Daily Dose of English 110
Visitors
Daily Dose of English 110
Intermediate
Hey everyone, my name is Ben and you're listening to a Daily Dose of English. This is a short, simple podcast that you can listen to every day to improve your English. You can find the transcripts for all episodes and more on benslanguagelab.com. I'm glad you could make it today. In this episode, we're going to be talking about visitors. because visitors are something that I like to have every so often, not too much, but also never. Visitors are people that you invite into your home or even into your city sometimes, and you are the host. You host some visitors as they are visiting you or your city or maybe even your country in theory. And we use that word pretty generically for anybody that's coming to visit, whether it's a long-term, a single day, just a couple hours. And so anybody that comes to visit you, right, is a visitor. And I like having visitors. I think it's a really fun thing. And I think there's a lot of benefits to it in terms of just being social, but then also having more good experiences with people and also re-experiencing things for yourself. And we'll start there. I think I've mentioned this before, but one of the things that I like about having visitors is that you get to re-experience parts of your city or your neighborhood or whatever in ways that you might not before, especially if they're newer visitors, right? You haven't had them in your place before or visiting you before. It can be really, really fun. because let's say you're, well, let's go to that big example of somebody's coming to visit your country for the first time and you've decided to host them. And you're saying, hey, yeah, come stay with me for a week. I'd love to show you around. And so they come to visit you and you're showing them around your city and everything that for you is normal for them can be really, really cool. And that's something that I like about hosting people here in Mexico, because I get to show people things that I've gotten used to that are pretty normal for me, but that are really cool, right? Because Mexico is great. But for them, it's totally new. And so I get to be this sort of guide around really cool stuff and experience it almost in a new way. whether it's a food or locations or even just like weather and having things be nice in that way, it can all be really, really fun to re-experience. or a couple of months ago, I went back to visit my hometown and got to show somebody around, which was also really, really great because I don't love going back home because I grew up there, right? It's not, it's nothing special for me, but being able to show somebody things and take them places that are cool for them and new is really awesome. But then also having visitors can be something as simple as hosting a dinner. right, maybe your friends or your family is coming over and you're having some visitors for the day, the evening, and you decide to cook something nice. You cook a nice dinner, you buy a bottle of wine or whatever, and you have some visitors over and you hang out. And that can also be very rewarding because you get to see these people maybe again or because you don't see them very often or whatever. And I often like to host because it gives me this, how do I explain? So I'm not that social. I would consider myself to be introverted over generally. I prefer, I like to be on my own. I like to do things on my own, relax on my own, that sort of thing. I'm generally introverted. But that doesn't mean I don't like being around people. I do like people and I like hanging out with them and stuff. But I don't necessarily like to have to interact all the time, if that makes sense. And so one of the things that I like to do is host stuff, where I don't really have to do much. I can cook, I can be in the kitchen, I can make beverages, whatever it might be, I can be a little bit more out of the way, I guess, and even though I'm still interacting and still with people. And so it's a great, I think it's a great way for me to interact with people in ways that I probably wouldn't otherwise by hosting things. And that's honestly something I should do more because I do enjoy doing it. I also like that I get an excuse to do something that I otherwise wouldn't. So for example, with food, I'm pretty, I focus more on quick and good food that I like, right? So meals that take me 10, 15 minutes to make rather than more bigger extravagant things. However, I really like those bigger extravagant things because they're really delicious. And so having visitors over gives me this excuse to pull out all the stops, as we say, which means to Go above and beyond. Don't do as much as you can to enjoy something. Another example is I don't spend that much money on food. I try to keep things relatively cheap, not because I'm trying to necessarily save money, but because it also helps me to not waste things and to do it more quickly and easily and that sort of thing. But I like to... make something a little bit more expensive when some friends come over. I'll get a nicer cut of beef and I'll roast it or something like that because that's a little bit more fun. It tastes really good and it's a bit more of an occasion. That's a good word. It turns something into an occasion. An occasion Like literally the word is like just a sort of a time or an event or a thing that happens, but an occasion like in that sense is a fancy event or something that's fun, right? A special occasion, if you will, is the other phrase that you might hear. And so those are some reasons that I like having visitors. I also like to host, when I can, people that are coming to stay for a few nights, because that also gives you just a totally different experience of having somebody in your house. And they might bring something, not even necessarily physical, but they might bring something mental or emotional to your place, which can also be really great. So, for example, I like to host family members when they come or old friends. Not usually for very long, because like I said, I'm an introvert, and so I like to have my own time. But for a day or two or a couple days is great. I really enjoy that sort of thing. And I also like to be a visitor. I get to do that same sort of thing. I get to maybe bring some different energy to a house or to improve somebody's life in a way, and I like to experience new stuff. I don't travel as much right now. I haven't been traveling, but when I do, I like to visit people if I can because it gives me a different look into wherever I'm going. One of the classic things is how to avoid being a tourist when you travel. A lot of people want to avoid looking like or feeling like a tourist because you get the most generic experiences. And so visiting somebody and being a visitor there can be very different. You don't have to just do the touristy stuff. You can do the normal life stuff that is actually pretty interesting and novel for you or possibly. There's also a bit of a, I want to go over another use of the term that's a little bit older fashioned. So if you hear somebody who's probably in their 60s or 70s talk about visitors, they are, it's more common to like, so rather, okay, hang on, let me explain this. Right, literally a visitor is somebody that's over at your house. And a way that was really common to refer to in about whatever, 40, 50 years ago, was that people that are coming over to chat and hang out are visitors, right? And so you would say, these are my visitors. But then you'd also say that you're visiting with them as a current verb to talk about talking. And so like my grandma would say that, oh, I was just visiting with your mom or whatever, which means talking with your mom. And you can even use it like on the phone or things like that. So it does kind of become a little bit of a weird use of the word visiting. That's not as common. Nowadays to say like we have visitors is a little bit formal and you might just say we have people over. that's a lot more common or casual, I guess. So you might say, hey, what are we doing tonight? I think we had something planned, right? Oh yeah, we're having people over. But you wouldn't say, oh yeah, we're having visitors. Even though that functions, it's just a little bit more formal and stilted, maybe. And so I like to think of that word visiting, like talking, when I think of visitors as well, it makes me, feel a little bit more old-fashioned. But yeah. Anyways, that's all that I got for today. That's the entire episode. I hope that you enjoyed it and maybe learned a couple of words here and there. Let me know down in the comments what you learned and I'll see you again tomorrow for another episode. Bye-bye!
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