📙 Part 2: Describe an interesting neighbour

This episode's vocabulary

Sustainable (adj.) - able to continue over a period of time.

From the off (idiom) - immediately; from the beginning; from the very start.

Tend to someone/something (phrasal verb) - to deal with the problems or needs of a person or thing.

Go off (phrasal verb) - to leave a place and go somewhere else.

Buzz (noun) - a feeling of excitement, energy, and pleasure that something gives you.

Conventionally (adverb) - in a way that is traditional and ordinary.

Atomized (adj.) - consisting of separate parts that do not have much contact with each other.

To get along (phrasal verb) - if two or more people get along, they like each other and are friendly to each other.

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Questions and Answers

M: Rory, are you ready? Neighbour episode.

R: Yes. Let's go.

M: Give it to us. Let's go.

R: We've always been really lucky with our neighbours and they always did really cool things with their lives, in addition to being very nice people. Currently, we have a neighbour who is a professional poker player, which isn't something I thought would ever be considered sustainable employment. But I suppose it turns out I was wrong about that. However, I'd like to focus on our newest neighbour. Her name is Sally and she lives on the other side of the group of houses that we own together. She's a nurse who does a lot of work related to care in the community. It's quite a common job compared to being a poker player, but I would say she is equally interesting because of the nature of her character. I know her from living right next door and from the off, she's been a very engaging person to speak to, actually. She often hangs out with my parents and her friends from England are always very welcome in our home as well as her own. When she's not doing that or when she's not off to her work, she usually goes travelling, which makes our lives interesting as we often have to tend to her house or we have flowers left for us before they go off. She came around the other day with this big buzz of flowers and said, oh, I'm going on holiday, but these flowers are still so nice. So they should go somewhere. So that someone can enjoy them. So we got them. Hopefully, that'll be more common because, or at least in the future it'll happen more often because they actually turned out to be quite nice flowers. I know it's not a conventionally interesting story, but it's quite unusual in this day and age for neighbours to be so involved in each other's lives when people seem to be increasingly atomized. What's even more interesting is how she gets along with all of us, despite the fact we're all from different parts of the United Kingdom and just have our shared neighbourhood. I think it's quite a positive development all in all, and it would be great if she continues to stay here in the future as well.

M: And do you see her often now?

R: Yeah, absolutely. Because she's just come back from her holidays.

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Discussion

M: Oh, such a lovely story, Rory. Rory story. Oh, so cute. Because you live in the house, right? So this woman, Sally, she lives in the house next door, right?

R: Yeah. We have a very strange setup because there's three houses that are joined together. And so in order for her to get to her house, she has to walk through our garden and one of the other neighbours' gardens as well.

M: Oh, I see.

R: So this is not a normal, it's not a normal set-up by any means. Most people...

M: A closed community, three houses go through the garden. I thought like you would say like, oh, she has to go through my room to go to her house.

R: No, but she does have to walk past my office.

M: Oh, okay.

R: So that's why sometimes I look up, because she's walked past.

M: Oh, interesting. All right. Yeah. So, dear listener, now, you should think about an interesting neighbour. Okay? If you don't know your neighbours, you've never had any neighbours, you can imagine a neighbour, a person, if you live in a flat, so a person who lives, I don't know, maybe next door or down, up your flat, right? If you live in the house then in the house next door. Let's imagine your neighbour now and let's make this neighbour interesting, right? By interesting, for example, Rory mentioned like, oh, we, currently have a neighbour who is a professional poker player. Poker, you know, cards, poker, poker face. So yeah, that's an interesting neighbour. Or perhaps you have an old lady with 35 cats. That would be an interesting neighbour. One of my students said that she has a neighbour who, instead of going through the door, he crawls out of his window because he lives on the first floor. So he would not use the door, he would just go through the window. So that's an interesting person.

R: Why?

M: I don't know. He just feels like it. I don't know, I don't know.

R: What? That's weird.

M: Yeah, that's strange. That's weird. Yeah. So, yeah, make up this interesting neighbour, maybe a famous actor or a blogger or a person who listens to music and has parties at night. Rory started off with, we've always been really lucky with our neighbours. Or you can say I've always been really lucky with my neighbours or I haven't been really lucky with my neighbours. And now my neighbour is an old lady with 38 cats.

R: I was going to say you can have an interesting neighbour for a bad reason.

M: Yeah, it could be like a drug addict. Oh yeah.

R: Well, they could be. But, hopefully, not.

M: This couple next door.

R: They're always on drugs.

M: They're always arguing. Yeah. And you can imagine a nice profession. So a professional poker player. Is it the truth? Like, really? Is he a professional poker player?

R: I really do. It's bizarre.

Speaker 1 M: Oh wow. Wow. Is he doing it online?

R: Yeah, yeah.

M: Oh, wow.

R: So he does that online. And his wife, she doesn't just sit and do nothing. I think she's a lawyer as well. So it's pretty, it's like a great set-up for them I suppose.

M: Nice. So your neighbour, dear listener, and that could be, you know, I know what's a drug dealer. Or he could be something like a professional sleeper where he goes somewhere and he falls asleep and they research his sleep. Or he could be something like, give me some odd profession.

R: A mad scientist.

M: A mad scientist. Yeah.

R: Well, actually, someone must be living next to the person who used to own our house, who was a voodoo priestess. So you must someone, she must be living next door to someone now, surely.

M: A voodoo what?

R: The woman that used to own our house was a voodoo priestess.

M: Voodoo is like voodoo dolls.

R: Yeah.

M: Oh, wow.

R: For years, my parents were finding voodoo dolls' heads in the garden and in the walls.

M: Oh, really? Oh, wow. Oh, that's bizarre. Yeah, dear listener, feel free to use that, you know, I'm going to talk about a neighbour of mine who is a voodoo priest

R: A very strange woman. I've no idea where she is now, but, like, that's... That's it.

M: Woo-oo! Nice. And you can say, I'm going to talk about my newest neighbour. Newest neighbour. So kind of fresh, fresh and new. Right? So just moved in. So Sally, who lives on the other side of our street or who lives next door, who lives on the second floor, who lives across the hall, so she's a nurse. Right? You give her profession. And Rory said that she's equally interesting. So equally she's as interesting as a professional poker player because of the nature of her character. Right? And which adjectives did you use to describe her? You said that she's interesting, she's positive.

R: Engaging to speak to.

M: She's engaging to speak to. So it's interesting to speak to her. Again, dear listener, you can just make up some interesting details about this person's life. Maybe they have, I don't know, ten corgis in one flat or, I don't know, a shark. They might have a baby snake. I don't know, something interesting, yeah? They might have blue hair. I know her from living right next door. Again, next door. And then Rory said, from the off, she has been very engaging to speak to. From the off?

R: But that's just another way of saying from the start.

M: Right. You can say from the start she's been a very interesting person. Or, if you want to be super cool and full of awesome, you say, from the off, from the off. Yeah, double "f". From the off, she's been very engaging to talk to. And then more details what she does, she often hangs out with my parents. So she's kind of like part of the family, Rory.

R: Yeah, it's our community, I would say as much closer than other places.

M: Oh, so cute. Yeah. So your neighbour, you can be close to your neighbour, right? Or you might not be, you may just know the neighbour, or you might never talk to them. So still goes for this answer. And then Rory used this word, tend to her house. So when she goes on holiday, we have to tend to her house. What do you mean? Like take care of her house?

R: Look after. If you tend to something, it's not like tend to do something, you tend to something, you take care of it.

M: Yeah. So she goes on holiday. We have to tend to her house. A very specific word and also about the flowers. So we have flowers left with us before they go off. So flowers can go off, right? And...

R: They die!

M: They die, obviously. Yeah. And Rory has her flowers. So nice. Such a nice lady. And then Rory kind of admits that, well, you know, it's not a conventionally interesting story, so it may not be interesting or my neighbour may not be interesting, but it's unusual that neighbours could be so involved in each other's lives. So you can say that okay, I am so involved in my neighbour's life, in this, like he's a drug addict, so I'm really involved. We are...

R: Super involved.

M: Super involved. And you know, like every Friday.

R: Every Friday we go around and take drugs together.

M: Well, of course not, dear listener. Right?. But again, if you want, you can say something like that. Again, if you are not close to your neighbour, you can say that we are involved in each other's life. And what's more interesting is how she gets along with all of us. So I get along well with my neighbour. I get along well with her. This neighbour gets along well with us and that's a nice phrasal verb. So we have good relationship. Right? So sweet. I think that's quite a positive development. Right? So we are so involved in each other's lives. We get along well. Yeah. So, dear listener, do you have a story of your neighbour? So I would, I would speak about an IT person with five corgis. Corgi like a dog. Queen's dog - corgi. Yeah. I would make this person up with five corgis, and then I can talk about corgis because they're cute. I love corgis. What would you like to talk about, dear listener? Could you please think about it and use some of the vocabulary? All right? Rory, would you like to add anything? Rory story?

R: Yeah. Hopefully, we've provided you with a neighbourhood of grammar and vocabulary for talking about neighbours.

M: Oh, neighbourhood. And we'll come back with speaking part three about neighbours.

R: Hopefully with better puns.

M: Bye!

R: Bye!

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