Welcome to a new episode of English Vocabulary Booster.
My name is Lara and I'm a SALSA certified English teacher.
Learning new vocabulary usually takes a long time, but we'll do it in a way that's easy, quick and efficient.
In every episode, we'll learn how to use five new English words or expressions, so that you too can start speaking like a native.
So let's get learning!
And welcome back, you guys.
This week's topic is family.
And remember, you can find the transcript of every episode at learn-lara.com.
So go check it out and then come back here.
All right.
Ready for the story?
Here we go.
I was raised in what some would call an unconventional family.
My mom was the breadwinner and my dad was a stay-at-home dad.
When I tell people, they think it's totally weird, but for me, it's normal.
In fact, when I turned 35, I decided I was ready to start a family.
I've now been married for three years, and we've just had our first child.
Now, my wife is a lawyer and absolutely loves her job.
So when little Oliver was born, it was easy for me to be like, you know what?
I'll just stay at home with the kid.
Sure, there are days when Lucy comes home to a burnt dinner or a mess in the living room or a hole in the roof.
That's a long story, but we kind of like it that way.
You guys, we're back and it's time to learn five expressions connected to family.
So let's begin with expression number one, raise.
The verb, to raise.
I was raised in what some would call an unconventional family.
So who do you raise?
A child or an adult?
Well, Even though sometimes an adult might need a little bit of raising, still normally you talk about raising when talking about a child.
You raise a kid, a child.
And who normally raises that child?
Well, that depends.
You know, normally it's the parents.
Sometimes it's just one of the parents.
And sometimes maybe it's the grandparents or an uncle, or maybe you know.
There's all sorts of stories, all sorts of families.
So it really depends.
But it's the person that takes care of you that raises you.
So by whom were you raised?
I was raised by my mom.
Actually, I lost my dad when I was very little, so my mom was a single mom for her whole life basically, or my whole life, I should say.
And so, yeah, my mom raised me.
I was raised by my mom.
Expression number two, unconventional family.
I was raised in what some would call an unconventional family.
So what makes a family unconventional?
So first of all, let's describe what a conventional family looks like, right?
And I think we would all agree.
Traditionally, the family is, you know, a mom, a dad who raised a child or more children.
Now, an unconventional family is basically anything that doesn't really fit the standard.
So it would be things like maybe having two moms or two dads, or where your parents are not in a monogamous relationship.
You know, there's all sorts of unconventional.
I don't even think I know all of the possibilities that are out there for a family to kind of like express themselves.
So I don't know.
Do you think you were raised in a conventional or unconventional family?
I think my family can be considered conventional.
I mean, it's true that I, you know, I didn't have a dad around when I grew up, but still, you know it's pretty standard to have the mom there for you.
You know, she had a regular job.
I don't know.
I think like I had a pretty standard childhood.
So yeah, I would consider my family a conventional family.
Expression number three, breadwinner.
My mom was the breadwinner.
So in this case that doesn't mean that your mom went to the casino and came home with a bunch of bread because she's the breadwinner.
So let's take a look at what this expression means.
Does the breadwinner of the family earn money?
Yes.
When you're talking about breadwinner, that means that that person earns the money.
And what is the money normally used for?
Well, the breadwinner in a family uses the money mostly to support the family.
All right.
So it's the person that maybe pays for groceries or, you know, for the bills.
How many breadwinners are normally in the house?
So this is tricky because I know that, you know, sometimes multiple people work.
But if you use the expression breadwinner, you kind of give the idea that there's only one person that's in charge of supporting the family.
So who is the breadwinner in your family now?
And what about when you were a child?
So right now, because I started this podcast and this takes up pretty much all of my time, I do some other work on the side, but it's not much.
So right now, the Brett winner in my family is my boyfriend.
That's just because of how things turned out.
I hope that's not going to be that way for long.
Hopefully, the podcast goes well, but Who knows?
All right.
And when I was a child, I mean, I've already told you.
So it was my mom, obviously.
I had an older sister, but when I was little, she was still in school.
She was still going to college.
So she really didn't make a lot of money.
So my mom was the breadwinner.
Expression number four, stay-at-home dad.
My dad was a stay-at-home dad.
If you are a stay-at-home dad or a stay-at-home mom, do you leave home to go to work?
Well, obviously it's the expression itself, you know, that tells you.
You stay at home.
So no, you don't leave your house.
It's not like you're a prisoner, okay?
It's not like, oh, I'm a stay-at-home dad and I have to sit on the couch all day.
You can still leave, but that means that you just don't go to the office, for example.
So what is the main job of a stay-at-home dad or a stay-at-home mom?
Well, your main job is to take care of the kids, to just be a parent basically, and maybe take care of the house.
And if you're a stay-at-home dad or a stay-at-home mom, can you have other jobs besides taking care of the kids?
Well, we said that you don't really go to work, so you don't really have like a place to work outside of the house.
But you can, for example, work from home.
And what about in your country?
Are there more stay-at-home moms or stay-at-home dads?
I think like up until a few years ago, at least in a few countries, like thinking of a stay-at-home dad, it was like what are you talking about?
But I think lately things have changed.
I would say still in the countries where I've lived so far, in the States, in Italy, in Spain, it's mostly stay-at-home moms.
But who knows?
Maybe things will change in the future.
All right.
Last expression.
Start a family.
I decided I was ready to start a family.
When do you start a family?
When you get married or when you have your first child?
The expression starting a family.
If I say I've started a family, it means that I have or I'm having my first child.
All right,
You can still talk about family even if you're married and that's it.
Or even, if you like – if you are in a partnership with someone and you want to consider yourself your –, your couple, as a family, that's perfectly fine.
You can do that.
But you don't really say I started a family because it's not connected with having children.
So what is a good age, in your opinion, to start a family?
So obviously your opinion may differ from mine.
I personally believe I don't know around 25 30 is a good age, depending on your level of maturity.
But yeah, I would say around 30.
So have you started your own family?
Or maybe you would like to start one.
And if so, when?
When are you planning on starting a family?
On having your first child?
I haven't started my family yet.
I don't really think I'm going to start one.
Um...
Again.
I may change my mind in the future, but right now I'm not really thinking about having kids, at least for the time being.
So yeah, I don't really know if I'm going to start a family.
And if I do, it's probably going to be in like maybe six to seven years, something like that.
And that is it for today.
And remember, if you want to access the transcript, as well as lots of other resources, visit enboocom.
That is E-N-B-O-O-O dot com.
Have a great day.
