Housework
Is your home clean? Do you like housework? What housework do you dislike? How often do you do housework? Will you do more housework in the future?
Vocabulary
  • Dusting (noun) – the act of removing dust from surfaces. → She did some quick dusting before the guests arrived.
  • Cleaner (noun) – a person whose job is to clean homes or buildings. → We hired a cleaner to tidy up before the party.
  • Housework (noun) – tasks such as cleaning, washing, and ironing that are done in the home. → He shares the housework with his flatmate equally.
  • Process (noun) – a series of actions taken to achieve something. → Cleaning is a time-consuming process.
  • Eats into (phrasal verb) – takes away too much time, money, or resources. → Commuting eats into my evening time.
  • Relaxing (adjective) – helping someone to rest and feel less anxious. → A clean home creates a more relaxing atmosphere.
  • Fan (noun) – a person who strongly likes or supports something. → I’m not a big fan of ironing clothes.
  • Pointless (adjective) – having no meaning or use. → It felt pointless to clean the windows right before a storm.
  • Homeostasis (noun) – a stable, balanced state; used figuratively here to mean a tidy, ideal condition. → A house rarely stays in perfect homeostasis.
  • Sweep (verb) – to clean a floor using a broom. → I sweep the kitchen floor every evening.
  • Daily (adjective) – happening every day. → Doing the dishes is a daily task in our home.
  • Ideally (adverb) – in the best possible way or under perfect conditions. → Ideally, I’d have someone else do all the chores.
  • Robot (noun) – a machine capable of carrying out complex tasks automatically. → In the future, robots might do all the cleaning for us.
  • Finicky (adjective) – requiring great attention to detail; difficult to please. → Dusting delicate ornaments is such a finicky job.
  • Task (noun) – a piece of work that needs to be done. → Vacuuming is just another boring task on my to-do list.
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Questions and Answers
Maria: Rory, is your home clean?

Rory: Isn't everyone's? Yeah, I do some dusting and clean the dishes fairly regularly. Though for bigger cleaning jobs, I usually hire a cleaner to get the place in good condition before I have company around or something like that.

Maria: Do you like housework?

Rory: I like it when it's done. I'm not a great fan of the actual process of it. It eats into time I could be spending on something else, like reading or just relaxing.

Maria: What housework do you dislike?

Rory: I'm not a huge fan of cleaning the kitchen or the bathroom, really. The moment you're done, people are using those rooms and making them messy again. So it seems rather pointless. Of course, a home isn't always in a perfect state of homeostasis, so that's not true. But it definitely feels like a waste of time, at least from time to time.

Maria: How often do you do housework?

Rory: It depends on the job we're talking about, I suppose. If it's a whole house clean, then that happens every few months or so. But I do things like sweep the floors every week, and doing the dishes is a daily task.

Maria: Will you do more housework in the future?

Rory: Oh God, I hope not. I'm not a big fan of it now and I hardly do anything. Could you imagine what I'd be like if I had more to do? Ideally, I'll have a few robots or machines to take care of all but the most finicky tasks, which they can't do. And that will be it.
Discussion
Maria: So, dear listener, housework or what's the synonym for housework?

Rory: Chores? Domestic chores.

Maria: Chores, yes. Or household chores.

Rory: Ooh, fancy.

Maria: And, Rory, what verb do we usually use? Do we do, make, chores?

Rory: We do the chores.

Maria: Yeah, do household chores. Or housework, do housework. Okay? So do housework, do household chores. Is your home clean? You can say, yes, it's quite tidy.

Rory: That's none of your business.

Maria: So, like, the examiner looks at you like, you know, like, um, is your home clean?

Rory: Oh, they look you up and down. They're like, is your home clean? I see how dirty you are. I wonder what your floors are like.

Maria: So you can say, yes, it's quite tidy. Tidy, like clean. It's quite clean. It's quite tidy. Sometimes it's a bit messy. You can say messy. I have a messy flat. I do some dusting. And then you can say what chores you do. Do some dusting. Dust is this thingy that is everywhere in your house, two minutes after you've cleaned everything, you have dust already. And clean the dishes, for example. If I have bigger cleaning jobs, I usually hire a cleaner. So what do we call people who clean our flats?

Rory: Cleaners. Domestic servants. I have a cleaner. I would not call Angela my domestic servant. That's crazy.

Maria: Yeah, or you can say that I have my house cleaned, which means that you don't clean it. You hire some people. And like I pay to get my house cleaned. Then you can say that I do the laundry. When you wash your clothes, I do the laundry. I enjoy vacuum cleaning. Like hoovering. When you hoover. And all this, you know, all the dirt is sucked into the....

Rory: That's the sound a hoover makes. Why is the hoover crossed or the cow? Have you just totally lost it?

Maria: Yeah.

Rory: Okay, now that we've established that.

Maria: Maybe you do the gardening, and it could be considered as a household job. You clean the floors. You do the dishes. You can say I like housework. I hate housework. I can't stand housework. I absolutely hate it. I'm not a great fan of housework. Well, like I'm not a fan of it. That's a nice phrase. Please don't say I like if the examiner asks you. Do you like? Well, yes, I do. Or I'm not a great fan or I hate it. I can't stand it. I'm not into it. It's not my thing.

Rory: Talking of not being a fan of things, how many permutations of fan did I use in my answers?

Maria: Yeah…

Rory: I use different ones. I said not a great fan, not a huge fan, not a big fan. I do not recommend doing this for your answers. It's just showing what can be done.

Maria: Yeah, yeah. And to show you what phrases we can use with fan. It eats into time. Housework eats into time. It takes a lot of time. Yeah, and if you live in a large flat or a house, it takes so much time to clean up. Especially after a big party. And you can say that it eats into time I could be spending on studying, working, or relaxing. I'm not a huge fan of cleaning the kitchen. I'm not a huge fan of cleaning the bathroom. Like, what else do people do when they do housework?
Rory: They might mop the floors. I don't do that. That's the cleaner's job.

Maria: Yeah, but usually it's kind of like clean the bathroom. Ironing. There you go. You iron your clothes.

Rory: I don't iron my clothes.

Maria: Yeah, oh, I hate that. Some people iron bedsheets. The bedding.

Rory: What?

Maria: Yeah, but it's nice when like all your sheets and everything is ironed. But oh, it takes so much time. You need to hire a special person. Yeah, then kind of you wash the dishes if you don't have a dishwasher. I dislike doing the dishes. I dislike going shopping, for example, for food. I don't know, dear listener. Oh, when I take out my rubbish. What do you call it? I hate taking out my rubbish.

Rory: Taking out the rubbish. That's it. Throwing the trash out.

Maria: Yeah, throw the trash out. So cleaning, vacuuming, mopping. Gardening, dear listener. So that's the main ones, you know, like nothing too fancy. Doing the dusting. Cleaning toilets.

Rory: How much effort does cleaning a toilet really take, though? You just put some bleach down there…

Maria: Depends on how dirty the toilet is and whose toilet it is.

Rory: Look at us talking about dirty toilets as if any of this is going in the episode.

Maria: Oh, no, we can't discuss dirty toilets?

Rory: Nope, nope.

Maria: So, what housework do you dislike? You know, I really dislike cleaning dirty toilets, especially not in my house.

Rory: I hate all of it.

Maria: The worst thing about housework is that the moment you're done, it's dirty again. It's all messy again, like five minutes, and that's it. There's hair everywhere, fur, you know, water, dust. It's... Whoa, oh my God, what's going on? I've just cleaned everything and it's dirty. Oh, yeah. Rory, you've said a strange word. Homeostasis is like a disease?

Rory: No, homeostasis is like a state of equilibrium. Everything is in balance.

Maria: Really?

Rory: Yes. So if your house is in homeostasis, it means that it's always in a good condition. It's always in a balanced condition. But I pointed out that's not true. I just said doing these things seems pointless, but a house is not always unoccupied and in balance. So it's not really a waste of time. It just feels like a waste of time. There's a difference between feelings and reality. Perhaps someone could talk to the President of the United States about that.

Maria: When the examiner asks you how often, so you should say, like, rarely, usually, hardly ever, once a week, twice a week, or not often. I sweep the floors every week. But doing the dishes is a daily task. Oh, Rory, so you don't have a dishwasher? You do the dishes yourself?

Rory: Yeah, but I only, like, use one dish a day. So it's hardly a big deal.
Maria: So you don't cook?

Rory: No, well, I do cook in the evening. That's when I need the plate.

Maria: Yeah, but to do the cooking, you need supports and pans. No, don't tell me you're using a microwave.

Rory: No, you don't. You just fling the steak on the grill and then grill it for about 10 minutes, put it on the plate, clean the grill, eat from the plate, and then clean the plate. Easy.

Maria: Okay. So you don't cook the veggies, potatoes, no? Just the steak?

Rory: No, just the steak.

Maria: Interesting. Oh, for example, sweeping the floors is a daily task. I do the dusting daily, like, every day. I'm not a big fan of doing housework, so in the future, I'll have a few robots, like, or machines to take care of my housework. What do you call this robot that cleans the floor? A hoover robot?

Rory: Robot hoovers. Some people call them Roombas, but that's a specific brand of robot hoover, and we are not being paid to advertise.

Maria: Yeah, like a robot vacuum cleaner. Robotic. Or you could say robotic vacuum cleaners or robotic vacuums. So you can say, like, oh, if I had more money, I'd buy a robotic vacuum cleaner. And robots or machines can take care of it, and I can spend this time on studying. And now, are we ready for housework jokes?

Rory: Oh, will we ever be ready for housework jokes?

Maria: No, no, no, we need some pre-teaching. So some, like, Rory, tell me, if I want to clean my floors, what equipment do I usually use in my hands that goes like...

Rory: Oh, the mop?

Maria: The mop or another one. A mop is usually wet, but if...

Rory: I love how you're talking to me about these things as if I have a clue what any of them are.

Maria: Oh my god, a broom, a broom.

Rory: Oh, okay.

Maria: I need a broom.

Rory: Like a witch.

Maria: Yeah, a witch, exactly. A witch has a broom, like a broom, a brush with a long handle. So you kind of, like, sweep the floor. And if I sweep the floor, what do I do?

Rory: Um, I don't know.

Maria: My god, I sweep the floor. I clean the floor by using a brush to collect the dirt.

Rory: Okay.

Maria: But sweep is a specific verb, dear listener. So you clean the floor, but with a broom you sweep the floor, all right? So, the joke. Why was the broom late?

Rory: Why was the broom late?

Maria: It over-swept. It over-swept.

Rory: Thank you everyone for joining this wonderful episode on housework.

Maria: When you get up late, then usually you oversleep. And you can say, why was the broom late? It over-swept.

Rory: And then we all died of cringe.

Maria: I have another one, Rory, I have another one.

Rory: No, I'm so... I know you do, but we don't have the time. Have a nice day, everyone.

Maria: Bye. Thank you very much for listening. Crack jokes.

Rory: Oh my god. Goodbye.
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