Hello, I'm Justine. Welcome to English
Sponge. Today I'm here with Courtney.
Hi, Courtney.
Hi, Justine. I'm Courtney. How are you?
» Good, thank you. How are you doing? I'm
great. We've never done a video together
before, so let's ask some questions to
get to know each other.
Where do you live, Courtney? I live in
Pennsylvania in the United States. What
about you?
» I live in British Columbia in Canada.
What's the weather like where you are
today?
» Today it's cold and windy, but I've
heard that Canada is even colder. Is
that true?
» It's pretty cold here sometimes. Today
it is cold, but it's not very windy. So
that makes it not as bad.
» Yeah, the wind can make the temperature
feel a lot colder. Hey Justine, do you
have any pets? Yeah, we have a cat that
lives in our house and we have a dog
that lives outside sometimes and inside
when it's really cold. What about you,
Courtney? Do you have any pets?
I have three cats and their names all
relate to fruits. Their names are lemon,
lime, and mango.
» Oo, those are my favorite fruits. We
must like the same types of food.
» Yeah, actually, what is your favorite
food?
» My favorite food is raspberries,
but mango is a very close second. And
the type of cuisine that I really like
is anything spicy, but especially
Mexican food. What about you?
» Nice.
My mom didn't cook spicy food when I was
growing up, so I had to get used to it,
but now I really like spicy food like
curry.
» Mhm.
» And I always put hot sauce on
everything.
» Nice. [laughter]
What is your favorite type of hot sauce?
» Oh, that's a great question. In the
United States, there's a brand called
Yellowbird, and I really like their hot
sauce.
» Nice. Good. I will have to look for it
sometime. I also love different types of
hot sauce.
» Yeah. What about family? Do you live
with other people or do you live by
yourself?
» I have a family. I am married and we
have two kids. Our kids are 15 years old
and 13 years old. And we live in a very
small town in southern BC and we have a
house that has a basement. So, we have
quite a bit of space right now. We used
to live in a very small cabin all
together and we all had to share a
bedroom and it was very small but now we
have a bigger house so we all have more
space.
» What about you? Where do you live?
» Awesome.
I can relate to living in a small space
because right now I live in an RV. An RV
stands for recreational vehicle and some
people call it a camper, but basically
it's a small space that you can move
around in. Do you call it a camper in
Canada? What do you call it?
» We call it the same. an RV or a camper.
And we in my family, we lived in a
camper for eight months a couple of
years ago. So, I also know what it's
like to live in a very small camper.
[laughter]
So,
how do you like it?
» I love it. I think that people often
think that they need a lot more space
than they actually do, but it's just my
husband and myself and three cats. So, I
think it's plenty of space. Some of my
friends disagree, but I like it.
[laughter]
It's definitely easier without kids, I
think, but it was doable. When we when
we lived in the RV, it was very snug,
[laughter] but
» it was okay.
» And we found a better place to live for
the winter because where where we live
in the winter, it gets very cold and
there's lots and lots of snow. So, the
water always freezes and you need to do
a lot of things to make sure the RV
stays usable during the winter.
» Mhm. Do you need to do some winterizing?
» Yeah. I actually have a special hose
that's heated so in the winter [snorts]
the water doesn't freeze inside the
hose.
» Perfect. We also have skirting around
the outside of our RV to keep it warm
and safe from the wind.
» Nice.
» One thing that I don't like about living
in an RV is during the winter it's very
cold and a lot of my hobbies are
outside.
» So, I can't do a lot of my hobbies that
I like to do in the winter.
» What hobbies are some hobbies? Oh,
» good. [laughter]
[gasps]
» What are the hobbies that you like to
do?
» I really like rock climbing,
» but I like rock climbing outside better
than inside.
» Okay.
» And I also really like to run, but I
don't like to run on the treadmill, so
[laughter]
it's hard in the winter. What about you?
What are your hobbies?
I have an indoor hobby, so that makes it
easier for the winter. I like to do
pottery.
So, in my basement, I have a pottery
studio with a couple of big tables. And
I also have a kiln in my basement. The
kiln is the oven that I use to bake the
pottery. And so I can keep warm and
creative in the winter because my
pottery studio is in my basement and it
makes me very happy.
That's awesome. I'm jealous of your
pottery studio. Pottery studio. That's
hard to say. [laughter] Um I'm jealous
because in college I took a pottery
class and I loved it, but I wasn't very
good at it.
» [laughter]
» Yes, it takes a lot of practice to make
something nice, but it's a really fun
process. Even when you make really ugly
things, it's still a lot of fun.
» I gave a lot of the pottery that I made
to my mom. She liked it. [laughter]
» Yes, moms are good at enjoying
everything that their children make.
» Do your kids make things for you often?
They usually make things for their
friends. So, I will make pottery with
them. And um my son has made mugs and
bowls for his friends birthdays. And now
he's taking a ceramics course at school.
So, he's going to be bringing home some
of those maybe ugly things into my house
soon. [laughter]
Justine, you live on a farm, right?
» I used to live on a farm. Many years
ago, um, in Saskatchewan, it's a
different province in Canada. And for
almost 20 years, my husband and I had a
farm together.
» About 5 years ago, we moved to British
Columbia, and now we don't have a farm
anymore. We live in town and we don't
have any animals except for pets.
» Gotcha. I am originally from Montana,
which is another state in the United
States, far away from Pennsylvania, and
I lived next to a lot of farms and
ranches, but my family didn't own a
farm. We had a lot of land, but we
didn't have any animals or crops. But I
understand that lifestyle a little bit
because of growing up in Montana.
» Yeah. Yeah. Montana is quite similar to
Saskatchewan. And Saskatchewan is right
on top of Montana. They share the border
[laughter]
» and there's lots of cows and lots of
grass in both places. So, they're both
prairie um areas of North America.
» Yeah. That's awesome that we have so
much in common.
» Yeah.
» I have one last question for you.
» Okay.
» What made you want to start making
videos? And also, are you learning any
languages right now?
Yes, I am learning Spanish through
comprehensible input videos. And so I
wanted to give back to the language
learning community because I saw how
helpful the comprehensible input videos
were for me and I noticed that there
wasn't very many English comprehensible
input videos. So, I wanted to join James
and Sam to help grow English sponge into
a great resource for English learners.
What about you, Courtney? Are you
learning a language with CI?
Yeah. So, I think we have a similar
background in this. I'm also learning
Spanish using comprehensible input. I've
been learning Spanish for about 2 or 3
years now, but this year is the first
year that I've used comprehensible input
and it's like no other way [laughter] of
learning.
» It's amazing.
» It's awesome.
» Yeah. And I was really really excited
and like you, I saw the value in the
videos and I wanted to give back. So,
that's what I'm doing and that's what
we're doing. I'm so so excited.
» Yes. Well, thank you for calling me
today and it was nice to get to know
each other a little bit and we will keep
making videos together.
» Awesome. It was great to meet you. Have
a great day.
» Thanks, Courtney. Bye. Bye.
