📕 Part 1: Old buildings

Are there any old buildings you want to see in the future?

Not off the top of my head. Maybe the old church in the town square in Piron, but not because of the church itself, just for what it adds to the scenery.

Do you prefer living in an old building or a modern house?

I actually really like old houses. I think they have more character, and they're much better put together than new ones, which they seem, well, at least, they always seem to fall apart more. My house is about 120 years old, so it was obviously built to last. I can't really say the same for the new builds nearby, they don't look so great.

Do you think we should preserve old buildings in cities?

I mean, assuming they're an important part of the heritage and not a danger or some kind of impediment to the people that live there, then, yeah, absolutely. It's like I was saying about houses before. They have and, well, add to the character of an area. And if you just allow people to build whatever they like in an area, then it can become this sort of hodgepodge of different types of architecture, and it looks pretty unsightly. At least in my opinion.

Have you ever seen old buildings in the city?

I mean, that depends on how you define old, but my hometown is around 900 years old. So you're basically tripping up over old buildings in places like that, aren't you? You've got Gothic-style cathedrals and medieval castles. Elsewhere you can see similar things, actually, like the Kremlin in Moscow. I have no idea how old it is, but while it's not ancient, it's definitely not modern architecture, at least in most of the parts I've seen.

Rory, what buildings do we call old buildings? For example, the pyramids. Are they old enough? Are they buildings?

I definitely think so. They're like ancient buildings.

Yes, dear listener, so pyramids, they are ancient, meaning, like, really old. Okay? But old buildings in cities is just, you know, like old. You see this modern skyscraper which was built, I don't know, five years ago. But an old building, maybe it's 50 years old, 60 years old.

I think the best way to think about it is, if it's older than you, then it's old.

Yeah. Oh... Wow. A good life hack.

That's not a scientific measurement of oldness, but it's just the best way I could think about it.

And some old buildings you might want to see in the future, Rory told us about Piran. Like an old church. So maybe you want to see some old churches, or the pyramids. Are they their pyramids?

Well, it depends. We talk about the pyramids, we usually mean the Egyptian pyramids, but there are other pyramids. There are pyramids in Latin America as well, or Central America, depending on how you define it.

Yeah, in Mexico.

Yeah. And I think in Peru too, or in that area of South America. Apologies if you are from that area and you have a pyramid and I didn't mention it.

No, no, no, it's in Mexico.

Just in Mexico?

Yeah, in Peru, no. We have Machu Piсchu in Peru.

That's also an old, well, city and group of buildings.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, ancient, ancient. What's the most famous pyramid?

I mean, I don't know. How do you define the most famous? I suppose, for Western people, it's probably the Pyramid at Giza, I think. Is that like the tallest or the biggest one?

Yeah, yeah. This one, this one. Yeah. And it's like, um, the Pyramids of Giza, and it's the pyramids. Or, like, the Great Pyramid of Giza. So, dear listener, you can say that, yeah, I want to see the Great Pyramid of Giza in the future, or some old churches in, I don't know, Europe.

Yeah. I don't... I think a lot of people don't really go around hoping to see old buildings. They might want to enjoy a town, and old buildings will be part of that, but it's not something that you go out of your way to see, at least not in my experience.

Yeah. So maybe, like, um, university buildings, cathedrals. What else is old? I don't know, some...

Well, the actual blocks of houses as well could be old. I mean, my... The block of apartments I live in is over 120 years old. That's quite old. That's sort of Victorian-era Europe.

Really?

Yeah, it might even be older now I think about it.

Yeah. Also you can call them historic buildings, dear listener. Historic buildings? They are like popular sites, like the pyramids, for example, or some temples in India, they could be called historic. Also, some buildings of museums are quite old.

Oh, I'm not sure they can be called historic. Historic is like if it's important and old, but usually we just talk about age. Or when we want to talk about age, we say historical.

Oh, really? According to Britannica, Rory, they say 19 historic buildings to visit.

Well, they might be important buildings. That's true.

Important buildings. Okay, okay.

Yeah. That's an important thing to point out, because a lot of the time as well, people use this word touristic whenever I'm listening to them, and I don't think that's the best word to use. I think we just talk about tourist buildings and turn tourists into an adjective.

So tourist buildings, popular buildings, old buildings. When we talk about the scenery, we mean the landscape. Beautiful nature.

Everything surrounding the building. So if I talk about the scenery where I am right now, and I look out my window, it's like more blocks of apartments, but they're nice, they're old. So it's not so bad. I guess if it was all these modern apartment buildings, that might not be so nice.

Yeah, for example, like beautiful scenery. And also, dear listener, if you don't know what to say, you can say, well, I don't know off the top of my head. Like, right now, I don't have a clear answer.

Or just not off the top of my head.

Like, any historic, any old buildings? Not off the top of my head. And then kind of, well, maybe an old church.

That's a useful phrase to have though, for any kind of situation where we're asked a strange question, like, not off the top of my head.

For example, like, what planets do you know?

Well, I don't know many off the top of my head, maybe just the eight that we have in the solar system now?

Old buildings have more character. Like people Old buildings have, like, more in them than new ones.

So they have a history, and they have a design that matches a certain period, so it adds to the atmosphere. So this is part of the character of the building. It's like the personality. Yeah.

Old buildings are much better put together, so they are much better built. And you can say that new buildings can fall apart more often. Fall apart? To be destroyed.

Well, this is the thing. I don't know how it is where you live, but at least in my country, lots of people say the new houses are only built to last 50 years. So I don't really think that's a great investment, to be honest with you.

You can say new buildings or the new builds. Old buildings are usually much better put together rather than the new builds. The new builds? The new buildings. We preserve old buildings or save old buildings, because they are an important part of the heritage, dear listener. Heritage is the word, which means features belonging to the culture of a particular society. C-2, band nine word.

Is it? Oh, wow. Okay, I didn't know that. It's such an easy word to say, heritage.

I know. Cultural heritage? For example, all this like traditions, languages, buildings.

Okay, so if I think about the cultural heritage, or the heritage of the buildings that I'm in, then they have these big stone blocks. They're built to last. They have high ceilings. And I suppose the building materials are very high quality, quite solid.

Maybe some mosaics.

Well, I don't know if there are any mosaics where I am. Maybe if you're living in Italy, that might be where you see them. What about, if we talk about Russian or sort of Slavic cultural heritage in terms of architecture? What do you expect to see?

Churches. Lots of churches.

What about the architecture? There must be things that you expect to see there. Like, well, I always expect to see, like, massive buildings and focused on one purpose, like all the old factories, for example.

Maybe you know, like wooden constructions, lots of wood, lots of ornaments. And also, yeah, these massive, gigantic buildings. And we have lots of art in buildings. Like different paintings, sculptures, beautiful, you know, mosaics.

So there we go. There's different kinds of cultural heritage, and you should definitely know about yours, because you might be asked about it.

What's a hodgepodge?

A hodgepodge is just like a mixture of random things together. So you could have a hodgepodge of styles. It's not always bad, though. Like I remember when I went to Romania and in the capital city, they've got a hodgepodge of different architectural styles next to each other. And I think that looks quite cool, but I don't think it would work so well in the area I live. I don't know why that might be. Maybe I'm just used to things being more organized.

Yeah, dear listener, a very nice word. Usually, it's one word, hodgepodge. Mainly in the UK. A confused mixture of different things. So a hodgepodge of different styles, of different architecture styles. Like you go to a city and then, like old buildings, new buildings, skyscrapers, they're all together. So it's a hodgepodge of different types of architecture. Which can look pretty unsightly.

And if something looks unsightly, that just means it doesn't look very nice, like my hair this morning.

Ugly, not attractive. Can you say like, oh, this building looks unsightly?

Yeah. Well, anything you think is unattractive or not so nice is unsightly.

Yeah, it looks pretty unsightly. You should be ready to answer the question if you have seen old buildings in the city. And again, we talk about churches, museums, universities, maybe old hospitals. Temples, if you have some, okay? Like in India, we have temples.

We have temples in this country as well, actually.

Actually, every country has a temple, I think. Like Buddhist temple.

Or a Sikh temple.

Right. Like, how old is your hometown, dear listener? If your hometown is pretty old, then you have old buildings. And you can say that, yeah, my hometown is pretty old, so I trip...

You're basically tripping up over them. And that just means there's so many of them that you always see them.

Yeah, or you come across old buildings all the time. And then you can say that we have Gothic style churches, Gothic style churches and medieval castles. You know, in Scotland, castles, like haunted castles with, you know, spooky ghosts. And we have some ancient structures and also modern architecture.

But do not ask me how ancient and modern and gothic and medieval is defined, because that is not my specialist area. I just know that that's what people have used to describe them in the past.

Yes, dear listeners, so you should know, I think, like one building, like an old building that you've seen, a church, a castle. And be ready to talk about it, or just in general, yes, I saw, I have seen old churches, temples, medieval castles, Gothic buildings. Sweet. Thank you very much for listening!

And we'll see you next time! Bye!

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