Hello, welcome back to my slow English podcast.
Follow this channel and practice your English listening in a slow, comprehensible way.
Take your English to the next level.
Today, I'm making an interview for you to practice listening to questions and answers.
We're starting with some intermediate questions.
Try and follow along as far as you can go.
Today, I'm going to be interviewing and asking questions to my sister, Brianna.
So, first of all, where did you grow up?
I grew up in Norfolk, Nebraska in the United States.
And what was your childhood home like?
My childhood home was very American, you know, wooden houses.
It was a two bedroom house, one bathroom with a basement, because where we lived there were a lot of tornadoes.
Did the basement ever scare you?
As a kid, yes, it did scare me a lot.
When it came to going to bed or turning off the lights, I would always run back up the stairs so monsters wouldn't get me.
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And did you have a favorite toy or stuffed animal when you were younger?
When I was younger, I did have a favorite toy.
It was a stuffed toy cat.
It was a Persian cat.
She was white and fluffy and I loved her a lot.
And what was your favorite thing to do as a child?
My favorite thing to do as a child was probably swimming.
We enjoyed swimming a lot.
Wherever I lived, there was always a public pool nearby.
And yeah, we'd spend all day long when it was summer over there.
And who did you enjoy hanging out with the most when you were younger?
I don't know.
I enjoyed hanging out with my sister a lot.
We have a two-year age difference and we always got along really well.
It was always a great time.
And where do you think your favorite childhood memories have been?
My favorite childhood memories have probably been in my second house, which was a house in Iowa, one state over from Nebraska.
And that house was a little bigger.
It was a, I think, five bedroom, two bathroom house and I was really excited to move in.
So was the rest of my family.
We created a lot of memories with my cousins and with new friends.
And what was your favorite holiday to celebrate as a child?
My favorite holiday was probably Christmas.
Christmas was always a big deal from where I'm from.
It is a very Christian community, and there was always a big fuss about it.
Lots of gifts, lots of Dinners, lots of parties.
It was a great time.
And what has been your favorite present you've ever received on Christmas?
My favorite present was probably when I got a Ken doll and a baby Barbie doll.
So I could finally have a whole family for my Barbie dolls.
And why did you enjoy playing with Barbies?
I enjoyed playing with Barbies because I've always loved storytelling, I feel.
And with Barbies, you can be anything.
You can create anything.
So it was always fun that there were no limits to what I could do.
Do you remember any places that you dreaded visiting when you were younger?
I can't remember now.
Maybe a dentist or the doctor or maybe even school.
A place I dreaded as a kid.
So the million dollar question.
I know.
What was the place you dreaded visiting when you were younger?
I dreaded visiting.
It wasn't so much my grandparents' house, but in the back of my grandparents' house when I was a kid there is a chicken coop and they had a few roosters.
And the roosters were always really mean and would chase me around and pick at my legs.
So I didn't dread my grandma and grandpa's house, but I dreaded seeing the roosters.
Okay.
And what was your favorite thing about going to your grandpa's farm?
My favorite thing about going to the farm was probably, I have two favorite things.
I enjoyed seeing the animals around the farm, especially the pigs, the baby pigs.
And I also really enjoyed being inside my grandparents' house, because my grandma's house had a lot of toys.
And that was really fun.
And what was your favorite subject in school?
My favorite subject has probably always been math or science because they're my strong suit.
And it was something I could also always comprehend and find beauty in.
And what's some What was your least favorite subject in school?
My least favorite has probably always been social studies and history.
I do like social studies and history, but I kind of like to choose the topics that I want to learn about.
And I feel like there's a lot of unnecessary information in history classes.
Hot take.
Hot take.
Did you play any sports or...
Have any hobbies growing up?
Growing up, I had hobbies like swimming, volleyball, mostly sporty hobbies.
I did want to get into musical hobbies, but I only ever got to play piano for a few years.
And what type of musical hobbies would you have wanted to get into?
I probably would have wanted to try violin.
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Possibly drums.
I feel like my sense of rhythm is probably the weakest thing as far as my musical expertise goes.
So something in that area would have been nice.
And did you ever get into trouble at school?
Were you ever the troublemaker in school?
Not really.
I was a pretty good kid.
Maybe you were a little bit of a troublemaker.
A little bit more than you, I guess.
A little bit more.
But what's a moment that you can remember where you got in trouble at school?
Something memorable.
I can't remember specifically trying to get into trouble or being bad.
But I do remember one time when all the students were having a water balloon fight.
I don't know, I think somebody just brought water balloons to school and we were all fighting.
But for some reason I was singled out and told that I can't be doing that or I'd get written up and was threatened to talk to my parents about it.
But I mean, everybody was doing it, so I wouldn't say it was necessarily a troublemaker thing.
Yeah, I guess that's true.
You've never gotten into trouble.
I can't even think of a time.
I have a few examples that I could think of, but I don't think you have any.
What was your favorite meal or snack as a kid?
My favorite snack has probably always been and I get hated on a lot for it celery with peanut butter.
I think it's one of the best snacks.
It's fresh.
You can eat it in the summer, in the winter, like whenever.
And yeah, probably celery and peanut butter sticks.
Okay.
I thought you were going to say flaming hot Cheetos.
Oh, I guess that would be another one of my favorite snacks.
But now if I eat flaming hot Cheetos, my stomach really hurts.
Did you have any chores at home?
I didn't have many chores, but I had the basic ones doing dishes, taking out the trash every once in a while and just making sure the house was picked up.
How do you think childhood today is different from when you were younger?
Well, obviously a big difference is how technology-centered childhood is nowadays.
Most kids have iPads, phones, or at least are exposed to it.
And in my time, the most contact I ever had with technology was through the TV.
But even then, my access to TV was limited to one or two hours a day.
So I think there's not a lot of creativity and not a lot of outdoorsiness to the fun that kids enjoy have today.
It's a lot of being inside and on the phone.
And what was your favorite show when you had your tv time?
When i had my tv time, i would love to watch adventure time with finn and jake, and probably also the amazing world of gumball regular show and spongebob every once in a while, and Those were probably my top favorites.
SpongeBob's a gem.
And what advice would you give your younger self?
I would tell my younger self to not be so afraid.
That it's okay to show who you are and that people are going to love you for it.
Nice.
Now, what do you think has been your favorite age?
My favorite age.
I probably didn't have a favorite age, but rather favorite moment, which was when I was about 12 years old and we had to move to Mexico with my entire family.
It's my favorite moment because I feel like it was a pivotal moment in both of our lives and it changed us and our family for the better.
Good age, good answer.
So can you explain what pivotal means?
Pivotal comes from pivot, which is a sharp turn.
So it turned.
Big change.
Yes, it was a big change.
A pivotal change.
Pivotal.
All right.
Now, if you could go back to one specific moment in your childhood, what would it be?
What moment would you choose?
It could be like Christmas or I don't know a time when you went ice skating, or I remember for one Christmas I came down a little too early.
It was about 6 in the morning, and I came down and saw the tree and saw that there were no gifts.
And I was very sad and I went back upstairs and I fell asleep for a couple more hours and when I came down I saw there were presents under the tree.
And that's when I started to suspect what we all know.
So i would have sent myself back to sleep probably, so you would go back to that moment.
To send yourself back to sleep yes, to keep the magic going.
I meant like return to the feeling of the moment.
Oh well, i thought you were like you would want to go back in time.
I thought that's what it meant.
Oh well, now i gotta think about that one i would probably try and go back to.
I believe it was my eighth birthday.
I don't remember a lot, but whenever I see a photo of it it just really brings up a warm, fuzzy feeling.
My grandma had cooked me a lemon cake for my birthday and they were visiting in our house and I think I invited two of the neighbors that we had around.
And I was with my sister and it was a really nice time.
It was a simple but fun birthday.
Nice.
Well, thank you, Brianna, for joining me on my slow English podcast.
And this was the interview about childhood memories with my sister, Brianna.
This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance.
Do you ever find yourself playing the budgeting game?
Shifting a little money here, a little there, and hoping it all works out?
Well, with the Name Your Price tool from Progressive, you can be a better budgeter and potentially lower your insurance bill too.
You tell Progressive what you want to pay for car insurance and they'll help you find options within your budget.
Try it today at Progressive.com.
Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates.
Price and coverage match limited by state law.
Not available in all states.
Say thank you, Branna.
Thank you, Branna.
All right.
Thank you for watching.
Bye.
Thank you.
Bye.
And tell me, where in this video do my questions start to get difficult or hard?
Thank you for watching.
Bye.
Bye.