Mixer #107 | Intermediate B1

Best (Foreign) City

Listen as a group of people talk about what is their favorite city outside of their country.

Script
Vocab
Quiz

Katia, Mexico
My favorite city, I would have to say that is New York. It's very lively. There's always things happening. It's very young city, a lot of culture, a lot of shows. Nature, there's also nature, and the buildings. It just gives you a certain feeling that I really enjoy so I would say New York City is my favorite city.

Tom, United Kingdom
Bangkok is my favorite city, not so much for the city itself but because there are so many places around Bangkok within easy reach of a day trip and a visit. It's a great place to base yourself. The weather's fantastic. The food is amazing, and there's just a lot going on.

Lia, Indonesia
My favorite city would be Singapore because it's close from my home country and it has a lot of beautiful places, good department stores. It's very beautiful and they have a very strict rules like you cannot throw rubbish or garbage everything in other places so it's very beautiful and the people are very nice. Actually, they can speak English and Chinese so it's a very good place.

Todd, United States
My favorite city hands down has got to be Barcelona, Spain. Now, it's a long time since I was there, but when I was there, it just really had everything. It has great architecture, nice people, really good weather, great food. It has a very strong culture. The city has a very strong identity. It's on the sea. It's just great, like it's hard to think of anything bad about it except maybe it's a little expensive.

Crystal, United States
My favorite city has to be Seoul, Korea. I've been there about like five times already and the people are just amazing. Like the people there are just so rough and so mean and just so aggressive. I don't know, it's so much fun to be there I think because of the people.

Jess, United Kingdom
My favorite city would be Paris. I lived very near Paris for about three months,and went to Paris every weekend for sightseeing and going out in the evenings, and it's just fabulous spending all day walking around the city looking at the architecture, going to art galleries, and then at night, the restaurants and the wine was fantastic and then night clubbing on Saturday nights, so yeah, I think it's a fabulous city.

Learn Vocabulary from the Lesson!

a certain feeling

It gives you a certain feeling

Here, a certain feeling means a special feeling about something or someplace. Note the samples.

My first holiday was to Bali 10 years ago. I get a certain feeling whenever I return.
Camping in the mountains gives me a certain feeling of adventure.

not so much for

Bangkok is my favorite city, not so much for the city itself.

We use this phrase when we want to give other reasons why we like or dislike something. Here are two samples.

I love IPod’s, not so much for the technology, they just look cool!
Many people study English, not so much for fun, but because it’s necessary for international communication.

a lot going on

There is a lot going on in the city.

A lot going on talks about many things - good or bad - happening at the same time. Notice the following.

There is not a lot going on at the student center during the weekend.
At the big weekend festival, there was a lot going on so we didn’t have time to see everything.

strict rules

They have strict rules.

Strict means very serious. A rule tells us what we can and can’t do. Therefore a strict rule is a rule that must be followed. Here are a couple of examples.

When you visit a temple in Thailand, there are strict rules about suitable clothing.
My parents have really strict rules about TV and computer games. I have to finish my home work first!

hands down