Free English Class! ⏰🚨 Topic: Stressful Things (Lesson Only)

Well hello and welcome to this English lesson about stressful

things. Life has a funny way of being stressful sometimes. And

I guess it's not actually funny is it? Stress is not a nice

thing. You might have stress in life. You might have stress at

work. You might have stress at school. In this English lesson

I'm going to talk about all of those stressful things that we

have in life as human beings. All of these stressful

situations. Um hopefully you understand what stress is.

Stress is a feeling of worry. A feeling of anxiety. Um the most

common way to describe it in English of course is to say

that you are stressed. You're feeling stressed. Um I have a

few things I have to do today and I'm a little bit stressed

about them. So I'm a little bit worried. I have a little bit of

anxiety. But today I just hope that you're able to learn a lot

of new English words and phrases while we talk about

stressful things. A job interview. So I picked this one

because I was trying to think of one of the most stressful

things that I've experienced in my life. And I must say that a

job interview is very very stressful. You go to a place

where they are hiring people. You apply for a job. They might

call you and say hey we'd like you to come in for an

interview. And you go in and you talk to a few of the people

who work there. They ask you lots of questions and you try

your best to explain who you are and how you could be a

benefit to their So a job interview definitely stressful.

By the way I do have a an English lesson about job

interviews. Maybe Dave or Todd could dig that up and link it

in the chat if you're looking for it. Common job interview

questions and maybe if you prepare for an interview it's

less stressful. I think that's how it works. The first day of

school. So I don't experience this the same way a student

would. But if any of you are students or if you have kids

who still go to school the First day of school can be very

stressful. In Ontario Canada kids spend most of the summer

playing and enjoying themselves and then as the end of August

comes they might start to feel a bit of stress because the

first day of school is usually the day after Labor Day. We

have a holiday in September and then school begins. I know in

other places in North America school starts a few days or

weeks earlier. But here the first day of school can

certainly be a stressful event. And of course the first day of

work. Let's say you go to a job interview. And they call and

say you got the job. You would be excited but you might be a

little bit nervous for your first day of work. Because you

don't know anyone. Necessarily. Uh you're not sure what they're

going to ask you to do maybe. So your first day of work can

be very stressful. I know for me when I started my current

job I was very stressed on my first day of work because I

wasn't sure how well the were going to like me or listen to

me in my classrooms. So the first day of work can be very

very stressful. Well this is kind of the opposite isn't it?

The opposite of the first day of work would be getting fired

or losing your job. And let me explain the difference between

the two. When you get fired it means your boss talks to you

and says we are we no longer need you. And generally you get

fired after you've done something wrong at work. So

maybe you're building things at work and you build it wrong all

the time and your boss has told you over and over again how to

do it correctly. Um and you keep doing it wrong they might

eventually just fire you. When you lose your job it doesn't

mean you were doing anything wrong. Although it could mean

that. But maybe they just don't need you anymore. Maybe there

there are 500 people at the factory. And they only need 450

people next year. So they might come to you and say look we are

going to you're going to be laid off we would say in

English in my part of the world. You would lose your job.

But definitely Losing your job or getting fired is very

stressful because you're not sure where are you going to get

another job? How are you going to pay your bills if you don't

have a paycheck? Losing something. This is a general

statement. Um I have in the past lost my phone. I have in

the past lost my keys. Uh I have in the I've never lost any

of my children. Although once at the mall one of our children

was gone for like 30 seconds and we panicked. It's very

stressful. Um but we're talking about things not people. Um

when you lose your keys when you lose your phone when you

lose your wallet. That is very very stressful. I think the

most stress full of all of those would be when you lose

your wallet. Uh and you try to figure out where did I use my

wallet last. Um what's the last thing I did with it? Definitely

a very very stressful situation. Running late. So

this morning I was running late. Jen and I were both

trying to brush our teeth at the same time. Uh Jen was

heading out this morning to bring the kids to school. Uh

and I was trying to get ready for my live lesson. Um and so I

is running late. When you are late for work, when you're late

for an appointment, when you're late for a meeting, sometimes

I'm late for class at school, the bell goes at our school

saying that class class has begun and I'm still running

down the hallway with my books and laptop. So definitely yes

running late is very very very stressful. Car won't start. So

this is one that I think causes a lot of stress. Especially if

this is happening at the same time. If your car won't start

and you need your car to start it can be very stressful.

Sometimes you get up in the morning and you're running a

bit late and you jump in your car and you turn the key and

instead of starting the car doesn't make any sound at all.

Um that's stressful. And then you have to call a tow truck or

you have to try and get your car to a garage. Or maybe

someone needs to come with booster cables and hook their

car to your car so that they can boost you. So anyways

having a car that won't start. Certainly a stressful

situation. Being broke or having no money which are is

it's the same thing. Um when I was a lot younger there was a

time where I lived in Quebec City. Um I worked in a

restaurant and I was very broke. I did not have a lot of

money. I had enough money to pay rent. Um but sometimes at

end of the month I would eat oatmeal for a few days in a

row. Because I didn't have enough money to buy groceries.

So that's when I was about I think twenty-two twenty-one

twenty-two. Uh I lived in Quebec. I had a nice job. But

it was only three nights a week. And once I paid my rent

and paid my bills. I didn't always have a lot of money left

over. So that was stressful. Um it's stressful when you don't

have enough money or when you are broke. You. Death. So I've

been meaning to do a lesson on this at some point but I just

don't know how to do it in a way that's respectful. It's a

difficult topic. I do want to cover all the topics in life.

But certainly when you have when someone you know passes

away that's another way in English that we talk about

death. Or we might say the family is sad because there was

a death in the family. Which means maybe an uncle or a

cousin or a grandparent passed away. But death is certainly

very very stressful. Especially when someone die very young.

When someone dies and they're in their thirties or 40s or

50s. Especially if they're married and have children. It's

very very stressful on the person who's left behind. So

death I'm not going to say that one kind of death is more

stressful than another. But certainly a death of a friend.

Death in the family. Uh when someone you know passes away it

causes stress in all of the people who are connected to the

person who has died. Injury. So I had an injury like this when

I was a kid. Uh an injury can cause a lot of stress. When I

was a kid I had a cast like that on my right hand or right

arm and that's also the hand that I write with. I'm right

handed. So when you have an injury it's stressful. When you

injure something like your hand or one of your legs it's even

more stressful. Because if you injure the hand that you use

all the time to write you can't write. Or maybe you can't use

the mouse on the computer. If you injure legs you can't walk.

And so not only is there the stress caused from the pain of

the injury there's the stress caused by having a difficult

time leading a normal life. So injuries definitely stressful

as well. And then a bad I feel bad for this this is a picture

from a free picture website but I've used this picture a lot. I

usually use this picture when I have to when someone angry when

I need a picture of someone angry. But a bad boss or a bad

manager at work can cause a lot of stress. If you work

somewhere where your boss yells at you all the time. If you

work somewhere where you can you do everything to the of

your abilities but your boss still finds something wrong

that you've done. If you have a boss who tells you what to do

every minute of the day instead of trusting you to do the work

that can cause a lot of stress. And we would call that a bad

boss. Um and the strong phrase in English that people would

say if they were talking with a friend they would just say ah

hate my boss. Now hate is a very strong word. But we often

use it in English to talk about situations like that. Do you

want pizza? No no I hate pizza. How's work? Oh I hate my boss.

He's driving me crazy. So it doesn't mean you actually like

hate them. Like you're not going to yell at them or

anything like that. It just means you have a bad boss and

they are not very pleasant. Illness or sickness. So

sometimes people ask what's the difference between illness and

sickness. They are the same thing. Um we usually in English

instead of saying he has an illness or they have a

sickness. We usually just say they're sick. Um but if you

have an illness or if you have sickness it could be very

stressful. Most people like to live a normal life. I think

everyone likes to live a normal life. When you are sick and you

can't go to work when you are sick And you can't look at a

computer screen because it makes your head feel funny.

That's what I had when I had COVID. I couldn't look at a

computer screen. It could be very very stressful and very

very challenging. Moving. So my British cousins say move house.

He's going to move house. I don't know the exact phrase. In

Canada we just say moving. He's moving. She's moving. When are

you moving? I'm going to be moving this summer. I I'm not

by the way. That's just an example. But moving be very

stressful. When you live in an apartment or a house and you

have to pack up all your things and then move to another place

to live it can be very stressful. You don't know who

your neighbors are going to be. You don't know necessarily what

the neighborhood is like. So moving can be very very

stressful as well. Um thankfully Jen and I have only

moved once. We used to live in town and then we moved to the

Farm and I don't think we're going to move anytime soon.

We're going to be here for quite a while. Social

situations. So I actually have a social situation next

weekend. And I haven't actually been in a social situation for

a a couple of years. Uh because of COVID. But social

situations. Parties. Uh work parties. Um when you need to go

somewhere where there's a lot of people and you need to talk

to them. Social situations can be awkward. That means you

don't know what to talk about. It can be stressful because

people might ask you a lot of questions or you might be

worried what if noone talks to me? Right? Because in a social

situation there's little groups of people talking and you might

not know who to talk to when you are there. But definitely

social situations can cause stress. Having a baby. So

having a baby. So we have five kids. Having a baby is

incredibly in like it's incredibly joyful. It's it

brings a lot of happiness into your home. Having a baby is a

wonderful thing. But at the same time it's very stressful.

Um and especially the day you go to the hospital. So each

time we went to the hospital when Jen was giving birth to

one of our kids. Um I'm not going to give too much

information but each birth happened completely differently

than the other. So it was always a stressful situation

for us. Um pregnancy itself I think our first pregnancy when

Jen was first pregnant with our first child. It was Stressful

but Jen read a lot of books and she had friends who are also

having babies around the same time. But actually going to the

hospital I think was more stressful for me than Jen.

Maybe we'll do a maybe we'll do an English lesson together

about pregnancy and giving birth someday. Well I'll talk

to Jen and see if she'll agree to that. She might be stressed

to be in a video though. Getting married. So this was

mentioned earlier. Um there's a number of stresses with getting

married. There's the actual wedding day. The day you get

married can be very stressful. When you go to a church or a

temple or the city hall or wherever you're going to to go

for the wedding. Um depending on your religion or if it's

non-religious. Um it can be stressful there's lots of

family. There's lots of friends. Sometimes the parents

of the groom and the parents of the bride have their own ideas

about how the wedding should go. Um and then actually being

married can be stressful. Um after the wedding day once you

start to live together the first few months it can be

stressful learning to live with another person. But I think

it's worth it by the way. Uncertainty. So I just put a

big question mark for this one. Uncertainty is when you are not

certain about something in the future. Maybe you are in school

and you don't know if you're going to get a job after you

graduate. So there's uncertainty there. Maybe you

just bought a used car. And you're not sure if it's going

to break down on you. You're there's some uncertainty there.

Um maybe you lost your job and you're not sure if you'll be

able to find another one. There's uncertainty. So

uncertainty is any time in life when you're not sure what the

future holds. Okay. Um I even have it as a farmer. Sometimes

I'm trying to do things where we need it to be sunny for

three or four days in a row and then I have some uncertainty

whether I should start outdoor work because sometimes the

weather changes. Divorce. So we've gone to the other end of

marriage. So getting married or being in a marriage can be

stressful. Hopefully it's not. Um but certainly divorce is

stressful. Divorce is more stressful. I think if there are

children involved sometimes people get married and they

have some children and then they get a divorce. Um so

that's how we talk about it in English as well. We say oh Joe

and Jill are getting a divorce. Um before you're divorced

usually couples will be separated. When you're

separated it means that you're just not living together

anymore. So often when a couple starts to fight one of one of

the spouses will move out and they will be separated. Maybe

the the husband will get an apartment somewhere or maybe

yeah maybe someone will move back in with their parents in

the relationship. So they'll be separated then eventually they

might be divorced. So separation is the choice to not

live together. Divorce is the legal separation so that you

are no longer married. Getting arrested. I don't know a lot

about one but I think getting arrested it's probably

stressful. Um if you've lived a life of crime if you've

committed a lot of crime I think that you would be really

stressed if you got arrested. If the police came to your door

and put handcuffs on you I think you would feel like oh no

I've done something horribly wrong and now I am going to

jail. Retirement. So interestingly enough a lot of

people look forward to being retired. Um and I think that

sometimes people retire and they don't know what to do with

themselves. That's how we would describe it. Maybe they've gone

to work every day for 35 years. And they really enjoy their

job. And now they're 65 or 70 and they're retired and they

don't know what to do every morning. They have breakfast

and they're kind of bored. So retirement I think is 99%

awesome. But for well of the people it might be a little bit

stressful. Where they maybe they don't have friends to hang

out with. Maybe their friends are still working. But

definitely it can be a bit stressful. And then going

bankrupt. So this is when you are running a business. And you

aren't making enough money to pay your bills. Um and then

eventually your business might declare bankruptcy. When you're

bankrupt it means you don't have any money. You you you

can't pay your rent. You can't pay your bills. Um and it's

just very very difficult and challenging and certainly

extremely stressful. Dropping your phone. I put the what did

because I see this happen at school about once a month I

will see a student drop their phone and they don't always

break phones are actually quite durable now but the look on

someone's face when they're on their phone and then they drop

it. They're the look on their face is like oh no I just

dropped my phone because phones are very very expensive. It's

very very expensive if you drop your phone and break it. In

fact many students well not many. A few have phones where

the screen is cracked but the phone still works. And then

they probably breathe a sigh of relief. That after dropping

their phone it still works. Um sending a text or a email or a

text message to the wrong person. Um I don't know if

you've ever done this. Um I've done this but usually the

message isn't that big of a deal. But I found this picture

on the internet. Accidentally text boss complaining I'm stuck

in a pointless meeting. So that would be stressful if you're in

a meeting and your boss is talking and you think you're

texting a colleague wow this meeting is boring send and then

you hear your boss's phone go and your boss is like basically

looking at you. So sending a message or text to the wrong

person. This is a relatively new stressful thing. Um I mean

2030 years ago you couldn't really do this but now we live

in a world where we send messages so quickly. It can be

quite stressful when you hit send and you realize you've

sent a message to the wrong person. A test. So tests are

very very stressful. Um writing the test is stressful. But the

days leading up to this test are stressful as well. If you

are planning to take an english test let's say you register to

take an English test in June. And we're sitting here in

March. Your stress is very low. But every week your stress will

get bigger as the test approaches. Tests can be very

stressful for people for sure. Uh public speaking this is a

very common one. It can be very stressful to talk in front of

people. Um when you know that you have to give a speech when

you know you have to stand in front of 50 or 100 or a000

people. It can be very very stressful. Um and again being

prepared is a great way to reduce the stress a little bit.

As someone mentioned having an English conversation can be

stressful. Again two things that can reduce the stress of

an English conversation. Number one make sure you're having

regular conversations each week with someone. Use preply.

There's a link in the description below. Um find

someone who you can pay to talk to you for 30 minutes or an

hour each week. Um that regular weekly practice will reduce the

stress you have when you speak English to someone else. And

then number two prepare for your conversations. Always try

to think of things that you can talk about. A disagreement. So

sometimes you and a friend might disagree. Maybe you and

your brother disagree. Maybe you and your spouse disagree. A

disagreement is never enjoyable. Maybe you have a

disagreement with someone at work and the two of you just

don't get along. It can be very stressful to go to work

everyday knowing that someone you work with disagrees with

you on a certain matter. A child moving out. So this is

when your kids get older. And this would be something

stressful that's unique to parents. But all of us had

parents. So we might be somewhat familiar with this.

When kids start to move out when a kid goes to university.

Or when a child is 17 or 18 or nineteen and they move out of

the house. It could be very stressful for the parents. It

could be stressful for the kids. But in my experience I

think the kids are more excited to move out and the parents are

more stressed when kids move out. Will they find a job? Will

they do well at school? Will they find friends? Will they

meet someone? All of those things are what parents think

about when kids move out. Getting evicted. So this is not

the same as moving but this will cause you to move. When

you get evicted it means that your landlord the person who

owns the house or apartment that you live in has decided

that you can't live there anymore. And then you get

evicted. So when you live in an apartment if you don't pay your

rent for a few months in Canada you will get evicted. Um

sometimes the landlord needs to renovate the And so they might

evict you while they do some repair work in there. But

definitely getting evicted would be super super stressful.

Math. I put this on here just to be funny but some students

find math very very stressful. They like reading stories. They

like learning about history but math in particular can be very

stressful for students. So this is a bit of a joke but there's

some truth to it. Math can be stressful for people. Debt so

we Talked about going broke. We talked about having no money.

Certainly when you're in a lot of debt it means you have

borrowed money. So maybe you have a loan that you took out a

loan to buy a car and so you owe the bank ten thousand

dollars. Maybe you took out a loan that's called a mortgage

to buy a house and so you owe the bank money. When you borrow

money you are in debt and having a lot of debt can be

very very Stressful. In-laws. I've put this one on here just

to kind of be funny. I have really nice in-laws. But when

you get married the parents and brothers and sisters of the

person you marry are called your in-laws. So you have your

father-in-law, your mother-in-law and those kinds

of things. Brother-in-law, sister-in-law. Uh and sometimes

that can be stressful. Um I luckily Jen's family is very

very nice. So my mother-in-law and father-in-law all my

brother-in-laws and sister-in-laws are wonderful

people. Um but it can be Stressful when you get married

because sometimes maybe you have disagreements with your

in-laws. Maybe you don't get along with your in-laws and

that can cause a lot of stress. And to extend that sometimes a

family gathering. This is similar to the stress you would

feel in a social situation. But maybe once a year your whole

family gets together at one person's house. All of your

uncles and aunts and cousins and grandparents. And it maybe

it's just an awkward Family gathering where maybe you don't

get along with your uncle. Maybe you and your cousin have

been arguing. So family gatherings can be somewhat

stressful for people. I talked a little bit about this

earlier. Insomnia. Insomnia is when you go to bed and you just

can't sleep. Maybe you sleep for an hour or two and then

you're just wide awake for a couple hours. Maybe you go to

bed and you just can't fall asleep till two or three in the

morning. Maybe you go to bed and you sleep till three and

you wake up and you just lay there with your eyes open for

three more hours and then you get up and have breakfast.

Insomnia is how we describe the inability to sleep at night and

it can cause huge amounts of stress for people. And then the

last one being overweight. So I think depending on you know how

you live each day depending on your daily routine. Um

sometimes people tend to be a little heavier than they should

be. When they go to the doctor the doctor might say you need

to lose 10 pounds or you need to lose 20 pounds. Or you need

to lose five kilos kilograms. Um so being overweight usually

results from having a stressful life your stressful life causes

you to eat more because sometimes eating reduces stress

but it can make you a little bit overweight and so it can

just be stressful to be overweight. Not only that when

you're overweight I think you're stressed about your own

health as well. So I'm honestly I am overweight right now. Um I

mean maybe you don't think so but I know when I go to the

doctor he's going to say that I'm 15 to 20 pounds overweight.

Uh so I'm I guess I should work on that. I should I guess this

image is for me. So because I want to be a healthy active

person for a very very long time. I want to get old and I

want to be healthy when I'm old. And in order to do that I

need to make sure I stay fit. That means that I don't get too

overweight.