Shadowing Practice: Advanced English Conversation: Daily Routine English - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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Today's lesson was created by you.
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I asked you to ask us your top questions about daily routines.
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So today I'm here with my husband, Dan.
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Dan H.: Hello.
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And we're going to be answering your questions.
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Will your question be featured in today's lesson?
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I don't know.
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We'll watch to find out.
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Hi, I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.
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And like always, I have created a free PDF worksheet, which is here over Dan's face.
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and it is going to include all of the wonderful questions, all of the vocabulary that we're going to use today,
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definitions, extra sample sentences so that you can use this vocabulary yourself.
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Because the goal of today's lesson is to help you understand real conversations, but also be able to have real conversations yourself.
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So please download this free worksheet, expand your vocabulary and your speaking skills so that you can go into the world with confidence.
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You can click on the link in the description to download that free PDF worksheet today.
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All right.
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Are you ready to get started with our first category of questions?
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I'm ready.
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I'm coming in blind too, so this should be interesting.
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Yeah.
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Dan has no idea what these questions are.
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The first category are questions about daily routine.
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The second category are questions about food.
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And the third category are questions about activities or hobbies.
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And there are a lot of questions.
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So we're going to try to whip through these lightning speed and just see what happens.
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Are you ready?
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I'm ready.
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All right.
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Questions about daily routine.
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The first question is, what is your routine every morning?
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My routine every morning.
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Well, as you know, I get out of bed, I look in the mirror for two seconds and I go like this.
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And I always laugh because I think that is such a non-woman way to get ready in the morning.
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Just, okay, I'm good.
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Yeah.
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Okay.
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Nothing on my face.
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All right, go.
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And then maybe brush my teeth sometimes.
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And then go make breakfast.
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So I make breakfast for both my kids, but not you because you like to eat later.
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And then I pack my son a lunch and myself a lunch.
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And then we go to school.
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We drive to school together.
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So gather all the stuff and go.
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Yep.
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That's a morning routine.
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How about you?
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Well, while Dan is making breakfast, I wake up, I nurse our baby and walk into the kitchen,
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try to spend a little time with our kids.
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I make some tea, we eat breakfast together, and I help our oldest get out the door with Dan.
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That could be a challenge.
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Then I spend some time with our three-year-old before we go to preschool.
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Our carpool friends pick him up and take him to preschool about 30 minutes after they leave.
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So we have a nice 30 minutes of quality time together.
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And usually I push him on the swing outside.
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That's his favorite thing.
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And then he goes to preschool with our carpool friends
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and I put our baby down for a nap and my day begins.
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All right.
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Question number two.
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Question two.
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How has your morning routine changed now that you have three kids?
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What hasn't changed is the question.
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Well, the biggest thing is school for me.
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We never had to get ready for school before and I work at the school too.
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So pretty much everything has changed about the morning routine because of the children.
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But as far as three children go, I mean- Two?
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Three?
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Yeah.
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Our third baby is so easy.
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She doesn't really count as far as a lot of work yet.
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Yeah.
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I think the routine changing was more no kids or kids.
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When you don't have kids, your morning routine is really different.
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We just spent more time.
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It was quieter.
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I don't even know what life was like.
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Drank my tea quietly, but now you're always multitasking.
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I'm reading a book, nursing a baby, and drinking my tea at the same time.
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There's just more going on all the time.
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I'd say that's the biggest thing for me.
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All right.
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Next question.
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What is the best part of your daily routine that you really enjoy?
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Coffee.
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No, it doesn't have to be morning routine.
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It could be like...
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I thought you said morning routine.
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Daily routine.
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That's the thing that's changed the most since having three kids.
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Anything that routinely happens in your day is considered your daily routine.
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So something that happens regularly.
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It might still be coffee.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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I don't know coffee and an afternoon coffee.
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And, you know, try to cling to those moments when I can.
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Cool.
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Cool.
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Yeah.
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I also like lunchtime.
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Food and drink are really nice.
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I mean, it's routine, you know, it's like, this is what I do every day.
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Yeah.
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The ride to and from school is nice as well, because I usually listen to something with my son, either music or an audio book.
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And we chat together as well.
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That's a nice routine that we have going every day.
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Yeah, some quality time together.
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Yeah.
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And how about you?
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I think, well, I had the privilege of reading these questions in advance, so I had a moment to think about them.
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Oh, she got to think about it.
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I think one of the parts of my day that I enjoy the most is at the end of the day,
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when we sit at the table and we eat dinner, we often ask each other a very simple question what was the best part of your day?
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Sometimes we also ask, what was the most challenging part of your day?
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If a day was particularly challenging or just if we remember it.
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And it's interesting to hear what everyone has to say.
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For our kids, sometimes it's this meal right now.
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They only live in the moment.
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They don't remember what happened 10 minutes ago.
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It's just, what was the the best part of your day right now.
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I like that.
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Yeah, definitely.
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Kind of a moment together.
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Yeah, I think that's something that I look forward to coming together at the end of the day.
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Next question is, what do you do at night when you are going to sleep?
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What's your nighttime routine?
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A nighttime routine for me, I don't really think I have much of a nighttime routine.
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I mean, I brush my teeth.
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Good.
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And, um, sometimes I shower.
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Good.
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These are things I sometimes do every night, or most nights.
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Yeah, but other than that, I just, I am the kind of guy who just kind of hits the pillow and falls asleep pretty quickly.
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Nowadays, especially, I mean, before kids, I had trouble going to sleep and wouldn't fall asleep.
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Now that I have children, when I go to bed, I'm just going to sleep typically.
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You're just really tired.
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Yeah.
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Not too much of a bedtime routine.
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I've tried to throw some stuff in there before, like trying to do breathing exercises and meditation.
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But I would say I am not consistent enough in those practices to say it's a routine as of now.
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Okay.
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All right.
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Well, that's maybe the goal in the future at some point. And do you?
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Nighttime routine.
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What do you do at night when you're going to sleep?
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I think usually after the kids go to bed, I tidy up a little bit.
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You do the dishes a little bit.
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I read a book usually, or sometimes lately, I've been listening to a book.
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Very exciting.
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Usually, like Dan said, I'm zonked by the end of the day and brush my teeth, maybe take a shower and go to sleep.
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Maybe take a shower.
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Maybe take a shower.
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I don't know.
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They say it's not healthy to take a shower every day.
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So- Somebody says that.
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That's what we're going with.
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But I feel like that's pretty much it.
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Nighttime is a little bit more relaxed than mornings
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because in the morning you're trying to manage multiple people and get started in the day and there's more energy.
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So the end of the day is just kind of more...
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Yeah.
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All right.
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The question we touched on just a second ago, who helps you?
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I think they're talking about me.
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Who helps me in your daily chores?
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Let's talk about what chores means first and then we can talk about who does daily chores.
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Yeah.
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The chores are any work that you have to do to make the household run.
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Yep.
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The classic example is laundry and dishes.
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Yep.
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Doing the dishes.
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That's my job.
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So we, I don't know if it's 50-50, but we split the chores.
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We try to be relatively even about it.
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And so yeah, I do the dishes and- I do the laundry.
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You do the laundry.
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Those are the big ones.
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I mean, there's a lot of kid chores.
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You gotta give them a bath.
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You gotta put them to bed.
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I mean- You make breakfast.
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Those are chores.
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I make lunch.
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Oh, cooking as well.
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And we both kind of make dinner.
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I think instead of saying every other day we make dinner, it's more that there's specific meals that I cook- Our expertises.
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And specific meals that you cook.
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And depending on what we've scheduled for the week, we try to schedule two weeks of meal plans.
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And that way we know Monday, we have different days.
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Miso Monday, taco Tuesday, soup Saturday, stuff like this, fish Friday.
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That way we have some kind of routine about food because when you have kids, especially when you have kids,
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just feeding them can feel really overwhelming because they're always hungry.
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There's always something more to make.
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Then you're also trying to spend time with them while you're cooking and sometimes they want to help and that is good, but it's also chaotic.
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I think having that routine for what you're going to eat, when you're going to eat it, who's going to make it, I think that's really important.
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I would say one more thing about sharing chores.
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The way that our lives work, we both work, we both have a job, and we also are parents.
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Our professional and personal lives are very similar.
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I have some friends who, for example, their husband works and the mother, her 100% job is the home and the children.
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She cooks every meal because that is her job her professional job to do that.
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And it's a lot, it's very difficult.
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A lot of times it's harder than a real job, a real job.
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A money-making job- A money-making job.
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It's usually easier, yes, than taking care of the home and the children.
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So in that situation, their roles would be a little bit different, but for us, we can split it a little more evenly because our lives are just set up like that.
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Yeah.
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You are home more now.
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So you probably pick up more little stuff than I do.
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Literally, picking up little stuff everywhere.
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Yeah, that's a good phrase.
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It means you also do more things, but also in the home you have to tidy up a lot.
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You have to pick up books and toys and I don't know what, raisins on the floor.
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Anyway, let's go to our next question.
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Raisins.
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There's a lot of raisins on the floor.
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This is the last one for daily routine, and then we'll go to food.
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The question is, how much TV do your kids watch per day?
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Dun, da, da.
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So our children don't watch any TV if they are going to school.
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Yeah.
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So they don't watch any TV that day because, you know, they've had enough stimulation at school and they don't need any more after that.
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And we usually just read a book to them or do something outside.
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And they get home kind of late and I don't want them to just watch TV and then go to bed.
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There's not much time together.
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Yeah.
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And because it's not a habit for them during school days, they don't really like beg for it, which is what you want.
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They're also young, like six years old and three years old.
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So they don't know.
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Maybe later when they get older, they'll kind of beg, please, I want to do this.
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I want to watch this.
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So I don't know what the future holds.
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Maybe they'll do that in the future.
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But for right now, this is the routine and they're okay with it.
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Yes.
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And then, um, so on non-school days, they're allowed to watch 30 minutes and maybe an hour on one day a week,
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like Sunday, we let them watch a little more.
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but typically it's no more than 30 minutes.
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Usually I would say it's an hour because they each get to choose one.
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They each get to choose one show.
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And I think the important thing for us with TV is choosing which shows are okay, because there's a lot of shows that they say they're for kids,
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but it's just not good for kids.
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It's too fast.
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It's too much like violence or bad attitudes or bad role models or whatever it might be.
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So we want to make sure our kids are being exposed to good stuff.
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Our children watch educational cartoons.
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Well, it can be entertaining too, but they each get to choose one thing.
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So like 20 minutes, 20 minutes.
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And I think, yeah, not watching it on school days has been a really good routine for us
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because they get home from school.
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And for me, when I've had a really busy day, I need to decompress and process what's happened.
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And if I jump into just like media and watching a movie or TV or looking at my phone,
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I just don't feel as calm.
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It doesn't help.
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And I don't want my kids to learn that the way
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that you can decompress at the end of the day is by watching TV.
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I think it's better to connect with them, at least at this young age when they're still okay with that.
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I understand when Theo is 13 years old, he's not going to say, mom, let's read a story together.
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That would be nice, but that's okay.
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I understand it won't happen.
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While they're young, I think that's important to focus on connecting with them at the end of the day.
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All right.
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Next category, questions about food.
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We talked a little bit about who cooks what, but this is what kind of meals specifically for breakfast,
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specifically for lunch and for dinner do you cook for your family?
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So let's start with breakfast.
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What kind of things do we eat for breakfast?
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Okay.
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Well, when the chickens were laying eggs, because we have chickens and they've stopped laying eggs because it got cold and they molted and whatnot.
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So now we're getting like one egg like every two days.
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So it's pretty bad.
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Anyway, but before that I cooked eggs every single day.
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I would make either scrambled eggs or fried eggs and a piece of toast with some jam.
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And then if not that, then I make oatmeal and those are the two breakfasts.
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Works every time.
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Yep.
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Pretty simple.
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Then for lunch, I'll make a sandwich of some kind.
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Especially on a school day, yeah.
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Or I'll bring leftovers from home, which is probably what I prefer, but sandwiches are good too.
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Classic American meals.
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Yeah, lunch, like when I make lunch for Freddy or when we're all home, like on a vacation for lunch, because I usually make lunches if we're all home,
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some type of bread, some type of spread or dip.
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So maybe it's peanut butter or almond butter.
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Bread and spread.
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Or hummus and olives and carrots and apples, stuff like that, like little munchies,
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little things like that usually.
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She is the queen of munchy lunch.
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That's for sure.
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Yeah.
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Just one big plate with lots of stuff on it and everyone eats it.
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It doesn't have to be anything spectacular, but you just choose what you want.
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Little pieces of cheese cut up, whatever it might be, you just eat it.
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I think for dinner, usually we have, like I said, a meal plan.
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So we have specific things that we make.
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So every Monday, Dan is miso man.
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Miso soup.
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Miso soup.
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We have fish-based miso, and then there's a beef-based miso.
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There's a couple of different types.
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We make tacos on Tuesdays.
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They're not really Mexican tacos.
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They're just Vanessa-style tacos.
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I like taco Tuesday.
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We make breakfast tacos with sausage and eggs and potatoes.
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There's beef tacos, fish tacos.
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I'm sure I've made sweet potato tacos, tons of different types.
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We make lots of soup, some salads, depending on if it's the summertime and we have a lot of fresh stuff in our garden.
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Dan, borscht.
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Oh, we just made borscht.
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Lately.
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We made borscht yesterday.
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Yeah.
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Lots of different things.
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I think in the US it's kind of unusual because we don't have American cuisine.
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We don't have a long history of the same type of food.
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So I know that when we lived in Korea- Sure we do.
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It's called hot dogs and hamburgers.
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But our ancestors 100 years ago were not eating that.
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It's not something that's been passed down.
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So when we lived in Korea- I got some German heritage, so- Okay.
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Maybe they've been eating sausage for a long time.
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They ate Korean food at every meal and there's no question- Yeah, it's very different.
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Are we going to eat tacos today?
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Are we going to eat, I don't know- Miso soup.
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Miso soup.
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What are we going to eat?
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No, it was always Korean food.
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So there's that food tradition.
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And so I think in the US that's a pro and a con that people often struggle with knowing, what should I eat?
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What should I make?
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And also maybe not having that food tradition makes people,
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this is my theory, more susceptible to fad diets because they don't have a strong culture of,
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oh yeah, we eat rice and kimchi and seaweed every day for breakfast.
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You're more susceptible to being like, I'm going to eat four pounds of watermelon for breakfast because that's the new diet.
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Okay.
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Well, that's not healthy.
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That's a finesse diet for sure.
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Well, I do love watermelon.
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That was an example.
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Anyway, that's the stuff that we make.
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I think we spend a lot of time cooking, but we try to include our kids and we try to prioritize healthy food, eating together.
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It seems hectic sometimes, but trying to slow down and prioritize those essentials in life, especially when our kids are young.
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You try to include the kids.
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I try to include the kids.
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I'm like, no, I need to be able to chop something without cutting off a finger or whatnot.
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Yeah, it is definitely a specific task to try to cook with children.
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You have to manage them.
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It's not a solo quiet.
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On your average day, it's not something I want to do.
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Just because it's just the end of the day kind of thing.
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Yeah, that makes sense.
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All right, let's go to the next question.
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This is a fun one.
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What meals make your family say that they think they've died and gone to heaven?
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What's our family's favorite meals?
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For Theo and Freddie, it's like half of them.
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They'll be like, this is amazing.
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This is the greatest thing I've ever had.
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They love food.
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Yeah, they are very good, non-picky eaters.
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Yeah.
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I think there's a term we often say for kids that they're good eaters.
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If a kid is not picky, we'd say, oh, they're such good eaters.
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I'm so grateful.
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And that's true for our kids.
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They eat everything.
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We made borscht yesterday and they said- They liked it.
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This is so good.
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I love this.
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I think- I'm trying to remember the last thing they were like, this is the best thing ever.
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I think the only meals they don't like, Theo doesn't like fried rice.
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He doesn't like shiitake mushrooms.
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He doesn't like shiitake mushrooms.
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Or mushrooms in general.
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Oh, they really like my pizza.
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Yeah, your pizza.
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Hard not to like that.
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They love miso.
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They love tacos.
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They love soups and salads and they'll grab handfuls of anything in the garden, like raw kale and cabbage.
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They'll just grab it and eat it.
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Yeah, they enjoy it a lot more if they pick it themselves.
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Yeah, and say like, oh, there's a bug on it.
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Okay.
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It doesn't really matter.
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Yeah, they're really not picky.
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I think for us too, we enjoy food.
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Whenever we go on a date, something that we like to do is go to a restaurant that we enjoy the food.
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It's special food, food that we don't cook at home because we cook a lot of special food at home.
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It's something that's unique and different and that's an interest for us as adults.
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I think it's something fun to share with our kids that, oh, we're excited to try this and they're actually excited too.
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That's nice.
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We'll see for our baby.
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Hopefully, she's not picky too.
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Hopefully, she She probably won't be.
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She loves food.
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We'll see.
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All right, let's go to the next one.
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This is the last question about food.
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It is, what is your favorite type slash style of coffee to drink daily?
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Oh, coffee.
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This is for you.
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We're going to coffee.
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Yeah.
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What kind of coffee type or style of coffee do you like?
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So I like a medium roast coffee.
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Not so much.
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Yeah.
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Right in the middle.
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And I like Colombian coffee.
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It's a very cliche kind of coffee.
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Okay.
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For reference, if someone doesn't know anything about any of those, what would you label Starbucks as?
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Because most people are familiar with like- Burnt.
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They just over roast it.
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Yeah.
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Okay.
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So it's like dark, dark, dark roast.
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They have a couple that are okay, but for the most part, if you want to make Starbucks taste any good, you got to put a bunch of stuff in it.
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That's what people usually do.
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And that's what a lot of people who go to Starbucks too.
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Okay.
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You know, there are some people who like dark roast and they just, I don't know, like my dad,
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you know, his taste buds have been burnt for centuries, for ages.
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And so he'll drink just about any coffee and be like, yeah, it's coffee.
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Okay.
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I feel a little bit like that sometimes too.
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You know, coffee drinkers, if you need coffee, you just go and get coffee.
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Right?
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I've definitely seen you drink gas station coffee before on a restaurant.
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And I kind of like it too.
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But you know, I kind of pictured like gas station coffee Like it's been made in a lab somewhere
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and they're like How can we make this a little more appealing to the truck drivers?
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They drop in a little something.
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Okay.
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It has that flavor to it, you know, okay Well, I don't like coffee.
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So that's it But at home I like a variety but yeah, I'll do I like Typically Colombian coffee Okay.
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Classic kind of nutty, roasty, chocolatey.
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If any of you are from Colombia and you want to send Dan whole roasted coffee beans, Bring me the coffee.
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Yes.
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He would love that.
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Actually the coffee from Costa Rica was very good too.
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You even like that.
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Yeah.
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I was going to say the only time I've ever liked coffee and drank a full cup of coffee, because in the US we don't just have little espresso shots of coffee.
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We have full cups of of coffee.
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People do the little K cup things.
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Well, it becomes a big cup though at the end, in the end.
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Like it becomes a mug of coffee.
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Right, right, right.
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Yeah.
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I'm thinking about how like in Italy, there's just a little tiny espresso and that's your coffee for the day.
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That drove me nuts.
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In Italy, it's like, I want coffee.
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Can I have a coffee?
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Can I get your biggest coffee?
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And it'd be like, this is like their biggest coffee.
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That's like the most American thing ever.
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Yeah.
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It was very American.
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Yes.
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Well, at the farm we stayed at in Costa Rica, they grew their own coffee beans and something about it was just perfect.
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It was smooth.
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It wasn't bitter.
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Not too acidic.
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Not too acidic.
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I think that's the big thing.
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And I don't like the way that coffee makes me feel.
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The amount of caffeine is just too much for me.
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I drink tea.
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I drink black tea and that has caffeine in it, but coffee on a regular basis makes me feel too jittery and anxious.
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And I've met other people like this and It's like my soulmates.
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We just understand that feeling.
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Because a lot of people that drink coffee regularly, like you, you're like, I don't know what that feels like.
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What do you mean?
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I'm very acclimated, I guess.
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Yeah, I think so.
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Anyway, that's my answer is only the coffee from a specific farm in Costa Rica.
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Must be grown in your backyard in Costa Rica.
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Yes, I am the pickiest of all.
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All right.
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Let's go to our next category, which are questions about hobbies and activities.
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The first question is, do you have much time for reading?
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What goes along with that is what's the last book you read?
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And there's a couple others that are just questions for me.
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Yeah.
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Do you have much time for reading, Dan?
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Dan H.: Yeah, technically I do.
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What was the last book you read?
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Dan H.: Oh goodness.
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It's probably a nonfiction book of some kind.
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I don't know.
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I haven't finished a book in a long time, honestly.
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I start a lot of books and then I scan the footnotes and all that.
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That's okay.
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I read enough for like four people.
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Yeah.
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Honestly, I don't read that much, but I like reading when I do.
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I just don't.
504
I just tend to watch videos and do other stuff.
505
Yeah.
506
Take care of kids.
507
Take care of...
508
Well, yeah, there's that too.
509
I listen to audio books, children's audio books with my son, and I read a lot of stories to them,
510
but these are children's books.
511
So yeah, I don't really even remember the last book I read, but I am going in blind on these questions. So...
512
If you think of it later, let us know.
513
Okay.
514
But I do know somebody who reads a lot and that's my wife.
515
That's me.
516
So I think at any given time, I'm probably reading like...
517
three books.
518
Right now, I'm just finished listening to one of the most amazing books that I've ever listened to.
519
Oh yeah.
520
She tells me all about them too.
521
I don't need to read them.
522
Yeah.
523
He reads vicariously through me.
524
This book is actually one that I want to listen to together.
525
It's called Endurance, and it's about Ernest Shackleton's failed Antarctic exploration.
526
It's considered the greatest survival story of all time.
527
And it is so incredibly unbelievable.
528
Like it is a hundred percent true.
529
It includes so many of their diary segments.
530
So, you know, like their individual thoughts and their words and the way that the guy reads it, he is such a good reader.
531
Um, I think reading the book yourself would be nice, but the way that his voice,
532
uh, he has a different accent for each of the people because they're from a lot of different British Isles countries.
533
Another guy's from Australia in the story.
534
He just reads it so well.
535
If you have, for example, an audible account, I highly recommend listening to Endurance about Ernest Shackleton.
536
It's so good.
537
You're counting that as reading?
538
Yeah.
539
Even though you've listened to it?
540
Yes.
541
It is consuming a book, not just short form content like an article or something like that.
542
But yeah, I read a lot.
543
I feel like the times that I read a lot are when I'm nursing because I have a small baby.
544
So I nurse her a lot.
545
And oftentimes while I'm nursing her, she's almost asleep.
546
So if the other children are taken care of and I'm not trying to nurse her and take care of them, if I'm in the quiet of the bedroom, I have a Kindle, which is great.
547
It has like a little light so I can read on my Kindle and I have 30 minutes,
548
maybe 15 minutes sometimes, and I can read my book.
549
Or I deleted social media stuff off of my phone, so that really helped.
550
I upped my reading when I did that because I found myself just in those spare moments, especially because my life is so busy.
551
There's just always kids and there's a work and then there's our house.
552
There's always something demanding my attention that in those precious free moments,
553
my animal brain just wanted a hit of dopamine, like, oh, watch a YouTube video.
554
Oh, look at social media.
555
And it was difficult to resist.
556
So I had an interesting conversation with my sister and we both decided just to delete social media, all social media off our phones.
557
And both of us since then have read so much.
558
It was like as if this veil had been lifted
559
and all of a sudden you have more time than you think you do.
560
So if you're feeling like you don't have much time to learn English, maybe you do just delete social media off your phone
561
and watch my YouTube videos on your computer or on a laptop and something that- Have YouTube somewhere.
562
Something that's not instantly accessible, something where you have to consciously choose to sit down and open it up.
563
I think the phone is the dangerous part.
564
That has helped me so much to have time to read.
565
I read so many books now.
566
I'm also reading another book called Braiding Sweetgrass.
567
I'm reading another book called The Highly Sensitive Person, which is a psychology book.
568
A lot going on.
569
It's all for, depending on, oh, I feel like reading this now.
570
I feel like reading this.
571
I've got lots of options.
572
Well, if we're counting audio books, Yes.
573
The last impactful audio book I listened to with Theo was Little House on the Prairie.
574
Classic.
575
Yeah.
576
And we started Anne of Green Gables too, but that one was a little bit over his head.
577
Yeah.
578
Very verbose.
579
Yeah.
580
It's probably better for a 10-year-old than a six-year-old.
581
Yeah.
582
But Little House on the Prairie, that was very entertaining for an adult, I think.
583
Yeah.
584
Yeah.
585
I love those books.
586
Very historically interesting and all that.
587
Yeah.
588
So yeah, that was great.
589
a part two to this question, which is talking about reading.
590
It says, do you have time to read your students' comments?
591
Do you consider this distracting or extra work?
592
I don't.
593
You don't read the comments.
594
I feel like reading YouTube comments, I generally read the comments on the most recent videos.
595
I don't read 100% of the comments, but I read most of them and respond to some of them.
596
I have noticed going to your videos, I see your responses more than your average YouTuber.
597
Yeah.
598
I try to respond to 10 comments or so for all the videos.
599
I enjoy reading them.
600
I don't read them for hours every day.
601
It says, do you consider it distracting or extra work?
602
I try to consider everything related to my job to be work.
603
It doesn't mean it has to be annoying or difficult work, but I try my best.
604
I don't always succeed.
605
I try to separate my personal life from my work.
606
So when I'm spending time with my kids, I'm not looking at the YouTube comments on my video.
607
Or when I'm cooking, I'm not spending time looking at the comments on YouTube.
608
Or if I'm waiting to pick up my kid from school, I'm not looking at the comments.
609
I only do that during my work time.
610
And I think that really helps me to just feel more at ease because I'm really good at multitasking,
611
but after I multitask, I feel really totally beat,
612
just really drained of energy because I've been working so hard to multitask and do all these things.
613
So it's better for me.
614
And I think it's better for the people around me
615
if I focus on one thing instead of trying to do it all at the same time.
616
So if that makes sense.
617
Yeah.
618
I would say Vanessa probably has less interest in YouTube comments than probably your average YouTuber.
619
You don't seem to really care that much about what people say.
620
But positively, you know, she's not looking for praise is what I'm trying to say.
621
I feel like I try not to base my worth,
622
my individual personal worth on the comments.
623
and other people's opinions.
624
I appreciate when people write nice comments, and especially my favorite types of comments are when people say,
625
I've been watching your videos and my English has improved.
626
That is my goal as a teacher.
627
I want you to improve.
628
So when I see that kind of change and the dedication of watching
629
and studying and that something that I provided actually helped you, that makes me feel really good.
630
So I think that kind of detailed personal type of comment is really important to me, but it is true.
631
I try not to- I don't want to make it sound like you don't care at all.
632
Yeah.
633
I'm not the kind of person that's like, oh, we got 3000 likes.
634
Yay.
635
That's what I mean.
636
Yeah.
637
Those kind of social media markers don't matter to me as much, but personal change, that's really special.
638
So please keep sharing things like that.
639
The next question is mainly for me.
640
do you have time to prepare videos and still be present with your family?
641
I ask that all the time, honestly.
642
So the question is how is your work-life balance?
643
How do you work and have a family?
644
I think the only way that my job still exists with having kids is
645
that there's other people on my team who help to make that happen.
646
So there's someone who helps with my emails.
647
There's someone who helps to edit the PDFs that are downloaded for free for you.
648
You can download today's free PDF.
649
There's someone who helps to edit these videos.
650
All of that makes it possible because I don't have 40 hours every day to do it all.
651
Yeah.
652
Her team used to be me.
653
Yeah.
654
But since we've changed that, it's gotten better actually.
655
Well, I've certainly been able to diversify.
656
Different people can specialize in different types of jobs.
657
So that really helps everything to run smoothly.
658
We also had before this school year, my three-year-old went to preschool this year for the first time.
659
So he's at school from nine to one o'clock.
660
that we had a babysitter come over to our house for three mornings a week, nine o'clock to 12 o'clock for three mornings a week.
661
So I had, what is that?
662
Nine hours, nine hours to work every week.
663
Sometimes it wasn't exactly nine hours.
664
Sometimes it was like seven hours, but- Well, that's not including anything in the evening that you do.
665
Yeah.
666
My goal is to try to not work in the evening after the kids go to bed, but sometimes I would be pressed to have to do that.
667
Now I try to delegate tasks.
668
That means give tasks to other people so
669
that I'm not feeling too overwhelmed or stressed and I can focus on the things that I do best, like making these videos for you.
670
The next question goes also with managing, but it involves you.
671
With managing your house, YouTube channel, your teaching job, and kids, do you have time to work out?
672
Oh, work out, huh?
673
Yeah.
674
Actually, yes.
675
Lately, I have been running, which is pretty new for me.
676
It's been a couple of months.
677
Yeah.
678
I've slacked a bit lately, but when the time changed and it got dark early, that made it really hard for you.
679
Yeah.
680
I don't like running in the pitch black, but- There's a lot of bears that we live in.
681
I have time for sure.
682
It's obviously hard to like find the motivation sometimes after a long day.
683
That's the main thing.
684
So, but I found that if I go for a run and I just start, it actually feels good.
685
Especially if I'm like, I'm going to put on some headphones or
686
even if just to get some fresh air
687
and I don't want this to sound like I want to be away from my kids, but sometimes when you go for a run and they're not there, it's kind of nice.
688
Yeah, that's how I feel about going to the gym.
689
So last year I was pregnant for the whole year.
690
And then when our baby was born in June, I had some recovery time over the summer.
691
And then at the end of the summer, I started going to the gym a couple of times a week.
692
I got sick for a little bit, had to take a pause.
693
But I think this same idea of like doing something by yourself.
694
When you're surrounded by people a lot- When you're a parent.
695
Or your job is teaching with lots of kids and your responsibilities are just pulling at you all the time,
696
going to the gym and just listening to music
697
or an audio book like I like to do and running or lifting some weights, it feels actually pretty calming.
698
You might go to the gym and find Vanessa just like punching a punching bag.
699
I didn't know she had that in her.
700
It feels really good to just be, especially at night when it's dark outside and I go to the gym, it's just around the corner from our house and I see other people out and I think,
701
oh, it's only eight o'clock, but like other people's day is not ending.
702
It's going still.
703
It's just, yeah, it's really nice.
704
I think to be able to do something like that, especially when you're around a lot of people all day.
705
All right.
706
Next question.
707
What kind of weather do you like?
708
Sunny weather.
709
Yeah.
710
I mean, really.
711
Yeah.
712
Where we live, it's really mild.
713
Yeah.
714
So our summers are hot, but one hour south from where we live in South Carolina,
715
where I grew up, it's like 10 degrees hotter all the time.
716
It feels significant.
717
Yeah.
718
Yeah.
719
So here it's pretty mild.
720
We get a couple days of snow in the winter, but it's pretty good.
721
You get a couple of weeks where it feels like spring in the middle of winter too.
722
So it's not unbearable where you get snow in October and the snow doesn't melt until May.
723
We don't live somewhere like that, thankfully.
724
Yeah.
725
I mean, to put a little more detail on it, I like mild weather.
726
I don't like anything too hot or too cold.
727
Although a nice snowy day is fun, but it's only fun like twice.
728
I know.
729
So, but yeah, a little bit of clouds in the sky to give you some shade every now and then.
730
Yeah.
731
Nice little breeze.
732
Breezy.
733
Yeah.
734
Not too many mosquitoes.
735
No mosquitoes yet.
736
Basically perfect.
737
That would be nice.
738
Yeah.
739
All right.
740
Next question.
741
Going from outside to inside, what kind of movies do you watch?
742
This is what kind of movies do you watch on Netflix, but what kind of movies do you watch?
743
TV shows do you watch?
744
Stuff like that.
745
Oh, TV shows too?
746
Movies, TV shows.
747
Yeah.
748
We don't really watch movies.
749
I was trying to think of the last movie that we saw.
750
Man.
751
Well, so I'm not the most fun person to watch a movie with, I think.
752
I tend to have trouble not making comments during the movie, especially one-on-one with, you know, sometimes it's fun.
753
Right?
754
I can't remember the last movie that we watched.
755
Yeah.
756
Probably a kid's movie.
757
Oh, I know what it was.
758
It was the Bohemian Rhapsody one.
759
Oh yeah.
760
The Freddie Mercury one.
761
Yeah.
762
And I was quiet for it.
763
I didn't make too many comments.
764
How did you enjoy it?
765
It was okay.
766
Okay.
767
All right.
768
That's a glowing, glowing review from Dan.
769
I'm a bit of a tough critic, except for like silly humor.
770
So we watched Bob's Burgers, which is a silly cartoon.
771
We watched the Great British Baking Show.
772
Hulu.
773
And we watched the Great British Baking Show.
774
That's a tongue twister.
775
Yeah.
776
Yeah.
777
And that's just fun.
778
I don't know.
779
I like stuff like that.
780
Yeah.
781
I think we don't really- A little more low commitment too.
782
You don't have to like, you know, watch a really long movie.
783
Yeah.
784
Especially at the end of the day when like our kids go to bed and it's eight o'clock, a movie's like two hours.
785
I don't want to watch something for two hours.
786
So I think when our kids get older and they want to watch movies, I will enjoy watching movies with them.
787
But at this point they don't watch movies.
788
So it's kind of- Unless it's Thomas the Tank Engine.
789
It's not really like a movie movie.
790
And then you're like, no. So I kind of feel like, yeah, we don't really watch an awful lot of movies or TV shows, but we do watch YouTube videos and stuff like that.
791
Mm-hmm.
792
Yeah.
793
I also don't like modern Hollywood movies.
794
I just don't like how they feel.
795
I don't like the way the action just is like something happens and it's not explained and it's too much, I don't know, it's not a clear vision.
796
Well, I have a recommendation for you or a request for you.
797
If you have a movie that you love, let us know in the comments and maybe it's a movie that we could watch.
798
And just disregard my opinion.
799
And we could enjoy.
800
So if there's something that you think we should watch, let us know in the comments because we're not the experts when it comes to movies and TV shows.
801
I think most of the movies that I like are not ones that I watch regularly, but classic movies that I like,
802
I don't know, like Forrest Gump or Shawshank Redemption, stuff like that that's classics.
803
Yeah.
804
The last time I went through a movie phase, the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind- In college?
805
Yeah.
806
Like 15 years ago.
807
Was kind of like a semi-modern movie that I thought was cool and I liked.
808
Yeah.
809
I enjoyed watching that.
810
We watched that one a lot in college.
811
All right, let's go to our next question, which is, oh, we only have two more questions.
812
We're almost There.
813
What do you do in your free time with the kids?
814
There's a little bit of a weirdness to this question because it doesn't feel like- Free time.
815
Free time when you're with the kids.
816
Free time is when it's quiet and you're by yourself and you can do whatever you want.
817
But I understand.
818
It means when you're not cooking or taking them to school and stuff like that.
819
When you're just having fun with your kids.
820
What do we do as a family?
821
What kind of free time things do we do as a family?
822
Yeah, well for my children even
823
when you're having free time with them a lot of times it's a child management so
824
Like my youngest son he needs some physical time.
825
So I'll I'll wrestle with him.
826
I'll throw him on the bed He loves that.
827
And what not so he needs a little bit of that and Theo will jump in sometimes too.
828
Yeah, but Theo's a lot more crafty
829
So he likes to do puzzles and play board games
830
and stuff like that and color color color color And
831
so I'll sit down and do that with him a lot of times.
832
Although you usually do that with him because the other one needs some action
833
or he might go a little crazy on you.
834
So usually Dan is throwing Freddie on the bed while I am coloring with Theo.
835
Mm-hmm .
836
I would say also we do lots of, I would say dirt stuff, like digging in the dirt,
837
planting things, pulling weeds, walking in the woods and uncovering things under the leaves.
838
This kind of earthy play, which is also, it's something that we like to do, but I think that that is
839
usually when we go outside and we try to be outside 80% of the day at home, we're outside a lot and we're really lucky.
840
We have a nice yard and area that we can play in.
841
They like yesterday, the last couple of days,
842
our kids spent hours digging a trench and filling it with water and pulling up the mud and making a mud wall.
843
At the same time, I was weeding the garden, pulling up weeds and preparing it for the winter.
844
And you were- Sometimes they help us a little bit.
845
Yeah.
846
It's kind of like being together in the same area.
847
It improves their mood to be outside as well.
848
Yeah.
849
Yes.
850
I think when I want to do something fun with the kids, usually will like go to a park that has nature
851
so like a creek and we'll like you'll skip rocks
852
and the kids will splash in the creek
853
and i'll be with the baby
854
or you'll be with the baby yeah they love going to
855
a creek playing in water in general yeah i think we're
856
not it's not really my favorite thing to do kids specific things like go to a kids museum
857
or go to i don't know even a playground is okay.
858
Our kids don't really like playgrounds that much.
859
I think they're more into go see- They go all around where the other stuff around the playground.
860
Go see the ducks by the lake.
861
They like swings.
862
They like swings a lot.
863
Swings are okay.
864
Yeah.
865
I think that those really busy type of places where there's just so many activities.
866
You could do painting here and then there's light shine things here.
867
And there's animal puppets here, like kids museums.
868
I feel overwhelmed.
869
My kids feel overwhelmed.
870
Can you guess why I'm reading the book, The Highly Sensitive Person?
871
And yeah, afterwards they just cry or fuss and it's no good.
872
That's not fun for anyone.
873
So generally the slower activities, invite a friend to go on a hike with us.
874
That type of stuff is generally what I prefer to do.
875
Yeah, that's about it.
876
All right, are you ready for the last question?
877
I'm ready.
878
Drum roll.
879
Do you feel like you're a different woman after having three children?
880
Oh, yes I do.
881
As a matter of fact, after the third, I finally became a woman.
882
This question is obviously for me, but they gave some very specific things here.
883
Do you feel like you're a different woman after having three kids?
884
More mature, more empathetic, changes in your hobbies, media, daily decisions.
885
Estrogen levels.
886
It is true that they say that when a man is near a baby or you're around children,
887
that your testosterone levels go down and you thus become more caring and tender.
888
One might say womanly.
889
Ooh.
890
All right.
891
I guess the answer is obviously yes.
892
I am a different woman after having three kids.
893
But I think there's a really beautiful, I don't know if it's a proverb or a phrase that I've heard, that when a baby is born, a mother is born too.
894
It's like this page turning event.
895
I remember when we were taking a birth class for our first son, when I was pregnant with our first son,
896
the teacher, she gave this idea of thinking about your life,
897
different events that you felt were a before and after.
898
So maybe it was like your first day of school was really impressionable for you
899
and you felt like that was a big change for you.
900
Or maybe when you first went to high school, you thought, I have my little friends and it's fine.
901
Then you went to high school and there was a big school and you just felt really different.
902
Or I don't know, you moved to a new city.
903
Those are kind of these page turning events.
904
And she framed it as when you have, especially your first child, a page has been turned and there's no going back.
905
There's no changing.
906
There's a lot of obviously physical changes and emotional and hormonal changes, but it's also just, you're a different person.
907
You are still you, but it's this page has turned and you are Vanessa the mother.
908
Yeah, I think that's the positive way to look at your life is not the same.
909
They're not the same, but there's a lot of these instances in life
910
that change you and it's your choice if they will change you for the better or the worse.
911
And so you try to make the most of it.
912
So yes, I would say I'm a different person.
913
I'm still me, but I am a different flavor of me.
914
Yeah.
915
Do you think that I am a different woman after having three kids or just kids in general?
916
Uh, certainly kids.
917
Yeah.
918
Um, after the third, well, you know, because pregnancy is so difficult for you, I think you just seem like you have a burden lifted.
919
Yeah.
920
Not being pregnant is great.
921
Yeah.
922
But as far as like a third child, I don't know.
923
I can only speak for myself because it just feels like our family's like complete.
924
She's like the little cherry on top to our family.
925
Oh, our baby.
926
Yeah.
927
She's really sweet.
928
Yeah.
929
Um, but Yeah.
930
I can't say for the third child that I've noticed a huge change in you.
931
Yeah.
932
I think the biggest change is having your first kid, just going from not being a mother to being a mother.
933
That's the biggest change.
934
Yeah, for sure.
935
All right.
936
Well, thank you so much for joining me for all of these questions.
937
You're welcome.
938
If you have other questions that we have not answered, this is your challenge.
939
In the comments, ask us a question about daily life, daily routines.
940
Maybe you have questions about life in the US.
941
Maybe you have questions about us personally that we can answer from our own personal experiences.
942
Leave that in the comments and maybe we'll make another video like this.
943
Mm-hmm .
944
There will be a vocabulary version of this video coming out in a few weeks.
945
All of the expressions that you saw come up here, I will be explaining those in that vocabulary video.
946
Make sure you subscribe to the Speak English with Vanessa YouTube channel
947
so that you can get a notification when that video goes live, boost your vocabulary, your skills, have great conversation skills.
948
You can do it.
949
Don't forget to download the free PDF worksheet here on DanceFace with all of the great questions that you all asked today,
950
the vocabulary, the definitions, extra sample sentences so that you can use them yourself.
951
At the bottom of this free PDF worksheet, you can answer Vanessa's challenge question so that you never forget what you've learned.
952
You can click on the link in the description to download that free PDF worksheet today.
953
Well, thank you so much, Dan.
954
Dan H.: You're welcome.
955
Vanessa Marinerso- We've been on a journey today.
956
Dan H.: Yes.
957
It was fun.
958
I liked going in blind.
959
Vanessa Marinerso- Oh yeah.
960
Okay.
961
Well, maybe we'll do this again.
962
Let us know.
963
Thanks so much.
964
And I'll see you again next Friday for a new lesson here on my YouTube channel.
965
Bye.
966
Dan H.: Bye.
967
Vanessa Marinerso- But wait, do you want more?
968
I recommend watching this video next, a conversation with Dan about education.
969
Do you know why Dan did not go to school until he was 13 years old?
970
Find out in that video and I'll see you there.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 970 sentences and 8857 words to shadow. The speech runs for 50:55. The speaker talks at a natural 174 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 85% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| routine noun | /ɹuˈtin/ | A course of action to be followed regularly; a standard procedure. |
| meal noun | /ˈmiːl/ | Food that is prepared and eaten, usually at a specific time, and usually in a comparatively large quantity. |
| vocabulary noun | /vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/ | A usually alphabetized and explained collection of words e.g. of a particular field, or prepared for a specific purpose, often for learning. |
| audio adjective | /ˈɔ.di.oʊ/ | Focused on audible sound, as opposed to sight. |
| nurse noun | /nɝs/ | Anyone performing this role, regardless of training or profession. |
| soup noun | /sup/ | Any of various dishes commonly made by combining liquids, such as water or stock, with other ingredients, such as meat and vegetables, that contribute the food… |
| lesson noun | /ˈlɛs.ən/ | A section of learning or teaching into which a wider learning content is divided. |
| lately adverb | /ˈleɪt.li/ | Recently; not long ago; of late; not long since. |
| swing verb | /ˈswɪŋ/ | To rotate about an off-centre fixed point. |
| dish noun | /dɪʃ/ | A vessel such as a plate for holding or serving food, often flat with a depressed region in the middle. |
| roast verb | /ɹoʊst/ | To cook food by heating in an oven or over a fire without covering, resulting in a crisp, possibly even slightly charred appearance. |
| preschool adjective | /ˈpɹiːskuːl/ | Of or relating to the years of early childhood before attendance at primary school. |
| creek noun | /ˈkɹiːk/ | A small inlet, often saltwater, leading to the sea or to the main channel of a river, especially a river estuary. |
| asleep adjective | /əˈsliːp/ | In a state of sleep; also, broadly, resting. |
| brush noun | /bɹʌʃ/ | An implement consisting of multiple more or less flexible bristles or other filaments attached to a handle, used for any of various purposes including… |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| pick up verb | To lift; to grasp and raise. | |
| pull up verb | /ˌpʊl ˈʌp/ | To lift upwards or vertically. |
| sit down verb | To assume a sitting position from a standing position. | |
| tidy up verb | To make clean, to make satisfactorily neat. | |
| work out verb | /ˌwɝk ˈaʊt/ | To calculate. |
| come out in verb | to be afflicted by (a visible disruption of the body) | |
| come up verb | To emerge or become known, especially unexpectedly. | |
| cut off verb | /ˌkʌt ˈɔf/ [ˌkɐɾ ˈɔf] | To remove by cutting. |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 248 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, I'm, you're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: bath /bɑːθ/, smooth /smuːð/, breathe /bɹiːð/, gather /ˈɡæðɚ/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: dish /dɪʃ/, brush /bɹʌʃ/, mushroom /ˈmʌʃˌɹuːm/, unusual /ʌnˈjuːʒ(u)əl/, vacation /veɪˈkeɪ.ʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: vocabulary /vəˈkæb.jə.lə.ɹi/, unusual /ʌnˈjuːʒ(u)əl/, incredibly /ɪŋˈkɹɛdɪbli/, psychology /saɪˈkɑ.lə.d͡ʒi/, motivation /ˈmoʊ.tə.veɪ.ʃən/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like routine, meal, vocabulary.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on | I've been listening · they've been eating · I've been working |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have created · hasn't changed · has changed |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | was created · be featured · is considered |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | worksheet, which is · guy who just · home, which is |
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.