Daily topic
发布时间:2024-05-26 23:16
变更时间:Sunday 26th May 2024 23:16:47
Daily topic
🗑️Chores
All right Are you ready to get started talking about your house? The first category is questions and answers about chores(家务). Look at this pronunciation. Chores.Chores.
Make sure you pronounce this correctly. And it means things that you need to do to take care of your house and your home. So let's start with some of these questions and answers, and level up your speaking skills. Do you need a hand? Remember this question I asked you not too long ago? Well, what can you reply to this question with? You can say, "Oh, no, thanks, I'll be finished soon.
"Do you need a hand? That means, can I help you? If you're doing some difficult chore, someone kind might ask you, "Do you need a hand?" Or you can ask, "Can you give me a hand with this?" Let's say you're picking up something that's really heavy because you're trying to move it across the room, you need to ask for some help or ask for a hand.
"Could you give me a hand with this?" And hopefully, the other person will say, "Sure, I'll help you." A common chore question is, "Do you mind taking out the trash?" "Do you mind doing the dishes?" "Do you mind folding this laundry?" It's asking, "Please, I need some help. There are so many chores to do.
"Do you mind doing one of these chores for me?" And hopefully, the other person will say, "Yes, it's no problem." A similar question is, "Can you help me tidy up?" "Can you help me fold this laundry?" "Can you help me take out the trash?" And hopefully the other person will say, "Sure, I would love to."
If not though, they might say, "Oh no, I'm really busy. I'm sorry." Hopefully they don't say that, but it's possible. If you live with other people, especially if you live with kids, it's important that everyone participates in the chores and taking care of the house. So someone might ask you this question, "Are your kids old enough to help with chores?" And if you're like me, you might say, "They are and they love helping."
In fact, my kid's favorite weekend day is deep cleaning day. They take a wet rag and just wipe everything, every corner, every chair, and they love it. Of course, we don't always love doing chores, so you might need to reply to this question, "What's your least favorite chore?" Well, you might say, "I hate doing the dishes.I get so wet. There's dirty food. I hate doing the dishes."
🏡Neighborhood
02:40 All right, our next category are questions and answers related to your neighborhood, because your house is not just the things you do to take care of it, the chores, it's also the location, and we often ask questions about the location or condition of your house. So let's talk about some of these common small talk and conversation questions about where you live.
If you see someone in your neighborhood who you've never met before, you might ask this question, "Have you lived here long? Have you lived here long?" And they might say, "Oh, I'm new to the neighborhood. I just moved here from New York City."
This could be an answer that you give if you move to the US and someone doesn't recognize you and they say, "Oh, have you lived here long?" You can use this answer, "I just moved here. I moved here from Italy. I moved here from Japan." Great answer. Now the next question is an essential question that you know the answer to if you move to an English speaking country because if someone asks, "Have you been here long?" They will follow it up, most likely, with the second question, "What made you choose to move here?" Or,
"What made you decide to move here?" They're basically asking you, why are you here? Why here and not anywhere else in the world? So you need to have an answer for why did you decide to move to this neighborhood? And you might say, **"I got a remote job that let me live anywhere in the world and I've always dreamed of living in the US and this seems like a nice place."
Now if you've just moved to a new neighborhood, you might want to ask that other person some questions about the place that you just moved. So you can ask them, "What's the best thing about this neighborhood?" This is a great question. You might learn about a hidden coffee shop or a great little park to go to.
They might say this, "I love that every Saturday there's free concerts in the park. You should come." Wouldn't that be great? You'd have an instant friend. And another question you could ask when you move to a neighborhood is, "Are there any other neighborhoods that I should check out? Maybe other cute walking areas or places to kind of get to know the local culture?" And they might say, "Oh yeah, there's a neighborhood north of town that's great to walk through," And you're getting some recommendations about things that you should do in your new town.
👷♀️Renovation
05:03 Now when you move to a new place, especially if you own it, you're probably going to have to do some renovations(翻修), even if it's just decorating the house in your own style. And when someone comes over to your house, hopefully they will comment on what a wonderful job you've done.
So you might hear something like this, "I love what you've done with the place. Did you do it by yourself?" When they say what you've done with the place, that's talking about either renovations or decorations. "Wow, this old apartment used to look so dark and dreary, but your decorations, what you've done with the place just looks so nice. Did you do this by yourself?"
And you might say, "Yeah, I love fixing up places Cool." . And to follow up that, your friend might say, "Wow, that's impressive. Was it a lot of work?" And if you have really fixed your home, especially if you've had to do some major renovations, you can use this great expression, "Yes, this house was a fixer upper, but I loved redecorating it and renovating it."
A fixer upper means it's a house that has a good foundation, it's a nice house, but there is a lot of work that needs to be done to make it livable. Maybe the doorways(门口) are so small and the walls are all old and just need a new coat of paint(涂层漆), and you need to maybe open up some spaces. This house is a fixer upper, but you know what? It's probably less expensive and it means that you get to design it in the way that you like.
All right, now that we've been through some great questions and answers related to chores inside the house and the neighborhood that your house is in, it's time to start speaking. But first, you're going to listen to a sample conversation between my husband, Dan, and I.
We're going to be using the same questions and answers that you just learned in a little sample conversation. I want you to listen for all of those key questions and answers and be preparing yourself because after this sample conversation, it will be your turn to speak with me. All right, let's watch the sample conversation.
07:13
💬Sample Conversation
Hey Dan, what are you working on?
Hey, I'm just finishing up some renovations on the house.
I love what you've done with the place. Have you done everything by yourself?
Yes, I did. I replaced the flooring and I renovated the kitchen. It's been a lot of work, but it's been worth it.
Yeah, it looks great. So what made you decide to move to this neighborhood?
Well, I really like the old homes in this neighborhood and the neighbors seem really nice.
Oh, that's true. So do you need a hand?
Yeah, I do. Can you help me tidy up?
No problem. Welcome to the neighborhood.
Thanks, neighbor.