AELP 5 – Expressions for Parenting

Well, hello everyone out there in YouTube land.

Today, I wanted to do, uh…ooh.

Hello.

A little bit, uh, something kind of special, a little introduction, for my brand new student.

I will be probably speaking a little bit slower for, uh, this particular lesson, this advanced listening practice lesson,

uh, but I think it’ll be a, uh, really fun lesson, and just a little bit,

uh, getting to know me a bit more.

So, uh, if you can’t figure out who this is, my new student, this is my daughter.

If you can believe that.

Now, uh, I haven’t mentioned anything about her, I’ve kind of been keeping it a secret, just like a family thing, but I thought since, you know…she was born,

uh, on August 6, 2015, so just a couple of days ago.

Uh, so my wife is Japanese, and so she has a kind of we can’t figure out her features yet,

but she’s, you know, kind of little half Asian.

Ooh.

But, I don’t know.

She was, uh, just feeding a little bit ago, so she might, uh, she might cry, maybe, we’ll see.

How are you feeling?

You feeling all right?

Her name is Aria May,

so A-R-I-A,

uh, and that was actually just a name that I came up with when I was sitting at, uh, a table in my

living room and I was just thinking of something that would sound nice in both English and Japanese.

Now, I know I usually do a little introduction at the beginning of these, so I’ll do it very quickly right now.

Uh, in this advanced listening practice set of lessons, usually I speak a bit more quickly, actually quite a bit more quickly,

uh look at that, she got a smile.

All right.

Uh, so if you’re unfamiliar with my voice, if you’re new to the channel,

I recommend you go back and review some of the previous lessons so you can get used to my voice.

And then, after that, you can come back and watch this advanced listening practice series of videos,

and that will help you, uh, uh, in, you know, blah.

I can’t even speak properly.

Uh, I was up for like 41 hours straight during the labor,

so that’s when my wife was actually giving birth, so we’re still kind of recovering from that.

So I can’t speak properly, but I thought I would just take a moment and make a quick video for you,

uh, and just introduce this, uh, this little girl.

So if you’re, again, new to this set of videos, you’re new to the channel, please go back and watch some of my previous videos where I’m speaking more slowly and a bit more clearly,

and that’ll prepare you for my pronunciation and, uh, other things like that; listening to my intonation as well.

Anyway, uh, I just wanted to talk a little bit about, you know, this, uh, this little girl here.

So we had been, uh, thinking about having, uh, a child for a while, and got lucky enough to have one, and, uh, so now here we are.

It’s kind of actually funny to picture myself as a father, because I’m always joking around and I like playing with kids, and so now I actually have like a child of my own here.

Uh, and she’s actually sitting quite, uh, quiet.

Yeah, she just had like, you know, a little bit of milk, and, uh, now she’s taking a nice nap.

Uh, but, yeah, she’s, uh, a very sweet little baby.

Hello.

And I’ve already started reading to her, and, you know, doing those kinds of things.

Even though maybe she won’t understand everything, it’s also getting me into the habit of doing that.

So every day we can have a certain routine where I’m practicing reading with her, or other things like that.

Uh, and that’s actually another thing I wanted to mention about this while I’m talking about it in the video,

uh, and just a side thing, uh you, maybe you can hear, uh, a little bit of crying in the background.

We’re still at the hospital right now.

This is a little bit different from America, uh, or maybe your country, depending on where you’re from,

uh, but here in Japan, after the birth the mother, uh, and probably the father as well.

I can’t at this hospital, but usually the mother stays at the hospital for about five days, and it could maybe vary.

Uh, could be a different, you know, day or two here or there, but basically you’re staying at the hospital the whole time.

So in America they kick you out of the hospital right after the baby is born,

basically the next day, they send you out.

But, you know, maybe they’re taking a little bit more care, and I actually prefer this system out here.

So I’ve been coming to visit my wife,

and, uh, little Aria here, and we’ve been, uh, just hanging out.

So maybe you can hear a little bit of crying in the background.

It’s actually, uh, a really, really tough job.

I’ve got a lot of appreciation for, uh, not just women when, you know, they’re going through labor and that kind of thing in general,

um, but also the women that work here.

Uh, and it’s just an amazing thing to, to see them and you know, they have to deal with lots of babies, and it’s hard to even handle one.

But since I’m a new father I’m a little bit careful.

I don’t want to, you know, drop the baby or break the baby, or something like that.

But seeing all the, uh, oh, no.

She’s making that face where she wants to get some milk now.

Aria, are you going to wait, or are you going to, you going to be okay?

Yeah, we’ll get mom back in here pretty soon.

Anyway, mom is out taking a, a nice walk, but, you know, just relaxing, but,

uh, anyway, I just wanted to give, you know, a quick introduction and maybe just, uh, one quick thing, kind of a little bit of a lesson thing just for you out there.

Uh, if you ever see a baby, you know, this is a great thing you can use that’ll help you sound native.

Uh, when you’re talking about a baby you can say, oh, like she has her father’s nose,

or her mother’s hair, or her father’s such and such, or something like that.

So whenever you’re looking at a baby, if you know what the other family members look like, you can say, oh, she has that person’s something, something.

So she has that person’s hair,

that person’s eyes, or something like that.

Now, Aria, she has her eyes closed right now, because she’s kind of taking a little bit of a nap,

um, but actually, you know, they will probably change colors.

Right now they’re a little bit kind of bluish and a little bit gray.

Actually a really, uh, beautiful, interesting color.

Um, you going to open your eyes?

Aria, look, look.

Hello.

Oh, no, she’s just going to make a face.

She doesn’t want me to wake her up right now.

But she might wake up, uh, a little bit later.

But, uh, it’s been actually a really great experience, and I had, uh, no idea what it was going to be like to be a father, and thinking about that and you know, when you’re a man, looking at your wife who’s pregnant,

you see the baby there and you can feel it kicking, but

it’s not really real, like it is for the wife, until, you know, you actually see the baby come out.

Now, at that time, when the baby was born, I didn’t really cry or anything, but, you know, I looked at, at my wife, and, you know, I was very emotional.

Uh, I think the thing that was most powerful for me was watching how much pain she was in actually giving birth.

So as I mentioned, she was in labor,

so that’s like the time for the first contraction.

And, actually, I learned that Japanese word, that’s, uh, jin su,

uh, so that’s the Japanese word for contraction and I actually learned a whole bunch of other Japanese words that I would never really have thought to learn,

uh, outside of being in this situation.

Another was like hasui, which is where, uh, when your water breaks.

So this is another great English word here, but, you know, where you actually have the, uh,

the fluid coming out when the, uh, the sac that the baby is in, the amniotic sac,

uh, so when that’s, oh, no.

Are you going to make a sad face?

Oh, no, she looks like it.

Oh, no.

I’ve been getting like pretty good about that, like she’s almost going to make the kind of crying face,

like this, you know, and then I can try to say something and then she goes back to sleep a little bit.

But I can’t hold her, uh, for a long time here.

Anyway, I’m talking all kinds of stuff here, but, so I was in, uh, you know, the delivery room with my wife for quite a long time, and,

uh, I wasn’t in there as long as she was, I took a few breaks just to relax myself, because I’m having to hold her up.

You know, she’s actually moving around, and squatting, and trying to get the baby to come out by standing up, and all kinds of things like that.

Oh, no.

Oh, no.

Was that a smile?

Oh, no.

But, anyway, just because it took so long.

So I was in there and I, I felt, you know, very moved by the pain she was experiencing, and I felt really bad because there wasn’t anything I could do about that.

So I have a lot, lot more, uh, increased respect for women, and the midwives that were all taking care of her, and I want to say a big

thank you to everyone for helping us, uh, get this little girl over here, without much trouble.

So it was a completely natural birth, no drugs or anything like that that we used in order to induce her.

That’s to like kind of force the baby to come out if it’s been taking too long.

Uh, and now we get this little guy.

Or this little, little gal I should say.

But, anyway, uh, one thing I wanted to ask, and you can tell me in the comments below,

uh, is if you’d like to see more about how I actually teach her from a very early age and on up.

So I thought that would be a really interesting experience, so I’ve got most of my,

um, kind of career background is in teaching, actually, young children.

So I’ve got plenty of experience teaching people all over the world, and especially in Japan from all ages, but,

uh, a lot of my focus has been on helping really young children learn.

And that’s why actually even the, uh, the difficult program like Master English Conversation that I create for adults is very simple,

because it’s the same kind of teaching.

Even though it’s using kind of more complicated examples, it’s the same kind of teaching I use to,

um, to help little kids.

So the, the basic principles of learning are really quite simple.

You just use contrasts, and try to not teach too many things at one time, and make sure you can,

uh, have a, a nice solid foundation of basic things before you move on too quickly to other things like that.

So, anyway, I hope you’ve enjoyed this, uh, quick video introduction,

getting to meet, uh, Baby Aria here, who’s only just a few days old.

Let’s see if I can get her a little closer to the camera here for you for a, uh, final goodbye.

Aria, don’t cry.

Doo, doo, doo, doo, doo.

Hey.

Hey.

Oh, I think the camera finally got her.

It’s funny, the, uh, the little squares on the, uh, the cameras don’t quite read her face so well yet.

But, uh, I think she’s got a pretty cute face.

Anyway, if you’d like to see more about, you know, how she’s developing, and how I teach her, and that kind of thing, let me know in the comments.

I might even make a, uh,

separate kind of video series about that, just little things that I do to teach her, and, uh

you know, books I read, or any other thing like that.

But, again, uh, once this video gets 10,000 views I will release the next one.

Go back and review, uh, all of these in this advanced listening practice series,

and I look forward to seeing you again soon.

And, uh, hopefully she gets to see you again soon as well.

We’ll see you next time.

Bye-bye.