hi there I'm drew banjo the world's
world's number one english fluency
fluency guide and it is a pleasure
pleasure to welcome you to another
another advanced listening practice
practice lesson today we're going
going to talk about hobbies and how
how to express yourself and how just
just described hobbies that you have
have and will use some general language
language and just give you a few basic
basic and maybe some more intermediate
intermediate and advanced things as
as well you can use when you're just
just talking about yourself and what
what you enjoy doing so in this video
video for these examples i'll be talking
talking about let's
let's see what I talk about i'll talk
talk about Japanese gardening because
because that's one of my hobbies and
and it's something that I don't really
really get the chance to do it right
right now but we can weave that into
into the conversation as well to weave
weave something in just like your
your weaving some clothing when you
you leave something into a conversation
conversation it's a way of entering
entering something or putting something
something inside of a conversation
conversation so bringing up a particular
particular topic anyway so i'll be
be talking about that and let's get
get started well
well I wanted to talk about hobbies
hobbies just because this is another
another requested video that people
people are asking about people want
want to know how to express themselves
themselves in different situations
situations in talking about your hobbies
hobbies is one of them now just in
in kind of a general thing before
before we talk about hobbies specifically
specifically and even Japanese garden
garden more specifically most of the
the time when you can focus on a particular
particular thing like a particular
particular topic or a particular grammar
grammar . whatever that is if you
you can focus on it and master that
that one particular thing it will
will make it much easier for you to
to then transition to other things
things because what i really like
like to explain to people just give
give another quick review of it now
now is that the English language or
or any language itself doesn't get
get increasingly difficult so basically
basically you get to a point kind
kind of like a tree and i give this
this example a lot but you start out
out learning basic grammar and then
then more intermediate even advanced
advanced grammar but it doesn't get
get increasingly difficult after that
that we basically just learn more
more topics so if you can learn how
how to say I feed the cats then you
you can learn how to say I feed whatever
whatever other animals it
it is it's just a matter of learning
learning different vocabulary and
and then you've learning maybe some
some kind of expressions and things
things like that but really the language
language itself doesn't get more difficult
difficult so that's the nice thing
thing about learning a new language
language if you can focus on one thing
thing in particular like learning
learning how to describe one hobby
hobby then it makes it easier to describe
describe other hobbies or even just
just other things in general that
that are using the same kind of format
format in the way we describe things
things so just talking about my interest
interest in in gardening so this began
began
began maybe
maybe you know this story about me
me maybe you don't if you haven't
haven't been following me for a while
while actually don't know if I've
I've told this story or not but also
also when i was about forget what
what age maybe I was in like third
third or fourth grade I went to a
a garden a Japanese garden behind
behind the museum of science and industry
industry in Chicago where I grew up
up and it was called or maybe still
still is called in fact if it's still
still there osaka garden and i went
went there and i was supposed to do
do i think some kind of project or
or drawing thing but I just SAT there
there and just looked at the garden
garden 4 10 2 hours or whatever it
it was my teacher was a little bit
bit upset that I didn't actually do
do the assignment but she was happy
happy that I found something that
that was no entertaining for me because
because i'm typically all over the
the place and interested in many different
different things so it was kind of
of my way of focusing i found something
something I was interested in so this
this is kind of the origin story of
of how you get into something and
and this is part of explaining hobbies
hobbies so I wanted to just do it
it in a native ways you can get kind
kind of the feel of it and maybe the
the expressions you might use when
when you're introducing something
something so just like explaining
explaining an everyday object or talking
talking about your family or your
your personal life or your job when
when you're explaining something there
there are lots of different angles
angles that you can approach that
that thing from you can talk about
about why you do it or when you started
started doing it with the origin of
of that thing is just like I described
described or you can talk about maybe
maybe the reason for hopefully you're
you're doing it in the future to accomplish
accomplish something else so actually
actually I'd like to open up traditional
traditional Japanese ends in the future
future and that's kind of related
related to what i want to do so maybe
maybe that's kind of talking about
about the end or like the later stages
stages of where the Hobby may go so
so again i just described going into
into the Hobby why I got interest
interest in it so I'm talking about
about japanese gardens in particular
particular and now i can get maybe
maybe a bit more specific about like
like I started studying bone sighs
sighs so this is the like little trees
trees in a pot and people often call
call them bone side trees but the
the word bones i actually means tree
tree in a little pot so we're talking
talking about something in a little
little pot itself so we've got it's
it's kind of like it's a redundant
redundant you don't need to say bonsai
bonsai tree you can disable inside
inside if people know what you're
you're talking about i also like having
having learned the correct pronunciation
pronunciation since I've come to Japan
Japan bone side instead of like banzai
banzai banzai which is actually a
a different thing in Japan when people
people put their hands up like banzai
banzai banzai it's kind of like her
her a like congratulations that kind
kind of thing are we all excited anyway
anyway so then like here I'm adding
adding a little bit of maybe some
some trivia some interesting facts
facts about my hobby or something
something that people might not know
know just giving them a little bit
bit more information about it so we
we moved from the origin story talking
talking about something to getting
getting a little bit more into maybe
maybe why I'm interested in it or
or giving us and maybe interesting
interesting pieces of information
information just to share that knowledge
knowledge with other people maybe
maybe they're interested in knowing
knowing more about that maybe they
they are but you can talk about like
like on a particular day this is what
what I do within that hobby again
again like all of this is kind of
of assuming that the people were speaking
speaking with are interested in learning
learning more about what we do so
so if they are not really paying attention
attention or they don't really care
care or they're not asking us questions
questions then you don't have to worry
worry about any of this but assuming
assuming they are interested in what
what you have to say really
really you're just kind of using these
these different things i'm explaining
explaining now as things you can bring
bring up in the conversation so if
if they say oh how long have you been
been doing that you can say something
something simple like oh I've been
been playing baseball for five years
years I've been playing soccer for
for five years I've been playing tennis
tennis for 10 years I've been gardening
gardening for 20 years or whatever
whatever that is but you can always
always give a little bit more information
information and this is how you develop
develop fluency so you can especially
especially for the people that maybe
maybe you know what you want to say
say but when you start speaking you're
you're like I I can't act that like
like it just escaped to your
work
work don't
don't actually come out so in those
those situations it's good to have
have some kind of templates some basic
basic things you can say just to just
just to get the momentum moving when
when you start speaking because you'll
you'll find that once you start opening
opening your mouth and a few words
words start to come out if you just
just keep letting that flow even if
if it's not flowing properly you start
start getting the the better flow
flow the more natural flow of the
the words that are coming out so now
now i can talk about maybe a particular
particular instance something I did
did when I was gardening so one of
of the reasons I became interested
interested in is because I enjoyed
enjoyed just Japanese garden design
design I thought it was really interesting
interesting so
so here I'm talking about the reasons
reasons why i'm interested in it so
so it was something very different
different from what i saw in America
America where we would have lots of
of maybe flowerbeds and these flower
flower beds and other things like
like that are meant to be viewed from
from the outside of the house so kind
kind of in America it's a lot more
more for your neighbor then for yourself
yourself when you're designing these
these kinds of gardens but in Japan
Japan it's idea it's the opposite
opposite so often you'll be walking
walking around you'll see maybe concrete
concrete fences or other fences around
around people's homes but if you get
get beyond that fence you've
you've got the garden surrounding
surrounding the home and typically
typically the garden is meant to be
be viewed from the inside of the house
house so after you finished your hard
hard day of work you can sit down
down relax and enjoy looking at the
the garden from the inside of the
the house so these are just again
again more bits of trivia about Japanese
Japanese gardening maybe you're interested
interested maybe you're not but I'm
I'm just giving these as example things
things so you can explain things more
more about whatever your hobby is
is so now we can talk about like again
again a specific maybe day-in-the-life
day-in-the-life maybe a person asks
asks you a question like oh what's
what's it like to do whatever that
that thing is so especially if you
you have maybe an interesting hobby
hobby or an interesting job that people
people don't know much about so maybe
maybe if IMA I don't know I'm like
like a stunt driver or something like
like that so i drive a car and I do
do other interesting stunts for movies
movies and people maybe think that's
that's cool but they don't know much
much about it they can see oh what's
what's that like or what do you do
do as a stunt driver and then you
you can describe more specific things
things about whatever it is you do
do is give me so in my case a typical
typical day usually what I would be
be doing
be doing I don't
I don't really do this so much anymore
anymore but when i was doing more
more gardening I came out to japan
japan i couldn't get a visa to actually
actually do gardening so here is like
like a bit more like my personal story
story rather than just trivia about
about gardening in general but I couldn't
couldn't get a visa to do that so
so i decided to teach English that
that was the only way really i could
could come to Japan easily so that's
that's what I did and when i came
came to japan i started doing the
the gardening learning on the side
side so on the side this is another
another great phrase you can use on
on the side whether you have a hobby
hobby that's on the side or you have
have a job or something that's the
the kind of next to or supplementing
supplementing your actual job or the
the main thing that you do so while
while i was doing teaching professionally
professionally that's what I actually
actually did I did gardening on the
the side so i was looking enough to
to find a Japanese gardening teacher
teacher he's a really great guy and
and I still talk with him and he's
he's a just like a really great teacher
teacher he was able to help me learn
learn a lot about that and learn even
even more go deeper into it and i
i developed even more interest in
in the hobby as a result so I was
was talking with him about that and
and in on kind of a typical day we
we would go maybe we would be either
either building a new garden or we
we would be maintaining one and so
so now i can talk more specifically
specifically about either one of these
these or both of them again it just
just depends on what the other person
person you're speaking with is interested
interested in but if they are interested
interested then you can get more detail
detail but typically we're kind of
of were waiting to tell more about
about ourselves until we're getting
getting that feedback from somebody
somebody else and if they aren't really
really paying attention to what we're
we're saying either we're not telling
telling a good enough story about
about what we're saying or maybe it's
it's just not that interesting so
so it could be interesting to you
you but again you have to make sure
sure that the other person actually
actually cares about what you're listening
listening to or what you're saying
saying I should say otherwise it's
it's not really a conversation anyway
anyway so just kind of the final thing
thing I'll mention about this is you
you can talk about specifically again
again like why you're interested in
in in the topic or the hobby or how
how long you're doing it but you can
can also talk about how it makes you
you feel you can say well i really
really enjoyed gardening because I
I just you know I'm I highly
I highly affected by my personals
personals for surroundings or my personal
personal space my environment so if
if it's a cloudy day I tend to feel
feel a little bit more sad and if
if it's a sunny day I tend to feel
feel a little bit more happy so in
in those cases like for that reason
reason i enjoy you know interior design
design in general and i also enjoy
enjoy gardening design so I like to
to shape the environment around me
me so that I can control my own mood
mood more and i noticed that when
when i'm in certain places i feel
feel more calm and relaxed and in
in other places i feel i don't know
know maybe I'm I bit more anxious
anxious something like that again
again these are just examples of things
things you can say but the point is
is that when you focus on a particular
particular thing like your hobby you're
you're learning more about the particular
particular vocabulary for that hobby
hobby but you can also talk about
about your origin story how you feel
feel about that thing what your plans
plans are for the future what you
you do on everyday kind of basis for
for that thing and all this information
information will help you be able
able to express yourself much more
more and once you can do it more about
about your hobbies you can do it also
also as well about your job so you
you can to talk about you know in
in this very same video we could doing
doing the exact same thing about work
work so and I became a teacher and
and the reason I became a teacher
teacher is this and as a teacher in
in my day-to-day life i do this and
and you know the same kind of thing
thing so describing your job or describing
describing your hobby or anything
anything else that's just in an everyday
everyday thing you do what do you
you do as a parent what
what do you do as a local coach for
for the basketball team what do you
you do you know as a like a Salesman
Salesman or like a trainer for a particular
particular maybe you're like a zookeeper
zookeeper it doesn't matter what you
you are but in these kinds of things
things that we discuss these are the
the typical things that were having
having conversations about we want
want to know how we feel about it
it why are you doing that thing we
we want to understand each other and
and these are the kinds of things
things you can communicate when you're
you're explaining your hobby or anything
anything else well
well if you enjoyed this video and
and you'd like to learn about some
some other things may be related to
to this or even not related to this
this i'm happy to speak more about
about that if it will give you some
some interesting vocabulary that you
you can use in your everyday life
life but if you have enjoyed it do
do like this video to become a subscriber
subscriber to the YouTube channel
channel if you haven't already and
and be sure to tell a bunch of people
people about this video if you
you have not so that they can also
also enjoy this video and learn some
some more about how to describe their
their hobby or their job or other
other things that are related to that
that and i will see you in the next
next video bye bye to
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