THINK and SPEAK in English

Vanessa: Are you ready to  

think and speak in English today? Let's do it. If you've ever watched an English movie or TV  

show, I'm sure you've heard people ask, "Hey hun,  how was your day?" But have you ever asked this  

question to yourself? If not, that changes today. Over the next 30 minutes, you are going to be  

immersing yourself in English and learning  how to describe your daily routine and your  

vacations in English, so that you can  think in English and speak in English. 

And like always, I have created a free  PDF worksheet for you with all of today's  

important vocabulary, expressions,  ideas, definitions, sample sentences.  

And at the bottom of the worksheet you  can answer Vanessa's challenge question  

so that you never forget what you've learned. You can click on the link in the description  

to download that free PDF worksheet today. All right, let's get started by talking about  

your daily routine and a phrase that you can  use to talk about the beginning of your day. 

If I'm lucky, first thing in the morning,  I'll hear my alarm, maybe push snooze and  

get up slowly, but if I'm not lucky, I'll  hear one of my children screaming, "Mommy!"  

And I have to get out of bed. First thing. I used this expression,  

first thing two times. The first time was at  the beginning of a phrase, first thing in the  

morning. Make sure that you don't add, first of  things, or first of... It's only first thing.  

First thing in the morning, I hear my alarm. Or we could use it at the end of a phrase like  

you just heard me say. I might say, "I wake up  and make coffee, first thing." I make coffee,  

first thing. Actually for me, I don't make  coffee. I don't even know if I know how to  

make coffee. I always make tea. I'm quite an  amateur, maybe say newbie, or maybe clueless,  

when it comes to coffee. My husband Dan  likes coffee, but I could say, "I wake up  

and make tea, first thing," beautiful phrase. Let's go to the next part of my morning. After  

I'm awake, I head to the kitchen and start  to make some breakfast. Sometimes my kids  

and I read a book or play a little game at  breakfast, because not everyone in our house  

is a morning person. Sometimes at least one  of us will wake up on the wrong side of the  

bed. So having a little bit of fun lightens the  mood and helps you to start your day off right. 

Do you know what a morning person is? A  morning person is someone who wakes up happy,  

ready to start the day. Are you a morning person?  Or maybe you wake up on the wrong side of the bed? 

This is a little bit metaphorical. There's  not really a good side of the bed and a bad  

side of the bed, but it means that you  wake up grumpy, maybe a little cranky,  

maybe not so happy. You could say, "Oh, I  woke up on the wrong side of the bed today,  

I need some coffee," or tea, if you're me. Then, after breakfast, I drop my son Theo  

off at preschool. This phrasal verb, to  drop off, can be used for people or for  

things. So you heard me use it for people. I  drop my son Theo off at school, or we could  

put it together, I drop off my son at preschool. But we could also drop something off. I dropped  

my computer off at the repair shop. Make sure  that you don't forget the word, off, because if  

you just say, "I dropped my computer at the repair  shop," it means your computer fell on the ground,  

broke... Luckily, you're at the repair shop, but  it means something really different than to drop  

off. So make sure that you say, "I dropped  off my computer at the repair shop," or,  

"I dropped my computer off at the repair shop." Then I come home to start my workday. Usually I  

catch up on some emails. I go over any lessons  that I'm going to have for my students,  

and sometimes I just call a friend to catch up. This phrasal verb, to catch up, or,  

to catch up on, is often used in daily life.  And you can probably use it in your life too. 

Let's take a look at some situations. Let's  imagine you've had a super busy week and it's  

the weekend, and you look around and  your house is a disaster. Right now,  

my couch is covered in blankets. This table  has papers and everything, all over it. 

Oh boy, I need to catch up on chores. I need  to catch up on some cleaning that I didn't do  

during the week. Can you guess what this means?  There's something that you've delayed doing,  

maybe you don't want to or you don't  have time, and now it's time to do it. 

So I could say, "I need to  catch up on some emails," or,  

"I need to catch up on some cleaning." But I also use this to talk about my friend,  

"I call my friend to catch up." Well, it kind  of has the same idea. I haven't talked to my  

friend for a while, and now we're talking about  everything that's happened since we last talked. 

So if you see someone, maybe you're in the grocery  store and you run across someone who you haven't  

seen for a while, you might say, "Hey, you  want to go get some coffee and catch up?" 

That means I haven't seen you for  a while, I want to hear everything  

that's been happening. Let's catch up. I also said in my little story that I go  

over some lessons and this is a simply a really  common way to say, review. You can use this in  

the workplace a lot. You might ask someone to  help you out. You could say, "Hey, could you go  

over this email before I send it?" Maybe you're  writing a really important email and you want to  

make sure you have everything right. You could  ask a coworker, "Hey, when you have a second,  

could you go over this email before I send it?  I would really appreciate it." That's so polite. 

And also, if the other person is a kind  person, they might feel kind of good about  

themselves, like, oh, you think my opinion and  my ideas are important and worthwhile? "Sure,  

I'll go over that email for you. I  will give it my stamp of approval." 

When I finish my work, I pick up my son  from preschool and we head home. This verb,  

to head somewhere, is used all the time.  Let me give you a couple of situations. 

You might say like I just did, "I'm heading home."  That means you're going in the direction of home.  

You're not there yet. You're not stopped, but  that's where you're going. I'm heading home. 

Or if someone calls you and says, "What are  you doing?" You could say, "I'm headed to the  

store." I'm headed to the store... In American  English, the store usually means the grocery  

store or the supermarket. You're going to  go buy some food... I'm headed to the store. 

Or if you are ready to go and everyone  else is just taking their good old time,  

you could say, "All right, it's time to head out." This phrase, to head out, means out of the house,  

"Come on, it's time to head out. Let's go."  A great way to use, to head, to head out. 

When we get home, sometimes my son and I have a  little tea party together and chat about his day.  

Usually as we're eating and drinking, he kind of  opens up about his day. And if he doesn't open up  

while we're eating, sometimes I ask some specific  questions like, "How many holes did you dig  

today?" "Did you jump in the leaf pile?" He goes  to an outdoor nature school. So they play outside  

all day, all weather, any season... They're  pretty tough. They have lots of good warm clothes. 

But asking these types of specific questions  can help him to review his day in an easier  

way. You might hear people in movies and TV shows  using the phrase, "Tell me about your day?" Or,  

"What did you do today?" Or, "What did  you learn in school today?"... even worse. 

These types of broad questions, usually we  don't really like to answer, especially at  

the end of the day, you feel like you just want  to detox, decompress. And it's tough to summarize  

your day in just a few words like that. So maybe when you were a kid, if your mom  

asked you, "What did you learn in school  today?" You probably said, "Oh, nothing,"  

because it's just too hard to summarize your day. So if you have a significant other, if you have  

kids, if you're just asking someone about their  day, I recommend, first of all, doing something  

together, spending some quality time together.  You don't have to have a tea party, although I  

highly recommend it... Very fun. All you need is  some tea, maybe a little snack, cut up an apple,  

have some nuts or dried fruit, whatever you like. And just spending quality time together can help  

someone to open up. This is a phrase we're going  to use in just a minute. I want to tell you about  

it, but I recommend if someone doesn't open up  ask him specific questions. This helps someone  

to recall the information that happened to  them during the day. Especially with kids,  

this is helpful because they're just  living their life. They're not thinking  

about summarizing at the end of the day. So when you ask a specific question, "Oh,  

what game did you play at recess today?" "Oh,  did you eat anyone else's food at lunch today?"  

These specific questions can help your child  to open up. And this phrasal verb, to open up,  

is beautiful. I love this concept. When you're talking with someone,  

usually at the beginning there's kind  of a wall. You don't immediately share  

your deepest thoughts. If someone says,  "Hey Vanessa, how are you doing today?" 

No matter how I'm really feeling, I'll always  say, "Oh, pretty good. What about you?" Because  

I'm not ready to open up. In those types  of passing situations, we're just not  

comfortable sharing our inner thoughts. So when you spend quality time together,  

that wall kind of drifts away a little more and  someone might be more willing to be vulnerable,  

and that's the idea. When you open up, that  means that you are willing to talk about your  

struggles, something difficult in your life,  something really meaningful in your life,  

not just the surface, shallow things. But when you really open up to someone,  

you're being your authentic self. So  just remember these Vanessa tips the  

next time that you want someone to open up to you. All right, let's go to the next part of my day.  

When the weather's nice, usually our neighbors  come over and hang out. Sometimes we have snacks,  

sometimes we play games, sometimes we just  chat. But because my backyard is very sunny,  

it's a favorite hangout spot. And this word, to hang out,  

can be used in two different ways. It can be  used as a verb. We love to hang out in the  

backyard... This means to casually spend time,  usually with other people. We hang out together. 

Or it can be used as a noun. This is a  hangout, or as an adjective. So I guess  

we can use this in three ways... A hangout spot.  So it's describing this location. What kind of  

location is it? It's a hangout spot. It's not  a professional place. It's not a private place,  

instead it's a hangout spot. It's where we  just go to spend time with other people. 

After hanging out with friends, as the sun starts  to go down, usually we come inside and start to  

cook dinner. While we're eating dinner, we try to  sit down at the table as a family. It's nice to  

try to have a little bit of quality time together.  So we like to ask each other some questions. 

The most common questions... In fact, my  four-year-old son Theo loves to ask these  

to us. He asks us one by one, "What  was the best part of your day?" And  

when everyone has answered, he asks, "What  was the most challenging part of your day?" 

And it's so funny the things that kids  will say to these questions. So if you  

haven't done this in your home, if your kids  aren't familiar with English, it's okay,  

you can ask in your native language. But  asking these questions helps to kind of  

prompt conversation a bit. And when you're opening  up about the best thing or the most challenging  

thing about your day, it kind of encourages  the other people at the table to open up too. 

Oh, what a great phrasal verb  that we just learned about. 

There are two phrases I want to share with  you that I just mentioned. One of them is,  

as a family. Now this just means the group,  the whole group, the family group. But we can  

use the same structure in other ways. We  could say as a family, as a neighborhood,  

as a community, as a department, as an office. So it's talking about all the people that are  

in that group. So for example, you could say  it's important to spend some time together as a  

couple without your kids. So if you have kids,  spending time without them is very important. 

So you could say, as a couple, just you and  your significant other, it's important to be  

together without your kids occasionally. Another expression that I used is quality  

time. I already mentioned this when I was  talking about the tea party... I think I  

might've mentioned it. If not, having a tea  party is good quality time too, but it means  

that you are not just having a shallow experience  together. It's not rushed. You don't have to go  

anywhere. You're just enjoying each other's  presence. So I really encourage you to try to  

spend some quality time with someone this week. It means that you don't need to go anywhere. You  

don't have any kind of schedule. You have a  full hour just to take a walk with a friend,  

or to chat on the phone, or to play a game with  your kids. Something that's quality time. There's  

no agenda. You're just enjoying being together. After dinner, we clean up. We put the kids to bed,  

we tuck them in and tell them, "Sleep tight."  So one of these expressions that I used,  

you have to be very careful about, I said,  "We put the kids to bed." This means that  

we help them sleep. So maybe we brush their  teeth, we read some books, we sing some songs,  

and we help them to relax. When you say, "We  put the kids to bed," that's what it means,  

but you have to be very careful because  if you change the word, bed, for sleep,  

if you put someone to sleep, it's very different. Usually this is a pet. So if we said I had to put  

my dog to sleep last week, it means you had  to euthanize, which is a nice way to say,  

kill your dog. Maybe that means he was really  old, he was suffering. It's a really tough  

thing to do, but it's often necessary. So make sure that you do not say,  

"I had to put my kids to sleep." Instead, "I  had to put my kids to bed." Oh, much better. 

Of course, if you say, your kids, people are  probably going to understand that you mean you  

helped them sleep, but just to make certain that  you're using the best expression, you can say,  

"I put my kids to bed every night at seven  o'clock." I put my kids to bed... Beautiful. 

The final thing that I say to my kids before  they go to bed is, "Sleep tight." What? Tight?  

This is a fun expression that's actually shortened  from another full expression. It is, "Goodnight,  

sleep tight. Don't let the bed bugs bite." Of course, we hope you don't have bugs in  

your bed. This is a very old expression.  Sometimes we say that full expression,  

"Goodnight, sleep tight." Sometimes we say,  "Goodnight, sleep tight. Don't let the bed bugs  

bite." But oftentimes we just shorten that to,  "Goodnight, sleep tight," or just, "Sleep tight."  

And it just means, I hope you sleep well. So if you hear people say this in English  

movies or TV shows, or if you want to  say this yourself, it's great. A very  

natural thing to say at the end of the night. After the kids are in bed, Dan, my husband,  

and I have some precious downtime. Sometimes we  get caught up on chores, maybe get caught up on  

a book that we're reading, sometimes just  chat about our day and decompress. This is  

a great expression, downtime, it means you have  nothing else to do except decompress and relax. 

It's essential to have downtime, especially before  you go to bed. If you are looking at Instagram,  

while you're in your bed, oh no, no, no. Stop that  right away. It's very bad for your sleep. You need  

to have some downtime. Give yourself a one-hour  pause before you go to bed to try to slow your  

mind down. Having some downtime with someone you  love or just by yourself, relaxing is essential. 

When the day's over, it's finally time to hit  the hay. If I've had a really busy day, I might  

just sleep like a log. But if I'm feeling a bit  stressed or there's a lot going on in my mind,  

I might toss and turn a bit before finally falling  asleep. And fingers crossed that my children sleep  

all night so I don't have to wake up in the middle  of the night to help them. And that's my day. 

Let's talk about some of those expressions I just  used. To hit the hay, does not mean that I'm a  

farmer and I have a last-minute chore at the end  of the day, I need to hit the hay. No, instead it  

just means sleep. I need to hit the hay. My head  needs to go on the pillow, I need to hit the hay. 

And I also said that I might sleep like a log.  Does a log move? Does a log make any sounds?  

Nope. It's just a tree that fell over and there  it is. Nice and silent and still. It means you  

slept very soundly, very quietly, and peacefully. But to toss and turn on the other hand, to toss  

and turn means that you did not sleep  peacefully, or at least you didn't go to  

bed peacefully. Your body and your mind  is too active, you tossed and turned. 

And what about the last one I used? Fingers  crossed. This is just a fun way to say,  

I hope that my kids sleep all night. Fingers  crossed that my kids sleep all night, and me too. 

Thank you for joining me for my daily  routine. I'm curious if your daily  

routine is similar to mine. Let's move on and  advance your English skills to help you think  

and speak in English by talking about another  important part of your life, which is vacation. 

I hope that you had a special vacation this past  summer, and I'd like to help you speak about it in  

English. So I want you to hear about my vacation  and learn some important words that you can use to  

help you think and speak in English. Let's watch. 

My family went on a four-hour road trip  to West Virginia to meet up with Dan's  

side of the family. Unfortunately, Dan's  brother got bronchitis so he couldn't come. 

A road trip is when you drive a long  distance and usually the journey is  

also important. These are common trips in  the US, maybe because the US is so big. 

Let's take a look at another sample sentence. Some  of my favorite memories from childhood vacations  

are taking road trips across the country. You also heard me use the phrase, to meet up with.  

This is used when you are getting together with  someone who you already know. Let's take a look  

at this sentence, "We made plans to meet up with  our friends while we were traveling in Spain." 

All right, let's continue with my summer vacation  story. We rented a cabin in the woods that also  

had a hot tub or jacuzzi that my kids loved.  The word, rent, is commonly used for vacations.  

You might rent an Airbnb, you might rent a car,  or maybe you could say we rented an RV so that  

we could take a road trip around the US. All right, let's continue. We went hiking  

and rock-climbing. We made a bonfire and we ate  amazing food, including a five-course wine-tasting  

that Dan's parents put on. That was amazing. On our vacation, we did three common activities  

that we do outdoors on vacation. We went hiking,  we went rock-climbing, and we had a bonfire. 

I'm curious if having a bonfire is common in your  country. I know sometimes this is really common,  

but sometimes it's almost unbelievable, especially  if you live in a big city. But personally,  

I love having a bonfire, especially  because I like to eat marshmallows. 

All right, let's continue with my story. Because  it was the summertime and we were in the woods,  

we made sure that everyone wore bug spray  and sunblock because nothing can ruin a  

vacation faster than lots of bug bites and  getting a sunburn. I don't know if this is  

true in your country, but where I live, there  are a lot of mosquitoes. So we have to wear  

bug spray often. And what happens if you  don't wear bug spray? You get a bug bite. 

We also have to wear sunblock. Sometimes  people call this sunscreen. What happens  

if you don't wear sunscreen? Well, you get a  sunburn. Not good. Let's go on with my story. 

Well, we were having so much fun in West Virginia  that we decided to extend our vacation and drive  

four hours further north to Dan's sister's house  for five more days. And thankfully our generous  

neighbor said that she could watch our cats, our  chickens, and our house for a little bit longer. 

Let's take a look at this word, to watch.  Yes, we can use, to watch, for I watch TV,  

but it's also often used for taking care of  something. I watched two kids over the summer.  

Okay, that means you were a babysitter or a nanny  over the summer. You took care of those two kids. 

So we could also say, "Could you watch my  house while I'm gone next week?" That means  

could you take care of my house while I'm  gone next week? All right, let's continue. 

In Pittsburgh, we hung out a lot  together. We went to the zoo,  

and you know what? I got stuck in the elevator at  the zoo for 20 minutes. It was a little bit scary. 

This is a lovely phrasal verb that you can use at  any time in your life. To hang out with someone  

is simply to spend casual time together... "Hey,  you want to hang out?" "Oh, it was great hanging  

out last week." Great phrasal verb to use. What about this one? To get stuck. This  

could be used physically. I got stuck in  the elevator. He got stuck in traffic. 

But we can also use this mentally. If you are  speaking in English and you just can't remember  

the words that you're trying to say, you might  say, "Oh, I just got stuck and I can't remember  

the next word." You're not physically stuck,  but your brain will not go to the correct word. 

So I hope this lesson will help you to  find more words in your vocabulary so you  

can speak exactly the way that you would like. All right, let's continue my story. During our  

trip, my sister-in-law found out the gender of  her third baby. It was quite a surprise and it  

was so fun to celebrate with her. This is another  phrasal verb... To find out something means that  

you are learning a new piece of information. Let's take a look at the sample sentence...  

"I found out about the surprise party because  I heard them talking on the phone." Oops. All  

right, let's continue with my story. During the week, we rented a private  

karaoke room for Dan's sister's birthday and  there were about 20 people there. Dan and his  

friend sang an improvised Happy Birthday song  and it was hilarious and quite a crowd-pleaser. 

This word, a crowd-pleaser means that  everyone loves it. You might say this,  

"I went to the circus and I saw a woman shoot  flaming arrows from her bow with her feet. It  

was a crowd-pleaser. It was incredible." All right, let's keep going. Then we went  

to our friend's wedding, which was actually at  her mom's house and it was perfect. This was my  

kids' first wedding, and I think it was the best  wedding they could have gone to. The ceremony was  

blessedly short. They had homemade pizza made  for each person, and they had a blast dancing. 

This is a lovely expression, to have a blast, and  it just means that you're having so much fun. You  

might say, "We went to the beach last week and  you wouldn't believe it. We had a blast just  

staying in our beach house laughing and playing  games. We only went to the beach two days."  

I hope that you have a blast on your vacation. All right, let's keep going. Something amazing  

happened at that wedding. Our friend, the  bride, hired a silhouette artist to cut  

a silhouette for each of the guests. It was an  amazing souvenir. I'll show it to you here. This  

is really something that I'll treasure forever.  Can you believe she hand-cut that by just looking  

at us in about 10 seconds? Incredible. This word, a silhouette, is a fun one. It  

usually means the outline of something. So you  might say, "Before I got glasses I could only  

see the silhouette of the trees, and then when I  got glasses I could see the leaves... Amazing." 

Have you ever been traveling and gotten  a souvenir? For my son, you know what he  

loves to get as a souvenir? A rock. Wherever  we go, it might be a rock from a parking lot,  

it might be a rock from a creek,  his favorite souvenirs are rocks. 

All right, let's keep going. In both West  Virginia and Pittsburgh, we had so much fun  

bonding and just spending quality time together.  Both of these words, to bond with someone, and  

to spend quality time with someone, mean that you  are deepening your relationship with someone else. 

Let's take a look at this sentence... "The  COVID-19 pandemic was a really hard time,  

but my family got to spend a lot of  quality time together and in the end  

we really bonded during that tough time." All right, let's continue and go to the  

end of my vacation story. Finally, after our  eight-hour trip home, which ended up being  

something like 11 hours total, we made it home  and it was time to get back to the real world. 

This phrase, to get back to the real world,  is one we often use at the end of vacation.  

You've almost been living in a fantasy  world. Maybe you've been at the beach,  

maybe you went to another country,  and then when you get home, boom,  

the real world hits. So you might say, "Oh,  I'm not ready to get back to the real world." 

Or on the other hand, you might say, "You  know what? I'm kind of ready to get back  

to the real world. This vacation  was great, but it was long enough." 

Well, thank you for joining me for my  summer vacation. And congratulations  

on leveling up your English skills to  help you think and speak in English. 

Let me know in the comments, where did you go or  what did you do for your summer vacation? Let me  

know and I can't wait to read it and find out. Don't forget to download the free PDF worksheet  

with all of today's important vocabulary,  expressions, definitions, sample sentences,  

over this useful 30-minute lesson. You can click on the link in the description  

to download that free PDF worksheet today. Well, thank you so much for learning English  

with me, and I'll see you again next Friday for  a new lesson here on my YouTube channel. Bye. 

But wait, do you want more? I recommend  watching this video next, where you'll  

learn advanced English in 30 minutes. Including  some important verbs that you probably know the  

simple meaning of, but you will learn how to use  them in an advanced way that English speakers  

use all the time in daily conversation. Watch  that video to find out and I'll see you there.