Travel - Advanced

Travel Conversation Questions Discussion Questions: 1. Have you traveled abroad? Where have you been? If you haven't been overseas, which country would you most like to visit? 2. Where did you go on your last trip? Talk about where you went and what you did. 3. What is the best place for a vacation in your country? Why is it good? 4. What is the longest time you have been away from home? Did you feel homesick? 5. How long should a vacation be? How long does it take you to really relax? 6. What forms of transportation do you prefer to use when you travel? 7. How do you choose where to go? Are you inspired by other people's travel stories? Or photos? Or advertising? 8. What's more important to you when you travel - comfort and relaxation, or stimulating new experiences? 9. Do you like to try local foods when you go somewhere? Have you ever had something really delicious? Really disgusting? 10. Things can go wrong when you travel. Have you had any bad travel experiences? 11. Do you take a lot with you when you travel? Or do you try to pack light? 12. Which places in the world do you think are too dangerous to visit? Why are they dangerous? 13. What is the best age to travel? Can children appreciate the experience? 14. What are the advantages and disadvantages of traveling alone? 15. What kind of accommodation do you like to stay in when you travel? 16. Do you like to talk to the local people when you travel? Why or why not? 17. Would you like to go to a big international event, such as the Olympics or an international film festival? What would be good or bad about attending such an event? Choose between these holidays and explain your choice: Touring the remains of an ancient civilization A relaxing stay at a beach resort Shopping in a busy city 💬💬💬🇩🇪🇩🇪🇩🇪 Fragen zum Reisegespräch Diskussionsfragen: 1. Bist du ins Ausland gereist? Wo bist du gewesen? Wenn Sie nicht im Ausland waren, welches Land würden Sie am meisten besuchen? 2. Wohin bist du auf deiner letzten Reise gegangen? Sprechen Sie darüber, wohin Sie gegangen sind und was Sie getan haben. 3. Was ist der beste Ort für einen Urlaub in Ihrem Land? Warum ist es gut? 4. Was ist die längste Zeit, die du von zu Hause weg warst? Hattest du Heimweh? 5. Wie lange sollte ein Urlaub dauern? Wie lange brauchen Sie, um sich wirklich zu entspannen? 6. Welche Verkehrsmittel bevorzugen Sie, wenn Sie reisen? 7. Wie wählst du, wohin du gehen willst? Sind Sie von den Reisegeschichten anderer Menschen inspiriert? Oder Fotos? Oder Werbung? 8. Was ist Ihnen wichtiger, wenn Sie reisen - Komfort und Entspannung oder anregende neue Erfahrungen? 9. Probieren Sie gerne lokale Speisen, wenn Sie irgendwohin gehen? Hast du jemals etwas wirklich Leckeres gegessen? Wirklich ekelhaft? 10. Die Dinge können schief gehen, wenn Sie reisen. Haben Sie schlechte Reiseerfahrungen gemacht? 11. Nimmst du viel mit, wenn du reist? Oder versuchen Sie, Licht zu packen? 12. Welche Orte auf der Welt sind Ihrer Meinung nach zu gefährlich, um sie zu besuchen? Warum sind sie gefährlich? 13. Was ist das beste Alter, um zu reisen? Können Kinder die Erfahrung zu schätzen wissen? 14. Was sind die Vor- und Nachteile, wenn man alleine reist? 15. In welcher Art von Unterkunft möchten Sie übernachten, wenn Sie reisen? 16. Sprechen Sie gerne mit den Einheimischen, wenn Sie reisen? Warum oder warum nicht? 17. Möchten Sie an einer großen internationalen Veranstaltung wie den Olympischen Spielen oder einem internationalen Filmfestival teilnehmen? Was wäre gut oder schlecht daran, an einer solchen Veranstaltung teilzunehmen? Wählen Sie zwischen diesen Feiertagen und erklären Sie Ihre Wahl: Besichtigung der Überreste einer alten Zivilisation Ein erholsamer Aufenthalt in einem Strandresort Einkaufen in einer geschäftigen Stadt

Everything you need to know about life and culture in the United States during your time at Bellevue College https://www.bellevuecollege.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/212/2017/05/OIE-Life-Customs-Brochure-4-16-042716.pdf

Yotel - Tiny Hotel Rooms in the Middle of Manhattan A radically new hotel has opened in the middle of New York. YOTEL, a British hotel chain , offers travelers great comfort and luxurious style at a small price. How can this be? They just pack as many rooms as they can into a futuristic hotel building. The first so-called capsule hotel opened a short distance from Times Square, in the middle of Manhattan. A 12 square meter room offers all the comfort of a suite and is priced at about a hundred dollars a night. This is considered a bargain if you take a look at other hotels in downtown New York. The idea of capsule hotels comes from Japan, where the first such hotel opened in 1979. Although rooms are much smaller than in New York they offer people a night’s sleep or a place to stay at the last minute. The first Yotel was opened at London’s Gatwick airport in 2007. It became an immediate success . The company’s bosses thought that opening such a low-price hotel in the middle of Manhattan would be a win-win situation . Normal prices for a hotel room that offers the same luxury as Yotel’s begin at about $400. The Yotel tower in New York has 669 rooms. Even though they are quite small visitors never get that feeling, partly because the rooms offer large windows. The bed is automatically pulled back to stand against the wall during the daytime. The hotel offers other luxuries too: a movie theatre, Wi-Fi connections , futuristic lounges and the largest roof bar of New York. Whether or not Yotel will change the hotel industry is hard to say. But the largest hotel to be built in Manhattan since 2002 will definitely be a gain for New York’s tourist industry. VOCAB Words although = while bargain = something that is cheaper than the normal price capsule = something very small comfort = things that make your life easier considered = thought to be definitely = absolutely, surely distance = space from one location to another futuristic = modern and with a new design gain = positive aspect, advantage hotel chain = group of hotels in different places that look the same immediate = at once lounge = a public room or waiting room at an airport or in a hotel luxurious = very expensive and beautiful luxury = comfort offer = give pack = put, place radically = completely, totally success = when you get or you achieve what you have wanted to Wi-Fi connection = Internet connections via wireless LAN win-win situation = a situation in which everyone profits

Ecotourism Ecotourism is the opposite of mass tourism. People travel to remote areas and visit faraway places without destroying or ruining the environment. Ecotourism is intended for small groups of tourists who want to learn more about nature in a certain area and help people who live there. Eco tourists travel to places where plant and animal life is the main attraction. They want to know more about how people live side by side in a natural habitat. Ecotourism makes people aware of how beautiful the land and countryside is. Local tour guides show visitors how important our environment is. They know how the region has developed over time. Tourists stay in small local houses, as opposed to gigantic hotel complexes in mass tourism regions. Other aims of ecotourism are: helping conserve nature in a faraway place educating tourists about the place they are travelling to respecting the culture of people who live there the conservation of animal and plant species that are in danger of becoming extinct minimizing the impact of tourism in the area helping people who live there leaving a small carbon footprint Among the most important destinations of ecotourism are the Galapagos Islands Costa Rica and other parts of Central America the Amazon rain forest East Africa Ecotourism started out in the 1970s as an alternative to mass tourism. Today it is one of the fastest growing sectors of the tourism industry because more and more people are becoming aware of it. As a result, some countries are using ecotourism to gain money and profits. In some areas, it is operated by foreign investors who are only interested in their own profits. Bringing too many people to a remote place could, however, damage local culture. Eco tourists can help preserve the local environment by walking instead of using motor vehicles using less water turning off electricity if they don’t need it eating locally produced food not throwing things away keeping to footpaths wearing clothes that do not offend the locals not scaring animals respecting the local customs and traditions Madagascar – Example of Ecotourism Madagascar is a good example for an ecotourist destination. 80% of the plants and animals on the island have always been there and cannot be seen in anywhere else. While Madagascar has the potential to become a mass tourism country, much of it is not fully developed and lacks infrastructure. Most people live in poverty, especially in rural areas. The island attracts tourists who are interested in nature and wildlife and not those who long for the noise and activities of overpopulated beaches. They can go on wildlife adventures, whale-watching trips or hiking with local guides. VOCAB aim = goal, something you hope to achieve attraction = feature aware = to realize that something exists, to be alert certain = special conserve = protect, stop something from being changed or damaged damage = destroy completely destination = place to go develop = grow electricity = power that is in wires and cables; it provides us with light and makes machines work environment = nature; the world around us especially = above all extinct = die out footpath = trail, walkway foreign investor = person or company that gives you money in order to develop or create something new fully = completely gain = get gigantic = very big guide = person who shows you around a place habitat = home, living area hiking = to take long walks in the mountains impact = influence, effect infrastructure = main systems that make a region work, like roads, schools hospitals etc.. intend = aim at, target lack = not have enough of long for = to want something very much main = very important mass tourism = when thousands of people go to a place to enjoy themselves minimize = reduce as far as possible motor vehicles = cars, trucks, buses etc.. offend =to make someone angry by doing something wrong opposite = as different as possible from something else overpopulated = with far too many people potential = here: to be able to develop in a very positive way poverty = the situation of being poor preserve = stop from being destroyed profit = the money you get from doing a job remote = faraway ruin = destroy completely rural = countryside sector = field, part species = group of animals and plants that similar and can produce ones start out = begin

Travel Stories #1 - Sweden 🇸🇪 ➡️ USA 🇺🇸 This happened a long time ago, in 1979 to be precise. I was not yet 14 and flying from Sweden to Kansas, USA. I would live with a host family over the summer and hopefully come back with a better knowledge of English. I was excited to fly as we took off and I was pressed toward the back of my seat. The feeling was exhilarating. My mother had talked with me for a month prior to my departure about different things that could happen on a trip, so I thought I was prepared for everything, but not this! My flight reservation was for Stockholm - Copenhagen - Chicago - Wichita, but things went wrong already at my first layover when my flight to Chicago got canceled because of a technical problem. Like all people on the flight bound for Chicago I was re-booked. My new flight was to New York. I thought Oh, OK. The mind of a 13-year-old. I did not have a clear picture of what would happen there, but it did not worry me. I got on the flight to New York and it must have been uneventful because I hardly remember anything from it. But when I got off the plane in the Big Apple I didn’t know what to do or where to go. After some thought I decided to find the Scandinavian Airlines airport office and I wandered into it. I told them my name, how I had just gotten off the flight and didn’t know where to go. A woman staff member looked at my ticket, discussed with someone else there, and came back with the information that there are no more flights today to Wichita. Huh? I’m stuck in New York? It was in the afternoon and here they had a 13-year-old with no place to go in their office. I was told to sit on a chair and wait while they found a solution for me. They realized I was too young to be sent to a hotel, they had to work something else out. The risk of losing a child in New York was too great. They came up with a creative solution: I was to wait for one of their Danish speaking colleagues to get off his shift, stay overnight at his house on Long Island, and he would take me to LaGuardia Airport in the morning for my onward flights to Chicago and then Kansas. Why a Danish colleague? Because it was someone I could understand, my English was not good enough. When he got off his shift I went with him to his car and we drove through New York traffic to his house. On the way, he said his teenage son was not at home, so I could sleep in his son’s bed. He also told me his wife was there and that she was Dutch. They were nice people, they took me out to a hamburger restaurant that evening. I slept in the son’s bed and had a quick breakfast in the morning. The employee then drove me to LaGuardia and made sure I made it to the right check-in counter. Before we parted ways I asked for his postal address, so I could send him a postcard from my destination. He wrote it down and gave me the piece of paper with it. I can still remember his name and address, 39 years on. The flight to Kansas had GREAT service, the staff was so friendly. The steward said he liked my Swedish wooden shoes. We landed at Wichita’s airport, and after I had collected my luggage I met my host family, who had come to pick me up from the airport. I felt shy, as I didn’t know them. They knew of my detour, Scandinavian Airlines had informed them. They had a teenage son at home and he picked up the phone when it rang. It was my mother, she wanted to know that I had arrived the day before. The son said, “No, she’s not here, my parents are picking her up now. She had to go to New York.” “New York??!,” my mother said. She had no clue that I had even been there. It’s not like now, when you can just text someone. You let things solve and then you talked about them. International calls were outrageously expensive back in those days. Anyway, I sent the postcard to Mr. Jensen, as promised. With a big Thank You. And I had a really fun summer there on the farm, drove a combine, rode a horse and milked a cow, and went home a cowgirl, with hat, boots and all! Fluent in English. The host family has remained good friends until this day. They are like my second family. This connecting flight with the GREAT service was Trans World Airlines. I thought I want to work for them and I was hired in 1988. I was with them for six years. One year into my employment I found my 10-year-old boarding pass from Chicago to Wichita, it said First Class. Oh, that explains it! I had been upgraded! Still have those old airline tickets… I’m still grateful to Scandinavian Airlines so many decades on that they didn’t lose me in New York. Every time I see their logo or hear their name, I think about that day, June 6, 1979, when SK941 Copenhagen - Chicago was canceled and my 14-year-old me was in for a real adventure.