hey there aubrey how's it going today i'm excellent how are you good i'm excited to
be on the mic with you i love our recording days they're my favorite part of my day
i know same and i'm so excited for today's because we are talking about road trips which are one of
my favorite things and i know you love road trips too right lindsay i love road trips i just took a
road trip to new mexico last weekend yeah so fun i live so close to new mexico we should have met up
i didn't know i didn't even think about that yeah we were in uh we were in taos new mexico so
i've actually never been i live in the state neighboring new mexico you guys and i've never
been to new mexico it's a crying shame it's just there's so much wild nature kind of reminds me of
utah a little bit just the wind and the sun the elements just really get you but that's
what road trips are about right aubry being out in the world with the elements yeah right
being able to see all the landscape between where you live and where you're going
and it's so fascinating sometimes how quick it will change right i know in utah and you go from
these red cliffs and then immediately you'll be so fast in like a desert or you know it just
changes so quickly it's fascinating yeah there's nothing more american too right it's really in
our cultural values nothing more american than the the cross-country road trip it's so true
it's the classic american especially because we can go on a two-day road trip and see so many
interesting things and i know this is you know really popular in other cultures too i know in
europe they'll take really cool road trips i drove once from belgium down to spain and
that's awesome but you're right it's so american americans love their road trips i love it and guys
you know a little bit later in the episode you want to listen up because we're going to show
you how you can take a road trip with us with me in the car by video lesson guys all right but
we want to refer our listeners to another episode about road trips right aubrey what was that
this is a really fun one that you and michelle recorded recently episode 1772 american road trip
games and this is vital for any road trip that you guys are prepared with some fun games this
is my favorite part of a road trip to play some really fun games in the car because you're going
to have a lot of hours to drive so make them fun yeah and i know you're a real game person aubry so
i'm not surprised that you like to play games on a road trip for sure for sure for me i listen to
podcasts like i'm all about the pod games are okay but i want to listen to podcasts
maybe music but more podcasts actually oh we might have a hard time you and i on a road yeah
no i would i'm just like i'll take a few hours of podcasts and then i'll be like okay let's take a
break and play a fun game i just like to switch it up that's good that's good that you switch it up
for sure but we're diving into some really fun vocab today four idioms about road trips
that you guys are going to need if the best way to use these if you're going to chat with a
co-worker at work or a friend to ask them about an upcoming road trip or maybe one they took recently
these are really fun idioms to sound more native and natural when you do that exactly because guys
sometimes road trips are not the two month journey right that i took that you could take with us
later what you hear when you hear about that but sometimes they're just a weekend trip
right and that is also a road trip and that means people are coming back to work monday morning
and what are you gonna say to them to ask about that trip that's the key right aubry
yes and you should right what a great way to build connection if someone lets you know on thursday or
friday they're going on a road trip yeah plan on asking them about it monday because they're going
to have fun stories to share this is a great way to connect it's so fun oh now i wish it was last
friday when because about this time last friday we were hitting the road for new mexico now i
feel like i want to go back a week do you ever get that feeling like you want to go back because you
were just at the grand canyon yes i just took a road trip it's only a few hours drive for me
but to the grand canyon and i hiked the grand canyon and for multiple reasons i would like
to rewind time to the day before i went because i'm now suffering the consequences it's no joke
hiking the grand canyon it's like eight miles straight down i'm losing toenails
i'm still sore you really you lost toenail you actually lost toilet that's one that's like
falling oh my god terrible i wasn't as prepared as i needed to be the girls i went with
are avid hikers they go on lots of long hikes and i so my body wasn't ready my knees made
me feel like a grandma they hurt so much after a few miles going down and i even had hiking poles
okay we're gonna have to hear more about this over the next couple of weeks on the podcast
i love this you know it's a classic mistake right it's good that you had the polls but
going with a group that's a lot more advanced can be a real mistake but you only realize it
when you're halfway through the hike exactly right i'm like can we slow down can we take a
oh it's so break but yes it was a fun road trip going up there the grand canyon is just beautiful
if you follow us on social media you probably saw a couple of my posts just showing it it's
absolutely breathtaking but the part like i feel like one of the most fun parts of it was the road
trip driving we played some really fun games we got all these great snacks yeah and i loved
you used that phrase hit the road right yeah the best moment is when you're about to hit the road
and you have all this anticipation you put your sunglasses on yeah it's so good it is so good so
in you know when it comes to connecting with your colleagues or your friends guys in english
talking to a native speaker the journey for them is often just as much you know the adventure is
the journey too it's the trip there and it's the actual thing they did when they got there right or
it's just the trip sometimes we just take a trip to take a trip so this is very good stuff you can
use with native speakers yeah so you can ask them if someone let you know that they're gonna take
a road trip this is a great phrase when they come back to say oh you said you're gonna hit the road
this weekend how was it instead of saying you know you told me you were going to go on a road trip
use this phrase hit the road this idiom means the same thing as going for a drive taking a road trip
yeah and but so native and natural yeah and i just the spontaneous example that comes up is you know
if someone you got the message that someone was a little delayed maybe they were trying to get out
of the office and they were rushing you know you could ask them oh what time did you finally hit
the road on friday oh yeah right yeah i say that a lot right like oh what time did we or if you're
traveling with other people and you're like trying to coordinate yes i'd say this all the time like
what time did you guys hit the road yeah what time they began their trip right because on this show
guys we like to show you ways that make things sound more casual and less direct right what's
the other option what time did you leave it's kind of boring it's kind of textbook right aubry
yeah just too formal too when you're chatting with friends co-workers about a road trip you want to
keep it very informal that's the best way to build connections so using idioms slang phrasal verbs
this is much more informal and natural that's the best way to build connections right or another
scenario would be if you are meeting another couple that's joining you on a road trip and
they show up late you don't want to say what time did you leave right now you could say oh did you
hit some traffic what time did you hit the road right so that's a little almost accusatory to say
what time did you leave yes why did you leave late exactly so guys this is you know write this phrase
down this is probably going to be highlighted in our ios android app as well so make sure you get
this into your vocabulary definitely yeah and keep in mind even if someone hasn't told you
they're about to take a road trip this is just a fun thing to talk about so you could also say like
when's the last time you hit the road or what's the best road trip you've taken right just to
ask them about road trips some point in the past or when they're going to take one in the future
doesn't have to be reserved just for when you know someone just got back from one i love it i love it
so good guys so write that one down let's go into the next one aubry what is the next one yes is
to get off the beaten track which is interesting because i grew up saying get off the beaten path
but looking it up online google everywhere says get off the beaten track what do you say lindsay
yeah i think for me get off the beaten that's a good question people sound right
i think i actually grew up saying path get off the beaten path me too so i had just written that
get off the beaten path and then i was kind of looking around and online you'll see get off the
beaten track so i'm really curious where that's said more often if that's what google shares then
interestingly very common we said get off the beaten path okay so guys you know because native
say it differently you can use either right don't get stuck on on little things like that right
say one of them say both of them take your pick you'll let her both you're gonna hear both on
tv you're gonna hear friends say both they clearly both are acceptable we know what you mean and this
is a really fun one to just talk about going somewhere that not every tourist sees right
yeah the grand canyon was not really getting off the beaten path because lots of tourists
which was fun to hear all these languages from all over the world from the different hikers i
loved that but there are definitely places that are more like hidden that not everyone knows
about that are more off the beaten path right but wouldn't you say just the fact that you
hiked it you got off the beaten path a little bit i mean most tourists don't hike the grand canyon
up on the rim yeah just looking down in so by the time i got to the bottom then i was definitely off
the beaten path literally sure and that's always that's the reward right the reward of being like a
hiker a through hiker in and out hiker backpacking you get to see the places that you're average
every day tours will not go to so that's so true not everybody gets down to the colorado river
i always sat in it i put my feet in that was crazy lindsay i don't know if you had i had
never thought about this it's so much hotter at the bottom because at the top is 5000 feet
higher so it's like being in the mountains where it's cooler and then you hike down and
it's the same temperature as phoenix and it was just i just sort of had never thought about how
that would happen so it was so hot it was 102 degrees at the bottom oh my gosh yeah you are
not prepared for what i'm hearing here okay i love this i like laid in the river in the
colorado river because i was so hot and sweaty that's hilarious i love it and you know yeah this
is a typical this is that i mean a very common place to go again the grand canyon right and guys
in the connected communicator course which you'll hear about in a few minutes how do you actually
get that i take you off the beaten path i take you to southern utah i remember being in kind of
near i think monument valley or canyonlands you know where there's no one at sunset i'm
in a remote corner of the park and there's just no one around but you guys are with me on the
video it's really really cool it's so cool i went somewhere near there it's called goblin valley
you're kind of near moab through monument valley there was nobody around oh that's so cool i love
getting off the beaten path like that yeah places that not everybody sees so cool yeah and there's
something about utah about southern utah that just is so raw and so natural and so beautiful
i think it's the rock formations the red rocks guys you can't miss it it is fantastic so let's
move on to the next one aubry what do you think yeah so this is living out of a suitcase and that
just means you're traveling you're not somewhere where you're going to be there long enough to
unpack and put things in like dresser drawers you just leave everything in your suitcase literally
living out of the suitcase but we'll say this or like oh i'm going to live out of a suitcase for
the next couple of weeks meaning i'm going on a fun trip and then you can ask them oh fun where
are you going yeah and is that what you usually do because i know during the summers you go up
to idaho with your family do you actually live out of the suitcase while you're there do you unpack
yes i've done both there are a couple years where we're there almost a month and i'll live out of
the suitcase and then really regret it because the suitcase ends up like exploding all over the room
and it's just a huge mess it's really hard to stay organized so i try to just live out of a suitcase
for trips that are like a few days and if i'm going to be there longer than a week
i'm putting things in dresser drawers or it's going to be a hot mess oh for sure i don't like
having to dig through and not being able to find anything i like to kind of settle in and
make myself feel like i have a new home right i love that yeah exactly so this is really a fun
like just the thought of living out of a suitcase because you know you're somewhere fun you know
you're traveling you're you're only staying somewhere for a couple of days so there's sort
of a feeling of excitement about living out of a suitcase right there is absolutely brings back
memories for me of my days traveling through south america you know backpacking and those backpacks
you know you've done some of this they don't open in either any other way so you have to dig
under everything to get anything out it is so impractical it's ridiculous and it's kind
of related to our last one here traveling light which means not over packing traveling the bare
minimum like you do when you're backpacking around europe because you just cannot carry more weight
if you bring anything extra you're going to end up ditching it yeah you really need to travel light
if you're backpacking yeah what is that saying they have where they say when you're packing
take all the clothes you've laid out get rid of half of them like don't take half of them and
take double the money right oh that's funny take money to do laundry if you need to right exactly
or just to buy socks or something you know are you an over packer lindsay maybe not when backpacking
but like your santa fe trip did you use everything you packed or did you have extra things i'm such a
bad packer i packed the wrong thing so i realized for my santa fe for my tiles trip i didn't pack
a t-shirt for saturday afternoon after a our hike like i packed all this oh for the hike and enough
like you know jackets in case it's cold i didn't pack a t-shirt just to hang out so i i don't pack
any of the right things and too much of the wrong things sadly i just over pack we'll go up to my
in-laws cabin and we all usually end up having a a fire in the house so everything ends up smelling
smoky i love that and the bags when we get home will be full of things that we didn't wear
but i still have to wash because everything's smokey i'm like why why did i pack extra anything
a lot of laundry for sure i love that i love that this is so fun guys you know these are the kind
of conversations you're gonna have with your native speaking colleagues and friends if you
open up this vocabulary with them right it's so good for connection yes exactly i feel closer
to you lindsay just from having this conversation and anytime i chat with a friend about a road trip
they've taken or travel we always like bond i just feel like we're closer friends we we've been able
to chat about something really fun and interesting they've been able to share about a cool place they
went everyone loves that yeah they want to share it is so true i love it so good let's do a role
play aubry so all right you and i are friends discussing our summer plans yeah okay go for it
any fun plans this summer yes we are gonna hit the road we're planning to
drive up the coast from arizona to washington that's amazing i drove that once and it was
so cool to get off the beaten track are you going to see the redwoods oh definitely i
can't wait we're going to camp a lot so we'll for sure need to travel light oh yeah when we
went i lived out of a suitcase for two weeks well i hope you at least found showers along the way
i love that like maybe i didn't for two weeks yes i love it i love it i love it did we use any of
the vocabulary here in the role play today or not as yes yes the first thing you said
was hit the road right yeah you'd find plans and you said yes we're going to hit the road
yeah and then you explained what you're doing right it would be kind of weird to say that
and then stop you would definitely share what are you going to do where are you going to go
i love it and then you said that's amazing i drove that once and it was amazing to get off
the beaten track but i like how by the way during the conversation you switched the word instead of
saying amazing twice in the same sentence which we obviously want to avoid guys what did you
say instead it was cool or i think it's super cool like that yes when i had written the role
play i had accidentally put amazing twice but i felt it i'm like oh you don't want to repeat an
adjective like that so i switched it i'm like oh and it was super cool to get off the beaten track
you guys want to do the same thing if ever you're finding yourself repeating a word like amazing say
something else we all know that person who says amazing over and over and over and over don't
be that person and i think we we're going to do an episode on that someday right aubry we talked
about that last time that we're going to try to do an episode at some point on that right don't
be the person that repeats the same adjective or even noun in the same sentence over especially
adjectives over and over it's boring it's so easy to do and not even realize you're doing it right
that's why we do focus quite a bit on vocabulary because you need such a wide range of vocabulary
in order to have the tools to not have to repeat the same words over and over because yes it can
it can get annoying it can get really annoying all right so let's and then the last thing we did
here was i said definitely i can't wait we're going to camp a lot so we'll for sure need to
travel light right obviously yes and then i said oh i lived out of the suitcase for two weeks yeah
these are such fun phrases you can see how this is totally normal to use all four in this very
quick exchange with a friend or a co-worker and you're using so much native interesting vocabulary
yes i love it so what's the takeaway for our listeners real quick today aubry
yes you guys summer is the season for road trips we are hitting it it's time hopefully you guys
have a fun road trip planned we want you to be able to use today's fun idioms to ask a friend
or a co-worker about their summer plans ask if they have a road trip coming up yeah guys
a big part of connecting with people in a new culture is understanding what they value and a
lot of people in the us do value hitting the road right so ask them about it go and do it yourself
play those road trip games from the other episode and just get into it so good yes exactly and for
the ultimate cross-country road trip in the u.s with lindsey and jessica guys sign up for
connected communicator it is the most fun yeah we hope to see you guys in that course very soon all
right aubry thanks for hanging out today it's been great yep see you later take care bye bye