This is an All Ears English podcast episode 1731.
How to share your childhood memories in English.
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Childhood is a roller coaster.
When you can share funny or positive memories about your days as a kid, it can help you build immediate connection with a colleague or an acquaintance.
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Hey, Lindsay, how are you?
Good.
How are you, Michelle?
Is everything going?
I'm excellent.
I am excellent.
Yeah.
I wanted to talk about something really fun today.
It is how to share silly stories about your childhood.
Oh, I love this topic today, Michelle.
Why did you choose this topic today?
You know what?
It just came to me as something that's a common discussion topic.
I feel like people really connect over these silly stories.
I mean, Lindsay, you must love to, I don't know, do you like to share kind of silly or...
I don't know, maybe even embarrassing stories.
Oh, there's always an embarrassing story or two because when we're kids, we just don't know, right?
We don't know anything and we're just living life.
And, you know, when we share, even with a coworker, a colleague.
Right.
At work, we could share this story.
And that makes us human, guys.
That makes us connect.
And All Ears English is all about connection, not perfection.
So we are here to show you guys how to connect in English.
Right, Michelle?
Oh, absolutely.
I mean, Lindsay, why does this connect us to people?
Why does sharing these stories connect us?
I think adults just always have their armor up.
You know what I mean?
They always have their armor.
They have their self-protective devices, the things we say, the things we don't share.
But when it comes to sharing a silly story about when we were a kid, it's just very human.
It's human, Michelle.
That's why I like it.
What about you?
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, of course, it's, you know, it's entertaining for starters, because it kind of like takes away Yeah, like, like, if it is at work, it kind of takes away, you know, the upfront image of someone.
And, like you said, turns out, it's more human exactly, it's light-hearted.
It can also be good for icebreakers.
Yeah oh, that's a great one.
That's a good idea.
I wish i had thought of that for our team meeting that's coming up soon.
Oh yeah.
Well, we could still do that.
We could do that.
I love that idea.
See, guys, look how... Because there'll be laughter.
When you share that story, there will be laughter.
Your co-workers will see a different side of you.
And we know you guys really want to be able to show these other sides of yourselves in English, right?
Yeah, absolutely.
So we're going to give you some ways, you know or well, some either expressions or ideas for you to think of.
You know your funny story.
So the first thing is talking about something that you thought when you were a kid.
So like, you could start it out by saying, when I was a kid, I thought, so...
I will start.
Okay, you're gonna have to start because I'm gonna have a hard time thinking of something.
Go ahead, Michelle.
What did you think?
Maybe this will spark something for you.
So when I was a kid I thought actors or cartoons and movies did the whole performance every time I watched it.
So I would watch, you know, movies over and over.
I specifically remember Beauty and the Beast, Lion King.
And I remember I had maybe I've told you this once before I remember having this guilt because I felt like if I was watching it too many times, like weren't they tired.
Oh.
So when I was a kid, I thought that you know that's how it worked, that they were actually putting on a performance for me every single time.
That's so cute.
That's so cute.
Kids, you know, okay, so my example, I could share an example kind of similar.
Maybe we'll teach the next phrase, Michelle, and then I'll tie it back to yours.
Because your example reminds me of the thinking that kids have, which is that they're the center of the world, right?
Kids can't help but think that they are the center of the world.
I don't know when we start to realize we're not.
Some people don't ever realize.
That's true too, and that's another problem for another day.
Exactly exactly some people don't realize so right, right.
So you actually thought that okay, every cartoon they were doing it again and again, just for you.
That's adorable, that's so cute.
Thank you yeah, i remember that Very, very clearly.
So yeah, you'll have to share something.
So do you want me to teach the next one?
Yeah, let's teach the next phrase for our listeners.
Guys, write these phrases down because you need them in the moment.
Because these are things that we don't necessarily think about every day, but often that thought comes to us spontaneously, right?
Mm-hmm.
Absolutely.
Just before we get into the next one guys, we want to remind you that we have an excellent way that you can check your level right now.
We have a short quiz at allearsenglish.com. fluency score.
You take a short quiz and then you really, you get to know your level.
Where are you right now?
Which I know as a language learner.
That would be extremely helpful for me, because I've been in situations where I've been starting a class and I feel something's not right.
I feel like I'm kind of in the wrong level.
And it's hard to say that.
So this will give you that clarity.
And also you can get resources for your level.
I love it.
So good.
So good.
So guys, allersenglish.com slash fluency score.
Okay.
So what's the next phrase for our listeners, Michelle?
Okay, all right.
The next one is one of my child favorite childhood memories was okay so yeah, this is good, you wanna.
You wanna do one?
Yeah, I would say that one of my favorite childhood memories was going on road trips with my dad.
We used to drive down to Delaware to see his family.
And I think my dad really like instilled this sense of adventure in me for some reason, because I remember thinking oh, it's late at night.
We're in the car.
We're not at home.
We're on an adventure.
And I think for some reason that really shaped.
You know, we're listening to Credence Clearwater on the radio and our Volvo 1984, Volvo right.
Old car, old music, just jamming out with my dad.
It was fun.
That is so cute.
So how long is that drive?
That was a long drive, like an eight hour drive from New Hampshire.
Yeah, it was pretty long.
But yeah, I just have a memory of being on the road with him and just feeling like oh, life is an adventure.
I can I can invent I can have adventures.
And it's kind of interesting when you think about like what your specific parents taught you.
You know like my mom taught me empathy.
My dad kind of taught me adventure.
Hmm, that is cool.
I bet your dad is like super proud that.
I mean, first of all yeah, play him that you said this.
Sure i should play this for him.
He'll probably.
Yeah, i i'm sure, i'm sure he would love that.
Um, But I didn't know you had roots in Delaware family.
Well, family roots.
Yeah, yeah.
So my dad grew up in Wilmington.
And so his, you know, some of his family's in Maryland, actually.
And Delaware.
Yeah.
So we have a connection there, Michelle.
Yeah, because Delaware is always like what I drive through to get, you know.
For like 10 minutes, you drive through it.
It's a very small state, right?
Yes, it's very, very small.
Well, that's where, yeah, Joe Biden is known as the pride of Delaware.
It was from Wilmington too.
Yeah, exactly.
Exactly.
I think my dad probably grew up in a similar kind of blue collar environment as Joe Biden kind of.
So I think he kind of identifies with him a little bit.
Interesting.
Interesting.
Well, that's a great story.
Yeah.
Well, okay.
We've got one last thing and I hope you have something here, Michelle.
Here it is guys.
Write this one down.
The most embarrassing thing happened to me when I was younger.
Sorry, the most embarrassing thing that happened to me when I was younger was or you could even just start it out.
The most embarrassing thing happened to me when I was younger and go ahead with the story, right?
Yeah.
And those are two different constructions, guys, grammar wise.
So write the two down, but you can use both.
Did anything embarrassing happen to you when you were younger?
I do have a memory of wearing snap pants.
My pants were a snap, and I couldn't once figure out how to do them up again.
So you had a lot of like cloth at your feet then.
I mean, I like I had to like get the teacher to help me, I think.
And I remember, you know, because I had to go out and there were people there.
And I remember I have that that memory of, you know, not not knowing quite how to fasten my pants.
Yeah.
I think there's a lot of embarrassing things that happen to kids around clothing, you know, especially clothing choices.
For me.
Something embarrassing that happened to me when I was a kid is so.
My dad's an optometrist and he sells glasses in his shop.
So he would always get free swag.
And I thought this swag was so cool.
I thought it was so cool.
It was like black with hot colors.
These are this is the 90s, right?
When hot pink, hot green, hot orange, those colors were in.
So the brand was called something like March on or March on or something.
I wore these the swag every day.
Oh my gosh.
Like over and over and over.
I'd wear it like three days a week, right?
And until my peers started teasing me, they started calling me March on, like March on, March on.
Oh my gosh.
Wait, so how old were you?
Um, like I was in fourth grade.
So I was probably nine or 10.
And I thought I thought I was wearing cool clothes.
But then I started getting teased.
And then I was like, I'm not wearing this swag.
What a swag, by the way, for a listener.
Yeah, I was gonna ask you.
So swag is usually some sort of.
It's usually like some sort of promotional item actually.
I would say.
Yeah, exactly.
Like if you're at a conference or something.
You usually think of swag as being free, or at least I do.
Right?
Exactly.
Although it's not always, but just for an example, if you're at a conference and you're going around to different tables and they have, like their, their brand stuff someone's giving out sunglasses, someone's giving out t-shirts you know that's swag yeah, i mean.
I personally think we need some all airs english swag.
We we do have a couple of t-shirts, but we haven't we haven't had them available.
So guys, if you're interested in an all airs english t-shirt, let us know and we'll put those on our website.
That'd be cool.
But yeah, I was wearing this swag every day.
I was in my own world and thinking I looked so cool.
And then all of a sudden I started teasing me.
Actually, it was kind of sad.
Anyway, so that's okay.
I'm over it.
No problem, no problem um, that's funny.
That's funny, oh so uh okay, so we've shared a little bit and now we're gonna do a role play to show you how you know you might share these in a conversation.
Okay, let's do it.
Michelle, are you ready?
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Are you ready?
Yes.
Okay.
Oh, you're going to Ocean City?
Ah, one of my favorite childhood memories was going there and playing games on the boardwalk.
Oh, yes.
It's so nice there.
Oh, my gosh.
The most embarrassing thing that happened to me when I was younger was when I had to get off a ride there because I was scared.
Oh, no.
That's not too bad.
When I was a kid, I thought roller coasters took you into a new dimension and I'd get lost forever.
Oh, too funny.
Did that really happen to you?
They had to take you off the ride?
Were you having a panic attack or something?
No.
Well, you know what?
Probably.
I mean, that probably is.
I can't think of a specific time, but there was another time.
And I'll just say it wasn't when I was a child.
Was it last year, Michelle?
Yeah.
No, I didn't have to be taken off the ride, but I did have to walk through a line when I decided a ride was too scary for me.
And like there were all these little kids.
They were in line.
It was at Disney, I think Disney.
Which ride was it?
It was the mummy roller coaster or something.
I don't know.
I don't know which park, blah, blah, blah.
And I was on spring break.
With my friends and my and I, I, oh my gosh, I still remember it.
I was I was doing okay.
And then I got my.
The line was long and they got worked up and my friend looked at me and she saw me put my sunglasses on and she knew I was like starting to freak out and she was like that's it, we're leaving.
So we walked through the whole line and there I remember there were little kids being like what's wrong.
What's wrong?
Oh my God.
That's so funny.
And then, when we got to the bottom, we realized that there was a door right at the top that could have just like taken us right down.
So I wouldn't have to...
Oh, that's hilarious.
You got a little ahead of yourself there, right?
Thinking it would be okay.
And then not so much.
Not so good with the rides.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Okay.
That's so funny.
Well, it's okay then.
I know that I should not invite you to an amusement park, Michelle.
This is new information.
It's good to know.
I do like to, I like to be at an amusement park.
I like to play the games and stuff like I like to eat the food.
There's always good food.
Such bad food, but so good.
Ice cream and cotton candy.
Good stuff.
Okay Michelle, let's go through what we used today for our listeners so they can use it in their next conversation.
All right.
Yes.
So you said you're going to Ocean City which yeah, that is the place I used to go when I was growing up.
Cool.
And then you said, one of my favorite childhood memories was...
Yes, one of my favorite was going there and was something guys, you would just put the memory right there.
One of my favorite childhood memories was driving with my dad, right or going there.
Okay, the most and then the next thing you said, yeah, it's so nice there.
The most embarrassing thing that happened to me when I was younger was, it's a long construction.
Yes, I know.
But that's okay, right?
So write that down.
The most embarrassing thing was we had to get off a ride because I was scared, right?
And then you said, that's too bad.
When I was a kid, I thought roller coasters took you into a new dimension and I lost forever.
Awesome.
I love that.
So guys, these are long and they're a little bit grammatical, but that's okay.
Just write them down and then come back to them so that when you get the spontaneous memory, you will be able to have that conversation right.
Right, right, right.
Exactly.
Oh, my gosh.
Well, I mean, I think the takeaway for today is that this is a huge connection skill.
So one good exercise that you could do is think of some childhood stories, right?
Maybe complete, like the expressions, the phrases that we taught today.
Try and complete them for yourself.
Yeah, that's a good idea. for when you have these conversations.
These are things that you can almost practice a little bit to just have in your back pocket for when these topics ultimately come up.
I love that idea, Michelle.
Guys, you want to prepare for fluency, right?
Don't just expect it to be there when you get in that moment.
When you're in that conversation with your colleague, all of a sudden your colleague shares something.
You want to share something equally funny, right?
So write them out ahead of time, review them once in a while, and you'll be ready.
Right, Michelle?
Awesome.
All right.
Well, this has been fun and educational.
And I'm glad I got to learn a little bit about your childhood.
Good stuff, Michelle.
Thanks for sharing.
I'll talk to you in the next one.
All right.
All right.
Bye.
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