ESL Podcast 230 – A New Year’s Cruise

Welcome to English as a Second Language Podcast, number 230. A New Year's Cruise. This is English as a Second Language Podcast, episode 230. I'm your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in

In beautiful Los Angeles, California, today we have a special New Year's edition of ESL podcast. Our topic today is going to be talking about a New Year's cruise. Remember to visit our website at ESLPD.com.

There you can download the learning guide for this episode. That contains all the vocabulary sample sentences, additional vocabulary, and a complete transcript of this podcast. Now let's get started.

My friends and I decided to do something a little different this year. Instead of going to a crowded club or throwing a party on New Year's Eve, we decided to take a harbor cruise instead. The cruise would be four hours long, add in included dinner, music, dancing, and a great

view of the fireworks. On that day we drove to the Marina and we were among the first to board the ship. This was no little boat. It was a large ship with an upper and a lower deck.

The crew helped us get on board and showed us where the life jackets were in case of an emergency. Even the captain came out to welcome the passengers. We had a great time.

I didn't get seasick as I'd feared, and we didn't have to call out the Coast Guard either. We had so much fun. We didn't want to go back on shore. Finally, the captain joked that if we didn't leave, he'd make us walk the plank.

Today we learn what Lucy and her friends did on New Year's Eve. It went on a New Year's cruise, a cruise, CR-UISE, is usually a relaxing trip that you take on an ocean, usually for a vacation. Here in Los Angeles, you can take a cruise down to Mexico, down to the Baja region of

Mexico. You can also take a cruise to Hawaii, which will take you a couple of days. And you go on a very large ship. Well, this is a cruise not of Hawaii or down to Mexico. This was just a short cruise that Lucy and her friends went on. I apparently was not invited, which is a little sad. Lucy says that her friends and she decided to do something a

little different this year. Instead of going she says to a crowded club or throwing a party on New Year's Eve, they decided to take a harbor cruise instead. Normally on New Year's Eve which is the evening before New Year's, the evening of December 31st, they go to a club which would be a dance club, a place to dance to music,

or they throw a party. Notice the expression to throw THROW a party means to put on a party to have a party at your house or your apartment. But instead of doing those things, they decided to take a harbor cruise. The harbor, H-A-R-B-O-R, is an area in the ocean that is next to the land. Usually it has walls that are built to protect the boats and the ships. So it's

the place where you can think of the boats and ships parking. It's sort of a parking lot on the water for ships and boats. The harbor cruise then was a cruise on a boat around the harbor, around the other boats. Usually those are short cruises. In this case, I believe it was four hours long. The crews included dinner, music, dancing and a great view of the fireworks.

The fireworks, F-I-R-W-O-R-K-S, always plural, are little things that you shoot up into the air and they explode and you see a light. Fireworks are very common for many celebrations, big celebrations, the 4th of July and in some cities there are fireworks on New Year's Eve in Los Angeles. There are places

that have fireworks on New Year's Eve. Lucy says that on the day of New Year's Eve, they drove to the Marina and were among the first to board the ship. The Marina, M-A-R-I-N-A, is a harbor that is built especially for smaller boats and usually there are walkways sort of wooden sidewalks to walk out and get on the boat.

We have a very large marina here in Los Angeles called Marina del Rey, the marina of the king and the Marina has fireworks where they have fireworks out over the ocean or near the ocean. Lucy says that she and her friends were the first to board the ship. To board B-O-A-R-D means to get on a ship or an airplane. You can also board a

train or a bus. Anything that carries a lot of people, we say that you board. So if you're at the airport and they say the flight will be boarding in ten minutes, that means that people will be getting on the plane in ten minutes. So don't go and buy some coffee. You may miss your flight. You may not get on the plane in time.

Lucy and her friends boarded the ship. She says this was no little boat. This was no is another way of saying this was not a little boat. This is a somewhat difficult expression. This was no. It's used before a object, a noun, in a sentence without any articles, without any indefinite articles like A or An, or

definite articles like THE. You can say this was no little boat meaning this was not a little boat but if you use the word A or THE, you would have to say not. This was no little boat. This was not a little boat. Notice the difference. A boat B-O-A-T is something that floats on the water. It stays on top of the water and

you can get into it and you can move across the water. If it's a very large boat, we often call that a ship, SH-IP. So Lucy says in the story here that this was no little boat. It was a large ship with an upper and lower deck. The deck, DECK, of a ship, is the level. Think of it as the floor of the ship so there could be

more than one level, more than one floor. We also use that term if you are talking about a bus. If the bus is what we would call a double decker, that means it has two decks. These are, or were, popular in London. I'm not sure if they still are. If you go to London, you can probably find a double decker bus, a bus with two decks. The top deck is called