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

You should say: who this person is, what they make, why they like to make things by hand, and explain how you feel about this person.

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.

Discussion

M: Right, dear listener, so the topic, a person who likes to make things by hand. So what they usually make by hand? Toys, furniture, what else? Some, I don't know, paintings, sculpture, pottery, I don't know, some, what else, jewellery, clothes, dear listener. But you should choose something that is easy for you to talk about, because if you say like, oh yeah, my mother, she makes clothes, and then how does she make clothes? Materials, tools she uses. Like you can't say anything about it and you don't know the vocabulary. No, no, no, no, no, don't do that. You should imagine the story. Imagine the person, and choose a specific thing that this person makes. Rory here talked about his dad.

R: Yes, I did. I've not talked about my dad much on the podcast before. I think.

M: Yeah, and Rory's father enjoys doing things by hand as a hobby. Okay? So he fixes everything around the house. Well, I think, like you can imagine a person who enjoys, I don't know, making furniture, for example, or... Oh, what would be like super easy to talk about?

R: No, I think it's really just people that do things and help out around the house, to be honest.

M: Yeah, because, like, you can talk about a person who fixes things at home, you know? Like fixes furniture, pipes, like, everything around the house. So you can say, I suppose the closest person would be my mother. Would be my brother, would be my friend, Rory. Actually, you know, you can use Rory. You can imagine that Rory is very good at fixing things.

R: And that would definitely be imagination.

M: Making clothes.

R: You think?

M: Dear listener, you can imagine, you know? And this would be very fun for you to talk about. And you will relax. So... You can say that he does it for fun, or he does it as a hobby. He enjoys making things by hand, and we say make things by hand, because we create things using our hands. He never made toys or anything fun, but he enjoys doing practical stuff. So he's focused on practical stuff around the house.

R: But practical stuff is just stuff that has a clear useful purpose

M: And this is about lots of things around my parents home. So he fixes things at home? For example, he fixed the cabinet. The cabinet is this piece of furniture.

R: That you keep things in.

M: Yeah. Oh, he fixed the shelves in my bedroom, for example. So he makes the shelves, he fixes the shelves. I don't know, he fixes the doors, all the furniture. He built our summer house, right? Or he built, I don't know, a garage.

R: Gosh, that would be a lot. Although, admittedly, he did build the summer house in our garden, or contributed to that. So that's a lot too.

M: Or like he built our house itself, you know?

R: Oh, wow. Could you imagine? Building... Some people do this, though.

M: Oh, yeah, they do, right.

R: That's crazy.

M: So he built our country cottage, for example. Or he helped building our country cottage. Or he kind of, he takes care of our garden.

R: Oh, he does that too, actually.

M: He does a lot of woodwork. So woodwork? Like what?

R: Working with wood. Woodwork and joinery, they kind of overlap. We don't really talk about carpentry these days, even though you still have people that work with wood, they're not really called carpenters anymore. I imagine because it's got a religious connotation, because Jesus Christ was ostensibly a carpenter. So yes, that was, yeah, we don't really talk about carpenters in that direct way. It's usually joiners.

M: Wow. So people who work with wood are called joiners. They join things together.

R: Yeah.

M: A joiner. Interesting. So a joiner or woodworker. A skilled worker who makes the wooden structures inside buildings such as doors or window frames. A joiner, dear listener. Wow. Interesting. So he does it because he likes being helpful. He does it because he likes woodwork, or he likes creating things by hand, and he likes to support other people. You can say that I'm very grateful to my dad or I'm really grateful to my friend.

R: Or anyone that helps me out.

M: And you can say that his work does give a place a more unique feel. Because if everything is done by hand, you feel that the house is unique.

R: It's like the atmosphere in the house is more personal, I suppose.

M: There are many prefabricated things. And if things are prefabricated, they're kind of ready made, like food, prefabricated food. A prefabricated house is, kind of, is ready for you. You don't do anything there. You don't do anything by hand. It's kind of already ready for you to live in. And you don't do anything. Kind of it's just put together, it's made in a factory. So it's prefabricated.

R: And then you just bring it all together. Like I think a good example of this, you get it with houses, but you also get it with things from IKEA, for example. So it's nice, it's efficient, but it's ultimately quite impersonal.

M: And you can say that, as for me, I can't do anything by hand because I'm not blessed with the ability to do anything by hand. And this is a very nice phrase. Like, instead of saying like, oh, no, I'm very bad at doing things myself...

R: I'm not blessed.

M: I'm not blessed with the ability of making things by hand. I just can't do it.

R: Yeah.

M: And what do they say? Like, my fingers are all thumbs, or I'm all thumbs?

R: Is that... Oh, I know the expression that you're trying to say, but I can't, I know that there is one, but I know, I don't know what the exact expression is.

M: Yeah, kind of we say, all thumbs. Thumb? A thumb is this the first finger that you have on your hand. Or you can say all fingers and thumbs. I'm all fingers and thumbs. I'm very clumsy. I'm very awkward with my hands. For example, I'm all thumbs today, like my hands are kind of... I can't do anything. I drop things, I break things. So I'm all thumbs. I'm all fingers and thumbs. Super! Thank you very much for listening! Hopefully, you are not all thumbs!

R: Hopefully, our answers were helpful, and we'll get back to you in part three, where we're going to talk about more helpful things in crafts, I think.

M: Bye!

R: Bye!

Make sure to subscribe to our social media to see some of the “behind the scenes” stuff:

Our Instagram: bit.ly/instagramswi

Our Telegram: bit.ly/telegramswi