I decided to write some kind of introduction or “first blog post” article a bit later, because I wanted finally start and to create something really useful for visitors of my blog, something they can use to build or develop their English vocabulary on particular topic.
Here it is. Today I picked up “Travel” as a topic. I started form several questions I found on other websites. There a lot of useful and not boring resources that can be used as a source of vocabulary we can borrow from native speakers. Read articles, listen podcasts and watch videos I found.
What you will find in this article:
- Common questions from Part1,2 and 3 of speaking test.
- Collocations, words and phrases that will help you to talk about food and diet.
- How other people tell stories related to travel and visiting other countries.
- Links to useful materials which you can use to read articles, listen podcasts and watch video about travelling, transportation, popular travel activities.
- Vocabulary from sub-topics and related areas such as: destinations, types of travel (family travel, cruising, outdoor adventures, adventure traveling, cultural travel), transportation.
Part 1 Sample Questions
- Do you like to travel?
- What kind of places have you visited in your life?
- Which place would you really like to visit? Why?
- What’s the best place you’ve ever visited?
- Which form(s) of transport do you usually use?
- What is the easiest way to get around your town/city?
- Do people use public transport where you live?
- Are there any problems with the public transport system in your town/city?
- How do you prefer to travel on long journeys?
- What is the most unusual method of transport you’ve ever used?
Part 2: Cue Card
Describe an interesting journey you have been on.
You should say:
- where you went
- how you travelled there
- who you went with
and explain what was so memorable about the journey.
Part 3 Sample Questions
- How easy is it to travel around your country?
- Which method of travel do you consider safest?
- Has travel become safer in recent years?
- What are the pros and cons of low-cost air travel?
- How do you think people will travel in the future?
Reading: Travel Vocabulary from QUORA
- go abroad
- go to Europe [insert any country]
- to spend __ months over there
- to travel in 11 countries
- to cover over 30 000 km
- I traveled before
- I never traveled for long periods
- planned the whole trip
- thinking of leaving for your first trip
- setup travel budget
- get a plane ticket
- get a traveling bag
- get travel / medical insurance
- I travel alone
- cross-country road trip
- buy a ticket
- travel information
- guide me through the city
- getting to know people
- introduce to local food
- I got exhausted on the road
- different culturally
- bus schedule
- to get lost
- bad weather messing up your plans
- budget depends on where you go
- duration of trip
- while you are on the road
- to do excursions
- to do tour adventures
- to live comfortably
- a lot of places around the world
- incredible adventure activities
- communicate with locals
- tourism has become an organazied industry
- a hour ride into the country side
- kind of transportation
- avoid some countries like…
- money going to the local economy
- I got to London
- strange living arrangement
Source:
Podcasts: Travel Vocabulary
Great directory to start is BBC.co.uk
I went to podcasts->genre->travel and found 4 podcasts on this topic.
What I really like about bbc podcasts
- excellent sound quality
- clear pronunciation
- rich lexical resource
Here are some words and phrases I picked up from The point and the pleasure of travel podcast from a series of episodes under the title “Excess Baggage”. You can download this episode directly from this link
- travelled extensively
- prominent explorer
- adventures in both hot and cold climbs
- indigenous people
- visited 70 countries
- most dangerous places on Earth
- beautiful tropical islands that attracts holiday makers from all over the world
- Africa was first travelled across
- first ocean humans properly exlplored
- they used to travel to India
- to travel around globe
- people vary enormously
- radically different countries
Another nice podcast about traveling called Tips For Travellers: Travel Inspiration, Advice and Tips I found on iTunes. The author Gary Bembridge, has English accent and clear pronunciation. He has a great website where you can find his podcast as well (first link is from libsyn podcast directory). It is very useful as long as links to all episodes are can be found on one page and are organized to number of subcategories. Here are some of them
- General Cruising Tips and Advice
- Interviews with Travel Experts
- Resources
- Transportation
- Destinations
I am sure a lot of great words and phrases can be found there for number of different topics, such as
- transportation
- cities and towns
- holidays
Here is a set of interesting words and phrases I found in episode called Adventure Travel with Nellie Huang
- adventure travel
- exciting way to travel
- to be brave and fearless
- on this trip to Thailand
- to try bungee jumping
- my heart was pounding
- the guide
- every time I travel I always look for something exciting
- to push myself beyond my comfort zone
- urge to push myself to my limits
- to try something different
- adventure travel is a loose term
- setting out to do something that unreachable
Types of adventure traveling sports
- biking
- scuba diving
- kayaking
- skiing
- trekking
- most popular activities
- I’m a horrible skier
- I’m a terrible cyclist
- in different parts of the world
The benefits of adventure traveling
- every time I do something adventurous
- I live more fulfilled life
- I become more confident
- I like the feeling that adventure travel gives me
- seeng the world
Some other words and phrases for this podcast
- safety
- where you go
- to go in a group
- carry some form of risk
- it’s good to travel with someone else
- more dangerous
- you need to be more cautious
- weather
- terrain
- prepare yourself
- security
I downloaded and listen another great podcast from tipsfortravellers.com called Family Travel with Mara Gorman (click to download). Some of the vocabulary I found in this episode
- family travel
- took my son on a trip for 13 month
- we were in 8 different locations
- trip to Europe
- we tarted traveling so much
- no infrastructure and support
- day trips are challenging for some people
- to explore the world
- to take a long trip
- we don’t go camping
- we do a lot of outdoor trips
- we do a lot of cultural travel
- to go in museum, going to museums
- to take children in museum
- to be adventurous
- eating out
- when we were in France last time
- to go backpacking
- to go to the city and visit cultural attractions
- to do a long drive
The biggest benefits of traveling with the family (you use this ideas to answer part 3 questions)
- children know a lot about the world
- they’ve been a lot of places
- they have a global view
- creating shared memories
- you learn so much about your children
Video: Learn to Travel: Travel to Learn: Robin Esrock at TEDxVancouver
Check out this inspirational vide I found on TED Learn to Travel: Travel to Learn: Robin Esrock at TEDxVancouver and use some of this vocabulary when you’ll be speaking about traveling.
- running around the world
- “I regret not traveling more”
- a form of escape
- the way to connect with cultures and languages
- a way to bring seduction into a life
- I set out to a journey
- to travel for a long time
- the places I wasn’t seeng, the people I wasn’t meeting
- we need wake up calls to remind us that…
Use Your Time Effectively And Practice
To help you with the first one I’ve got a downloadable PDF. It has all the words and phrases from this article.
As for practice, you are 100% responsible for this part. Nobody can practice instead for you. Just take some of the questions you found on certain topic and practice each day.
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