Listening Practice: Our Camping Trip in Spain

source: To Fluency      2017年12月18日
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KEY PHRASES FROM THE LESSON:
1. IN 2010 MY WIFE AND I DECIDED TO MOVE TO AMERICA (00:24)
‘To move to…’ generally means to relocate one’s home, in this instance, the two people have chosen to relocate their place of residence to America.
Example: ‘I am moving to Barcelona for a year to practise my Spanish.’
2. WE DECIDED TO SAY GOODBYE TO SPAIN BY TAKING THIS AMAZING CAMPING TRIP (00:32)
In this example, the concept of saying goodbye is more metaphorical than physically leaving and telling the country “Goodbye”. In this way, it is used more as an indication for celebrating or commemorating an event upon (or just before) leaving. This can be used in both positive and negative settings, but the overall feeling to the phrase is positive.
Example 1: ‘When Jane got a promotion, she went out for drinks as a way of saying goodbye to her old salary.’
Example 2: ‘Dearly Beloved, we are gathered here today to say goodbye to our dear friend Robert; may he rest in peace.’ 3. WE HAD NEVER BEEN TO SALAMANCA BEFORE (00:48)
This is an example of the pluperfect tense in English. This describes an anterior action, prior to another past action. In this example, it is implied that the speaker has visited Salamanca, assumingly on his last holiday. However previously, before the speaker went on holiday, they had never been to Salamanca. This way of speaking is just a very English way of saying “We went to Salamanca for the first time”, this would generally be followed by an opinion.
Example: ‘We had never eaten crêpes before we went to Paris.’
Simplified: ‘When we went to Paris, we ate crêpes for the first time’4. AFTER LUNCH WE MADE OUR WAY TO ASTURIAS (01:54)
To ‘Make my/your/our/their way…’ somewhere, means to travel to that location. This is an informal and familiar way of saying “we travelled to somewhere”. This is a useful phrase if you want to diversify your language and to stop using the phrases “I went…”, “I travelled” etc.
Example: ‘After serving the last customer, I made my way to the staff room for my lunch break’5. I AM QUITE STUBBORN. SO, I SAID LET’S GO A LITTLE BIT MORE AND SEE WHAT HAPPENS (02:17)
In the first small sentence, the speaker is saying that they are stubborn, which means they don’t give up on things easily. ‘Going a little bit more’ just implies that the speaker is telling the listener they should continue with their task for a while longer. To ‘see what will happen’, is just a phrase which signifies uncertainty, but with an edge of optimism. In other words, you are uncertain of the outcome of a situation, but you hope it will be good.
Example 1: ‘My mother is so stubborn! Even when I showed her the answer on Google, she still thought she was correct!’
Example 2: ‘You want to get to the museum? Ok, if you go a little bit more down this road and then turn right, you should be able to see it.’
Example 3: ‘We offer pay rises every six months but we will have to see what happens between now and then.’