📙 Part 2: Describe a happy memory/enjoyable experience in your childhood

This episode's vocabulary

Amateur (adj.) - taking part in an activity for pleasure, not as a job.

Song thrush (noun) - a type of thrush.

Thrush (noun) - a brown bird with a pale breast with spots on it that is known for its singing.

To limp (verb) - to walk slowly and with difficulty because of having an injured or painful leg or foot.

To lumber (verb) - to move slowly and awkwardly.

Crucial (adj.) - extremely important or necessary.

Non-starter (noun) - an idea, plan, or person with no chance of success.

Thrilled (adj.) - extremely happy about something.

Memorable (adj.) - likely to be remembered or worth remembering.

Questions and Answers

M: Rory, give us your story.

R: Well, a really long time ago, I remember I rescued an injured bird with my cousin when we were staying with my grandmother. This must have been around 25 years ago. So like in the 1990s when we were young kids. We spent the night there like we usually did and we're playing in the garden in the day when we came across this injured bird, and I was something of an amateur birdwatcher, I noticed it was a song thrush. It was unable to fly, but not limping. So we thought it must have broken its wings somehow. Otherwise, it would have flown off as two kids were lumbering towards it. We found a box for him to take shelter in and kept him warm, dry and well-fed. I think that was pretty crucial since there were a lot of cats in the local neighbourhood. When our parents picked us up at the end of the day, it was decided the bird would come home with my parents who would call the RSPB. It's like an organization that helps out injured wildlife in Britain. There wasn't much point in trying to tend to the injury ourselves. Because we weren't vets, I still have absolutely no idea about bird biology or anatomy, to be honest with you. So that was a bit of a non-starter. Like I said, I was with my cousin, but she didn't seem particularly bothered that it was coming. Like the bird was coming home with me. I was thrilled on the other hand, it was nice to be able to help something out that, well, needed help, to be honest. If I hadn't done this, I still think I would have had the joy of another weekend at my granny's place. But it wouldn't have been nearly as memorable. I mean, how often something like that happened when you were a child? I can't imagine that it's a very frequent occurrence. So yeah, overall, pretty, well, not necessarily formative, but definitely something worth telling my own grandchildren about one day.

M: And have you told your friends about this story?

R: I can't remember, to be honest. I don't think I have.

Discussion

M: Yay, thank you, Rory! Oh, that's a nice story. Rory rescued a bird. Oh, isn't it nice, dear listener?

R: Well, I attempted to, I don't know how successfully.

M: So, dear listener, could you now make a choice about your story? What happy memory from childhood do you have now? You can imagine it. Maybe it was the first day at school, or the last day of school. Still childhood. No, maybe like kind of not childhood, the last day at school. So the first day of school, the first picnic, the first time you went to McDonald's. The first, I don't know, some birthday present. Maybe the first party. Maybe the first but just a birthday party. Stick with something easy, like a birthday party. Like we can describe a birthday party, right? Or a nice holiday in the forest or by the lake, or by the sea. Okay? But make sure it's something that you can talk about. Rory here described a specific story, Rory story. When he and his cousin, right? Rescued a bird.

R: Yes. Well, one of my cousins. I have like 15 of them.

M: And you can start off with a really long time ago. Because your childhood is when you were a child.

R: That's probably a long time ago for most people.

M: Yeah, like a child is a person who is what? Like 10 years old, 5 years old, 2, 3. I don't know, up to 15, 16 years old, I think. And you can say like a very long time ago I remember how I blah, blah, blah. Or I remember doing something, I remember going to the lake. I remember playing with my portable plane. Or I remember how I or how my family and I went on holiday by the sea. We were staying with my grandmother. So at that moment, a long time ago we were staying for a while, for a short bit, maybe for a couple of days, maybe for a couple of weeks. We were staying with my grandmother or we were staying in a hotel, we were staying in a country cottage. Right? And then Rory said like, maybe it was around 25 years ago. But what he said was, this must have been around 25 years ago. So if you're not sure, but actually, here, you're pretty sure. Like probably. So you're pretty sure. Probably it was 25 years ago. It must have been 25 years ago. If you're not sure, it might have been. Ok? But must have been, must have been, Perfect Infinitive, with must. We use it because we talk about the past. So I must have been very happy. Probably, I was very happy. Okay? So it must have been about 25 years ago when we were very young, when we were young kids, children, and we were playing in the garden. So at this particular moment, we were playing in the garden, and we came across this injured bird. The bird had some injuries. Maybe the wing was broken. We came across it, like we saw it. Right? By chance. Oh, we were playing in the garden and then, oh, wow, a bird. I was something of an amateur bird watcher. You know, in Great Britain, they enjoy bird watching. So they watch birds. A typical English hobby. And our baby Rory..

R: Oh, an English hobby is it?

M: An English it is, yeah. In Great Britain, yeah. So our baby Rory enjoyed birdwatching. But he was an amateur. He wasn't a professional. So he didn't know the names for all the birds. But he kind of knew that these are birds. So amateur, not professional. And he knew that it was... What was the bird?

R: It was a song thrush. They have little yellowish chests, and black dots on their chest.

M: The name of a bird. Okay? Or maybe like a sparrow or a crow. But it was a song thrush, the specific name of a bird. You can just Google it and see what the bird was like. It was unable to fly. So it couldn't fly. But limping. Ah, so it wasn't limping?

R: It wasn't limping, because that's something you do with your legs when one of them is injured.

M: We thought it must have broken its wing. You see? So we thought that probably it broke its wing. Wing? A bird has two wings, it flies with two wings, a plane has two wings. So probably it broke its wing, one of its wings, and again, this structure, we thought it must have broken its wing, because it's in the past. That's why we use Present Perfect. It must have broken, probably. So we were pretty sure it broke its wing. Otherwise, here the third conditional, it would have flown off. So if the bird hadn't broken its wings, but it did, the bird would have flown off. Fly, flew, flown. Flown off. But it did not fly off. It stayed there, lying there. Yeah? Yeah, you see? The third conditional, must have broken. You see? Really high-level stuff. Any topic you talk about, you can include these structures. Rory, for example, if I talk about my birthday party when I was a child, and how parents organized a birthday party for me, in the context of a birthday party, could you use these phrases? Must have done.

R: Oh, they must have made a huge effort to organize it. They must have called everybody.

M: My parents must have asked everybody to bring me presents.

R: They must have spent a fortune.

M: Right. Probably they spent a lot of money on my birthday. They must have spent a fortune. Yeah. Otherwise, people would not have given me so many presents. Yeah? But they gave me. You see, dear listener? Yeah? They found a box to take shelter. Aw... And then, you see, Rory talked about a bird and he used "it". But then the bird became "he". You see? Which is possible? Because it's kind of, it became their bird.

R: So you could decide what the gender of the bird is.

M: He. How could you tell he or she?

R: I think, actually that male song thrushes have more spots on their chest and female song thrushes do. Just off the top of my head because it's a display thing for mating purposes.

M: Then it was decided that the bird would come home with my parents. So like we decided, it was decided. Passive voice, which is nice. And parents called special services, special organization, which helps out injured wildlife. And good news for us that Rory didn't start playing hospital with the bird. So they just called special services. Well done!

R: Thank you!

M: Like I said, I was with my cousin. Right? Or as for who I was with, I was with my family or with my cousin. I was thrilled. So Rory was thrilled with this bird. So the cousin wasn't bothered. He didn't care about the bird. But Rory was thrilled.

R: It was a she, actually, but yes.

M: Oh, she, okay. Yeah, sorry, she. So it was nice to be able to help out. Yeah? And we finish off with the third conditional. If I hadn't done this, if I hadn't helped the bird, I would have had the joy of another weekend at granny's place.

R: So still a worthwhile weekend, but just not as memorable.

M: Yeah, but it was memorable. It was memorable, because I felt happy. I was able to help out the local wildlife. What helped you organize this answer?

R: Well, I think I just followed the task again. So what did I have to say? I had to say what it was about, who I was with, what I did, and explain how I felt about it. None of those are actually included in the opening part. But I just gave some context. So it was a very long time ago and I did this thing. And then I went into more detail about the time and more detail about what we did. And a little bit of detail about who I was with, although not much, to be honest, I probably could have said more about my cousin. And in the same way, I went into a lot more detail with about how I felt. So it's just in the order that it's presented in the task, but bookended. So at the start, I explained in more detail what I did and when it was. And at the end, I added slight discussion about what would have happened if it hadn't been the case. Like usual.

M: What can we say about our feelings? Because the task asks me to say how you felt about this happy memory or this enjoyable experience in your childhood. So I was thrilled, like excited. Or I was really happy. What else can we say? I was excited. I was over the moon. Like I was really happy. I was touched, maybe, by emotions. I was overwhelmed with joy. Right? Like too much joy but in a good way.

R: Or you could just take the really cheap way out. It was a very emotional experience. And then that's enough.

M: Right. It was an emotional experience for me. Like I was happy, excited at the birthday party and getting all these presents. Yep. Excellent. So this story will be specific for you, dear listener, but you can use the third conditional and "must have been", "this must have been around 25 years ago'. Yeah? So these ones are quite nice. We'll get back to you in our next episode about memory in general. Bye!

R: Bye!

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