Hello everybody, my name is Sam and
welcome to English Sponge. Today you are
going to learn lots of city vocabulary
through comprehensible input where you
watch, you listen, and you learn more
English. Today we are in the town of
Reading doing a little travel vlog for
you guys. And if you like this sort of
content, make sure to check out the
English Sponge website where we have
lots of exclusive and original content
for you guys learning. Let's get into
the video.
So, today we are here at Reading Train
Station. If you look over there, we have
the beautiful station. As some of you
may know, I'm not the biggest fan of
modern architecture, but next to it, we
have a wonderful pub. And as you can
see, the beautiful British weather is
being very nice to us today. Here, as
you can see, we have a very traditional
British black cab. Now, these are more
linked with London normally, but here in
the south of England, you will see these
black taxi cabs everywhere.
So guys, as we are walking down the
street here, as I mentioned before,
beautiful British weather, lots of rain
and lots of puddles on the floor. We
have some beautiful brick buildings and
a local supermarket here. And as you
see, it's almost Christmas time. So
behind me, we have some lovely Christmas
lights decorating the street. We are
here on the high street. As you can see,
this is the part of town with all of the
shops, with all of the people, and as
you can probably hear with that
non-copyrighted music in the background, it is Christmas time. Last I
checked, it was still only November
20th, so uh, I think it's a bit early
personally, but come with us as we walk
a little bit down Reading High Street.
On the left, we have a famous bank. On
the right, a famous department store. A
little bit of everything as well. These
little stalls are only up for Christmas.
They're not usually here. This one is
selling ridiculously overpriced cookies.
£3.50 each. Ouch. [laughter] Um,
continuing down, you can see just how
busy it is out here in Reading. Peak
Christmas season. Everyone's getting
their shopping done, and it's horrible.
As you can see on most people's faces,
they don't look happy today. And to be
honest, neither am I. It's raining.
» Hello. Could I get an
Oreo hot chocolate, please?
» Yeah, of course.
» Cheers. Thank you.
» So, Sam, what are you buying?
» I'm buying an Oreo hot chocolate. As
many of you know, I love Oreos. So,
Yeah.
» Yeah, they do look banging.
» Flammer as the Argentines would say.
» Thank you.
» Could I pay with card, please?
» Would you like your receipt?
» No, it's all good. Thank you.
» Thank you.
» Thank you.
» Cheers. Have a great day. Yeah.
I have to say it doesn't quite look like
the little model that they had in
front, but it tastes absolutely
fantastic. I'm going to give this a
solid 9 out of 10. So, it's a good day
so far. The rain is not ruining our
spirits.
» So, Paddington, I know you're a
Peruvian living in the UK. Was it
difficult to to learn English?
Uh-huh. And so you learned English through
watching hundreds of hours of AJ's
videos?
You watched AJ's whiteboard
series 347
times. Wow. You should be like
Paddington. [laughter]
Okay guys, so as you can see, we've come
across a little market selling some
different fruits and vegetables. There
we have some bananas, some strawberries,
raspberries, blueberries. I have no idea
what that is. What is it?
Castel apple. Some type of apple. Some
oranges, of course. And if you keep
coming over here, James, we have
pineapples, more oranges, watermelon,
and some nice juicy red apples. My
favorite, of course. Next to the apples,
there are some pears. And over on that
side, we have some tomatoes as well. So,
if you want to get some nice fresh fruit
and vegetables, this little market seems
to be the best place to go. So, if you
continue coming down with me, we get
some beautiful old Victorian style
buildings both on this side of the road
and this side of the road. There's some
really really
beautiful architecture in this town. And
this is what most of England is like.
Reading is not exactly special or
different from most of the towns. We
just are blessed to live in a country
with such fantastic architecture. Now,
I'm not a Christian, but look over at
this church here.
We'll get a better shot of it over here.
And here we are stood in front of an
amazingly designed church. Really,
really beautiful. As you can see, this
sort of pattern on the church is called
a checkered pattern. And there are four
points right up the top that I don't
know what I'm trying to say. What I am
trying to say though is this is a really
really lovely church. The windows are
designed beautifully. A lot of amazing
attention to detail. This church has
some really fantastic attention to
detail with the way it's been designed.
Really impressive. And England is full
of little spots like this. So here I am
stood in front of the world famous
Purple Turtle Bar. Now, this bar is so
famous cuz a few years ago a clip
went viral on this street. A man was
walking down the road like any man would
when he got hit by a bus. Yes, you heard
me right. He got hit by a double-decker
bus. Instead of seeking medical help,
instead of calling an ambulance, the
first thing this man did was get up and
walk straight into this bar. The most
British thing you will ever see in your
life. And here we have a bus ruining our
shot.
[laughter]
The video is for sure one of the most
British things you will ever see in your
life. And I'm sure James will put the
clip afterwards right now.
So, here we have an outdoor menu. Many
restaurants put things like this out the
front so you can decide if you want to
eat here or not before you go in. Having
a look at the special lunch menu. In
all honesty, for the UK, these prices
are pretty good. £19.50 for two courses
or £23.50 for free. Honestly, in the
south of England, you're not going to
get very many restaurants with a better
price than this. And it's an Argentine
steakhouse, so I'm sure the food is
absolutely fantastic.
And of course, we have a lovely little -- what do you call this? A wire reindeer.
Um, as some Christmas decorations.
Really nice. Um, yeah. Fantastic.
So, we are now inside the shopping
center. We actually don't know if we're
allowed to film in here or not. So, if
we're not, you may see us outside next.
But walking through, we have a lot of
really different shops. Firstly, Hugo
Boss. Designer clothes, expensive, high
quality, really, really good-looking
stuff. But it's Hugo Boss. I'm sure you
guys have heard of it before. On this
side, it looks like we have a makeup
shop. What do you call that? A makeup
shop. A makeup shop. Some cosmetics.
On the right hand side here we have a
technology shop. Lots of different
electronics, phone cases, speakers,
headphones. Anything electric that you
might want. You can find it here at
Vivitech.
This side we can buy some sunglasses if
you so desire. Um I've never been a very
big person on sunglasses to be honest. I
think living in the UK you really don't
need them. But there is a Black Friday
sale on every year around November.
There are some really great discounts,
really great sales around the shops.
Blame the Americans for that one. Here
we have Tag Heuer. Some luxury expensive
watches. I have to say these are
definitely some of my favorite watches.
And on the other side we have the world
famous Rolex. Yes, really, really
luxury, really, really expensive. Are
they worth the price? I personally would
say no. I think you can buy a watch
that's, you know, just as high quality
for much less price.
Looking here, we have lots of different
types of jewelry. We have some earrings,
some necklaces, we have some rings as
well. These are really nice, but if you
look at the prices, pair of earrings,
£575.
If I'm not mistaken, that's around $700.
Yes, you can buy lots of luxury goods
here in the UK, but be prepared to pay
the price for them.
Here in front of us, we have some
escalators.
So, now I almost fell. We are going up
the escalators. [laughter]
Yes. Now we're going up the escalators.
And in a second, wait for this, guys. We
will be going down the escalators.
Thrilling, thrilling content here at
English Sponge, guys.
Never before seen content. We just
went up the escalators and you'll never
believe this. Down the escalators we go.
Yeah.
» [snorts]
» Try and find content this exhilarating
anywhere else. I dare you. So guys,
people often ask me during my lessons,
Sam, what is the best part of living in
the UK? Is it the beautiful weather? Is
it the lovely, happy people? Is it the
king or queen that sits above us? Is it
London? There are so many amazing things
about this country, but one thing rules
above them all. Nandos, our national
treasure. The greatest, greatest dining
experience a person could ever have.
Trust me, you will never get chicken
this tasty at this good a price anywhere
else. If I give you one recommendation
for something to do when you come to the
UK is to come to this fine dining
establishment.
Nandos, we salute you. So guys, that is
it for today's video. Thank you so
much for watching. I really hope you
enjoyed the video and I hope you learned
some new city vocabulary today.
If you enjoy these videos, be sure to
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for lots of exclusive original content,
stuff you won't see anywhere else. My
name is Sam. Thank you for watching one
more time and I will see you in the next one.
