Welcome to the Listening Time podcast.
Hey everybody, this is Connor and you're listening to episode 129 of of the Listening Time podcast.
Thank you all for listening.
I hope you're all doing well.
I hope that your English learning is going great.
And at the time that this episode is released, it will be the week of Thanksgiving here in the US.
And so that's what I want to talk about today.
I'm going to talk about Thanksgiving.
I'll talk about this holiday, the origins of the holiday, some of the food that people like to eat here on Thanksgiving, and I'll talk about some of the things that I'm thankful for from this year, from 2023.
So hopefully you'll enjoy this episode, and a lot of people are curious about Thanksgiving because it's not something that you have all around the world.
It's more of a regional thing in the US, I think in Canada, I'm not sure where else.
But you don't have Thanksgiving all over the world, so a lot of people are curious about this topic if they've never celebrated Thanksgiving in the US before.
So we'll talk about that today.
And remember that if you feel ready to practice with real conversations in which I speak to a native speaker and we talk normally and naturally, then make sure to sign up for my US Conversations podcast.
I release one new episode every month.
And it's a long conversation between me and someone else from a different part of the US.
And of course, you have the transcript for each episode.
And you also have the definitions of key words and phrases that we use during the conversation.
So if you're interested in that, make sure to click on the link in the episode description below this episode.
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And if you want my training for your pronunciation and your listening, then make sure to join my membership so you can get my specialized training to help you pronounce English better and also listen and understand more effectively.
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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, let's talk about thanksgiving first.
Let me talk a little bit about the origins of thanksgiving, where it came from.
So it's generally believed that thanksgiving originated in the year 1621.
So what was happening at that time?
Well, there were English settlers, who we would call pilgrims, that came over on the Mayflower ship.
This was maybe the most famous ship that went back and forth between Europe and what is now the US right.
That went back and forth between Europe and America.
And so these pilgrims are the people who came starting in 1620, I believe.
And then all throughout the 1620s, they came taking this Mayflower ship and they established Plymouth Colony.
And that's in Massachusetts.
So this is one of the most famous colonies that the English settlers established in the U.S.
It was the second permanent colony in America.
So it was one of the most significant ones.
And so these pilgrims who established the Plymouth Colony, they were in contact with some of the native people.
So specifically for this Thanksgiving story, we're talking about the Wampanoag people.
So these are Native Americans who were here prior to the English settlers coming.
When we say prior to something, we're saying before something.
So prior to the Mayflower bringing the pilgrims over, these Wampanoag people were already there.
And of course, there was a lot of contact between the settlers and these natives.
And in 1621, there was an autumn harvest feast.
So autumn, referring to the season, of course, and the harvest, referring to the crops that you grow on your land and then you harvest them.
And then you can eat them and use them in different ways.
That's the harvest part.
And then a feast.
A feast just refers to a big meal that you have with multiple people.
So they had an autumn harvest feast with the pilgrims and the Wampanoag people.
And so that is what most people believe to be the first Thanksgiving meal was that meal, that feast that they shared.
I don't know if this is accurate and I think that no one can say 100 for sure if this is accurate, but I think that that's what is generally considered to be true.
So that's a little bit about the first Thanksgiving.
So now what is Thanksgiving about?
Because at that time it was an autumn feast and it was between two different groups of people, right?
And there was some significance to that that the natives were eating with the settlers and sharing this meal together.
Nowadays, that's not the thing that most people think about when they think about Thanksgiving.
Now, Thanksgiving is generally thought of to be a day where you get together with your family, you eat an amazing meal and you show gratitude for the things that you have.
When we say that you show gratitude, we're saying that you express the fact that you're thankful for things.
So that's more or less what people think about today when they think about Thanksgiving.
And I want to mention that Thanksgiving is not the most important holiday in the US, in my opinion.
So I get this question all the time, or I hear people say this all the time from other countries that I talk to.
They say, Thanksgiving seems like the most important holiday in the U.S.
They'll have this assumption.
And I would definitely disagree with this.
I would say that Christmas is by far the most important holiday in.
Thanksgiving might be number two for a lot of people, but it's not number one for most people.
So, for example, I went many years without celebrating Thanksgiving because I didn't live near my family and I didn't come back home for Thanksgiving.
And it was sad, but it wasn't a huge deal.
I wasn't completely depressed that I wasn't celebrating Thanksgiving.
However, when I was not home for Christmas, I had to celebrate Christmas with someone, with some people, because I can't imagine not celebrating Christmas one year.
However, I can imagine not celebrating Thanksgiving, because I didn't celebrate it for almost a decade.
So it's not as important as Christmas, in my opinion. but it's an important holiday.
Okay, now let me talk a little bit about some of the food that we eat on Thanksgiving.
So the meal that we have on this holiday is similar to the meal that we have on Christmas.
So the dishes are very similar and a lot of them are the same.
The biggest difference is that Thanksgiving is famous for turkey.
And this is kind of the protagonist of the meal for many families, right?
This is the main character, let's say.
For Christmas, some people eat turkey.
That's true.
However, I think that it's more common to eat ham on Christmas.
And this is one of my favorite things during the Christmas meal is eating ham.
So I associate ham with Christmas and turkey with Thanksgiving.
However, the side dishes are very similar and a lot of them are the same.
So I just refer to all of this as holiday food in the U.S.
And this is one of the best things about celebrating these holidays in the US, compared to maybe celebrating Christmas in other countries, because the US has a lot of food that is meant for these holidays.
So there is a lot of food that's specifically linked to these holidays.
And I know you have this in other countries as well.
However, in my experience talking to students from different countries and living in Mexico for many years, there usually isn't as much specific holiday food that you only eat during this season, during the Thanksgiving or Christmas season.
Whereas in the US There are a lot of dishes where, if you just say the name of the dish, immediately people think of Christmas or they think of Thanksgiving.
So that was one of my complaints when I celebrated Christmas in Mexico is I felt that there was some holiday food there, but not nearly as much as in the US, because a lot of the holiday food that we ate in Mexico is food that you might also eat during other parts of the year.
There are some things that are definitely associated with Christmas.
However, in my experience, not as much as the holiday food in the US.
So, for example, if you think of the Christmas ham, if you see the sight of that ham that's sliced in thin slices, you automatically think of Christmas.
Or if you see a turkey coming out of the oven, then you automatically Think of Thanksgiving.
And there are other dishes like this as well.
For example, stuffing.
So this is kind of a wet bread pudding, I guess you could call it that traditionally was stuffed inside the turkey to cook with the turkey.
However, you don't need to do that.
And I've read that it can actually be dangerous if you don't do it correctly.
But that's where the name comes from stuffing right.
It was stuffed in the meat of the turkey.
So if someone says the word stuffing, you immediately think of Thanksgiving, usually.
Another one is cranberry sauce.
There's this special sauce that it's really delicious and it kind of enhances the other dishes.
The word enhance refers to making something better.
And so when I say that the cranberry sauce enhances other dishes, I'm saying that you can eat the cranberry sauce with these other side dishes or with the turkey.
And it creates a really delicious combination.
I like eating turkey with. with this cranberry sauce so that's a really tasty combo in my opinion and then with the turkey there is white meat and dark meat so i prefer dark meat because it has more flavor but some people like white meat so the turkey has both it has white meat and dark meat and people will normally ask you do you want white or dark right in my opinion if you eat white meat then you should pair it with this cranberry sauce when i say that you pair something with something else this means that you put the two things together so i think that the white meat can be a little bit dry and without a lot of flavor So I like to pair it with the cranberry sauce, and this enhances the experience, the flavor of the turkey.
So cranberry sauce is another one that people will immediately associate with Thanksgiving, usually.
And another one could be sweet potato casserole.
This is one of my favorite dishes because it's not a dessert.
However, it's sweet.
So it's kind of an interesting side dish where you have these sweet potatoes, which are in general sweet right, and then you can also put things like brown sugar or marshmallows or things like that that can make it even sweeter.
If you don't know what a marshmallow is, this is that white soft food that you usually roast over a fire when you're camping.
This is a marshmallow.
So some people add marshmallows to this sweet potato casserole and it's really delicious.
I've never had a bad sweet potato casserole.
It's kind of hard to go wrong with this dish.
So that's another one where if you say that, people immediately think of Thanksgiving or Christmas.
And one other one that I like is green bean casserole.
So this is another casserole that you bake in the oven, and it's with green beans and other things.
Usually this is associated with holidays, with Thanksgiving and Christmas.
So that's another one.
And then there are other dishes that we can have at other times during the year, but they're also very related to these two holidays.
So for example, mashed potatoes and gravy.
You can eat that anytime throughout the year.
However, it's hard for me to imagine a Thanksgiving meal without mashed potatoes and without gravy.
So that's one that's not just particular to Thanksgiving.
However, I can't imagine Thanksgiving without it.
And there are other things like dinner rolls.
A roll in this context refers to a piece of bread.
It's usually really fluffy on the inside.
It's soft and delicious.
You add butter to it.
It's really good.
My mouth is watering just thinking about it.
By the way, when we say that your mouth is watering, we're saying that you are salivating.
Your mouth is producing saliva because you're imagining eating something.
We say your mouth is watering.
And one of the most popular desserts that we eat during Thanksgiving is pie.
Things like pumpkin pie, pecan pie, apple pie.
We have tons of different pies.
That's one of my favorite desserts that we eat during Thanksgiving, and there are many other dishes that are associated with Thanksgiving or with Christmas.
Those are just a handful of them and some of my favorites.
And now I wanna talk a little bit about what I'm thankful for this year, because on Thanksgiving it's good to express gratitude.
It's good to say what you're thankful for and to reflect on these blessings that you have in your life.
So there are many things that I thank God for this year that I just really appreciate.
One of the things that comes to mind is the end of my wife's immigration process.
So at the very end of last year, we finished the immigration process for my wife.
And this year is the year that we have established ourselves in the US, me being a citizen and she being a resident.
So we had been waiting for that process to end for so long.
We constantly thought about the immigration process and it was often stressful to have to wait and go through the next step in the process and then wait and then have to travel for an interview and do all of these different things.
And we hated that feeling of not being sure where we were gonna live in the future and just being in this process.
And so when she finally finished the process and we moved up here, this was a huge relief for us.
The word relief refers to that feeling that you get when you were feeling bad and then now that's gone away.
You feel relief.
So this year is our first year living in the US legally and we can start to establish ourselves here.
And I'm extremely thankful that we got through that process and that we're now living here.
This year has been a really great year being able to be up in the US, have my wife here, have my son here.
And that leads me to my next thing that I'm really thankful for this year is that I've been able to spend a lot of time with my parents and with my sister and her family.
So they all live in the U.S.
And so when I lived in Mexico all those years, It was hard for me to see them on a regular basis.
And so now this year has been the first time when all of us can get together and watch our kids grow up together and do all of that.
It's a big blessing for me.
I was really looking forward to being able to do this at some point.
And now this year we can do it.
So I'm very happy about that.
I'm very happy to be with my parents.
As I've mentioned before, my mom has very severe health issues, and so it's been really great to be with her here and to help out a little bit and that's been awesome and, of course, spending time with my dad and seeing my nephew and now my new niece, because my sister just gave birth to another kid.
So I get to be part of my nephew and my niece's life.
And that's really cool.
So I'm very thankful for that.
And I'm very thankful for my own family, for my wife, for my son.
It's been great to watch him grow up more this year.
It's been great to watch him develop and start to talk and do all of those cool things.
That's been a huge blessing.
It's been great to be able to do fun things with my wife and my son up here in the us, so i'm thankful for my own family.
I'm thankful for my church.
I have a church up here that i really like and the members are awesome, and that's a big part of my life and it's something that i'm very thankful for.
It's something that i can't go without.
When you go without something, we're saying that you don't have it.
You don't use or have something and just continue without that.
So I can't go without that.
I'm really thankful for my church as well.
I'm really thankful for my job.
So I've been able to reach a lot of people with this content and I've received many, many messages from people thanking me for helping them and providing this content that's been useful for their listening practice.
And, of course, my membership, which has helped a lot of people start to understand the sounds of English and understand native speakers better and pronounce things better.
So I'm very thankful that I've been able to develop this my career and be able to help a lot of people with this free content and also the paid content.
And it's really cool to have a job like that. where you're helping multiple people.
It's great to help one person, but it's even cooler, in my opinion, to help more than one person.
So I've been really thankful for that, that I still have this job, this activity that I can live on.
And that's been a big blessing.
And one other thing that I'm really thankful for this year is my audience, all of you.
As I already mentioned, I receive a lot of messages from you.
I can't respond to all of them unfortunately, because they come at me from different places angles, some from different social media platforms.
And I'm not the best person at viewing all my messages.
And you've probably seen that by now that I'm not the most connected person on social media or whatever.
However, i want to thank all of you, those of you that send me messages, and just all of you for listening, for helping me do what i do.
The fact that i have listeners from all over the world is really cool.
It motivates me to continue doing this.
And of course, for those of you that are members of my membership, I really appreciate your support.
And for those of you that have signed up for my new podcast, I really appreciate you as well.
So I'm thankful for all of you.
I'm thankful for my audience.
I wanted to say that here because it's important for me to express that, especially during this episode about Thanksgiving.
So thank you all again.
And I'm thankful for many more things as well.
But those were just a few that I wanted to mention.
All right.
Well, that's it for today.
I hope that this episode was interesting for you.
I hope that if you're in the US or Canada or wherever, and you're celebrating Thanksgiving this week, that you have a great Thanksgiving with your family or your friends.
And I hope that you can reflect on some of the things that you're thankful for as well.
And remember that if you need more help, if you need my specialized training to understand native speakers better or to pronounce more correctly, then make sure to join my membership and you'll get my specialized training.
And if you're ready for real conversations, if you want to practice with real English between native speakers, then make sure to sign up for my US Conversations podcast and You'll get a new conversation every month with the transcript and with the definitions of keywords.
So the link to that is down below.
That's patreon.com slash us conversations.
And if you like this podcast, I'd really appreciate it if you could share it with different people you know who are learning English, and please give it a five-star rating and write a review, if you can.
All right, thank you so much for listening to this episode and I'll talk to you on the next episode of Listening Time.
