Teacher Discussion Forums

Hi all,

I'm teaching a BEC Vantage course and using Pass BEC Vantage as a course book. Tomorrow's lesson is "Making Conversation". On page 22 of the teacher's book are instructions for a listening exercise about business travel. It says to make sure the students know the difference between "trip" and "journey". I thought they meant the same thing.

Anyway, I looked up both words in a dictionary. Supposedly, a journey is one leg of a trip. A trip = two journeys (one to the place, one from the place).

I've never ever heard this and from listening to the tape I don't think knowing the difference is a big issue. But, since this is the first time I've taught (not only a BEC Vantage class, but anywhere) I wanted to make sure.

Any thoughts?

Trip is more widely used for "moving from point a to point b" especially in current English/American.

I agree that the dictionary definitions of both words are essentially synonymous. I believe the British will use journey more frequently.

Most of my business travel involved multiple stop trips. The term journey was never used in describing trips to the West Coast, month stays away from home or day visits to another city. They were always trips.

My sense is that a journey is a more complex and perhaps more difficult set of events. Clearly, I have been on a personal journey for years and hope it will someday be fruitful.

I, too, think of journey as something longer and more involved, and certainly in the metaphorical sense, as the previous writer illustrated:
Clearly, I have been on a personal journey for years and hope it will someday be fruitful.
Journey just doesn't work in the following sentence:
We took a trip north to see her cousin, who lives in Vallejo. It's just a 40-minute drive from San Francisco.[/i]