Where would you like to go on holiday?

Tracy:  Hello, you’re listening to Question and Answer of the Week from BBC Learning English. I’m Tracy.
 
Li:  大家好，我是杨莉。
 
Tracy:  And this week’s question is from Tong Zhang who is in France. 
 
Li:  Tong Zhang wanted to know: 
 
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What is the difference between holiday and holidays? Also, what is the difference between a holiday and a vacation?
 
Li:  问题提得很好。I think this is a very good question.
 
Tracy:    Yes and you know this is the perfect time of year for us to answer a question on holidays.
 
Li:   Why do you say that, Tracy?
 
Tracy:  Well, we recently just had a few days off work. They were public holidays. 
 
Li:  A public holiday 公共假日。人们不必去上班了，商店和银行一般也都停业休息。在英语中 public holidays 也可以被称为 bank holidays 或national holidays. 
 
Tracy:  Yes, so back to the question, the word holiday can sometimes appear tricky to use at first.
 
Li:  Why?
 
Tracy:  Well because the word holiday or holidays can be used in several different situations and to mean different things. 
 
Li:  Let’s look at some of these situations, shall we?
 
Tracy:  Good idea. 
 
Li:  第一种情况: holiday 这个词可以表示假期，也就是不上班不上学的一段时间。
 
Tracy:    For example: I really need a holiday as work is just too busy at the moment. 
 
Li:  在这个例句中, 讲话的人说他需要休息一下因为工作太忙了，此处的 holiday 意思是不去上班，休息一下。 
 
Tracy:    Great, so we are agreed that we can talk about a holiday as being time away from work or school. 
 
Li:    Yes, we are agreed. It could be a day-off, a few days or a longer period of time. 
 
Tracy:   Good, let’s move on to scenario two:
 
Li:  好的。Holiday 可以用来表示全国放假的日子。换句话说就是 national 或 public 假日。
 
Tracy:  Yes and did you know that in England we have approximately eight public holidays or bank holidays each year. 
 
Li:  Yeah, I did know that. There are also several public holidays in China you know. They are often held in celebration of something.
 
Tracy:  I see. Now, moving along, are you ready to describe the third scenario?
 
Li:  Of course, 第三种情况就是: holiday 这个词可以表示一次愉快的旅行。
 
Tracy:  Ah yes, the word holiday can also be used to talk about a trip. So I could say my recent holiday to Venice was wonderful. 
 
Li:    Yes, you could say that. I’m not surprised you had a wonderful time in Venice. It is a very romantic city, isn’t it?
 
Tracy:  It is but that’s all I’m prepared to say about that. I think we should move on to our final scenario. 
 
Li:  Ok, 还有第四种情况，那就是 holidays 表示一种固定的假期，这段时间人们不需要去上学或者去上班。
 
Tracy:  Exactly. The word holidays is often used when we are talking about times of the year when people have long holidays such as Christmas or Summer. 
 
Li:  Ah yes, at those time of the year lots of people are off work or school. 
 
Tracy:  Yes, in fact one of my friends is a primary school teacher and she get’s six weeks off work during summer. I think the summer holidays are far too long. 
 
Li:  Tracy 觉得  summer holidays 太长了。她认为下学生不需要六周的假期，不过我倒不这么看。I think we’ll have to agree to disagree here. 
 
Tracy:  Ok, so we have established that the word holiday can be used in different situations. 
 
Li:  Yes and at the beginning of today’s programme we mentioned that we
have recently had two public holidays in the UK. 
 
Tracy:  Yes, most people in England did not go to work or school on Friday 10th April or Monday 13th  April. These days were public holidays.
 
Li:    So, what did people do during the long weekend? 
 
Tracy:  Good question Li, we asked some people what they did during the recent public holidays and you are now going to hear their answers.
 
Li:  下面我们一起来听听这些人谈论他们是如何度过复活节假期的。请大家注意每个人讲话的口气，判断一下他们喜欢还是不喜欢不去单位上班的两天公共假日。Public holidays.
Insert
 
I was in Houston Texas, in the United States with my family. 
 
I cycled every day, fabulous weather, fabulous riding, between about 20 to 30 miles each day.
 
I decided to go by train to Bath and the weather there was magnificent, very sunny, and I enjoyed the day out. 
 
I was working all day long. It was one of the busiest days of the week and actually of the whole year as far as I know. So, I was stuck here from ten in the morning until half past six. No actually it was later than that. 
 
Li:   听上去大多数人都是愉快地度过了一个长周末的，或者是出游，或者是和家人团聚。
 
Tracy:  Yes, most people seemed to enjoy having some time off work. Welleveryone except the last person we spoke to. Let’s listen to what he said again. 
 
Li:  这个人为什么不喜欢刚刚过去的公共假日呢？
 
Insert
 
I was working all day long. It was one of the busiest days of the week and actually of the whole year as far as I know. So, I was stuck here from ten in the morning until half past six. No actually it was later than that. 
 
Tracy:  So he did not really enjoy the public holiday. Did you hear why? 
 
Li:  He said he had to work and it was a really busy day. 
 
Tracy:  But it wasn’t so bad as I think he will have got paid double. 
 
Li:  Paid double. 公共假日加班他能够拿到双份工资。 That’s good, huh?
 
Tracy:  Yes, that’s not so bad at all.  
 
Li:  We’ve been talking about holidays. 
 
Tracy:  Yes and to finish today’s show, I thought we could just look at some other way’s of describing holidays. 
 
Li:  很好，现在我们来介绍一些和公共假日 holiday 意思相似的其它词语。  
 
Tracy:  Instead of saying: I went on holiday, you could say: I went on a trip / I went on a vacation.
 
Li:  不错，也就是说 went on a trip 和 went on vacation 也都表示度假 went on holiday.
 
Tracy:  Yes you might hear any of those phrases when someone is talking about a holiday that they have been on. Here are another few phrases. Instead of saying: I need to take a holiday, you could say: I need to take time-off; I need to take a break; need to take a vacation.
 
Li:  很好。Take time off, take a break, 还有  take a vacation 这三个短语都表示 take a holiday.
 
Tracy:  Absolutely. One thing though, the word vacation is more common in American English but British people will understand the word vacation if you use it instead of the word holiday. 
 
Li:  Well today we have talked a lot about holidays but I haven’t asked you if you are going on holiday this year Tracy?
 
Tracy:  Well, I’m not sure yet. I’ve just taken a short trip to Venice and that was beautiful but I’d like to go on a longer holiday in the summer, somewhere with a beach. Actually, I had been thinking about going on holiday to France. 
 
Li:  Oh, maybe you could ask Tong Zhang for some advice. As he is currently living in France you know. 
 
Tracy:  I might just do that. In the meantime, I do hope we have answered your question Tong Zhang. 
 
Li:  是的，如果其他听众朋友碰到英语学习上的问题，请给我们发电子邮件: questions.chinaelt@bbc.co.uk. 
 
Tracy:  And you can visit our website www.bbcchina.com.cn for our Question and Answer of the Week programmes and for lots of other free English language learning materials. 
 
Li:  Until next time, bye!
 
Tracy:  Bye! 

This week’s question is from Tong Zhang who wants to know how to correctly use the word holiday.

This word can be a little confusing as people use it in a lot of different situations. It can take on many meanings.

Here are some of the most common ways that the word holiday is used.

1. The word holiday can be used when you are talking about a period of time when you don’t go to work or school. For example:

I really need a holiday as work is just too busy at the moment.

2. The word holiday can be used when you are talking about a national or public holiday when hardly anyone has to go to work or school. For example:

In England there are approximately eight public holidays each year.

3. The word holiday can be used to describe a fun trip that you have been on. For example:

My recent holiday to Venice was wonderful.

4. The word holidays can be used to talk about a general period of time where people are not at school or work. For example:

I think the summer holidays are far too long.

Listen to this week’s programme to hear more about using the word holiday.

Tracy and Li also offer some additional words and phrases that you can use when you are talking about holidays.

We hope we’ve answered your question Tong Zhang.

We look forward to receiving more questions about the English language.

If you have a question, email it to: questions.chinaelt@bbc.co.uk

Glossary 词汇

period of time 一段时间

national holiday 全国休假日

public holiday 公共假日

trip 旅行/旅程