S1 E19 Describe Your Holiday Vacation Intermediate Advanced English Vocabulary Podcast UK US English

hello there highle listeners welcome to episode 19 of our Advanced English podcast at highle listening today's episode is all about sharing our vacation stories so if you've recently taken a vacation or if you want to tell somebody about your past vacations this is the episode for you we'll be diving into some useful phrases and vocabulary in both American and British English that are perfect for recounting your travels to friends or co-workers I'm cat the American English voice here on highle listening I'll share my vacation story using phrases and expressions that are commonly used in the

US and my name is Mark I'm the British voice here on High level listening so I'll tell you the story of my holiday using more British expressions and vocabulary don't forget for our highlevel listener members who want to follow along with every word we offer membersonly PDF transcripts just check out the memberships tabs on our YouTube page to join and then you can download almost 18 19 episodes now so this time we'll both tell you about our recent Vacations or holidays and we'll focus on what happened when we arrived what we did and we'll also

talk about any small problems that we faced along the way so this episode should be full of lots of good vocabulary and phrases to help you talk about your own holiday experiences in English including the good and not so good bits after we share our stories we'll break down the key phrases and expressions so you can use them to talk about your own vacation experiences we're excited to hear your stories in the comments below we love seeing your messages and we reply to every single one okay well let's get started I'll ask cat the question

first how was your vacation H where to begin it was so much fun I wish I was still there now my trip did start with a bit of drama at the airport our flight was delayed due to some unexpected maintenance issues but once we finally took off it was smooth sailing from there we had a packed itinerary but the Highlight was definitely the guided City tour the local guide was amazing and really brought the city's history to life we also tried paddle boarding for the first time which was a blast most days were spent lounging

by the beach just soaking up the sun uh we did have a small hiccup with our hotel room the the AC wasn't working but they sorted that out pretty quickly and the rest of the stay was perfect okay so now that I've shown you my American side let's ask Mark the same question he's going to be talking about his holiday so let me ask him how was your holiday mark my recent trip was absolute Heaven that said we got off to a bit of a rough start at the airport we had to sit on the

runway for a bit because of some traffic but once we finally got going everything went perfectly uh we really packed a lot into those two weeks at the resort we went on some historical walking tours also tried our hand at wind surfing and scuba diving which was absolutely brilliant but honestly most of our time was just spent lounging on the beach or by the pool just taking in the atmosphere there was one minor hiccup when we missed our Spar appointment it was a mixup with the booking times but the staff were so accommodating and rescheduled

us straight away so overall it was a really lovely holiday it was just what we needed so we always give you a side by-side view of English from the British and American sides the biggest difference you'll hear in this episode is in the the UK we call it a holiday and in the US we call it a vacation we do have the word holiday in America but the holiday is a single day like Christmas day is a holiday meaning that we have off work and our vacation is the time that we spend around that holiday

so if I take a week off of work even if it's not on a holiday weekend or on a holiday it's my vacation whereas Mark what would you say for like Christmas day is that also considered a holiday yes it's the same word uh if I go to another country to relax that's a holiday and Christmas is a public holiday so businesses will close offices will be closed people don't go to work on holidays uh yeah Easter's a holiday Christmas is a big holiday and yeah I go on holiday to a nice Sunny Country too

so would you say that Christmas is a holiday and you go on holiday right yes absolutely yeah I would say Christmas yes Christmas day is a holiday and I would say we go on vacation so that's really the only change there is I change it from vacation and you say holiday cool so if we get started I'm going to just use the British phrase just to ask you how was your Hol uh my recent trip was absolute heaven so uh we've already talked about holiday vacation I'm adding a third word and sometimes students have this

question trip my recent trip so we're talking about going to another place to relax and have fun so in this context a trip a vacation and a holiday are the same thing things so I went on a trip to Spain I went on holiday to Spain I went on vacation to Spain all mean the same thing um the the time when trip means something different is because vacation and holiday are only for relaxing and having fun but a trip can be a reason to travel for for many different things like I took a trip to

Spain for a conference that's a business trip so you're not relaxing or having fun that call business a business vacation yeah that doesn't really sound very fun there's no thing yeah no such thing so I went on a research trip like again that's for work that's for studying um it can even be a shorter thing like I went on a shopping trip um the reason I went was to go shopping so trip can be the reason for traveling and it might be work it might not be relaxing and fun so trip is a very flexible

word in this case my trip was Heaven means my vacation so in this sense in this context I'm using it here um how was it yeah absolute heaven heaven you can imagine was fantastic perfect it was amazing when you imagine Heaven you imagine in a place that's very relaxing I don't want to leave I have no problems with food thirst or boredom it was just perfect it was absolute heaven so how about you how was your vacation H where to begin it was so much fun I wish I was still there so uh where to

begin where to begin oh H so we did all these things uh where to start where to start so I like this phrase it's kind of a filler phrase uh we're kind of collecting our thoughts oh my gosh uh well we did so much stuff we did so many things uh where where do I begin so we could say where to begin or uh where to start where do I begin where do I start this is kind of a fun way to say like okay get ready I've got a list of things I want to

tell you but I need to think of the place to start where can I start my story so I think that's a good filler phrase especially if you're kind of collecting your thoughts it's uh where to begin ah oh yeah so something like that now it was so much fun that's a pretty standard response you know how was your vacation it was so much fun how was your holiday it was Heaven okay so how was your vacation it was so much fun I wish I was still there I wish I was still there now if

I wish something then it's something you know that is obviously not happening right so I really wish I was still there now of course we're going to break a couple of grammar rules because commonly spoken English breaks grammar rules all the time there's always exceptions to rules so if you learned in school I wish I were still there that is absolutely correct however most people would say I wish I was I wish I was still there there are famous songs listened to millions of times I wish I was I wish I was so absolutely grammar

rule stick to the grammar rule if you really enjoy it however don't worry if people break grammar rules it is very common in spoken English so I wish I was still there means I want to be at the hotel right now I want to be on vacation right now I wish I was not at work I wish I was still there all right so Mark how was the start of your holiday that said we got off to a bit of a rough start at the airport we had to sit on the runway for a bit

because of some traffic so the pre previous sentence was my recent trip was absolute heaven so fantastic great the next sentence is a contrast to that so I used a contrasting phrase that said that said we got off to a bit of a rough start so that said is like however or but and it means in the complete contrast or the complete opposite to what I just said ear this is probably the strongest contrast in my opinion it is the total opposite so if you said something like oh yeah the food was incredible that said

it did give me food poisoning so that's a total that's a massive contrast that said is the only phrase strong enough to connect those ideas or I might say yeah the weather in Mexico was great that said there was a hurricane while we were there so again there's a huge difference between what I said before and next so if you have a really strong contrast two total opposites you can connect them with that said there's also a longer version that being said but I use the two words that said so the holiday the trip was

Heaven that said we got off to a bit of a rough start at the airport mhm rough here means a bad start or a tricky start a rough start you'll often hear this connected with the verb we got off to a rough start or we got off to a tricky start um in the opposite we got off to a great start so it was a rough start because we had to sit on the runway because of some traffic um usually we mention traffic when we're talking about lots of cars but traffic can also be in

the sky with planes and traffic can also be the planes on the runway so if there's a lot of traffic there's a lot of planes in the sky and it's busy and it slows things down um and we were sitting on the runway not literally on the tarmac we were on the plane but we had to sit on the runway and wait inside the plane before we could take off so there was a bit of a rough start at the beginning how about yourself how was the start of your vacation now my trip did start

with a bit of drama at the airport our flight was delayed due to some unexpected maintenance issues I don't even know so just like Mark we started really well okay oh where to begin it was so much fun I wish I was still there now I'm using this as a filler word now that I said that now yeah actually there was a problem think about it yeah now that I actually you know now that I'm thinking of it now that I've chosen where to start I'm thinking oh oh yeah we did we did start with

a bit of drama now why did I say oh it did start instead of just saying it started with a bit of drama well I'm using the word did as a bit of emphasis because I I had so much fun where to begin oh my gosh this this was amazing oh now it did start with a bit of drama just like Mark when he said that said o it did start with a bit of drama I'm saying something that's the opposite ooh we did have a delay ooh we did start with a bit of drama

that's the opposite of what I said before so I want to kind of emphasize we did or we didn't that gives it a little bit more emphasis so you can hear oh yeah we did start oh yeah that's right oh we did start with a bit of drama so that's kind of sometimes why we separate the word instead of saying started we did start now a bit of drama so the word drama is kind of overused a little bit you might like watching TV shows that are dramas drama is a word we use when there's

something interesting or problematic going on a bit of drama means that there's something going on that's uh yeah kind of problematic and in this case the problem was we had our flight our flight was delayed due to some unexpected maintenance issues if something is delayed it's making someone late okay so the plane was delayed something which was a maintenance issue cause the plane to take off later than expected due to because of unexpected maintenance issues this happens all the time nowadays I feel like we're always delayed and it's usually because of unexpected maintenance issues maintenance

is the upkeep of the plane they fill it with the gasoline or whatever fuel they need they clean the windows they clean the inside they check check all the tires make sure everything's working okay this is maintenance it's daily weekly monthly upkeep of the airplane but if you have some unexpected issues these are surprises these are surprise problems so it might have an issue with the engine or it might have an issue with a piece of uh equipment on the plane and that can be a little scary especially when you're sitting on the plane thinking

unexpected maintenance issues oh my gosh is the plane GNA crash or something what's happening I don't know if it's a good one or a bad one cuz like maintenance sounds like okay good they're keeping the plane in good condition okay that's good but then maintenance always is like why does it need maintenance is something wrong yeah and unexpected issues so that was the drama okay that was the drama first we were all happy excited we're getting on the plane we're good to go and then the drama uh yes we're having some unexpected maintenance issues oh

okay wait is that really bad is that and then we started to panic a little bit so that's the drama that's the drama something kind of crazy is happening that is it's not just happy and fun that's that's the little bit of drama so Mark for you you also had this a very similar issue a bit of a rough start did everything turn out okay once we finally got going everything went perfectly so yes the answer is yes everything turned out okay once we finally got going everything went perfectly uh got going is another way

to say started or began so we began our holiday we got going on our holiday you might hear phrases like come on let's get going is let's start let's begin let's get going or if you're telling a story in the past we got going at 6:00 means we started at 6:00 so on the plane we got going that means we started our flight we took off and then everything went perfectly uh I want to talk about the verb went here cuz go can be used when you describe something especially an experience or a moment in

a good or a bad way you can ask a question how was it how was your trip how was your holiday and you can also ask how did it go how did it go your vacation how did it go your flight how did it go and I'll especially use that question if I know your experience could go really well or could go kind of badly like if it's a big meeting for example a big meeting can go really well and everyone's happy or it can be a difficult meeting and the boss doesn't like what you

have to say so after your meeting if I want to know I'd say how did it go or if you had a job interview a job interview can go really well or could be a disaster so how did it go or a date can go really well or really badly so the answer to how did it go is it went went the date went the meeting went the interview went it went great or it went terribly or it went smoothly so I'm using that phrase here once we finally got going everything went perfectly everything was

perfect so if you want to describe your vacation or describe an experience in a short way yeah it went and then an adverb it went perfectly it went smoothly L it went perfectly so so did mine how about yourself did everything turn out okay after those maintenance issues yeah it turned out fine once we finally took off it was smooth sailing from there once we finally took off okay so once we finally took off that's at the moment when we finally left the airport when our plane finally left the airport once we finally took off

at that moment when we we were no longer delayed we're heading to our vacation destination once we finally took off it was smooth sailing now I know we're in an airplane and a sailboat is in the water but a phrase that we use when things go nice and easily just like Mark said go easily they went easily it was smooth sailing it was smooth sailing in that means that after that no more problems we were fine it was smooth sailing after that just a little bit of a problem a little bit of drama at the

airport flight was delayed but after that it was smooth sailing no more problems right can you only use that phrase while traveling or can you use that in other places um I guess we could probably say if it was smooth sailing after that something was easy to do so I mean I don't know if I want to say this at work because I don't want to look like I'm being lazy but I think if the project was going to be a little difficult at the beginning and it's smooth sailing after that then you'll just have

to do the normal amount of work not an easy amount of work but it's not going to be as difficult as the beginning so I would say after the beginning of the project when it's really difficult after that it's smooth sailing in other words after that you won't be going through all these difficulties anymore smooth sailing after that okay so now that you've we've taken off you've landed at your destination what did you get up to on your trip we really packed in a lot in those two weeks at the resort we went on some

historical walking tours also tried our hand at wind surfing and scuba diving so we had a busy two weeks we packed a lot in I'm using the verb here in the past tense packed so we packed a lot we had two weeks of time and we filled up that time with lots and lots of activities and things to do um every day was busy we did different activities so we really packed it in we did lots of things uh we did an historical walking tour so walking around and seeing some historic buildings or old buildings

and then we also tried our hand at wind surfing and scuba diving so this is a slightly longer phrase tried I can say I tried wind surfing and scuba diving and that means I did it for the first time it was new for me so I tried it there is a longer expression I tried my hand at something and I'm using that phrase here cuz I'm trying it for the first time um I had never done wind surfing before I had never been scuba diving before this trip so I tried my hand at it maybe

for the first time uh a resort maybe offered a class so I decided to try my hand at it and see if I was good at it bad at it if I enjoyed it or not I tried my hand at a new activity uh do people say that phrase in the states yeah I would say not as often probably as you guys do but yeah if you want to try your hand at something then you're trying it for the first time you're kind of giving it a go want to give it a go want to

try your hand at something new yeah let's give it a go let's give it a go gave wind surfing a go g Uber diving AO yeah a go uh and that's two words a g o go AO not like 10 years ago we gave it AO nice okay how about you what did you get I actually I had a quick question um because I heard you say how would you say you did blank blank walking tour so you said an historical oh yeah I did do that um oh yeah so I put the article in

there an a n historical walking tour I hear this a lot in British English um an historical moment and I think it's left over from the French because I think you guys probably are matching up with the French and kind of making that H very silent just like with I mean that's the opposite of herbs but um I would say a a historical walking tour and I heard you very nicely say an hisorical H I think yes I think there's two reasons for that one it's yeah like you said the H sound is not very

strong it's almost like historical I and I is a vowel so an interesting an exciting unhistorical uh trip so I also think it's faster and easier for me to say a hisorical because um I think the last letter is a n so I can go from n storical hisorical faster than a historic well yeah I mean yeah it's just that in American English you have to say the H cuz we're going to say a history class but an historical moment I definitely hear that more in British English than American English yeah so you guys are

skipping that H there right I think we're taking the easier route feels like a lot of effort to say a hisorical a I would say like yeah if you're going to take a historical walking tour I almost say take a historic CU we yeah we have to make a lot of effort there to say it so you guys are cheating first of all I'm still offended you compared us to France so I'm still that yes I know you in your corett and your Ober jeans yes no French at all in British English sure not a

single word so um what' you get up to on your trip so we had a packed itinerary but the Highlight was definitely the guided City tour now just like Mark he used uh we really packed a lot into those two weeks now he used it as a verb and I'm using mine as an adjective we had a packed itinerary itinerary what a long word if you have trouble saying this we could probably say a packed schedule and that would be perfectly fine would you pronounce it itinerary yes itinerary I almost say it like ien itenerary

I almost say it like the teen instead of a t i n itinerary right itinerary itinerary difficult double if you really you know an itinerary is usually for uh all the activities that you're doing on a trip or if you yeah on a trip whether it's vacation a business trip something like that but in reality it's your schedule if itinerary is hard to say go ahead and just say schedule it's perfectly acceptable and you could read the word itinerary and just say what's on the schedule what's on the itinerary or what's on the schedule it's

easy enough it's okay we don't have to say all the right words at the same time so we had a packed itinerary but the Highlight was definitely the guided City Tour I like this phrase because it kind of the Highlight is something that was really special or maybe it was really unique or really interesting on your trip so oh the Highlight was definitely this oh the Highlight was the food tour the Highlight was this great restaurant the Highlight was the service at the hotel so this week and kind of talk about our favorite part you

know my favorite part of the tour was this or my favorite part of the trip was this the Highlight was definitely the guided City tour now we talked a little bit about the guided City tour in our last episode when we were planning our trip I actually did go on the guided City tour and it was definitely the highlight of our entire vacation so I'm really glad that I booked it now speaking of all these activities that we're doing did you enjoy those activities that you tried your hand at yes I did uh I tried

my hand at wind surfing and scuba diving which were absolutely brilliant just one word I want to highlight brilliant brilliant brilliant means amazing fantastic uh excellent but you're more likely to hear this adjective in the UK I think people use brilliant a lot uh I've even heard people use it on the phone like if you're having a good conversation you're like okay 3 p.m. tomorrow brilliant brilliant byebye yeah so we use it a lot more often than in the US um brilliant fun uh a brilliant performance if you watch any English football then you'll definitely

hear the commentators say a brilliant goal a brilliant performance we use it a lot and we throw it around a lot very generously uh would you what word would you use instead in the states um awesome that is very American awesome uh amazing fantastic great we use all of those words but brilliant we would probably only use if someone had a very smart or intelligent idea oh my gosh that is brilliant yes fantastic that is the smartest thing I've ever heard that is a great idea brilliant brilliant idea brilliant a brilliant scientist like a genius

scientist yeah and you know if I thought an idea was just a great idea I would say wow that is a genius idea that is a brilliant idea I would use it in that but I wouldn't use it say like for food or oh like that meal was brilliant or okay yes I'll meet you at three brilliant yeah oh yeah we throw it around all the time yeah no it's it's a great British word for sure okay how about yourself did you enjoy the activities that you did yeah the local guide was amazing and really

brought the city's history to life so if we're talking about a local a local is a person that lives in the city that you're visiting I'm a tourist they are a local okay so the locals are the people that live there a local pub a local restaurant a local cafe those are kind of smaller smaller restaurants smaller cafes that are owned by somebody in the community so this local guide really brought the city's history to life now sometimes history from a textbook can be a little bit boring so with some imagination some creativity and just

a very excited person some people can really bring history to life and make it much more interesting and feel like you're really a part of the history so to go out on this local city tour with this local guide who was so knowledgeable and Brilliant that uh we just had such a good time I think if we had read about it in a book or you know read about it in a blog post on the internet we just wouldn't have had the same experience so um they they really brought the city's history to life which

was really nice yeah good guide can change everything wherever you go it's true okay well uh I didn't I've already shared all of my activities the tour the paddle the the wind surfing and the scuba diving uh you did some other activities what were they what did you do after the tour so we also tried paddle boarding for the first time which was a blast now I can't remember Mark what is wind surfing oh uh wind surfing is a water spot you're on the water and you're holding on to a big sail and the wind

pushes you along the water so you hold on to the winds the sail are you kind of on a are you on a board or are you on kind of like a canoe or a boat uh you're on a board on a board B like a surfboard and then you hold up a sail vertically okay and then the wind hits the sail and pushes you forward and you surf With the Wind so wind surfing so we also tried paddle boarding for the first time which was a blast now I think that paddle boarding is kind

of similar it's not exact it's kind of like a uh like a very big surfboard and you are just standing up on it it sounds a little boring but it was actually really fun because you just on top of the water there's no waves so you have a paddle and you basically are paddling yourself around while you stand or kneel on this big paddle board so actually that was really fun so um let me see my sentence one more time we also tried paddle boarding for the first time now Mark didn't have to mention that

it was his first time cuz he said he tried his hand at doing something that we know from that phrase means for the first time so if you want to try something for the first time have a go at something or try your hand at something then definitely that would mean doing it for the very first time and then I have a fun phrase uh we also tried paddle boarding for the first time which was a blast which is talking about paddle boarding paddle in was a blast I really like this phrase because it means

that we had a lot of fun I think of like an amusement park or going to Disney World is a blast and you're just having fun all day you know you're eating what you want you're running around you're doing activities it's just it's always a blast so paddle boarding was a blast it was really fun and exciting it's a very American phrase for me um I wouldn't say it just sounds weird have a blast uh even in the accent just doesn't work it do just sounds strange blast blast yes we had a blast definitely doesn't

sound as fun oh man it was a blast and you know we use it for like an explosion a blast um so definitely like if you blasted something to bits it would be an explosion so an explosion of fun what a blast yes um one thing I wanted to point out as well yeah I said we did wind surfing and scuba diving which was which was absolutely brilliant you said which was a blast and that relative clause which we use that word before we give our opinion so I thought it was brilliant so we did

these Sports which were brilliant you tried paddle boarding which was a blast or which was good fun there a case where I wouldn't use that I use which it's that kind of phrase before you give your opinion you always use witch for an activity ah I've never really thought about that before that's an interesting point so you're saying if I want to give my opinion you know uh oh that new restaurant we tried uh which was really good by the way um is around the corner yeah we went to the beach which was really nice

um we had nice weather which was really cool and and pleasant uh we went on a tour which was really interesting so if you want to quickly add your opinion at the end which is the way yeah I think if you know if I say oh that new restaurant which was really good by the way is just over over there so yeah that's a good point because if I want to just quickly add in a little bit of information like you said the that little bit of an opinion there then I can just add that

which was amazing by the way which we we had a blast at by the way so ah interesting I haven't thought about that before all right so let's see another another one what else did you do Mark yes so I did all these water sports sorry the wind surfing and the scuba diving but honestly most of our time was just spent lounging on the beach or by the pool just taking in in the atmosphere the first word here is lounging or to Lounge I'm using a verb you probably already know the lounge in your house

it's also called the living room and the lounge is a place where you relax the TV is probably in the lounge there's a nice comfy sofa in the lounge so to Lounge is to relax you use Lounge for or a living room yeah right it's in the lounge or let's let's have dinner in the lounge or yeah I went into the lounge and watched TV Lounge or living I think we yeah I think we'd have a lounge area in like an apartment building so you might have a shared area so this is the lounge we've

got the TV the uh the sofas uh kind of a work desk area over here for relaxing so this would be you know an area so that you can Lounge but I don't think I would probably use that unless we had a second living room where you could just sit back and relax in a lounge but yeah that's that's interesting that you would also call the living room a lounge yeah uh it could be a bit old-fashioned but yeah I've definitely said it as a kid and heard it um but yeah so it's a place

where I relax so on holiday I want to relax so if I sit down and do nothing I Lounge by the pool or i lounged on the beach so I sat there maybe I just slept maybe I read a book maybe I just drank some cocktails or coffee and enjoyed the view uh also if you go to a beach and you see those long white beds or chairs those are called Sun lounges mhm so it's a they lean all the way back right yes it's designed for relaxing so when you're relaxing you are lounging especially

on vacation or on holiday uh and yeah so I lounged there and I just I was taking in the atmosphere uh taking in is to really enjoy and feel and experience the nice calm atmosphere the atmosphere is the one of the restaurant the the resort uh that I'm staying in so a holiday Resort should have a relaxing calm tranquil atmosphere no loud music no cars no traffic just the wind the sea the waves that is the atmosphere that I'm referring to so I just Lounge by the pool taking in the atmosphere really nice nice and

lazy so how about yourself what else did you do very similarly most days were spent lounging by the each just soaking up the Sun so it's an interesting way that we've set up this sentence Mark says most of our time was spent lounging and I mention most of my days were spent lounging now I'm the one doing the lounging but we are spending our days most days were spent my time was spent doing something okay so most days were spent lounging by the beach soaking up the sun now we do this a lot in English

and I realized after learning other languages that we talk about our time and our day as if those are the things that are doing the actions you know how was your day how was your week my day was good my day was spent doing this uh my week was spent doing that we we actually talk about this a lot English how was your day my day was good right how did your day go my day went well so most days on my vacation we're spent lounging by the beach soaking up the sun Mark already talked

a bit about lounging lounging laying back laying out and soaking up the sun now a lot of people like to go on vacation and want to soak up the sun now that either means to uh just enjoy the warm warmth when you soak up something think of a sponge okay a sponge would soak up the water and if you're soaking up the sun you're really taking in the warmth maybe if you are light skinned then your skin is getting darker then I would definitely say that we enjoyed soaking up the Sun and don't forget your

hat and sunscreen because we don't need to get sunburned on our while we're soaking up the sun enjoying our time on the beach so let's continue on finally did you run into any other problems uh on your little vacation there was one minor hiccup when we missed our Spar appointment I mix up with the booking times but the staff was so accommodating and rescheduled us straight away so overall it was a really lovely holiday and it was just what we needed so the problem was only a small problem problem and the word we used was

one minor hiccup a hiccup uh hiccup is the thing where you uh I don't know how to describe a hiccup you get hiccups and you can't stop breathing or exhaling I think it's when I think it's when you have a a some air in your throat and it's causing your throat to kind of gasp for air so yeah can't control it it's uncontrollable and so you have to try to scare yourself to stop having the hiccups or you have hold your breath and hopefully you can't control them so you hopeful hope that the hiccups stop

right yeah um so hiccup is also used to describe a problem especially if it's a small problem like a hiccup if I have hiccups I don't need to take the day off work I can still go to work with hiccups and likewise I can still enjoy my vacation with a small hiccup so it's a small problem it's a very first world problem I missed my spa appointment I had a massage booked and G it we were we came at the wrong time so there it was a mixup a mixup is another way to describe a

small problem a mixup is often some confusion or mistake especially when it's about a time a booking or a place so I think a sometimes a miscommunication I I thought you said this and you actually said this that's that's a mixup just a little mixup and I think it's also if you say that it's a mixup I think it's no one's fault so if you say there was a miscommunication feels a little bit more serious oh there was just a mixup maybe I was wrong maybe they were wrong we don't really know so just a

mixup yeah right it's very neutral diplomatic way to describe a problem so a mixup in a restaurant would be oh we arrived at the wrong time or the table is the wrong size a mixup at the hotel is maybe we ordered we wanted room one and they gave us the key for room two like oh that's a little mixup so not a big problem and luckily the staff were very accommodating they were so accommodating uh accommodating is to to really change things and help your guests as much as you can so I was the guest

on my holiday the staff changed things for me the staff changed things to help me so accommodating stuff if I wanted new towels or more towels sure they would give them to me or if I wanted to change the appointment time sure no problem they' change it if I wanted to stay an extra day sure no problem if they're accommodating they're changing things and adapting to make you more comfortable or or happier so I think of being flexible being very easygoing but above all giving the guest what they want you know very accommodating you want

more towels here's more towels you want more of this sure go ahead that is very accommodating yeah so that was the only hiccup we missed a spar appointment but it wasn't a problem uh did did you run into any other issues actually I ended up using the same phrase as well we did have a small hiccup with our hotel room the AC wasn't working but they sorted that out pretty quickly and the rest of the stay was perfect so Mark talked a bit about a small hiccup small issue or a problem uh the AC wasn't

working the AC is your air conditioning there's really no reason to say air conditioning you can call it the AC say the letters a A and C the AC but they sorted that out pretty quickly if you sort something out you fix a problem they sorted the AC out they sorted out the AC they sorted the problem out they sorted that out pretty quickly and the rest of the stay or the time after that hiccup after that problem was perfect wow amazing yes another Marathon episode maybe the longest one we've done yet but I hope

it was full of useful phrases and vacations it's a great topic there's so much to talk about so yeah please in the comments have you just come back from vacation have you had a vacation that was really memorable or or really nice before please let us know write some sentences in the comments see if you can use any of the phrases that we discussed today and of course members will be able to download the PDF transcript of of this already and see every word every example to help your studies even more and as we're coming

to the end of season 1 we have one more episode until we round out at 20 episodes for this season we're also working on a giant study pack for you guys we want you to be able to take your studying to the next level we will have worksheets transcripts MP3s video clips extra speaking practice listening practice it's all going to be together in our study pack so stay tuned for the end of our season and then also we'll let you know about all the news regarding our study pack so we will see you very soon

thank you everybody thank you bye-bye