📙 Part 2: Describe a popular place for doing sports

This episode's vocabulary

Community center (noun) - a place where people who live in an area can meet each other and play sports, take classes, etc.

Work out (phrasal verb) - to exercise in order to improve the strength or appearance of your body.

Picturesque (adj.) - (especially of a place) attractive in appearance, especially in an old-fashioned way.

Fitness (noun) - activities relating to keeping healthy and strong, especially through exercise.

Treadmill (noun) - an exercise machine that consists of a moving strip or two step-like parts on which you walk without moving forward.

Climbing wall (noun) - an artificial wall with places to put your hands and feet, used for practicing the sport of climbing.

Hall (noun) - a building or large room used for events involving a lot of people.

Pitch (noun) - an area painted with lines for playing particular sports, especially soccer.

Court (noun) - an area drawn out on the ground that is used for playing sports such as tennis and basketball.

Warm-up (noun) - something that you do to prepare yourself for an activity, especially gentle exercises before a physical activity.

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Questions and Answers

M: Could you start speaking now, please?

R: There's a huge community center in the village where I live. And I go there three times a week to work out, it's pretty good. Oh, in greater detail about the location, the place was built, well, rather recently, now I think about it. Based on the design compared to the high school it's attached to, if the front of the village is next to the river, then the community center is at the back of the village, next to the feet of the hills and mountains. It's actually rather picturesque in the summer, although you don't pay much attention to it in the winter, since the weather is very very cold. Well, with regards to when I'm there, I typically go around three times a week, there's a fitness room at the back of the center. And that overlooks the playing fields. And the room itself is pretty well equipped with benches and treadmills, and different machines. Haven't been to these other places yet. But apparently, there's a climbing wall for people who are into that sort of thing. And a hall for doing yoga in too. Oh, yeah, in terms of what I do there, it's just the... It's just the fitness room really. So going on the treadmill or the spin machines, followed by the chest press, or leg extension and curl machines, and lateral pull-down and pull-up machines too. Oh, along with the free weights. There are big windows there. So you can see people playing football or rugby on the pitches. And I think that tennis sometimes happens on the courts that are nearby too. Sometimes the karate guys joke around the courts or the pitches, but I think that's just part of their warm-up. They don't really use the pitches for different things. When it comes to my personal feelings about it. While I'm quite grateful it's there. I would appreciate it having more free weights, though, I suppose since it's part of a school complex, that could be a bit risky. Still better to have something than nothing at all.

M: What about your friends? Do they also enjoy the place?

R: The ones I've spoken to have said that they really like it.

M: Thank you, Rory, for your answer!

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Discussion

M: So... A place, a popular place for doing sports. Right. So Rory talked about a community center. Dear listener, you can talk about a gym, a stadium, a sports, I don't know, ground in front of your house, for example. Right? Or, again, any other place. Could you please make a choice now what you're going to be talking about? I think a gym would be the easiest option.

R: Unless you live next to a stadium.

M: Yeah, obviously.

R: I suppose the one thing that you would need to say about the gym is how it's connected to people doing sport because gyms are more about fitness, which is different to sport.

M: Oh, I see. Oh, that's right. Okay, because like doing sports, that's like, play tennis, swim, I don't know, play badminton. Oh, okay.

R: So I talk about what I do there, which is keep fit, but I know that people play sports there.

M: Like football, for example, or boxing. They do boxing. Right? Or swimming. Right. Yeah. A good point. So you told us about a huge community center. So a community center is kind of a gym, but not really a gym, like a place where people from your neighborhood go and they hang out. They do activities together. Yeah?

R: Yeah, it's not just for fitness. It's for all sorts of things like the football that people play there. Well, I suppose that's attended to or attended by people in the local area or from the local area.

M: Yeah. And you can say I go there three times a week or four times a week to work out. Right? So you work out, you do exercise, or you play sports, for example, you play football or volleyball. Or you don't. I'd like to go there.

R: I watch people enjoying themselves, and that's good enough for me.

M: And then you can say this place was built, like last month, or it was built a year ago, you can talk about the design of the building, or what you have in front of the building, what you have close to the building, for example. It's rather picturesque in the summer. That's a nice one. Picturesque, like beautiful because of the scenery, because of the hills and mountains around it. And Rory is in Scotland. So this place is in Scotland. Scottish mountains.

R: Specifically at the feet of the hills and mountains. So that's just the bottom of them as opposed to at the top. So you have the foot of the mountain and the peak at the top.

M: Yeah. Then how often you go there? I go there around three times a week. Around, about, yeah, or I go there twice a week, or I often go there, I frequently go there. The same. Often or frequently, you can say. Or I go there, like once a month. Yeah, it's a popular place for playing sports. Just, I go there once a year. And you talked about a fitness room. Yeah? So there's a fitness room in this community center, and which is kind of a gym, right? Like one room. And this room overlooks the playing fields.

M: So this is me connecting my experience to people doing sport, because I don't do sport there. I just do fitness.

R: Nice. Yeah. So playing fields, like football pitches, yeah?

R: Yeah.

M: Or tennis courts.

R: Yes.

M: Right. Sweet. Yeah. So the... I don't know, community center overlooks the football pitch, where people play football. I don't do this. But still, it's connected, yeah, to playing sports. And you can say that it's pretty well-equipped with. Right? So this popular place for doing sports is well equipped. Equipment, equipped with. And then name the equipment. Specific language, yeah, dear listener? Benches. Bench is a place where you sit on, right?

R: Or lie on.

M: Or lie on, yeah. Machines and treadmills. A treadmill is this machine you run on at the gym, right? You can use some other equipment if you wish. Like a swimming pool, it's well equipped with a swimming pool, with football pitches, with tennis courts, outside and inside. Indoor tennis courts, for example. Also, Rory mentioned a climbing wall. For climbing. Yeah? Have you ever seen these like walls with these little bumps sticking out?

R: Have you ever been on a climbing wall?

M: Oh, yeah, once I have. Oh my gosh, it's a nightmare.

R: Really? Are they quite difficult?

M: Actually, yeah, it is difficult. Because you're afraid of falling down. Like you know that you're kind of... They hold you and they put some, you know, stuff around you. But still, I was afraid of falling down. And also, it's quite, physically is difficult. And I remember that my body ached so much after that.

R: Okay, so things to look forward to, when I try this climbing wall then.

M: Yeah, but it's fun. It's fun. I can see the fun of it. Yeah, I never went there again. But it's fun. But you're a strong Scottish man. With strong arms.

R: But I've never been on a climbing wall before.

M: Yeah, but still with strong arms, I think, yeah... Yeah, but it's interesting, like your whole body works. You kind of like a Spider-Man.

R: Do you know what Spider-Man is?

M: Yes. A spider man is a superhero.

R: Yes. Rather unlike Batman. No, no, not the same as Batman. They're very different. Because Batman is not a superhero.

M: Oh, come on, come on. A hall for doing yoga. Yeah? A hall for doing yoga. And we do yoga, we play sports, but we do yoga. Or Pilates or something like that.

R: You know, who would benefit from doing yoga?

M: Batman.

R: Yes, to help him cope with the reality that he's not a superhero.

M: Oh my god.

R: We can also talk about not just the places where there are to work out, but the things that we do or the things we use in order to work out. So I talked about different machines. For example, the chest press, the leg extensions, and leg curl, lateral pull-down and pull-up machines, and free weights.

M: Oh, yeah, dear listener, you should google, I think. You just open Google images and just type in tread meal. Spin machines, chest press, leg extension. Yeah. Very specific words. But if you choose to talk about a gym. Or this like, I don't know, workout area, it's nice to use these nice words. And we pull weight, yeah? We pull weights?

R: You can try, or you can push them too, it depends.

M: Push, ah, okay. So pull weights or push weights, okay? Yeah, you can say that, okay, there are big windows and you can see people playing football there, playing rugby on the pitches. It's a football pitch. And a tennis court. Yeah? Karate guys. So people do karate and we do karate. Okay? We play football, but we do karate, martial arts. And then Rory talked about his feelings. He's grateful. And he appreciates the place. And you go there for free. Right? So you use this for free?

R: No, I don't. It's like 21 pounds a month.

M: Oh, wow. Okay.

R: Admittedly, that's still quite a good deal I would have said.

M: Cheap. Okay, sweet, but there is no swimming pool? Like no sauna, jacuzzi?

R: There is a swimming pool. I didn't mention the swimming pool, actually. I should have done that.

M: Oh, there's a swimming pool. Oh, okay, nice. Oh, yeah, if you mention a swimming pool, you can say, oh, people go swimming there. And it's kind of a sport, the swimming. Or water polo. Even if they don't play water polo in the swimming pool, you can just say that. Sweet. Rory, what phrases helped you to continue your ideas and to keep talking?

R: So, when I was asked to... Well, I went in a logical order, so instead of saying where it is, I said in greater detail about the location, which is where something is. And then I talked about that in more detail. And then it said when you go there, so I just paraphrased that lightly and said with regards to when I'm there. So a small paraphrase, but not copying the text exactly. And then it said what you do there. Now, I was very lazy with this, because I just said in terms of what I do there. And then for how I feel about this place. I paraphrased it a little bit when I said when it comes to my personal feelings about it. And then I gave more detail there.

M: Yeah. Sweet. And in terms of what tense forms you should use, well, it's in the present, right? So just like we're describing a place. So you can use pretty much past. You went there, you go there every day or like once a week, and you will go there. So yeah, here, you are free to choose any. Thank you very much for listening!

R: We'll see you next time!

M: And in speaking part three, we're going to be talking about sports and children in general. See you there! Bye!

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