Shadowing Practice: A Big Life Update… | Learn English with My Story - Learn English Speaking with Video

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So I've got a big life update for you

and I'm going to tell you all about it while exposing you to plenty of B2 plus phrases.

That's upper intermediate to advanced phrases.

So yeah, you'll get some listening practice,

some useful vocabulary and a few British cultural things along the way while learning about a big life update from me.

Here we go.

I've actually been putting off recording this one partly

because podcasters can make an enormous fuss about their personal lives

and I don't want to assume you've spent your week desperate for an update on mine

but then again I tell you things

that some of my closest friends don't even know

so coming here every week and not mentioning this thing has started to feel weird for me.

Almost like I'm hiding something illegally from you.

So I'm going to come clean, as they say, come clean to confess. And here it is.

Stacey, my wife, for the first time in our lives, is pregnant.

We're having a bloody baby.

We've lived together since about 2015.

And apart from a sausage dog, it's just been us.

And now there's going to be another person living with us full time.

Sounds a bit weird when you say person, it'll be a baby, I hope, for Stacey's sake, that it won't be a full -grown human when she gives birth.

But yeah, I don't think I've quite got my head around this whole idea yet.

So today I wanted to let you in on what's been happening, how we're feeling about it all,

and I'm sure a few British expressions and cultural things will come up along the way.

And if we haven't met, you might want to go back to an earlier one to

get familiar with the allure of this podcast before you give

a crap about whether the host is about to become a father.

So yeah, choose another one at your own discretion.

Maybe start from the beginning.

I recommend that.

All right.

So yes, for those who give a tiny little rat's asked that I'm becoming a father.

Let's begin, shall we?

Although just before we do get into it, there's a free PDF for this episode that explains the vocabulary and expressions I use.

So if something's unfamiliar, you can just enjoy the story for now

and come back to the language afterwards or get it now and use it simultaneously on another device.

That would be a really good way of deepening your learning

from this listening experience um yeah you'll find the link in the episode description the comment section

or the show notes or qr code the qr code on screen right now give

that little scan and

that will take you to this screen shown on screen right now for video podcast viewers fill in your name

and email and then like magic it will be in your inbox in seconds for free.

Fantastic.

Okay, let's get on with it.

So, yes, let me tell you how Stacey broke the news to me.

I mean, we had been trying, so it wasn't a surprise in that sense.

We'd been actually fairly methodical.

There was an app.

There were ovulation strips.

Do you know what ovulation strips are?

Anyway, so Romance had acquired a bit of admin, we could say.

And if you don't know, these family planning apps, they help you estimate the fertile window.

So we had an idea of when Stacey might need something from me.

And for educational purposes, I'll now describe the nitty gritty of that exact thing.

So, no, I won't.

I won't do that.

You're safe.

Don't you worry um

but yeah let me just tell you it does take a little bit of the spontaneity out of it all

when you have an app telling you to do it

but despite all that planning she still managed to surprise me uh i was out one morning

when she suspected she might be pregnant she took a test without telling me

and when i got home she said i've got three gifts for you three gifts

sounds a bit like Jesus I was obviously expecting a bit of gold frankincense

and and myrrh so um yes I held out my hands waiting for the lovely bit of gold

that might fall upon me and then and close my eyes And then opened my eyes to what was there?

A bar of soap.

We'd run out.

We'd run out of soap.

And I'd actually asked her, oh, when you next go to the shop, could you get a couple of bars of soap?

So, yeah, that was on my palm.

And then she said, OK, second present.

And I closed my eyes.

This isn't just going to be a long list of what we've run out of um

that would be so boring um the second was a little oud aftershave actually

that was a bit nicer and and thinking about it that's kind of close to frankincense and kind of myrrh

isn't it yeah i think so

and the third she did it again she's like okay close your eyes

and the third was this plastic strip

and I didn't really know I was unfamiliar with the object opened it it was a pregnancy test

and then she said look and then I read and it said positive

I was I was struck dumb for a moment um then there was this this flood of happiness that came up within,

followed fairly quickly by, oh, right, we're actually, yeah, we're actually doing this then.

It was strange for me to see how something you deliberately

set out to do can still completely take you by surprise when it actually happens.

So that was how we found out.

And if you're wondering when this is all happening.

She's due in late January, which you're thinking is perfect timing because everyone's skint,

sober and sick of celebrating by that point.

And, you know, my immediate thought was that, well, no, we won't be able to do cheap birthday parties, you know, in the garden.

We'd have to hire somewhere like a village hall.

That's the sort of person I am, apparently um you know a whole new human being

and i'm already pricing up village halls very scrooge like i

suppose i mean i've noticed how some friends immediately ask about star signs

and there's me thinking about how much a birthday party is gonna cost me um

but anyway we've we've still got a little while before we need to worry about that.

We're at 21 weeks right now, so roughly halfway through the pregnancy.

And I've just realized, oh my god, before this, I used to get slightly annoyed when people told me how pregnant they were in weeks.

You know, if it was more than four weeks, they wouldn't say, oh, two months, three months or something.

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They'll be like, oh, 17 weeks.

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Lovely.

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Now I have to do the maths whilst pretending to care about what you're going on about

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when I have no frame of reference.

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So yeah, and here's me doing it to you.

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We're at 21 weeks now.

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So parenthood is already changing me into someone I used to find irritating.

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But to give you an idea of how Stacey's actually been feeling during those weeks,

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it's actually been fairly smooth smooth sailing we could say been

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fairly smooth sailing especially compared with some of the experiences we've heard about

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but around uh weeks seven to nine sorry for the weeks

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uh she was absolutely shattered not like a i could do

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with an early night kind of tired more more like struggling to lift her head uh

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while sitting at the kitchen counter telling me to feed her something very specific

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and she's also had a an endless craving for blt sandwiches that's bacon lettuce

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and tomato so i got quite efficient at grilling bacon exactly how she wanted it she's very particular

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and i think she even sent me back to the supermarket when I brought the wrong lettuce back.

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Yeah, I think I bought rocket.

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Admittedly, that's quite different, but I thought it would be quite nice in a BLT, a bit of rocket.

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But no, she wanted iceberg lettuce, so the madam got the iceberg lettuce.

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But I felt quite happy being able to provide her exactly what she wanted, being that she's creating a human for us.

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You know, she's growing over 300 million brain cells each day.

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So I feel like the least I can do is get her some iceberg lettuce.

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So, yeah, she's also gone off coffee, which is unfortunate because I've finally become quite a good barista.

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Years of development.

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And now my main customer has left me.

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She's also gone off chicken but she loves fruit

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and juice yes she loves fruit

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and juice at the moment honestly though watching her belly grow

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has actually caught me off guard i i sometimes look at it and like get these

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these emotions like i've never i've never felt before they they suddenly almost make me well up

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because I'm thinking there's a person in there.

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I get that that's how pregnancy works, but knowing it and then looking at my partner while it's happening are two very different things for me.

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I keep trying to imagine what the baby is doing in there, just like floating about while we're deciding what to have for dinner,

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occasionally giving Stacey a little kick, already making her presence felt and uh yeah she hasn't even arrived

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and yes i said her

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and she were having little girl little girl we wanted to

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to find out although i completely understand why some people prefer

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the surprise in the uk you can often find out at the nhs 20 week scan

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if the sonographer can see clearly on the day

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but they're mainly checking the baby's development but yeah if

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if they can they'll tell you the sex or or ask you

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if you want to know the sex of the baby

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and then you can also have a private health scan called a nipt n -i -p -t nipt

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which we did do

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so we definitely definitely know it's a girl unlike our friend who was told to expect a boy

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and then on the day it was a girl turned out

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to be a girl oh now this is interesting for me a student from china told me

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that they aren't allowed to find out the gender before giving birth which

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if you think about it for a split second that's pretty

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dark um she said it's a hangover from the one child policy

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which if you didn't know stopped over a decade ago now

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but yeah it made a lot of them favor having a boy

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because a boy tends to be expected to support their parents more

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and I think the daughters marry into the husband's household probably speaking out of turn here

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but you know correct me if I am um

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but yeah with gender um a running joke in the west is um you know

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if someone says why did you want to know the gender

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and you say well we needed to know whether to paint the nursery pink

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or blue um it's not really a joke it's just a crap comment to say no people do say it

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and you can say it quickly and sort of joke about it how would i attempt to say it really casually

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oh yeah we we wanted to find out the gender you

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know paint a paint a nursery pink uh yeah i'd maybe say that so

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that is a joke we're not painting the nursery pink we

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don't even have a nursery it It'll probably be half office, half cot.

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Well, it won't be a cot.

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It'll be she'll be sleeping in the same bedroom as us.

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You can tell I'm new to this, can't you?

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But yeah, so right.

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The pink blue thing.

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Hear me out.

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Depending on your culture, that might sound like a perfectly normal answer

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but in our culture in most English cultures I'd say and

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and a lot of other cultures probably there's been more discussion

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in recent years about not pushing those traditional expectations on children

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I feel like Germany would probably be ahead of English speaking

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cultures maybe some other European ones as well anyway um take what you want from this right

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but yeah so we're going away from traditional expectations on children

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so none of the pink for girls blue for boys dolls

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for girls footballs for boys plenty of parents would rather let their child discover what they actually like

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so it's all a bit of tongue -in -cheek meaning playfulness it's being playful if you say they're painting the the

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bedroom pink.

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It's not as if painting it pink is forbidden.

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You can.

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And there's actually almost a movement towards, you know, embracing the identity of the gender now that we're kind of five,

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10 years into that movement of non -binary gender, right?

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And you know what's funny about this is that these colours used to be the opposite.

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Someone actually told me this the other day.

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And I found a source online to back it up.

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So apparently some American shops in the early 1900s recommended pink for boys because it seemed stronger.

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I imagine it would have been like a shade of red and red being connected to violence and war,

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maybe like blood, bloodshed.

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Maybe that had something to do with it.

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And then the blue, I mean, pale blue and or baby blue is a very calming sort of soft color.

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If you think about it, like a nice blue sky,

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the ocean, you know, it signals sort of abundance and survival.

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So it kind of makes sense to me that they thought

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that to be a more delicate color but yeah not everyone agreed

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and the associations weren't always so fixed

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but uh you know i have been told ever since uh

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we've been telling people we're having a girl oh you'll make such a great girl dad

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which i can't help but take as an accidental neg

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or a dig i suppose a neg is more when you're flirting with someone, but a dig is more intentional.

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Either way, I can't help but feel a little offended because I feel like what they mean is,

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I can't really see you raising a boy.

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Probably not what they mean, but I immediately jump to wanting to put them straight

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because I'd bloody love to coach a little football team

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and hopefully raise a boy to be you know both brave

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and emotionally open um despite what you think I'm good at

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football all right you know don't ask all my friends

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but I am all right and I'm a sporty masculine fella probably too far and yes you might have caught it already.

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I could, of course, coach my daughter to play football.

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She can like what any boy can like.

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We'll just see what she prefers.

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But it is obvious to me, however neutral the parent is in my nieces and nephews and friends' children,

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it's really clear that, you know, they do gravitate towards the gender assigned things in life.

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My nephews love setting up little soldier figurines on the carpet

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and pretend there's a battle about to commence

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and loads of blood is going to be shed

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and those cowboys are going to die and those soldiers are going to survive.

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And then so much, you know, like, yeah, there's so much war in their minds it's

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so bizarre and then they get their their like actual swords not actual swords they're plastic swords

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and then they fight each other i mean being boy twins

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that probably helps because they can compete constantly

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but yeah competing as well is such a it seems like

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such a more male dominated thing again i'm not suggesting anything

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but it's just seems so natural in my nephews

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and then my niece what does my niece like to do she likes to color she likes to um

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play with people's hair like she likes to pretend to be hairdresser

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or like she likes the little play sets

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and like play play house i think that's what they call

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it to play house as in like she plays she's the doctor

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or she's the um person in charge and and

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and the other person has to pretend to be whatever

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so they're playing basically they're using their imagination the boys were using their imagination

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but they were using it for war

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and she was using it for more like caring and um

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and bossing people around so yes open to see what my daughter chooses in life um

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but yes i am very very excited to have a girl they say generally speaking don't know

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if this is true generally speaking girls are easier than boys in the first 10 years

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and more difficult in their teenage years do you have any um knowledge of this You know, do you have a girl?

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Do you have a boy?

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Can you compare these two decades?

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Is that true?

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Probably jumping ahead of myself a little, though.

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Just need to focus on keeping the BLT munching queen happy for now, really.

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Another question friends and family ask is whether we've chosen a name.

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And we think we have, but we're trying very hard not to tell people now

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because at the beginning we were very open about brainstorming names

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with friends we found it quite fun quite a fun sort of conversation piece

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and then we found a couple of names we really liked

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and brought them up and people were very happy to react openly

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and honestly a bit too honest um one friend actually just

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said straight up no no no you can't call your child that

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someone else pointed out a rude rhyme or a rhyme

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that would just maybe be played or said in the playground

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which is not very kind especially if she was slightly overweight

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so it's I suppose it's useful feedback

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but still we realized we wanted to choose the name ourselves

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instead of being put off a name based on silly little comments

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that people make having said

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that though i'm trying to strike a balance between something we really like ourselves

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and something that's easy for our future daughter to live with um

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because stacy quite likes some fairly non -traditional names and i get

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that you don't want five of your classmates turning around whenever your name is said

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but I don't want to cause little bits of friction for her

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because I imagine

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if your name's tricky to pronounce every time you introduce yourself you might have to explain it um

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or and and same if it reads differently from how it sounds

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and it's not a massive thing but I wonder whether

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that could make some social situations a little bit awkward and

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that could build up to some sort of you know minor feeling of anxiety

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when meeting new people and i don't want

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that at all i'm clearly overthinking all of this

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but i feel like you know if we're just trying to think of a name

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that we like the sound of because it's quite quirky that's our ego getting involved

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and in the way of our child's future

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but still you've got to enjoy saying the name i actually

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asked chat GPT how many times will I say my child's name

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and it said assuming you're saying it 20 times a day for about 18 years

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that would be over 130 ,000 times

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so yeah I mean that's quite a few times

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and that's assuming we just stop talking to them at the age of 18

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so we've done quite a lot of thinking about

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that about the name as for actually preparing though you know

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for the actual parenting we haven't um we haven't done

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that much we we haven't even bought anything uh we just went to a shop with all

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that baby equipment in

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and had a full 90 minute walkthrough of all these different

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um travel strollers push chairs prams travel systems car seats cots travel cots the list went on

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and on and at the end the lady totted it all up

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and she was like yeah so that comes to about 2 200 pounds all in

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and i was just like

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so now i'm very interested in second hand options i think

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that's a really ethical way to do it i just think it's you know materialistic

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and wasteful to buy new trying to plant

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that seed for stacy she's like we can't get a new

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we can't get a second hand car seat no way that's going to be broken

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and damaged and then our baby will die instantly

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so some we will definitely go second hand

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or maybe hand me down a hand me down

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that means a thing from a friend

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or family member usually i suppose it's from a sibling

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and they are handing it down to their younger sibling like a top

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or something but yeah we could get hand me downs

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so they are handing it down the generations

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or handing it down to the next person yeah very up for friends

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and family giving us what they don't have because

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or giving us what they don't need

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because they don't plan on having another baby anytime soon um one thing

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that might be culturally interesting somewhat is

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that uh quite a few of our family members is very fortunate

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and very blessed that this is the case

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but quite a few of them have come forward and said oh we'd love to gift you something towards the baby, like help significantly towards the stroller.

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So yes, looking for hand -me -downs or secondhand or any gifts.

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Welcome.

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Very welcome.

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We're happy for that.

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But yeah, don't want to end up with too much unnecessary baby stuff in the house.

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It's probably famous last words though.

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I'm sure if the sleep deprivation sets in, And we're served an advert that makes us think we'll get good sleep again. Who knows?

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Who knows what we'll buy into?

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And actually, sleep is probably what we're most apprehensive about.

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I'm ready for a bit of a challenge.

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And that's partly why we've moved countries quite often.

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We like being pushed outside our comfort zones, but we rarely have to survive on little sleep

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so I don't know how we'll fare with

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that we might see another side to each other and

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and with work I'm being optimistic

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and thinking it will just make me more efficient with my time I'm trying to get ahead

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but I'm finding it hard and I can imagine looking back

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when I'm sleep deprived

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and I've got a baby vomiting on me I'll be thinking why the hell didn't I do more prep

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so I can have a more substantial paternity.

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So maybe I need to rethink that quite soon.

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Oh, something that was quite shocking for us both when we told people that Stacey was pregnant was, have you got her on the nursery waiting list yet?

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I was like, huh?

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She's not even born yet.

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It will be probably a year from now.

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And they said, summer, two years.

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Summer, two years.

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The waiting list for some of these nurseries oh my goodness

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so we went round three

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or four of them um very recently um two of them made us very sad inside

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and uh one stacy preferred and the other one i preferred

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so we've gone with stacy's option no it was actually

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because the final one we saw that i really liked uh didn't have availability

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when we wanted but both are solid options

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so yeah we had to put a deposit down even before the baby is out of the tum, which makes it very real.

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Actually, we've put a deposit down already.

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Yeah.

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And a final thought I'll end with is something I've voiced to Stacey,

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which is whether we'll share our baby online or keep her life completely private.

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Because I heard someone say that if you put your child online, you're making that choice before they're old enough to decide for themselves

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so you're kind of robbing them of that decision

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and i can see that point so clearly um

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but yesterday stacy said oh don't be

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so serious everyone's online it's a part of life now

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so yeah i'm i'm not sure where i sit with

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that we'll keep some details private for basic safety but

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if you've got any tips i'm all ears

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but yeah what am i most excited about I hear you

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ask um I think to be sincere for a moment I think the overwhelming amount of love

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that will be added to my day to day um we

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really enjoy watching our sausage dog do stupid things we love looking after her

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and being a little family together on the sofa

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and now we're going to have a little human to love as well

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and to think that she'll be half Stacey

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and half me is fascinating hopefully half me pretty sure it's half me

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but yeah um i'm so curious about about what that'll that'll be like

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so there you go we're having a baby it feels nice actually to have finally told you um

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if you're a parent i'd love to know what you wish someone had told you before your first child arrived

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that would be helpful for me

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but yeah I've I think I've I've said quite a lot of advanced phrases here

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so remember to get that pdf if you want to go deeper with this episode

375

and get active with the vocabulary because as I said there was a lot in

376

that so yeah scan the qr code on screen

377

or click the link in the description box show notes

378

or comment section and that link will take you to this screen that video podcast viewers can see right now.

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Fill in your name and email and the worksheet will be in your inbox within a matter of seconds.

380

And that has non -native friendly definitions, context related natural examples of the phrase in use.

381

Common collocations they go with to help you use the phrase like a native would.

382

And then exercises to get you thinking about them.

383

And doing all of this helps you 3x your learning.

384

I mean, it increases your learning by three times the amount.

385

3x, something.

386

It's a bit more efficient, isn't it?

387

And remember, we're good at consuming when it comes to learning, especially learning languages.

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But we really need to create as well.

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So it's fine to consume some listening practice, but make sure you're creating directly after it as well.

390

And that free PDF helps you do exactly that.

391

All right.

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That's all from me for now.

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I'm off to to be a father.

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Well, no, probably just grill some more bacon for now.

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Thank you for listening.

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Hopefully see you again soon.

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My name is Charlie, host of the British English podcast.

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Bye for now.

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And you know what's funny about this is that these colors used to be the opposite.

400

Someone actually told me this the other day and I found a source online to back it up.

401

So apparently some American shops in the early 1900s recommended pink for boys because it seemed stronger.

402

I imagine it would have been like a shade of red

403

and red being connected to violence and war maybe like blood bloodshed maybe

404

that had something to do with it um and then the blue

405

i mean pale blue and and and

406

or baby blue is a very calming sort of soft color

407

if you think about it like um a nice blue sky

408

uh the ocean you know it signals sort of um abundance and and survival

409

um so it kind of makes sense to me that they thought

410

that to be a more delicate color um but yeah not everyone agreed

411

and the associations weren't always so fixed

412

but uh you know i have been told ever since uh

413

we've been telling people we're having a girl oh you'll make such a great girl dad

414

which I can't help but take as an accidental neg

415

or a dig I suppose a neg is more

416

when you're flirting with someone but a dig is more intentional either way I can't help

417

but feel a little offended

418

because I feel like what they mean is I can't really

419

see you raising a boy probably not what they mean

420

but uh i immediately jump to wanting to put them straight

421

because i'd bloody love to coach a little football team

422

and hopefully raise a boy to be you know both brave

423

and emotionally open um despite what you think i'm good at

424

football all right you know don't ask all my friends

425

but i am all right and i'm a sporty masculine fella probably too far And yes, you might have caught it already.

426

I could, of course, coach my daughter to play football.

427

She can like what any boy can like.

428

We'll just see what she prefers furs

429

but it is obvious to me however neutral the parent is in my nieces

430

and nephews and friends children it's really clear

431

that um you know they do gravitate towards the gender assigned

432

things in life my nephews love setting up little soldier figurines on the carpet

433

and pretend there's a battle about to commence

434

and loads of blood is going to be shed

435

and those cowboys are going to die and those soldiers are going to survive

436

and then so much you know like yeah there's

437

so much war in their minds it's so bizarre

438

and then they get their their like actual swords not actual swords they're plastic swords

439

and then they fight each other i mean being boy twins

440

that probably helps because they can compete constantly

441

but yeah competing as well is such a it seems like

442

such a more male dominated thing again I'm not suggesting anything

443

but it's just seems so natural in my nephews

444

and then my niece what does my niece like to do she likes to color she likes to um

445

play with people's hair like she likes to pretend to be hairdresser

446

or like she likes the little play sets

447

and like play play house i think that's what they call

448

it to play house as in like she plays she's the doctor or she's the

449

person in charge and the other person has to pretend to be whatever.

450

So they're playing, basically.

451

They're using their imagination.

452

The boys were using their imagination, but they were using it for war.

453

And she was using it for more like caring and bossing people around.

454

So yes, open to see what my daughter chooses in life.

455

But yes, I'm very, very excited to have a girl they say generally speaking don't know

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if this is true generally speaking girls are easier than boys in the first 10 years

457

and more difficult in their teenage years do you have any

458

um knowledge of this you know do you have a girl

459

do you have a boy can you compare the these two decades is

460

that true probably jumping ahead of myself a little though just

461

need to um focus on keeping the blt munching queen happy for now really.

462

Another question friends and family ask is whether we've chosen a name

463

and we think we have but we're trying very hard not to tell people now

464

because at the beginning we were very open about brainstorming names with friends.

465

We found it quite fun, quite a fun sort of conversation piece

466

and then we found a couple of names we really liked

467

and brought them up and people were very happy to react openly

468

and honestly a bit too honest um one friend actually just

469

said straight up no no no you can't call your child

470

that someone else pointed out a rude rhyme or a rhyme

471

that would just maybe be played or said in the playground

472

which is not very kind especially if she was slightly overweight

473

so it's i suppose it's useful feedback

474

but still we realized we wanted to choose the name ourselves

475

instead of being put off a name based on silly little comments

476

that people make having said

477

that though i'm trying to strike a balance between something we really like ourselves

478

and something that's easy for our future daughter to live with because Stacey quite likes some fairly non -traditional names.

479

And I get that.

480

You don't want five of your classmates turning around whenever your name is said.

481

But I don't want to cause little bits of friction for her because I imagine if your name's tricky to pronounce, every time you introduce yourself,

482

you might have to explain it.

483

And same if it reads differently from how it sounds.

484

And it's not a massive thing, But I wonder whether that could make some social situations a little bit awkward

485

and that could build up to some sort of, you know, minor feeling of anxiety when meeting new people.

486

And I don't want that at all.

487

I'm clearly overthinking all of this.

488

But I feel like, you know, if we're just trying to think of a name that we like the sound of because it's quite quirky,

489

that's our ego getting involved and in the way of our child's future.

490

But still, you've got to enjoy saying the name.

491

I actually asked Chachupiti, how many times will I say my child's name?

492

and it said assuming you're saying it 20 times a day for about 18 years

493

that would be over 130 ,000 times

494

so yeah I mean that's quite a few times

495

and that's assuming we just stop talking to them at the age of 18

496

so we've done quite a lot of thinking about

497

that about the name as for actually preparing though you know for the actual parenting we haven't we haven't done

498

that much we we haven't even bought anything we just went to a shop with all

499

that baby equipment in

500

and had a full 90 minute walkthrough of all these different

501

um travel strollers push chairs prams travel systems car seats cots travel cots the list went on

502

and on and at the end the lady totted it all up

503

and she was like yeah so that comes to about 2 200 pounds all in

504

and i was just like

505

so now i'm very interested in second hand options i think

506

that's a really ethical way to do it i just think it's you know materialistic

507

and wasteful to buy new trying to plant

508

that seed for stacy she's like we can't get a new

509

we can't get a second hand car seat no way that's going to be broken

510

and damaged and then our baby will die instantly uh

511

so some we will definitely go second hand or maybe hand me down a hand me down

512

That means a thing from a friend or family member.

513

Usually, I suppose it's from a sibling and they are handing it down to their younger sibling, like a top or something.

514

But yeah, we could get hand -me -downs.

515

So they are handing it down the generations

516

or handing it down to the next person yeah very up for friends

517

and family giving us what they don't have because

518

or giving us what they don't need

519

because they don't plan on having another baby anytime soon um one thing

520

that might be culturally interesting somewhat is

521

that uh quite a few of our family members is very fortunate

522

and very blessed that this is the case

523

but quite a few of them have come forward

524

and said oh we'd love to gift you something towards the baby like help significantly towards the the stroller

525

so yes looking for hand -me -downs or second hand or any gifts welcome very welcome we're happy for that

526

but yeah don't want to end up with too much unnecessary

527

baby stuff in the house it's probably famous last words though I'm sure

528

if the sleep deprivation sets in and we're served an advert

529

that makes us think we'll get good sleep again who knows who knows what we'll buy into um

530

and actually sleep is probably what we're most apprehensive about I'm ready for a bit of a challenge

531

and that's partly why uh we've moved countries quite often we like being pushed outside our comfort zones

532

but we rarely have to survive on little sleep

533

so I don't know how we'll fare with

534

that we might see another side to each other and

535

and with work I'm being optimistic

536

and thinking it will just make me more efficient with my time I'm trying to get ahead

537

but I'm finding it hard and I can imagine looking back

538

when I'm sleep deprived

539

and I've got a baby vomiting on me I'll be thinking why the hell didn't I do more prep um

540

so I can have a more substantial paternity

541

so maybe I need to rethink that quite soon oh something

542

that was quite shocking for us both when we told people

543

that Stacey was pregnant was have you got her on the

544

nursery waiting list yet I was like huh she's not even born yet it'll be probably a year from now

545

and they said some are two years summer two years the

546

waiting list for some of these nurseries oh my goodness

547

so we went round three

548

or four of them um very recently um two of them made us very sad inside

549

and uh one stacy preferred and the other one i preferred so we've gone with stacy's option

550

no it was actually because the final one we saw

551

that i really liked uh didn't have availability when we wanted

552

but both are solid options

553

so yeah we had to put a deposit down even before the baby is out of the tum

554

which makes it very real actually we've put a deposit down already yeah

555

and a final thought I'll end with is something I've voiced to Stacey

556

which is whether we'll share our baby online

557

or keep her life completely private because I heard someone say

558

that if you put your child online you're making

559

that choice before they're old enough to decide for themselves

560

so you're kind of robbing them of that decision and I can see that point so clearly

561

um but yesterday Stacey said oh don't be so serious everyone's online it's a part of life now So,

562

yeah, I'm not sure where I sit with that.

563

We'll keep some details private for basic safety.

564

But if you've got any tips, I'm all ears.

565

But yeah, what am I most excited about?

566

I hear you ask.

567

I think to be sincere for a moment, I think the overwhelming amount of love

568

that will be added to my day to day um we

569

really enjoy watching our sausage dog do stupid things we love looking after her

570

and being a little family together on the sofa

571

and now we're going to have a little human to love as well

572

and to think that she'll be half stacy

573

and half me is fascinating hopefully half me pretty sure it's half me

574

but yeah um i'm so curious about about what that'll that'll be like

575

so there you go we're having a baby it feels

576

nice actually to have finally told you um

577

if you're a parent i'd love to know what you wish someone had told you before your first child arrived

578

that would be helpful for me

579

but yeah i've i think i've i've said quite a lot of advanced phrases here

580

so remember to get that pdf if you want to go deeper with this episode

581

and get active with the vocabulary uh

582

because as i said there was a lot in that

583

so yeah scan the qr code on screen or click the link in the description box, show notes or comment section.

584

And that link will take you to this screen that video podcast viewers can see right now.

585

Fill in your name and email and the worksheet will be in your inbox within a matter of seconds.

586

And that has non -native friendly definitions, context related natural examples of the phrase in use,

587

common collocations they go with to help you use the phrase like a native would

588

and then exercises to get you thinking about them

589

and doing all of this helps you 3x your learning mean

590

it increases your learning by three times the amount 3x something it's a bit more efficient isn't it

591

and remember we're good at consuming when it comes to learning especially learning languages

592

but we really need to create as well

593

so it's fine to consume some listening practice

594

but make sure you're creating directly after it as well and

595

that free pdf helps you do exactly

596

that all right that's all from me for now i'm off

597

to uh to be a father well no probably uh just

598

grill some more bacon for now uh thank you for listening

599

um hopefully see you again soon my name is charlie host of the british english podcast bye for now

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Woordenschat en spreektips bij deze les

Deze video bevat 599 zinnen en 6964 woorden om na te spreken. Het gesproken deel duurt 46:43. De spreker praat in een gelijkmatig tempo van ongeveer 149 woorden per minuut, prettig om te shadowen. 84% van de woorden hoort bij de 3.000 meest gebruikte Engelse woorden; de rest kun je beter vooraf bekijken.

Belangrijke woorden in deze video

15 woorden uit de video die het leren waard zijn, met uitspraak en betekenis:

Woord	Uitspraak	Betekenis
phrase zelfstandig naamwoord	/ˈfɹeɪ̯z/	uitspraak
pretend werkwoord	/pɹəˈtɛnd/	voorgeven
sword zelfstandig naamwoord	/soɹd/	zwaard
podcast zelfstandig naamwoord	/ˈpɑdˌkæst/	podcast
nursery zelfstandig naamwoord	/ˈnɝsəɹi/	kinderkamer
efficient bijvoeglijk naamwoord	/ɪˈfɪʃənt/	efficiënt
scan werkwoord	/skæn/	afspeuren
lettuce zelfstandig naamwoord	/ˈlɛt.ɪs/	sla, salade
compete werkwoord	/kəmˈpiːt/	wedijveren
deposit zelfstandig naamwoord	/dɪˈpɑ.zɪt/	afzetting, neerzetting
imagination zelfstandig naamwoord	/ɪˌmæd͡ʒəˈneɪʃən/	verbeelding, fantasie
soap zelfstandig naamwoord	/soʊp/	zeep
bacon zelfstandig naamwoord	/ˈbeɪ.kən/	spek, bacon
consume werkwoord	/kənˈsum/	consumeren, verbruiken
niece zelfstandig naamwoord	/nis/	nicht, nichtje

Phrasal verbs die je zult horen

Woord	Uitspraak	Betekenis
find out werkwoord		ontdekken, onderzoeken
go off werkwoord		afgaan
look back werkwoord		achterom kijken, terugkijken
point out werkwoord		aanwijzen, aanduiden
set up werkwoord	/ˌsɛt ˈʌp/	bereiden, voorbereiden
turn around werkwoord		omdraaien
get on with werkwoord		aan de gang gaan met, doorgaan
run out werkwoord		niet meer hebben

Grammatica in deze video

De structuren die de spreker het meest gebruikt, met de exacte woorden uit de video:

Structuur	In de video
Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — iets dat eerder begon en nog bezig is	I've actually been putting · what's been happening · we've been telling
Voorwaardelijke zinnen if + zin, will/would + werkwoord — een voorwaarde en het gevolg	if they can they'll tell · if you're a parent i'd love
“Used to” used to + werkwoord — een vroegere gewoonte of toestand die niet meer klopt	used to get · used to be
Present perfect have/has + voltooid deelwoord — iets uit het verleden dat nu nog telt	you've spent · has started · We've lived

Uitspraak om op te letten

De spreker gebruikt 254 samentrekkingen en verkorte vormen, zoals I'm, don't, we're. Spreek ze kort uit, zoals je ze hoort.

De “th”-klanken: smooth /smuːð/, ethical /ˈɛθɪkəl/
De klanken “sh” en “zh”: efficient /ɪˈfɪʃənt/, imagination /ɪˌmæd͡ʒəˈneɪʃən/, shock /ʃɔk/, substantial /səbˈstænʃəl/, shade /ʃeɪd/
Lange woorden — let op de klemtoon: imagination /ɪˌmæd͡ʒəˈneɪʃən/, vocabulary /vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/, anxiety /æŋˈzaɪ.əti/, differently /ˈdɪf.ə.ɹənt.li/, unnecessary /ʌnˈnɛs.əˌsɛɹ.i/

Zo oefen je met deze video

Luister de hele video één keer zonder te spreken en noteer de woorden die je niet kent.
Spreek zin voor zin na op normale snelheid en herhaal elke zin tot je ritme gelijk is aan dat van de spreker.
Neem jezelf op en vergelijk met het origineel; let daarbij op woorden als phrase, pretend, sword.

Wat is de Shadowing-techniek?

Shadowing is een wetenschappelijk onderbouwde taalleermethode die oorspronkelijk is ontwikkeld voor professionele tolkentraining en gepopulariseerd door polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. De methode is eenvoudig maar krachtig: je luistert naar native Engelse audio en herhaalt het onmiddellijk hardop — als een schaduw die de spreker volgt met slechts 1–2 seconden vertraging. In tegenstelling tot passief luisteren of grammaticadrills, dwingt shadowing je hersenen en mondspieren om echte spraakpatronen tegelijkertijd te verwerken en te reproduceren. Onderzoek toont aan dat het de uitspraaknauwkeurigheid, intonatie, ritme, verbonden spraak, luisterbegrip en spreekvaardigheid aanzienlijk verbetert — waardoor het een van de meest effectieve methoden is voor IELTS Speaking-voorbereiding en echte Engelse communicatie.

Shadowing-techniek: lees de volledige stap-voor-stap-gids →

Shadowing Practice: A Big Life Update… | Learn English with My Story - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Woordenschat en spreektips bij deze les

Belangrijke woorden in deze video

Phrasal verbs die je zult horen

Grammatica in deze video

Uitspraak om op te letten

Zo oefen je met deze video

Wat is de Shadowing-techniek?