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Hey everybody, this is Connor and you're listening to episode 86 of the Listening Time Podcast.
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All right, well, in today's episode, we're going to talk about board games.
So this is a really fun topic for me because I'm a big fan of board games.
So I'm happy to talk about this with you today.
And remember that you have the transcript available for this episode.
That's in the episode description below the episode.
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All right, let's get started.
Are your ears ready?
You know what time it is.
It's listening time.
Okay, so let's talk about board games.
First of all, what are board games?
Well, these are games that you usually play on a table, on the surface of a table, and you play these games with other people.
There are some two-player board games.
There are some four-player board games, six-player.
Some board games you can play with a ton of people.
It just depends on the board game.
But it's usually a game that you play on a table with other people and it's very fun usually.
So let me talk a little bit about my experience with board games growing up.
So when I was a kid, my family loved board games.
This was an activity that we did pretty regularly.
It was pretty common for me to sit down with my sister and my parents on a weeknight or on the weekends whenever, and we would play a board game or multiple board games together.
This was a fun thing for the whole family.
It was a bonding experience, a way to connect with each other.
In English, when we say that you bond with someone else, this means that you connect with them.
So if I bonded with the guy that I met yesterday, I'm saying that I connected with him.
We were able to communicate well and I felt close to him.
We bonded.
So this was a bonding experience for my family.
This was a way for us to spend time together and it was just fun.
Plain and simple.
In English, when we say plain and simple, it's like saying simply.
It's really just saying that.
So it was fun, plain and simple.
I'm just saying that this was the simple reason why we liked it.
It was fun.
So we did this a lot when I was a kid.
We would play in the living room together and it was a fun experience and also a funny experience.
Be careful with these two words because many, many people confuse these two adjectives.
So something that is fun is something that is entertaining.
For example, if I watch a sports match, that is probably a fun experience.
It's entertaining.
It's something that I like to do.
When something is funny, it's something that makes you laugh.
It's comedic.
It's humorous.
So that's the difference between fun and funny.
But in this particular situation, I'm saying that this experience of playing board games with my family was both fun and funny.
So obviously we had a lot of fun together, but it was also a funny experience because we would make each other laugh because of mistakes that we would make or when someone was winning and then suddenly someone else knocked them down and someone else was winning.
There would be a lot of funny experiences as well while we were playing board games.
So there was a lot of laughing, a lot of smiling.
I have great memories playing board games as a kid.
So as you can see, board games are very family friendly most of the time.
In English we use the term family friendly to describe something that is good for the whole family, not just for the adults, but also for kids.
So if I say that a certain activity isn't family friendly, that's saying that that activity isn't suitable for everyone in the family.
Maybe it's not appropriate for kids, for example.
So board games are usually family friendly and they're a way for families or friends to spend time with each other and have fun with each other.
And in my opinion, it's better to spend time playing a board game with other people than to just watch TV, for example, or do some other activity that doesn't require a lot of interaction.
So of course, I watched TV with my family growing up.
That was a normal activity, but I enjoyed it even more when we were interacting with each other.
So board games were a way to do that.
And how about my experience as an adult with board games?
Well, I still love board games today, but unfortunately it's a little bit harder to find time to play games as an adult, because there are many other things that we have to be responsible for and take care of in our daily lives.
And so it's a little bit harder to find the time, And ever since I had my son, I don't think I've played any board games, to be honest, because it's a little hard to do that with a baby or a young child.
Especially if you have a toddler, it can be very hard to play board games.
In English, the word toddler refers to a young child who is no longer a baby.
So they're walking now and maybe even talking a little bit.
But it's the phase after being a baby.
This is a word that doesn't exist in many other languages.
But in English, we call these young children toddlers.
So it can be very hard to play board games when you have a toddler, because toddlers like to grab things and throw things and be destructive and do all kinds of things that would make it hard to play a board game.
So I think that it won't be easy for me to play board games anytime soon.
But as soon as my son is a little bit older, I definitely want to introduce him to board games and I want to get him in that world.
I want him to discover the fun of board games, the fun that I discovered when I was a kid.
So I'm definitely looking forward to that.
But before I had my son, I still played board games as an adult.
And there were times when I was an adult when I played board games a lot.
I played them very frequently, like every week almost.
There were time periods where we just really got into certain board games and wanted to play them all the time, and it was really fun for us.
And I remember that I even had an activity group with some people where they would come over and we would play board games together.
I had that for just a short period of time and then I stopped that after a while.
But for a little bit I had an activity group with other adults that I didn't really know and they would come over and we would play board games.
So you can see that I really like this activity.
I liked it as a kid and I like it as an adult.
One thing that I really like about board games that some people don't like is the competitive nature of board games.
So my family was always a very competitive family when it came to board games.
So we would really try to win and beat the other people and we would play hard.
So I loved this aspect of playing with my family because we really got into the game and it got pretty intense.
In English, when we say that you get into something...
This can mean that you get really interested or engaged in something.
So we really got into these board games and we got pretty intense sometimes, but that was part of the fun.
I know that many people don't like this though.
I've played board games with people that hate competition.
They don't like people getting competitive.
I've played with people that get very sensitive and they get their feelings hurt when someone else does something to them within the context of a board game.
So I know that a lot of people don't like this.
And to be honest, I don't like playing board games with people like that.
I like playing board games with people that are also competitive, that don't get too sensitive or take things personally, because I like the intensity of board games.
So if I realize that someone is doesn't like that competitive nature of board games, I usually don't continue playing board games with that person in the future because it's usually not a very fun experience, because that person might get their feelings hurt and I don't want that to happen.
I've definitely had experiences where people have gotten into fights while we were playing a board game and people got their feelings hurt.
They started arguing with each other and the board game just ended.
That has actually happened sometimes and it's never a fun experience.
And so that's why I said that I usually try to play board games with people who are also competitive, and because it's really fun.
It gets intense, but at the end of the day we remember that it's just a game.
It's okay if someone else attacks you in the context of that game, because in these board games there are no friends, right?
Everyone is against each other.
Unless it's a game where people play with each other on teams.
Obviously, then you can play with other people and not just against them.
But I really like the competitive nature of board games, as you can see.
So what are some different types of board games?
Well, there are strategy games.
There are games that rely heavily on the person's ability to develop a winning strategy.
So, for example, one of the most famous board games.
I don't know if it's still really famous today, but even just a few years ago, when I was still playing this game, it was still pretty popular.
That game is Catan.
This is a game that involves a lot of strategy.
If you start the game with the wrong strategy, You make it very hard for yourself to actually win.
And these games can be very fun because, yes, there's luck involved.
There's obviously a lot of luck, but you actually have to have strategy and skill if you want to consistently win this game.
And I like that because I like developing strategy and doing things better each time and trying new things.
I like that aspect of these types of games.
So those games can get pretty intense because they're strategy based and you play against other people.
Another game that I can think of that involves a lot of strategy is Risk.
I don't know if you've heard of this game.
This is a game where you try to conquer the whole world and you have to move your troops from one country to another and conquer other regions.
It's pretty cool.
In English, when we use the word troop, we're referring to soldiers in the military.
So when I say you move your troops, I'm saying you move the soldiers.
So that's another game that involves a lot of strategy, and if you start with the wrong game plan, it can be very hard for you to win.
And another type of board game that's pretty popular is trivia games.
So trivia refers to answering questions about pop culture or about different things about the world or different topics.
This is trivia.
So there are a lot of board games based on trivia and your knowledge and your ability to answer questions.
So I've played a few of these different games like Trivial Pursuit and Cruelty.
Cranium, and a few others.
I like these games too because I like testing my knowledge of things in the world.
I think this is pretty fun.
I think it's an interesting activity.
So I like those games.
I would say my favorite type of board game, however, is word games.
I really like games that involve words.
So there's one really famous one that a lot of you have probably heard of called Scrabble.
This is where you create words with different letters and you try to create words that get you the most points, and you have to be a good speller and you have to be able to recognize patterns and see potential words with the letters that you have.
I really like this because I'm a words guy.
I'm a language teacher.
I like language and words in general.
So this is very fun for me.
But my favorite word game is Codenames.
This is a game where you have to associate different words together and you have to create clues to help your teammates guess what words you're referring to.
It's kind of a difficult game to describe here in this episode, but just know that it's a game that requires a lot of thinking and a lot of creativity in relation to words and language.
So that's right up my alley.
That's something that I really enjoy.
In English, when we say that something is right up your alley, this means that it's something that that you really like.
It's good, particularly for you and your interests.
So that type of game is right up my alley, because I love being creative with words and language and things like that.
So that might be my favorite game, actually.
I don't know if I have just one favorite board game, but that might be it.
I really like the game Codenames.
And there are also some non-competitive games.
There are also some games where you kind of work together with everyone else and it's kind of for the purpose of humor.
Maybe it's something fun, funny like there's one game that i played a lot when i was younger called telestrations, where it involves drawing and the other people have to guess what image you're drawing.
And It's a hilarious game because if people don't have good drawing skills or if they're not very creative, this can be really funny to try to guess what it is that people are drawing.
So I also like games like that, because no one gets their feelings hurt and you can play this type of game with anyone, in any situation.
So those types of games are really fun as well.
So in summary, I really love this activity.
Board games are very fun for me.
I played them a lot as a kid.
I played them a lot as an adult, but not recently because it's a little hard for me now.
But I will definitely revive this activity and introduce my son to the world of board games.
And I really look forward to spending time with my family in that context again, playing games together and being competitive and laughing and having fun with the family and with friends in that context.
So I'm looking forward to that again in the future.
All right, why don't we stop there for today?
I hope this episode was interesting for you, and I hope it was good practice for your listening.
Remember that you can get my specialized training by signing up for my membership.
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All right, thank you for listening to this episode and I'll talk to you on the next episode of Listening Time.
