Holiday English: 15 Travel Words, Stress and Sounds

One of the speakers in this episode spent a whole holiday trying to think of a souvenir for his family, ran out of ideas, and bought fridge magnets for everybody. "True story," he adds, through the laughter. Another admits that toiletries are "a nightmare to pack" — toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, soap, shampoo, conditioner. Fifteen holiday words are hidden in these clips, replaced by a beep, and your job is to guess them before we give the answers.

What you'll hear in this episode

The conversation clips come from Kami and Donnie, talking about the parts of travel everyone actually remembers. In the first set, Kami warns Katie about lost luggage and why the important things go in your hand luggage, complains about having to check in two hours early for a six o'clock flight, and describes queues at customs that can be "so many hours long" — or the days when they just stamp your passport and say, "Enjoy the rest of your trip."

She's also honest about how she likes to travel: no fixed itinerary, because "I just do what I feel like doing, when I feel like doing it." On sightseeing, she says "I come from a country where we don't have a lot of history yet", and laughs about looking at buildings older than her country.

Donnie takes the second set. He talks about turbulence on a recent flight, package deals, and the difference between self-catering, half-board and full-board — and where the flexibility goes in each case. On haggling in markets he explains the thirty-euros-to-fifteen-euros dance, then adds, "I wouldn't try it in department stores though." On sunbathing he's less enthusiastic: "I don't get very brown."

Between the clips, we check the meaning of every word and give you time to repeat it.

Quick facts

Episode	3.28
Title	Holidays / Vacations
Pack	Vocabulary and Pronunciation 3
Level	3
Duration	24 minutes 31 seconds
Vocabulary	15 words and phrases
Speakers heard	Kami, Donnie
Workbook	Included in the paid all-in-one pack

What you'll learn

The listening task trains something specific: using context to predict a missing word. Because the target words are beeped out, you have to work from "the plane began to shake, and become unstable" to turbulence, or from "you can negotiate this" to haggle. That's exactly what your brain does when a real speaker says something you don't quite catch.

The pronunciation half is unusually detailed. We point out that luggage and baggage share the same end sound /ɪʤ/, that customs takes the stress on the first syllable with a weak /əmz/ second, and that recommend puts the stress right at the end. Itinerary is broken into five pieces — /aɪ/ /tɪn/ /ə/ /re/ /ri/ — because that's where most learners fall apart. Sunbathe gets its /eɪ/ vowel flagged, so you don't say it like sunbath.

There's a bonus lesson in the two speakers themselves: Kami says "when I take a vacation", Donnie says "I recently came back from my holidays". Same idea, two varieties of English, and you hear both in one episode. You'll also pick up natural collocations — hand luggage, baggage allowance, a guided bus tour, trying to get a tan — rather than isolated words.

Vocabulary from this episode

luggage / baggage — suitcases and bags you take on holiday. Kami's clip is about losing it on an airline.
toiletries — products you use for personal hygiene like shower gel and toothpaste. Her least favourite thing to pack.
to check in / check out — to arrive at a place and tell them you have arrived; to tell a hotel you are leaving and give your key back.
customs — when you enter a country you must go through customs where they may check you have not brought anything illegal into the country.
go sightseeing — travel around a new place looking at important or interesting things.
an itinerary — a plan of places you will go and information about how you will travel there and when.
a guided tour — a journey around a place with someone who knows it and can tell you about it.
turbulence — going up and down in an airplane because of changes in the air outside.
a package deal — a holiday which includes the flight and the accommodation in the cost.
self catering / half board / full board — no meals provided; two meals provided; all meals provided.
to haggle — to talk to the seller to try and get them to reduce the price.
to sunbathe — to lie in the sun trying to get brown skin.

In the workbook

The 3.28 workbook opens with the full listening task written out, so you can read the clips after listening and see the words in context. Then comes a glossary of all fifteen items with phonetic transcription and a plain-English definition for each — useful for the ones where the spelling misleads you, like itinerary and souvenir.

The extra materials give you three practice tasks. Practice 1 is error correction: five sentences with mistakes like "I'm going to have a sunbath" and "Have you packed your toilets?" Practice 2 swaps six words into the wrong sentences — "My customs was too heavy, I had to pay a fine" — and you put them back where they belong. Practice 3 is a stress-pattern sort: nine words to place into four patterns, including the one that catches everyone out, souvenir. Full answers are included.

This workbook comes with the Zapp! English all-in-one pack, which includes the workbooks for every episode across all levels for €39.

Get the complete courseAll workbooks and audio — €39

Do I need the workbook to follow the episode?

No. The audio is free and self-contained — the words are explained and drilled out loud. The workbook is for reading the clips again and testing yourself afterwards.

Is the audio scripted?

The holiday clips from Kami and Donnie are unscripted, hesitations and all. The teaching sections that set up each task and give the answers are scripted, so the instructions stay clear.

Is this the right level for me?

It's a Level 3 episode. If you can follow a native speaker talking about a recent trip and want to sharpen your word stress, it will fit.

Will I learn the difference between full board and self catering?

Yes — Donnie explains all three accommodation options in one clip, and we check each meaning afterwards.

How long is it?

24 minutes 31 seconds, split into two listening tasks and two pronunciation tasks.

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