Learn How to Describe Your Childhood in English!

Hi, Bob the Canadian here.

In this English lesson,

I want to help you learn how to talk

about your childhood in English.

And I'm going to help you learn to do that

by talking about my childhood,

and by showing you pictures of me when I was a kid.

So, either this lesson will be interesting for you,

because you want to learn how to talk about your childhood,

or maybe you just want to see pictures of me as a kid.

Either way stick around.

We'll get started in just a minute.

(gentle music)

Well, hello and welcome to this English lesson

where I'm going to help you learn how to talk

about your childhood in English

by talking about mine.

Before we get started though,

if this is your first time here,

don't forget to click that red subscribe button,

and give me a thumbs up if this video helps you learn

just a little bit more English.

So, here is a picture of me as a baby.

I wanted to teach you three phrases

while you looked at this picture.

One is this.

I was born on a beautiful Sunday, almost 50 years ago.

So, the phrase I was born is a very common phrase to use

when talking about your childhood.

You can use it to talk about the day you were born,

or the place you were born as well.

I could also say this.

I grew up on a farm.

The phrase I grew up is very common as well,

and it kind of talks about your entire childhood.

So I could say this, I grew up on a farm.

You could say, "I grew up in the city."

Or you could even mention the specific place

where you grew up.

You could say, "I grew up in Paris."

And then lastly, we have the phrase I was born and raised.

And I think this is the American

and Canadian version of this phrase.

I think in the UK they say I was born and brought up,

but I can say this,

I was born and raised in Canada.

So, that means that I was born here,

and this is the place where I spent my childhood.

So, three phrases to use and a picture of Bob as a baby.

When I was young, I used to play with my cats.

You will often, in English, see this verb construction

when people are talking about their childhood.

They will say, "I used to..."

and then the infinitive of a verb.

I used to play with my cats.

I used to play outside a lot.

I used to play with my brothers and sisters.

We also use the construct I would.

And even though this looks like a conditional,

we use it to talk about our childhoods.

So, I could even say this,

I would play with my cats.

I would play outside.

I would play with my brothers and sisters.

You can see in this picture

my sister and I are playing with our cats.

We used to play with our cats quite a bit

when we were younger.

As a kid, I was always outside.

You can see in this picture

that I'm outside playing with my toys.

That sentence structure is very common

when people are talking about what it was like

when they were a kid.

They say things like as a child, I was always.

As a kid, I was always.

I could say, "As a kid, I was always outside.

As a kid, I was always curious.

As a kid, I was always in a good mood."

Although my mum might actually disagree with that one.

But anyways, you can see here that I am outside.

As a child, I was always outside.

And this is a very common sentence structure to use

when talking about your childhood.

My parents had a huge influence over me as a child.

I was brought up to respect my elders.

That sentence structure, I was brought up to,

indicates that someone taught you to think a certain way.

I was brought up to respect my elders.

I was brought up to appreciate hard work.

You could also use the phrase I was taught to.

When I was young, I was taught to appreciate hard work.

You can see in this picture, that at a very young age,

I'm out painting the fence on the farm.

So, my parents valued hard work,

and I was brought up to respect hard work,

and I was brought up to value hard work

as something that's important in life.

Parents sometimes also make their kids do things,

and when you talk about your childhood,

you can talk about the things that your parents made you do.

You can see in this picture

I'm wearing a yellow t-shirt and brown shorts.

As a kid, my parents made me wear hand-me-down clothes.

I rarely had new clothes as a child.

So, look at that sentence structure again,

my parents made me.

It means that they forced me to do something.

When I was a kid, my parents made me wear

hand-me-down clothes,

clothes that we got from my cousins or other families.

But I shouldn't be so negative about it.

That probably saved my parents a lot of money,

so they could take us on trips like this

where we're at Niagara falls.

In this picture you can see that I'm posing for the camera.

I'm wearing my barn clothes, we called them.

Those are the clothes that I wore when I worked in the barn.

And I wanted to teach you two phrases

that you can use to talk about your childhood

while we look at this picture.

The first phrase is this,

I spent a lot of time.

So, you could say this,

as a kid, I spent a lot of time outside.

I spent a lot of time in the barn.

And then the second phrase is this.

You could use the phrase I dreamt of.

When I was a kid, I dreamt of being a farmer.

Now, there's two past forms of the verb to dream.

You can say, I dreamed of being a farmer.

I think that's more American,

or I dreamt of being a farmer,

which is a little more Canadian or British.

But those are two phrases you can use

when you are talking about your childhood.

I spent a lot of time,

and then fill in the rest of the sentence,

or I dreamt of being,

and then fill in the rest of the sentence.

Another phrase you can use to talk

about your childhood is this,

you can start by saying

the best thing about my childhood was.

If I was to complete this sentence I would say,

"The best thing about my childhood was my parents,

my siblings, and the fact that I lived on a farm."

I think all of those things for me were just awesome.

So, when you talk about your childhood,

sometimes you'll want to start a sentence by saying

the best thing about my childhood was,

and then you'll want to finish the sentence.

And hopefully you have a happy memory that you can insert

in that sentence in order to complete it.

Well, I hope in this English lesson

you learned a little bit more

about how to talk about your childhood in English,

and I hope you enjoyed all the photos of

a younger Bob the Canadian

growing up on his parents' farm as a child.

If you enjoyed this lesson and you are not a subscriber,

please click that red subscribe button.

And for everyone else, give me a thumbs up if this video

helped you learn just a little bit more English.

And if you have a little bit more time,

why don't you stick around and watch another English lesson.