Transcription
Hello everyone. Welcome to a new episode of Bose's Slow English.
I just finished my very first YouTube live stream and surprisingly, it was very successful. It was a lot of fun. I got to meet some of my new friends and I learned their names and what part of the country they are from. If you missed the live stream, feel free to check it out. I added it to the live stream slow English playlist on my channel.
And if I've never met you before, my name is B. Hello. And I am fairly new to YouTube, about 1 year in. And my goal is I want to help you improve your English, your reading comprehension, speaking comprehension, and of course, your listening comprehension. So, I post slow speaking English videos. If there's ever a topic that you would like for me to touch on, go ahead and let me know in the comments and I will make a special video just for you. Please hit the like button to show me that you like my video and hit the subscribe button if we are not already friends.
Today's video is about daily activities and this was requested by my new friend that I met on the live stream just a few moments ago. There are many, many daily activities that we do on a daily basis. Actually, I'd like to share with you one of my favorite English words, which is plethora. Plethora is a fancy word for a lot. So, there are a plethora of daily activities that I do. I will try to mention as many as I can think of that I do daily starting from when I wake up on a normal workday.
I wake up around 6 a.m. or I should be waking up around 6:00 a.m. But really, what happens daily is I will hit the snooze button and then I will physically get out of bed by 6:20 a.m. Do you know what the snooze button is? It is the optional button that shows up when your alarm goes off. And it is really just quieting your alarm and then it will alert you again after a few minutes. So, I don't know how many times I hit the snooze button, but hopefully just one time and then my body, I think, is just used to physically getting up around 6:20 a.m.
Also, did you notice how I said that the alarm goes off? So that is, I now realize, a saying or idiom which means that the alarm is turned on and that can be a little bit confusing. I made a, um, YouTube shorts video a while ago about this and I had a proud moment for myself because it occurred to me that even though I'm saying the alarm is going off, that to a foreigner, that probably doesn't make sense. So, it is the opposite of what the idiom is. The alarm is turning on when you say the alarm is going off.
After I get out of bed, I head to the restroom or bathroom. When I say head to, that means I'm walking to that direction or to that room. I'm just walking. I will pee, which is a very informal way of saying that I have to urinate. But you know what? These are vocabulary words that you need to know. So, yeah. Okay. I pee first thing in the morning when I get up out of bed.
Then I will, hm, what do I do? Then I will remove my retainers from my mouth. Retainer. Do you know what braces are? I used to have metal braces in middle school and unfortunately, you're supposed to wear a retainer for the rest of your life unless you would like to go back to wearing braces and I certainly, or certainly do not want to do that. I remove the retainer which is just my lower teeth. I have a mouth guard for my top teeth. A mouthguard is a thicker type of retainer-like device, like what you wear playing sports. You wear it at night. That's why it's a night guard. It's guarding your teeth because at night time, I clench. I clench my teeth because I'm stressed. But I'm definitely clenching less these days, so that's good. I remove the mouthguard and my retainer. I plop it into the retainer holder. Plop is a fun word where you drop an object, probably into a liquid, but not necessarily. When I think of the word plop, I think, you know, that sound. So, I plop it into the retainer container. Retainer container. And I will run warm water into the container and throw in a denture cleaner tablet. I know that sounds crazy. Obviously, or maybe not obviously, I have my own teeth, but when you get older, you might lose your teeth. So, the fake teeth that old people wear, that's called dentures. And there are these round tablets that you throw into the water or you plop it into the water to disinfect and clean it. So, I use those same denture cleaning tablets for my mouth guard and retainer.
Then I close it and I will brush my teeth. I have an electric toothbrush. I prefer electric over manual, I guess, or a normal toothbrush because I think it cleans better. Then I will throw my hair up in a bun. Um, the saying throw my hair up, it just means that you're loosely putting your hair up away out of your face. Um, and then I put my glasses on and I open up my dog's crate because I keep her locked in there at night due to, at nighttime, if she hears any noise, she likes to walk around the house. So, I'm afraid that while I'm sleeping, she might have to pee or go potty somewhere. So, I keep her in a crate overnight so that I can make sure she is safe. She's not going anywhere. And it also makes her feel comfortable to have her own little sleeping house. So, I open the crate. I pet her on the head and I tell her it's time to wake up and then she will follow me to the kitchen.
Then I will take my medication. I take medicine for my thyroid. So, I'm supposed to take that at the same time every day. Then I will drink a tall cup or mug or thermos, which is the brand name for this, um, hot beverage holder. I'll drink about two cups, which is that much, of warm water to help with my digestive system and to wake up my body. I will then make my cat and dogs food. My cat's name is Louie and my dog's name is Nari. They are spoiled. Do you know what that word means? Spoiled is where they have everything in the world and too much of it. So, in their food, they get some dry food and wet food, and I put some warm water in there, and they have a nice nutritious meal. So, I give the food to my cat. I give it to my dog. And after my dog finishes eating, I will take her outside or out front to the grassy area. It's actually turf. Turf is fake grass. Outside of my complex, there's turf that she will use the bathroom on. And then I will walk her around the block and come back inside.
I will then make my matcha. If you are not familiar with matcha, it is a type of powdered green tea. I get it shipped from Japan every few months. I love it. I've been drinking matcha for over 13 years. I think I drink coffee maybe one cup per week. I don't drink much coffee because it stresses out my body a little bit. So, green tea is my preference.
After I make my matcha, I will then make my breakfast. Lately, I have been switching between two different breakfasts. One is two to three eggs. I will cook it, uh, over easy or over medium. Easy means that the yellow yolk inside is runny. Medium is in between runny and hard. So, I usually prefer medium. And I will cut a little bit of the eggs for my dog Nari and give it to her as a treat. She loves eggs and it has a ton of vitamins and minerals. I will also cook two strips of turkey bacon. Strips are the pieces of bacon, but it's better to say strips over pieces because that is just the norm. I can't tell you why. That's just the norm. I will sprinkle salt and pepper onto my eggs and eat it alongside my matcha.
While I'm having breakfast, I will work on editing my YouTube videos or I will work on my online Etsy shop. For my online shop, I will either do some research on what design to make. After I have done the research, I will create the design on Canva. If you are not familiar with Canva, it's an awesome website that makes anyone like an amateur graphic designer. Do you know what amateur is? Amateur means not expert. Then after I create the design, I will put it onto the product that I'm selling and then I will list the product on Etsy.
After I work on either the Etsy or YouTube, I will get ready for work. Unfortunately, I hate getting ready for work. I really don't like the anticipation of having to get ready because I don't have patience. I'd rather just do what I need to do. So, if I'm getting ready for work, I wish I could just be at work instead of this whole drama where I have to put makeup on, figure out what I'm wearing, get into the car, drive to work, etc. But anyway, that's just life. So, I get ready for work. I will wash my face. Actually, I will brush my teeth again and floss. Floss is with the string. I floss twice a day. I will wash my face and I will jump into the shower or you can say I get into the shower or you can say I shower. I will wash my hair and rinse my body.
Then I will towel myself off. That is another way of saying that you are drying your body with a towel. It is kind of weird that you can use the word towel as a verb. So, to towel yourself dry or towel yourself off. Let me ask chat GPT what the actual correct term is. Is it more grammatically correct to say to towel yourself off or to towel yourself dry? It says both towel yourself off and towel yourself dry are grammatically correct. They just have slightly different feels. Towel yourself off is more casual and common in everyday American English. It focuses on the action of removing water. For example, I got out of the shower and towelled off. Towel yourself dry sounds a little more formal or descriptive. It emphasizes the end result, which is being dry. Example, after swimming, she towelled herself dry before changing. The bottom line or summary: You can use either, but towel off is more natural in casual speech and towel dry might show up more in written or written English or when being very clear about the result. Wow, I learned so much about towing your towing. Sorry, that's not a word. About the phrase to towel yourself off or dry.
Then I will put my contacts in. And normally, when someone speaks about putting contacts in their eyes, just so you know, you won't say "in my eyes." You just say "put my contacts in." Put my contacts in is what you say.
After I put my contacts in, I will do my skin care regimen. Step one is a hydration serum because my skin gets very dry after the shower. Then a serum that is anti-aging for my fine lines, which are little wrinkles. Then I put a serum around my eyes because I have dark under eyes. Then I do a serum for pigment, which is a fancy word for brown spots. Then I do eye cream, face cream, and sunscreen. A lot of steps.
I will then do my hair. When you do your hair, it is just a general term for, it could be blow drying your hair. It could be brushing your hair. It could be putting your hair up in a ponytail. It's just a general term, but I do my hair so that I look professional for the clients at work. I will then choose which outfit I am going to wear to work. I usually wear all black and I like to wear scrubs. Scrubs are the medical clothing that you'll see doctors or nurses or medical assistants wear because I work in a medical type environment and it looks professional.
I will then take my dog Nari out again because she won't be getting another walk until I have to come home from work during my lunch break. So, one more potty break before I head to work. Remember that saying head to? That means that I go to work. So, I put the leash around Nari's neck. The leash is the rope that goes around Nari's neck and we go outside again so she can use the turf, the fake grass, to go to the bathroom on. And then I will bring her back in. I will wipe, wipe her little paws and I am off to work. So, heading to work. I'm off to work. I'm going to work. Any of that can work.
I walk downstairs to the garage. I put my work bags in the back seat of my car. I will turn the ignition on and let my car warm up so that it is ready to drive. I click the button to open up the garage gate and I exit the driveway to go to work. Luckily, I live about a 5 to 10 minute drive from work. And you might be asking, why don't you just walk to work? Well, because that means it would take me at least 25 minutes to walk and that defeats the purpose of me living close to where I work. Have you ever heard of the term defeats the purpose? Let's ask chat. Please explain in very simple terms what the phrase "defeat the purpose" means. It means you do something that ruins the reason you were doing it in the first place. Easy example: You wear a raincoat to stay dry, but then you jump in a pool. Now you're wet. That defeats the purpose of the raincoat. Does that make sense? So, basically, what I'm trying to say is I prefer to drive to work even though it's only a 5-minute drive, a 25-minute walk, because I have a very busy life and I need to be efficient. Efficient means being mindful of your time and doing as much as you can within the time that you have.
After I park my car in the work garage, I will take the stairs to my office and I will get the office ready for the day. I created a special video called "What I Do at Work" and I explain what I do at work, like the daily activities that I do there. So, I will skip over all of that for now.
After I leave work, I head back downstairs to the garage to get into my car and I drive home and sit in traffic a little bit. So, that means it takes me 10 minutes to get home because there is more traffic in the evening. The first thing that I do when I step foot inside my apartment, step foot means literally what it sounds like. You are inside the apartment. You put your foot inside the apartment. The first thing I do is I greet my cat and dog and I will ask my dog to come here so that I can take her for a walk. I will walk her a little further than my normal walk around the block because, poor doggy, she has been sitting inside the home doing nothing all day. So, I have to give her some exercise.
And then I will either make a YouTube video or edit my video or work on my Etsy shop or I will work out. I have a workout machine in my second bedroom, which I also filmed about, and it keeps me healthy and in shape. When you stay in shape, all that means is you are healthy and your muscles are strong.
Then around 6:45 p.m., I will make my cat and dogs dinner. It is the same meal as what I fed them in the morning, except this time I add some vitamins. I wait for my husband to come home and we figure out what we should eat for dinner. Even though I am a foodie, which is someone who is a big fan of being adventurous with their food, I dread and hate figuring out what to eat for lunch and dinner, unless I'm on vacation. Unless I'm going out to eat. Do you remember when we briefly discussed the definition of dread? Dread is doing something you really don't want to do. Because when I get home or when I'm at work, I'm too busy to be bothered to think about what to eat. And also, eating is expensive. An average meal for me at lunchtime is between $16 and $20 per day. And then for dinner, my husband and I have to order together. So that's like $35 to $40 per meal. Especially because most times we don't like cooking. We don't like the cleanup process. We don't like to spend time on cooking. So, we normally will order in. Order in means that we get food delivered to us.
If I do make dinner, in an effort to save money, in an effort means for the reason of or because I'm trying to do something. Those kind of meals are very simple. Like I will sauté ground turkey and season it with taco seasoning. I will buy store-made guacamole to put it or to plop it on top of the, um, taco mixture. I will also, um, maybe buy some store-bought salsa to put on top and I will put a little bit of rice underneath all of that. So, it's like a taco bowl. Rice, ground turkey seasoned with taco seasoning, guacamole, and salsa. Quick and easy meal.
After I eat that, I continue to work on my YouTube and Etsy. And then, if there's time, I will try to veg out, which means try to be lazy. Think of a vegetable on a couch. It doesn't do anything. So, I try to veg out and watch one episode of whatever TV show that is mindless. A mindless show is one that doesn't require thinking. And then I will get ready for bed. Of course, I have to take my dog out again. And I set my alarm and I go to bed.
So, that is the summary of my daily activity. As you can see, every waking moment that I have where I'm not at work, I am doing my best to work on my YouTube videos so that I can help you to improve your English. In my live stream, I read a few comments that said that my new friends need help with their English, but I'm a little bit confused because your English looks perfect when you write it out. So, if you need help with the, uh, listening or the speaking, just try to read the comments that I have. Sorry, not comments, the caption that I have below and say it along with me or imitate me and my tone of my voice. That way you can experience what it sounds like to sound like an American. That has helped me in the past with my French.
What new verbs did you learn from this video? Let me know in the comments, one or two verbs, and try to use those verbs in your own sentence. I hope you learned a lot today. And stick around, which means wait until after this video. There should be more of my slow speaking vlog videos to help you improve your English. And I will see you next time. Thank you. Bye.