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Hello and welcome to Real Easy English, the podcast where we have real conversations conversations in easy English to help you learn.
I'm Neil. And I'm Beth.
You can find a video of this podcast and find a worksheet to help you learn on our website, bbclearningenglish .com.
Hello, Beth. How are you?
I'm very well, thank you.
How are you, Neil? I'm very happy.
The sun is shining today.
It is. It's a beautiful day.
What are we talking about?
Today we're talking about our childhoods.
So, we'll talk about life, how it was, what our lives were like when we were children.
How interesting. Let's get started.
So, Neil, what do you remember most about your childhood?
Well, it was such a long time ago, but I can remember things, obviously, quite clearly.
I lived in a different country when I was a child.
Where did you live?
I lived in Canada until I was 10 years old.
So I can remember very hot, humid summers, but very long and very cold and snowy winters.
So you always made snowmen, I guess, and had snowball fights.
Yes, we always had a white Christmas, which is great.
And I don't think I've ever had a white Christmas in England, not in the south of England.
Well, I moved house or my family moved house when I was 10.
So I feel like a slightly similar thing where all of my childhood memories really are in this house and playing with my friends that lived in that village and went to my primary school when I lived in that house, having friends over for tea.
That's a lot of strong memories of my childhood.
And what kind of things did you do when you were a child?
What kind of hobbies and interests did you have?
Well, my friends and I used to always put on shows.
We would do gymnastics shows in the garden.
We'd say, Mum, Dad, come and watch my gymnastics show with my friend.
We used to do singing concerts.
We wrote our own songs.
Once my friend and I recorded onto a tape.
Do you remember tapes?
tapes. Of course I remember tapes.
We recorded our own song onto a tape and we sent it to a recording studio in the hope that they would sign us.
Is it a good song? It's great.
I think we need to hear it.
Maybe at the end of the show.
What about you? What sort of hobbies did you have when you were a child?
I just remember playing outside a lot with my friends and having adventures adventures and also doing lots and lots of sport so I always liked football and cricket and I played when I was in Canada I played ice hockey ah that's cool can you still ice skate I'm okay I'd say I'm better than most British people because you grow up in Canada skating yeah um but I'm not brilliant how do you think the world has changed since you were a child the world is really different from when i was a child because when i was growing up we didn't have the internet or mobile phones and i think they've made such a difference
to the way people communicate with each other and it drives me mad sometimes because my son would try to arrange to go out with his friends just to go to the park in a group chat and then nothing ever happens and i just say just go there yeah it's 100 meters down the road knock the door but i don't think that happens anymore no i think for me like something that's really changed is like i was saying about tapes like the idea of playing a tape or putting a cd in a cd player like brings back amazing memories i used to have a cd um that i would play and then i'd sing really loudly and And I would imagine
that then suddenly the band would be in the garden and they'd be there singing with me.
But I think those physical music devices, even like having a video or a DVD, like they bring back loads of memories for me.
Let's recap the language we heard in our conversation about childhood.
childhood', starting with childhood, which is the period of time when you are a child.
We had memory – a memory is something that you can remember from the past. We can say that something brings back memories, which just means that it reminds you of something that happened in the past. And when we talk about things in the past, we often use the past simple.
For example, I said that I played in the street with my friends.
And we also heard used to and would, which is used when we talk about things that happened a number of times in the past. So, for example, I used to play ice hockey.
It means I played ice hockey a lot and now I don't anymore.
And that's it for this episode of Real Easy English.
Why not test what you've learnt with the worksheets on our website, bbclearningenglish .com.
join us next time when we'll be talking about days out thanks for joining us and goodbye
