English Listening - Father's Day

Welcome to the Listening Time Podcast. Hey everybody, this is Connor and you're listening to episode 107 of the Listening Time Podcast. Thank you all for listening. I want to remind you that my e-book is available, which is a collection of three short mystery stories that I wrote in English, and I translated them into Spanish and Portuguese, and this book is structured in a way where you don't really have to stop reading and go look up words or phrases, because each story is divided into small sections, and underneath each section, there's the Spanish or the Portuguese translation of that section. So it's very easy to just look down, see what it says in Spanish or Portuguese, and then look back up at the English. So it'll all help you read in an easier way. So if you're interested in reading fiction in English and you're a Spanish or a Portuguese speaker, this will be a great introduction for you into the world of reading fiction in English. So go down and click on the links in the episode description to check out that e-book. And of course, if you'd like to support this podcast, if you want to help me do what I do, then please consider joining my membership. That is something that you can do to help me out, and you also get some exclusive content there, and specifically, if you want my advanced podcast episodes where I speak fast, then you can become a listening time family member, and you'll get two new advanced episodes every month. So the link to that is in the episode description below this episode. That's patreon.com/listeningtime. All right, in today's episode, we're going to talk about Father's Day. So at the time that this episode is released, Father's Day will have just passed. It will be the day before this episode is released. And I'm talking about Father's Day in the U.S. I'm not sure when Father's Day is in your country, and I know that this tradition is different all around the world. But in the U.S., Father's Day will be the day before this episode is released. So this is very relevant, of course. And so I did a Mother's Day episode about a month ago, and people really liked that episode. That was maybe my most successful episode to date. In English, when we say to date, that just means until now. So that episode was maybe my most successful one to date, and people really liked it. So I want to do the same thing for Father's Day. So I want to talk about some different things that I appreciate about my Father, just like I did it about my mother last time. So I'm sure you guys will enjoy this episode before we start. Remember that you have the transcript available in the description. So go down and click on that if you need it. And please give this podcast a five-star rating, and write a review, and share it with anyone you know who's learning English. Alright, let's get started. Are your ears ready? You know what time it is. It's listening time. Okay, so let me talk about some things that I appreciate about my Father, so that I can maybe show him some love on this Father's Day this year. So I'll talk about three different things. The first thing that I really appreciate about my Father is that he's a very generous person. This is something that I really admire, something that I kind of use as a model for me to really motivate myself to be more generous with the people around me. So my Dad has really impacted me when it comes to this. So what are some examples of this? First of all, my Dad has helped me enormously when it comes to finances. So I've had some really hard financial times throughout the last probably decade, let's say. I didn't struggle throughout the whole decade, but I'm just saying that throughout the last decade, I had different periods where I had some financial struggles. My life was a bit hard at times, and my Dad was always really quick to offer help. It wasn't like I needed to ask him for help. I didn't call him up and say, "Dad, I need help because of this financial situation." My Dad just immediately sensed that I needed some help. I needed a little bit of a lifeline, and he was more than willing, and it was very fast to help me in all those situations. By the way, in English, when we say that someone is willing to do something, we're saying that they are able to do it, and they want to do it. It's like saying they are okay with doing something. So if I say, "I'm willing to help you," that's like me offering to help. I'm saying that I can and I will help you. My Dad was always more than willing to help me throughout those financial hardships. Even though there were a few different times when I dealt with some financial problems throughout my young adulthood, I didn't have the feeling that I was just going to starve and be on the street and have nothing. I never thought that because number one, I never reached a really bad point like that. Of course, I was never even close to that. But number two, I knew that my Dad would always want to help me. I knew that I would always have somewhere to turn in case things got really bad. In English, when we say that you have somewhere to turn, we're saying that you have some place or some person to rely on in case you need help. So I knew that I always had somewhere to turn because my Dad showed that he was more than willing to help me out in case I needed it. So that's a great example of his generosity. He's also been very generous with me when it comes to dedicating his time to helping me. And specifically, he's helped me through some different difficult and bureaucratic government processes that were really hard and confusing for me and my family. For example, my wife's immigration process. This was something that was extremely stressful. It was not easy and our situation was very particular and it was a little bit hard to find the right information on how to do this. And I didn't have an attorney or anything like that helping me. And so it was really my Dad who came in to help us out, help us do their proper research, help us to try to find some extra information. And so he really helped us out through that and I felt like we weren't alone through that process because it can feel like a lonely process. It can feel like it's never ending. It can feel pretty negative. But my Dad was very generous with his time and helped us out whenever we needed it. So that was really nice of him and he always does that when it comes to these hard processes that are not easy to go through. He always dedicates his time to helping me with those processes if I need it. And my Dad is also really generous in terms of just paying for things. He loves to pay for people's meals if we all go out to dinner or something like that. It's very common for him to just say, "I got this." That's the phrase that we say in the US when someone was in the US. wants to pay for the whole meal for everyone. They'll say, "I got this. It means I'll pay for all of this." So he says that a lot and pays for a lot of meals. He's paid for whole vacations for the whole family so that we can go and have a vacation together. He's done just really generous things like that. And his parents didn't necessarily give him tons of things and his parents didn't really leave him with much when they passed away. And my dad has always said that he wants to kind of be more generous with his kids and to maybe pass down some things to his children. In English, when we say that you pass something down to someone, this means that it was yours and then eventually you give it to your kids or someone like that. So he wants to pass things down to us and leave us with something when he passes away in the future. He's very generous, as you can see. And the next thing that I really appreciate about my father is that he's very handy. So what do I mean when I say handy? I'm saying that my dad has the skills, the ability and the knowledge to do many things, fix many things, figure things out to solve problems when it comes to physical things. So he can do a lot of things around the house. He can fix a lot of things around the house on his own. And he's really like the proof of what a person is capable of doing by themselves without calling an expert without needing help. He's really good at this. He's very handy in this way. So for example, he's often able to fix different appliances, to fix problems with the pool, irrigation, the different pipes. He can assemble many things in English when we say that you assemble something. We're saying that you put something together. So you put the different parts together to build something. So he can assemble things really well. He can do a lot. I have many, many memories of watching my dad work around the house. And he always fixed problems whenever they arose. And it's something that's really impressive, to be honest. Of course, sometimes he has to call an expert. But this is usually the last resort. In English, when we say that something is the last resort, we're saying that it's the last option. You try all the other options first. So calling an expert is usually his last resort because in his mind, he can fix it. He can do it. He can take care of it on his own. And I really admire that because I lack this. I don't have this, unfortunately. I'm not very handy. I'm not very good at fixing things and doing all this stuff on my own. And I look up to my dad in this regard. In English, when we say that you look up to someone, we're saying that you admire them and you want to be like them. So I look up to my dad in this regard because I want to be more of a handy man. And I want to be able to fix things and be that kind of father at home for my children. However, I'm not that at this point. But hopefully I can learn these skills a little bit more in the future and be a little bit more like my dad. So I really appreciate that about him. And it's something that I hope to adopt a little bit more in my life. And maybe I can just learn from him and maybe watch him as he fixes things, maybe help him when he's doing things like that so that I can maybe learn from experience. He's asked me many times to help him with these things. And as a kid, I was never enthusiastic about, you know, doing those things. But now as an adult, I think that I'm a little bit more inclined to go observe him and help him and learn a little bit in those situations. All right, one other thing that I really appreciate about my father is that he sacrifices everything for my mom. So you might have heard me mention in my mother's day episode that my mom has some major health issues. We're not talking about just some minor problem here. When I say major, I mean very big. So my mom is incapacitated in many ways and needs constant care. And it's a really hard situation. I'm not going to try to sugarcoat it in English when we say that you sugarcoat something. We're saying that you try to make something sound nicer than it is even though it's bad. So if I say that I'm not going to sugarcoat this or I'm not going to sugarcoat it, what I'm saying is I'm not going to try to make it sound nice. I'm just going to be honest. So my mom's situation, the situation in our family is really hard. It's something that has been really difficult for my family and especially for my dad because he's the one who really has to take care of my mom. So we of course can help out a little bit and offer him support. And we want to help in any way that we can. And for example, I spend a lot of time with my mom and my dad is able to leave the house a lot knowing that we're here to be with my mom. However, that's nothing compared to what my dad has to do. So my dad has had to change his life completely to make sure that he can take care of my mom. So he's had to change his daily routine in a drastic way and he doesn't get to do the things that he used to do. He's had to sacrifice hobbies, sacrifice things that he used to do in the past. Now he can't travel that much anymore like he used to do. Simply put, he just can't do the things that the average person is able to do because of my mom because of the attention that she needs and because he needs to physically take care of her. Right? He needs to do a lot of things to just help her get through the day. And he has to take her out, take her on walks to make sure she's getting her exercise. And he has to give her some different stimulation and things like that. And of course, everything revolves around my mom because of the care that she needs. And up to this point, we haven't relied on caretakers to come and take care of her. We might reach that point in the future, but up until now, my dad has really tried to take care of her himself and learn to do all of these things, learn to take care of someone in this condition. He does a lot. And the average person probably wouldn't have been able to reach this point without the help of caretakers or people like that because it's not easy. And my dad is not the average person. He has definitely been able to handle a lot more than the average person would be able to handle. And a lot of that is because of the sacrifice that he has been willing to make for my mom. He's sacrificed many things so that he can do this. And so I admire him greatly for that. And when I think of the future, when I think of the possibility of my wife having some really debilitating condition, I can look at my dad and his example that he's set for me. And I can see that I'm able to do this and I need to do this. I need to take care of my wife. I need to make sure that I'm doing everything that would be necessary for her, even if she's really sick. That's something that I know for a fact that I'm going to do, especially seeing my dad do it and seeing his sacrifice because he's that role model for me in this regard. So as you can see, I really admire that about my dad and he has really influenced me in that way. And it's not just sacrificing things to take care of her. He's always looking for better treatments for her. He's always reading studies about her condition. He's constantly on the phone with doctors and healthcare professionals. And he does all of these other things to try to make her life better. Not just take care of her, but improve her condition if possible. Right. He's not giving up in that regard. So he does all this and he never complains about life being unfair. And he never says, why am I in this position? Why do I have to do this? He never says that. He just makes the sacrifice and he does it. And so that's something that's really admirable. It's the attitude that I want to have in case I'm ever in this type of situation. So as you can see, this is probably the number one thing that I admire about my dad. Now that I'm talking about it and I'm thinking about it, I think this one is the thing that's the most impactful overall. So I'm really thankful that my dad is this way. All right. Well, I think that's all for today. I hope you enjoyed this episode. I hope you enjoyed learning a little bit about my dad and giving me the chance to talk about what I really appreciate about him. So thank you for listening. And of course, if you want my e-book, if you want to start reading fiction in English and your Spanish or a Portuguese speaker, then make sure to click on the links in the description below where you can go check out my e-book and purchase that if you'd like. And of course, if you want to join my membership and support me, the link is also in the description below the episode. And remember that you can access my advanced episodes if you become a listening time family member. And please give this podcast a five-star rating if you like it and write a review if you can and share it with anyone else you know who's learning English. All right. Thank you for listening to this episode and I'll talk to you in the next episode of Listen Time.