Advanced English Conversation Lesson #3: Houses 🏠 (learn real English w/ subtitles)

Hello everybody this is Jack from

tofluency.com and we are back for

another conversation. If this is your

first time here then this is my wife

Kate, Hi! And what we like to do is we like

to have a conversation about specific

topic so that you can follow

along, improve your listening and learn new

words and phrases. And as always I'll

leave some phrases or the phrases that

we use in the video in the description.

So, we are going to talk about housing

today and houses in general. Now

something that you might not know about

Kate is that she is obsessed with real

estate. It's true. Just tell everyone what you do on a

daily basis.

In terms of real estate. In terms

of real estate. Well really i'm just

interested in all of the houses that are

around us. The way that people live.

The way that they sell houses.

I don't want to be a realtor but I love

seeing what people do with their spaces

and just you know especially in a place

like Asheville which has so many neat old homes

in the craftsman style and then city

apartments.

It's just interesting to see kind of how

people live and how they make places

their homes. I'm a little bit

obsessed.

That's cool. And you use an app called Zillow.

I do use Zillow - yes. And Zillow is this app

that you can have on your phone. You can

access on your computer too and it just

shows exactly what's available now, what

sold for what price, you know in the last

couple of years. We are not affiliated with Zillow.

No, we use it a lot. And we

thought we'd talk about housing today and

Kate mentioned you know craftsman style

houses, maybe apartments. So we are going to talk

about the different types of houses that

people live in. In the U.K. , in America.

We're going to look at some of the

differences with the language as well

with British and American English. I thought

good place to start would be talking

about the places that we grew up in.

Ok. So that the type of house that you grew up

in. So, maybe you can just lead up with that.

Well the house that I grew up in was kind of

special because my father built it. So

I grew up in a really small town and

my grandparents had some land that

they gave to my parents when they were

young and starting a family. And my dad

built us this house which was just a

magical place to grow up. It was filled with

light, it was quite large and

tucked away back in the woods. And my

mom recently sold it but it was, it was

such a special home

i've grown up in and very

quiet and suburban which is really different

than how you grew up right? Yeah, it

was definitely different because your

house was situated in the woods in a very

quiet and small town. And you felt like

you were, you know, out in the country.

Yes. I mean you were out in the country.

Absolutely. Even though it was close to the

main center of the town you were in but there

wasn't anything going on. No. There was

nothing going on. Literally nothing. But the house is

beautiful. As you said it was filled with

light, it was spacious and it had this

area outside as well which was just

incredible. Yeah. Yeah. By the way we

have our baby along again today and

she might be a little bit louder today

so hopefully it won't distract you too much.

Poor little thing has a cold so she might

sound a little bit stuffed up. Yeah.

So, yeah, and you talked about how

that was different to where I grew

up. I grew up just outside the center

of Preston. So it was like in a

neighborhood called Fulwood which is

a very nice neighborhood. And we had what

we call the detached house because in

the U.K. and we're going to look at this

in a second but we have housing such as

terraced houses and semi-detached

houses too. So a detached house means

that it was there and not attached to a

different house.

Oh Ok. So it had its own like land and

property. And it was a big house it was

quite big. And I have so many fond

memories growing up there but it was a

very traditional brick style house. There

were I think three, no there were four bedrooms

upstairs. And then we had an extension

put on there I think when I was about ten.

And that became my bedroom when I was about

14 or 15. So I slept downstairs away from

everyone else in this big bedroom because

the two bedrooms we had we're really

small. But I have so many fond memories

of that place and my parents sold it

in, I think about 2001-2002. And then they moved to

Blackburn which was a town very close by but I

was at University then and then you know

we met and I, you know, we moved to Spain.

We're going to talk about Spain and

places that we lived. Just to say also I

know that you mentioned a lot of

vocabulary. The vocabulary for housing is

completely different in America. Yes. So, I

think that we don't even say detached

houses because we just assume that if

you have a house you are not attached to

anything else. It's just a free

standing house. And then if it is attached

to another house on two floors that's

usually a townhouse.

Yes, townhouse. And then did you mention

flats?

Well I think the equivalent of a

townhouse in the U.K. will be a terrace

house. Right. But the style is different. I

feel like a townhouse here is more

modern. Right. And you know it's like city

living. Whereas a terrace house in

the U.K. means like an old brick style

- we'll leave links to pictures below too -

but this was mainly done during the

industrial revolution to house workers

in a very efficient way. So they are quite

historic. Yeah, yeah, a lot of them are old

and I was reading about this before. They

went out of favor during the beginning

of the 20th century. Just around

World War One I feel when

semi-detached houses became the thing.

And a semi-detached house is

basically two houses in one

structure.

Ok. But yeah the terrace houses were

there for a reason to put workers in

close proximity to the factory.

And i was thinking about when I was at

University in Leeds. Leeds is full of

terraced houses. And I stayed in a couple

of those you know when I was at University there.

We have lived in all sorts of places though. We have lived in

so many places together. So when

we were five years into our

relationship. So we had been together

for five years.

Yeah. We calculated - do you remember doing this? Yes. And we

realized that we had lived in ten

different houses. Yeah. We had moved all

of our belongings ten different times and our

dog - all over the world.

Yeah cuz there was - there was

a house in Athens, Georgia. In Blackburn

in England, in France.

Three houses or three apartments in

Valencia. Two in Bilbao. And we'll

talk about those in a second I just want

to talk about the style of houses in the

U.K., in America. So we talked about

terraced houses and how they're different.

And they're not as popular here.

It's more like a townhouse. But also the material that

builders use and people have for the houses.

Yeah. So, what what difference do you see?

Well, one thing was when I went to

visit you in the U.K., I was amazed by how

many stone and stonework houses there

were. Because they're just most of the

time people build out of wood here.

So I guess stone and brick and it just

looked incredibly fancy to me and I

remember saying "Oh - this is amazing what a

beautiful neighborhood!".

And you said it was actually one of the

worst neighborhoods in your whole town.

It was really rundown and dangerous. We would call it

a rough neighborhood. A rough neighborhood? Yeah.

We could say that too. So that was a really rough

neighborhood. Yeah. But they had very fancy

and traditional terrace houses didn't they?

Which were more Victorian style.

Yeah. Do you remember? But I don't know if the

houses themselves were fancy

or if it was just me just looking at it as an

American and saying "oh it's old and it's

made out of stone - it has to be so fancy".

Because the wood is probably the

most common building material. And you

know there's that story of the three

pigs and of course the best house is

the one that's made out of stone.

Yeah. That will stand the test of time. I

found it quite strange when I moved here

to see so many wooden houses. And like you

said you you didn't realize, you couldn't

look an area and think oh this is an

affluent area, this is a rough area, this is you

know in between area. And I had that

problem when we moved here too.

Yeah. But I've got used to this now and I

can I know areas you know I know if it's a

family-friendly area, an up and coming

area. All those different styles

of places that you come across.

Yeah, that's interesting. Let's look at the

difference now between apartment, condo,

and flat. Okay, well we've talked about some of it.

Well no the actual difference to what these words mean.

Oh ok - I don't know if I know this. Well I just did some research.

Oh tell me. We call apartments flats.

So apartment is American English and a

flat is British English. Ok. But i was

reading a condo the difference between

an apartment and a condo is that the

condo is owned by individual owners.

So you buy a condo off someone but an

apartment is part of housing authority

or you know someone owns all these

apartments

and rents them out. Oh I didn't know that. I know, I thought that was

new information for you and for

everyone. This just leads us into Bilbao.

Do you remember looking for a place

in Bilbao and how naive we were? Yeah.

Yes we were. We just - I think any

time that you move to another country

figuring out the basic things like how

to rent a house, how to get a cell phone.

It's really really challenging.

Especially if you don't speak the

language. Exactly.

Because nobody can really explain

it to you in different words. No, and also.....

And we were new at Spanish, you know at

living in Spain and we didn't know a lot of the housing

vocabulary or what was standard practice.

Yeah the standard practices where or

basically we had just moved to Bilbao

and we were staying in the Ibis. Yeah we

were living in a hotel, living in a hotel, which is very

expensive, yes, after a few days.

Yeah. And we didn't know how to look for

an apartment.

But we also we're looking at the time when

there were different holidays. So they had

what they called the "puente", the bridge.

Where they had Friday and Monday is a

holiday and the weekend.

So you couldn't get hold of anyone about

housing. But we finally found somewhere,

it was a studio which means like

there's no separate bedroom. Yes.

And that's something to think about. I

don't think that I could live in a

studio again.

Well no. I mean even if we didn't

have kids because we've gotten so used

to having separate areas/spaces. Yeah. And I

remember it was quite expensive and you

have to pay a fee as well.

Yes. Like a finder's fee to the real

estate agent. And we were staying in there but

then we found somewhere else in Bilbao

about three months later.

Yes. Which was, it was different wasn't

it?

Explain this apartment in Bilbao.

It was very rustic - I guess.

you could say. It was up in

the loft in the top area of this

building and it was in a way it was just

amazing because it was up carved out

into the roof and this woman who is an

artist had taken this really old

attic and just transformed it into a

little apartment. Mostly with like IKEA

furniture and curtains but it was just

it was unbelievable and it was so neat

and so uncomfortable to live in. Yeah.

It was cold. So cold. There is no heating. Yeah there's no heating.

The electricity would go off if you if you

are watching TV and taking a shower you

couldn't do that. You couldn't vacuum

especially remember? Yes! The electricity

went off when we tried to vacuum and we

had to start again and put it back on.

But it was a really cool space, it was very

cheap.

Yes. It was right in the center of

Bilbao - the old town.

And there was a lot going on

there. Yes. A lot going on there. And we

really enjoyed it.

Yeah we loved it. We really enjoyed that time. Yeah its

kind of neat to live somewhere

that's a little bit different

maybe a little bit uncomfortable when

you're younger.

Yeah. And just get to experience it. I

think that you know sometimes now I can

take for granted that we have hot

running water all the time and that we

can have all of our appliances on

with no problems.

But then I remember, you know, that

it really did teach us to be very frugal

so not to to spend a lot of money and also

to just to just live with a little bit

less. Ok we are back after a quick

interruption by Emma

and we were talking about living in

Bilbao and that amazing apartment. We

then moved to Valencia. Yes. And what

I just remembered we found that

apartment in Valencia a long time

before didn't we? Like a year before when we

were thinking about moving to Valencia.

Yeah. So just to give some context we

wanted to move to Valencia originally

but the program you were on put us in

Bilbao and then we moved to Valencia

the year after but that same apartment was

there wasn't it? Yes.

And it was such a cool place.

It was so neat. But when we first saw it we

thought this has to be some kind of a scam.

Yeah. That you know somebody would just

come and take our money and we would

never rent an actual apartment. But

then when we figured out that it had just worked

out the right way it seemed like it was

almost like fate like we had been meant

to get that apartment. Yeah. Yeah. I just

remembered that now cuz that is

quite crazy that it was our dream

apartment in Valencia and just came

available when we moved there and we were

like more or less signing the contract and

she was on the phone to another guy or at

least you know that's what she said.

Yes. She might have been trying to put

pressure on us to sign the contract.

But she just said you know someone else

wants it, do you guys want it?

And we said yeah we do. Yes. And one of the best things about

that apartment was the location.

Yes. What - although there was one problem

with the location if you remember the

music? I do. Yes. So we were right in the middle

of everything, above amazing

restaurants near bars right by one of

the main squares. But we were also two

floors above a hard rock bar.

Yep. That would play really heavy metal

rock and roll and then at two in the

morning or three in the morning, maybe

even later,

because in Spain it was quite typical to

have bars and clubs open really really

late into the night if not the next

morning

All of these people would

come out onto the street after the bar

closed and they were rowdy and they've

been listening to really heavy metal so

they were very loud and they were just

two feet are two storeys below our

apartment. And of course we didn't have

any air conditioning so our doors would be wide open

and we'd be trying to sleep and then

Yeah. The noise just. It was so loud. So loud.

And it just woke us both up instantly

as soon as they start talking out there.

But apart from that it was

incredible. Do you remember standing out on the

balcony at dusk and watching the

swallows - yes - fly past the house?

That was magical wasn't it?

Yeah. And you could hear the bells ringing.

We've lived some pretty incredible places.

Yeah. That was one of my favorite

places because also we were so close to

the three main squares but then also close to

the city river park which used to be a

river until they diverted it because

of flooding in the fifties I think.

And they turned this in - they were going to turn into a

highway and then decided to turn it into

a park and was just a great place.

Yeah. And yeah that place in Valencia

was great we really enjoyed our time

there. Really enjoyed our time there. It was fantastic.

And then I thought we could talk about

dream houses.

Yes. Because I'm sure you got something

to say about what your dream house

would look like. Yes. So do you want to tell everybody?

Yeah and this is - i would love to live in a

house where there was a bedroom for us

and for each of our kids and for any family

that might visit. Four bedrooms which is really

a lot would be perfect. Going from a studio

to a studio with no bedrooms to four bedrooms.

And then what else like - what kind of

style house, where would it be?

What kind of things would - unless you say

there's no budget here.

Oh - no budget.

But we want to keep it -

Yeah you could spend anything.

Well my dream house is probably a farm house

style because i love that kind of

simple but nice style and i would

love to be somewhere where you could

just look out and there would be nature

everywhere

Yeah. So here in some places in

Asheville you can get a mountain view

that would be fantastic but that would

just be a dream. But at the same time where we

are now we're in a really nice small

neighborhood with a lot of families and

you can walk to so many places. You can

walk to restaurants. We walk our son to

school. We have friends all the way

around us that we can go and visit and

that's an amazing place to be to.

So ideally you could get the best of

both worlds and have a neighborhood that's

out of nature but still have all your

friends close by and be able to walk places.

And we've talked about this, haven't we in

terms of trade offs?

Yeah. So for example the biggest trade off

if i think is - is space but then

proximity to great places. Or peace and

quiet and proximity to the city.

Yeah. So if you live in a neighborhood in

the city you're close to all the great

things of bars and restaurants. You

know neighbors are close by but its noisy.

If you're out in the country it's lovely

you get peace and quiet. You get those

views potentially but you can't walk

anywhere.

No. You can't walk to bars and restaurants

and you know anything that you might want

to do.

Yes, and now that we have kids too, the way

that the school system works in

America is that where you live

determines what school you'll go to and

where you live determines what school

you'll go to and as terrible as it is

the schools are really different

depending on where you live.

Yes. So generally if you live in a really

nice area it will have a very nice school and if

you live in an area that's not that

great

the schools won't be that great either so it's

and that's something that I think is

kind of terrible to think about but and....

And your priorities change .

Ya. Don't they? Totally. Ya. That's cool.

Question? Yes. Come to that part of

this video

where Kate asks you guys a question. Yay! So we

haven't planed this question no but i've got a

question which is what's your

dream house?

What's important to you and are there

any particular features in a house that

would make it your dream house like a

really big bath tub or a spectacular

view?

Yeah. We could talk about the location to.

You know where this dream house would be

and it's a fun activity and you can use

conditional sentences and things like that.

And because we're nice because I got an

unlimited budget for my dream house to talk about you

also have an unlimited budget.

There you go! So we can't give you real

money. No - but maybe if you

share this video and we grow bigger then

maybe we could do this as a competition

one day - win your dream house!

No that's not going to happen. We make no promises.

No.

Well thank you. Thank you everyone

for watching. Thank you. And if you have

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