So I love walking.
I'm out for my morning walk right now
and I love teaching English,
so it should come as no surprise to you
that eventually I would make
an English lesson about walking.
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So I'm walking along the road,
but there's two other ways to describe what I'm doing.
You could say that I am a pedestrian.
We use the word pedestrian
to talk about anyone who's walking or running,
as opposed to riding a bike or driving a car.
I am a pedestrian.
You could also say that I am on foot,
I am using my feet and I'm using my legs
to get from one place to another.
That was a big truck.
So you could say that I am a pedestrian right now,
or you could say that I'm on foot.
As I walk right now, I see there is a car coming.
Let me spin you around.
We would refer to this car as oncoming traffic.
In English, we use the term oncoming traffic
to talk about the traffic that's coming towards us.
And this just isn't for pedestrians.
You can talk about oncoming traffic
when you're driving a car as well.
When you're driving,
and there are vehicles coming towards you,
we call those vehicles oncoming traffic.
So I'm not sure what the laws are in your country,
but here we drive on the right side of the road,
and when I go for a walk,
I walk on the other side of the road,
I walk against traffic.
You could use the last term as well.
I walk on the side of the road
where there is oncoming traffic.
This is the safest place to walk, believe it or not.
So when I'm walking, I walk against traffic.
If I was to be riding a bike,
I would be on the other side of the road
and I would ride my bike with traffic.
So again, if I spin you around,
I am walking against traffic.
There doesn't happen to be any right now.
And if I was riding my bike,
I would ride on the other side of the road
and I would ride with traffic.
So there's something very important
that we do before crossing the road.
We look both ways.
If I wanted to cross the road here, I would look to my left.
Oh, there's a car coming.
That's another phrase for you right there.
And then I would look to my right.
I would look both ways before crossing the road.
In fact, when I normally cross the road, before I cross,
I usually look both ways twice.
I usually want to be absolutely sure
that there are no cars coming.
So before you cross a road,
it's very important that you look both ways before crossing.
So you might be wondering,
what's the difference between a road and a street?
Well, when I go for a walk in the morning,
I go for a walk along the road.
I go for a walk on the side of the road.
I call it a road because I'm out in the country.
When I'm at work, if I go for a walk,
I go for a walk along the street.
I usually use the sidewalk, by the way.
That's a really nice place
to walk in the city along the street.
So the difference for me between road and street
is simply where it's located.
Roads are usually out in the country,
streets are in the city.
So as I mentioned, in the city,
you will find sidewalks along the streets.
In the country, you will not find a sidewalk.
You will find what we call the side of the road.
So when I go for a walk,
I go for a walk along the side of the road.
And you'll also find the ditch.
The ditch is simply a lower piece of ground
where all the water can go when it rains.
So, in the city, you will find sidewalks.
In the country,
you will find the side of the road and a ditch.
Now, you might be wondering
about the different types of walking.
Right now, I would say that I am going for a stroll.
I'm just walking nice and slow.
I'm not going fast at all.
I'm able to talk and I'm not out of breath.
When I walk for exercise though,
I like to go for a brisk walk.
I like to walk a little more quickly.
I like my heart rate to go up a little bit.
I like it to be more like exercise.
And if I really want it to be exercise, I power walk.
When you power walk, you're almost running.
You're going close to four miles an hour.
You'll have to do the conversion to kilometers
if that's what you normally use.
And your arms move and you just go as quickly as possible,
and eventually you're outta breath.
Now, you don't always have to walk along the road
or on the sidewalk.
You can also go for a hike.
When you go for a hike,
you walk somewhere where there's a lot more nature.
If I was to climb over this guardrail
and if I was to head down and walk along the river,
I would consider that hiking.
So hiking is when you walk somewhere
where you can experience nature.
Maybe you can walk under shady trees,
maybe you can walk along a hiking path,
maybe you can just relax and get away from the busy,
busy city for a bit by going on a hike.
You know, one of the best things about walking for me
is that it's completely free.
It does not cost any money.
Well, that's not true.
You do have to buy a really good pair of running shoes.
I usually wear out my running shoes
after a few months because I walk so much.
You might wanna wear a reflective vest,
and you might want to wear some athletic clothes.
So there is some cost, but it's minimal.
So if you're not someone who walks a lot,
I strongly encourage that you try it.
It is great for exercise, it's great for your mind.
And in that way,
I think it will also help you learn a bit more English.
Well, thank you
for watching this English lesson about walking.
Hopefully you were able to learn a few more English phrases
that you can use in your next English conversation.
Thank you so much for watching.
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And if you have time,
if you're not going for a walk right now,
why don't you stick around and watch another English lesson?
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