Welcome to the Listening Time podcast. Hey everybody, this is Conner, and you’re listening to Episode 43 of the Listening Time podcast.

I hope you’re all doing well today. First, before we get into today’s topic, I want to just announce a couple important things. So, the first thing is that, for now, I’m going to have to reduce the amount of podcast episodes I produce. So up until this point, I’ve released an episode every Monday, but from this point on, I’m going to start releasing episodes every two weeks instead of every week. So, there will be two episodes released each month instead of four. I’m sorry for this. I know that many of you will probably be a little bit disappointed about that.

I don’t want to do this, but to be honest, right now, I’ve been dealing with some financial problems… just being perfectly honest with you. I’ve had some unforeseen expenses that I’ve had to deal with. In English, the word “unforeseen” just means something that I couldn’t predict, something that was a surprise. So, I’ve had some unforeseen expenses recently, and during this period, I haven’t had as many students, I haven’t worked as much. And so, I’ve had to expand my work hours, my availability, to try to recover some of those hours that I no longer have. So, I can’t spend as much time producing my free content at this point because I need to try to spend more time in my actual job where I make my living. So again, I apologize for this. I hope that it’s just a temporary change. I hope that in a few months, things will be a little bit better, and I’ll be able to dedicate more time to my free content. But for right now, I need to focus on my work.

But of course, for those of you who are Members and Super Members of the Listening Time podcast, don’t worry, you will still get all the same rewards that you have been getting so far as members. So obviously, I’m still going to produce my new seminars, my Listening Practice Seminars, and you’ll still receive a bonus podcast episode every month. So, don’t worry about that. You won’t be affected. But of course, for my free content, I’m going to have to reduce this a little bit for now, but like I said, hopefully in a few months, my situation will be a little bit better, and I’ll be able to spend more of my time producing this free content for all of you, because I really like doing it. And as I’ve said in the past, I really want to be able to release a new episode every week. So, that will be my goal in the future to return to that pace. But for now, it’s simply not possible for me. I need to focus on my job and focus on my financial situation right now. So, my focus is going to be on my teaching and, of course, on the membership program for the Listening Time podcast.

So, now that the bad news is out of the way, I can also announced a little bit of good news, and that is that I’m releasing a free seminar, or I actually already released it, but I’m just announcing it here just in case some of you don’t follow me on YouTube, you might not know, but I released a free Listening Practice Seminar. I’ll put the link in the Episode Notes so you can click on it and go watch that seminar. And if you like it, then I would suggest that you become a Listening Time Member or Super Member at lt.tubacode.com so you can receive more seminars like this. So of course, we have our membership program. It’s two dollars to become a Member and you receive one new seminar and one bonus podcast episode every month. And Super Members receive one new Listening Practice Seminar, one bonus podcast episode and one additional seminar that I recorded in the past every month, and that’s just for three dollars. I hope to be able to open a four dollars tier soon. The word “tier” just means level. So, I hope to open a four dollars tier soon for people who want even more. But again, I have to see if my current situation allows me to do that, or if I need to spend more time just on my classes, but we’ll see. We’ll see how things go.

Alright, so for today’s episode, we’re going to talk about fears, things that people are afraid of. So, this is an interesting topic, and I hope it will be good practice for your listening. And so, before we start, remember that you can access the transcript in the Episode Notes and use that to help you understand what you’re hearing, or to understand new words or phrases that you might have missed the first time or that you haven’t heard before. So yeah, let’s get started.

Okay, so the first fear we’re going to talk about is the fear of the dark. This is one of the most common fears that people have, especially children. But of course, adults can also have this fear as well. I think this is a very natural fear, because it comes from our natural fear of the unknown. So, when we’re in the dark, we don’t know what’s there. We can’t see it. It’s unknown. And so, this is scary for us. We don’t know if there’s some danger waiting for us in the dark. Of course, when I was a kid, I was afraid of the dark like most other kids.

Now as an adult, I’m not afraid of the dark in that same way anymore. But of course, if you ask me to go into some abandoned building at night where it’s pitch black, obviously I’ll probably be a little bit freaked out. So, a couple of phrases I used there… when I say the phrase “pitch black”, this just means that it’s completely black, completely dark, you can’t see anything. So, the phrase that we use in that situation is “pitch black”. And I also use the phrase “freaked out”. So, if you say that you’re “freaked out” about something or something “freaked you out”, this just means that it scared you, or it scared you a lot. Okay?

So, if someone asked me to go into some dark abandoned building at night that was pitch black, I would probably be a little bit freaked out. But in general, just being in a dark place isn’t necessarily scary to me anymore. But if I watch a scary movie, for example, I can probably start to feel a little bit nervous in a dark house afterwards. If I’m watching a movie alone in my house alone, and it’s scary and the lights are off, it might be a little bit scary, but I don’t do this… at least anymore. I think when I was a teenager, I did this a lot. But nowadays, I don’t do this. So, I don’t have to worry about that. But yeah, the fear of the dark is definitely one of the most natural fears that people have, and I think almost all children are afraid of the dark.

So, the next fear that we’re going to talk about is the fear of heights. So, in English, when someone says that they’re afraid of heights, this means that they’re afraid of being in high places. They’re afraid of being very high above the ground. This is another very common fear. So, many people have trouble being in high places and, maybe, seeing how far down below them the ground is. Like, if they go to the edge of some very high bridge and look over, this might be very scary for them.

So, for example, my wife, she’s afraid of heights, and if she looks over the edge of some high place, she gets vertigo. So, I’ve never experienced vertigo before, so I can’t really describe it to you, but when people are afraid of heights and they experience vertigo, they usually say that they get dizzy and they get very disoriented and it’s a very bad feeling that they get. So, of course, some people have this issue and so, it’s not good for them to go near the edges of buildings or high bridges or things like that. But I don’t have a fear of heights, and for me, there’s not really a problem with looking over high edges. It doesn’t really affect me.

But sometimes, I get a little bit nervous when I’m flying, but not so much because of the height, but because I remember that I’m in a man-made machine and I’m flying above the ground, and at any point there could be an accident or something like that, and this kind of freaks me out a little bit. But usually, I only get a little bit freaked out during the takeoff. The “takeoff” is the point when the airplane leaves the ground and it starts to go up into the sky. So, this is the part that freaks me out the most about flying. But I don’t have a big fear, in general, of just being high in the sky.

I’ve never been to the very top of any really tall building before, but I would be interested in going to the Burj Khalifa, which is the tallest building in the world. It’s located in Dubai. I’m sure some of you have heard of it, and maybe, some of you have already been there before. But I think it would be interesting to go to this building and go to the top and see what it feels like to be in a building so far above the ground. I think that would be pretty cool. So, maybe someday in the future, I’ll get to go to this building. But I’ve never been to the top of any really tall building before. But yeah, that’s just something I wanted to mention because I’ve always I’ve always thought that this would be a cool place to visit.

Okay, let’s talk now about the fear of spiders. This is another very common fear that people have. So, the fear of spiders is not just something that children have, but I think many adults are also afraid of spiders. I’m a little bit afraid of spiders, but I don’t have, like, a huge fear of them. If I see a small spider, it doesn’t really affect me. Of course, if there’s some really big spider, this would definitely be a little bit scary for me. Or if there’s some spider crawling on me, this would also be a little scary. The word “crawl” just refers to the movement that spiders make. Or people can also crawl… like babies first learn to crawl before they walk, right, when they’re using their hands and their feet, their arms and their legs, to move on the ground, this is called “crawling”. But we also use this verb to describe the movement of bugs. So, if there was a spider crawling on me, I would definitely get a little freaked out. But some people are very afraid of spiders, and just thinking about spiders is a scary thought for them.

In the US where I grew up, there are a lot of spiders that we call daddy long legs. These are those spiders that are very, very thin. They have these really thin legs and they don’t really have a big body either. And you just see these long skinny legs. And these are everywhere. You find them in your house, outside, everywhere. And these spiders are not poisonous. They can’t hurt you. But still, a lot of people are afraid of them because there’s just something about spiders and bugs that’s a little bit unsettling. The word “unsettling” just means that it makes you feel a little bit weird or nervous or scared or something like that. I think it’s in the way that they move. Something about the way that spiders move, with all of their legs, this is a little bit freaky, okay? It’s a little bit disgusting. It’s a little bit scary when you see this movement. So, even if there’s a spider that can’t hurt you, many people still have this fear of those types of spiders because of this movement, the way that they look. There’s just something scary about the characteristics of spiders.

For me, like I said, spiders aren’t a big deal, but cockroaches are a big deal for me. So, if you don’t know what a cockroach is, this is that bug that you find in your trash or in dirty places. And you see many of them in tropical countries during the rainy season. So, there are many cockroaches in tropical places and places closer to the equator. And so for example, in my old city, there were a ton of cockroaches, especially in the summer, during the rainy season. And so, this was always a terrible time period for me, because I knew that we were going to find some cockroaches in our house, like in our bathroom. It was terrible.

So, I’ve had some bad experiences with cockroaches in my life. Specifically when I was younger, I had a couple really bad experiences with cockroaches, and I think that this ruined cockroaches for me for the rest of my life. This happens a lot when you have a bad experience with something when you’re younger. It makes you afraid of that thing, or it makes you feel negatively about that thing for the rest of your life. And so, I had this exact experience with cockroaches. I had a couple bad experiences, and from that point on, I was afraid of cockroaches. In English, when we say “from that point on”, this just means: starting from that time. It’s a very common phrase that we use to talk about when something started and continued after that. So, from that point on, I was very afraid of cockroaches, and I’m still afraid of cockroaches today, even as an adult. But of course, sometimes I have to kill cockroaches when we find them in our house. So, even though I have this fear, I have to be brave enough to just kill the cockroach and get it over with.

Okay, one other fear that we can talk about is claustrophobia. This is the fear of being in small, tight spaces, without a lot of room to move. And this is also a very common fear that people have. I don’t think I’m very claustrophobic. I might get a little bit uncomfortable if I’m in a tight space and I can’t move a lot. Yeah, this is uncomfortable, but I don’t think I have a big fear of being in tight spaces and not being able to move a lot, but I know other people really feel strongly about this. They feel scared. They feel very uncomfortable in these types of situations. So, some people might be really uncomfortable if they’re in an elevator with a lot of people. They might feel really bad in that moment, and they might feel scared in that type of situation. For me, it’s a little uncomfortable, but I wouldn’t say that I fear this situation. But I can definitely understand why some people have that fear. It’s like this natural fear of not being able to move or escape and feeling like you’re trapped, I guess. So, I understand that fear for sure. But luckily, I don’t have that.

And oh yeah, one other fear I wanted to mention is the fear of clowns. So I’m not afraid of clowns, but I know other people who are. And this is kind of a funny fear, because clowns are supposed to be these happy, nice, funny people that you have at children’s parties and circuses and things like that. So, it’s interesting that these, you know, nice and funny people are actually feared by many other people. So, of course, there are certain movies, like the famous movie “It”, which depict clowns as these killer creatures, and I think that has helped propel this fear of clowns. In English, the verb “to propel” just means to move something forward, to promote something or move it forward. So, these types of movies propel this fear of clowns, so I can definitely see how that has influenced people’s image of clowns. But for me, I don’t think that clowns are that scary. I just view them as, you know, funny people dressed up in a funny way that are there to entertain children. And yeah, that’s pretty much it for me.

Alright, why don’t we stop there for today. I hope this episode was interesting for you, and I hope it was good practice for your listening. Remember that you have access to the transcript in the Episode Notes, and remember to become a Listening Time Member or Super Member at lt.tubacode.com

You can find the link in the Episode Notes as well. And make sure to become a member so you have access to my Listening Practice Seminars, which will help you improve your listening. And if you want to try out one of my seminars and see if you like it before you decide to sign up to be a member, then you can check out that free seminar that I just released. Click on the link in the Episode Notes and you can watch it there for free. Alright, thank you for listening to this episode, and I hope you’ll come back for Episode 44 of the Listening Time podcast.