Welcome to the Listening Time podcast.
I'm Connor from polyglossa.com and you're listening to episode 16 of the Listening Time podcast.
If this is your first time here, I'm glad you found us.
Thank you.
Thank you.
I speak naturally.
I speak about different topics each time, but I don't read any type of script.
I just speak as the words come to my mind.
And so everything that you hear is natural, but I speak a little bit more slowly and a little bit more clearly than native speakers usually do.
Thank you so much for watching.
So with each episode, you also have the transcript available.
So if you look in the details part of the episode, you'll find the link to the transcript there.
So if you need help understanding me as I talk, you can read the transcript and understand every word that I say.
I usually recommend that listeners listen to each episode multiple times maybe the first time without the transcript And then the second time with the transcript, to understand all the words that you missed the first time.
And then maybe one more time without the transcript again.
This will be a great practice for your ears and it will help you improve your listening comprehension.
So on today's episode, we're going to talk about birthdays.
This is a fun topic, so it should be good.
And before we start, remember to sign up for our 1 listening practice seminars at polyglossacom if you need more help with your listening comprehension.
And, of course, give this podcast a like, a rating, a comment, and please share it with anyone who might find it useful.
And that will help them and it will help the podcast grow.
So let's get started.
Are your ears ready?
You know what time it is.
It's listening time.
Okay, so let's talk about birthdays.
First of all, let's talk about the importance, the significance of birthdays.
A birthday is an important event for most people.
Because it signifies you getting older, getting more mature, getting wiser and moving on to different stages of life.
The word wise that I just use means that you are smart, but it kind of means that you're smart because you're old, because you have experience.
So we often say that old people are wise because they have a lot of life experience and this makes them smart.
So birthdays can be very important milestones for people.
A milestone is an important event or an important time in a person's life that shows some kind of important transition.
So, for example, when someone turns 50 years old, That is an important milestone for many people, right?
It's a pretty significant event.
So one good thing to note about the language that we use regarding birthdays is is that we use the verb to turn in order to talk about how old you become with each birthday.
So, for example, I would say, I wouldn't say I have or I make or I do.
I would say I turn 28.
So let's talk about some of the differences between birthdays and people's perspective about birthdays in different places.
So I think birthdays are important all around the world, But in certain countries they might value birthdays more than in other countries.
For example, in the U.S., birthdays are an exciting time for most people.
But I wouldn't say that people view birthdays as fun, like the most important event in their year, right.
For me when I think of my year, this year 2021, I don't really consider my birthday a really important event this year.
However, I live in Mexico right now.
And in Mexico, people tend to view their birthday as an extremely significant event.
This was really strange for me when I first came here.
Because I'm used to just celebrating people's birthdays and then...
Getting on with life.
When we say get on with life, we mean that you continue and move on.
You don't keep talking or thinking about something.
However, in Mexico, or at least with my wife and her family...
They have the tradition of really valuing birthdays.
And it's not just a day for them.
It's a very important event.
And it makes them feel very special and very important.
And it's a little more highly valued than in the U.S., I would say.
So here, for example, people get really excited before their birthday.
They're really excited that they're going to get older or not really that they're getting older, but that they get to celebrate themselves and that people will celebrate them older on that day.
So people here love to have birthday parties and they love to receive presents and they love when people send them messages and call them and Tell them how important they are.
For me, personally, I don't like this at all.
I don't like people calling me and sending me messages on my birthday.
I simply don't like this attention.
But my wife and her family and probably most other people here in Mexico, they really appreciate this and they would be very hurt if they didn't receive a lot of birthday messages.
I think people also think like this all over the world, but I've just noticed a little bit of a difference between birthdays in Mexico and in the US and a little bit of a difference in the attitudes regarding birthdays.
So let's talk about some special milestones that exist in different cultures.
Remember that word milestone means an important time, an important transition in a person's life.
So these milestones are often connected to birthdays.
So for example, in the US, we have what we call the sweet 16.
This is when someone turns 16 years old, particularly girls.
They often have a big party and they view it as a more special age than other ages, and They view it as a more special event than when they turned 14 or 17, for example.
I would say that this isn't super popular in the U.S.
I think that most girls don't have some huge party when they turn 16 years old, but a significant percentage of girls do have some kind of big sweet 16 party.
I've never been to one of these so I can't really tell you what is commonly done or what kind of things or activities people usually have at their sweet 16 parties.
But I know it exists because I've heard people talk about it.
I've seen it on TV.
But, like I said, I think more than half of the people in the US don't really think too much about a big sweet 16 party when they reach that age.
In Mexico, there is a different tradition called 15 años, which just means 15 years.
When girls turn 15 in Mexico...
This is seen as an important milestone in their life.
They're becoming a young woman.
And so if they want, they can have a special party.
So they have a big event.
They usually rent some kind of venue.
The word venue is used to refer to a place where you have a party or a speech, a conference or some other kind of event.
Usually it's in an auditorium or it might be outside.
It could be anywhere where you rent a space for a big event.
So for a girl's 15th birthday in Mexico, they often rent a venue, some kind of auditorium, and they have a big party with, I don't know, maybe a hundred people or more.
And it's a very special day for the girl.
One thing that's funny about this is that I live close to the downtown of my city and oftentimes if I'm outside on a Friday or Saturday evening I see limousines go by with the girl who is turning 15 years old and she's in her dress and she has her friends there in the limousine and they're kind of celebrating and having fun before the event, before the party.
This is a common tradition for them.
They drive around in a limousine and kind of go to different parts of the city and yell and sing and do different things.
So I often see that here.
Another cultural milestone is in the Philippines when a girl turns 18 years old.
This is called her debut.
And it marks her transition into adulthood.
And so she also has a big party with many people and dancing and all those same kinds of things.
And then in Jewish culture they have a bar mitzvah or a bat mitzvah for boys and girls when they turn 13, or sometimes 12, depending on the family.
And so that marks their transition into young adulthood, maybe.
So these are all different types of milestones, different important birthdays that are celebrated in different cultures.
I never had anything like this, but I've been to many quinceanos parties and I've been to a bar mitzvah before and I've been to a debut.
So I've seen some of these events.
They're pretty cool.
But I'm not the party type guy.
So it's not maybe the best situation for me, but it's fun to see people all dressed up and celebrating and things like that.
So let's talk about the concept of age in different countries.
In certain countries, people aren't embarrassed to talk about their age.
For example, in Mexico, I don't think many people are shy or embarrassed to say how old they are.
If you ask them, they'll proudly tell you.
In the U.S., it's seen as a little bit rude to ask someone their age if they're an adult.
So it's not usually a question that you ask to someone that you don't know very well.
And in certain countries, if you ask someone their age, particularly a woman, she might not tell you.
I've had this happen to me before.
I remember I had a student from Taiwan, I believe.
And I asked her how old she was.
She said, I'm not going to tell you.
And I had never experienced that before.
It was new for me.
But I realized that in certain cultures and with certain people, it's kind of a private topic.
So they don't like to talk about how old they are.
And one other interesting thing about age in different countries is that in Korea, if I'm not mistaken, people usually count their age differently.
So when they're born, they're considered to be one year old.
So there, everyone seems to be one year older than everyone else in the world.
So that's kind of an interesting fact as well.
So how about gifts?
So people usually exchange gifts and presents on birthdays.
And gifts can be really important for some people.
And for other people, they might not like gifts.
I'm the type of person that isn't big into gift giving or receiving gifts.
When I say I'm not big into something, it means that I'm not super interested in something.
It's not super fun for me.
I think I like giving gifts, but I get a little bit stressed out when I have to go find and buy gifts for different people.
I'm not good at this, so it's a little stressful, but I like giving the gift to the person.
It's always nice to see their reaction.
But I don't really like receiving gifts.
Like I said before, I don't like having a lot of attention on me.
So birthdays are not the funnest event for me.
I don't like everyone paying attention to me and viewing me as special.
I don't really like that.
So I'm not big into receiving gifts and having that attention.
But I know many of you probably love gifts.
So I'm the weird one, I think.
The word weird just means strange, right?
Uncommon or not normal.
So I'm a little weird in that aspect.
And then talking a little about the types of parties that people have.
Of course, we talked about some big events in different cultures.
But for just normal birthdays.
People usually have parties at their house or they might just have a small family gathering event.
The word gathering is used to describe usually small event or maybe a bigger event where people get together.
It's not necessarily a big party that's planned and scheduled and has fancy things, but it just means that people get together and spend time together.
So people often have family gatherings on their birthday, or some people might have surprise parties.
This is an event where you don't tell the person that you're going to celebrate their birthday, right?
And you invite their friends and family members to the house or some other venue or restaurant.
And then the birthday boy or the birthday girl, they arrive and get surprised by all the guests.
So that's a type of party that many people like.
I've never had... a really big surprise party.
I think I had one or two mini surprise parties with just a few people.
And it's nice.
You feel good because you know that people care about you and they want to surprise you and make you feel loved.
So it's a nice event, I think.
Okay, so we'll stop there.
Hopefully this was an interesting topic for you.
And if you have a birthday coming up, happy birthday to you.
So remember to sign up for our 1 listening practice seminars at polyglossacom if you want to practice your listening skills more.
And, of course, give this podcast a like, a rating, a review, and please share it with anyone who might find it useful.
And remember, you can access the transcript for this episode at Just go to the details part of the episode and you'll see the link there and you can click on it and it will take you to the transcript.
So listen to this episode multiple times if you need to, and you can read and learn those new words that you might not have understood the first time.
So thank you for listening to this episode and I hope you'll come back for episode 17 of the Listening Time podcast.
Thank you.
