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A to Z Quick Chat 06 (Re-upload) | Pets

Oct 15, 2023

13:14

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In this re-uploaded episode of The A to Z English Podcast, Kevin and Jack talk about their pets.

Transcript:

00:00:02

Jack

You are listening to the A-Z English podcast.

00:00:10

Kevin

Welcome to an A-Z English quick chat. We're going to surprise each other with a topic for the day and see where the conversation goes. Check our site for a study guide with vocabulary notes and discussion questions, as well as links to our WhatsApp group or other social media so you can join in the conversion.

00:00:26

Kevin

So Jack, as as you know, a big part of my life is my pet dog and I wanted to talk about pets today because I I love animals. Animals are fantastic. Sometimes more than people. And I'm just curious, like we we talked a little bit about animals last time, but that was more of a.

00:00:45

Kevin

Phobia things you were scared of.

00:00:47

Jack

Yeah, yeah.

00:00:48

발표자

What? What kind?

00:00:50

Kevin

Of pets. Did you have growing up? What kind of pets do you have now? What? What are your favorite animals?

00:00:57

Kevin

For a pet of.

00:00:59

Jack

Sure. When I was growing up, we had a dog. He was a golden retriever and his name was buddy. Buddy is buddy. Means friend in English like my buddy, my friend. And it's a very common pet name.

00:01:08

Kevin

Bye bye.

00:01:16

Jack

Usually for for male dogs. And yeah buddy was.

00:01:20

Kevin

So I'm kind of curious just to break. Sorry, I'm I'm curious to hear from our listeners really quick what are common pet names in your country?

00:01:27

Kevin

Because buddy, like just friend, is a really common name for pet names there, but I've I've never heard of any, you know, like Korean pet names where it's like, hey, chingu like, I've never heard that as a pet name. But you're right, that is a very common American dog name anyway.

00:01:39

Jack

Yeah, yeah.

00:01:42

Jack

Yeah, amigo. Amiga. Yeah, that was. That's interesting. I wonder.

00:01:46

Kevin

So tell tell me more about buddy.

00:01:48

Jack

Yeah. So my parent, my sorry, my brother and I begged my parents to get us a dog, you know, like.

00:01:55

Kevin

How old are?

00:01:55

Jack

You, well, 12 years old. So I was 12. My brother was 9 and we really, really wanted a dog so badly. And my parents were.

00:01:57

Kevin

OK, cool.

00:02:07

Jack

Reluctant because they kind of felt like we weren't being honest when we said that we would clean up after the dog. Like, I promise I'll walk the dog. I'll clean up after the dog. I'll do all the all, all the the stuff. And then, of course, my dad ended up, you know, cleaning up after the dog and.

00:02:18

발표자

Every day. Oh.

00:02:27

Jack

You know my brother and I just kind of played with our toys inside the house while my dad was cleaning. You know, the yard.

00:02:36

Jack

But, but we did love buddy. He was a very sweet dog, very gentle dog. So he was big. He was about. Well, I could say he's probably like £75, which I'm not sure how much that is in kilo. Yeah, like 30 kilos? Yeah. He was a big boy and he had long hair.

00:02:47

Kevin

Oh wow, it's like 30.

00:02:51

Kevin

Something like that.

00:02:56

Jack

So in the summer he would shed a lot which really bothered my mom because there was, you know, like, hair on the sofa, hair in the carpet, hair everywhere. And that got really annoying to my mom.

00:03:00

발표자

You know.

00:03:11

Jack

But everybody loved buddy because he was so sweet and he loved everybody, so even strangers, he would, you know, come up to a stranger. And one of the things that he used to do that was really cute is that he would like.

00:03:29

Jack

When he he was so excited he would, he would drop down on his shoulder.

00:03:34

Jack

But he would never he would never fully roll over.

00:03:37

발표자

He would just.

00:03:37

Jack

Keep his **** up in the air, stand on his hind legs and yeah, and just and and just just begging somebody to, you know, pet him, you know, and just to give him some attention. So he really loved people. He he was a great dog to have with children.

00:03:40

Kevin

They play with me.

00:03:54

Jack

And uh.

00:03:56

Jack

You also I think we felt safer around the house with him, you know, like when somebody comes by drive, you know, walks by your house, he would bark and alert us that, you know somebody was there. And I think it it it's there's a safety element to having a pet so.

00:04:15

Jack

That was buddy.

00:04:15

Kevin

At least for dogs, because the pets that I had when I was a kid, well, I had some, some hamsters or gerbils, but that that was only for a short time.

00:04:24

Kevin

But then our our big pet, when I was younger is my brother.

00:04:27

Kevin

And I had.

00:04:28

Kevin

Cats, when we had two and we originally my one of my moms friends his cat had kittens and so there were suddenly many baby kittens around and my my mom's friend said come please.

00:04:29

Jack

OK, OK.

00:04:43

Kevin

Take take one of these cats. And so my mom said, let's go get a kitten and my my brother and I were very excited.

00:04:50

Kevin

And when we went to choose which kitten to to take home, my brother picked one and I picked one, and so then we had two. And and cats we had. Yeah, 2 cats growing up. And cats are amazing animals. I really do love cats. Although we can talk about that.

00:04:58

Jack

OK. Yeah.

00:05:10

Kevin

Yeah, I've changed my opinion a little bit now. I still love cats, but cats are great animals, but they will alert you. Of course you know when someone else comes around, they pretty much run and hide most of the time when strangers are around.

00:05:23

Kevin

But cats, I think are great animals for busy people.

00:05:27

Kevin

They're great pets for busy people because.

00:05:29

Jack

They can take care of themselves, you know they can entertain themselves, yeah.

00:05:30

Kevin

They take care of themselves. Yeah, they're not nearly. They don't take nearly as much work. So we could leave for school where my mom could go to work. And especially because.

00:05:41

Kevin

We had two.

00:05:42

Kevin

Cats, brother and sister, they were fine. They would play together all day and we would come home and then they were happy. You know, we could give them food. We gave them a place to go to the bathroom.

00:05:51

Kevin

And they were. They were.

00:05:52

Kevin

Line. We could even leave them for like a long weekend. Sometimes for two or three days, if we went on a trip and then they were a little angry at us.

00:06:00

Kevin

And we came home, like, where did you go?

00:06:02

Kevin

But mostly they were OK for that. Any longer and we would have neighbors come and check on them, of course. But for for a short time they were great. And so cats are amazing, great little animals. They're they're really cute, they're they're fun, but they're very independent.

00:06:21

Jack

Yeah, I feel like dogs are very needy, like they're they need. They need your attention. They need your love. And if you leave for 5 minutes, they feel like they lost your love, you know, like, as soon as you come home and then they're like, please love me. Please love me. You know, they're very desperate.

00:06:38

Kevin

I will say.

00:06:38

Kevin

That's the thing. Like dogs. Now we have a dog and and I love my our little dambi at home. Maybe more than my cats. And and I I feel bad saying about them. They were amazing animals, amazing pets as well but.

00:06:52

Kevin

Dogs are very different, right? They take a lot more work like you were saying. Your dad has to take care of the dog, you know, go out and clean up after them and you've got to play with them. You a lot more time. But they give you a lot more love, love. You know, I come home and and my dog dambi, she's just.

00:07:11

발표자

Like, Oh my gosh.

00:07:12

Kevin

You're home and she's so happy to to see me. Whereas when I had cats, you'd come home and they would.

00:07:18

Kevin

Just be like ohh.

00:07:20

Kevin

Hi, welcome you again. Right, right. So dogs require a lot more work, but they give you a lot more in return I think.

00:07:21

Jack

You again, yeah.

00:07:31

Kevin

Well, we.

00:07:33

Jack

You know, my dad cleaned up after our dog when I was a child, and now my my daughter is has a we have a dog that we bought for my daughter when she was young. Maybe when she was like 5.

00:07:46

Jack

So and so we have Lily and Lily is a a very little dog. She's a a a Maltese. Yeah. So she's got white hair, but she's very small. She weighs like, 3 kilograms, something like that. Two or three kilograms.

00:08:01

Kevin

That's about the same size as zombie.

00:08:02

Jack

Yeah, and. But Lily is very sweet. She's kind of has, like, a a big dog personality in a small dog's body. So she she can just sit on your lap. And she's very sweet and she's good with other people. She doesn't.

00:08:10

Kevin

OK.

00:08:17

Jack

Snap at people. She doesn't try to bite. You know kids or whatever. And so she's very gentle, very sweet. So we've, you know, I've had two dogs in my life. And and both of them were were great dogs. And so I we've I feel really lucky. But these days I clean up after.

00:08:38

Jack

Our dog.

00:08:39

Jack

Basically it's karma, yes, and so my dad is laughing, you know, at me sometimes because he says, yeah, now you understand how I feel, you know?

00:08:39

Kevin

It's karma, the bag.

00:08:52

Kevin

I think dogs are funny as well, cause in in America many people like you, said buddy. You know it was a golden retriever. That's a pretty big.

00:09:00

Kevin

And although I never had a dog when I was, when I was young, I had many neighbors or friends who had dogs, and so we play with them a lot. And American dogs tend especially depends on where you live, but they tend to be bigger, you know, so getting like a 3040K dog is just kind of normal. That's just dog size.

00:09:20

Kevin

And these small.

00:09:21

Kevin

Dogs like you know you're Lily or Danby 34K dogs.

00:09:26

Kevin

Before I came to here before I had dambi at home, I didn't like small dogs. I I really didn't. I was like that. That's not a real dog. They're just annoying little just bark, bark, bark, bark, bark. You know, they're they're kind of crazy hyper dogs.

00:09:41

Kevin

My opinion has changed.

00:09:43

Jack

Yeah, yeah.

00:09:43

Kevin

Of course, I I now realize that.

00:09:46

Kevin

Small dogs are just as loving as as big dogs are, and I understand when you live in a big city.

00:09:53

Kevin

You know, like we don't have a yard. We live in an apartment. And so, yeah, like, I would love a bigger dog. I don't know if I want a really big dog, but like a medium sized one, I think would be amazing.

00:09:55

Jack

Same, yeah.

00:10:05

Kevin

But I just don't have a yard for them to go outside and run around and play, and dogs have a lot of energy and they need more more area to play. So small dogs make sense in in cities and apartments.

00:10:18

Jack

Yeah, I agree. I I'll. I'll leave with one last little story, my friend. When I when I was growing up, his father had a Saint Bernard.

00:10:29

Jack

And if you're talking, yes, this dog dog is probably 50 or 60 kilograms, like over 100 pounds and yeah, and they and they have the the big slobbering spit coming out of their mouths all the time. So yeah, they're very. They're very interesting looking dogs, but if you're.

00:10:43

Kevin

Right.

00:10:49

Jack

If you're, if you want to see what a a big dog looks like, check out a Saint Bernard.

00:10:53

Jack

Hard. They're they're really fun.

00:10:54

Kevin

My my neighbors when I was a kid, they had.

00:10:56

Kevin

A Great Dane.

00:10:57

Kevin

You are. I don't know if they way. Yeah, they're they're. They're not as big. Like they don't weigh as much. Maybe as a Saint Bernard. But they're tall. They're tall and skinny. Really long legs, really, really tall. And I remember when I was young, this dog was almost as tall as me.

00:10:57

Jack

Yes, must think it's a horse.

00:11:07

Jack

Yeah. Your long legs, yeah.

00:11:15

Kevin

Not standing on two legs, just.

00:11:16

Kevin

On all four legs was still very.

00:11:17

Kevin

Tall. Mm-hmm. And you know how dogs are when they get excited, they wag.

00:11:21

Kevin

Their tails a.

00:11:22

Kevin

Lot right? And so this was a big dog. And I remember I would just be standing next to it, talking to the neighbors.

00:11:28

Kevin

And he'd be so excited, wagging his tail and the tail would, like, hit me in the shoulder. And it was like your friend punching you.

00:11:35

Kevin

It was like boom like.

00:11:36

Kevin

It almost knocked me over that that dog's tail was so strong.

00:11:40

Jack

Get slapped by the the tail of a Great Dane, yeah.

00:11:42

Kevin

Yeah, big dogs, big dogs are fun, but they're they're at a whole different kind of animal to like these small apartment dogs.

00:11:51

Jack

It's it's hard to believe that little Lily there and damba the 2-3 kilogram dog and a Great Dane are the same species.

00:11:58

Kevin

Right. Almost. Yeah. They're they're so different size and and behavior and appearance from each other. It's very. I'd love to hear what our what some of our listeners. What kind of pets are common in their country? What? What size of pets?

00:11:59

Jack

You know, it's just, yeah.

00:12:11

Jack

Give us the names of pets too. Like what? What's the name of your dog? What does it mean in your language?

00:12:14

Kevin

Yeah, I.

00:12:17

Kevin

Yeah, cause I mean.

00:12:18

Kevin

Pets are pets are a great.

00:12:20

Kevin

Thing to talk about.

00:12:21

Kevin

I mean, zombie is like it's family. Yeah, she is family. She's our daughter.

00:12:27

Kevin

The most, and I'm sure other people feel the same. You know, your pets are your kids, your brother, your sister. You know, whatever they they really are a full part of your family. And so it's it's fun to share to about about family.

00:12:42

Jack

Our four legged family members, you know, Yep.

00:12:45

Kevin

Yep. Our our four legged friends our.

00:12:46

발표자

There you go.

00:12:47

Kevin

4 legged family.

00:12:49

Kevin

So everybody, thanks for listening and come and tell us about your pets. Check our WhatsApp group or Facebook or Instagram or on all the socials. Come tell us about your pets and join in the discussion with with everyone else. So we'll see you next time.

00:13:03

Jack

OK. Bye bye.

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