This is an English conversation training video from my trip to Spain! You’ll learn and practice words and phrases to help you with your English conversation skills.
YouTube blocked?Video Transcript:
I’m the worst right now. Sometimes life does that.
Let’s study real English conversation on a trip to Spain. As with any trip, not everything went well.
I throw up, I felt terrible. But overall, I had a great time traveling with my husband.
I feel like I have this energy that I need to get out and I don’t know how to do it and it might be like punching you.
During our trip to Valencia.
Just going to go walk up the tower, is that what, Torres?
Yes.
Yes.
This trip is a good opportunity for me to practice some Spanish.
Got them.
Them and him sound the same when they’re reduced.
Got them could mean got him or got them. Notice how the words link together with the flap T, Got ’em. That’s very smooth, very American, got ‘em. And don’t worry, I’m not the only one who does this.
Rainy day for this lunch and just it was kind of random that we got him there but yeah, that’s how y’all. That’s how we first met.
But and, and I learned that you could actually negotiate with people. This one person offered me three cents and I got them up to three and a half. I even knew at a seven-year-old age that I could actually get a fractional percent of a cent.
Climbed into this little tire like on like a cattle guard grate and was like hiding from the wind. And he was still nursing when I got him and so when I first got him I was like trying to like I was like I just didn’t know what to do and we didn’t obviously have dog food with us or anything.
Okay, let’s test your listening comprehension. I’m speaking pretty quickly here what kind of a building is it?
So the one with the flags is a government building?
Yes. I think that’s a residence of the governor of Valencia. Government. Said quickly, the first syllable is stressed. Government. Notice that the NT at the end, the T isn’t released. Government. Government building.
Didn’t know Spain still had a king?
Alright, should we keep going?
Wow. Steve can you point to where you guys are? Mas o menos?
David said ‘mas o menos’. More or less in English. Steve answered roughly. Roughly in this case means approximately. Roughly an hour for example or that’s roughly the idea or you could just describe something to someone and then say, ‘this should give you a rough idea.’ Roughly an hour, roughly the idea. Maybe not exactly the same idea that I had but close to it. This surface is pretty rough. Also, Steve said it’s roughly $10 a day to rent a bike.
Rough is the opposite of smooth. We already saw how roughly means approximately. It can also mean to do something with harshness. He roughly threw the dog in his crate. Rough, roughly. O-u-g-h making UH as in butter plus F. Rough. It rhymes with the word stuff.
The trip started out promising and then.
I spent the last 24 hours in this bed. It all started yesterday morning. I woke up with a stomach ache. I had told my friend I would go to the gym with her and I wanted to go. So we went, we did a 30-minute abs class where I learned things like plank, in Spanish is ‘plancha’. The whole time I had a stomach ache but I didn’t feel terrible. Then after the workout, I felt terrible. So my friend at this point was on a machine doing some cardio. Cardio is short for cardiovascular exercise like running, biking and so on. Anything that gets your heart rate up and isn’t about strength training specifically.
And I I wasn’t sure what to do. I couldn’t tell what direction this was heading. So I just sat down on the gym floor, and then it became pretty clear that it was heading not in a good direction. So the guy who works there was about 20 feet away from me and I said, ‘Por favor!’ I just yelled at him.
Here I’m reducing him and linking into at with a flap T. This is just like got’em from the beginning of the video. At him, at him. Yelled at him becomes ‘yelled at ‘im’ or ‘yelled at ‘em.
And uh, he came over to me and I said in Spanish, I was very proud of myself, could you please go get my friend Christa, I think I need to leave. So he went and got Christa, and Christa said she came up to me, I’m sitting on the floor and she said I was white as a sheet.
White as a sheet is what we say when someone looks very pale like from being sick or from being shocked or scared about something. She was like, ‘Oh wow okay we’re here.’ So they helped me up they get me out of the gym, I sit down on the sidewalk and within about 5 seconds I puked. I throw up, I vomit.
Puke, throw up, vomit, all mean the same thing. Barf would be another way to say this or upchuck.
Um, yeah, that was embarrassing. The guy from the gym goes and gets me a coke because he says I need some sugar. After I’m done throwing up I move to a bench and you know, you know how after you throw up you start to feel great. I was so relieved that that nausea had passed. This word can be pronounced a couple of different ways like nausea, but I prefer two syllables. nausea, nau-sea, nausea.
So we walk home, I take a shower, I lay down. I’m thinking maybe I’m past it. Maybe I’m through the worst of it but no. I didn’t leave this bed until noon today. I was not done being sick. I had cold sweats, hot flashes, I had goosebumps and then like dripping sweat. At one point, I felt like every muscle and bone in my body was aching. I felt like I’d been put through a wringer.
A wringer is an old tool used in doing laundry to dry clothes. Very old-fashioned, not used anymore. But this is what my body felt like. Like it had been crushed, put through the wringer. We now use the phrase ‘to put someone through the wringer’ as an idiom to mean to put someone through difficult challenges or experiences.
I took Tums, I took Advil, I took Tylenol, I took everything I brought, and I woke up today feeling like a million bucks.
The phrase ‘to feel like a million bucks’ means to feel absolutely great. For some reason we always use bucks with this phrase and not dollars. I feel like a million dollars. What you’ll hear is I feel like a million bucks. You can also compliment someone by saying they look like a million bucks. You look like a million bucks today.
Okay, not quite a million but I feel much better. So, I’ve lost a day of vacation, no big deal it’s sunny here in Valencia, I have no idea what we’re going to do today but I’m ready for it. Let me show you the view from the window.
Perfect temperature 70 degrees, full sun. It’s going to be a great day. Well, it was an okay day, but that night wasn’t great. The next day I went on a walk with David to try to improve my mood.
How are you enjoying your vacation?
It’s terrific.
What day is this, 4?
Yeah. Yeah, it’s been amazing.
I’ve not had a very good vacation.
And why is that?
I was sick for 36 hours, and then last night, okay, I should say because I was sick I was sleeping a lot and yesterday I slept in until 11:45 in the morning. I slept late, didn’t sleep. Went to bed about 10:00, took a sleeping pill, 12:30 still wasn’t asleep, I was like, I’ll take another one and then I’ll definitely be asleep in like a half hour.
Another.
I never slept. I never slept. I honestly don’t know if there have been any nights in my life like that where I’ve slept zero minutes. And I’m going to be honest I’m starting to get a little annoyed with everything. So anyway I’m just annoyed at everything right now.
It’s true she’s annoyed.
Okay, what’s a good way to get un annoyed? Think about things that are exciting and that I should be lucky for. There’s a lot of that I just don’t feel excited or lucky for any of it right now, even though there’s a lot. I feel like my mood is getting worse by the minute. And I’m not hungry, like I just feel not good
Because of your stomach. Yeah, you were sick in the stomach.
Yeah. I feel like I have this energy that I need to get out and I don’t know how to do it and it might be like punching you.
So David and I split up and read for a while, and usually being alone does help my mood and this did some but the rest of the day was kind of a bust for me. If something’s a bust that means it didn’t go well, didn’t turn out as planned. Luckily, I did get a normal night of sleep that night. The next day, we went to Central Market to get some groceries for dinner.
Ahora mi esposo va preparer la cena.
Yo bebo un poquito de cava.
In English it’s more common to say make dinner than cook dinner.
David is making dinner he’s making paella, a vegetarian version and a meaty version. What meat is going into your meat version?
Chicken, chorizo, shrimp, that’s it.
Okay. And here’s the red pepper, they’re going to go in the Paella.
Here’s the asparagus. David went to the market this morning and bought everything. All the produce is super fresh.
Okay, David finished, it looks exceptional. David should I put lemon on either of these things, both of these things, or is it just for the paella?
The Paella. Okay, looks fantastic I went for the vegetarian one.
I said I went for the vegetarian paella. ‘I went for’ is just another way to say ‘I chose’. I chose the vegetarian paella.
David you did an excellent job with this meal.
At the very end of the trip, we did maybe my favorite thing which was a bike ride along the Mediterranean. We had a great time in Spain visiting friends and I want to thank you so much for watching this video and learning English with me.
Keep your learning going now with this video and don’t forget to subscribe with notifications on, I just love being your English teacher that’s it and thanks so much for using Rachel’s English.
Video: