Episode 83 Transcript Listening Time

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Transcript - “Listening Time” Episode 83
Welcome to the Listening Time podcast. Hey everybody, this is Conner, and 
you're listening to Episode 83 of the Listening Time podcast. I hope you're all doing 
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Alright, well today, we're going to talk about street markets. So, this will be a fun 
topic, because a lot of people like going to street markets, and in di
ff
erent countries, 
there are di
ff
erent types of street markets. So, I want to talk about a few di
ff
erent types 
of street markets in di
ff
erent countries. I think that'll be a good topic to talk about 
today. 
Remember that you have the transcript for this episode. That's in the Episode 
Description below the episode. So, click on that if you need it, and listen to this 
episode as many times as you need. Your goal should be to eventually understand 
everything that I'm saying without using the transcript. And if you like this podcast, 
please give it a five-star rating and share it with anyone else who might find it useful, 
any friends or family members who are learning English and could benefit from this 
podcast. Alright, let's get started. 
Okay, so let's talk about street markets. Street markets are markets that happen 
in the street, usually, or they might happen in a parking lot or something like that, 
maybe by a shopping mall, in di
ff
erent areas, but they happen outside and they're 
usually just temporary. So, people have to put up these stalls or stands or booths. We 
have di
ff
erent words for these things. These are these little... kind of like tents... where 
people set up their tables and products. We can usually call these "stands," like "I 
bought tacos from that stand," for example. 
So, people have to set up these stands whenever these markets happen. And 
then, when the market is over, when the time ends, they have to take down these 
stands. In English, we use that phrasal verb "take down" to mean that you disassemble 
something, you take it apart and put it away. So, people have to take down these stalls 
when the market hours are over. So, that's a street market. 
And there are di
ff
erent types of street markets in di
ff
erent countries. I want to 
start by talking about farmers markets in the US. So, a farmers market is a street 
market where farmers can come, or people that sell products, not always farmers, but 

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a lot of times it's farmers... they will come and sell their products directly to consumers, 
directly to normal people. So, they don't have to sell their products to grocery stores 
who sell them to normal people. Right? These farmers can just sell their products to 
consumers directly via these farmers markets. 
So, they might sell di
ff
erent fruits and vegetables, other types of food, they can 
sell drinks, they can sell plants and even animals sometimes, but there's a lot of variety 
that's sold there. And a lot of this food is organic, so it doesn't have pesticides or 
herbicides, and the farming techniques are very good compared to the farming 
techniques used elsewhere. In English, when we use the word "elsewhere," we're 
saying in other places. So, the farming techniques used to produce the food at 
farmer's markets is usually better than elsewhere. And so, this is high-quality food. It's 
usually very good, nutritious, organic, like I mentioned, and so, people view this as kind 
of like an expensive market. 
I don't know for sure if farmers markets are always more expensive than other 
places, but a lot of people have this perception of farmers markets, that you'll have to 
spend a little more money at these places. I've also seen that this isn't always true. I've 
read articles about this, that this is more something in our mind, but in reality, it's not 
that expensive. It's not much more expensive than other places. But I don't know 
because I haven't been to a farmers market in a while. But I think that they have good 
food, and if you want to buy good quality food and buy directly from farmers, then I 
think this is a great option. 
I like farmers markets, and I think they're cool places to just walk around, and 
they often give you free samples of food at farmer's markets. So, maybe someone is 
selling a homemade jam, and they want to give people free samples so that they might 
want to buy this jam. That's very common at farmer's markets, so you can often get a 
little free food when you go. 
So, there are di
ff
erent farmers markets in di
ff
erent parts of the city, once a week 
usually. So for example, maybe every Monday, there's this one farmers market on one 
street, and then every Saturday, there's a di
ff
erent farmers market on a di
ff
erent street. 
And at least in my home city, this is normal. So, there are di
ff
erent farmers markets 
every day, and they're there once a week usually. 
Alright, now, let's talk about swap meets. So, a swap meet is a big market where 
a lot of things are sold. Swap meets are also called "flea markets." Some people might 
use that term. Some people might use the term "swap meet." I think they're the same 
thing. And these are big markets in the US, like I mentioned, that sell a lot of di
ff
erent 
items. They sell a lot of used items. So, you might have used furniture, clothes, other 
items, all kinds of things. And you can usually find a lot of vintage-type things or 
antiques and stu
ff
like that. But you can also find modern things as well. 
And at these markets, they also sell food, so you can go and eat meals there 
while you shop. So, they sell all kinds of things. These are really big markets. I've only 
been to one or two in the US, so I don't have much experience with these. But 
sometimes they can be just seasonal, like every once in a while, they have a swap 
meet in a certain space... a parking lot or something like that. But some of them have 
become more regular. So, maybe even once a week or twice a month, or something 
like that. So, it really just depends on the swap meet. 

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But there's something for everyone there. I think if you go to a swap meet in the 
US, you'll probably find at least one or two things of interest. Because like I said, they 
have all kinds of stu
ff
, and if I'm not mistaken, I think that it's usually at a good price. 
So, swap meets aren't considered to be expensive places. Swap meets are usually 
thought of as being pretty cheap. You can find products there that might cost more if 
you bought them somewhere else. So, this is an advantage to going to swap meets. 
Okay, now I want to talk about the equivalent of swap meets in Mexico. So, in 
Mexico, we have these markets called tianguis. And so, this is pretty much a swap 
meet. But these are very regular. So, they're every week, once a week, in di
ff
erent 
places. So for example, every Saturday morning, there will be tianguis in a certain 
neighborhood, right? Or every Wednesday afternoon, there will be one in another 
neighborhood. 
So, these are regular, usually every week, and some of them are a little bit 
smaller and some of them are huge. There are some huge markets in Mexico where all 
the tra
ffi
c has to go around and reroute and go somewhere else because these 
markets can take up a very big space in di
ff
erent neighborhoods. So, you have to know 
what day it is, what time it is, if you're driving through certain neighborhoods, because 
if you drive through the tianguis, it's going to be very hard to get through. It's going to 
be very slow, and you're probably going to have to go in a di
ff
erent direction to get 
around this market. 
So, you can find anything and everything at these markets. So, you can find a lot 
of di
ff
erent products for pretty cheap, and you can find new items. So, I mentioned that 
at swap meets in the US, there are a lot of used and new items. I think at most tianguis 
in Mexico, most of the items are new. I could be wrong. There could be a lot of used 
items at certain markets, but the ones that I've been to usually sell new items. I think in 
countries outside the US, people don't like used items as much. In the US, people love 
going to used clothing stores and things like that. So, that isn't quite as popular in 
other places. 
So, with these markets in Mexico, these new items are sold for cheap. They're 
very accessible. So, you can buy clothes. You can buy other small items. You can buy 
bigger things, furniture, you can buy all kinds of things. Maybe even electronics, or 
other things like that, for cheap. So, I go to these types of markets once in a while, 
usually if we need to buy presents for people. So, if we don't know what gift to buy 
someone, we might go to one of these markets and just look around and see what they 
have, and buy the cheap gift there. This is something that we do sometimes. 
And there's actually a lot of good food at these markets in Mexico. So, you can 
often find very good tacos or very good seasonal fruit and things like that. So, I like 
eating at these markets. I like buying food there. I try to find the stands that have a lot 
of people because that probably means that the food there is good. And I like to buy 
food there, sometimes breakfast or lunch or whatever. There's a lot of good food at 
these markets. 
And there's some interesting items there. I remember in the past, when I used to 
go, I would always see pirated movies. In English, the term "pirated" means that some 
product was produced illegally. So, people would sell these movies illegally, because 
the movie had just barely come out in theaters, like it came out in theaters yesterday, 
and today, somehow, they're selling DVDs of this movie at these markets. So, you can 

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buy some illegal products like that at these markets and other interesting stu
ff
as well. 
And like I said, they have these markets every week. So, this is a regular thing and 
some people actually go every week. I definitely don't, but a lot of people do. They like 
to just walk around these markets, and it's pretty entertaining for a lot of people. 
And there's another type of market that I've started to see a lot more of in 
Mexico, but this is specifically in neighborhoods like mine that are pretty hip and cool, 
we would say. I don't think this is popular in a lot of other types of neighborhoods. But 
in some of the nicer neighborhoods or the cool, hip neighborhoods, we have these new 
markets, and we use the term "bazar" in Spanish. In English, we have this word 
"bazaar" actually. And in English, we usually use that word to refer to markets in Africa, 
the Middle East, Southern Asia, a certain style of market in certain countries,. 
But that word is used in Spanish to describe these, kind of, smaller hip, cool 
markets. And here, they have a lot of used clothes sometimes, sometimes new items, 
they have food, they have a lot of di
ff
erent types of things, a lot of di
ff
erent products. 
Sometimes they sell pet products like things for your dog. They might sell makeup, a 
lot of di
ff
erent types of things. But these markets look more stylish, and you see a lot of 
young women there. This is the main demographic at these markets. So, they go to 
check out the di
ff
erent clothes, check out the natural products. That's another big one. 
They might sell, like, natural makeup products or things like that. 
So, there are used and new products, and a lot of girls like these markets here in 
my neighborhood. And they have them pretty regularly, like every week, and it is a cool 
place to go. Like I said, probably more for women than for men, but they usually have 
music. They sell food. And it's nice to just walk around these places as well just to 
check them out. Because sometimes, they have pretty cool products too. I usually 
don't spend much time here, but my wife does. She likes to go to these markets, even 
if she's not going to buy anything. She still likes to go check out, you know, what 
products they're selling. 
So, it's something that's trendy now. In English, when we use the word "trendy," 
we're talking about something that is in style, something that is cool at the moment. 
So, these small markets are trendy in certain neighborhoods in Mexico. And so, these 
have become a more popular thing, and I see new ones... like, every few months, they 
seem to open up a new one and try to get another regular bazar started. So, this is 
becoming very trendy here. And I'm sure that this trend is here to stay. 
And I want to talk about one other type of market: Christmas markets. So, these 
are famous in Europe, particularly Western Europe. There are Christmas markets in 
di
ff
erent cities. And these have a very cool atmosphere. A lot of people like going to 
these, maybe even traveling to Europe in the wintertime to go to these markets 
because they really like the atmosphere here. It's a family friendly place, usually, so you 
can take your kids there. The decorations are really beautiful. The lights are awesome. 
It has a very Christmassy feeling to it. So, these are cool places for the whole family. 
They have food and drinks, of course, a lot of Christmas-type drinks like warm 
drinks and maybe soup... I remember eating soup at one because it's cold during that 
time, and so you want to have warm food and warm drinks, and so that's really cool. 
Of course, they sell a lot of products there. Some people like buying from these 
Christmas markets and might buy presents there. Some people just go for the food 
and for the other things and they don't buy anything there. There are sometimes rides, 

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like at an amusement park. They sometimes have these at Christmas markets, 
depending on how big the market is. But I've seen rides and di
ff
erent games for 
children. 
And so, there are a lot of fun things there. It's not just to buy products. There are 
attractions for kids, and there's good foods sometimes. And like I said, the atmosphere 
is really cool. This is one of the main reasons why people go there. They like to see the 
decorations and the lights and be there at night and feel this energy there. 
I've only been to two Christmas markets. I went to one very small one in 
London. I was only in London for like, I don't know, less than 24 hours when I went to 
Europe last time. And so, I had just a brief time there. I couldn't do a lot of things. But 
we saw a Christmas market that was already open in November. So, it was very early. 
But I went to one, and this was a smaller one. It was mostly with food, di
ff
erent food 
places, and the food was very good that we had there. 
But the second Christmas market that we went to was better. This was in Paris, 
and this was a much bigger one. And they had rides there. They had di
ff
erent 
attractions. It kind of felt like a fair in the US. A "fair" is like a carnival. It kind of felt like 
that. It had a great atmosphere. I remember eating soup there, as I mentioned, and 
drinking a warm beverage. So, that was nice. And it was nice to see all the kids there 
having fun, to see all the families. And of course, there were a lot of tourists because it 
was in Paris. So, a lot of people were there. And that was a cool thing. 
But Christmas markets are places that draw a lot of attention. A lot of people 
really like them, and they're only there for that season. So, they're kind of unique in that 
regard, because you can't go do a Christmas market in June, for example. So, I think 
when something is rarer, a lot of people really want to go, right, because it's not always 
there. So, Christmas markets are very cool places to go to in Europe. 
Alright, why don't we stop there for today? I hope this episode was interesting 
for you, and I hope it was good practice for your listening. Remember that if you want 
to reach an advanced level, if you want to start practicing with fast English, then sign 
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advanced episodes every month. I speak fast and I provide the transcript. 
And if you want to ask me questions regarding English or language learning, 
then become a Listening Time VIP, and you can ask me questions every week, and I'll 
answer them in a video Q&A session every week. And remember that you have the 
transcript for this episode in the Episode Description. So, go down and click on that if 
you need it. And if you like this podcast, please give it a five-star rating, and share it 
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