Welcome to the Listening Time podcast. I’m Conner from polyglossa.com, and you’re listening to Episode 26 of the Listening Time podcast.

If this is your first time here, welcome! I’m glad you found this resource to help you with your listening comprehension in English. The way this podcast works is that in each episode, I choose one or two different topics to talk about. And then I talk about them in a normal, natural way, and I don’t read any script. So, I speak normally using normal words and phrases, but I speak a little bit more slowly and a little bit more clearly than the average native speaker speaks. In this way, you can understand me a little bit more easily than you can understand other native speakers. So, hopefully, your goal will be to listen to these episodes and get accustomed to my speaking, and eventually, you’ll be able to understand almost everything I say. And then you’ll be ready to move on to other podcasts made for English speakers.

And remember that the transcript for each episode is available for you, so you can access each transcript in the Details part of each episode. And this should also help you in your listening practice. So, the way I usually recommend that you use each episode is to listen to each one three times, at least. So, the first time you can listen without the transcript just to see how much you understand, and then you can listen again with the transcript, and then you’ll see those words and phrases that you missed the first time. And then you can listen one more time without the transcript again, and then in this third round, you’ll be able to see if you can understand those words or phrases that you missed the first time around. So, that’s just one method that you could use. You can listen to this podcast however you’d like.

So today, we’re going to talk about seasons, the seasons of the year. This is an important topic because we often talk about weather and climate with different people. So, it’s good to learn good vocabulary so when you’re speaking about this subject in English, you’ll be able to speak confidently. And before we start, remember to give this podcast a like and a rating if you’re listening on Apple Podcasts, and share this podcast with anyone who might find it useful, who’s practicing their listening or who is learning English in general. And, of course, remember to sign up for our one dollar Listening Practice Seminars at polyglossa.com if you need more help with your listening. Alright, let’s get started.

Okay, so let’s talk about seasons. So, I’ll talk a little bit about each of the four different seasons, and I’ll talk a little bit about how those seasons are in some of the different places where I’ve lived. First of all, I should mention that not every region or country has four seasons. Some countries have two seasons, or some countries might only have one season if these countries are located very close to the equator. The “equator” is the dividing line in the middle of the earth, right. We have the northern hemisphere to the north of the equator and the southern hemisphere to the south of the equator. So, I’ll talk a little bit about each season, and you’ll probably learn a few new vocabulary words that you’ll be able to use when talking about the weather, the climate, seasons in general, etc.

So, let’s start with spring. Spring is considered the first season. In a calendar year, the first season really is winter, right, because January and February and some of March are considered winter, but winter starts in December, so we kind of think of it like the final season of the year. So, when we think of spring, we think of life, or newness, or rejuvenation. The word “rejuvenation” or “rejuvenate” means to bring something to life again. So, in springtime, we see a lot of life outdoors. We see a lot of different colors, and we see flowers blooming. In English, we use the word “bloom”, the verb “to bloom”, to talk about trees producing flowers. If we say that “flowers are blooming”, this just means that flowers are appearing on trees. So, during spring, flowers bloom, and we start to see different colors, and we see trees regaining their leaves, and we just see a lot of life in general.

So, spring is usually a pretty happy season for many people because it looks nice, right. The colors look nice, and usually, the weather starts to get a little bit warmer after the winter. Of course, spring can still be a cold season for many regions, and I think in most places, there are a lot of spring days that are pretty chilly. In English, we use the word “chilly” as a way to say that something is a little bit cold. If something is really cold, we say that it’s freezing. But if it’s just a little bit cold, we might say that it’s chilly. But really, we only use this word for the weather, for the temperature outside. So, we could say, “it’s a chilly day today”. So, in many countries, spring days can be chilly, but as the season progresses, the temperature rises, and it gets a little bit warmer.

So, some of the places that I have lived have different spring seasons, and the spring seasons look different in each of these places. So, for a couple years, I lived in the state of Oregon, which is to the north of California, which is where I’m from. And in Oregon, I got to experience a true spring season. I got to really see flowers blooming and colors changing. I saw a lot of purple and pink and yellow flowers all over the place. You might have noticed that I used the phrase, “I got to do something” like “I got to see this”, “I got to experience this”. We use that phrase a lot in English to show that you were given the opportunity to do something, right. “I got to see a real spring” just means I was given the opportunity to see a real spring. So that was a cool experience, because where I’m from in Southern California, the spring season isn’t that noteworthy. In English, we use the word “noteworthy” to say that something is important or notable or it is something that you notice.

So, the spring season in San Diego or Southern California isn’t that different from summer or winter. There is a little bit of a difference, but it’s not that noteworthy. And the other place where I’ve lived, in Mexico, in the city of Guadalajara… really the spring season is my favorite season in this city, not because there are a ton of flowers and colors. There are some different changes in the colors and it does look beautiful. But the reason why I really like spring in Guadalajara is because it’s dry, it doesn’t rain, the sun is shining, the sky is blue… everything is perfect, in my opinion. For some people, this might not be the best type of weather, but for me, I love it. So, I love the spring season in Guadalajara.

So, now let’s talk about summer. I think that if I were to ask most of you what your favorite season is, I would assume that more than half of you would probably say summer. And I think one of the main reasons why many people like summer is because the weather is usually warm or hot even, and it’s really nice. Just a side note, if you don’t know how to use the word “warm”, in English, we use this word a ton. We use it to say that something is hot, but we’re not trying to say that it’s really hot… like it’s a little hot. So if I say it’s a warm day, I’m saying that it’s kind of a hot day. It’s not the hottest day of the year, but it’s hot. So, we like to use the word “warm” when talking about the weather. So, many people like the summer because of the warm weather.

And the other reason why many people like the summer season is because many people have vacation during this time. If you’re a student, then you probably have at least a few weeks of vacation. When I was a small child, I remember that we had about two and a half months of vacation from school during the summer. We ended school in the middle of June, and then we didn’t return to school until the beginning of September. So, we had really long summer breaks. We use the word “break” in English to mean a vacation or time off or something like that. So we say, summer break, spring break, winter break, etc. So, I really like the summer in the US. So in Oregon, where I lived, the summer season is really nice. There are some pretty hot days, which I like. I’m a big fan of warm weather, so that’s not a problem for me. And in my opinion, it doesn’t get too hot there.

And of course, the nature is perfect in the summer. There are great places to go to hike, and camp, and just walk outdoors. It’s really beautiful in the summer. And in Southern California, and in particular in San Diego, summer is also a great season because the weather’s great, but for some people it’s too hot. They don’t like when the weather gets up to 38 degrees Celsius 39 degrees Celsius. This is too hot for many people. For me, it’s okay. I don’t mind this. In English, we use the phrase “I don’t mind” to say that something doesn’t really bother you. So if I say, “I don’t mind warm weather”, you’re saying that warm weather doesn’t bother you. It doesn’t annoy you. It’s okay. So for me, I don’t mind warm weather. I actually like it. So, I like the summer in Southern California as well.

And another reason why I like the summer season in the US is because the days are much longer in the summer than they are in the winter. So, for example, in Oregon, in the winter time, the days are really short, and the sun might set at like 4:45pm. When we say that the sun “sets”, we’re saying that the sun goes down. The “sunset” is the noun form of this phrase. So, in the winter, the sun might set at 4:45pm on the shortest day of the year, maybe. And then, on the longest day of the year, the sun might stay up until like 9pm almost. So, there’s a huge difference in the length of the days in the summertime and in the wintertime. So, I love the sun, I love the daytime, so for me, summer is much better than winter. And so, where I live now, in Mexico, in Guadalajara, the summer season is the worst season. And the reason for that is because the summer season is the rainy season here. I hate the rain.

For me, this is the worst weather, so it’s always a struggle for me to get through the summer here. You might remember from other episodes the word “struggle”. When we “struggle” to do something, this means that we have a hard time doing that thing. So, I struggle to get through the summer season in my city now because there’s so much rain, and it’s very hard for me. And so for me, I would much prefer the scorching summer days rather than rainy summer days. The adjective “scorching” just means really hot. Another adjective that you might use to describe something or to describe a temperature that’s really high would be “blazing”. You could say, “it’s blazing outside today”. If it’s blazing outside, this means that it’s really hot.

Okay, now let’s talk about the fall or autumn. These two words mean the same thing. Some people prefer to say fall, and other people prefer to say autumn. I usually say fall, but you can say either one. So, the cool thing about fall is that the colors change in a really interesting way if you live in a place that is far from the equator. So, when I lived in Oregon, I had the chance to see these changes in the colors of the leaves and the trees. In the summer, they’re usually green and other colors like maybe yellow or pink or purple. That’s usually in the springtime and maybe it stays during the summer. And then in the fall, we start to see some different colors. You start to see orange or red or crimson. The color “crimson” is just a deep red color. So, oftentimes, you can see crimson leaves during the autumn season.

And in the US, there are some states that are really famous for the autumn season. Some of these states include Maine and Vermont and New Hampshire. If you look up pictures of these states, like if you Google “Maine autumn” or “Vermont fall”, you’ll see amazing pictures of the forests there filled with many different autumn colors, these yellows and oranges and reds and crimsons that I mentioned. It’s really cool. I got to see some of that when I was in Oregon, but in Southern California, we don’t really have that drastic change in colors. So the word “drastic” just means extreme or very hard or very heavy. “It’s a drastic change”… it means an extreme change.

So, we don’t really have a great fall season in Southern California and in Guadalajara, this season is also a good season for me, except for the fact that the beginning of the season still includes some rainy days. So, in September it still rains and maybe in the beginning of October. But then after that, the rain stops. So, I love that aspect of fall in my city now. So, the weather during the fall season is usually crisp, right. We use the word “crisp” to say that the weather is a little bit cool, right. Another word might be “chilly”. You can say that it’s a chilly day, or if we’re talking about the morning, we often say “crisp”, a “crisp autumn morning” or a “crisp winter morning”. It just means a little bit cold, not freezing, but a little bit cold. So, the weather’s often crisp or chilly in the autumn season in many different countries.

And lastly, let’s talk about the winter. So, this is some people’s favorite season because it’s the holiday season. It’s Christmas time and there are many festivities during this season, but for other people, it’s a miserable season because maybe where you live, the weather is really extreme in the winter, and you might have really harsh winter days. The word “harsh” means extreme when we use it in the context of weather, or in some other contexts. So if we say “harsh winters”, we really just mean really cold winters, extremely cold winters. So, if you live in a place with harsh, cold winters, this is probably your least favorite season.

But in the US, winter is Christmas season, at least in December. And this is a really unique time of year because everything is decorated… all the houses and businesses, everywhere you go, it looks like Christmas. And the only thing you hear during this month is Christmas music. So it’s a really happy time for most people, if they have a Christmas celebration to look forward to. Of course this is very exciting.

So, depending on where you live, this might be a great season, or not a great season. If it is cold in the winter time, people often like to light a fire in the fireplace. This is the part of the house where you can make a fire, and then the smoke goes up the chimney, and then out through the chimney. The “chimney” is the part that sticks up from the top of the house where the smoke is released. So, the winter time is a good time to light a fire in the fireplace and bundle up and get cozy next to the fire. When we say “bundle up”, we just mean that you put on a lot of clothes or put a lot of blankets around you and get very warm. This is “bundle up”. And then the word “cozy”, that I used, this is a very common word. You should definitely learn it. This adjective is used to describe a place that has a very warm, nice feeling. So, we say it a lot when we talk about the inside of houses, like if you go to someone’s cabin in the woods, and it’s very warm inside the cabin, you might say, “it’s very cozy inside this cabin”, or “he has a very cozy living room” or “a cozy little house”. This word is used a lot in English.

Alright, well we talked about all the seasons. I’m interested to know which season is your favorite because usually when I ask my students this, I can get some pretty passionate answers. Some people really love the summer or some people really love the winter. And another interesting answer… if you ask a lot of Americans, they might say the fall. I know it sounds kind of strange, but a lot of Americans like the changing colors and they view fall as kind of a romantic season, and it has like its own style, with different types of clothes and accessories that people can start to use once the weather gets a little bit more chilly. So some people might say the fall, and some people like the spring because there’s a lot of life. Everything is bright and colorful. So really, all seasons have their fans, but I still think that summer is the favorite season among most of you.

But alright, we’ll stop there for today. Hopefully, this episode was interesting for you, and hopefully, it was good practice for your listening. So of course, remember to sign up for our one dollar Listening Practice Seminars at polyglossa.com if you want more practice. And remember to access the transcript in the Details part of the episode if you need that or if you want to use that. And of course, give this episode a like and a rating if you’re listening on Apple Podcasts, and share it with anyone else who might find it useful. Alright, well thank you for listening to this episode and I hope you’ll come back for Episode 27 of the Listening Time podcast.