Full video

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Hello and welcome to Real Easy English. I'm Georgie.

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And I'm Neil. In this podcast,

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we have real conversations in easy English to help you improve your language skills.

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If you want to read along to the podcast,

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you can find a text version at BBC Learning English dot com.

0:28

Hi, Georgie. How are you doing?

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I'm doing OK, thanks, Neil. How are you?

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I'm fine.

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What are we talking about this week, Neil?

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Today, we're talking about hobbies.

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We’ll talk about the sports we play in our spare time.

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OK, great! Can you explain what you mean by spare time?

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Well, 'spare time' means 'the time when we're not working

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'and we don't have anything that we need to do'.

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Yes. And we can also use the phrase 'free time', which means the same thing.

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OK, so, Neil, do you play any sports in your free time?

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Well, I do exercise, so I go running.

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That's not really a sport.

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I help my son training when he plays cricket, so that's kind of playing sport.

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Very good.

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And how about you, Georgie. Do you play sports?

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I also don’t play a sport, but I do like running and I also do yoga as well.

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Ah, yoga! When do you do yoga?

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I usually do it during the week, but last weekend I did yoga as well.

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I like doing yoga at the end of a stressful week,

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because I feel it makes me relaxed.

1:47

So, Neil, you said you like running.

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When do you like to go running?

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I go running at lunchtime when I'm working from home.

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So it's nice to do some exercise in the middle of the day

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and go for a run and then feel alive again in the afternoon.

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Why else do you like running?

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Erm, actually, I don't like running!

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I don't like the actual running,

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but after I go running, I feel great, always.

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And I think, "Ah, I should go running more," but I never want to.

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Yes, I understand that feeling as well.

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When did you last go for a run, Georgie?

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Actually, I went running last weekend.

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It was a really sunny day and it felt great.

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So, Georgie, do you have any plans to go for a run

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or maybe do yoga this weekend?

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Not this weekend, but next weekend,

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I have plans to go running with my friends.

2:59

Oh, wow! Do you talk and run at the same time?

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Absolutely not!

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Good, because that's like extra exercise.

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That is too difficult, Neil. I can't run and talk to my friends!

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OK, Neil. So, we know that you go running and you like cricket.

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But are there any new sports that you'd like to try?

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Well, Georgie, you do yoga.

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I'd like to take up yoga.

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Erm, but I have tried it in the past and it was just too boring.

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Yoga is not boring. It's wonderful!

3:40

Neil, could you explain the verb 'take up' that you just used?

3:45

Yeah, we 'take up' something,

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it means that we 'try something for the first time',

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a new hobby or a new habit, I suppose.

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So, you can take up a sport or take up learning a new instrument.

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Mm-hm. I'd like to take up painting, I think.

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I think painting is a really nice way to boost your creativity.

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Let's recap the vocabulary we learned during the conversation.

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We had 'next' to talk about 'a future plan', like next weekend.

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We used 'last' to talk about 'a past plan'.

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Like last weekend, last month, last week.

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It's usually the most recent.

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And we had 'take up', which means 'start a new hobby'.

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Yes, and I'm going to take up painting, which is exciting!

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Thanks for listening to Real Easy English. Visit our website for

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more activities and courses to help you with your English – BBC Learning English dot com.

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Next time we'll talk about social media.

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See you then. Goodbye!

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Bye!