Shadowing Practice: Intermediate English Practice | Nickel and dimed | Bonus 165 - Learn English Speaking with Video

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A quick announcement before we get started with this episode, and this one is a special announcement for our Japanese listeners, in particular the Tokyoites out there.
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Is that a word?
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Tokyoites?
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I'm not sure, but if you live in Tokyo, this is an announcement for you because we are going to have a Q -Lips meetup in Tokyo on Tuesday,
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February the 10th.
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Tuesday, February the 10th.
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And I would love to meet up with any Q -Lips listeners.
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It doesn't matter if you are just a casual listener or
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if you are a hardcore Q -Lips fanatic and are a Q -Lips member.
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It's open to everybody.
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And guys, the link for the details is going to be in the description for this episode.
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And to be honest, I haven't decided on a venue yet.
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If you are a listener in Tokyo
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and think you could help me out planning a little bit
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and finding a good venue to host maybe 10 to 15 people then
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that would be awesome and yeah we'll have a nice casual
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and fun meet up with some Q -Lips listeners in Tokyo on February the 10th
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so check out the link in the description
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and yeah let's do it see you in Tokyo hello
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and welcome to bonus episode number 165 of the Q -Lips English podcast How is it going?
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I hope you're doing well.
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My name's Andrew.
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I'll be your host and your study buddy today for this English language lesson.
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What we do here in the bonus episode series at Q -Lips is I just talk to you
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and I hang out with you and I tell you some stories from my everyday life.
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I'm a Canadian, but I live abroad in Seoul, South Korea.
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And I hope by listening to my stories, you will be able to build your English fluency and grow your vocabulary and become a clearer and more confident communicator.
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To accompany this episode, there is an absolutely free interactive transcript and vocabulary glossary.
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They're awesome study resources, and you can get them by following the link in the description.
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Plus, if you're a Qloops member, then you can also get a comprehension quiz.
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Yeah, so Qloops members, make sure to check out that comprehension quiz.
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And I got to say a big welcome and hello to all of the new members who have joined us recently.
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We had just a ton of brand new members sign up at the start of the year.
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So guys, thank you so much for trusting Qloops with your English language education
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and we're going to make a lot of progress this year.
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So it's great to have you aboard.
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Thank you to all the new members out there.
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Okay, so let's get started with this episode, guys.
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And in today's story, I'm going to tell you about my upcoming trip to Canada.
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I'm going back to Canada and you may be wondering, Andrew, why in the world would you go back to Canada in January of all times of the year in January.
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For the same amount of money, essentially, you could travel to beautiful places around the world.
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I could go to Spain.
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I could go to Australia.
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I could go to Bali in Indonesia.
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I could go to Mexico.
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I don't know.
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Beautiful places around the world I could visit for the same amount of money.
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But no, I decided to go to Canada in January.
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Why?
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Well, as I said at the start of the episode.
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I am from Canada and I got to go back home.
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You know, I live away from home, far away from my friends and family.
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And these days with technology, that's not as difficult as it used to be in the past.
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I can FaceTime my family anytime and have a video conversation with them.
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And it makes things not so difficult when I live away from home because of technology.
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However, once a year or twice a year I do like to go back to Canada
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and to see my family and see my friends
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so that's why I'm going back to Canada here in just a little bit.
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So I'm going to tell you about the process of buying my plane ticket
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because it was actually a little bit of an ordeal
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and I've complained about buying plane tickets in the past on Qloops
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so maybe this is just a me issue I don't know
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if anyone else has difficulties buying plane tickets or
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if you find it frustrating as well then let me know in the discussion for this episode
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that we'll have over on our discord server
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but yeah I think this is something that affects everyone who travels is
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that there's always a little bit of frustration with air travel
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and yeah actually the big plane ticket that I needed to buy, to go to Canada from Seoul, to fly from Seoul to Canada.
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Originally, I was thinking in my mind that there was no drama and that it was simple and easy to do.
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But now that I'm speaking here, I just remembered that there was actually a little drama buying that plane ticket.
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thankfully i bought it during a sales period air canada had a sale on
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so i was able to take advantage of the sale and
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and buy my plane ticket for a very very affordable price i have to say
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that you know i go back to canada yearly
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so i know how the plane ticket prices fluctuate from year to year
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and fluctuate it's kind of this bigger high level word that just means change so they change, they fluctuate, they go up and down from year to year.
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And I do have to say that this is
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the cheapest I've bought a plane ticket back to Canada in a long time.
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So I'm thankful for that, for sure.
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However, one thing that is a little bit frustrating is that you got to shop around for a plane ticket.
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Like you get different prices from different websites.
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And you would assume that if I'm flying on Air Canada to go back to Canada, you would assume that if you go to the official Air Canada website,
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that would be the cheapest price, right?
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Like they should be able to sell it for the cheapest price.
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And they did have a good price, but I found it on a different third party travel website for a cheaper price.
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So I was able to get a cheaper price on my airplane ticket through a third party.
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And a third party is what we call a service that kind of acts like the middleman.
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Like they are in the middle of my transaction, my business transaction with Air Canada, right?
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They buy the ticket off Air Canada or get it somehow.
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And then they sell it to me.
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And then I travel with Air Canada.
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So we're bringing in this third party and they were able to offer the ticket at a slightly lower price.
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So I was happy about that.
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And I booked my plane ticket and thought everything was done and dusted, was finished, and I could just not worry about that anymore.
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However, a few hours after I booked my ticket, my wife came running up to me and she's like, Andrew, you've got to cancel your ticket.
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And I was like, what?
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Oh, why?
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Why do I have to cancel my ticket?
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She was able to find actually a quite substantially cheaper ticket through a korean third party reseller
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and they even had some special bonus discounts that
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if you used your korean credit card often in korea here you can get some discounts
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when you make purchases online depending on the card that you use
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and it just so happened that we have the card
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that got a pretty good discount on this plane ticket
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so thankfully i was able to cancel my original ticket it was still in that 24 hour window.
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I'm not sure if this is global or not.
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I'm not sure.
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But here in Korea, when you purchase a plane ticket, legally, you have 24 hours to cancel the ticket with no fee or penalty.
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So I was still within that 24 hour window.
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So I canceled my original ticket and I rebooked it using the Korean third party reseller, ticket reseller or travel service,
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whatever you want to call it.
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And I was able to get a really good price.
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So yeah, I'm happy at the end of the day, no complaints on my behalf, really, except for the fact that you do have to jump through these hoops, right?
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It's not just a simple sit down, go to the Air Canada website, book your ticket finished.
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No, you got to do all the shopping around.
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And depending on the card that you have and the service that you find, the exact same ticket and the exact same seat can really vary a lot.
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So that is a little bit frustrating.
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However, not a big deal.
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Got that ticket for an affordable price.
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Happy about that.
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Great.
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Now, here's where my main complaint is.
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My main complaint.
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My main complaint is that I'm from a small town in Canada called Kelowna.
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It's a city of around 150 ,000 people or something like that.
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It's in a region in the province of British Columbia, my home province called the interior or the Okanagan.
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And it's around four hour drive or a one hour flight from Vancouver.
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So of course, when I fly to Canada, I leave from Seoul, I go to Vancouver.
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And then sometimes I spend time in Vancouver, I do have friends and family there.
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But often I just fly right on to Kelowna.
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That's where my parents live.
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That's where my brother lives and that's where I grew up.
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I consider Kelowna my hometown.
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So in the winter, you don't really want to drive to Kelowna from Vancouver
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because there's a big mountain in between those two cities and driving that mountain pass in the winter can be really dangerous.
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There's lots of snow and ice and yeah, it's just not the safest bet.
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You never know if you're gonna have like really good weather one day.
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You could have great weather on the mountain road, or you could have a blizzard and snow storm, or the road could even be closed down.
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It's just totally unpredictable in the winter because of the weather.
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So instead of taking a bus or driving or anything like that, it's best to fly.
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So I needed to book a plane ticket to go to Kelowna from Vancouver.
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Just like I said, a one hour flight.
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And this is where I got really frustrated with the ticket booking process because, and this is on me, this is kind of my fault.
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Actually, it's pretty much 100 % my fault.
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However, I just went to this airline called WestJet and I booked a ticket with WestJet.
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And I've noticed that WestJet, which is a Canadian airline that services lots of domestic flights in Canada,
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but also some international flights.
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I've actually flown on WestJet from Canada to Korea before.
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I think they've canceled that flight now, but they used to offer that.
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So they do have some international options available, but it's mostly just domestic flights in Canada.
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That's their bread and butter, I think.
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And that's a good idiom to be your bread and butter just means your specialty or your main focus,
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your main skill or talent, something like that.
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When it's your main thing, then it's your bread and butter.
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So WestJet's bread and butter is domestic Canadian flights.
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And yeah, I booked a flight on WestJet to go from Vancouver to Kelowna.
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Now I noticed when I went to WestJet's website
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that they have kind of changed their services over the last year or two since I've flown with them last.
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And it used to be that they had two or maybe three options.
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You could buy maybe just two options.
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Maybe they had like a premium and an economy ticket.
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And I'm not sure what they called it.
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Maybe it was business and economy, or maybe it was first class and economy.
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But I think they just had those two options.
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Maybe they had like business, first class and economy, but they just had those, those kind of very clear options where you could book your ticket.
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And of course, first class or business, you know, these are premium tickets.
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These are more expensive.
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And then you have your economy where people like me sit, okay?
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And that used to be what you would see when booking a ticket through their website.
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However, now they've introduced a lot of complexity.
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And now in the economy, they have all of these different options.
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I believe they had three options just for economy
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and the options are priced differently depending on
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if you're going to check a bag
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or not check a bag check a bag means to store a suitcase
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or to store luggage in the storage compartment of the plane
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underneath right like you can have a carry -on bag
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which is like your little bag that you take with you on the airplane
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or a checked bag that goes in the airplane's storage compartment
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so that pricing is different there's different pricing options depending on
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if you want to be able to cancel your ticket
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or not cancel your ticket or change the details of your ticket
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select your seats if you want some more legroom
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or less legroom like there are all these different options
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and yeah it's a little bit frustrating because
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when you search for your plane ticket the first price I saw was a very affordable price
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and I was like oh this is great however
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when I went to actually get to the stage where I have to book the ticket then
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that price goes up quite a bit once they add in the extras and the tax and everything.
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And yeah, I reckoned, I thought that I probably wouldn't be canceling my ticket.
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So I just went with the no cancellation option, which was just a terrible mistake.
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I don't know why I did that.
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So I booked my ticket, kind of the cheapest option available.
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I didn't want to spend a lot of money on this just one hour flight, I thought, okay, I'm done.
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All of my plane tickets booked.
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However, then I called my parents to tell them about my travel plans and when I was expecting to come in.
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And my dad asked me why I was flying on WestJet.
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He's like, why are you flying WestJet?
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You usually fly at Northern Air.
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Why aren't you flying Northern Air?
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And in that moment, I was like, oh my gosh, I totally forgot about Northern Air.
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There's this other airline that's a real regional carrier.
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It really only operates in the western part of Canada, and they service the north.
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That's their specialty, northern Canada.
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So it's kind of like the northwest part of the country.
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However, they do fly between Vancouver and Kelowna, and I've flown with them a lot in the past,
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but for whatever reason I just totally blanked
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and it didn't cross my mind when I was booking my airline ticket and I forgot about Northern Air.
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so then after i finished talking with my parents i went
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to the northern air website i'm like oh how much how
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much was it like did i really miss out on a good deal
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or something and i checked
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and yeah i really did miss out on a good deal it was like a much more affordable price
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and it included two checked bags with west jet i had to add a checked bag to my ticket
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and it was really expensive just to check a suitcase, like one suitcase.
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And it's not like I'm carrying a ton of stuff.
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I'm only going to Canada for a week.
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So I don't have that many things, but you know, it's always nice when you go back, I bring some little gifts and things back for my family.
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And so I do have to check a bag and yeah, it costs almost like the same amount as the airplane ticket
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costs to check a bag to go on a return ticket on WestJet.
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So just ridiculous, super expensive.
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And I feel like I'm just getting nickeled and dimed.
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Nickeled and dimed is an expression that means like a company
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or a person is trying to extract and get like every little cent
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and dollar they can get out of you just to extract the most amount of money out of you.
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So I really felt like just terrible with west jet
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that i was getting taken advantage of
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and all these fees fees for this fees for
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that however with northern air it's really simple it's like a basic website
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everything is very transparent what you see is what you get there's no extra fees stuff is just included
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and so i really like as a customer that kind of business right so i crunched the numbers I calculated,
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okay, if I cancel my flight with WestJet and I have the, remember, I booked the no cancellation option, right?
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I checked to see if I could cancel my flight.
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And I guess I have to tip my hat to WestJet a little bit here
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and say that I'm thankful that even though I chose the no cancellation option, I was still able to cancel my flight,
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but you don't get a refund.
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You have to pay a cancellation fee.
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And then the refund that you do get isn't money.
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They don't give you money back.
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They give you credit.
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So I did the math.
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I added everything up and yeah, I was really not happy to have to pay the cancellation fee to WestJet.
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However, it was more affordable to fly on Northern Air.
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I also have to say that the plane times were a better time.
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I would spend less time waiting at the airport between my Seoul to Vancouver flight
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and my Vancouver to Kelowna flight with Northern Air,
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something like a three or four hour layover compared to a six plus hour layover with WestJet.
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So the time was better as well.
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So when I took all of these things into consideration, like the way better service and just business practice
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that you get from Northern Air and the better times
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and just the overall impression that I got comparing these two different airlines.
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I was like, I got to cancel WestJet.
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I can't fly with them.
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So I bit the bullet.
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I canceled my flight.
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It really sucks.
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I had to pay that cancellation fee and then I received no refund, just credit.
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So I guess I'll be flying WestJet sometime in the future now that I have credit with them.
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But it was just frustrating.
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And really, I'm the one to blame, right?
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I was the one who totally forgot about Northern Air in the first place.
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I'm glad my dad reminded me about them, because without that, I wouldn't have been able to use their service.
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But yeah, that's on me.
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And that was a little bit of frustration I had booking the ticket going back to Canada.
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However, it's all finished.
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It's all in the past.
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The tickets are booked.
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Everything's good to go.
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And hopefully that was the only little bit of a travel headache that I'll have for this trip.
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Hopefully the rest of it will be smooth sailing.
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In the next bonus episode, I'm actually going to tell you about what I'm looking forward to doing in Canada.
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I've got not a lot of things planned.
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Like most of the time when I go back, I just want to hang out with people.
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I want to see my family.
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I want to see my friends, but there are a few things and activities that I want to do as well.
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And that's going to be the topic of our next bonus episode.
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So you'll have to wait until next week to hear that one.
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But for now, everyone, I just want to say thank you for listening.
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Don't forget to check out the study tools, the transcript, the vocabulary glossary, and the quiz that are available for this episode.
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And also come on over to our discord to hang out and to chat about what you heard today in this episode.
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If you have any questions or comments, I'd love to hear from you.
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Plus, there are tons of other different topics that you can talk about on Discord with our awesome community,
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and it's a great way to be active with your English and to practice your English.
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output as well as your input that you get from listening to the podcast
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so guys we'll see you over on the discord please take care
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and i'll catch you in the next episode until then bye

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “Intermediate English Practice”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: ticket, canada, plane, flight, price. This video has 286 sentences and 3537 words to shadow. The speech runs for 20:09. The speaker talks at a natural 176 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 83% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.

Key vocabulary in this video

The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:

WordPronunciationMeaning
cancel verb/ˈkæn.sl̩/To cross out something with lines etc.
frustrate verb/ˈfɹʌsˌtɹeɪt/To disappoint or defeat; to vex by depriving of something expected or desired.
cancellation noun/kænsəˈleɪʃən/The act, process, or result of cancelling; as, the cancellation of certain words in a contract, or of the contract itself.
listener noun/ˈlɪs(ə)nɚ/Someone who listens, especially to a speech or a broadcast.
airline noun/ˈɛɹˌlaɪn/A company that flies airplanes to transport people and goods.
discord noun/ˈdɪskɔɹd/Lack of concord, agreement, harmony; disaccord.
depend verb/dɪˈpɛnd/To be contingent or conditioned; to have something as a necessary condition
fluctuate verb/ˈflʌkt͡ʃu.eɪt/To vary irregularly; to swing.
reseller nounA company or individual that purchases goods or services with the intention of reselling them rather than consuming or using them.
suitcase noun/ˈsutkeɪs/A large (usually rectangular) piece of luggage used for carrying clothes, and sometimes suits, when travelling.
vocabulary noun/vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/A usually alphabetized and explained collection of words e.g. of a particular field, or prepared for a specific purpose, often for learning.
quiz noun/kwɪz/A competition in the answering of questions.
airplane noun/ˈɛɹˌpleɪ̯n/A powered heavier-than-air aircraft with fixed wings: a fixed-wing aircraft with at least one engine or electric motor.
refund noun/ɹɪˈfʌnd/An amount of money returned.
glossary noun/ˈɡlɑ.sə.ɹi/A list of difficult words or specialized terms used in a particular book or document, or in a particular domain of knowledge, with their definitions; a list of…

Phrasal verbs you will hear

WordPronunciationMeaning
go back to verbTo stem from; to originate in.
check out verbTo record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.).
go back verbTo return to a place or state after having been there at a previous time.
go up verbTo move upwards.
close down verb/kləʊzˈdaʊn/To stop trading as a business.
come on over verbto visit someone's home or other location.
get out of verbTo leave, exit or escape from; to become free of.
grow up verbTo mature and become an adult.

Sentences worth repeating

Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:

  • I hope you're doing well.
  • Why do I have to cancel my ticket?
  • I'm not sure if this is global or not.
  • That's where my parents live.
  • That's their bread and butter, I think.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

StructureIn the video
“Used to” used to + verb — a past habit or state that is no longer trueused to be · used to offer
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters nowhaven't decided · have joined · I've complained
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does itbe closed · are priced · is just included
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thingeveryone who travels · WestJet, which is · option, which was

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 68 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, don't, I've. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

  • The “th” sounds: thankful /ˈθæŋkfəl/, underneath /ˌʌndɚˈniθ/, northwest /nɔɹθˈwɛst/, mathematics /mæθ(.ə)ˈmæt.ɪks/
  • The “sh” and “zh” sounds: cancellation /kænsəˈleɪʃən/, comprehension /ˌkɑmpɹɪˈhɛnʃn̩/, specialty /ˈspɛʃ.əl.ti/, frustration /fɹʌsˈtɹeɪ.ʃən/, gosh /ɡɑːʃ/
  • Long words — get the stress right: cancellation /kænsəˈleɪʃən/, vocabulary /vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/, communicator /kəˈmjuːnɪkeɪtə/, accompany /əˈkʌm.pə.ni/, complexity /kəmˈplɛk.sɪ.ti/

How to practise with this video

  1. Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
  2. Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
  3. Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like cancel, frustrate, cancellation.

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.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →