160. Going To The Playground

Marco: Hello, everyone! And welcome to EnglishPod. My name is Marco. 

Catherine: My name is Catherine. And we're going to have some fun today, Marco, right?

Marco: That's right. Today we are taking a small kid and we're going to the park and we're gonna play.

Catherine: Okay, so, there are fun things you can do at the park. We're going to learn all about them. Let's take a listen to our dialogue.

A: Hey, honey! Where were you?

B: I decided to take Kenny to the park and get some fresh air.

A: How was it? Were there a lot of kids?

B: It wasn't too crowded, but we had a great time! We got on the see-saw together, then went on a couple of different slides and then I tried to go with him in the jungle gym, but I didn't fit.

A: Sounds like fun! When we go, he always just likes to play in the sandbox.

B: Yeah, but today he was really hyper. He even got under the monkey bars, and then he went on to go on the swings for half an hour. I'm exhausted!

A: You should go to the park more often since you don't go to the gym anymore!

Marco: All right, we're back. So, now let's take a look at some of this great playground equipment on 'language takeaway'.

Language takeaway

Catherine: So, as you said, Marco, today we're focusing in 'language takeaway' on some of these things you can do at the park. Now, the first one is one of my personal favorites from childhood called the see-saw.

Marco: The see-saw. That's right. And so, basically it's that long piece of...well, sometimes metal or wood, and two people sit at each opposite end.

Catherine: Yes. And so, when one person goes down, the other person goes up. And when that person goes down, the other person goes up. So, it's a see-saw.

Marco: That's right. It's actually a very common, uh, toy that you can play with at the playground, but also another very common one I'm sure everyone knows and has been on is a slide.

Catherine: A slide. Now this is a bit hard to describe actually. Slides are usually quite colorful, but they're like tubes that are open and the child can go down. So, you're on top, maybe 2 meters high and then you go down the slide and you come down to the ground.

Marco: That's right. And actually it's the noun, a slide, but what you do is you...the verb...is you actually slide down the slide.

Catherine: Yes. And sometimes you go very fast and it's scary.

Marco: That's right. And if you want to have something a little bit less scary, you can go into the jungle gym.

Catherine: All right, jungle. Now the jungle is actually a place in South America, for example, you have jungles with lots of trees and monkeys and everything. But jungle gym is like many many different metal bars or wood together to make this open structure that boys and girls can climb on. So, basically you start on the ground and you climb all the way up it.

Marco: Okay, so,I think this is why it's called, uh, kind of like a jungle gym, right? Because you can climb up and down and grab all these bars.

Catherine: You can hang like a monkey from the bars.

Marco: Exactly.

Catherine: Yeah. So, basically it's just a cage that boys and girls can climb on and play with.

Marco: Right. And I guess you call it a jungle gym, because when you're doing all this,you're doing exercise.

Catherine: That's right.

Marco: All right. So, now maybe for the smaller kids, we just wanna play with some toys. They can just hang out at the sandbox.

Catherine: All right. This is one word, but it's actually quite literal.You'd have sand in a box.

Marco: That's right.

Catherine: And a sandbox is very safe and very fun, because boys and girls can make castles or dig, but there's nothing to it, really it's just a box with sand.

Marco: It's just a box with sand, literally. That's right. So, that's also fun for the smaller kids to be at the sandbox. Now going back to something very similar to the jungle gym, we have the monkey bars.

Catherine: Okay, now monkey bars are a very important part of the park.These are horizontal bars, so they're across... And you hang on them with your arms, so your body hangs down. And when you hang,your feet are off the ground. It's very tall. And you have to move, you have to change from one bar to the other. So, it's like a ladder that you're pulling yourself across.

Marco: Yeah. Exactly. So, you've probably seen it...Exactly how you describe it, it's a ladder. You just gotta hang on to the different bars with your arms.It's actually quite difficult to do.

Catherine: I always used to get upset because I couldn't go all the way across, because you go from one end to the other end, but my arms would get so tired that I had to drop down onto the ground.

Marco: Really. All right, something that's a little bit less exhausting, but also very fun. When you go on the swings...

Catherine: All right. Swings are great. Now swings are kind of like chairs, but they don't have a back. So, you sit down on a piece that's maybe plastic, and then someone behind you will push you. Because you're on these hanging chairs, and they'll push you and you go forward and backward. And you can go very very high, and then you come back down.

Marco: Exactly. So, these are swings. All of this equipment you've most likely seen at any of the parks that are nearby, but we're gonna post some pictures as well, so you can see more clearly what they're all about. Now, let's go and review the dialogue again before we move on to 'fluency builder'.

A: Hey, honey! Where were you?

B: I decided to take Kenny to the park and get some fresh air.

A: How was it? Were there a lot of kids?

B: It wasn't too crowded, but we had a great time! We got on the see-saw together, then went on a couple of different slides and then I tried to go with him in the junglegym, but I didn't fit.

A: Sounds like fun! When we go, he always just likes to play in the sandbox.

B: Yeah, but today he was really hyper.He even got under the monkey bars, and thenhe went on to go on the swings for half an hour. I'm exhausted!

A: You should go to the park more often since you don't go to the gym anymore!

Marco: All right, we're back. So, now let's take a look at three phrases on 'fluency builder'.

Fluency builder 

Catherine: So, our first phrase today is actually something that the parent is talking about. She wants to take Kenny to the park and get some fresh air. Now, what does it mean to go get fresh air?

Marco: Well,basically it means to go out and maybe walk or just be outside and get air from the outside, because sometimes you're in your house all the time and that's not fresh air.

Catherine: That's right. So, basically this means exactly what you're saying. It means going outside. So, kids often need to go get some fresh air, but also adults do too. Sometimes I feel like when I'm working in the office for a long time, I really need to get some fresh air. So, that means I go outside for a walk.

Marco: Exactly. So, you can tell your friends "Oh, excuse me, for a minute, I'm gonna go get some fresh air."

Catherine: Or "You know what? You're looking a little bit pale. Maybe you should go get some fresh air."

Marco: Exactly. And talking about all this great equipment and how much fun you can have. The wife said "Wow!That sounds like fun!"

Catherine: Okay, so, sounds like fun. It's not actually a sound. This phrase is really important because we say it a lot, but it actually just means that it sounds like it will be a fun time or I think it will be fun.

Marco: Yeah. So, from what you're telling me, I think it's fun.

Catherine: That's right. So, we can say this about a lot of things. I could say "Hey, Marco, we're gonna go play some football after work. Do you wanna come?"

Marco: Sure, that sounds like fun.

Catherine: All right. So, he think sit sounds like a good idea. You probably come, right?

Marco: Exactly. So, if something sounds like fun, all right... And moving on to our last phrase that we said that it was a great idea that we're going to the park and getting fresh air because we don't go to the gym anymore.

Catherine: Okay. Now this is a really important phrase to keep as a phrase. First of all, we have a gym. What do you do at a gym, Marco?

Marco: Well, you work out.

Catherine: Yeah, you exercise. Maybe you run on the treadmill or you lift weights, but it's important to remember that the verb here is to go to the gym. So, I could say "I go to the gym 3 times a week.How often do you go to the gym?"

Marco: Okay. So, that's the phrase, you go to the gym.

Catherine: I stopped going to the gym and I gained a little weight.

Marco: Okay. So, that's the way you use it. You don't use any other verb when you're talking about the gym, you say you go to the gym.

Catherine: I go to the gym. He goes to the gym regularly.

Marco: All right, very good. So, that's all the 'fluency builder' for today. Let's review our dialogue one last time.

A: Hey, honey! Where were you?

B: I decided to take Kenny to the park and get some fresh air.

A: How was it? Were there a lot of kids?

B: It wasn't too crowded, but we had a great time! We got on the see-saw together, then went on a couple of different slides and then I tried to go with him in the junglegym, but I didn't fit.

A: Sounds like fun! When we go, he always just likes to play in the sandbox.

B: Yeah, but today he was really hyper.He even got under the monkey bars, and thenhe went on to go on the swings for half an hour. I'm exhausted!

A: You should go to the park more often since you don't go to the gym anymore!

Marco: All right. There are many many different games at parks that you can probably find, especially now you have such great playground equipment, but I think these are the most basic ones that everyone knows about.

Catherine: That's right.These are pretty standard things that you'll see at a playground. I remember that a park doesn't have to have these things.Parks are just public places, maybe with benches and trees, but a playground is the part of the park where you'll see these kinds of things, like a slide or swings. And so, it's important to remember that they're not the same.

Marco: Right. And now did you ever have a bad accident? Or did you fall off the swing or the see-saw or maybe you fell off the slide?

Catherine: Oh, I fell all the time.It's never a serious accident, but swings, I liked to swing. And when I was forward, you know,up in the air, I used to let go and jump.

Marco: You would jump off the swing.

Catherine: I would jump off the swing. So, when you're very high in the air,it feels like you're flying for a minute. My mother hated it, because she thought I was going to break my arms, but I loved it.

Marco: It's great fun. And actually we would really like to know maybe you have some pictures that you can share with us of some specific playground equipment that we may have missed.There are a lot of things out there and maybe locally there are even some more fun things that we don't have.

Catherine: So, let us know what do playgrounds look like in your country. We hope to see you at englishpod.com.

Marco: All right, we'll see you guys there.

Catherine: Bye! 

Marco: Bye!