[0:00]Hello and welcome to real easy English. In this podcast, we have real conversations in easy English to help you learn. I'm Neil. And I'm Beth. You can find a video version of this podcast and a free worksheets to help you learn on our website. BBC Learning English.com.
[0:29]Hi Beth. How are you? I'm good, Neil. How are you? Very well, thank you. What are we talking about today? Today we are talking about housemates. Ah, housemates, the people that you share a house with who aren't your family. Maybe they're your friends or even strangers who just need somewhere to live. Exactly, and it's quite common in the UK to live with strangers when you're younger. Um, have you ever lived with husbands? Yes, of course. I had house or flat mates when I was a student and then after I was a student uh in my first jobs and before I got married. That's exactly the same as me. So when I went to university, I moved in with five people and we all had a separate room um and a separate bathroom. Um But yeah, they were my flatmates for my first year of university, but in my second year then I moved into a house and we all shared a bathroom and they were my roommates because we were in a house. Did you enjoy having roommates? I think it really depends on the people that you live with. I have had some bad roommates. Um, bad because they weren't tidy, did clean. There were dishes in the kitchen that were dirty and not cleaned for a long time. Um, but I've also had some really nice housmates as well. Do you enjoy living with housmates? What did you enjoy living with housmates? I think as you said, it really depends on the person. So you mentioned people being messy and that kind of thing. Also noisy people are difficult. But some of my best friends now have been my husbands in the past. So I think you can really get to know people very well. Um, and you can also meet some people who you never want to see again in your life. That's true. So, Neil, what do you think is the best kind of personality, the best kind of person to live with? They have to be easy going. What does that mean? Somebody who is easy going is relaxed and they don't get too upset or angry over little things. And they're quite easy to live with and there's the clue easy going. I think something else important about living with other people or renking somewhere paying monthly is having a good landlord. very important. So who is a landlord? What is a landlord? So the landlord is or lady is the person that owns the house or flat that you're in and you pay them rent. So you pay them a monthly amount but you might live there for a year or two years or three years but you don't own the place. It's the landlord that owns the place. Yeah, and a good landlord can make a big difference. Neil, are you easy to live with? Um, should we be flat mates? I don't know. But I think um, I have made some good friends when I've been uh a homeowner, so they think that I was a good homeowner. Okay. How about you? Yeah, I think I'm easy to live with. But I like to sing a lot, so maybe people would tell me to be quiet. Well, no one's ever told me to be quiet, but maybe they wanted me to and just didn't say.
[4:46]Let's recap the vocabulary we've heard in this podcast starting with husbandate. A husbandate is someone you live with who probably isn't part of your family. We also here flat mate. And we had easy going, which means relaxed and not easily upset. Flat mate or husbands often rent a property and that means they don't own it, they pay money to the person who does own it. And the person who owns the house or flat is the landlord. That's who you pay every month and they own the property. That's it for this episode of real easy English. to test what you've learned, there's a worksheet on our website, BBC learning English.com. And we'll be back next week with another easy English conversation. Bye for now. Bye.
