📙 Part 2: Describe a person who likes to make things by hand

This episode's vocabulary

Out of (preposition) - used to show the reason why someone does something.

Necessity (noun) - the need for something.

Fuse box (noun) - a container holding several fuses, such as all the fuses for the electrical system of a single house.

Woodwork (noun) - the activity of making objects such as furniture from wood.

Joiner (noun) - a skilled worker who makes the wooden structures inside buildings, such as doors and window frames.

Tradesman (noun) - someone who works in a trade that needs skill at using your hands, usually in the building industryю

Well-off (adj.) - rich.

To make do (idiom) - to manage to live without things that you would like to have or with things of a worse quality than you would like.

To stand the test of time (idiom) - if something stands the test of time, it is still popular, strong, etc. after a long time.

Prefabricated (adj.) - built from parts that have been made in a factory and can be put together quickly.

Impediment (noun) - something that makes progress, movement, or achieving something difficult or impossible.

DIY (noun) - abbreviation for do-it-yourself: the activity of decorating or repairing your home, or making things for your home yourself, rather than paying someone else to do it for you.

Questions and Answers

R: I'm not sure I know anyone who really enjoys doing things like this as a hobby or something. I suppose the closest person would be my dad. Although, it's hard to tell whether he does this for fun or just out of necessity, since, well, sometimes you have to do things in order to get on in life. Another reason I'm not sure about is that he never made toys or anything fun like that. It was always practical stuff. So that makes the motivation less than obvious. To tell you more about what he's made, it includes a lot of the things around my parents' home. From the cabinet to access the fuse box, to the shelves in my childhood bedroom. I'm pretty sure he also built the summer house in the back garden, or at least contributed to that. So there's lots of woodwork and joinery involved. And to be honest, that continues to this day. He did a few things in my house as well, which was very nice of him. I've never really asked him about it, but I imagine he does it because he likes being helpful. And if you make something that supports other people, then I think that's one of the highest forms of helpfulness, for lack of a better word. And of course, when I was younger, we had fewer options in terms of tradesmen and I think probably money. I think everyone was less well-off back then. So we had to make do and do things and make things for ourselves. Regardless of the reason, or the reasons behind it, I'm obviously very grateful to my dad for all his hard work with our home. If he hadn't done that, it wouldn't have been as easy to live here, and his improvements have really stood the test of time. You can still see this day when you visit our family home. It definitely gives the place a more unique feel compared to the places where everything comes prefabricated, because in those kinds of places, everything looks the same, but we don't really suffer from that kind of impediment in my home.

M: And what about you? Do you enjoy making things by hand?

R: I'm not a big fan of it, to be honest. I'm not very blessed in terms of my ability to do DIY.