Full video

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Hello, welcome to Real Easy English from BBC Learning English. I'm Georgie.

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And I'm Neil. And in this podcast we have real

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conversations in easy English to help you improve your English.

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Remember, you can read what we're saying on our website. BBC Learning English dot com.

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How are you today, Georgie?

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I'm pretty good, Neil, thank you. I'm happy that it’s Friday.

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Mm, me too!

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So today, we're talking about holidays and our dream destinations.

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Great, I love this topic.

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But can you explain what you mean by destination, Neil?

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A 'destination' is what we call a place we are going to.

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The place we would like to go to.

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OK. So, if we are on a train to visit London, London is our destination.

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But we often use it when we're talking about holidays or special journeys.

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That's right. So, a 'dream destination'

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is 'somewhere we would really like to go and travel on our holiday'.

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OK, so, where is your dream holiday destination, Neil?

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I like two different kinds of holidays.

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I like interesting cities, interesting old cities, like European cities,

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but I also like mountains and countryside

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and those kind of places, like in South America.

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Mm-hm. Yes, I also have two different types of holidays that I like.

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If I want to relax, I usually want to be in the sun by the beach,

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but I also love to see new and interesting places,

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places that you can't see in your own country.

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Neil, where's your favourite place you've ever been to?

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Oh, well, I really, really liked Japan, when I visited Japan.

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OK, so if I go to Japan, what should I do there?

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You should eat as much food as you can, cos the food is fantastic.

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And you can eat in a little noodle shop

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or you can eat in a big, posh restaurant and it's all amazing.

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Mm, that sounds so good, and I love food!

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Ok so, you said I should try some Japanese restaurants.

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What is this word 'should'? What does it mean?

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It means I think it's a good idea for you to do that. That's my advice to you.

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OK, so it's kind of like a recommendation in this case?

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Yeah. So when you go to Japan, you should eat sushi.

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When you go to Japan, you should visit Kyoto to see Zen gardens.

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So how about you, Georgie?

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What's... What's the best place you've ever been on holiday?

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I really love Edinburgh in Scotland. I love it because it's very green.

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The city is very close to nature and it’s very beautiful.

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The buildings are really beautiful.

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OK, so Edinburgh, Georgie. What could I do in Edinburgh?

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Well, in August, for example, you could go to the Fringe Festival,

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which is a comedy and arts festival.

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So you could see some shows.

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Or you could go for a walk in the national parks outside of the city.

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Or you could go to see some of the museums they have.

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There’s lots of things you could do.

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Yeah, and when we use 'could', we're talking about 'things that are possible'.

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Yes, and that's different from 'should',

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because when I say you should do something,

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it means that it’s a good idea or I'm giving you advice.

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But 'could', I'm just giving you some options,

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things that are possible for you to do.

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Now, we don't always go to another country on holiday

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or even a different city, do we?

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No, now it's actually quite popular to go on holiday inside your own country

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and we have a word for this, don't we, Neil?

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Yes, we do. It combines two words, the word 'stay' and the word 'vacation'.

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Put them together and you have 'staycation'.

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And a 'staycation'

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is 'a holiday at, actually in, your house, or near your house'.

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Have you ever done a staycation, Neil?

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Yes, plenty of times!

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Often, on a staycation you might do day trips,

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so go and visit places in the area, but come home in the evening.

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Now the problem with holidays is they are expensive.

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We probably need to save up money if we want to travel to all these places,

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apart from the staycation.

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Yes, we should save up some money, exactly.

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Let's recap the language we learned during the conversation.

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We learned 'destination', which we use to talk about 'a place we are going to,

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'or we would like to go to'.

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'Could', which we use to talk about 'something that is possible'.

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'Should', which we use to talk about 'something that it's a good idea to do'.

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This is advice.

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And 'staycation' which is 'a fun word to talk about a holiday at or near home'.

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That's it for this episode of Real Easy English. Visit our website for

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more activities and courses to help you with your English. BBC Learning English dot com.

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Next time, we'll be talking about work and jobs.

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See you then. Goodbye!

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Bye!