It's all fun and games until someone loses an eye" is something adults often say to children as a warning to be careful, but in my family, we prefer to say: "It's just all fun and games... but I want to win!"

Do you play games? Do you enjoy playing games?

Would you believe that playing games can help us learn English, and become better people? 

Human beings have been playing games for thousands of years. In today's episode (the first of two that will be released this summer), we'll look at the history of games, then the benefits of playing games, and finally, I'll share some of the games I've been playing (and losing!) recently. But, it's just all fun and games, and that's where the joy lies in summertime.

Games are a universal, shared, human pastime. 

I’d no idea when I released Episode 1 of Hear You Go that I'd release another 23 episodes!

Thank you to each one of you who has practiced your English listening with me. 

I'm going to be taking some time off this summer and will release two summer English listening episodes instead of four, so as we come to the end of Season One (OMG!), I thought I'd share some of the lessons I've learned. 

You’ll hear about:

• taking action and being consistent

• the feedback I got

• my love-hate relationship with Instagram, and

• some surprising developments that I didn’t anticipate or predict would happen.

Perhaps you'll be able to relate to some of these lessons to your own English learning practices and takeaways. I hope so.

I'll wrap up the episode by telling you about my plans for season two. More intermediate English conversations and listening practice episodes to come! 

Today's listening practice episode explores the different ways people are choosing to live, and by that I mean where they live and who they live with. In a sense, it's also about the communities we build.

At a time when the cost of buying or renting a home is very expensive, and when many people are suffering from loneliness, should we consider other living arrangements?

Let's explore some new trends and alternative ways that people are choosing to live together. We'll also explore lots of advanced English in the vocabulary and expressions used to discuss this topic.

You’ll hear about grandparents and their adult grandchildren living together and the benefits this offers to both generations. You’ll also hear about mothers living with other mothers to share costs and support each other as they work and raise families. I’ll also explain a concept called co-housing that sounds like a wonderful re-imagining of community to me. 

We often accept that life is supposed to happen in one way, in one direction, and living independently is one of those traditional ideas in North American society. I'm wondering now if we need to re-think this idea. 

We also need to re-think the idea that the only way to learn English is to learn grammar. Grammar is important, but so too listening. That's what Hear You Go is here to help you with: listening to the messiness of spoken English.

Hear You Go podcasts are AWESOME, aren't they?

We use the adjective "awesome" a lot these days, maybe too much. It comes from the noun awe. 

What is awe, and why should we try to put more awe in our lives?

Should we wait for awe, or can we go out and find it? 

We'll explore these questions in today's English Listening episode, and learn more about the topic of awe. The study of awe is new, but the more we learn about it, the more scientists and psychologists are discovering that awe has many benefits. It has benefits for our health, and for our communities and societies.

And if you want to learn more about awe after you listen to this episode and all the advanced English I use to talk about it, sign up for my newsletter to receive links to extra materials and resources.