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Listen to a story about a problem I had with my passport!
You’ll also learn how to say and hear the words “used to” in fast, natural spoken English.
Welcome to the English Teacher Melanie Podcast, a podcast for intermediate to advanced English learners who want to improve their English listening and speaking skills!
Each episode includes a story and a pronunciation tip. In the story, I use core vocabulary, the most common words in English, to tell a real world story. The pronunciation tip will help you understand natural spoken English.
You’ll hear the story twice. The first time, the story is a little slower than normal. It sounds funny because I used editing software to change the speed of the story and make it slower. After the pronunciation tip, you’ll hear the story again, but at a regular speed.
THE STORY
I used to work as a tour guide in Europe. For five summers starting in 2002, I led tours all over Europe. I crossed a lot of borders during that time, so I had a lot of entry and exit stamps in my passport plus a few visas. By the middle of 2005, my passport was full and there was no room for more stamps. I went to the Canadian embassy in London to apply for a new passport. It was going to take too long to get a new passport and I couldn’t wait because I only had a few days before my next tour. The woman at the embassy added extra pages to my passport and told me to get a new one when I was back in Canada.
Learn more: How to use “used to”
I flew home a few weeks later. I arrived at the Toronto airport and went to customs & immigration as usual. The border agent didn’t say anything while he looked at my passport, but I don’t think he had ever seen a passport full of stamps with extra pages in it. He made a mark on my declaration card, but the agents always do that, so I didn’t think anything of it. Before I could leave the customs and immigration area to go get my bags, I had to hand my card to another agent, and that was when I discovered the mark on my card meant something.It meant that I had to go to the immigration office, where they decide who gets into the country and who doesn’t.
Learn more: How to talk about transportation
I didn’t know why I was there, and that made me nervous. The immigration officer didn’t say anything while he was looking through my passport. I guess he just wanted to make sure it was legitimate. He started asking me questions about Canada and my life, but the questions were hard and I couldn’t answer some of them! I started panicking thinking I wasn’t going to be allowed into the country! He ended the investigation with an easy question that I could answer, and then he smiled and told me to go get a new passport.
Learn more: Planning a trip
PRONUNCIATION TIP
HOW TO HEAR AND SAY USED TO IN FAST, NATURAL SPOKEN ENGLISH
This transcript uses IPA symbols to represent sounds and teach pronunciation. Learn more about the IPA here.
In the first sentence in the story, I used the verb “used to.” Listen to the sentence:
I used to work as a tour guide in Europe.
Did you hear the words used or to in that sentence?
There are four things that you need to know to hear used to in a spoken English.
This is a different verb than the verb use, even though they are spelled the same.
The S in used to is pronounced with the S [s] sound. This is different from the verb use, where the S is pronounced with a Z [z] sound.
The -ed at the end of used is pronounced with a T sound.
Used ends with a T sound, and to begins with a T sound, so you can link these two words together, and you only need to say the T sound once:
used to /ˈjustu/
Learn more: Episode 23: Linking same consonant sounds
The preposition to is a function word. It’s a grammar word. It needs to be in the sentence to make the sentence grammatically correct, but it’s not an important word. In fast, natural speech, the vowel in to is reduced to the sound /ə/. That sound is called the schwa and it’s the vowel sound in reduced syllables.
The preposition to is pronounced /tə/.
In fast, natural speech, used to is pronounced /ˈjustə/
Listen to the first part of the sentence again:
I used to work …
Learn more: Episode 10: The reduced pronunciation of the preposition to
QUESTION
- Do you have a fun travel story? A story about something that happened to you when you traveled to another city or country?
Leave me a comment below!
Hi
What a weird situation not being allowed into your own country. I wonder where they would send you then. I think they totally exaggerated since they have all your info into their computers. Most those intimidating situations are carried out by officers to exercise their egos. It happens all over the world though.
Anyway, thank you for the listening lesson. It was amazing.
You are so right, Gilson! I think they just enjoy intimidating innocent people. I think the immigration officer could tell that I was nervous and I think he enjoyed it.
I am happy that you enjoyed the lesson! Thank you!
Hi Melanie. . I can relate to you as i know by my personal experience what you went through not knowing what was wrong with your passport and if you ever were allowed again to entry in your own country. My case is a little bit different. I was at the Los Angeles Airport getting ready to embark to Buenos Aires when i was stopped by an officer who started going through all the stuff that i had in my carry- on luggage. i had a binocular, a very small level and my camera, among other things. The officer started questioning me: where i was living while in California, had i bought medicines. I told him that i had been in my cousin´s house and that i didn´t buy medicines. Then , they took some of my belonging to an scanner and testing them. What were they looking for? Drugs, ? probably. I was profusely sweeting and couldn´t speak in english anymore. At last ( as in your case) they let me go. I told to the office : can i come back to USA ? ,yes, you can . what a relief and what a sour moment!!
I would have started sweating, too! What a terrible experience. I hope they didn’t give you a hard time when you returned to the US. It’s not fair!
Thank you Melanie😊 it was useful…
That’s awesome! I’m happy to hear that!
Hi.
Thanks for take your time and explain us the rules about the English Language. The passport story was increible.
Thank you, Maria! I am happy that you enjoyed the story!
Thank you Melanie for taking time to teach us
It’s my pleasure, Javier!
My dearest teacher thank you so much. I have been learning a lot from you. I really appreciate you. I have been learning English for a long time, nearly 50 years. I studied economy. Just now I am a consultant for business executive manager and private college managers. I live in Istanbul. At the meantime, I invite you Istanbul as my guest. Istanbul is is wonderful city. Istanbul is divided into two main parts. One part is located Europe the other part is located Asian. There is only one city all over the world which sea pass through it. That is Istanbul. I proudly invite you Istanbul. If it is possible, I really want to meet you. My main purpose is while learning English is to speak English clearly and to understand easily. My level is between upper intermediate and advance.
Mt best regards
Ali YILMAZ
Hi, Ali!
I have been to Istanbul! I visited Istanbul once when I worked as a tour guide in Europe. It is a really interesting city.
It’s nice to learn more about you! I am happy to hear that you enjoy my lessons & you have learned from them! Thank you for sharing your story. I am honored to help you continue your English studies!
Hello, I really have not traveled to other country,but I know that inmigration officials ask many cuestións and I can’t help and became nervous.
Hi Melanie, I enjoyed the episode28.Thank you for sending the podcast.
Hi Melanie,
I really enjoy this episode. I know more about your weird problem in the tour. I would like to travel but I’d not like to have any problem when getting a passport. Thanks for your sharing.
It’s not fun having a problem with your passport! It’s a fun story to tell now, but at the time, it wasn’t fun at all! I’m happy to hear that you enjoyed this episode!
Thank you, Melanie this is a great story that we have experienced in some way. I clear understand you during the first part of hearing, but at the normal speech, I am not able to catch everything; it means I need to educate more my ear to understand more. Thanks again for your professionalism!
Hi Melanie,
All of your podcasts are great and fantastic.
Thanks so much.
And, could you explain differences between ɑː and ɒː sound?
for example:
god /ɡɑːd/
gone /ɡɒːn/
Thanks a lot
Have a good one
Hi, Muhammad!
This is a difficult question to answer!
You can hear [ɒ] pronounced here, and [ɑ] here, as well as the sound [ɔ] here, as they are all common sounds in British English.
In the General American Accent, these three sounds are merging into one. Different dictionaries will use different symbols for the same word (for example, the Macmillan Dictionary lists the pronunciation as /ɡɔn/), because no one can agree on what the final sound is.
You can see a list of the vowels here in the General American Accent here.
I pronounce gone as /ɡɑːn/, and that is the sound that I teach my students. I don’t teach [ɔ] or [ɒ] because it is too confusing.
Thank you so much Melanie for your lessons! I have learned so many things from them. =)