45 - Driving

Welcome to Diálogos en Inglés. El podcast que necesitas en tu vida, si tu libro de texto dejó de motivarte hace siglos, pero tienes una misión. To speak English like a native. Oh yeah! Some of those hosts? And Isabel. Creadores de amigos ingleses. y los encargados de haber cambiado el inglés de más de un millón de estudiantes en todo el planeta. Sit back, relax. Y vente a aprender 100% Real English. Casi como si estuvieras en Reino Unido, pero sin la parte del frío. The cold weather. The rain.

comida sosa The bland food. Las cervezas sin tapita. Okay, that's plenty. Without much further ado, make yourself comfortable. Que no comfortable

Diálogos en inglés 45 Driving Oh no. Hi. Hello officer. Everything okay? Are you aware your brake light's not working, madam? No, but thank you so much for the information. Could I see your driving license and registration, please, madam? Yeah, of course, but you know I'm I'm a bit late. I'm going to my daughter's birthday. Okay, well let's see if we can do this as quick as possible. Okay, of course, of course so. Okay. This is my driving license. Thank you. Uh uh Mrs Carresco, is that right?

That's right, yeah. Okay. Just bear with me one moment. I'm gonna check your details. Have you been drinking at all this evening? No, I haven't. I just had a glass of water Okay. If you'd like to step out of the car, please, madam. Oh please but I have to go I'm really late and there is Step out of the car, madam, or you'll be spending the night in a cell. Okay, okay. Okay, I'd like you to put your hands on the bonnet of the car.

Please I'm not a criminal. I'm just going to my daughter's birthday, as I said. I'm just doing my job, madam. Please put your hands on the bonnet. Okay, okay, but this is not necessary. I don't want to have to use force. What? Okay, I'm just gonna search you now, so please keep still. Just searching for any um illegal substances. Do I really look like someone that is uh dealing with drugs? Have you not seen my car full of presents with a pink wrapping?

Actually I might have to check those presents as well. Well Oh my goodness, please let me go. Everyone is waiting for me. It's a surprise party, you know, so everyone is gonna be hiding. Turn around, I'd like you to blow into this device please. I haven't been drinking, sir. Glow into the device please, madam. Okay, okay. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Don't stop. Thank you. Okay, thank you. That's enough.

Hmm, that's interesting because here it says that you had a glass of orange juice, a peanut butter sandwich What? three olives and a lemonade, is that correct? yes it is correct but that was yesterday not today Okay, everything seems to be in order, madam. How do you know how do you have this information? That's what it says here. I feel like my privacy is being invaded. Okay, can I go, Mr PC Phillips? Yes, you may. And make sure you get that brake light fixed. Have a nice day, madam.

Yeah, have a lovely day too.

Hello, everybody, welcome to another episode of the Dialogues in English podcast. How are you, Isabel? Muito bem! Estou feliz! I'm very well, thank you. And so today's episode is all about driving. And we're gonna talk about our experiences behind the wheel. How many wheels does a car have, Isabah? Is this a tricky question? That's a trick question, but let's see if you can get the answer. It's got five. Five? las dos delanteras, dos traseras y la de repuesto. Well, yeah, that's...

Six, that's right, yes. So a car has four wheels. and a spare wheel in the maletero, in the, ¿cómo se dice? Say the boot. Yes. Como una bota, ¿no? Exactly. A pair of boots. Or in the United States they say the trunk. Ah, como una tronca. ma che tiene un elefante Ah, trompa. Yeah. Or trunk puede ser también de un árbol, no? Un tronco. Right, yeah. Okay. So it has six wheels. A car has six wheels. Four that go on the road. One in the boots and then the volante. Pero comes volante.

Ah, so is that a steering wheel? Steering wheel, yeah, the volante and the spare wheel. Spare, yeah, es de repuesto,¿no?

So um First of all, Isabel, I'd like to ask you some questions. I know. what the first question is gonna be and I really don't want to answer this. How do you know? Ah. About your driving test. Yes. How did you know it was going to be my first question? Because I know you quite well after forty five podcasts. Oh yeah, I'm gonna ask you about your driving test. Did you pass your driving test for the first time? ミネザ、ミネザ I thought you did. So how many I I passed second time.

Ah, okay. Well, I think you win on this one. How many times did you do your driving test before you passed? I passed the fourth time. Fourth time. I thought it was the third time. And you know, I have a really funny anecdote because on the second time in the exam uh the examiner uh went on the car. On the column. When it came in the car. I always confuse myself. The examiner got in the car, in the back. And then my my trainer, yeah, my teacher, he said, Okay, start driving.

Oh, so you had two people in the car in a driving tent. Yeah you always go with your teacher or your trainer and then in the back the examiner is sitting there taking notes. The examiner was in the back. That's different. In England the I just did it with my with the examiner next to me. My teacher was waiting in the car park. Ah okay, So you have extra pressure in Spain. Yeah. Two people watching.

And also uh it's very easy to fail and sometimes they just give you a silly excuse because they just want you to pay for more lessons and to pay for the uh ¿Cómo se dice las tazas?

Yeah, if you fail twice then you have to pay the fees again and everything is a lot of money so we think that they are all together in the business and I mean I'm not the best driver but really I could have passed before. But the second time I forgot to put the the seatbelt on And that and that and you failed for for that reason. No, no, because the good thing is that the examiner didn't realise Because it was in the back.

and the teacher he gave me a look and he was like then I realized I was like, Oh no, I can't believe it, I'm going to fail because of this stupid reason but then uh my teacher helped me so I look at the examiner when he was distracted then I put the seatbelt on and my teacher started coughing so that he didn't realise of the click. the click that it does, no when you put it on. So he was like Yeah, more or less. It was so bad but then yeah I failed because of something else I don't remember.

No no atropelle a nadie I was absolutely gutted when I failed my driving test, it's a horrible feeling. What did you do? Well everything was perfect um apart from when I arrived at uh zebra crossing oh and I was driving quite slowly. as you would if you're approaching a zebra crossing. And there was a woman walking along the path, along the pavement, and she suddenly decided to cross The zebra crossing, so she she turned quite uh suddenly.

And the examiner he was really scared and he overreacted. Really? And he he slammed his feet on the on the brake pedal and the clutch pedal could be They have a jewel pedal. And um And in that moment I realised yeah, I've totally failed because he had to intervene, but he d he He didn't need to. We're doing the press the break. I would have, yeah. If he'd have given me a chance, but he he overreacted. Ha ha.

I suppose it's a scary to go around with all these Unexperienced drivers risking your life. Yeah, but I was absolutely gutted. But uh then I passed a second time, so it wasn't too bad. Yeah, I didn't know. But how did you feel? the examiner is that next to you and he can make the decision to press the the brake before you do, no? That's why I think it's better to have your teacher because also you feel more confident. It's the person who's been with you In every lesson. Yeah, yeah.

So how did you feel when you finally passed on the four? Well I just felt relief. Anyway, let's move on. Let's move on. So that's that's interesting. I didn't realise that you passed on your fourth attempt. And to anyone who's listening to this podcast, let us know in the comments. How many times did you have to do your driving test before you parked?

So anyway, what about accidents? Have you ever had any accidents Isabel? Mm, I had yes, not very serious ones, luckily. But yeah, once I hit a taxi driver it wasn't serious. Rasgunio. Yeah, actually you were there. And then the other one, I was with a friend of mine, he was driving and it was a really small car, un twingo, Renault Twingo, yeah. Don't buy this car please if you're thinking about Buying a car is the less secure

Least. The least secure car that I've ever been in. And we just left we had parked the car and we went for a drink and then we were going to go to another bar. We just got in the car and he was going to change the

the C D in the C D player and he got distracted and he bumped into one of the other cars that were parked next to us. So we had That was So we just we were just leaving the place and then we had a stupid accident but the car was seriously damaged and I and I hit my head with the window and I had a huge bump on my forehead. Un chichon gigante. So you were sat in the front passenger seat. No, I was in the back but I was looking out the window. Okay. No ha habido secuelas, creo.¿Cómo dirías eso?

They weren't. There weren't any long term injuries. Me, no, I I don't think I've ever had any serious accidents. Only once maybe I skidded off the road in icy conditions, but travelling very slowly and there was no damage. No injuries, I was on my own, nobody else involved. I think you broke my wing mirror once. Yeah. I didn't break it. Oh my god. When I was driving through the countryside in your car. and um yeah, a pigeon uh was flying across the road and hit the wingmare and smashed it.

Oh, I prefer not to ask what happened to the pigeon. It was yeah, there were lots of feathers flying around but Never mind.

And what kind of driver are you, Philip? Well I think I I must be a better driver than you Ha ha. I passed second time, you passed fourth time. I haven't had any serious accidents. You've had a couple, so I'm quite maybe I'm a better driver than you, would you say? I would say you are more confident, but not really a better driver. It's wo is w it was the taxi driver's fault. Yeah. And the second accident I wasn't driving, I was just the passengers. So Yeah, that's true.

I think I'm a good driver. Yeah, you are compared to my mother, yeah. I don't I don't break the speed limit. I indicate, which is something that a lot of people in Spain don't do when they're on roundabouts. You never know which way they're gonna go, when they're gonna turn off. And I also I don't tailgate people. Do you know what I mean when I say tailgate? Tailgating is when you drive very close to the person in front of you. Ah yes, they do this all the time.

Yeah, tailgating. Yeah, is when when they drive very, very close to you. Mm and Cảm ơn các bạn đã theo dõi. Yeah. when they want you to move out the way They do that a lot in Spain, it's horrible. Um It's really annoying, isn't it? Yeah. Is there anything else that annoys you about drivers in Spain or in England? I like uh I don't like that they beep the second after the Yeah.

The traffic light goes green, there is always an idiot behind you that is ready to beep right on your ear so that you move and in England people were much more Oh yeah. Relax and they usually use the the horn only to prevent an accident,¿no? But here they just beep and beep all the time and what I hate is When someone has parked their car en doble fila,¿cómo se dice? Um When someone is blocking your car you cannot leave and then they start pressing the horn for an hour until this person comes.

When you're double parked, they say. When someone has been blocked in in Spain they just press the horn, don't they? Yeah, and just wait for the person to come back. ¿Cómo?¿What? Que todavía no le has dado a seguir a este podcast. Not to worry, my dear. Suscríbete a Diálogos en Inglés en tu plataforma favorita, botoncito que dice...

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Philip um I think you were stopped by the police once. Yes, I think once I was stopped in Fuerteventura, wasn't I? Um because Well, it was a police control. They were checking for dr drink drivers. And We had had a beer, hadn't we? Hm, we just left the bar in the village. It was a really small village, maybe I don't know, not even a hundred.

people living there. It's just a tiny village and we just went to the one of the only bars in the village. We had a drink. So we didn't expect to see any police in the area. Yeah. And so well, I wasn't over the limit but yeah, they stopped us and uh and they breathelized me. I had to blow into This uh breathalizer. Esa es la prueba de alcolemia. Yeah, that's right. And I I wasn't uh over the limit. And they let me go, so it was fine.

But it was really a bit scary because I knew that Philip didn't have his driving license because he forgot to take it. and also he didn't have his passport with him. His passport was in the apartment where we were staying. So the police breath alyes him. Luckily he because he just had the beer, he the result was uh negative. Yeah. But then straight away they ask, Okay, sir, so can I please see your driver license? Uh sorry I I don't have it here.

Okay, at least can I see your passport or some kind of identification? Sorry, I don't have any and the woman was a bit stressed, but then there was another police officer. He was like typical man from the Canary Islands, very relaxed, very friendly. Yeah. And he was like Okay, I also said in English, like, okay, boy, just go. Or something like, come on, just move. Yeah. I think the police in Fuerteventura are a little bit more relaxed than perhaps in mainland Spain. So they let me off.

Yeah, if it had happened anywhere else you would have probably been in trouble driving with no license, no passport. I think in Spain maybe that's not allowed, but in England you don't have to have the papers on you. I think they give you like seven days to Mm. Yeah, to send your papers. I think nowadays they can probably check it in their database. Yeah. I suppose but you should wear your identification with you.

Yeah, it's not common for an Englishman to carry ID though. In Spain everybody has their ID card. In England we don't have ID cards, we just have a driving licence. and a passport and we don't take our passports around

I was thinking uh about any other anecdotes that I had uh with cars and I remember that once they stole my car uh on Christmas on Christmas Eve. Really? We went to my to my cousin's house for dinner and then when we came back My father was asking, Where did you park the car? I cannot see it. Uh I don't know. I think it was where I always leave it. Well, it's not there. then so we had to call the police, we reported it and it was an old car anyway, but it was really annoying.

And then a few days later I the phone rang and I picked it up and they said it's the police calling I was like, Oh yeah, the car, it's true, I didn't remember. Truck dealers. drug dealers and also people who was uh going to buy drugs. Drug traffickers. Yeah. They have been using my car as a taxi.

to go to the area where they sell the drugs, to come back and so they just did this until they ran out of petrol. Yeah. And then they just abandon it. And but I know that you had some bad experience with your first car, didn't you? Yeah. Uh my car was also stolen. Yeah. My first car was a Ford Fiesta and I used to use it at university up in Manchester. And this student accommodation was in a bit of a dodgy area in Salford. yeah a bit

Dangerous. Yeah. And I parked the car outside the stud student accommodation car park, and the car park has these big gates. So it probably would have been pretty safe inside, but I wasn't allowed to park the car inside the gate, so I left it outside the gate. I think I was at a party or something and somebody called and said, Is your is your number plate L ninety six TH D or something like that?

And I said, Yeah, that's my number plate, why? They said, It's being stolen right now outside the the flat. So I just ran downstairs and out into the car park. When I got into the car park I looked through the gate, this big iron gate, and I could see five young teenagers with hoodies and crowbars. You know what a crowbar is? One of these bars used to open doors and things. Como una barra de acero,¿no? Oh my god. And one of them was trying to uh unlock the steering wheel.

One of them was trying to uh start the engine. One of them was uh looking through the glove box and throwing things out into the street and I think another one was like shouting abuse at me. Because'cause when I ran out I said, Hey Hey, that's my car and I just shouted, The police are on their way. And um They said, Come out here And they were shouting at me. And then they they started it and they managed to get away.

So you didn't get closer to them, no? You were a bit scared. You just shouted at them. Yeah. No because then at this part you were behind the iron door Yeah, there were five of them and they didn't look very friendly. When they were in this, you know, when they put some kind of Ah yeah, me la clava.

No, they weren't wearing balaclavas. They were wearing hoodies and they weren't trying to hide their faces very much. Um but yeah. I I never saw that car again, but the police found it a few days later burnt out in a ditch somewhere. Yeah, that's horrible. They were joy riders. They just wanted to have fun. They're bored teenagers. So after that I had to walk everywhere. And uh yeah. I think that's it then. Uh

Just a few questions for you, Isabel. Let's see how good your English is. Come se dice uh limpia parabrisas? Windscreen wiper Windscreen wiper. Yeah, or windscreen wipers. It's a long one. And how do you say lunar? Lunar se dice mole. Pero luna del coche se dice windscreen. A steering wheel. Uh Sure you will remember because we mentioned it before. Finturon Sitbelt. And how would you say Maletto? Y en el otro lado, ¿cómo se llama? El otro lado. ¡Ah! El capó. No sé cómo se dice en inglés.

¿Cómo se llama? El capó. Well in British English it's the bonnet in American English The hood. Yeah, they call it hood capucha. ¿Y bonnet no es, no tiene otro significado? Como un gorro o algo así. Yeah, for a baby, a baby bonnet. Un gorrito de bebé. Baby bonnet. That's funny. Okay. Nice. Ah,¿y cómo se dice retrovisor? que antes lo he mencionado. Yes, it's a wing mirror, a wing mirror. Es como un espejo con alas, wing mirror. Yeah. Oh no, viento Wind And how would you say um guantera?

A glove box. The glove box, yes. We mentioned it before. La caja de los guantes. That's right. And how do you say un coche desca... desca... Descapotable you mean convertible. That's right, a convertible. Yeah. Wow, it'd be great to have a convertible if you live in Spain. Not such a good idea if you live in England, but To be honest, I I've seen more convertible cars while I was living in England than I see here, in Barcelona. People quite like them. They like them in England. Yeah.

They are quite popular. I don't know why,'cause it's always raining. Yeah, but if you live in England and it's a sunny day and you have a convertible car, you are the coolest. Yeah. That's right. That's a hundred percent happiness feeling.

Yeah. Okay, so we hope you enjoyed this episode of the Dialogues in English podcast. Let us know your thoughts in the comments. Tell us any interesting driving stories that you have. And if you have any questions let us know and we'll answer them for you. And don't forget as well we also have some worksheets for the first two seasons of Dialogues in English which are available now in our shop. Season three will be available soon.

So check it out because the worksheets what are they, Isabel? What are the worksheets? well it's a pdf that contains the whole transcription so in case you haven't understood something in the podcast. You have everything there, so it's really good to listen to the podcast a few times while you read the transcript. Uh uh. But then also we give you the the vocabulary, we give you some cool English, uh we give you expressions, grammar, and there are exercises that you can Yeah.

There are some exercises you can do in order to make sure that you've learned. Yes. everything important and it's a really relaxing way to learn English Yeah, so check it out. If you're listening to this podcast but you haven't understood everything, or if you really want to take advantage and remember and absorb much more of the English uh from each episode, then The worksheets would be very helpful for you. So check it out if it sounds interesting to you. And we'll see you very soon.

¡Hasta pronto! Bye-bye. Chao. Chao.