Welcome to the Listening Time podcast. I’m Conner from polyglossa.com, and you’re listening to Episode 28 of the Listening Time podcast.

So, I hope you’re all enjoying the podcast so far. I hope these episodes have been interesting for you, and I hope you’ve been able to practice your listening skills with these episodes. As a language learner myself, I really like using podcasts and other types of audios to help me train my skills in other languages. And as I’ve mentioned before, I always recommend using repetition to get the most out of these episodes. When we use the phrase “get the most out of” something, what we’re saying is that you’re using it in the optimal way, in the best, most efficient way. You’re getting the most out of something.

So, as I’ve said before, I think that repetition is the best way to get the most out of these types of episodes or audios that you’re using to practice your listening skills. I do this all the time, and it really helps me learn the new vocabulary that I wasn’t familiar with when I first listened to the episode. So, I hope that you’re using that technique. And I hope that you’re utilizing the transcript, if you need it. Remember that the transcript is available for each episode in the Episode Notes, okay? So you can access that there.

So today, we’re going to talk about San Diego. This is a subject that’s near and dear to my heart. So, when we say that something is “near and dear to your heart”, we’re just saying that it’s a subject or a topic or something that you care about, that you like. So, of course, San Diego is a topic that’s near and dear to my heart, because that’s where I’ve spent the majority of my life. I don’t live there now, but the majority of my years have been spent in San Diego, and I really like my city, so I’m happy to talk to you all about it today. So, before we start, remember to sign up for our one dollar Listening Practice Seminars at polyglossa.com so you can train your listening skills even more. And please give this podcast a like and a rating if you’re listening on Apple Podcasts, and please share this podcast with anyone else who might find it useful, and help this podcast grow. Alright, Let’s get started.

Okay, so as I mentioned, I’ve spent most of my life in San Diego. I’m actually not originally from there. I was actually born in a different city in southern California, closer to Los Angeles, and I spent the first seven and a half or eight years of my life in that city. But then, my family moved to San Diego. So, I usually say that I’m from San Diego. This is a good point to talk about, because when I’m speaking with my students, and we talk about where they’re from, oftentimes, my students say that they’re from a certain city, but really, they’re not from that city. They’ve only been living there for a few years, and they live there at this moment, and so they say that city.

But that’s not how we talk about our home city, our hometown, in English. When someone asks us where we’re from, we respond with the city where we grew up. But if we just moved to a different cit a few years ago or you moved there as an adult, we usually don’t say that we’re from that city. So for example, I often say that I’m from San Diego, or I’m from Southern California, but I currently live in Mexico. So, that’s just an important piece of advice to help you communicate better in English.

So, I grew up in Southern California, and I spent most of my time in San Diego. San Diego is located at the very southwest of the United States. It’s bordered by Mexico to the south and the Pacific Ocean to the west. So, it’s in the southwest of the US. San Diego is a big city. It’s actually the second biggest city in California after Los Angeles, of course. And the population of the city is about 1.4 million people. But if we’re talking about the metropolitan area, it has about 3.4 million people. So, of course, we have individual cities, but then there is the metropolitan area around the city that includes other smaller cities. But we often just consider all of these places to be part of one city.

Like, I say that I’m from San Diego, but my city isn’t actually San Diego. It’s a different city, but it’s included in the San Diego metropolitan area. So, San Diego is a big city, but it’s not huge. It’s not a mega city. Right. And so, that’s the cool thing about the city, is that it feels big, but it doesn’t feel too big. So, you have everything that you want, everything that you might need. You have that there in San Diego, but it’s not so chaotic and crazy like Los Angeles or New York, for example. So, in my opinion, it’s the perfect size. It’s not too big, and it’s not too small. It’s a big city, but it doesn’t have all the negatives of a big city.

So, what industries are important or popular in San Diego? Well, perhaps the most important aspect of San Diego is that it is home to a very big Navy base, right. The Navy is the branch of the military that involves boats and ships and things like that. Right. So, San Diego is a military city, and in particular, a Navy city. It has a very big Navy base, and there are many people who live in San Diego because they’re in the military. So, this is probably the most important industry in San Diego.

And international trade is also a very big industry there because San Diego is located on the coast, and it’s located in a good spot for international trade, of course. And research is another big industry there. So, there’s a lot of science and technology research happening in San Diego. I think there’s a lot of cutting edge stuff there. We use the adjective “cutting edge” to describe some type of technology or research or science that’s very new. It is the first time that someone is doing it. It’s cutting edge. So, I think that San Diego has a lot of cutting edge research in terms of science and technology.

And one of the other really important industries of San Diego is tourism, and that’s for a good reason. San Diego is a great place to visit. There are many reasons why San Diego is a great place to visit. Let me just talk about a few of them. So, the people in San Diego are generally friendly and happy and laid-back. In English, we use the adjective “laid-back” to describe someone that isn’t too anxious, or in a hurry, or always doing something. They’re the type of person that is more relaxed and easygoing. They’re laid-back. So, Southern California and San Diego, especially, is considered to be a laid back city. So a lot of people like this, right. It’s the opposite of New York City, for example. If you go to New York City, everyone’s in a rush. Everyone is going from one place to another. People probably aren’t as friendly there. But I think that in general, San Diego has pretty friendly and laid-back people.

And one reason for that is because it’s located on the coast. It has many nice beaches, and it has fantastic weather. Perhaps the most famous aspect of San Diego is its weather. It’s usually considered to have the best weather out of all the major cities in the United States. When people think of San Diego, they usually think of blue skies, sunny weather, little rain, and very mild temperatures. In English, we use the word “mild” to say that something isn’t extreme. So we often use the word “mild” when we’re talking about spicy sauce. If you want to use a spicy sauce on your food, but you don’t want it too spicy, you can usually choose a mild sauce. So, it has a little spice, but not too extreme. We also use the word “mild” when talking about the weather.

So, San Diego has pretty mild weather. It doesn’t get too cold, and it doesn’t get too hot. The temperature is usually in the 20s, or low 30s, and I’m talking in Celsius, of course. So, the weather is considered semi-arid. So, it’s kind of like a desert because it doesn’t rain a lot, but it’s not as hot as a desert usually is. So, it’s perfect weather, in my opinion. So, that’s another one of the reasons why people love to visit San Diego. Like I said, the people are nice and laid-back. The weather is fantastic. The beaches are great. The city isn’t too chaotic, right. It’s a very nice place, I would say.

So what are some of the cool neighborhoods or cool places in San Diego? Well, one of them that comes to mind is La Jolla. When we use the phrase “comes to mind”, “something comes to mind”, we’re saying that when someone asks you about something, or when you’re thinking about a certain topic, one idea or one thing immediately appears in your thoughts. It’s the first thing that you think of when you hear that word or when you’re asked a question about something. So, if I think about the cool neighborhoods of San Diego, the first one that comes to mind is La Jolla.

La Jolla is located in the north of San Diego, and it is considered the rich area of San Diego. There are multiple rich areas, but usually, if you ask someone from San Diego “what’s the rich neighborhood here?” they’ll respond La Jolla, because it’s very glamorous. Okay. The word “glamorous” means that it’s very amazing in its appearance and its feeling. So La Jolla is very glamorous, because it’s an area of San Diego with huge houses, what we would call “mansions”, right, really big houses. And it’s located right on the water, so there are really nice beaches there. And there are really good restaurants there. There are really good stores. A lot of people love to go shopping in La Jolla. Of course, the weather is great, like most of San Diego, and it just has a very glamorous feeling. It has a very high-class, luxurious feeling to it. It’s really beautiful. There aren’t really any bad areas of La Jolla. So, people love going there and walking around and enjoying the view of the ocean and eating good food and shopping. This is what people love about La Jolla.

Another cool neighborhood, of course, is downtown San Diego. And specifically, I like Seaport Village. This is located right next to downtown, but it’s on the bay. The word “bay” refers to a body of water that’s connected to the ocean, but it’s more inland. Okay. So, Seaport Village is a part of San Diego that’s located on the bay. It’s right next to downtown, and it has really nice parks, and a really nice place to walk along the bay and enjoy the scenery, and it has a lot of great restaurants. And there are a lot of events at Seaport Village. You can often see live musical performances there. I think every time I go there, I see someone performing. So, there are a lot of events there, and it’s a family-friendly place. It’s a great place to take your kids and spend some time on the bay, sitting down on the grass and just enjoying the outdoors, and it’s just a nice place overall.

And one other spot that I really want to highlight is Cornado. When we use the word “highlight”, we’re saying that we want to emphasize something. We want to draw the attention to that thing. So, Cornado is many people’s favorite spot in San Diego. It’s actually kind of an island. It’s connected to San Diego by a very thin strip of land. When I use the word “strip”, I’m saying that it’s a thin piece of something. So, it’s connected to San Diego by a very thin strip of land, but most people don’t access Cornado via this land. They actually go to Cornado by way of the Cornado bridge. This is a very big, very long bridge that connects Coronado Island to the mainland, to the rest of the city. So, most people drive on this bridge and cross over the bay, and then they end up in Coronado.

This area is really nice. It’s like the perfect image of San Diego. It’s laid-back, it’s surrounded by water. Everyone is riding bikes and walking around and just enjoying the great weather that we usually have. I love Coronado and I try to visit Cornado every time that I’m in San Diego. And it just has a lot of really cool places and restaurants, and it has a dog beach. In the US, we have some beaches that are dedicated to dogs. So, if you have a dog, you can take that dog to a dog beach in the US, and everyone else at the beach also has their dogs. So, we have many beaches that are specifically for dogs.

So, when I was younger, my family would go to dog beach all the time with our dogs, and we would let them play with the other dogs and play in the water. It was always really fun, and it was always very amusing to watch our dogs play in the waves and play with other dogs. So, Coronado is just a really cool place with a really great environment. And so I definitely recommend that you go there if you visit San Diego. But I’m sure you will, because practically everyone who visits San Diego visits Cornado. It’s a really great place.

So lastly, let me just talk about a few other notable places, not necessarily neighborhoods or cities, but just other places in San Diego. The most famous park in San Diego is Balboa Park. This is one of the biggest parks in the country, if I’m not mistaken. So, Balboa Park has a lot of areas with grass, but it also has a lot of architecture that is reminiscent of kind of Spanish or European-style architecture. There’s also a really beautiful pond there. A “pond” is like a very small lake. So, a mini-lake. This is what we call a “pond” in English. So, there’s a really picturesque pond there, where many people take pictures.

Actually, I took my engagement pictures right by this pond. “Engagement pictures” are the pictures that you take that you use for invitations to your wedding. So if you’re getting married, you usually take engagement pictures, and then on the wedding invitation, you include one of these pictures. So, I actually took my engagement pictures next to this pond because it’s very beautiful, really.

So, another great place to visit in San Diego is the USS Midway. This is an aircraft carrier, a big ship where they transported and launched and landed airplanes. And in the past, this was actually the biggest ship in the world, until 1955. So, this ship was actually used in the Vietnam War and maybe a couple other wars. But now, it’s just a museum. Now, it’s not used in war. Now, you can go and take a tour of this ship. I did this once. It’s really cool. It’s awesome. You get to see all kinds of airplanes and you get to see how the people on this boat lived. You get to see their living conditions. It’s a really cool museum. I definitely recommend that you go to it if you’re in San Diego.

And of course, we have the San Diego Zoo, which is perhaps the most famous zoo in the US. I’ve already talked about this zoo before, so I won’t bore you with another description. And lastly, one place that I definitely recommend visiting is Old Town. This is the part of San Diego that was the original San Diego, the original city that was founded there. So, Old Town, and San Diego in general, is usually considered the birthplace of California, because this was the first site where Europeans settled on the West Coast. When we use the verb to “settle”, we’re saying that people start to live in a certain place.

So, Europeans started living in San Diego before they lived in any other city in California. So, that’s why San Diego is considered the birthplace of California, and Old Town in specific, is the original town that was founded. So, you can see some of the original buildings that were first established in the city. And you can see the way that people lived there, and you can take tours and go to museums there, and you can just experience the atmosphere of the original San Diego. This is one of my favorite places in the city. So, if you visit San Diego, please visit Old Town.

Alright, we’ll stop there for today. Hopefully this episode was interesting for you. And hopefully, it inspires you to take a trip to San Diego and see all these cool places. Remember to access the transcript in the Episode Notes. And of course, sign up for our one dollar Listening Practice Seminars if you need more listening practice. And share this podcast with anyone that might find it useful. Thank you very much for listening to this episode and I hope you’ll come back for Episode 29 of the Listening Time podcast.