while we work out this problem with the key." For a moment, I was just a little bit worried because we have a toddler, and we'd been driving all day, so we wanted to just open the door and let him run free finally. But then he said to us, "Well, we have a dinner available at our eating area. Would you like to be our guests for dinner?" Yes, of course, we would. So we got to have an amazing dinner at the farm. We had some rice and beans, and plantains, and chicken, and some guava juice, all produced on the farm. It was our luck, really, that we got to eat that dinner with them because we had no plans for dinner. We were kind of worried what we were going to eat because we just arrived here after a long day of traveling. So because of this problem with the key, he had to find the key somehow, somewhere. We got to have a great experience.

Before we talk about the grammatical structure of "get to" and "have to," let's go on to the second quiz question. Quiz question number two. We've got these interesting plants here with these little flowers. What do you think these flowers will do someday when they're not flowers? What will they become? What this plant produce something quite important that probably a lot of you enjoy every day? Let's take a look at these. I'll give you three seconds. Three, two, one. It's coffee. This is a coffee plant. The farm here has a lot of coffee, as you saw, also cacao, and we'll see a third one in just a moment. Did you enjoy that second quiz question? I hope so.

Let's talk about the grammatical structure of using "get" and "have" in this sense of something positive or something negative happening. "We got to eat dinner on the farm." "He had to look for the key." Here, we're conjugating that special word "get" and "have" into the past tense. And do you see what's happening after that? "We got to eat." Make sure that you add "to," and then an unconjugated verb. "We got to eat." "He had to look for the key." Beautiful.

Now that you know how to correctly grammatically construct a sentence using "get to" and "have to," let's go on to our third quiz question, and then I'll tell you a final story about our trip using these beautiful expressions. For our third quiz question, it's quite obvious, so I want to show you the base of the tree first. And as we go up the tree, start thinking about what is it? What is this going to produce? Oh, here we can see a little flower hanging down. What is it? What is it? Are you ready to guess? Three, two, one. It's bananas. So beautiful. I didn't know that so many grew in a bunch like that. It's wonderful. I hope you enjoyed that third quiz question and this little mini tour of the farm. It's really nice to see nature in other areas around the world.

Now that you know what "get to" and "have to" mean, and you know the correct grammatical structure, let me tell you another quick story about something that we did today and something that we plan to do in the future, so that you can see the different verb tenses for "get" and "have." This morning, we got to see an amazing waterfall. It's one of the famous attractions of this area in Costa Rica. But to get to the waterfall, you have to walk down 500 steps, and then to go back to your car, you have to walk up 500 steps. But it was really cool because we got to see the waterfall, and then we walked a little bit down the path, and we got to really relax and feel refreshed and wade into the water. It was quite cold. There were a lot of fish. It was tons of fun. And a great part was, we didn't have to drive too far from the farm. It was just about 15 minutes, so not too bad.

Over the next couple of days, we hope that we'll get to see some more animals, maybe some sloths, maybe some more monkeys and more iguanas, maybe an anteater or two, some parrots, maybe some macaws. That would be amazing if we get to see those. So we're going to go to a national park, and then we're going to maybe get to go to a hanging bridge park. Maybe we'll get to go to the lake. We'll see. But you have to drive a little bit of a distance, maybe 30 minutes, an hour, an hour and a half to get to those locations. But I think it'll be worth it. We've already gotten to do a lot of cool stuff in Costa Rica, and I hope that we'll get to do other cool things in the next couple of days.

Well, congratulations! Now you can travel in English and survive. Yes! Don't forget to download the Ultimate Travel English Survival Guide PDF worksheet that includes everything from today's lesson: every phrase, every sentence, every idea, every cultural tip. This is all for you and for free. You can click on the link in the description to download that free PDF worksheet today. Download it, print it out, put it under your pillow, sleep on it before your trip, so that English is easy breezy the next time that you travel abroad.

And now I have a question for you. Let me know in the comments where are you going to travel to this year? Do you have any travel plans? Let me know in the comments. I can't wait to see what you have to say. Maybe I'll get some ideas of places that I want to travel to next. Well, thank you so much for learning English with me, and I'll see you again next Friday for a new lesson here on my YouTube channel. Bye.

But wait, do you want more? I recommend watching this video next. Another video in Costa Rica where you will learn my ultimate plan to speaking confidently in English, plus you will see a beautiful beach and think about those wonderful vacations that you will have using English. I can't wait to see you in that video. I'll see you there.