M: So, dear listener, hobbies. Rory, tell me, how often do you use the word hobby? Do you kind of ask people, oh, what's your hobby? Do you have a hobby? Do you ever say this?
R: I honestly, outside of these IELTS questions, I have never discussed my hobbies, except for one. Someone said I had a lot of hobbies, but I don't think I do. I think I'm very boring.
M: Hmm. So usually people don't use the word hobby. Okay? They say, like, what do you like? What do you do in your free time? Like, what else do you ask? I'm into reading.
R: What are you into? What do you get up to when you're not working?
M: Yeah. So you can talk about like, I enjoy, I'm into, I'm into climbing, I'm into swimming. I really enjoy reading. I do karate, I do Jiu-Jitsu, I do yoga, or I'm into yoga. I'm into yoga, I'm into swimming. I get a lot of reading done. I do a lot of reading. Reading could be a hobby, right? I love having an active life. I love learning about new things. And actually, I'd say that Rory does have a lot of hobbies. Yeah. Check it out. Like wild swimming, yoga, climbing, weightlifting, reading. Well, Rory is a writer. He's published his novels. So that's writing, being an author. Podcast. Oh, actually, podcast is a job, okay? Yeah, Rory, you see? So, too many hobbies.
R: Okay, if I... Well, what should I prioritize then? Weight lifting and reading. There we go. And yoga.
M: Nice.
R: It's difficult for me to give up my hobbies. I like them.
M: When an examiner asks you about your childhood, you can use used to.
R: I think that should be the trigger. If you're asked to compare or your childhood to now or talk about your childhood, I think that should be like a used to alarm and immediately just be like, I used to do this.
M: Absolutely, dear listener. It's a common question. Like did you... When you were a child? Bam, used to. You don't do it anymore. So you can say, I used to go swimming, I used to go dancing, but not anymore.
R: Even in the negative way, I didn't used to do blah, blah, blah, as much as I do now. For example, I didn't used to exercise as much as I do now, for sure.
M: Correct. I did like collecting plastic models of military vehicles, military cars, tanks, some other vehicles, and you can say like I did like collecting, like I really liked collecting. Or I used to collect small models of something. Or I used, I used to collect coins. I used to go dancing. Or you can just lie about it. Then Present Perfect, maybe you are still collecting these coins. So I've been collecting coins since childhood. Present Perfect Continuous, actually.
R: I've been collecting coins in my bank account. My hobby is saving money.
M: Or I've been into dancing since childhood. So you started dancing when you were a child. You were doing it, and still you are, you enjoy dancing. So I've been into dancing. I've been into reading since childhood. Or you can say I've always been a big fan of reading. So I've done it all my life. Yeah? So I've always been a big fan of swimming, or I've always been a big fan of sport, snowboarding. So I did it as a child. So all my life. Apart from reading, apart from that, all the things I do are radically different to what I did before. So everything I do now in my free time is radically different, like, totally different.