Crossing Borders with English

In today’s podcast, you’re going to develop your Listening skills! Listening is an important activity. It helps you develop pronunciation, teaches you new vocabulary, and gives you real examples of how native speakers speak.

I’m going to first teach you 5 new vocabulary words that you will hear today. Then I’m going to read you something I wrote about travel and culture. After you listen to the reading, you will answer 5 questions about the reading.

The vocabulary words that we talk about today are:

1. prevent (verb) – to stop something
2. recurring (adjective) – repeating; happening many times
3. cross (verb) – to pass over something (like a bridge or a river)
4. border (noun) – line between two countries
5. daydream (verb) – to think about something deeply while you’re away, usually about something you wish would come true.

Crossing Borders

I have these recurring dreams. They all take place in different locations, but one thing is the same: I’m doing everything I can to cross a border, but something prevents me. Sometimes I get stuck in a spiral airport with no departing flights. Sometimes it’s an unending lines of vehicles at a border crossing. Sometimes my car breaks down in the mountains before I can make it to my destination.

I was made to cross borders. It’s what I daydream about at my desk. It’s what I devour on Instagram. It’s what floods my subconscious dream life every other week.
What is it about crossing a border? It’s the anticipation of whatever lies ahead. It’s the glorious whiplash of culture that happens in an instant. You’re swimming in the French language when suddenly Italian fills your senses. It one of the dreamiest feelings I know.

Little in the world compares to those first five minutes in a new country. Your eyes are open wide and your window is rolled down. You’re trying to let the culture pour into your soul just a little bit faster. You let the weather hit you like a ton of bricks. You want to know what Argentina feels like when it’s all over you. Diving in the deep end of a new culture is a high like none other, and that feeling rushes over you every time you cross a border.

Answer these five questions after listening to this reading:

1. In general, what is this story about?
2. What do I dream about a lot?
3. What is one example of the things that go wrong in my dreams?
4. What do you think it means to be “swimming in the French language”?
5. What do you think it means to be “hit by a ton of bricks?”

My wish for you is that English enables you to cross all the borders of your dreams.

Happy learning!

P.S. If you want to dramatically improve your pronunciation skills, take my latest course Clear English Pronunciation. People are changing their lives by taking this course! The results have been dramatic. Simply visit StudyWithAndrea.com/speak to learn more.