Real English Conversation: English listening practice

You're invited to this real English conversation with me, Vanessa, and my husband Dan. We are going to give you something that AI cannot give you, and that is a real conversation between real people. I know I'm not AI. What about you? I mean, I think I'm real. >> I think >> Ma'am. I think you are. So, in this conversation, you're going to be immersed in real-life English, which is the key to help you also become a natural fluent English speaker. And like always, I have created a free PDF worksheet here over Dan's face. It's going to include all of the vocabulary that you're about to learn today. Plus, I have added a bonus in the free PDF. This is a listening version, an audio version of today's entire lesson. It's kind of like a mini podcast episode, so you can download the listening version, and you can listen to it wherever you go. While you're walking your dog, while you are doing the dishes, while you're doing anything. So, how can you get this free PDF worksheet plus the bonus audio version? All you need to do is click the link in the description, enter your name and email address, and voila, just like that, it will land in your email inbox. It is my gift to you, so don't wait. Make sure you get the PDF worksheet and bonus audio version. All right, Dan, are you ready to get started? >> I'm ready to talk about my childhood. >> Yes, that is the topic for today. It is we're going to be talking about a few questions based on our childhoods, but especially comparing our childhoods to our children's childhoods. >> Mhm. Yes. I have heard some other people say that kids nowadays are inside more, they are attached to their screens more. >> heard me say this. And I think it is a really interesting conversation to compare different generations' childhoods. So, are you ready for my first question? >> I'm ready. Let's do it. >> Dan does know what these questions are. Yes, it's a mystery. I want you to think back to when you were 8 years old. Oh. And I want you >> It's a good time for me. >> wonderful students to also think about when you were 8 years old. Tell me, how much freedom did you have? For example, could you go off and ride your bike in the neighborhood? Did your parents drop you off at the grandparents house for the weekend? How much freedom did you have? >> First for context, I think that uh but both of us had kind of unusual childhoods in some regards, but as far as freedom at an age 8, I think that we were pretty I was pretty standard as far as like the American standard. So, I was allowed to kind of roam my neighborhood as long as I was with my brother. And we could walk to um the playground, we could walk to a pond by ourselves, which we did quite a lot. Um my parents were a little more strict though when it came to going over to friends' house or like neighbors' house. Okay. They were very cautious about um the influence of neighbors. >> especially like movies they'd watch or video games or whatever. Yeah. And you know, we had a couple shady characters in our neighborhood. Not that shady, well, maybe one or two. It was It was quite a mix, really, but >> uh nothing too crazy. It wasn't like that dangerous, but >> Yeah, I feel like I experienced something pretty similar where I could bike in the neighborhood. We could play with the neighborhood kids. But I went to a few to a few sleepovers at friends' houses. That's a pretty common American thing. You can spend the night at a friend's house. Um but that was pretty much it. We couldn't walk to any shops because I lived so far away from shops or our school. We couldn't walk anywhere. >> We lived in the suburbs. There's not a lot of shops that are just walkable. Yeah, you could just kind of stay in your neighborhood. Um but we didn't have We'll talk about technology later. We didn't have any way to contact our parents when we were out. So, let's talk about our kids though. Our kids now, do they have the same type of freedom that we had as kids? Um kind of, not really. A little bit less, I'd say. >> Yeah. Yeah. I feel like um a lot of parents our age are a little more uh cautious with their kids, like even more so, especially like biking somewhere in the neighborhood or The fear of cars. >> And I actually, in our neighborhood, we our kids are out all the time. We have them running around. Uh you know, they can walk up run up and down our road, which is a dead end, so it's not super dangerous. Mhm. And they're often the only kids out, so Mhm. Uh I feel like a lot of kids are inside more, but I don't know if that's really necessarily the parents are are scared to send them out or they don't want to give them freedom. I think I just think they're probably preoccupied with other things. Mhm. If I had to guess. Possibly. We might talk about what those other things are later. So, yeah, I I do feel like our kids are Uh we give our kids I think a little more freedom than maybe the average millennial parent does. Well, it depends on what you mean by freedom too though, because we don't let them watch a lot of TV or they don't have computers or phones or anything, so >> guess physical freedom to like, "Oh, you want to go to the neighbor's house?" And we know that neighbor. Okay, that's fine. Are you We let our children be bored, so that helps them get outside. Yeah, they they have dug a hole in our yard that's at least up to my waist. It is so deep. And what are our kids doing? I don't know, maybe digging a hole. They said they're looking for rocks. >> We have enough space to do this, by the way. It's not in anybody's walking path. It's not a safety hazard. Don't worry. There's only a child buried in there, that's all. >> Yeah, I think that the biggest difference when I think about it is our parents and our children. This kind of two generations difference. Like when I think about my parents, they were gone all day and their parents had no clue where they were. >> That is not possible for our kids. Their parents come from the our our parents come from the generation that said, "Go out and I don't want to see you until sundown." Right. Right. I cannot imagine an 8-year My 8-year-old, we have an 8-year-old. I can't imagine telling him, "Go out off of our property and I It's okay. >> see you. >> And I don't want to see you >> Until dinner. >> for the next 9 hours. I'll finally know something's wrong when you don't come home at bedtime. Yes, I think our generation can't fathom that lack of control over our kids' well-being. >> Or how about concern? >> Concern? Yeah, we're concerned about them. Yeah, I think that's This is a good foundation. The other questions are very are similar variations of this. Um I want to ask you a second question. When you were 8 years old, We're just doing a lot of 8-year-old stuff, huh? >> It's all 8-year-old stuff. >> Oh, okay. It's like peak childhood kind of. >> Yeah. You haven't reached puberty yet. You're not like a little kid. I loved life at 8. It was so fun. >> Oh. I can I can remember, you know. Oh. Yeah. That's really good. Well, let's talk about it. What was technology like when you were 8? Think phones. Think music. Think answering machines. Well, when I was 8 years old, it was 1995. Oh, yeah. >> And so, uh yeah, there was some technology. Uh we had TV in our basement and I would go down and try to watch that sometimes, but my my mom would always kind of snoop down there and be like, "What are you watching? It's time to turn it off." And uh I was one of those kids who really really really loved video games and I wanted video games a lot, but my mom would not let me. Mhm. My mom or my dad. But then my mom actually caved a little bit and she got me a Game Boy. Mhm. But, you know, you can beat one of those games in a day usually. Mhm. And so, It wasn't an endless >> It's not like stay up till 2:00 a.m. because I'm playing this game and then the next day and then all day and then My mom's also the type she's like, "We He can play it on a road trip and he can play it outside. He can take it anywhere." I mean, maybe you could. >> of true, I guess. >> Yeah. But uh Yeah, what about um That's the technology we had overall. We had our our My best friend had a computer, but we didn't have a I don't think we had a good computer at that point. I remember we got a computer when I was in sixth grade and you could type documents and I think you could play Frogger. Mhm. Maybe. I played some fun little games like that. >> Very simple. Um but I had a CD player. I don't think I was interested in like CDs or music till I was a teenager though. So at 8 we had a house phone Mhm. with an answering machine. I don't even know if we had caller ID at that point. >> Yeah. And I just was not We watched I don't even remember watching TV as a kid. Really? I watched some movies. I remember watching some like classic Disney movies as a kid, but I don't have any real memories with TV. We never We didn't have video games in my house. There's Either it was our family or we just had >> Unless you're into monster trucks or something. That was in high school. We had two girls, so we weren't necessarily like Yeah. the right market for video games at that age. Mhm. Um but what about our kids for technology? Like what kind of technology is in their life as a norm? Well, there's I mean, there's kind of a lot, but we use we keep it under control with them. Mhm. And they're still young enough and I think our oldest is he's like cautious enough. He doesn't like push the boundaries. Mhm. But you know, they they think that the TV only has a couple things on it even though technically you can It's anything. >> find anything on there. Endless, yeah. >> And they don't have a phone and they see us on our phone. They know that they can ask us to find information on the phone instantly. So, that's different. Uh Yeah, we could call someone on the phone. We could video call. >> Yeah, like our kids, especially our 2-year-old, if I'm on the phone with someone and it's not a video call, she asks to see them. Mhm. Like, oh, I want to see Sherice, like my sister. And I'm like, oh, I'm just talking to her on the phone. She can't She's like, why can't I do that? talking to someone without seeing them. I mean, why would you? It's great to see someone on a video chat. I think that's so that's like the best thing about technology. >> like we don't give our kids a tablet or anything. I feel like tablets are the devil for children, basically. Here's my old man talking. Don't give your Don't give your child a tablet. >> Yeah, our kids don't don't really know They maybe they know what a tablet is at this point. I don't know. We have one kind of. It's not It's never out. >> Yeah, it doesn't work. >> We don't use it. Well, now now it's broken as well, so. >> Yeah. Yeah, they they're around. They know that I work on the computer. So, when I do my work, I'm on the computer and our kids will sit down at the computer and pretend to do mommy's work. They >> they think the computer is for work as well. Yeah. So, that's good. Yeah, we have some boundaries about TV. I think it's going to be a lot harder as they get older. And I feel pretty clueless and innocent about what it's like to have a kid feel peer pressure about technology. Like right now our kids don't feel any pressure about playing certain video games. Like they've never They played a video game at their cousin's house, like Mario, at their cousin's house for a couple days. But Yeah, and Theo was like this, "I got to get him to MOVE OVER HERE." PHYSICALLY MOVING HIS >> STAND still like this and play. He had to move his body. It was so innocent and cute cuz he just >> Yeah. I don't think our kids aren't standard in this way anymore at this point. >> I think it is possible, though, that there's I think there's a growing group of I'm saying millennial parents because that's our generation who are wanting their kids to have less. People are aware now, like, oh, maybe all this technology isn't great for children's brains. >> Yeah. Huh. Yeah. Who could have thought of that? >> Okay, are you ready for a big one? Yeah, a big one. A boy. >> question. Okay, tell me. When you were Well, I'll ask you a question. >> 8 years old. >> Do you want a a fun one or a a heavy one? Let's get serious. Okay. Let's get serious. Think about when you're 8 years old. 8 years old, Daniel. >> How were you disciplined? Oh. Think about time outs, think about being grounded, spankings, what Mhm. being yelled at. What was I was a bit of a strong-willed child. >> discipline? I don't think anyone would be surprised to hear that. Uh My parents definitely spanked me up until around that time. Okay. Yeah, and uh Do you think What What were some circumstances that led to that? Like, what did you do? >> bit of like a traditional uh wait till your father gets home kind of thing. So, I would I would get in trouble with my mom and she would tell my dad and then my dad would dole out the spankings. >> Do you remember what you did that deserved Just probably not listening. I don't climbing stuff. I mean, I went to I went to the library one time. I started climbing the bookcases and I remember my mom being like, how why What on earth would compel you to do this? Mhm. Yeah. Wait until you get home. Oh, yeah. Kind of thing. And um Yeah. But I do remember distinctly one time my dad was going to spank me and he could he just like started cracking up. Really? It was me and my brother together. No. And apparently he pulled down our pants. We're like bare-butt, you know. And he was like, he just started laughing and walked away. He couldn't He couldn't do it. >> Well, you know that you've lost it at that point. >> We were probably like looking at him like, "Daddy, what are you going to do to us?" I mean, that is kind of funny. Um what Did you ever get grounded as a child? >> Yeah, yeah. >> Or like in time out as a child, sent to your room? >> Sent to my room for sure. Yeah, that was that was a common discipline tactic. Taking certain things away. Mhm. Yeah, I think as a kid it was >> Game Boys, TVs, you know. >> Yeah, the good stuff. >> the technology. Yeah, yeah. That's interesting. >> for little boys especially, I feel like. Um I mean, as a teenager I had that taken away, too. Yeah, and I think I feel like I remember getting really defiant. I guess probably older though, like puberty. Mhm. And you know. It changes as you get older. >> of big fights with my mom, especially, so. >> Yeah, we don't have to reveal all right now for the entire internet. But I think when I was >> But I do I do know that they stopped spanking at some point. I don't know I don't know if it was explicit or not. Yeah, I mean, when you're not a kid anymore, I think that's pretty typical. >> but I mean, like for everybody, like all of us, even my sister, yeah. Yeah, do you think it was like a a moral decision? Or just a >> told me. Oh, interesting. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I got I got spanked as a kid. For the same stuff, like not listening, fighting with my sister. You? We fought all the time. This one? All the time, you know. Siblings. Mhm. And I remember being sent >> Plus, I mean, your sister, I mean, come on. Being sent to my room, that was pretty typical. I remember hitting my sister a couple times. And my mom sent me to my room, and I was so sad that I hit her, that I snuck out of my room into her room, and we were playing with like our Barbie dolls, and my mom found us, and we were so scared cuz we were supposed to be in separate rooms cuz we were in trouble. And we're like, "Oh, no, she caught us. I came out of my room and we were playing peacefully together. Why would my mom be upset? She came in and was like, "Oh, you guys are playing together. Okay." Yeah, that and I just could not fathom that that was a good end result. Like >> to be punished right now. >> to be punished. So, I didn't do the punishment. I should be in trouble, right? But because we were playing so happily together, yeah, I I distinctly remember that moment. The fear of being in trouble for not doing the punishment. >> Mhm. But yeah, how about um let's think about our kids now. Um what how are they We dropped the ball on this. disciplined? Well, we have a very strict no spanking policy. Mhm. Yeah, we don't spank our kids. >> But then it's like, now what do we do? Yeah, I think I feel like our generation is stuck in the middle where like a lot of a lot of science has come out and said hitting and spanking your kids is is psychologically bad for them. It is not actually going to help help them. So, our generation hears that and says, "Okay, we're not going to spank." But there's not enough experience to tell us what else is effective. >> pendulum swung too far. Like a lot of parents our age as well, uh they would do I would just call them permissive parents. I don't know exactly what they >> in all countries, right? >> know exactly what they would call it, but you know, their kids just walk all over them and they're rude all the time and they get what they want. And like who's the boss Yeah. Yeah, so it swung from one far side with like maybe our grandparents were very very strict authoritarian parents and then we our generation has swung to be much more permissive. >> hear you out, child. You want to tell me >> all your feelings, but then when you're rude, what do I do? So, for us our kids have time outs if they do something wrong. If they say something rude, if they hit someone, they have to go sit in a chair for 1 minute, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, whatever it is, quiet, calm. Um that has worked really well. Even for our 2-year-old, sometimes she >> It's easier when you start them young, for >> Yeah, sometimes she skips over to the chair like, "Okay, I'm ready." Well, she's also like, "Yeah, I hit Freddy. Yeah, I did." Yeah, but even for Freddy, for our 5-year-old, um he has adapted to that really well. >> He's the reason that we started the rules >> Yes. in the first place. That was you as a child, maybe. >> middle children. >> Middle, middle children. >> Yeah. But for our oldest, it's a little bit trickier, I think when you're as you get older, and I'm sure we'll figure this out too, like or we'll find this out as our kids get older, discipline has to change. Like what is serious for him, for our 8-year-old, might be more oh, you're like more towards the you're grounded side, like a long-term consequence. This weekend, you cannot play with your friends. You did something bad enough that this weekend you're not allowed to play with your friends, we have to stay home. Because those are more like grown-up consequences kind of, so we're learning, we're trying to figure it out. >> say we were a bit late to the scene on some of this because we started out a little more like uh Just explain what the problem is, and then they'll naturally stop. >> we were very resistant to discipline because it feels like an infringement upon your children, but now I'm like kids are looking for a leader and you have to be the parent, like who's who's supposed to be in charge in this situation. Yeah. >> And if you're if you're not in charge, the kid is going to try to be in charge. >> Yeah, I have a feeling that when our kids are adults, they're going to be more in the middle, like they're going to have a better picture. Maybe. It I feel like generations tend to go like that though, where it's like >> swinging back and forth. >> Yeah, the pendulum has gone from here to here, and then they will see the problems and kind of adjust a little bit more. Hopefully, right? We'll see. So, let us know for you, what is kind of normal punishment in your household if your kids or maybe when you were a child, what what happened in your house? Tell us. >> there been any general loosening in your society as well? Like I think in America, maybe Europe too, I don't know. Just like yeah, just a way less strict. >> Okay, we have two lightning round questions. Very quick. Are you ready? Tell me, what were your favorite games as a kid? Games activities. Game Things to do. Tag. Tag. Yeah, you're it. Tag you're it. Cool. >> other games? I don't know. Uh Did you play on a trampoline? >> trampoline, sure. Oh, yeah, like dodgeball on the trampoline, that was fun. Okay. Yeah. >> Active, physical stuff. Man, we did all kinds of insane games like alligator where you would took two mattresses and we jumped on the mattresses and smashed the people inside the mouth. >> imagine doing that. >> Yeah. >> My >> Why? Because it was so fun. The friends that I hung out with I if I knew you as a kid, I would never have played with you. >> We wouldn't have been friends. >> scared to get on a No. No. I was scared to >> I would have flirted with you though. As an 8-year-old? >> Yes. I was scared to get on a trampoline because I didn't like that kind of physical like pushing or bumping. Like that was not what I liked. So, my favorite activities as a kid were crafts. We did a lot of crafts, sewing things, cutting little things. >> not a game. Built That's an activity. Like what did you occupy your time with? And the next thing we loved to do was just dig outside. Kind of like what our kids do, but like make little things with sticks and dirt and all of that. >> Yeah, did I ever tell you about the Indiana Jones game? No. That's where my brother pulled us in the wagon and somebody pushed a barrel behind us like the ball that was rolling after you and other people threw like balls and hard things at you. While you're in the >> While you're in the wagon, yeah. Are you just free free going down the hill or is your brother >> brother's pulling us through like a course. Oh my gosh. Yeah. That is totally not what There was It was a four boys, two girls situation and only one girl played with us. Yeah, that would not have been me. >> Yeah. That would not have been me. Okay, we have another quick lightning round question. When you were a kid, what responsibilities did you have or chores did you have as a kid? List like two or three. >> Oh. My parents were they My dad would always shake his head about this now and be like, "We didn't give you enough chores." >> Mhm. We had a chore chart that lasted like a month. Mhm. But there was no lasting >> Like it was my job to feed the cats. No. Yeah? Not really. It Nothing really stuck. I think my mom struggled with getting it to stick and keeping it up. >> is hard. Yeah. >> We know. Oh, yeah, we know. I mean, when when I was a kid, we had a we had a chore chart, which is pretty typical. >> we would do It was the kind of thing where Saturday was doing chores and then you just get assigned something. Yeah, I think we The things that stuck were just little things and I don't think they really helped the family that much. Like after dinner, it was my job to wipe down the table. Okay, that's so small. It's not really a responsibility and at least from my experience as a parent, it takes more work to have your child do it than for you to do it. So, for you to have your child take that responsibility, it's not because it makes it a life easier for you. >> for you. It's because you're like literally trying to instill in them a skill, but it's going to take 6 months versus you doing it really quick. So I think that's something that we're starting to play around with. Like the kids feed the cats, they're starting >> Got them to feed the cats. >> the chicken eggs. They of course have to clean up their own stuff. Like they always clean up their own their room, their books, their toys. Like that's important. Um You know, they have to put their shoes back. Those little things that are helpful, especially when there's three kids. >> Yeah, it's not super regimented though. It's kind of similar to how we were, at least I was. >> Yeah. Yeah, I think in the summer though uh Theo mows our grass. Oh yeah, he likes doing that. >> Freddy cleans up >> It's a really light lawnmower, by the way. >> Yeah, yeah, it's not too hard. Freddy kind of cleans up the lawn before we do it. So they have some chores, but it's definitely different than the what our grandparents did. I think that's the biggest gap. Like our grandparents had very strict chores. They were required to do, they were required our parents to do. Like that was >> a lot more. Yeah, that was a much different life. >> My parents, I mean, my dad always said he would always help his mom wash dishes and they'd set the table, and they never were asked to, they just did it is how he would explain it. >> Mhm. Yeah, very different different life. >> Different expectations, I think. Oh, they also weren't allowed to talk at the dinner table before mom their mom and dad spoke. Very interesting. Yeah, I could see that now. Might be kind of nice. Yeah, yeah, it's so when your parent when your dad sat down at the table as a child, they had to be silent until the parents talked together. Like I I think like, oh, it'd be nice if I sat down at the table and me and Dan could talk and the kids were quiet and they listened, but how do you enforce that? >> Yeah, what was their trick? Like how do you get that to happen? That is the mystery. If you have any ideas, let me know. It's not my life goal to have this happen, but it is I think it's just a generational difference. Like a very different My grandpa could give you a stare that could make you want to shut up. A lot more than I have. A lot more than I have. So. Yeah, we're too nice. Okay, well, this was our conversation about childhood. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you, Dan. Oh, you're welcome. For bearing all for our students. I hope that this real-life, not AI conversation has enriched your life. Thanks for not being a robot. >> You're welcome. And don't forget to download the free PDF worksheet for today's lesson. It includes all of the vocabulary you saw come up here, plus the bonus audio version, which is something you can listen to to help you understand fast English, all the stuff we talked about. And the way to get this is click on the link in the description, enter your name and email address, and voila, just like that, it will land in your email inbox. It is my gift to you. So, make sure you download it. And thank you so much for being here. >> You're welcome. Thank you so much for joining us. We'll see you the next time. Bye. But wait, do you want more? I recommend watching this video next, where Dan and I have a conversation about education. In particular, you will see why Dan did not go to school until he was a teenager. What? And you'll learn a lot about the American education system and how it might be different from your country. I'll see you there.