Georgie Hello and welcome to Real easy English. I’m Georgie.
Neil And I’m Neil. In this podcast we have real conversations in easy English to help you improve your language skills.
Georgie If you want to read along to the podcast you can find a text version at bbclearningenglish.com.
Neil Hi, Georgie. How are you doing?
Georgie I’m doing OK thanks, Neil. How are you?
Neil I’m fine.
Georgie What are we talking about this week, Neil?
Neil Today we’re talking about hobbies. We’ll talk about the sports we play in our spare time.
Georgie OK, great! Can you explain what you mean by spare time?
Neil Well, spare time means the time when we’re not working and we don’t have anything that we need to do.
Georgie Yes. And we can also use the phrase free time, which means the same thing.
OK, so, Neil, do you play any sports in your free time?
Neil Well, I do exercise, so I go running. That’s not really a sport. I help my son training when he plays cricket, so that’s kind of playing sport.
Georgie Very good.
Neil And how about you, Georgie. Do you play sports?
Georgie I also don’t play a sport, but I do like running and I also do yoga as well.
Neil Ah yoga? When do you do yoga?
Georgie I usually do it during the week. But last weekend I did yoga as well. I like doing yoga at the end of a stressful week because I feel it makes me relaxed.
So, Neil, you said you like running. When do you like to go running?
Neil I go running at lunchtime when I’m working from home. So it’s nice to do some exercise in the middle of the day and go for a run and then feel alive again in the afternoon.
Georgie Why else do you like running?
Neil Actually, I don’t like running! I don’t like the actual running, but after I go running, I feel great, always. And I think I should go running more, but I never want to.
Georgie Yes, I understand that feeling as well.
Neil When did you last go for a run, Georgie?
Georgie Actually, I went running last weekend. It was a really sunny day and it felt great.
Neil So, Georgie, do you have any plans to go for a run or maybe do yoga this weekend?
Georgie Not this weekend, but next weekend I have plans to go running with my friends.
Neil Oh, wow! Do you talk and run at the same time?
Georgie Absolutely not.
Neil Good because that’s like extra exercise.
Georgie That is too difficult, Neil. I can’t run and talk to my friends!
OK, Neil. So, we know that you go running and you like cricket. But are there any new sports that you’d like to try?
Neil Well, Georgie, you do yoga. I’d like to take up yoga. But I have tried it in the past and it was just too boring.
Georgie Yoga is not boring. It’s wonderful! Neil could you explain the verb take up that you just used?
Neil Yeah, we take up something, it means that we try something for the first time, a new hobby or a new habit, I suppose. So, you can take up a sport or take up learning a new instrument.
Georgie I’d like to take up painting, I think. I think painting is a really nice way to boost your creativity.
Neil Let’s recap the vocabulary we learned during the conversation. We had next to talk about a future plan. Like next weekend.
Georgie We used last to talk about a past plan. Like last weekend, last month, last week. It’s usually the most recent.
Neil And we had take up, which means start a new hobby.
Georgie Yes. And I’m going to take up painting which is exciting.
Georgie Thanks for listening to Real Easy English. Visit our website for more activities and courses to help you with your English: bbclearningenglish.com.
Next time. We’ll talk about social media.
Neil See you then, goodbye.
Georgie Bye!