hello Aubry how's everything going hi Lindsay I am great how are you excellent do we have
a question about New York City Life today yes I have a question for you I know we both lived in
New York and this is something interesting to know about New Yorkers have you ever lived in a walk-up
I have actually all New Yorkers have most New Yorkers have I would say um not all but most
yeah I've lived in three different walk-ups in New York City yes oh man yes right I randomly did not
because when I moved to New York and this is rare most people who moved to New York are single and
are making the way in the world I moved there I already had two children and with the stroller
and all of the things I was like we have to have an elevator building oh yeah I know that and so we
sacrificed living downtown to living Uptown where we could afford an elevator building because the
higher you get Uptown the cheaper the rent gets yeah what years were you there again what was what
was the time period 2008 to 2010 so I completed my Master's Degree there I taught in the Bronx
and yeah we were there my husband was home with the kids he was like Mr Mom luckily yeah it was
tough it's tough to have kids in the city it's a lot of work yeah we're in New York at the same
time that's so funny so funny we could have met that would have been awesome yeah we maybe did to
each other somewhere and just didn't know probably probably life is weird like that yeah yeah so what
are we getting into today talking about walk-ups walk up where are we going this exactly right we
recently answered part of a listener question Michelle in China sent a really interesting
question asking about the phrasal verbs run up and walk up so we covered run up in episode 2003
how to up your English vocabulary game and we promised we would cover walk up soon and here it
is guys luckily you subscribed and are following if you didn't and just happened upon this episode
don't miss 2003 which was the first part and be sure to follow be sure to subscribe so you don't
miss any of our episodes yeah hit follow on all there's English right now guys so that you get
the episodes when they drop right you don't want to have to come back every time we can actually
you know drop right into your into your podcast app your podcast player as soon as the episode
is available okay so Aubry what would be the first use of walk up that our listen owners need to know
about yeah so it's a couple of different phrasal verbs and this one we usually collocate it with
the preposition two we'll say walk up two and this phrasal verb means to walk towards someone
or something but often in a confident way like he just walked up to the front desk and asked
to speak to the CEO oh okay so it does this mean a little yeah so a little bit more confident a
little bit unexpected is that what we're doing almost like surprisingly confident surprisingly
um yeah unexpectedly confident in a situation maybe where you shouldn't be confident and they
are anyway interesting I like that oh what about the slang rocked up yeah they've heard a lot in
Australia oh and Jessica says it all the time probably she has Australian friends because she
she did her Masters in an Australian University that might be that's probably why yes she'll say
over on IELTS energy she'll say you guys can rock up to the exam and get a great score you
know after our strategies and so that is just of slaying version of this phrasal verb walk
up you could say you guys are going to walk up to that exam confidently and ready so we use a
slang you can switch it and say rocked up I love Aussie slang I'm not sure if that's 100 Aussie
or if it's also British I've only heard that in Aussie English but we should have our friend Pete
or someone else from Australia on the show again soon to find out that would be awesome yeah it's
kind of been um adopted into my vernacular just because I'm around Jessica a lot and she says it a
lot so it feels very normal to me now the average native speaker might be like what what what what
all right I love it so what's another way that we use walk up Aubry what's number two yeah so this
phrasal verb we use it to mean to escort someone upstairs like two okay right so maybe Jeffrey will
walk you up to the office on the third floor so imagine you've come into a building where maybe
it's hard to find the office you need or maybe they just want to make sure you go where you're
supposed to go there are rooms you're not supposed to go so they'll have someone escort you up the
stairs or up the elevator to where you need to go right and this is really interesting because we
do not use this for items in 2003 we talked about how we'd say run up can you run this up can you
take this up to the third floor even say can you walk this up to the third floor that'd be weird
but we do use that for people I see interesting yeah and I would not use run up for people how
weird would that be if you say Jeffrey will run you up to the third floor no yeah that would be
weird such nuances in English right that we need to know about here for items paperwork something
a thing that you have to take upstairs and walk up to escort people and if you're not going upstairs
we don't add that up you might you just say right security walked him to the front door
but if for some reason security has to take him up a floor security walked him upstairs
upstairs I love it it's so good okay so is there a third use of walk up Aubry though this is the
one that we talked about in the beginning yeah yes exactly right the a building this is a noun it's
a multi-floor apartment building that only has stairs right so Lindsay lived in a fourth floor
walk up someone might say I live in a third floor walk up I wish we had an elevator that means they
live on the third floor of an apartment building that only has stairs there's no elevator to get
you up no matter how heavy the thing you're carrying is you are walking that couch up the
stairs yeah there are certain vocabulary that's very relevant to New York I mean I know they
have walk-ups in Philly and Boston but I don't know if they use it as much I don't know I don't
know actually I think in Boston the apartment buildings are more like houses they're smaller
or they're huge luxuries buildings but in New York you end up with a lot of these they call them like
pre-war style fourth floor four five six floor bill buildings and that's where you see the the
use of this walk-up term as a noun interesting yeah but I hear it often on because there's so
many TV shows and movies set in New York so you guys are for sure going to hear this on podcasts
see it in movies and TV and now you're gonna know what they're talking about when they say I live
you know in a fifth floor walk up oh my gosh we have to do have we not done this yet we'll have to
do another episode about other specific vocabulary to New York apartments for example railroad Style
do you know that one yeah I can't remember what that means I've heard railroad style
but I can't we'll definitely need to do a future episode you guys hit follow yes
you'll learn what railroad style is and why you never want to live in one
um good stuff good stuff all right do we have a role play yeah well at first I wanted to share
just this quick grammar note we may have briefly touched on this in episode 2003 but walk up can
also just be a verb with a preposition it's not a phrasal verb because the meaning doesn't change
we just use up as a preposition to talk about a higher position and we talked in 2003 about how
we'll talk about in New York or in a city to talk about going uptown right um he walked up the block
or you know so that's going to come up in the role play just FYI and would say like she walked up the
steps he walked up the stairs my parents walked up the road to mean to move like further north which
is interesting we're in a city to move further Uptown interesting okay okay so our listeners
are going to be is this going to appear in the role play then okay so we're gonna use all those
phrasal verbs as well as that so then we'll we'll go over it afterward to make sure you're clear on
all of these meanings all right let's go for it so in this role play Aubry we are meeting for a
dinner at a restaurant here we go all right I live just a few streets downtown from here so
it was quick to walk up to here nice I live close too in a fifth floor walk up oh boy you're getting
your steps in walking up and down all those stairs oh for sure I love my neighbors though so I don't
think I'll move a couple of times a week I walk my neighbor up to his apartment he's elderly and he
needs to Lean on Me a bit and I'm glad I can help him out that is awesome how did you start helping
him I don't know if I'd dare Rock up to somebody and offer to help he asked me for he asked for
my help and I'm glad he did since I also didn't know if he'd if I'd walk up to someone and offer I
don't know if I'd walk up to someone and offer so I agree with you there right Aubry yeah right just
so we can use both of those meanings right I'm saying I don't dare if I dare Rock up to somebody
and then you're like yeah I don't know if I'd walk up to someone and offer say meaning but I'm using
the more slangy way yeah it's always interesting because there's sometimes we have that thought are
they going to be offended if I offer help or it's too bad right I actually have a really funny story
about this very briefly guys I was at a store and there was um a man there who was saying he didn't
understand right and there was like a person there trying to talk to him and so walking by I was like
oh I can help I can translate because I spoke I'm like I speak Spanish I can translate yeah and the
man who was saying he didn't understand gave me this hilarious look you guys come to YouTube so
you can see this he did this so I was like oh I can translate and he went and then I realized
the person talking to him was like a salesperson that was trying to spell him like a credit card so
he's pretending you didn't understand so that he wouldn't have to talk to them right so that I just
said like I heard what the guy's saying I'm like oh he's trained to sell you this credit card and
the guy was like no thank you that is so funny I was like I should just mind my own business Maybe
that's so funny that's funny oh gosh what we can say through our faces right I know this is the
expression guys if you're not on YouTube he just kind of gave me that look that's like thanks for
nothing thanks but no things right thanks for nothing speak English just fine I was trying
to get this guy to leave me alone I'm like oh my bad I love it I love it all right all right
let's go through this role play yeah I first said you know I live just a few streets downtown so it
was quick to walk up to this restaurant right so I'm saying oh I'm I just live downtown so
I walked North I would say I walked up to here yes right and that's unique to New York right
if you're going to say that downtown from here so that's interesting right so and I feel like
we brought this up in 2003 that would also like when I go home to Idaho I'd be like I'm coming
up next week I can't wait because it's north and they would say we're coming down to Phoenix yeah
South right so in the same way that in New York we say walk up town we just do it anywhere for North
yes I love that I love the Uptown downtown Uptown down but you don't hear Uptown there probably are
a few other cities in the U.S where you do here Uptown but it's really notorious for New York
City yeah when someone says to town I think New York yeah I wonder if people who live in
other cities are offended they're like we have an uptown too it's not just New York I'm trying
to remember if Montreal I lived in Montreal and I can't remember if we said Uptown down I don't
think so because I feel like it was more circular whereas Manhattan is so sort of long and skinny
and Tall that it is very like north-south yeah it kind of owns that term I think there's a lot
of downtowns right yes lots of downtowns but now there aren't too many options interesting that is
really interesting I love that we've both lived in New York so we can kind of sync up on this
it's pretty cool it's pretty cool so then next I said nice I live close too in a fifth floor walk
up and again Insider New York term uh just means an apartment building without an elevator yes and
then I said well at first of all I said who boy which I do that a lot whoo boy I've never heard
that that's my surprise you've never heard that maybe as a regional Northwest thing oh yeah yeah
and they said you're getting your steps in walking up and down all those stairs so this is that just
um going upstairs right so the same thing this verb walk will use the preposition up doesn't make
it a phrasal verb it just is a preposition to say walking either upstairs like up physically um not
North but you know in elevation up or up North so just walking up and down okay I love it and then
I said for sure I love my neighbors though so I don't think I'll move a couple of times a week I
walk my neighbor up to his apartment so to walk someone up to their apartment we talked earlier
in the in the episode guys if someone escorts you somewhere right like in a nice hotel the you know
the Bell man might walk you up to your room with your bags or something like that right exactly and
this is a good thing you know you might you might escort someone who needs help I had to my sister
was injured she injured her knee when we were in Mexico so I had to walk her up to the room
and then down to the pool because she needed to be escorted because she had hurt her knee
and couldn't walk on her own yeah not good I know she's trying to get hurt when you're a bra that's
not fun no right not fun okay what'd you say next so then I said I don't know if I'd dare Rock up to
someone and offer to help Jessica would absolutely say it this way Australians would probably say it
this way right yeah lines I don't know if I would approach them so boldly sort of right I don't know
if I would walk up to them in such a confident way yeah I never knew that rock up has that kind
of like connotation of boldness and confidence I never knew that actually I just thought it meant
to go somewhere but now I'm learning well and I'm curious because it might be both like in Australia
they might just use it to mean walk like I rocked up to the grocery store like it might not always
mean with confidence yeah I do I definitely hear it that way as well right even slinging
rocked up to but I don't know I haven't been to Australia I would love to go so they might use it
for just to mean walking I don't know yeah maybe we'll do another episode here in aller's English
about different ways to say a word that conveyor doing that thing with confidence that'd be a cool
episode that would be a full episode I love that idea yeah we'll do it all right and then what is
the last thing what did I say and you said I also don't know if I'd walk up to someone and
offer so this is interesting because it is like someone some people even if even in Australia or
wherever we are some people are more likely to use slang than others and in this role play I'm
the type of person who might say I don't know if I'd dare Rock up to somebody and you're the
type of person who'd say yeah I don't know if I would walk up to someone either right yeah you're
not quite so slingy here yeah and I feel like you know for our takeaway our our additional takeaway
today Aubry is the meta message like what you guys have just seen in our conversation I want you to
pay attention to as well the connection that can happen around specific vocabulary when you've had
a shared experience not necessarily together with someone but you've both lived in the same city
you've like eaten at the same restaurant some kind of culture that you've shared you can connect on
that right absolutely yes right and that's why you want to strike up conversations about all kinds of
different things because you're looking for those commonalities what do we share what's something
that we can Bond on I do that all the time so cool I'll just ask people you kind of play that game
of like where are they from and how many kids they have and whatever and then eventually you
land on something you have in common yeah 100 and that's why you know the more experiences that you
can have the better so it Michelle and I have talked about this on all those English around
TV shows it doesn't have to be traveling the world living in world capitals right it could
just be you've watched this TV show there's a special Insider joke or vocabulary character
you can talk about this builds connection guys absolutely and the list of things that you can
is unlimited right all the media you can take if you've read the same article in the news if
you've listened to the same podcast like there's so many things so expand you know what you're
willing to strike up a conversation about so that you can hit on those interesting things
you have in common I love it so good guys if you love our style and our value of connection not
Perfection when it comes to learning English then go ahead and hit follow right now on this podcast
Aubry I'll see you back here very soon awesome thanks Lindsay bye take care bye foreign [Music]