Welcome to the Listening Time podcast. Hey everybody, this is Conner, and you’re listening to Episode 64 of the Listening Time podcast.

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Alright, so today we’re going to talk about American sports. Okay? So, this should be a fun topic, because we have a lot of sports in America, and we’ll talk about the most popular ones, and I’ll just talk briefly about each one. And so, this should be a good topic for today. Also, remember that you have the transcript available for this episode. That’s in the Episode Description below this episode. So, go down and click on that if you need it. And please give this podcast a five-star rating if you like it. Please give it a five-star rating to help it grow and to help more people discover it. And this really helps me out as well. And of course, remember to share this podcast with anyone else who might find it useful, anyone you know who is learning English. Alright, let’s get started.

Okay, so let’s talk about American sports. And before we get into the most popular sports in the US, let’s address the elephant in the room. In English, when we say that there’s an “elephant in the room,” we’re saying that there’s some very obvious issue or topic that people might not want to discuss because it’s uncomfortable or something like that. We call this the “elephant in the room.” So, what I’m talking about is soccer, right? Because as you might know, soccer is not one of the most popular sports in the US. And this is very strange because it’s the most popular sport in almost every other country in the world.

So, this is a very strange topic… about why soccer is so unpopular in the US compared to other countries. But I want to give my opinion on why this is. So, I think that soccer isn’t that popular in the US for a few different reasons. The first reason is that it’s a pretty low-scoring game. I don’t think this is necessarily a problem all the time for Americans when they’re watching sports. We have some sports that aren’t very highscoring. But soccer is one of the most low-scoring games, and so because of that, some people feel like there isn’t as much action. There isn’t as much excitement because there isn’t a whole lot of scoring. In English, when we say “a whole lot of” something, this just means a lot of something. We just add the word “whole” there. So, there isn’t a whole lot of scoring in soccer. And so, this could be one of the reasons why some Americans might not find it that exciting. Another reason is because there are ties in soccer. A tie means that there’s no winner or loser. For example, if the match ends in a 1-1 score, this is a tie, a tie game. So, Americans really dislike ties. We don’t have that many ties in our sports. And if there ever is a tie, people complain and talk about how that’s not good, there should be a winner. So, that’s another reason why some Americans might not like soccer that much. And I think one other reason is the storyline. In the US, our sports are kind of like Hollywood movies, right? We like this huge, exciting, active storyline with a hero and a villain and all kinds of excitement and ups and downs. We like this very amazing storyline in our sports. You’ve probably seen this if you’ve watched American movies or TV shows about sports. And I think a lot of Americans feel like soccer doesn’t have this same storyline maybe because of the reasons I mentioned before. Maybe because it’s low-scoring. There are ties. Sometimes there are down periods where there’s not a whole lot of excitement for five minutes or ten minutes or something like that. And so, a lot of Americans might find this to be not as interesting as some American sports where there’s always scoring, there are always ups and downs throughout the game. And I know that this also exists in soccer as well. And I like soccer. So, I’m not saying that this doesn’t exist, but this is maybe the perception that some Americans have about soccer. So, those might be some other reasons why soccer isn’t that popular in the US. But like I said, I actually like the sport. I actually prefer soccer over some of these other sports. And so, I’m not like the typical American, but I’m just trying to summarize, maybe, the thoughts of some Americans regarding soccer. Okay, now with that out of the way, let’s move on and talk about a few American sports. In English, when we say “with that out of the way,” we’re saying now that we’ve already discussed or finished that, let’s move on. Okay? So, let’s talk a little bit about American football. I think I talked about this in an earlier episode, so I’m not going to go into too much detail. But as you might know, American football is the most popular sport in the US. And we just call it football. We don’t call it American football. So, football is the most popular sport in the US. A lot of people like watching this sport. And this is a very exciting sport because there’s a lot of scoring and there are a lot of big hits. There’s a lot of contact, right? And people like this. People like to see people hit each other and tackle each other to the ground and things like that. In English, the word “tackle” refers to when one person takes another person and throws them to the ground, right. This is a tackle. So, Americans like seeing people tackle each other and hit each other. They like these big hits.

And they also like to see very athletic plays where the person throws the ball super far and then the other teammate runs super fast and dives to catch the ball, and this type of thing is really exciting for people. In English, the word “dive” refers to when someone jumps headfirst with their arms extended, right? So, if someone throws the ball over your head, and you’re running to try to catch it, and then you jump forward with your arms in front of you to catch the ball, this would be a dive. So, Americans love to see diving catches. They love to see touchdowns, they love all of this. The term “touchdown” just refers to when people score in football. When they score, this is called a touchdown. And American football is really popular in high school and in college. So, in high school, the football games are really big social events, and a lot of people go to them, and they’re a big deal. In English, when we say that something is a “big deal,” we’re just saying that it’s very important. Okay? And of course, football is a big deal in college. A lot of people watch college football on TV. This is a very popular sport, and so you can see that football is very popular on multiple levels: in high school, college, professional. So, this is definitely the most popular sport in the US. Now, let’s talk a little bit about baseball. I think this is the sport that a lot of people in other countries don’t understand why it’s popular. They don’t really get this sport. So, I think some Americans might also say the same thing. Americans who don’t like baseball might be confused about why people watch it because they might think that it’s boring. But baseball is one of the oldest sports in America. It’s a classic sport. We would refer to it as maybe the classic sport in the US. And there are a lot of cultural elements in baseball, and it’s a sport that I think will always be popular in the US and will always be connected to our country. Obviously, baseball is also really popular in some other countries, like in some Asian countries and definitely in the Caribbean. Right? In that area, baseball is really popular, maybe even more popular than soccer in some countries. So, it’s not only an American sport, of course. But baseball in America is a classic pastime. In English, the word “pastime” refers to some hobby, some thing that people do to pass their time. This is a pastime. So, baseball is a classic pastime in the US. It is complicated. If you don’t know the rules of baseball, it might take you a while to learn all of the different details about the rules. And so, this is one of the reasons why people that have never watched baseball can sometimes feel intimidated when they watch a game because they don’t know what’s going on. They don’t know the rules. They don’t they don’t really know what’s happening. So, that’s one of the downsides, is that if you’ve never watched this sport before, you’re going to have to have someone explain to you the rules and maybe watch a game with you to point things out and show you what’s happening. But then, once you actually get acquainted with the rules, I think that a lot of people actually start to like this sport. In English, when we say that you “get acquainted” with something, this just means that you get familiar with it. It starts to become more familiar to you. So, once you get acquainted with the rules, you might actually start liking baseball, right? Some people still find it boring even if they know the rules because it is one of the slower sports in the US. It’s definitely not as fast as American football or basketball or some other sports. And so, some people prefer more active sports with a lot of action and a lot of scoring. Because baseball can sometimes be low-scoring as well. And so,

for these reasons, baseball I think has become a little less popular throughout the years in the US. But of course, it’s still a really popular sport. It’s the second most popular sport in the US.

And one of the things that people really like about baseball is that it’s really fun to go to the stadium. I agree here. I love going to baseball stadiums to watch games, even if I’m not that interested in the team. Right? I think that baseball stadiums are great places for the whole family. It’s a very family-friendly sport. So, for example, in different countries, it might not be very family-friendly when you go to a soccer match. It might be really intense, and there might be a lot of chaos and mad fans and sometimes there are fights and things like that. I think that at baseball stadiums, during baseball games, it’s a much friendlier atmosphere. You can feel safe taking your kids there.

For example, even here in Mexico, I went to a baseball game here once, and it was very nice and it was family-friendly. And my wife was really surprised because she was imagining that it was going to be more like a soccer game and that it wouldn’t be this family-friendly environment. But it was. So, I really like this about baseball. And in the US, when you go to baseball games, there are a lot of interesting traditions that have been done for decades at baseball stadiums in the US.

So, this is something that I recommend that you do if you travel to the US: I think that you should take the time to go to a baseball game to see some of these traditions, and to get a feel for this classic sport that has a lot of history in the US. So, I think that you should go to a baseball game in the US if you get the chance. And even if you don’t understand the game, that’s okay. A lot of people go to baseball games and they don’t even watch the game because they just do other things at the stadium, and they still have a really good time.

Alright, now let’s talk about basketball. Basketball is the third most popular sport in the US. It’s a little less universally liked. I think that there are a lot of people in the US that don’t really watch basketball at all, and they don’t really know that many players or they only know a few names. But there is also a very big population in the US that really likes basketball. So, basketball is a really fun, exciting sport. It’s a really high-scoring sport. So, it’s really common for teams to score more than 100 points in one game. So, this is a really high scoring game. So, it’s really fun.

It’s really fast-paced, so there’s just constant action. And of course, there are timeouts and there are breaks and things like that, but there’s a lot of continuous action that’s very nonstop. And so, if you play basketball, it’s a really tiring sport. I know because I played when I was in high school, and I got so tired when I played basketball, because like I said, it’s just nonstop… a lot of action, a lot of running. There’s a lot in basketball, and you can get tired really quickly. So, like I said, it’s a very high-scoring sport.

It’s very easy to learn the rules, I think. And so, this is a sport that’s a little more accessible for people that have never watched it before. It doesn’t take a long time to learn all the rules. And it’s pretty intuitive, kind of like soccer. So, it’s easy for people to learn and to start to enjoy even if they’ve never watched it before. And this is a sport that a lot of people can play even if they don’t have a lot of money or they don’t have a lot of resources. If they just have access to a basketball court or just a basketball hoop… the word “hoop” refers to that circular thing where you throw the ball to try to score… that’s called a basketball hoop. If you just have a basketball hoop, or a court and a ball, you can play. You can play by yourself. A lot of people just take their ball and go to the court by themselves and just shoot the ball and practice their shooting.

It’s a really accessible sport for people to play as well. They just need access to some court or some hoop, and in the US, you can find basketball courts in a lot of places. So, it’s a pretty accessible sport unlike American football, for example, you can’t really play this by yourself. Same thing with baseball. You need other people, you need more equipment, you need more stuff. Whereas with basketball, it’s a very simple sport, right? It’s kind of like soccer in that way.

Lastly, I just wanted to mention hockey, but I’m just going to mention it because I have no idea… anything about hockey. I’ve never watched a game before. But I have to mention it because it is the fourth most popular sport in the US, even more popular than soccer, if I’m not mistaken, so I had to include it here. You’ll have to excuse my ignorance. I don’t know anything about this sport.

However, the one thing I do know is that there are a lot of fights in hockey. The players actually physically fight each other, and it’s like part of the game. And again, you’ll have to excuse my ignorance because I don’t know much about why this is, why they do this fighting, but I thought that was pretty interesting that this is incorporated into the sport. So, if you don’t know what I’m talking about, just search for that on YouTube or wherever. Look up “hockey fights” and you’ll see what I’m talking about. So, a pretty interesting element to the sport. Maybe someday, I’ll watch a hockey game and learn a little bit more about the rules. But right now, I don’t really know much so I just wanted to mention it.

Alright, we’ll stop there for today. I hope this episode was interesting for you. I hope you learned a little bit about American sports. If you need my training, if you need my help to reach a more advanced level of listening, if you want to understand native speakers when they speak at normal speed, make sure to sign up to become a Listening Time Member. The link is below this episode in the Episode Description. That’s www.patreon.com/listeningtime And you’ll receive my specialized training to help you understand native speakers.

And if you want my advanced podcast, then make sure to become a Listening Time Family Member, and you’ll get two new advanced episodes every month. So, you’ll have a lot of material to help you reach an advanced level of listening and to understand native speakers when they speak fast because in my advanced episodes, I speak fast at normal speed, but of course, I provide the transcript to help you out.

And remember that you have the transcript for this episode in the Episode Description as well. So, click on that if you need it. And please give this podcast a five-star rating if you like it, and share it with anyone else who might find it useful. Alright, thank you for listening to this episode, and I’ll talk to you on the next episode of Listening Time.