This is an All-Ears English Podcast, episode 2242, summer Olympics 2024, part 1.
How to start the conversation.
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Are you watching the Olympics this year?
You should be because this is a great topic for connection in English.
Today, learn conversation starters and phrases to connect about watching the Olympics and your favorite events.
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Hello, Aubrey. How are you today?
I'm great Lindsay. Do you watch the Olympics?
I do. I do. The Olympics are such an exciting international event that we all can relate to in some form or other.
So I do. What about you? Yeah, I love it.
I love the opening ceremonies.
I love so many of the events.
I definitely have favorite events, but I know you and Michelle just recently recorded on all those English, it was English conversation ideas while you watch sports.
Yeah, and this I'm like, this is so perfect for the Olympics because you want to connect about the Olympics, right?
You want to be able to ask people if they watch it, what they favorite events are.
So we're excited to give you guys phrases to be able to do that.
Yeah, for sure. Sometimes people will do watch parties just like we do super bowl watch parties in the US, which is just a US thing.
Internationally, people will do watch parties for their favorite sport.
What do you think is people's favorite sport of the Olympics?
Like what do you, what comes to mind to you?
Aubrey. For me, it's beach volleyball awesome, but honestly, but gymnastics for sure, where I live swimming.
Swimming. I have been to some of those watch parties and they're so fun and it's kind of fun just like having your team for football or baseball.
It's fun to have sort of the sport you get really into.
Yeah, because there's so much national pride and then there's also just lifelong dreams.
I mean, many athletes, this is their event, right?
For tennis, we have the opens.
We have the US open, Wemmelden, we have the Grand Slams, but for some sports, many sports, it's just the Olympics.
So there's so much riding on this.
Yeah, and we're making a fun series about it this.
You guys follow right here for part two about Olympic controversies because there has been a lot of controversy surrounding the Olympics, which is also really interesting to talk to people about.
Yeah, for sure. And that's really the good stuff that you're going to get into.
That's where your fluency level is going to deepen when you actually start talking about interesting things.
Right. And so stay tuned for that episode, hit that follow button to catch that later.
But what's going on currently with the amount of people that actually watch the Olympics, Aubrey?
Yeah, it's really getting a huge global audience.
It's always been pretty popular, but we have some stats here in 2020 that Tokyo Summer Olympics over three billion people tuned in to watch events.
That's amazing. That's impressive.
And then in 2022, I know things got a little messed up with COVID and everything in Beijing.
We had more than two billion people watching the Olympics internationally through the TV.
So that's kind of awesome.
And I'm curious what those stats will be this year, right?
If it's going to blow them out of the water or be right there on par with these other numbers.
I have a feeling it'll be higher.
I don't know. I think it's going to go back up again is my guess.
So we have to see report back when we find out.
That's fun for sure. So conversation starters, right?
To find out if, now these are different from what we learned before in the other episode, right?
Aubrey from what Michelle and I talked about exactly.
Yes, this is when you are going to be watching the Olympics or, you know, while the Olympics are on, there are some fun conversation starters to spark the conversation and for each of these we're providing a follow up.
How can you get deeper with some?
Yes. Love it. So the first one would be what?
So it's just, are you watching the Olympics?
Yeah. So when it's on, you know, there are events that night, this is the perfect question, right?
And whether you get like a yes, and then there's these fun follow-ups or like, oh, no, I hadn't really then.
It's still a fun conversation.
Ask if they used to like, right?
Ask if they ever attended any events live.
There's so much to follow up and have a fun conversation about it.
Oh, for sure. Right? So have you ever attended any events live, for example, or has your city ever hosted?
I know that Salt Lake City, Aubrey hosted back in 2002.
Right. I was living in Salt Lake.
I was living in a university there.
So it was really fun. Everybody was so excited to have it there and be able to attend.
It was winter sports, so all the skiing and snowboarding.
So fun to go and watch all of those.
I love, I love watching bump skiing in the winter.
It's so fun to watch them.
Do that. How incredible.
It's just artistic the way they do it.
Anyways, do you know anyone who has participated in the Olympics?
Have you ever known an Olympian?
Right. I have not, but I think this would be so fun to ask someone you might discover that somebody has a friend or a family member who has participated in an Olympic event.
Yeah. It seems like the ultimate thing to do as a, as a athlete, a professional athlete, like the best thing you could imagine winning would, in my mind, would be the Olympics.
Yeah. Absolutely. At least in the US, right?
It's like the end all be all.
We have so much pride in our Olympic athletes and it's very exciting.
So I do wonder what this is like all over the world.
If it's the same, if you guys out there get as excited about the Olympics.
Yeah. I have a feeling that in Europe, until the America, the World Cup is bigger than the Olympics is my job.
Probably. And I know in tennis, like I said before, the Grand Slam's, I think are more important, more significant for the players to win than the Olympics.
But for other sports, it's the Olympics.
So how do we ask about events?
Aubrey? Yeah. Great question.
Yeah. Yeah. It's just what are your favorite events?
And most most often people will have, you know, their favorite events that they like to always tune into.
But if not, it's still an interesting conversation, right?
If you can ask them, you know, which events are most popular in your country?
And that's really fun too.
Because even if they don't love watching the Olympics, they'll probably know what their friends and family like.
Right. Not every sport is equally popular in every country.
People, this could be cultural or what we're used to seeing.
I mean, honestly soccer is soccer in Olympic sport.
That's a good question.
I don't think it is, right?
I don't know. I should go the other way.
I have not watched Olympic soccer.
But I should know, I should know, but I'm think it's soccer, meaning football soccer is not really that, that popular in the US compared to Spain or Brazil.
It's just not, it hasn't really been part of our lives going through our childhood.
Many people, right? Wouldn't you agree?
Yeah. Yeah. Definitely.
And this is interesting to, you can compare, right?
If you know someone is really into soccer, always watches the World Cup, it would be interesting to ask them, like, how do the Olympics compare?
Do you still find them interesting or do you only want to watch the World Cup?
Yeah. That's still an interesting conversation.
Yes, for sure. Or you could ask someone, if you could choose an Olympic event to compete in, what would you choose?
Aubrey, what would it be for you?
Beach volleyball. Absolutely.
I am one, you know, good enough.
I am not at this Olympic level, but I wish I were, I would love to compete in Beach volleyball at the Olympics.
Yeah, for sure. I guess for me, it would be tennis, because that is my sport, it makes sense.
To take your sport to the highest possible level.
I love it. I love it. But at least for Beach volleyball, also, I would be inhibited by the uniform they have to wear.
They wear these like tiny bikinis and I would not play Beach volleyball in that.
They're used to it, right?
It would be difficult for me.
And also sunburn, sunburn.
All right. What would be a third category of what we could bring up?
Yeah. Third is interesting to say, like, what do you think are the benefits of the Olympics to get into a conversation about like the economic impact for a city?
How much it costs them to host?
And also global relations, right?
To ask, you know, do you think the Olympics help us create global harmony, global unity?
Yeah. Sociopolitical effects of the Olympics, power, there's a lot here that you could go into.
And in the next episode, we're going to get a little taste of some of the issues.
And there are more to them.
What we'll hear about. But this is the good stuff.
Like, this is where you really rubber meets the road, right?
Aubrey in terms of the conversation.
Interesting conversations, right?
All of these just asking if we watch the Olympics, what events, but also getting a little deeper about like the economic impacts, the global impact, how this affects or improves society or not.
That's an interesting conversation.
Oh, I like it. I like it. We're going to take a quick break and then come back and show you guys a role play.
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See you there. All right, Aubrey.
So here we are chatting.
We are at an opening ceremony watch party.
Do you watch the opening ceremonies yourself?
Yeah, I haven't every year, but I have been to a few of these watch parties for the opening ceremonies and it's a lot like a superbleau party, right?
Where it's more about the food, but you're also watching the opening ceremonies and I love that watching all of the different countries with their flag like I feel like it's such a great place to show national pride and I think it's fun.
It's a momentous occasion and you can't help but feel some national pride, right?
As you said earlier, at that opening ceremony and also when your country wins an event or medal with a national anthem and you see people on the podium, right?
It's pretty awesome. Yeah, for sure.
All right, let's have a conversation.
Let's do it. So do you always watch the Olympics, Aubrey?
Whenever I can, I definitely have a few favorite events.
Oh, yeah, which are your favorites?
Definitely beach volleyball and swimming.
What about you? I love swimming too, especially the relay.
Oh, yeah. If you could choose an Olympic event to compete in, what would you choose?
Definitely tennis. Aubrey, how do you know I was going to say that?
I predicted that for you.
I had a feeling so predictable.
Oh, man, I love it. All right, so good stuff.
So what did we say here? We said I started that out.
Yes. Or let's see, I started.
Oh, yeah, you just asked me, you know, do you always watch the Olympics because the other thing is you when someone is invited to an opening ceremony's watch party or if the Olympics are going on, we can't assume that everyone's a fan, that everyone's watching.
So it's a really great idea just to start with this.
Like, do you watch the Olympics or if you're at Olympic watch party, do you always watch the Olympics?
Yes. I think it's an effective, a really good connection skill asking people about their habits around big events.
Do you usually do this? Do you always go, like, do you always go to the game on Sunday nights?
That kind of thing, right?
Exactly. And then depending on how they respond, right?
I said, whenever I can, I definitely have a few favorite events and the conversation's going to go one way.
If I had said, no, this is my first time, I usually don't catch any of the events, then your follow up question would be different.
Right. Exactly. And you get a sense of who they are too, right?
Get a sense of how they spend their time.
You said at the end, if you could choose an Olympic event to compete in, what would you choose?
Right? Which event would you choose?
That's kind of fun. Love this conversation to this sort of this question rather.
This is to keep the conversation going.
Make it personal. If you were to compete, what would you do?
100%. These are fun questions.
I remember doing a lot of these hypothetical questions teaching English in the classroom.
If you won the lottery, what would you do?
But we actually love these conversations in real life.
Right. I think you said a lot about this practice like using the conditional tense.
But it also, yeah, they come up in conversations a ton because, like you said, it helps us actually find out what people are like, who they are, what they, you know, they're likes and dislikes.
It's just fun to know to find out.
And also to be able to articulate when someone asks you that, it's exciting because then you get to say, this is who I am in the world.
This is what I care about.
This is what I would do with $3 million.
Right? Exactly. That's kind of cool.
It's interesting. And the Olympics give you a chance, give you a springboard for these types of conversations where if you're already watching or if you're at a party watching, ask people about it, right?
Use this as a great conversation starter.
Yes. I think that's a takeaway today.
We are talking about the Olympics, but it's a platform for you to kind of learn more about other people, about their values, you know, about their lives and how they spend their time.
Right? Exactly. Absolutely.
I love it. So guys, take advantage of this.
Ask people if they're watching the Olympics, whether you are or not, it'll make for an interesting conversation.
Good stuff, Abra. All right, guys, hit that follow button because in the next Olympics update edition, all right, we are going to dive into the controversies, right?
We're going to show you what are a few of the controversies swirling around the world that you may want to go deeper into, right?
We're going to give you a survey of what's going on, right?
Yes. These make for really interesting conversations.
So we'll give you some details about them and help you know how to chat about these with your friends.
All right. Abra, I'll see you in the next one.
Talk soon. Bye. Thanks for listening to All Ear's English.
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