This is an English lesson designed to help you practice and improve your English listening and pronunciation skills. The listening lesson is a short story about something that happened in my life in Canada. There is also a short pronunciation explanation about a word or sound I used in the story.

Story: My trip to the laundromat!
Pronunciation explanation: The vowel r ‘er’ sound!

If you have trouble with your listening skills, here’s something that may help:
How to practice listening

Listen to the podcast:

Download the podcast in .mp3 from Podbean.com or itunes!

Listening Comprehension Questions:

1. Why did I have to go to the laundromat?

2. Why didn’t I just hang everything outside to dry on a clothes line?

3. Where are the washer and dryer in a Canadian home?

4. How long did it take to dry all my laundry?

5. How much did it cost to dry all my laundry?

Transcript:

(*Click on the links to learn more about the grammar, vocabulary and expressions used in the story!)

The dryer is broken and I don’t know what’s wrong with it. Everything works when you turn it on – but it doesn’t dry anything! It just tosses all the wet clothes around for awhile without actually drying them! I tried to go without doing laundry for as long as possible, but it’s been 2 weeks and it doesn’t appear as if the dryer will be fixed anytime soon. For some reason the repair service is very busy right now and won’t be able to send someone to fix it until next week. So, I did 3 loads of laundry in the washing machine, put everything in the laundry basket and then drove to the local laundromat to dry everything!

I know you’re probably wondering: why didn’t I just hang everything outside to dry on a clothes line? I don’t know how to explain it … hanging your clothes outside to dry is just not something that people do here! I guess in the past, it was a sign that you didn’t earn or have enough money to afford a dryer. It’s considered tacky and an eyesore to your neighbours. Until recently it was against the law to hang your clothes outside! A lot of towns had bylaws restricting the use of clothes lines, even in your own backyard. Attitudes are changing now, though, due to the environmental movement and the recession.

It’s very common in Canadian homes to have both a washer and a dryer! It’s so convenient! In a typical house, the washer and dryer are usually in a small room called the laundry room, or they’re in the basement of the house.

The local laundromat is run by a lovely, friendly Cambodian couple. The laundromat has huge industrial machines that dry things a lot faster than the kind we use at home. I put my wet laundry in the dryer and then put quarters in the coin slot to start the machine. It only took about ½ an hour to dry everything and it only cost $3! It was nice to finally have clean clothes!

Discussion Questions:

How do you do laundry? Do you have a washer and dryer in your house? Do you hang your laundry outside to dry?

Are public laundromats common in your country?

Let me know in the comments below!

Pronunciation – the vowel r sound

The vowel r sound /ɝ/(stressed), /ɚ/(unstressed)

Listen to some words from the story:

dryer
turn
service
earn
neighbour

Can you hear the vowel r sound in all these words?

Listen to some more words:
first
work
nurse
learn

We actually have TWO different sounds for the letter r. There’s the consonant r sound you can hear at the beginning of words or syllables, for example:

real
right
camera
celebrity

…and then there is the vowel r sound that occurs when the r is at the end of a syllable or word, AND is preceded by a vowel. This sound is not always spelled ‘er.’ In stressed syllables, it’s sometimes spelled ‘ir,’ ‘or,’ or ‘ur.’

Now listen to other words with the same sound:

heard
bird
worse
burn
earth
girl
encourage
Thursday

Vocabulary:

a load of laundry
I did 3 loads of laundry …
= the amount [of clothes, towels, sheets, etc.] that can fit in the washing machine

a laundromat
…and then drove to the local laundromat to dry everything!
= a store that has washing machines and dryers for the public to use. You can do your own laundry. Usually you put quarters into the coin slot to start the machines

tacky
It’s considered tacky and an eyesore…
= ugly, cheap, low quality, in bad taste and style

eyesore
It’s considered tacky and an eyesore…
= something that is ugly and unpleasant to look at

a bylaw
A lot of towns had bylaws restricting the use of clothes lines…
= laws made by local governments that only apply to the town, city or region

a coin slot
…then put quarters in the coin slot to start the machine
= a long, thin, opening in a machine to collect coins