James: What do you do for fun?

Hi. James from EngVid. Just looking at my work. I don’t know when I’m going to get any more downtime. I mean, I haven’t had spare time or time off in so long. I haven’t done any of my interests or hobbies and — you know what I mean, right? You don’t? Oh, that’s today’s lesson. We’re going to talk to you about conversation skills and how you can improve them while talking about your downtime, hobbies, and time off. You know? Oh, you don’t know? Let’s do it, then. Let’s go to the board. Well, let’s start off with what is a “hobby”.

Well, a “hobby” is something — and you can think of the word “habit”. I think most of you know “habit” is something you do regularly. Well, a “hobby” starts with a “h”, and it means “something you do regularly”. But in this case, it’s something that’s fun, you do it regularly, and you don’t get paid for it. That’s what we usually call your “hobby”. So you might even spend money and time to do it, but you get a lot of fun from it, and you do it regularly. Now, another word for “hobby” is “interest”. And the funny thing about “interest” is that I could say to you, “What are your hobbies?” Or I could say to you “What are your interests?” And it’s almost the same. And we use them — English speakers — almost interchangeably, which means we can just change them, and it doesn’t really matter. But there’s a slight difference. Remember “hobby” and “habit” go together — you do regularly? Well, “interest” means “I like it”. Like, I’m interested in the theatre, but I don’t go all the time, maybe once every two years. But my hobby is collecting comic books, which means I actually — every week — buy the comic books. Like, I have it, and I get enjoyment from both. So remember, you can use the words, but one is more specific, all right? So you could say — you know, you could say, “I’m interested in reading.” — I don’t have time to do it, but I like the idea of it. versus “My hobby is reading.”, which is — that’s what I do when I don’t have anything to do. All right?

So let’s go over here. What kind of hobbies or interests can a person have? Well, one of them is collecting. Now, what does “collecting” mean? It means “to bring together a group of things”, all right? But in this case, “collecting” is very specific. Personally, I collect comic books. And I dare you to go back and watch how many videos I’ve done wearing a Batman T-shirt, and you’ll know I’m a real collector, okay? I love Batman. But let’s just say I bought Batman No. 1. Now, if I’m a collector, I’ll also buy Batman No. 2 and Batman No. 3 and so on and so on. I’ll continue to buy. And I will keep them. I’m not going to sell them. I’m not trying to make money, and I’m going to enjoy them as a collector. I will go back after reading them and read them again. Just like when you collect — we say comics; you can collect books. You can also collect art and music. You guys know — you collect music. You collect Duran Duran — right? — that great group. “Girls on Film” — oh, I’m old. No, that new guy, Justin Timberlake, yeah? “Mirror” — yeah. I can’t sing that song. But you know what I mean. You can collect music. You can collect art — Van Gogh, Picasso — music, again — Beethoven, Bach, Brahms. Collect and enjoy, right? For yourself or your friends.

What else can you do? Well, you can also play. And in this case, we’re talking about playing sports. I enjoy playing sports. I enjoy playing golf. No, I don’t. But sports. You can enjoy playing cards or games. So sports: “I enjoy playing soccer.” I’m saying “i-n-g”, “I enjoy playing soccer.” or “I enjoy playing volleyball at the beach.” Right? Cards: “I enjoy playing poker, solitaire” — “Nobody loves me” because “solitaire” means to be by yourself. Or I enjoy playing poker. Five-card stud, because I’m a stud, baby. Okay. Now — or games. Now, when I enjoy playing games, right, I can do “gaming”. It’s a little different. Games can be board games like chess or checkers or Monopoly, and “gaming” — which we changed to “I enjoy gaming”, so you would just say “gaming” instead of “playing”, right? “Gaming” — everybody knows it’s electronic, okay? Good.

Now, “travelling” — but I’ll explain because it seems obvious. “Travelling” means anything outside of your city. If you go to the library in your city, you’re not travelling, boys and girls. You’re just going to the library. But if you have a big country — like, I’m in Canada. We like travelling to other parts of Canada because it’s like going to Europe. But you can travel in North America. You can travel in Europe.