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This is Jack from tofluency.com 
and this is episode 12 of the To

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Fluency podcast. 
It is fantastic to have you here

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listening to this episode. 
Now today you're going to learn 

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a lot of vocabulary all about 
getting around cities. 

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OK, so to get around a city 
means to move from one place to 

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the other. 
And you can do this by walking, 

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taking a car, driving your car, 
getting on a bus, taking the 

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train, walk in, I think I've 
said that already, going on your

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bike, etcetera. 
So we're going to talk about 

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this, though in a really 
different way, because I'm going

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to compare different countries 
because I grew up in the UKI 

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lived in Spain for a couple of 
years, and then I've been in 

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America for 10 years now. 
So these three countries have, 

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well, they're very different 
when it comes to getting around 

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a city. 
And I'm going to talk about what

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I dislike about the US. 
It's very specific. 

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It's quite interesting as well, 
I think. 

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But yeah, today you're going to 
learn vocabulary related to this

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and just get some good listening
practice because I'm going to 

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talk about this in a more 
conversational and informal way.

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But before we go too deep into 
it, if you want to thank me for 

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these free podcast episodes, the
best way to do that is to leave 

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using right now, I'm sure there 
is a way to click leave a review

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And also feel free to send these
episodes to friends or anyone 

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that you think would benefit 
from them. 

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OK, so let's start with the UKI 
grew up in a place called 

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Preston, Lancashire, which is 
quite close to Manchester. 

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Now. 
It's not a big city, but it is a

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big town or a small city. 
I think the population is around

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150,000, but then there are lots
of small towns and villages that

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are part of the greater area, so
it's quite a big place. 

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But growing up I used to go 
around and get around the city 

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on my own quite a lot from quite
an early age. 

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And one of the things that I 
really liked, which looking back

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now I realise, is that there 
were pavements everywhere. 

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In American English you use the 
term sidewalks, but growing up 

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there, there were sidewalks and 
pavements everywhere, meaning 

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that I could more or less travel
around safely. 

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And there were also a lot of 
zebra crossings. 

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In the US they call them 
crosswalks, where you can 

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safely, hopefully in most cases,
cross the road and cars will 

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stop for you. 
And one thing about the UK is 

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cars do stop for you if you go 
across a zebra crossing, there 

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is this time you have to wait 
for them to slow down. 

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But once they slow down and stop
then you can in most cases 

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safely cross the road. 
So when I used to go to my 

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friends houses, I used to walk 
there quite a lot. 

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But then when I got a little bit
older I started to ride my bike.

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So I got a bike and rode my bike
everywhere for a certain amount 

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of time. 
Now when we used to go to the 

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city centre, the town centre, we
used to take the bus and it was 

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the number 32 bus I remember and
it used to, or maybe it was 23, 

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sometimes get confused with 
numbers that way. 

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It was either 23 or 32. 
I think it used to cost 32P, 32 

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pence to take the bus to the to 
the town centre. 

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My friend and I used to save up 
money and yeah, take the bus, go

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to the centre of town and just 
buy things that we didn't really

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need. 
And then even when I got older, 

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we used to take the bus to the 
centre of town to go to pubs and

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clubs. 
So get taking the bus in the UK 

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is quite common now. 
When we used to travel to 

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different cities and towns, we 
used to either drive, take the 

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bus or most likely take the 
train. 

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Trains are good in the UK. 
So to get to different places, 

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it's quite common to take the 
train. 

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And I just want to say at this 
point as well, when you get to 

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bigger cities like Manchester 
and especially London, there are

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many different options for you 
to get around the city. 

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So generally speaking, there's 
the subway, there's also in 

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Manchester, there's the tram, 
which is quite common. 

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Now, buses are very common too. 
People take taxis, but getting 

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around big cities it's not 
common to take a car or it's not

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as common to take the car. 
Now let's move on to Spain now, 

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because I lived in two cities in
Spain, firstly in Bilbao and 

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secondly in Valencia. 
And those two cities are big, so

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very big. 
In terms of the biggest cities 

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in Spain, I think Valencia is #4
maybe Bilbao's five, maybe it's 

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even #3 I can't remember now, 
but two big cities. 

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And in these cities we had 
endless options when it came to 

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getting around them. 
So when I had when I was 

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teaching language lessons, I 
used to either walk to places, 

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take the bus that wasn't as 
common, take the underground or 

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take a train. 
There was also a tram in both 

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both places. 
And I think I actually took the 

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tram the most because of where 
the language school was. 

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But if I could and if I had 
time, I would walk. 

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Generally speaking, I remember 
taking the tram on the way there

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and then walking home. 
And it took me about 40 minutes,

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I think to walk home after 
teaching for the night. 

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And I used to like doing that 
because at night it was a bit 

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cooler, it wasn't as hot and I 
used to really just enjoy the 

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walk. 
So All in all, the UK and Spain 

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are very similar when it comes 
to getting around cities. 

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I hadn't, I didn't really live 
in a place or spend a lot of 

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time in a smaller town. 
So maybe that was different. 

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And I imagine it's it's probably
quite similar to the UK where 

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when you're living in a town, 
you still have really good 

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public transport options and you
can walk around the town or take

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the bike, take your bike. 
Now let's talk about the US 

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because the US is very different
compared to the UK and Spain, 

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not so much in some of the big 
cities. 

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So let's take New York. 
If you've ever been to New York 

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before, you'll know everyone 
takes the subway, people take 

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buses, people walk, people take 
the the yellow cabs, people take

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Ubers. 
Now there are plenty of cycle 

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lanes as well. 
So the US big cities like New 

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York great for public 
transportation. 

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Other big cities aren't aren't 
like that. 

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I've spent quite a bit of time 
in Atlanta and what I remember 

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from it is that the public 
transportation isn't as good. 

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Everyone seems to just get in 
their car and drive even on 

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short distances. 
And the traffic in Atlanta is 

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terrible. 
They have lanes that are, well, 

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they have roads that have 9 
lanes and they're completely 

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full. 
And I remember there there 

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wasn't a good subway option. 
I can't remember about the 

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buses, but I've spent some time 
in Atlanta bus station, the main

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one, and it's, it's a scary 
place. 

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So people don't tend to take the
bus as much in the US. 

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And I think this is true of of 
the big cities too. 

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I'd spent a bit of time in 
Houston, and there was a metro 

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that you could take an 
Overground tram system. 

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Austin wasn't the best for 
public transportation either. 

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And let's go now to smaller 
cities where obviously they 

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don't have subways because 
they're not big enough to have 

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the subways or train systems. 
And generally speaking as well, 

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the train system in the US isn't
as developed as Europe. 

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I think being such a big country
means that it's not as common. 

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There are a lot of train systems
in the North East between cities

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like Philadelphia, Washington 
DC, New York, Boston. 

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But in the South where I live, 
and I'm sure in the Midwest and 

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some of the West Coast too, 
trains just aren't popular at 

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all. 
There aren't. 

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There isn't a train station 
where I live, so you can't go to

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the train station and get a 
train somewhere. 

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There is a bus station, but 
again, the the thought of 

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getting on a bus here, people 
tend don't tend to do it. 

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If you're going to travel to 
another city, most people either

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drive there or take a flight. 
So flying between cities in the 

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US is more common than Europe. 
From from my experience. 

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Now the US is a lot of towns and
cities and suburbs. 

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They've been built with the car 
in mind. 

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So there are a lot of people who
live in suburbs. 

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These are outlying districts of 
a city and residential in nature

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where there are lots of detached
houses that aren't terraces or 

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condos or blocks of flats, but 
they're stand alone houses with 

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a yard, a driveway, lots of 
garages. 

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And people don't tend to park on
the street. 

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They tend to park on their 
driveway or in the garage. 

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But one thing that I find is 
that there aren't sidewalks or 

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pavements in British English in 
the suburbs. 

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So where we live, we live in a 
in the suburbs out of the sea, 

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and there were no sidewalks 
anywhere, which I just still 

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find very confusing. 
And I don't really like it too 

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much because with children and 
just walking around in general, 

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you have to walk on the road. 
So wherever you go, you're 

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walking on the road, and this 
can be annoying because 

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obviously it's not as safe. 
And taking children or dogs out,

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it makes it even less safe. 
So this is something that I find

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that is all over America. 
When you get into the suburbs, 

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especially when you're in big 
cities, there are sidewalks and 

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pavements, but not in 
residential areas. 

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And another example of why, of 
explaining how everything is 

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about the car. 
A lot of bars and restaurants 

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are in places where you can only
get to by car. 

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So in a lot of towns and cities,
you have everything in the city 

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centre and then some community 
bars and restaurants. 

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But here a lot of restaurants 
and bars and places to go, 

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grocery stores and different 
shops. 

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They're in places that are 
called strip malls, a strip 

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mall, and I can explain the 
strip mall here, but I think 

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it's also a good idea, if you 
can multitask, to go to Google 

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Images and just type in strip 
mall because it's going to show 

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you examples. 
They're basically like a big 

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building or two or three large 
buildings with different shops 

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and restaurants and whatever you
want to have in there and a big 

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parking lot. 
And these are usually in places 

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where, again, there are no 
sidewalks to get there. 

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There are no sidewalks to get 
there. 

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So you have to take the car in 
order to go get there. 

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And this is something that I 
found quite strange there. 

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We do have some of this in the 
UK, but usually these are 

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reserved for things like cinemas
or bowling alleys, things like 

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that, where you need a big 
building outside the city centre

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in order for it to work. 
But here it's very common in the

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US to have these strip malls. 
And again, you can't get there 

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on foot. 
You can't really get there on on

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your bike. 
It's usually too dangerous. 

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And if you want to get there on 
bus by bus, sorry, a little 

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preposition mistake there. 
Then again, you, they drop you 

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off at the side of the road, 
usually on the grass, and then 

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you have to cross the road with 
no crosswalk to try and get 

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there. 
So pedestrian for pedestrians, 

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it's very dangerous in the US 
and it's just, you just can't 

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walk places. 
And this is something I miss so 

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much. 
That's something I miss about 

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the UK and Europe in general and
Spain is that when I was going 

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to a restaurant or bar, I walked
there. 

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When I was going to my language 
school or a language lesson, I'd

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walk there if I could. 
I'd walk everywhere. 

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We'd walk to get groceries. 
We didn't have a car in Spain. 

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We just walked everywhere or 
took public transport. 

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And then when you move to the 
US, especially if you go to the 

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suburbs, then you just can't. 
You just can't walk places. 

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It's impossible. 
It doesn't have the sidewalks or

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or pavements to walk there for. 
For me to walk to a bar or a 

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restaurant or a coffee shop or 
anywhere, it would be quite 

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dangerous. 
And I've done it once before 

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when I took my car to the 
mechanics and I had to walk home

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or I wanted to walk home to try 
it out. 

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And it was pretty dangerous 
because there's not a lot of 

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room on the side of the road for
you to walk and you're walking 

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on grass or walking on someone's
property or the side of their 

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property. 
And again, it's it's just not as

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fun. 
So that is what I would love to 

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see change in the US is 
something or cities and towns 

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that would really focus on the 
pedestrian instead of the 

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driver. 
And I don't know if that is 

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going to change or not. 
It might change depending on 

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different factors or what people
want to invest in. 

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And there is talk about 
investing in more train stations

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and and train lines so that 
people can move around the city 

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or move from city to city on the
train. 

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But again, car, the car rules 
here. 

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Everyone needs a car if they 
want to get around town and the 

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whole city and cities have been 
structured in a way that 

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benefits the car. 
Things like no sidewalks, no 

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really good bus stops, and lots 
of things that you can only get 

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to by car such as bars, 
restaurants and shops in strip 

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malls. 
OK, So what I'll do is I'll 

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leave some of the key phrases 
from this podcast in the 

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description so that you can just
look that over. 

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And then I also just recommend 
looking at Google Images for 

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things like strip malls and 
anything else that you want to 

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just have a good image in your 
head. 

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And then if you, again, if 
you've enjoyed this podcast 

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00:15:07,240 --> 00:15:09,600
episode, then please leave me a 
review. 

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00:15:10,000 --> 00:15:13,520
It would really benefit me and 
and help me reach more people 

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00:15:13,680 --> 00:15:15,360
who would benefit from these 
lessons. 

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And then go to tofluency.com to 
learn more about what I can 

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00:15:20,920 --> 00:15:25,000
offer you, whether this is a 
free book, my five step plan for

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00:15:25,000 --> 00:15:28,080
English fluency, some lessons on
my website, or if you want to 

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take my paid program. 
OK, So head over to 

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tofluency.com. 
And if you want to continue 

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00:15:35,240 --> 00:15:38,200
listening to my podcasts, just 
go back and choose another 

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00:15:38,200 --> 00:15:40,480
episode. 
All right, thank you so much for

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listening. 
Bye for now.