Shadowing Practice: ENGLISH VOCABULARY | Travel Vocabulary and Phrases! | Rachel’s English - Learn English Speaking with YouTube
Today we'll study some travel vocabulary phrases together as you come
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Today we'll study some travel vocabulary phrases together as you come
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with me for a weekend at the Standard Hotel in New York City.
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You'll learn phrases and vocabulary that you might use at a hotel like amenities or incidentals.
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We'll order room service together and enjoy some amazing views.
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First, let's check in.
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Hi.
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I booked online, Rachel Smith,
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and then about an hour after I booked, I booked an upgrade.
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I'm using the verb here to book.
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I'm sure you're very familiar with the noun version of this word,
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book, but it's also a verb which means to reserve something.
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I booked a hotel room.
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You could also book a table at a restaurant.
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This means you've made a reservation.
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You could book a venue for your wedding,
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or a concert venue could book an act or a band.
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The bar around the corner booked my friend's band for Friday.
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Here, OO makes the UH as in push vowel.
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Book.
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UH.
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Book.
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So both the noun book and the verb book are pronounced exactly the same.
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Hi, I booked online, Rachel Smith,
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and then about an hour after I booked, I booked an upgrade.
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I used the term upgrade.
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This means to improve on something,
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to get a higher quality.
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For example, if you've had your cell phone for a while and it's a bit slow,
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you might want to get an upgrade.
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Here I'm using it as a noun.
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On a flight, you might be upgraded from an economy to a first class seat.
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Here I'm using it as a verb.
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Upgrade.
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In this case, I booked a hotel room and then the system asked me if I wanted to upgrade.
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The offer seemed like a good deal to me, so I did upgrade.
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I paid a bit more money for a bigger, better room.
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And then about an hour after I booked, I booked an upgrade.
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Because it sounded very enticing, what was being offered.
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Do you see how pregnant I am here?
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I'm eight months pregnant, and this was the last weekend that my doctor said I could travel away from home.
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So we took Stoney to my in-laws,
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that is David's parents, and took this short trip.
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In the US, you might hear people call this a babymoon.
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That is, a relaxing trip you take before it's harder to travel because you have a baby.
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This is related to the term honeymoon,
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which is a trip you take alone with your partner right after you get married.
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You booked for a Waterview Deluxe King, correct?
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Yes, south-facing.
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Here we're using some terms that you might use when describing a room.
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We booked a king, which means it has a king-sized bed in it.
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King and California King are the two largest sized beds.
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She used the term water view.
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This simply means what you can see from your room.
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You might have city view,
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park view, water view, ocean view, garden view, street view.
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This hotel is close to the Hudson River.
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I used the term south-facing.
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This means when you're in your room looking out the window,
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which direction are you looking?
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I knew I wanted to be south-facing because just north of the hotel are some taller buildings.
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I didn't want to look directly at another building,
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so I upgraded to a south-facing room.
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You might also see a room described as a corner room,
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which of course means you're on the corner of the building and you might get views in two different directions.
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You booked for a Waterview Deluxe, right?
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Yes, south-facing.
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Yep.
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I see that here, if I could just see a form of ID and a credit card for the bus.
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Sure.
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When checking into a hotel,
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there's a good chance that they'll ask for a form of ID like she did.
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That would be something official with your picture and name on it like a driver's license or passport.
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ID is short for identification.
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They'll also usually want a credit card from you
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so they can make charges to the room if you damage or take anything.
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Yep.
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I see that here if I could just see a form of ID and a credit card for the birthday.
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Sure.
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So I see that initially you put a deposit down for the room,
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so we would just leave the card for incidentals.
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Okay, no problem.
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Incidentals.
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This is a word they use for anything in addition to the cost of the room.
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For example, if you eat or drink from the mini bar in your room,
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they'll keep track of that and charge it to your card after you leave.
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So we would just leave the card for incidentals.
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Okay, no problem.
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And it doesn't, it's not ready yet by chance, is it?
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It is.
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Oh, perfect.
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She asks, have you stayed here before?
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Oh no, I've not.
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It's been on my bucket list.
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Bucket list.
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Have you heard this term before?
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It means something you want to do within your lifetime.
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For example, visiting Paris is on my bucket list.
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Oh no, I've not.
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It's been on my bucket list.
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So I'm glad that it's happening.
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Yes.
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This initial here, here, and a signature there,
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and if you could just add this gentleman's name right there.
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Sure.
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There might be something you have to initial or sign when checking into a hotel.
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Initial, of course, means you just put RS instead of your whole signature Rachel Smith.
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Just initial here, here, and a signature there,
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and if you could just add this gentleman's name right there.
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Sure.
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We finish checking in and head up to our room.
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Room number 814.
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We have a card as a key.
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Very dark elevator.
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See, this is why I didn't want to be north-facing.
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It's because Then you're just looking at a building.
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North-facing, south-facing.
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It can be very handy to know the details of the room you want when booking a hotel.
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Let's go find the room.
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There's the river.
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And there's the city.
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And there's the High Line.
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How cool is that?
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The High Line is a park in NYC that was built on top of an abandoned raised train line.
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I'll also talk about the Whitney,
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which is an art museum.
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That's the Whitney right there.
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Have you ever been to the Whitney, David?
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The new one?
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Yeah.
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And that's their little rooftop spot there.
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Maybe we should go.
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They have pay-as-you-wish entrance on Friday evenings.
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Alright, well let's settle in.
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Settle in is a phrase that means to unpack,
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to get comfortable, to arrange your things in a new place.
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After a big move, it can take some time to settle in.
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Whenever we stay somewhere, even if it's just for a night or two,
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I like to spend some time settling in when we first arrive to make this day more comfortable.
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Alright, well let's settle in.
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That night, our friend Renee dropped by and we ordered room service.
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Generally, you can reach the front desk by pressing zero.
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The front desk is there in the lobby where we checked in.
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You can call them with your needs and questions.
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Room service is for the restaurant in the hotel that can make and bring food to your room.
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Good evening, Good Services.
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Hi, is this where I call to place a room service order?
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Please hold on.
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I'll transfer it to them.
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Thank you.
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It was the front desk, not room service.
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Thank you for calling room service.
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This is Yuli.
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How can I help you?
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Hi, I'm in room 814,
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and I'd like to order two orders of fries.
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Okay.
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And does that come with ketchup?
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Yeah.
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Okay.
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Okay, and also two orders of a good pickle.
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Okay.
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Did you want anything to drink with us?
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Um, anyone thirsty?
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No, I think we're good.
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If you ask someone if they want something,
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or offer them something, and they say,
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I'm good, or we're good,
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that's like saying, no thank you.
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That person does not want it.
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Anyone thirsty?
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No, I think we're good.
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They told me it would be a 30 minute wait.
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Okay, I am eight months pregnant if that helps boost me forward.
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Okay, not a problem.
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Okay, I'm just kidding.
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Thank you.
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See you soon.
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Bye.
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I mean, I'm not kidding.
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I am eight months pregnant if that makes a difference.
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Luckily, the food came quickly.
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Wow, that's a lot of fries.
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That is a lot of fries.
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Ooh, I didn't expect them to be so little.
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I think we could have gotten by with one order.
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Nope.
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No?
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No. I'm so glad we have two.
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Mini mayonnaise.
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All the best to go with the mini ketchup.
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Mini ketchup, and then two good pickles.
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Mmm.
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Okay, what did you think of yours?
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I'm giving it an 8 out of 10.
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I'm thinking I'm going to give it a 6 or 7 out of 10.
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Oh, so low.
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Do you do this too?
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We rated how much we liked the pickle on a scale of 1 to 10.
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1 is always the lowest and 10 the highest.
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The very best of the best.
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So I didn't love the pickle.
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Still, there's something very luxurious about eating french fries in your hotel room at 1030 at night.
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Many hotels have an ice machine.
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This one was labeled an ice dispenser.
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So almost every hotel room in America has an ice bucket that you can take to the machine to fill up.
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This one also had tongs to serve ice into glasses.
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David and I had such a relaxing stay here enjoying slow days.
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Before we leave, let's go over a few more words and phrases that might be useful to you as you travel,
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as you stay in hotels.
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First, when you check into a hotel,
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you'll find the front desk in the lobby,
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and you can probably find a luggage cart there to help you get all your luggage to your room.
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The opposite of checking in is checking out.
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Check out, of course, is when you leave the hotel room and you give back your key.
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Two phrasal verbs for your travel vocabulary.
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Check in, check out.
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Here, I called the front desk to ask what time checkout was.
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I also had to report an issue about the room.
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Good.
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This is Freddie.
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Hi Freddie.
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Um, I am wondering what time checkout is tomorrow morning?
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It's at 12 p.m.
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Okay, perfect.
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Uh, my other question is,
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I'm in room 814, and the drain to the bathtub doesn't seem to close all the way.
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Okay, I'm about to just let me send someone off.
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Is that okay?
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That's great.
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We're actually going to head out in a minute.
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Is it okay if we're not here?
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That's great, yeah.
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Okay, thank you so much.
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I used the phrasal verb, head out.
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This means to leave.
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We were just getting ready to leave our room for a walk.
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Head out.
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That's great.
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We're actually going to head out in a minute.
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Is it okay if we're not here?
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Definitely, yes.
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Okay, thank you so much.
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We don't even need to try to get a late checkout because checkout's noon.
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That's perfect.
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This particular hotel does have a mini bar.
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So that is a place where they're going to have some food and snacks for you.
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They have some glasses for us, nice.
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And there's also a refrigerator.
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Mini bar usually refers to a refrigerator, refrigerator.
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And this one is fully stocked,
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so that means it came with all sorts of goodies ready for us.
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Now, usually if you eat or drink what comes here in the hotel, it's quite expensive.
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Much more expensive than just running out and buying it yourself.
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Another neat thing that this particular hotel room has is a shower bath room.
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So it's this whole room,
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floor to ceiling, doesn't matter if you get the whole thing wet,
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a big bathtub and then there's some slats
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that look out into the room so you can still see the view as you take your shower.
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This hotel room also has a safe.
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Many, many hotel rooms do,
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so you can put passports or money,
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valuables, whatever, in the safe when you leave.
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One thing that people are often interested in when choosing a hotel is the list of amenities.
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Amenities would be things like a gym or a pool or room service,
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other things that you get in addition to your room or special things that you might get in your room.
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Many hotels come with a little card like this.
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This one says, privacy please.
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And you hang this on your door knob to let them know,
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I don't want anyone to come in and work on my room.
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Or on the other side,
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I do want someone to come in,
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change out my towels for clean towels, maybe vacuum.
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So this card says, privacy please.
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But you might also see, do not disturb.
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Thank you guys for traveling with me to New York City this weekend.
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I also have a video that I made on travel phrases that you may use when checking in at an airport.
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Be sure to check that out.
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Are there other travel vocabulary or phrases videos that you'd like to see?
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Please let me know in the comments below.
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Big thanks to David and Renee for being in this video with me.
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That's it guys, and thanks so much for using Rachel's English.
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If you want to see my absolute latest video, click here.
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If you're new to the channel,
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check out this Where to Start playlist.
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Click here to subscribe.
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I make new videos on American English every Tuesday.
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To be sure we can keep in touch,
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click here to sign up for my newsletter.
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Context & Background
In the video titled "ENGLISH VOCABULARY | Travel Vocabulary and Phrases! | Rachel’s English," the speaker guides viewers through a travel experience at the Standard Hotel in New York City. This light-hearted journey focuses on essential travel vocabulary and phrases that can be utilized during hotel stays, such as booking a room, understanding amenities, and ordering room service. By immersing you in a real-life scenario, the speaker allows learners to absorb and practice contextual language effectively.
Top 5 Phrases for Daily Communication
- Book: As a verb, it means to reserve something, like a hotel room or a restaurant table.
- Upgrade: This term refers to improving or enhancing a service, such as moving from an economy class seat to first class.
- Incidentals: Additional charges that may occur during your hotel stay, often related to room service or amenities.
- Amenities: Features and services offered by a hotel, such as a pool, gym, or free Wi-Fi.
- Babymoon: A relaxing trip taken by expectant parents before their baby arrives, akin to a honeymoon.
Step-by-step Shadowing Guide
To master the phrases introduced in this video, consider using the shadowing technique. This method involves listening and speaking simultaneously, which can significantly enhance your pronunciation and fluency. Here’s how to effectively use this technique with the video:
- Listen Actively: Start by watching the video without interruption. Pay attention to the speaker’s tone and intonation.
- First Shadowing Attempt: Rewind to the beginning and play the video again. As the speaker says a phrase, repeat it immediately, mimicking their pronunciation and rhythm. This is known as shadow speech.
- Break it Down: If any phrases seem challenging, pause the video after the speaker finishes each sentence. Practice those sentences until you feel comfortable before moving on.
- Record Yourself: Use a recording app to capture your shadowing attempts. Listening back will help you identify areas for improvement.
- Practice Regularly: Incorporate the phrases into your daily conversations. The more you use them, the more natural they will become.
Utilizing a dedicated shadowing site or resource can also assist you in tracking your progress and refining your skills. By practicing these essential travel phrases and embracing the shadowspeaks of the speaker, you will develop greater confidence in your English speaking abilities. Happy shadowing!
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.
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