Episode 48: Sports and Games

From soccer and hockey to Scrabble and Uno, this episode covers all things sports and games. Donielle and Khrystyna share childhood memories, debate spectator sports, swap game-night stories, and discover that winning isn't nearly as important as having fun... unless you're a sore loser! 

Show Notes  

Transcript

Sports and Games

D       Welcome to Coffee and Conversation for ESL Listening. I'm Donielle

K       And I'm Khrystyna. So grab a cup and join the conversation.

D       Hey. I was just laughing as we're coming in because as it was quiet waiting for, the countdown, all of a sudden I could hear my cat, "Rawr."

K       Oh, no.

D       Oh, was like, "Oh, that'll sound real nice."

K       Aw, poor thing.

D       I think he’s settled down now. Anyway, how are you?

K       Doing okay. Hey, good to see you again.

D       Good to see you. It's almost Friday. We've almost made it through another week. Well, things being as they are, basically it's a day-by-day thing if you survive.

K       Yes. Yeah, yeah. Well, we’ll take one day at a time.

D       One day at a time. Yes. So anything new in your world?

K       Oh, not much. Just, you know, busy things here and there. Work is busy, life is busy. But, no, I mean, it's gotten hot in here.

D       Oh yeah, here too.

K       So yeah, you would like that. I'm not a big fan. However…

D       I know.

K       last weekend it was just so nice. It was, upper 70s, low 80s, and I think I spent more time on my porch than I did inside the house.

D       Well, that's great.

K       I was ready to sleep in that porch because it was so nice. It was just beautiful.

D       Yeah. Well, if we tried to do that, the mosquitoes would find their way in even though we have screens.

K       Yeah. Yeah, my son wanted to, play badminton. I'm kinda doing a little pre… pre-game

D       We're pre-gaming the pre-game here.

K       Yes. and I really enjoy playing badminton, and he has gotten so much better, like with his coordination, all that. You know, usually you play badminton and if you're not good at it's like one pass and it's down. But we actually were pretty good. But because we were doing it in the evening around dinner time, I was like, "Oh gosh," mosquitoes were out it was, uh,

D       they're vicious.

K       They are vicious, and I am a mosquito magnet. 

D       Like my husband. 

K       They see me, yeah, they see me a mile away and they're all coming in like, "Hey, she's out."

D       She looks tasty.

K       Oh my gosh. Yeah, no, not a good trait to have.

D       Well, that's so funny that you're talking about that because that leads us a nice segue, as it were, a segue lead-in to our topic. We're gonna talk about sports and games today. Uh, I don't know how much I will talk about sports because that's not really my thing, so… but we figure, you know, it's all in the same sort of, general area, so we'll kinda put those together. Yeah, and then we'll talk about the thing that I really like, is games.

K       Sounds good.

D       Okay. So, sports and games, that's something, people seem to have in common all over the world even though the sports may be different. Were sports something that was big for you growing up at all?

K       Absolutely. Yes. since, the most popular sport, which… I have a little kind of, funny fact here. Well, not funny, but like facts about the most popular sports in the world. I guess I'll start with the most popular sport in the world because that's what I grew up playing and learned how to do. But soccer, as they call it in the United States, but the rest of the world call[s] it football. but I remember my dad taught me how to play soccer, and it's just something that as soon as you learn how to walk, you learn how to play soccer. That's how you were. And it's always, you always see kids outside, like in the neighborhood or, at school during break or recess or like they're always playing soccer everywhere or just on the street. Yeah, so I remember doing that. and apparently, it is the most popular sport in the world.

D       I believe it

K       it has estimated number of fans is three and a half billion.

D       Oh my gosh.

K       Yes. 

D       Wow. What's so weird about this, and I always say this, to my students, I've got students from all over the world, and they all... soccer is big everywhere, and it's just not that popular here. It's getting more so, but when I was growing up, I mean, I don't even think kids did it, and then later it became a thing where, okay, school kids, they have soccer teams and stuff like that, but then that's it. Nobody cared about any kind of professional soccer or anything. It was all about, baseball and our football, American football. But it's just very strange that a sport that is so popular with so many people, we just can't get on board with it that much. It's really odd.

K       Right. And when you think of it, where it's popular, like Europe obviously, South and Central America, Africa, some parts of Asia. But most of the world, has it as one of their popular sports, but not, not here. Definitely not here. Have you ever learned how to play it or…?

D       No. I know that will shock you beyond belief that no.

K       I kind of thought that was the answer, but…

D       You know, if you were a betting kinda gal.

K       Yeah. Yep. Yep.

D       Yeah, I really didn't learn how to play any kind of sports. I think I told you last time we had this conversation about growing up and, they'd throw you on the team in gym class and just expect that you'd know how to play softball or whatever, and I didn't know. Or volleyball. I mean, it's like, okay, I get the general idea. You gotta get the ball across and keep it moving. But, there are other parts to it, and I never knew, and it was just so awkward.

K       Yeah. I actually enjoyed playing sports when I was in school, when I was young, when I was a kid, but then in school because yeah, you do play. And I even did sports outside of school too, like athletics and extracurricular kind of stuff. But it was just, I don't know, I feel like it's just something you did. Like I learned how to play soccer. I learned how to play basketball. I knew how to play volleyball. You just knew how to do it. Oh, dodgeball, that was a big thing at school too. Can you imagine? We played dodgeball as part of our PE.

D       Same. And I hated it because, the kids were like, "Well, let's see how much damage we can do with this thing," you know? And they were out for blood, man. They were like bam, whipping that thing at you and, wanting to leave bruises.

K       Well, you've gotta duck. 

D       Yeah, I'm not good at that. Have you figured this out yet? Yeah. Oh, I really stunk so bad at everything. Yeah. I... and, and this brings me to my next point. there are team sports and then there are individual sports, and I think I would've done better at individual sports. And in fact, I had this very brief stint, uh, stint means like a short period of time where you do something. I had a very brief stint where I was on the track team. Yeah, 'cause I did kinda like to run. I can't imagine it now. But then I was like, "Mm, no." I lost interest pretty quickly.

K       Yeah. I don't mind running, I just feel like I don't have time for it now. I think the other part of it is, I just feel like I'm just constantly tired.

D       Yeah. Like I said, I used to like the short distance runs, like sprints and things like that. The distance running I hated because I would just get bored, I mean…

K       Yeah. So funny story about my childhood. When I was in high school, one summer, when I was still doing the sports I went to this summer camp, but it was like a sports summer camp, right? So there were a bunch of athletes and We had a group of, people that we used to do athletics together and all that, and then there was a group of boxers. Yeah, like different athletes. So I remember every morning and every afternoon we had trainings, right? So we had to do certain things, and we had to run so many miles, and it was kind of, yeah, uh, mountainous, hilly area, so we had to run so many miles through those hills and forests and all that. And, it was fun. At that time I enjoyed it very much. But the funny thing was that every time after we had our trainings at the end of the night, they would have a dance, kinda like a little... Yeah. And our coach would literally kick us out of our cabins to go and dance. And we would all complain, right? 'Cause we're tired and we were training and running. And he's

D       Gotta dance!

K       Right. But he was right to do that because it helped us. You didn't feel sore [the] next day. Like, for some reason dancing helped. So, but yeah. It was fun though. At that time it was fun. Now I wouldn't do it. I'm like, "oh, no." My goodness. 

D       Yeah. Well, so was there any sport that you were not good at that you wanted to be good at?

K       Uh, oh yeah, plenty. But figure skating. I always wanted to learn how to figure skate, and I just never had a chance to really learn. I tried to figure skate [a] couple times and nah, no, it's not... That was not a good sight to see, me with skates on.

D       Yeah, I tried skating a couple times too, and it just, uh, it was awkward and…My cat just is meowing again, so if you hear that, guys,

K       I think your cat wants to be a part of this conversation.

D       Oh my gosh, yes. She's, she's all about it. okay. Well, I won't answer that question for myself because we know I stunk at all of them, and didn't wanna be good at any of them. I didn't care. I just didn't wanna play. Let's see. Yeah, so what about instead of, talking about, sports that you participated in, what about spectator sports? Do you like spectator sports? Any kind of games you like to watch?

K       Yeah, I don't mind watching sports. In fact, hockey, right? So for example, I've always liked hockey, but our town has a, a minor league hockey game here, and they're actually pretty good, and it's so much fun to go to the game, the actual... So we've been doing that quite a bit here, supporting [the] local team, and it's just fun. You go there and, sometimes it gets a little rough, so you're all watching the fights and I do like that part of it. Sometimes it's like, "Oh, come on, seriously." But it is a very fast-paced game. So I think I am more of a fan of fast-paced games, right? So yeah, soccer is a fast-paced game because there's always something happening, right? People are going back and forth and all that. Hockey is a fast-paced game. However, football, American football, it is not my thing. I do not enjoy watching it at all, and I just won't watch it. It makes no sense to me, and I just don't like it. But here's where I'm conflicted with, the games that I watch here and go to, and then my son plays and all that, and it's a big cultural thing in the United States. Baseball, I think I started appreciating it a little more. It doesn't look like you're a fan. So the very first time I watched the baseball game, it was in Cincinnati, Ohio, when I was at the camp here. The boys took us out to the game and, it was a cultural experience, and they were so excited because the team played that they like and all that. And I sat there in agony in 100-degree weather for three hours of pure boredom and just misery. It was horrible.

D       Yeah, misery. That sums it up. Sorry, I know it's the American, you know… sport thing, but ugh, ugh.

K       It was horrible because first, I didn't understand the game. I didn't know what was happening, right? What, what the rules are; then it was extremely slow because when you think of it, nothing's happening. They're all just standing around.

D       A lot of standing. And the minute you look away, that's the thing, you could be watching like, "Okay, okay, let's see." And then get kind of distracted, so you look over here for a second, and then you hear the audience in the stands, "Ah!" And you're like, "What the heck?”

K       What just happened?

D       I just looked away for a minute. Not even a minute, a second.

K       Yeah, yeah. And usually when they have these games, it's like hotter than, frying pan out there, and, uh, it's just not enjoyable exper- well, was not enjoyable experience. But I think once I started learning the rules about baseball, and then when my son started playing, with the little kiddos and all that, it... you kinda enjoy it a little more. But it's still, like if I ever have, free time, what would I like to do? Baseball would not be my choice, watching baseball. 

D       I get it. I feel like I probably told this story before. When I used to work this one office and they would take us for, a summer outing, and we'd go for lunch, and that part was good 'cause we'd go to this nice Italian restaurant. I liked that. But then it all went wrong because we had to go see a Cubs game. And it was so boring. And I remember I'd bring stuff with me to be sitting there to do to entertain myself 'cause I could not sit there for three hours. Oh, yeah, it was ridiculous, so. I know. But, but I do actually enjoy watching football. Yes, but not outside, though, because the one and only time I went to a Bears game, it was dead of winter. It was freezing cold. It was miserable. And you can't even see or hear what's going on. You don't know what's going on. So people sit there in the stands with their headphones listening to the announcers, and it's like why don't you just stay home?

K       I know. Why are you freezing yourself here? That’s weird.

D       It's really awful.

D       And I do like basketball.

K       Basketball is fun too because it is a fast-paced game and, kinda running around and all that. But I've never been to a football game here, and I don't think I ever want to go.

D       Yeah, uh, I don't think you're missing much. Well, we've pretty much used half our time on sports, shockingly. I don't know, can't even believe I had that much to say, but okay, so let's move on to games. That's where I really shine. When you were a kid, did you have board or card games that you used to play?

K       So here's the funny thing. My family wasn't much into games, so we didn't play much as a family. We played some card games with friends and maybe, cousins and then, I'm trying to think if we played board games - no, not really. I didn't start playing board games until I moved here and kinda got into it a little more. What about you? I mean,

D       My grandmother... Yeah, what about me? Well, my grandmother, used to play Scrabble, and she had this really cool set that was from the 1960s, and it's much different than anything you see now. They don't make them like this anymore. And so I remember being very young and playing Scrabble with her, and I would win too, 'cause I was into things that were word games, and everybody would just kind of laugh like, "How is she winning?"

D       I'm like, "I don't know. I like this kind of thing." so she got me into that. but whenever anybody was playing a game, like adults and stuff, I'd be like right there trying to work my way, "Can I play? Can I play?"

K       Aw, so you liked that kind of stuff early on.

D       Oh, yeah, always love games. And the funny thing is, I'm not particularly great at them either. That’s the crazy thing.

K       Oh, yes you are.

D       No, no, no, if it's a game of luck, I almost never win. If it's a game of strategy, I have a fighting chance.

K       Well, you gotta use your brain.

D       No. This is why, I'm going to Vegas next month, and I will not be going to the casinos because I know my luck, and I will just be, handing them my money and saying, "Take it, take it."

K       Yeah, that’s true. No. for some reason I've never had an interest in playing, casino games. I don't know why. Mm-mm.

D       Well, they’re boring games. It looks like there's, so many different things, but it's the same essentially game, And it's not my kind of thing, so yeah. Which is good because I would lose my money for sure.

K       Well, yeah.

D       100%, 100%. 

K       So do you have a all-time favorite board game?

D       Yeah, it's probably gonna have to be Scrabble. Yeah, the old-fashioned, yeah. And, now you can play that same kind of game, on a mobile app, And you can play those with strangers, so that's kind of fun. I play that a lot, too.

K       Yeah, yeah. That's fun

D       but yeah, I definitely have always loved games. So, so yeah, Scrabble is my game. Card games, I love those. Any kind of card games, definitely.

K       So I remember, when you lived here in Illinois and we would come over to your house and you had this beautiful basement, and you had this whole room where it was just full of games. That was legendary.

D       It was. And, and they're just still sitting here in my closet now, and so many of them I've never played. And some of them are really cool. They're, vintage I would say. You know, some of them are from the '60s and '70s, and a lot of them I like just 'cause the box looks really cool or it's just an interesting game that they don't play anymore. And I had this idea, with a friend of mine. she always comes here and we play games, like daily. And all of a sudden, I had this idea that I should make, a video of, or videos playing these kind of forgotten games, explaining how they're played, and actually play them and talk about that. Wouldn't that be fun?

K       I think you should absolutely have your own YouTube channel

D       I don't know that anybody would watch it.

K       You would be surprised. You would absolutely be surprised because I think that would... That's a great idea. I'm sure there's so many people out there who are also game fanatics, and they would love to see this. Oh, you should absolutely do it.

D       I know, and it's, interesting games that you don't see, so it's kinda cool to see these, sort of, vintage games. But yeah. So, what else? Are you a competitive game player?

K       I don't think so, because I like to play games for fun, right? And, sometimes people get so competitive that it kinda takes that fun out of it, I mean, I feel like I'm competitive to a degree, right? I'm not, like, crazy, like if I, if I lose a game that I'm, gonna go nuts. But no, no, it's okay. It's okay to lose. However, I do have beginner's luck.

D       Okay

K       Uh, most of the time when I play something or try something for the very first time, I do really well, and then after that it's downhill.

D       Actually, that reminds me of me with bowling. yeah, it used to be like that. I would not bowl very often, but when I would, like I would start off really great, and people would be like, "Oh, wow, she's a great bowler." And I'm like, "No, no, no, no, I am not. This will change very quickly." And it would.

K       Oh yeah, that happened to me too. I remember first time bowling I was like, "Oh man, this is really cool." And then after that, every game after that I was like, "Oh gosh, I'm horrible at this."

D       Gutter, gutter, gutter.

K       Yeah.

D       So here are some  phrases I think are interesting to talk about. Sore loser.

K       Oh, yes.

D       Yeah, so there are definitely people who are sore losers, and that means, like, if they don't win the game, they get really mad. They, start yelling; they flip over the table. Oh, that reminds me. So, one of my friends when we were coming back from I don't know where, some trip, and we were in the airport waiting, and so we busted out these card games that we always like to play. And we had a long layover, so we laid the suitcases on the side, and we made a little table out of it. And so we were playing the game, and at one point my friend, she just lost really badly, like three hands in a row. And she got fake mad. She wasn't serious. But she's like, "This stupid game." And she flipped the suitcase up and the cards go flying everywhere.

K       Oh my gosh

D       And we all just started laughing. And then some people were in the waiting area, and they're like, "Oh, I can see who lost over here."

K       Well, yeah. Well, I used to have a friend whose husband was extremely competitive, and it was to the point that nobody wanted to play games with him because,

D       That takes the fun out of it 

K       when he would lose, like he would flip the table literally and just storm off.

D       People do that.

K       …and leave the house. And I was like, "Come on, dude, this is just Uno.

Like, don't..."

D       Like I think it's the same sort of mentality of people who get really mad when their sports team doesn't win. And it's like, this is not affecting your life in any way. 

K       But talking about sore loser, like the, another term for it is poor sportsmanship too, right? Like when you're, when you lose and then you blame everybody else too, their fault and like,

D       And some people cheat – why? I don't even wanna cheat because to win like that, just takes all the fun out of it. I don't understand, but people will do it.

K       Yeah, yeah. But then again, that's the thing. when you play these games or like sports, it does not affect your life in any way. Why get so mad? Why take it so personally? It's just for fun.

D       Yeah, it's very strange. I don't know

K       It is. It is. 

D       Okay. Well, let's see. So what other games would you say you play now? 

K       Well, I mentioned Uno here because that’s kind of like our family favorite. And my 12-year-old son goes into this whole mode of smack talk while we're playing

D       Oh my goodness.

K       And it's so funny. Like, we always have like a funny smack talk, but he always says, "There is no family in UNO."

D       Oh my gosh, your kid is hilarious.

K       So that's kind of like a family favorite. But, you were talking about, all these games that you have, and I have a closet right behind me, you can see the door, and it's full of games. But same thing, there's some that we haven't even opened, been there for a while, or some that we maybe played once and then didn't go back. But I try to, like even when our son was very little, like still a baby and all that, we tried to buy him all these little games like Hungry Hippo or, the thing that loops around and you have to push buttons and, do these little matching things. So the other day, here's a funny thing, I come home and he and my mother-in-law, she's staying with us for a couple of weeks right now, are playing Go Fish.

D       Oh my gosh. Can't tell you the last time I played that game.

K       It's fun. It is fun. it's a simple game, but it is kind of fun.

D       Yeah. And sometimes I think with all the games that I have, and we seem to gravitate towards the same ones over and over, and it's like, "We should really try something new," but it's like, "Oh, I love this game." I did get a new game recently, and I don't think anybody enjoyed it as much as I did, but I think you would like it actually.

K       What is it?

D       So it's called Poetry for Neanderthals.

K       I've seen it, actually, yes.

D       So what you do is you have to get someone to guess the word on your card, and you can give whatever clues you wanna give, but it can only be one syllable. And someone from the opposing team is sitting next to you, watching you and making sure you don't break a rule. And if you do, there's this blow up, bat, like a caveman bat and you whack them with it. I was having so much fun.

K       Oh my gosh. So do you remember when we used to go to conferences when we taught together?

D       That was the best part of the conference.

K       Yes, you would always bring games with you, and we would get like either in the lobby or somebody's room, and we would play. And I feel like every time our go-to game was Taboo,

D       Oh, that's a great game.

K       Right? Where you have… so you have a card and a word that your teammate has to guess, but you can start giving clues, but you cannot use words on that card when you're giving clues. And I remember it was hilarious because, somebody like me, who was still kinda new to this whole English language thing, oh…we had some wild, wild clues.

D       I still remember the thoroughbred. I don't even know what it was, but we said something about a thoroughbred, which is a horse by the way, and somehow she got bread out of it and so she was saying something else having to do with peanut butter and I don't know. I don't know, it was so funny. But yeah, so I thought of you with this game that I was talking about, this Neanderthal game because I remember with Taboo you would be... If you were the one that was watching the reader to make sure that they didn't use a word on the card and there was that little buzzer and you'd be like right in there, ba, ba, ba, ba, buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz. And the more tired you would get the more wacky and goofy you would get and you'd be like buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz. So I could see you with that bat, you'd be whacking people left and right. So we gotta play it next time. Long story short. 

K       We should, So, speaking about games, like I just played a new game with our friends, family friends, and it's called, Herd Mentality.

D       Oh, I've heard of that. Yeah.

K       It's actually kinda neat. Yeah, it's kinda neat. So you have a question, right? So you would say, I don't know, a cookie, let's say, a type of cookie, and everybody has to write down some type of cookie that they think is the most popular, right? So then everybody says the name of that cookie, and if people match and have the same people say the same type of cookie, you get a point. And then if you don't, I guess you get this pink cow or something like that, that you get stuck with. It's so weird.

D       Oh, so like if you get a herd of cows, then you're losing essentially.

K       Yeah. But it's like the whole thing of herd mentality is like that everybody thinks the same way, right? It has to be the most popular answer. Yeah, yeah. It was kinda neat actually.

D       Oh my goodness, time comes and goes. Oh my goodness. Ugh. But any last thoughts that we wanna say about games? 

K       I say if somebody, never tried playing games, go for it. Absolutely go for it. Even if you're not sure if you... 'Cause sometimes if there's a new game, there's that learning curve, and you're trying to figure out how to play it, and sometimes people get frustrated or they get scared, right? "Well, I don't know how to play it. I'm gonna lose." You know what? Lose. Go for it.

D       Who cares if you lose? I lose all the time.

K       Right. But once you learn how to play it, you're gonna enjoy it, you're gonna have so much fun, and I wish, when I was growing up that, as a family we would play more games, because it is, it's a lot of fun and, your families will enjoy it too, so why not?

D       And, the way everything's so expensive these days, it is a nice cheap, form of entertainment.

K       Right. Well, and the thing is that there's so much video gaming now everywhere, that table games are going kind of... People are not looking in those anymore, 

D       Exactly. 

K       But it's so much better, I feel like. it's so much better for development, for [the] brain, for, practicing your thinking and all that stuff. I think it's way better than just video games.

D       Totally agree. So, I just wanna give everybody a last reminder here again. we got the show notes. I sometimes I forget to say that, but definitely go check out the show notes. We'll explain a little bit more about some of the phrases that we mentioned here, maybe some cultural notes, something interesting, so check those out. And you know what? If you're enjoying these episodes and show notes have been helpful for you, and you ever think to yourself, “I'd really like to buy these girls a coffee," you totally can.

K       Yes. We love coffee.

D       We love coffee. So wherever you get your podcasts, you'll find some kind of links where you can buy us a coffee, and we would love that. But other than that, I think that's all I've got. And until next time, here's to good coffee, good vibes, and great conversations.

Cheers

Cheers.