Talking about driving

Introduction Beth and Neil have a real conversation in easy English about driving – the highs and lows of using a car. Learn to talk about reversing, parking... and singing in the car! Vocabulary commute travel to work, using a car, a train, a bus or any form of transport speeding driving faster that you are legally allowed to go park move your car into a space where you can leave it for a while reverse drive backwards Transcript Neil Welcome to Real Easy English, our easy podcast where we have real conversations in easy English. I'm Neil.   Beth And I'm Beth. You can watch a video version of this podcast over on our website and you'll find a free worksheet there as well. Go to bbclearningenglish.com.   Neil Hi Beth, how are you?   Beth I'm good, thank you, although I was late to work this morning.   Neil Oh no!   Beth The traffic was bad.   Neil Ah, we're talking about driving today.   Beth We are. And sometimes I drive to work. And I did today but I should have got the train because... yeah, like I say, the traffic was bad.   Neil So, clearly you can drive. Do you like driving?   Beth It depends. If I am commuting – so coming to work – by car, I don't enjoy it, usually because of the traffic. But if I have a long journey, like if I go to see a friend and I'm in the car for three hours, I actually really enjoy it because I listen to music, podcasts, maybe an audiobook, and I can relax and just drive along the motorway listening to something I like. What about you? You drive, don't you?   Neil I drive, yeah. Not that often because I live in London and I can use public transport.   Beth That's one of the benefits of living in London, definitely. Do you enjoy driving?   Neil It's OK. It's not a big love of mine. But, like you said, sometimes it's quite nice if you're somewhere, maybe in the countryside, on your own, you can listen to loud music and sing.   Beth Yeah! Yeah, singing in the car is good fun. Are you good at driving? Or do you think people would say you're good at driving?   Neil I don't know. I think I'm OK. I've never had an accident – touch wood!   Beth Oh, that's good! That's good. I haven't had an accident but I did get caught speeding once and I... That means I was going too fast. And I had to go on a Speed Awareness Course and I haven't sped since.   Neil Speeding! Beth, that's dangerous!   Beth I was going a few miles an hour over the speed limit.   Neil Hmm.   Beth So, is there anything that you don't like about driving, Neil?   Neil Yeah, I don't really like parking because, in a busy city especially, it can be difficult to find somewhere to park. And also, when you do find somewhere to park, the space can be really small and then you have to try to get your car into this little space.   Beth Yeah.   Neil Often with other people waiting for you to do it.   Beth Yeah, I don't like doing that, when you're on a road and there's cars behind you. Outside of my house, we have to reverse into a parking space. So, reversing – going backwards – for parking, I'm OK with now. I didn't used to like it but now it's fine because I have to do it whenever I drive.   Neil Beth, did you find it difficult or easy to learn how to drive?   Beth Hmm, good question. I found it not easy, not difficult. I remember thinking, "Everyone I know can drive so I know that I'm also going to be able to drive." And that helped me. But the driving on a road was fine and even changing gears, that kind of thing, was OK. But I found parking, when I was learning how to park, and we have to... or we had to reverse around a corner – those kinds of manoeuvres, they call them, I found difficult. But I did pass my test first time.   Neil Ah.   Beth What about you? Did you find it easy to learn to drive?   Neil I think it was quite easy. I passed first time, like you did, but I remember the man who took the test was very critical of me at the end and even angry. And I was scared – I thought I must have failed the test. And then he said, "Congratulations. You passed." I think he just wanted to let me know that driving is dangerous and you shouldn't just relax now because you've passed, and that you will continue to learn after your test.   Beth Definitely.   Neil Let's recap the vocabulary we've learned in this podcast, starting with to commute, which means to travel to work, either in a car, a train, a bus, some form of transport.   Beth We also had speeding. If you speed, you're going faster than you are allowed to – faster than the speed limit.   Neil We heard to park, which means to move your car into a space where you can leave it for a while. And the noun of that is parking.   Beth When you reverse a car, you drive it backwards. And when you are parking, you often need to reverse.   Neil That's it for this episode of Real Easy English. Why not test what you've learned with the free worksheet on our website, bbclearningenglish.com?   Beth And we'll be back next week with another conversation in easy English. See you soon.   Neil Goodbye. Now try this... Download a free worksheet.