Vanessa:
Are you ready to think and speak in English today? Let's do it.
If you've ever watched an English movie or TV show, I'm sure you've heard people ask, "Hey hun,
how was your day?" But have you ever asked this question to yourself? If not, that changes today.
Over the next 30 minutes, you are going to be immersing yourself in English and learning
how to describe your daily routine and your vacations in English, so that you can
think in English and speak in English. And like always, I have created a free
PDF worksheet for you with all of today's important vocabulary, expressions,
ideas, definitions, sample sentences. And at the bottom of the worksheet you
can answer Vanessa's challenge question so that you never forget what you've learned.
You can click on the link in the description to download that free PDF worksheet today.
All right, let's get started by talking about your daily routine and a phrase that you can
use to talk about the beginning of your day. If I'm lucky, first thing in the morning,
I'll hear my alarm, maybe push snooze and get up slowly, but if I'm not lucky, I'll
hear one of my children screaming, "Mommy!" And I have to get out of bed.
First thing. I used this expression, first thing two times. The first time was at
the beginning of a phrase, first thing in the morning. Make sure that you don't add, first of
things, or first of... It's only first thing. First thing in the morning, I hear my alarm.
Or we could use it at the end of a phrase like you just heard me say. I might say, "I wake up
and make coffee, first thing." I make coffee, first thing. Actually for me, I don't make
coffee. I don't even know if I know how to make coffee. I always make tea. I'm quite an
amateur, maybe say newbie, or maybe clueless, when it comes to coffee. My husband Dan
likes coffee, but I could say, "I wake up and make tea, first thing," beautiful phrase.
Let's go to the next part of my morning. After I'm awake, I head to the kitchen and start
to make some breakfast. Sometimes my kids and I read a book or play a little game at
breakfast, because not everyone in our house is a morning person. Sometimes at least one
of us will wake up on the wrong side of the bed. So having a little bit of fun lightens the
mood and helps you to start your day off right. Do you know what a morning person is? A
morning person is someone who wakes up happy, ready to start the day. Are you a morning person?
Or maybe you wake up on the wrong side of the bed? This is a little bit metaphorical. There's
not really a good side of the bed and a bad side of the bed, but it means that you
wake up grumpy, maybe a little cranky, maybe not so happy. You could say, "Oh, I
woke up on the wrong side of the bed today, I need some coffee," or tea, if you're me.
Then, after breakfast, I drop my son Theo off at preschool. This phrasal verb, to
drop off, can be used for people or for things. So you heard me use it for people. I
drop my son Theo off at school, or we could put it together, I drop off my son at preschool.
But we could also drop something off. I dropped my computer off at the repair shop. Make sure
that you don't forget the word, off, because if you just say, "I dropped my computer at the repair
shop," it means your computer fell on the ground, broke... Luckily, you're at the repair shop, but
it means something really different than to drop off. So make sure that you say, "I dropped
off my computer at the repair shop," or, "I dropped my computer off at the repair shop."
Then I come home to start my workday. Usually I catch up on some emails. I go over any lessons
that I'm going to have for my students, and sometimes I just call a friend to catch up.
This phrasal verb, to catch up, or, to catch up on, is often used in daily life.
And you can probably use it in your life too. Let's take a look at some situations. Let's
imagine you've had a super busy week and it's the weekend, and you look around and
your house is a disaster. Right now, my couch is covered in blankets. This table
has papers and everything, all over it. Oh boy, I need to catch up on chores. I need
to catch up on some cleaning that I didn't do during the week. Can you guess what this means?
There's something that you've delayed doing, maybe you don't want to or you don't
have time, and now it's time to do it. So I could say, "I need to
catch up on some emails," or, "I need to catch up on some cleaning."
But I also use this to talk about my friend, "I call my friend to catch up." Well, it kind
of has the same idea. I haven't talked to my friend for a while, and now we're talking about
everything that's happened since we last talked. So if you see someone, maybe you're in the grocery
store and you run across someone who you haven't seen for a while, you might say, "Hey, you
want to go get some coffee and catch up?" That means I haven't seen you for
a while, I want to hear everything that's been happening. Let's catch up.
I also said in my little story that I go over some lessons and this is a simply a really
common way to say, review. You can use this in the workplace a lot. You might ask someone to
help you out. You could say, "Hey, could you go over this email before I send it?" Maybe you're
writing a really important email and you want to make sure you have everything right. You could
ask a coworker, "Hey, when you have a second, could you go over this email before I send it?
I would really appreciate it." That's so polite. And also, if the other person is a kind
person, they might feel kind of good about themselves, like, oh, you think my opinion and
my ideas are important and worthwhile? "Sure, I'll go over that email for you. I
will give it my stamp of approval." When I finish my work, I pick up my son
from preschool and we head home. This verb, to head somewhere, is used all the time.
Let me give you a couple of situations. You might say like I just did, "I'm heading home."
That means you're going in the direction of home. You're not there yet. You're not stopped, but
that's where you're going. I'm heading home. Or if someone calls you and says, "What are
you doing?" You could say, "I'm headed to the store." I'm headed to the store... In American
English, the store usually means the grocery store or the supermarket. You're going to
go buy some food... I'm headed to the store. Or if you are ready to go and everyone
else is just taking their good old time, you could say, "All right, it's time to head out."
This phrase, to head out, means out of the house, "Come on, it's time to head out. Let's go."
A great way to use, to head, to head out. When we get home, sometimes my son and I have a
little tea party together and chat about his day. Usually as we're eating and drinking, he kind of
opens up about his day. And if he doesn't open up while we're eating, sometimes I ask some specific
questions like, "How many holes did you dig today?" "Did you jump in the leaf pile?" He goes
to an outdoor nature school. So they play outside all day, all weather, any season... They're
pretty tough. They have lots of good warm clothes. But asking these types of specific questions
can help him to review his day in an easier way. You might hear people in movies and TV shows
using the phrase, "Tell me about your day?" Or, "What did you do today?" Or, "What did
you learn in school today?"... even worse. These types of broad questions, usually we
don't really like to answer, especially at the end of the day, you feel like you just want
to detox, decompress. And it's tough to summarize your day in just a few words like that.
So maybe when you were a kid, if your mom asked you, "What did you learn in school
today?" You probably said, "Oh, nothing," because it's just too hard to summarize your day.
So if you have a significant other, if you have kids, if you're just asking someone about their
day, I recommend, first of all, doing something together, spending some quality time together.
You don't have to have a tea party, although I highly recommend it... Very fun. All you need is
some tea, maybe a little snack, cut up an apple, have some nuts or dried fruit, whatever you like.
And just spending quality time together can help someone to open up. This is a phrase we're going
to use in just a minute. I want to tell you about it, but I recommend if someone doesn't open up
ask him specific questions. This helps someone to recall the information that happened to
them during the day. Especially with kids, this is helpful because they're just
living their life. They're not thinking about summarizing at the end of the day.
So when you ask a specific question, "Oh, what game did you play at recess today?" "Oh,
did you eat anyone else's food at lunch today?" These specific questions can help your child
to open up. And this phrasal verb, to open up, is beautiful. I love this concept.
When you're talking with someone, usually at the beginning there's kind
of a wall. You don't immediately share your deepest thoughts. If someone says,
"Hey Vanessa, how are you doing today?" No matter how I'm really feeling, I'll always
say, "Oh, pretty good. What about you?" Because I'm not ready to open up. In those types
of passing situations, we're just not comfortable sharing our inner thoughts.
So when you spend quality time together, that wall kind of drifts away a little more and
someone might be more willing to be vulnerable, and that's the idea. When you open up, that
means that you are willing to talk about your struggles, something difficult in your life,
something really meaningful in your life, not just the surface, shallow things.
But when you really open up to someone, you're being your authentic self. So
just remember these Vanessa tips the next time that you want someone to open up to you.
All right, let's go to the next part of my day. When the weather's nice, usually our neighbors
come over and hang out. Sometimes we have snacks, sometimes we play games, sometimes we just
chat. But because my backyard is very sunny, it's a favorite hangout spot.
And this word, to hang out, can be used in two different ways. It can be
used as a verb. We love to hang out in the backyard... This means to casually spend time,
usually with other people. We hang out together. Or it can be used as a noun. This is a
hangout, or as an adjective. So I guess we can use this in three ways... A hangout spot.
So it's describing this location. What kind of location is it? It's a hangout spot. It's not
a professional place. It's not a private place, instead it's a hangout spot. It's where we
just go to spend time with other people. After hanging out with friends, as the sun starts
to go down, usually we come inside and start to cook dinner. While we're eating dinner, we try to
sit down at the table as a family. It's nice to try to have a little bit of quality time together.
So we like to ask each other some questions. The most common questions... In fact, my
four-year-old son Theo loves to ask these to us. He asks us one by one, "What
was the best part of your day?" And when everyone has answered, he asks, "What
was the most challenging part of your day?" And it's so funny the things that kids
will say to these questions. So if you haven't done this in your home, if your kids
aren't familiar with English, it's okay, you can ask in your native language. But
asking these questions helps to kind of prompt conversation a bit. And when you're opening
up about the best thing or the most challenging thing about your day, it kind of encourages
the other people at the table to open up too. Oh, what a great phrasal verb
that we just learned about. There are two phrases I want to share with
you that I just mentioned. One of them is, as a family. Now this just means the group,
the whole group, the family group. But we can use the same structure in other ways. We
could say as a family, as a neighborhood, as a community, as a department, as an office.
So it's talking about all the people that are in that group. So for example, you could say
it's important to spend some time together as a couple without your kids. So if you have kids,
spending time without them is very important. So you could say, as a couple, just you and
your significant other, it's important to be together without your kids occasionally.
Another expression that I used is quality time. I already mentioned this when I was
talking about the tea party... I think I might've mentioned it. If not, having a tea
party is good quality time too, but it means that you are not just having a shallow experience
together. It's not rushed. You don't have to go anywhere. You're just enjoying each other's
presence. So I really encourage you to try to spend some quality time with someone this week.
It means that you don't need to go anywhere. You don't have any kind of schedule. You have a
full hour just to take a walk with a friend, or to chat on the phone, or to play a game with
your kids. Something that's quality time. There's no agenda. You're just enjoying being together.
After dinner, we clean up. We put the kids to bed, we tuck them in and tell them, "Sleep tight."
So one of these expressions that I used, you have to be very careful about, I said,
"We put the kids to bed." This means that we help them sleep. So maybe we brush their
teeth, we read some books, we sing some songs, and we help them to relax. When you say, "We
put the kids to bed," that's what it means, but you have to be very careful because
if you change the word, bed, for sleep, if you put someone to sleep, it's very different.
Usually this is a pet. So if we said I had to put my dog to sleep last week, it means you had
to euthanize, which is a nice way to say, kill your dog. Maybe that means he was really
old, he was suffering. It's a really tough thing to do, but it's often necessary.
So make sure that you do not say, "I had to put my kids to sleep." Instead, "I
had to put my kids to bed." Oh, much better. Of course, if you say, your kids, people are
probably going to understand that you mean you helped them sleep, but just to make certain that
you're using the best expression, you can say, "I put my kids to bed every night at seven
o'clock." I put my kids to bed... Beautiful. The final thing that I say to my kids before
they go to bed is, "Sleep tight." What? Tight? This is a fun expression that's actually shortened
from another full expression. It is, "Goodnight, sleep tight. Don't let the bed bugs bite."
Of course, we hope you don't have bugs in your bed. This is a very old expression.
Sometimes we say that full expression, "Goodnight, sleep tight." Sometimes we say,
"Goodnight, sleep tight. Don't let the bed bugs bite." But oftentimes we just shorten that to,
"Goodnight, sleep tight," or just, "Sleep tight." And it just means, I hope you sleep well.
So if you hear people say this in English movies or TV shows, or if you want to
say this yourself, it's great. A very natural thing to say at the end of the night.
After the kids are in bed, Dan, my husband, and I have some precious downtime. Sometimes we
get caught up on chores, maybe get caught up on a book that we're reading, sometimes just
chat about our day and decompress. This is a great expression, downtime, it means you have
nothing else to do except decompress and relax. It's essential to have downtime, especially before
you go to bed. If you are looking at Instagram, while you're in your bed, oh no, no, no. Stop that
right away. It's very bad for your sleep. You need to have some downtime. Give yourself a one-hour
pause before you go to bed to try to slow your mind down. Having some downtime with someone you
love or just by yourself, relaxing is essential. When the day's over, it's finally time to hit
the hay. If I've had a really busy day, I might just sleep like a log. But if I'm feeling a bit
stressed or there's a lot going on in my mind, I might toss and turn a bit before finally falling
asleep. And fingers crossed that my children sleep all night so I don't have to wake up in the middle
of the night to help them. And that's my day. Let's talk about some of those expressions I just
used. To hit the hay, does not mean that I'm a farmer and I have a last-minute chore at the end
of the day, I need to hit the hay. No, instead it just means sleep. I need to hit the hay. My head
needs to go on the pillow, I need to hit the hay. And I also said that I might sleep like a log.
Does a log move? Does a log make any sounds? Nope. It's just a tree that fell over and there
it is. Nice and silent and still. It means you slept very soundly, very quietly, and peacefully.
But to toss and turn on the other hand, to toss and turn means that you did not sleep
peacefully, or at least you didn't go to bed peacefully. Your body and your mind
is too active, you tossed and turned. And what about the last one I used? Fingers
crossed. This is just a fun way to say, I hope that my kids sleep all night. Fingers
crossed that my kids sleep all night, and me too. Thank you for joining me for my daily
routine. I'm curious if your daily routine is similar to mine. Let's move on and
advance your English skills to help you think and speak in English by talking about another
important part of your life, which is vacation. I hope that you had a special vacation this past
summer, and I'd like to help you speak about it in English. So I want you to hear about my vacation
and learn some important words that you can use to help you think and speak in English.
Let's watch. My family went on a four-hour road trip
to West Virginia to meet up with Dan's side of the family. Unfortunately, Dan's
brother got bronchitis so he couldn't come. A road trip is when you drive a long
distance and usually the journey is also important. These are common trips in
the US, maybe because the US is so big. Let's take a look at another sample sentence. Some
of my favorite memories from childhood vacations are taking road trips across the country.
You also heard me use the phrase, to meet up with. This is used when you are getting together with
someone who you already know. Let's take a look at this sentence, "We made plans to meet up with
our friends while we were traveling in Spain." All right, let's continue with my summer vacation
story. We rented a cabin in the woods that also had a hot tub or jacuzzi that my kids loved.
The word, rent, is commonly used for vacations. You might rent an Airbnb, you might rent a car,
or maybe you could say we rented an RV so that we could take a road trip around the US.
All right, let's continue. We went hiking and rock-climbing. We made a bonfire and we ate
amazing food, including a five-course wine-tasting that Dan's parents put on. That was amazing.
On our vacation, we did three common activities that we do outdoors on vacation. We went hiking,
we went rock-climbing, and we had a bonfire. I'm curious if having a bonfire is common in your
country. I know sometimes this is really common, but sometimes it's almost unbelievable, especially
if you live in a big city. But personally, I love having a bonfire, especially
because I like to eat marshmallows. All right, let's continue with my story. Because
it was the summertime and we were in the woods, we made sure that everyone wore bug spray
and sunblock because nothing can ruin a vacation faster than lots of bug bites and
getting a sunburn. I don't know if this is true in your country, but where I live, there
are a lot of mosquitoes. So we have to wear bug spray often. And what happens if you
don't wear bug spray? You get a bug bite. We also have to wear sunblock. Sometimes
people call this sunscreen. What happens if you don't wear sunscreen? Well, you get a
sunburn. Not good. Let's go on with my story. Well, we were having so much fun in West Virginia
that we decided to extend our vacation and drive four hours further north to Dan's sister's house
for five more days. And thankfully our generous neighbor said that she could watch our cats, our
chickens, and our house for a little bit longer. Let's take a look at this word, to watch.
Yes, we can use, to watch, for I watch TV, but it's also often used for taking care of
something. I watched two kids over the summer. Okay, that means you were a babysitter or a nanny
over the summer. You took care of those two kids. So we could also say, "Could you watch my
house while I'm gone next week?" That means could you take care of my house while I'm
gone next week? All right, let's continue. In Pittsburgh, we hung out a lot
together. We went to the zoo, and you know what? I got stuck in the elevator at
the zoo for 20 minutes. It was a little bit scary. This is a lovely phrasal verb that you can use at
any time in your life. To hang out with someone is simply to spend casual time together... "Hey,
you want to hang out?" "Oh, it was great hanging out last week." Great phrasal verb to use.
What about this one? To get stuck. This could be used physically. I got stuck in
the elevator. He got stuck in traffic. But we can also use this mentally. If you are
speaking in English and you just can't remember the words that you're trying to say, you might
say, "Oh, I just got stuck and I can't remember the next word." You're not physically stuck,
but your brain will not go to the correct word. So I hope this lesson will help you to
find more words in your vocabulary so you can speak exactly the way that you would like.
All right, let's continue my story. During our trip, my sister-in-law found out the gender of
her third baby. It was quite a surprise and it was so fun to celebrate with her. This is another
phrasal verb... To find out something means that you are learning a new piece of information.
Let's take a look at the sample sentence... "I found out about the surprise party because
I heard them talking on the phone." Oops. All right, let's continue with my story.
During the week, we rented a private karaoke room for Dan's sister's birthday and
there were about 20 people there. Dan and his friend sang an improvised Happy Birthday song
and it was hilarious and quite a crowd-pleaser. This word, a crowd-pleaser means that
everyone loves it. You might say this, "I went to the circus and I saw a woman shoot
flaming arrows from her bow with her feet. It was a crowd-pleaser. It was incredible."
All right, let's keep going. Then we went to our friend's wedding, which was actually at
her mom's house and it was perfect. This was my kids' first wedding, and I think it was the best
wedding they could have gone to. The ceremony was blessedly short. They had homemade pizza made
for each person, and they had a blast dancing. This is a lovely expression, to have a blast, and
it just means that you're having so much fun. You might say, "We went to the beach last week and
you wouldn't believe it. We had a blast just staying in our beach house laughing and playing
games. We only went to the beach two days." I hope that you have a blast on your vacation.
All right, let's keep going. Something amazing happened at that wedding. Our friend, the
bride, hired a silhouette artist to cut a silhouette for each of the guests. It was an
amazing souvenir. I'll show it to you here. This is really something that I'll treasure forever.
Can you believe she hand-cut that by just looking at us in about 10 seconds? Incredible.
This word, a silhouette, is a fun one. It usually means the outline of something. So you
might say, "Before I got glasses I could only see the silhouette of the trees, and then when I
got glasses I could see the leaves... Amazing." Have you ever been traveling and gotten
a souvenir? For my son, you know what he loves to get as a souvenir? A rock. Wherever
we go, it might be a rock from a parking lot, it might be a rock from a creek,
his favorite souvenirs are rocks. All right, let's keep going. In both West
Virginia and Pittsburgh, we had so much fun bonding and just spending quality time together.
Both of these words, to bond with someone, and to spend quality time with someone, mean that you
are deepening your relationship with someone else. Let's take a look at this sentence... "The
COVID-19 pandemic was a really hard time, but my family got to spend a lot of
quality time together and in the end we really bonded during that tough time."
All right, let's continue and go to the end of my vacation story. Finally, after our
eight-hour trip home, which ended up being something like 11 hours total, we made it home
and it was time to get back to the real world. This phrase, to get back to the real world,
is one we often use at the end of vacation. You've almost been living in a fantasy
world. Maybe you've been at the beach, maybe you went to another country,
and then when you get home, boom, the real world hits. So you might say, "Oh,
I'm not ready to get back to the real world." Or on the other hand, you might say, "You
know what? I'm kind of ready to get back to the real world. This vacation
was great, but it was long enough." Well, thank you for joining me for my
summer vacation. And congratulations on leveling up your English skills to
help you think and speak in English. Let me know in the comments, where did you go or
what did you do for your summer vacation? Let me know and I can't wait to read it and find out.
Don't forget to download the free PDF worksheet with all of today's important vocabulary,
expressions, definitions, sample sentences, over this useful 30-minute lesson.
You can click on the link in the description to download that free PDF worksheet today.
Well, thank you so much for learning English with me, and I'll see you again next Friday for
a new lesson here on my YouTube channel. Bye. But wait, do you want more? I recommend
watching this video next, where you'll learn advanced English in 30 minutes. Including
some important verbs that you probably know the simple meaning of, but you will learn how to use
them in an advanced way that English speakers use all the time in daily conversation. Watch
that video to find out and I'll see you there.
