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English Listening: A Trip Downtown | Episode 20

June 6, 2016 by Melanie 15 Comments

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English Listening: A Trip Downtown | Episode 20 | English Teacher Melanie podcast

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Listen to a story about my trip downtown Toronto to meet my friend!

You’ll also learn how to say names of places and streets in a city.

Welcome to the English Teacher Melanie Podcast, a podcast for intermediate to advanced English learners who want to improve their English listening and speaking skills!

Each episode includes a story and a pronunciation tip. In the story, I use core vocabulary, the most common words in English, to tell a real world story. The pronunciation tip will help you understand natural spoken English.

You’ll hear the story twice. The first time, the story is a little slower than normal. It sounds funny because I used editing software to change the speed of the story and make it slower. After the pronunciation tip, you’ll hear the story again, but at a regular speed.

 

THE STORY

People think that Canada is cold all the time, but we have beautiful weather in the summer and it’s a great time to see the country. One of my friends from Australia was traveling through Canada this summer and she stopped in Toronto for a couple days. I hadn’t seen her in a few years, so I was excited to spend time with her and show her around Toronto.

As you may remember from a previous story, I live in a suburb of Toronto, about an hour north of the city. I took the bus downtown because I don’t like driving in Toronto. There are too many cars, the roads are narrow, you have to share the roads with cyclists and buses and streetcars, and parking is expensive. Besides, it’s easy to get around downtown Toronto without a car. The city has a good public transportation system, and places are close together so it doesn’t take long to walk to them.

Every major city in North America has an area called downtown. Downtown Toronto is the busiest part of the city. It’s where the financial district is located, as well as the local government buildings. There are also sports and entertainment venues, tourist attractions, shopping areas, and different neighborhoods, like Chinatown.

I met my friend at Union Station, which is the main transportation hub in downtown Toronto. From there, I took her on a short walking tour. We stopped for a bite to eat at a restaurant on Front St., and then we walked through part of the underground shopping center that connects all the office buildings downtown. There was a free concert in the public square in front of City Hall, so we stopped to watch it for a little while. We had a fun time. I wish she could have stayed in Toronto for a few more days.

Listen: The Worst Bus Ride. Ever! | Episode 02

 

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PRONUNCIATION TIP

How to say names of places and streets in a city
In the story, I mentioned the name of a street in Toronto, as well the names of two places.

I don’t recommend memorizing rules, but there are pronunciation guidelines that you can follow.

Official place names are proper nouns, and usually the last word is stressed in a proper noun.

[Remember: Stress = say the word louder & longer than the other word.]

Listen carefully:

Union Station
City Hall

I don’t recommend memorizing rules, because there’s always an exception.

In the story, I also mentioned the name of a street in downtown Toronto. Street names are proper nouns, too.

However, when a street name includes the word street, stress the first word, or the word before street. Don’t stress the word street.

Listen carefully:

FRONT Street, not Front STREET

Here are some more street names in Toronto:

Yonge Street
King Street
Queen Street

Here are some famous street names in the United States:

Main Street (every U.S. town & city)
Bourbon Steet (New Orleans)
Canal Street (NYC & New Orleans)
Lombard Street (San Francisco)
Beacon Street (Boston)

 

QUESTIONS

Do you live near a big city?

When your family and friends come to visit you, where do you take them? Do you take them to see any major tourist attractions?

Leave me a comment below!
 
EnglishTeacherMelanie.com

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Filed Under: Blog, Podcast Tagged With: Canada, transportation, travel

Comments

  1. NICOLA says

    September 22, 2015 at 6:36 am

    Thanks for your email.
    It’s good for me!

    Reply
  2. Marie-Danielle says

    September 22, 2015 at 8:10 am

    My dream! Toronto… I use to love going downton. Mélanie, I really say a judge MERCI for the story you have sent me. I miss Canada. This country is gorgious .From Switzerland , I send you 3xxx.

    Reply
  3. abdell says

    September 22, 2015 at 6:35 pm

    That was very helpful
    Thanks a bunch.

    Reply
  4. Javier says

    September 22, 2015 at 9:58 pm

    Thank you Melanie for you effort and good will to teach us English, you are an excellent teacher.

    Reply
  5. Nha says

    September 22, 2015 at 11:28 pm

    Thank you Melanie so much
    Your new podcast and the previous ones are very useful

    Reply
  6. BEHZAD says

    September 26, 2015 at 2:01 am

    Hi.Thank you so much for new podcast .
    Best regards.

    Reply
  7. Jeetendra says

    September 28, 2015 at 5:55 am

    Hi Melanie
    I have learnt and improved a lot since I started visited this so useful a website.To be honest with you,I have been obsessed with the English language since last two years.I have done nothing but try to learn how to speak English.All I desire is to speak and write English flawlessly in a less amount of time as I have already wasted 2 years without much improvement.Madam,I try not to think in mother tongue,as a result,I have become able to write,speak and have a dream in English,but I think that my English isn’t up to the mark.
    Trust me Melanie! I feel so sad and frustrated when I make mistakes and am not able to write and speak natural English.Thanks to your podcast my listening skills have improved a lot.I can’t stand not being able to form natural english sentence.That is my biggest problem.
    To conclude, I beg for your reply to the following questions-
    (a)On which level my english is today?
    (b)How much do I still lack?
    I am waiting for your reply with bated breath.
    Jeetendra,
    Best regards,

    Reply
  8. Lubna says

    October 1, 2015 at 9:54 am

    Hi Melanie

    I have followed your podcasts since a while and your useful videos on Youtube of the correct pronunciation…. I feel more comfortable while speaking English specially in articulating the sounds of the letters.
    I will try my best to sound like native speakers.
    Thanks alot :)

    Reply
  9. mahmood says

    October 24, 2015 at 6:40 am

    hi teacher it was so goooooood fantastic and useful now i can solve my problems in learning english by your way for me it was so boring memorize a lot of words and grammar i think your suggestion is useful and good thanks very much for your teaching

    Reply
  10. nishan says

    November 14, 2015 at 3:14 am

    i would like to follow your lessons ,, kindly send me all lessons from 1 to 20 which i have not been received through your email , your lessons are so power full and simple to learn the American accent of English. please help me to learn fully by your chapters without missing any one ….

    Reply
  11. Thanh says

    December 16, 2015 at 8:23 am

    Thank you…it’s useful for me, I hope I can improve English in the next time.:

    Reply
  12. Eunchae Jeong says

    January 6, 2016 at 6:35 pm

    i useally listen to it on my way to work. I try to listening everyday sometimes so sleepy…lol
    always thank you!:) Happy new year! and wonderful in 2016.

    Reply
    • barbara says

      January 18, 2016 at 12:49 pm

      Why there is no article before: Union Station and
      City Hall

      Reply
      • Melanie says

        January 21, 2016 at 1:49 pm

        You don’t need to use an article before the name of a building.

        https://therealmelanie.dream.press/grammar-when-not-to-use-the-definite-article/

        Reply
  13. Mery Martin says

    March 12, 2016 at 8:49 am

    Thanks so much for the tip, and I will continue to listen this story.

    Reply

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