 and welcome to a real conversation between two native English speakers. I'm Liz Wade, and this is Adam Navas. Hello, everyone. I always feel a little weird just saying your name for you, but I guess, you know, we just had an English show. I just didn't know that you remember. I mean, there's a nice little label underneath anyway. And today, we are talking about the program High-Speed Trains. Now, if you have not heard or seen that program, we have it all over the internet for you. You can find it at our website where you can listen and read along with the script, and that is www.spotlightenglish.com. You can also listen to it wherever you get your podcasts and then pop on over to our website to read along with the script. And we also have it on YouTube where you can watch the video and watch the words at the same, well, listen to the video and watch the words at the same time. So you can test yourself that way. So you should check out that program and then come back here, join the conversation with us about High-Speed Trains. Yeah, I think that's everything, right? You know, you can check us out on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram as well to keep in contact with us. And, Adam, I know you were gonna jump in with this bit of- No, no, no, I'm listening very tele- Information, I'm listening. I know you were gonna jump in with this bit of information, but if you like this video or you like spotlight content, please just press the like button, the little thumbs up underneath this video. It really helps us out. It helps our videos get seen in more places, helps more people find us. So like this video and then if you wanna go that extra step, you can also subscribe to our channel, never miss a video, and if you wanna go an extra, extra step. If you're serious about your English learning. Yes, exactly. You can join as a member of the Spotlight English Channel. Tell them what they get, Liz. Yeah, it's great. You can be listed in every video as a member, so we thank you in every video. You get cool badges and emojis, but then also you can get PDF scripts and access to exclusive member videos. And I have to say, a little while ago, we put out a video of our bloopers about when we get prepared for this program. We never make mistakes. And it was great. Well, I thought it was funny. And so people can go back and watch all that content, correct? Yes, yeah, you get all of the content that exists for exclusive member videos. So check that out. It's really cool. It helps support us, helps us make more cool content for you to read along with and listen to and practice and learn. And so all of those things. And so now let's get to this program, High Speed Trains. Adam, were you like every other little boy who loved trains as a kid? I don't, like I never collected toy trains. My young memory is when we would get stopped when we'd be driving in the car and we would get stopped behind a train that was going, not a high-speed train, but a regular train. We would always... I don't actually think we have any high-speed trains in the US. But we would count how many cars were connected. Oh, like train cars. The train cars, yes. So we would say like, it was at a short train because you never really could tell, you see the first car, the engine drive-by and then you'd be like, oh, I'm gonna count. And I think it was my mother's way of keeping us occupied. Quiet. Quiet when we were in the car not going anywhere because we couldn't, because there was a train. What about you? Do you grow up with a love for trains? Our favorite part of that experience, because also, we would come across trains as well, is to watch for the caboose, which is, of course, a very funny and fun word to say. Caboose. Caboose, which is the last train of the car, so. Last part of the train. Yeah, yeah, the best part of the train, the caboose. The caboose. Yeah, so there was a good... That is a fun word, isn't it? What? That is a fun word, isn't it? Yeah, it really is. Like, there's just something about how you form it in your mouth, caboose. Caboose. Sounds like it should be something else, but... Well, I mean, yeah. You can use it slangily. Slangily? Is that a word? Slangily. Slangish. You can use it in some slang. Yeah. No, I never really, we didn't really do anything on trains. I do have a... Because in the U.S., I would say that trains are not actually a common way to travel for most people. If you're going to Chicago or New York or other big cities, you might ride... Some big cities, yeah, yeah. You might ride a metro train, but if we're talking about trains that get you from one city to another, that's actually not a super common way to travel. But I do remember we are located in Michigan and I remember as a child, my family went from our city to Chicago and it was probably a four-hour train ride or something, I would imagine. That's significant. It's not a fast train, but it's... So we went down on the train and we spent the day in the city. I think we went to the museum and then we went back and that's an adventure. It was an adventure to be on a train. Yeah, I think when here in the United States, like you said, if you're in a big city, the train is just part of your life, but if you're not in a big city and you think about the need to travel, you usually go with the car if you can drive or you think of an airplane. Yeah. Because those are both very fast. Here in the United States, we like to travel when we want to travel and sometimes train schedules say, well, you only can go this one time a day and we're like, I don't want that. I'm gonna drive my own car or do something like that. Yeah, it is true. We did a train trip from Chicago to Denver, which took about a day. Yeah. But it didn't feel like a day because what I loved about the train was I wasn't responsible. Yeah, that is really nice. We could get up and move around and there was an observation car where you could look sideways out the train and see the landscape go by and see the country in a different way. And that was really a memorable trip. And yet here I am many, many, many, many years later and I've never done it again. So I don't know how memorable it was. Yeah, there is something about that travel on a train for people who are not used to it. So this program is specifically about high speed trains. So like these trains that we are talking about are, I mean, they go fast, but they don't go like hundreds of miles per hour or hundreds of kilometers per hour for the rest of the world. So I think the most well-known high speed train is the Shinkansen in Japan. Do you know this train? Not personally, no. But you know of it. I have heard of, well, I feel like some of the high speed that I am most familiar with are the ones in France because those are the ones that are most in adventure movies. Are those high speed trains or just trains? I think that the Tejave is a high speed train. Yeah, see, this is where we betray ourselves as stupid Americans. Yeah, spotlight listeners. I'm gonna tell you a little secret. All we do is learn just enough to seem like we know what we're talking about. Oh, I didn't tell all our secret. Please do not tell the rest of the internet that when it comes to certain things, we really have no idea. Okay, so the Shinkansen, as it says in this program, goes 200 kilometers per hour. So how fast is that in miles? Divided by 2.2, so about 100 miles an hour? Oh, over 100 miles an hour, yeah. Okay, about 100 miles an hour, that's pretty fast. That's very fast. Yeah. So where does it go to, though? Wherever it wants. I have actually been on the Shinkansen. Have you? But you know what we were just talking about? Like you always remember those things. I don't actually remember being on it. How do you know you were on it then? Oh, cause I know that we took it. Like I remember, I don't remember like looking out the window. I guess I do, okay, it's all coming back to me now. It was fast enough, maybe like under a tunnel that our ears popped. And it was going, it did feel very fast. Yeah, I remember the experience of, my first time I rode on a train is it felt like I was, you know, the seats reminded me of being on an airplane, but all of a sudden you just start moving. There's no, you know, exits or warnings. They just go and you're like, wait, I guess this is okay because you're not leaving the ground. Yeah, like there was actually, okay, so now this is where this conversation turns dark, right? There was actually a big train accident in the US just in the last week or so. Maybe two weeks. Yeah, maybe two weeks from when. Did you hear about this? Yeah. So I wonder like, you know, I did not look this up before this program, but I wonder if the Shinkansen has had any accidents like that. Like is it safer? It's gotta be safer than air travel. Here's my guess. And maybe I'm going with some stereotypes that I have. So if you are Japanese and you disagree with what I'm about to say, leave a comment, tell me I am wrong. I know that Japanese trains are very, they run on schedule. They're efficient. They are very efficient. So I would guess that that efficiency extends to safety and security. And so I'm gonna go out on a limb and say they have never had a significant train wreck. I'm not saying they haven't had mechanical problems. Yeah. I think that's like, I would probably agree with that guess. Let us know in the comments. I'm sure someone from Japan can let us know. Yeah, that's true. The other high speed train that is mentioned to this program is a maglev train, which I always think is so weird because it's magnetic levitation, right? It's not actually touching any tracks. Yeah. Am I understanding this correctly? Yes, you are. Okay, so I will admit that most of what I know about a maglev train comes from a black panther? I was gonna say, I anticipated some kind of science fiction reference coming. I didn't know it would be black panther. Of course, they're mining vibranium deep in this mountain. They have a very fast maglev train. So, yep. That's really all I know about maglev trains. Yeah. What? That's factual. Well, you know. I know. Anyway, so I guess if you know more about maglev trains than me. Which won't take a whole lot of comments. Tell me what this is. And I would be interested if our listeners live in places where high speed trains are common. Yeah. And if they've ever been on one. I know that we have some Japanese listeners. I would love to hear what you think about the Shinkansen. Tell us what we've gotten wrong. What? Tell us what we've gotten wrong. Yeah, exactly. I would love to hear if you are from Wakanda, how that may... It hurts. Wakanda forever. No, you can't do that. Anyway, yeah, that's just a joke. I know that Wakanda is not real and that Black Panther is just a movie. But anyway, I would love to hear your experiences with high speed trains. Again, if you have not heard our program about high speed trains, I encourage you to check it out. It is on our website at www.spotlightenglish.com. It is on YouTube and as a video that you can watch and follow along with and it is wherever you can get your podcasts. Check us out on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. And I think that's it. Until next time, listen, watch, practice, learn. Spotlight out.