Have you ever gone on a road trip?
Americans love going on road trips.
In today’s episode, Lindsay and Michelle share the games they like to play in the car and how to initiate those games with the correct English phrases.
Listen in and learn more about the car culture while improving your communication skills and creating connections with friends and family while on a road trip.
Do You Love Road Trips?
Michelle asks Lindsay if she loves road trips.
Lindsay answers that she absolutely is fond of going on road trips especially indulging in snacks while in the car.
She shares that her favorite road trip snacks are candy and chocolates but it really depends on who she is with.
She also recently looped around America and she only drank black iced coffee while on the road.
She didn’t want to keep snacking for two months because that’s a bit unhealthy.
Michelle then continues to ask Lindsay about her experiences on road trips when she was younger.
Was she a bit of an “are we there yet?” kid?
This means to be very impatient and you keep asking if you’ve arrived at your destination.
Lindsay shares that she may have been a bit angsty when she had to sit in the car with her brother for too long.
He would be obnoxious and annoy her most of the time.
She would be happier on the road trip if she was able to sit in the front with her dad.
After the 9-11 incident, she went on a road trip with her friends in college and they went across the country.
She considers this her first road trip.
They played tons of car games together and had so much fun.
Car Games
Lindsay mentions that America has such a big car culture.
It is different from other countries, like Japan, where they have a very good train system so they don’t tend to drive to get to where they want to go.
In America, it’s part of the culture to take people on road trips to get to bond and know them better.
Lindsay and Michelle share some famous games you can play in the car.
They used to play this when they were kids and is even more fun to play as an adult.
Here are some of the car games mentioned by Lindsay and Michelle:
- License Plate Game
The rule of this game is to look out and try to spot a license plate from as many different states as you can. In America, you can distinguish what state the car has come from depending on what their license plate looks like. Lindsay played this game on her first road trip with friends. Michelle shares that they would often just shout out when they see a license plate and it can be competitive at times.
- 20 Questions
To start this game, someone thinks of something and you have 20 questions you can ask for you to guess what it is. Your questions have to be answerable to either yes or no. You can guess about anything. It can either be what you see or categorize it under a certain topic. This is very easy to play in the car because it is very verbal where you don’t need to use gestures or have to be facing each other to play.
- I Spy
This is a bit similar to the game 20 questions but this time you guess what someone is seeing when in the car. You start the question with “I spy with my little eye something….” then you keep giving clues as the other person is guessing. This is a fun game for younger kids as mentioned by Lindsay.
How Can I Suggest Playing a Car Game?
Playing car games is one of the best ways to make a connection with other people.
Here are ways you can suggest what to play:
- Do you wanna play…
- I know it’s a kid’s game but…maybe we should play….?
- Let’s play…
These are good ways to suggest playing games when you are bored in the car and you don’t want to just keep listening to music.
Takeaway
The All Ears English team always encourages you to use English to build that connection.
Do what is necessary to learn how to communicate and make a relationship with native English speakers.
Being involved in activities that are a custom in their culture is a good way to get started in making that connection. As mentioned by Lindsay and Michelle, road trips are very common in America.
If you get invited to join one, make sure to keep it light and fun with interactive activities like car games.
You can use the car games suggested in this episode and bond with your friends and family while spending time in the car. Lindsay and Michelle have given you sample games and shared how you can play them.
Also, they have shared different ways you can suggest to play a game and make memories together.
We’d love to hear what car game you would most likely try on your road trip.
Do you have any car games from your culture?
Share whatever you can in the comments down below and we’d sure enjoy learning about your experiences.
