Do you need a hand? If I ask this to you, would your heart start beating? Would your palms start
sweating? Would you know what to say? Well, never fear. Today, I'm going to help you reply to this
question and many others. Today, you are going to practice speaking with me about your house.
Hi, I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com, and like always, I have created a free PDF
worksheet with all of today's important questions, answers, vocabulary, sample
conversations, and ideas, to help you level up your English-speaking skills. You can click on the
link in the description to download this free PDF worksheet today. It is my gift to you. All right,
are you ready to get started talking about your house? The first category is questions and answers
about chores. 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."
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. Now when you move
to a new place, especially if you own it, you're probably going to have to do some renovations,
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 are so small and
the walls are all old and just need a new coat of paint, 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.
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.
All right. How did you enjoy that sample conversation? Now it is your turn to speak.
I'm going to be asking you some questions and then pausing. During that pause I want you to
speak out loud and answer the question. And because I have magical teacher ears,
I will be able to hear you around the world no matter where you are,
so make sure that you're speaking out loud. And you're welcome to go back and repeat this
segment of the video as many times as you want. You can even pause it if you need more time to
be able to speak or think about your answer. So are you ready to speak with me? Let's do it. Hey,
I haven't seen you before. Have you lived here long? What made you decide to move here? So what
do you think is the best part about living in this neighborhood so far? Well, it was really great to
meet you. I wanted to let you know that there are free concerts in the park every Saturday.
I'm going this weekend. Would you like to join me? All right, let's do it. I'll see you then.
Well, congratulations on practicing speaking with me about your house. You did it. The next step is
to download the free PDF worksheet, which includes all of today's sample answers, questions, sample
conversations, and at the bottom of the worksheet, you can answer Vanessa's challenge question so
that you never forget what you've learned and you can level up your English speaking skills.
Click on the link in the description to download that free PDF worksheet today. Well, thank you
so much for learning English with me and I'll see you again next Friday for a new lesson here on my
YouTube channel. Bye. But wait, do you want more? I recommend watching this video next where you
will learn to speak with me about the most common small talk conversation topic ever, it is the
weather. You need to be able to talk about this in daily conversation, especially when you meet new
people around your neighborhood. Check out that video to find out more, and I'll see you there.