I mean, I haven't had spare time or time off in so long. I haven't done any of my interests or hobbies and --

you know what I mean, right? You don't? Oh, that's today's lesson.

We're going to talk to you about conversation skills and how you can improve them.

While talking about your downtime, hobbies, and time off. You know? Oh, you don't know? Let's do it, then. Let's go to the board.

Well, let's start off with what is a "hobby".

Well, a "hobby" is something -- and you can think of the word "habit".

I think most of you know "habit" is something you do regularly. Well, a "hobby" starts with a "h", and it means "something you do regularly".

But in this case, it's something that's fun, you do it regularly, and you don't get paid for it.

That's what we usually call your "hobby".

So you might even spend money and time to do it, but you get a lot of fun from it, and you do it regularly.

Now, another word for "hobby" is "interest".

And the funny thing about "interest" is that I could say to you, "What are your hobbies?" Or I could say to you "What are your interests?"

And it's almost the same. And we use them, English speakers, almost interchangeably,

which means we can just change them, and it doesn't really matter.

But there's a slight difference. Remember "hobby" and "habit" go together, you do regularly.

Well, "interest" means "I like it". Like, I'm interested in the theater, but I don't go all the time, maybe once every two years.

But my hobby is collecting comic books, which means I actually -- every week -- buy the comic books.

Like, I have it, and I get enjoyment from both.

So remember, you can use the words, but one is more specific, all right?

So you could say, you know, you could say, "I'm interested in reading." -- I don't have time to do it, but I like the idea of it.

versus "My hobby is reading.", which is, that's what I do when I don't have anything to do. All right?

So let's go over here. What kind of hobbies or interests can a person have? Well, one

of them is collecting. Now, what does "collecting" mean? It means "to bring together a group of things",

All right? But in this case, collecting is very specific. Personally, I collect comic books.

And I dare you to go back and watch how many videos I've done wearing a Batman T-shirt, and you'll know I'm a real collector, okay?

I love Batman. But let's just say I bought Batman No. 1.

Now, if I'm a collector, I'll also buy Batman No. 2 and Batman No. 3 and so on and so on.

I'll continue to buy. And I will keep them. I'm not going to sell them.

I'm not trying to make money, and I'm going to enjoy them as a collector.

I will go back after reading them and read them again. Just like when you collect -- we say comics; you can collect books.

You can also collect art and music. You guys know -- you collect music.

You like Duran Duran, right? -- that great group. "Girls on Film" ~ oh, I'm old.

No, that new guy, Justin Timberlake, yeah? "Mirror" -- yeah. I can't sing that song.

But you know what I mean. You can collect music. You can collect art -- Van Gogh, Picasso

-- music, again -- Beethoven, Bach, Brahms. Collect and enjoy, right?

For yourself or your friends. What else can you do? Well, you can also play.

And in this case, we're talking about playing sports. I enjoy playing sports. I enjoy playing golf? No, I don't.

But sports. You can enjoy playing cards or games. So sports: "I enjoy playing soccer." I'm saying "i-n-g".

"I enjoy playing soccer." or "I enjoy playing volleyball at the beach."

Cards: "I enjoy playing poker, solitaire" -- "Nobody loves me" because "solitaire" means to be by yourself.

Or I enjoy playing poker. Five-card stud, because I'm a stud, baby. Okay.

Now -- or games. Now, when I enjoy playing games, right, I can do "gaming".

It's a little different. Games can be board games like chess or checkers or Monopoly, and "gaming"

-- which we changed to "I enjoy gaming", so you would just say "gaming" instead of "playing" that.

It's a "Gaming" -- everybody knows it's electronic, okay? Good.

Now, "traveling" -- but I'll explain because it seems obvious. "Traveling" means anything outside of your city.

If you go to the library in your city, you're not travelling, boys and girls. You're just going to the library.

But if you have a big country -- like, I'm in Canada.

We like traveling to other parts of Canada because it's like going to Europe.

But you can travel in North America. You can travel in Europe. You can travel to Africa -- leave Europe.

Oh, my gosh, yes. You can travel between countries, continents, and large regions.

So when you say, "I enjoy travelling", it can be from a city in one part of your country to another,

or to different countries, or different continents. Cool? You should leave.

Travel a little, learn a little. "Going to": "Going to" means -- because I'm going from one place to another to do the activity,

and that is the activity, "going to" to do it, all right?

In this case, movies: "I enjoy going to the movies." That's my hobby.

Every week I see a new movie. I have a friend who watches one movie every night.

He goes to a cheap theater, and he watches movies. He loves them. That's his hobby.

Two hours a day, he gets to heaven. You know, he flies away and enjoys them, you know?

Or going to the beach. Some people like going to the beach. Like little turkeys, they lie in the sun --it's called "tanning"

-- and then they turn over at two o'clock and turn over at three o'clock and turn back.

And they cook themselves. I don't know why, but they enjoy going to the beach.

Some people like going to the theater. You know, masterpiece theater. Watch the theater. It's very intellectual, theater.

And you get to say "theater". Can't say that with movies.

It doesn't -- "movies". Sounds like a -- well, whatever.

Okay: baking and cooking. So another hobby is baking and cooking, and it's not just for women anymore.

No, sir. I like cooking too. I like cooking shows, Top Chef and whatnot, right?

Iron Chef. So you watch, and then you copy the recipe, and you make it.

So you say, "My hobby is cooking." If it is, please send me an invite, me and the worm. We're coming over.

I don't care where you live. We're coming for a visit. And make it good, son, because I don't travel for no reason,

All right? Next, this is going to be funny. I know some of you are laughing right now because,

you know, "James, we do things we enjoy, yes?"

But in school, I have to read and write. You're telling me this is hobby? Yeah, there are.

some crazy people who like to read and write. Well, reading anyway, like, I enjoy a good book.

I enjoy comic books. But some people enjoy writing and doing poems and stories,

and some people enjoy reading books, horror, drama, and whatnot, right? "Whatnot" means

"anything". So, this is what we're talking about here. These are things that could be hobbies,

but we have to talk about questions because I said

this is going to help you with conversation. You don't walk up to people and go, "I enjoy

cooking. I enjoy reading, and I enjoy playing soccer." They

will say, "Why are you talking to me? I didn't ask you that." So we can look at the questions

that you can ask somebody or they might ask you, and when you respond, you'll find out that

-- well, guess what? You have things -- what we call "things in common" -- that

help us talk to each other and get to know each other. Our interests, when they are similar,

we can become friends. Or even if they are different, we can learn from each other.

Let's go to the board, shall we? All right, so the first thing we look at is,

"What do you do in your" -- there's a "d". "D" is for "dummy". Wait. Don't be so rudy.

"D" is for "downtime". Downtime.

Downtime. "What do you do in your downtime?" Now, you notice it says, "in".

The preposition is "in". Well, because we are "in" time, right? There's a

beginning to time and an end to time, and you're somewhere "in" this time. So we say

"downtime": this is your relaxing time -- time when you're not "up" and working; you're "down" in time.

So you can relax. So a lot of native speakers go, "Hey, what do you do in your downtime?"

What time you're not working -- relaxing time, okay?

Next one we're going to do is, "What do you do with your spare time?" Well, we know what "time" is,

but what does "spare" mean? "Spare" means "extra". It has many meanings, but today,

the basic meaning is "extra". Now, we have spare change. When you have paper money -- a dollar --

and you go to the store and they give you money back and it's little metal money,

that's called your "spare change" or "coins". You do -- your spare change isn't enough to buy big things,

You buy usually gum or candy or pay for parking. Yeah, that's fun -- fun things with the spare change.

We do the same thing with our spare time. With our "spare" time --

it's our "extra" time -- remember, "spare." Because you sleep for eight hours,

you work for eight hours, you have to eat and poo-poo -- I said it. I'm sorry. --

but then you only have two or three hours a day for yourself, and that's your "spare" time.

What do you do for fun with your spare time, right? We use this preposition, "with",

to say, "Look. There's you, and there's time. How do they come together?" Well, they come together for me

for collecting things, like comics, right?

Now, we've got one more. What could that be? "What do you do when you have time off?"

"Time off". Well, what do you do when you have time off? Time off from what? From life? No. No.

I was thinking, "Could it be possible?" Time off from work, right? That's when travelling would come in.

"In my time off, I'm going travelling." Because it's usually a longer period of time, right?

So you say, "travelling" -- so your time off. We could also use it for other things,

like collecting and that -- probably "spare time", you would say, or "downtime".

Your hobbies are collecting, but time off most likely travelling, but you can still use it.

It's something we say, right? So, what do you do when you have time off?

What do you do? You can say, well, "I enjoy" or "I like to. James, 'enjoy’ and 'like' are the same."

I know, and I'm separating them for a reason. There're another couple reasons that

I don't have time to go into, but the key here is, if you remember this simple rule,

you can use it, and you'll be right, like, 90 percent of the time, no problem.

"You enjoy" -- don't use "to". Don't use this particle, this preposition "to". Don't use it.

But you can say, "I enjoy i-n-g." So I enjoy --sorry. Give me a second here.

Take a good look. You got that? But you can say this. Now, ready? Read it with me.

"I enjoy i-n-g. I enjoy i-n-g." What am I saying? "I enjoy playing." "I enjoy dancing."

"I enjoy singing." "I enjoy going." That's right. Okay? So that's, "I enjoy 'i-n-g.'"

What about "I like to"? Because we know I enjoy 'i-n-g'-ing, but "I like to". Well,

here -- "I like to" -- the verb that follows has to be in the base form, okay?

"Base form" means don't change it, so "travel", "play", "collect", right? "I like to" collect comic books."

"I enjoy collecting comic books." Do you see the difference? So we can do it with anything here, right?

"I enjoy travelling to different countries." "I like to travel."

I'm going to put "base", base form. So this means, don't change the verb, okay? So if

you can remember these two words -- if you're going to say "I enjoy 'i-n-g'", and

"I like to base". How low can you go? Turn it up. I'm just joking.

That's an old rapper reference, all right? But "base verb", so you want to use the base verb here, okay?

So let's give an example. "I enjoy traveling." "You like to -- that's right -- travel." Cool.

Excellent. All right? Now, the response to all of this when you go through this long conversation with somebody --

"yadda yadda", or, you know, "blah, blah"

-- when they finish, you go, "Hey, man, that's cool. Yeah, that's really cool." or "Dude,

that's interesting." You don't have to the "dude" part. You don't have to say that, but you can go,

"That's rather interesting. You enjoy the theater. Wow. I like to go swimming. That's cool, isn't it?The water is cool."

Made a funny, okay? Wait -- not that funny.

But to wrap up the lesson -- remember "wrap up" means "finish" or "complete", okay?

"What are your hobbies?" These are -- remember, "h" for "habits". These are things that I like to do,

enjoy doing, and do regularly, and I don't get paid for it, right?

Another word is "interests", but "interests" could be "what do I like" -- it doesn't mean it's a hobby,

but I'm interested in this and that, okay? We talked about that.

We've got three others here: "Downtime", "spare time", and "time off" are all similar, right? And finally, "enjoy".

"I enjoy i-n-g. I enjoy i-n-g." Yeah, you like that. Can't see my butt move, my butt -- my bottom.

It's really nice, though. It's cute. It's good. And finally, "base"

-- how low do you go? "I like to ’verb in the base'", all right? Now, and the final thing is,

"Oh, that's cool. That's really interesting." Those are good responses after someone tells you these are the -- these are their hobbies, okay?

So I got to go. Hey, it's like Superman. I just popped that shirt. See that?

I enjoy being Superman. That's my secret identity -- my hobby. Okay, Mr. E and I are out.

We're going to have some fun right now -- going to go play sometimes. We're not going to go read anything.

That's his thing. I lied. I hate reading. I don't know how to read. I'm illiterate. Illiterate. You know that?

Anyway. So -- okay. I'm out, but before I go, you have to go to www.engvid.com,

where "eng" stands for "English" and "vid" stands for "video" -- okay?

-- where myself -- Mr. E is always present, and there's, like --

I think there're like 975 new teachers. It's incredible. It's just crazy out there.

I'm just playing with you. It's my hobby. See? I enjoy doing that.

I'm really interested in what you have to say, though, so don't forget to go do the quiz when you're done.

Got to go. Bye.