Neil Hello and welcome to Real Easy English, the podcast where we have real conversations in easy English to help you learn. I’m Neil.
Beth And I’m Beth. Go to our website to find a script for this episode to read along as well as a worksheet with questions on the programme.
Neil Hello, Beth. How are you doing today?
Beth I am very well, thank you, Neil. How are you doing?
Neil I’m pretty good. What are we talking about today?
Beth Well, today we are talking about our plans for the future.
Neil So, Beth, do you like to make plans for the future?
Beth No. I don’t like to make lots of plans, but I think it’s good to have some plans. What about you?
Neil Yes, I have, let’s say, dreams about the future but not really plans. So things I’d like to do, maybe, in the next few years.
Beth OK, well, I am interested to hear about your dreams. So what are your plans for the future?
Neil Well, in the next few years, my kids will probably leave home because they’re growing up and so I’ll have a lot more time and I would like to do things I don’t do very much now. So when they leave home**, I’ll** spend more time going for walks in the countryside or playing music or cooking nice meals.
Beth OK. That sounds really good. Yeah, good plans.
Neil How about you, Beth? Do you have any goals in your life?
Beth Well, there’s a few things that I want to do. So, for example, if I can, I want to move to a bigger house. Hopefully, if I can, I will move to the countryside because at the moment I live in a place where there are quite a few other houses, but I would really like to be out with more fresh air and places to go walking more easily.
Is there anything, Neil, that you have always wanted to do but you haven’t done yet? Like travel somewhere or do something crazy like skydiving.
Neil Yes. There are always interesting places in the world to visit that I haven’t visited so far. I think also I would really like to get very, very good at a foreign language.
Beth OK. That is a good goal.
Neil Because at the moment, I can speak bits of language, but nothing really impressive.
Beth Yeah, OK. Yeah, I think I have, yeah, similar goals. If I have the time**, I’ll** travel to some other countries and practise speaking different languages a bit better than I can do at the moment. But it’s difficult with time and money. Travelling is expensive, so we’ll see.
One day, Neil, we will both be retired. Have you got any thoughts on what you want to do when you’re retired? I know it’s not yet.
Neil No, but it’s a bit closer for me than you! It’s difficult to think what I would like to do with all that free time, but I think it’s important to have a plan rather than just sit on the sofa watching TV all day.
Beth You’d better start thinking then.
Neil Let’s recap the language we used during our conversation.
We had goals, things you want to do or complete.
Beth And we talked about future plans using the first conditional with when. For example, Neil, when your children leave home**, you’ll** play more music and go on walks.
Neil And we used the first conditional using if to talk about future possibilities.
Beth Yes, I said that if I can, I will move to a bigger house.
Neil That’s it for this episode. Remember, there’s lots more to help you with your English on our website. Try our video series, The London to Edinburgh Challenge, where you can practise easy English with an exciting race. Visit bbclearningenglish.com to find all of the episodes.
Beth Next time, we’ll talk about television and the things we like to watch.
Neil Goodbye.
Beth Bye.