One of you recently asked me some questions about my personal life on our Twitter page. I’d love to tell you more about myself! And let’s use this as an opportunity to boost your English vocabulary, too!
If you have more questions, feel free to post them in the comments here, or post them to our Twitter page. I’m always happy for us to get to know each other a little bit better, and it’s a good, natural way to learn some new English vocabulary!
1. What do you do for fun?
More than anything, I love to travel. I’d rather live leanly in my day-to-day life in order to have enough money to travel. Before I die, I hope to have visited every country in the world. Here are some photos from our honeymoon this past spring, where we visited the Netherlands, Belgium, and Iceland:
On a more everyday basis, I’m addicted to BBC murder mysteries! I’ve seen every episode of Midsomer Murders and Father Brown, and I’m working my way through Foyle’s War and a few others now. One of my role models is the Australian adventuress, Miss Fisher, a lady detective who seems to have a new talent in every episode, whether it be racing cars, performing a risqué dance, or acting as a magician’s assistant.
I also love spending time in nature. Adrian and I live next to a small, wooded park, and we frequently take walks there when he gets home from work. When we have more time, we enjoy hiking in the Blue Ridge Mountains, which are a little over an hour from our house.
Lastly, nothing quite enraptures me like a night at the opera. The first opera I ever saw was Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde. My mother took me, and we had the good fortune of sitting by an absolute Wagner aficionado. Instead of the dainty opera glasses that most people use, he had a pair of high-tech birding binoculars. During the intermission, he inundated us with delightful trivia about Wagner, and when the show ended, he jumped to his feet and shouted “Bravo!” and “Brava!” until he went hoarse. Quite by accident, Tristan was also the first opera Adrian and I saw together, so it holds a special place in my heart. I rarely splurge on tickets at the Kennedy Center, which is Washington’s main performing arts venue. Luckily, though, Fathom Events brings operas from the Met in New York to our local movie theatres for a fraction of the price.
live leanly
work your way through something
role model
adventuress
risqué
wooded
enrapture someone
aficionado
dainty
intermission
inundate someone (with something)
hoarse
splurge (on something)
venue
2. What do you eat for breakfast?
More often than not, I eat BelVita biscuits for breakfast because they’re fast.
However, when I have more time, here are some of the things I love eating in the morning:
- Smoked fish on an English muffin, with grapes on the side
- An entire tomato with olive oil and salt
- Scrambled eggs and sausage links
- Leftover Chinese food
With all of this, my drink of choice is always either tea or cranberry juice.
3. Can you cook?
Alas, no! I can’t cook to save my life.
This isn’t to say that I don’t try. I do enjoy cooking, but any time I go near the kitchen, there’s a 60% chance of disaster striking.
Once, I even managed to botch boxed brownie mix. I’d already mixed the water and oil in with the mix before I realized that we didn’t have any eggs in the house. Being a pillar of common sense, I decided to compensate by simply doubling the water in the recipe. You can imagine how that turned out…
My sister, by contrast, is a wonderful cook. She’s even gone to culinary school! Her most recent concoction involved grilled brie with honey, thyme, and sweet cherries.
Alas!
botch something
a pillar of something
concoction
4. Do you have a pet?
I grew up with a cat, but he passed away about 10 years ago. His name was Tom Cat, and my father found him in a thunderstorm one night when I was a toddler. He was a runt, so his mother had kicked him out of the litter to fend for himself. Despite being small, he had the heart of a lion. On a few occasions, I saw him chasing dogs out of our yard that were three times his size! He was also a prolific mouser, although I don’t think he ever once killed a mouse. Instead, he liked to catch the mouse and release it alive at my mother’s feet, a gesture she never seemed to appreciate.
We don’t have a pet now, but Adrian and I are planning to get a bulldog one day. When we get one, I’ll share photos with you guys!
toddler
runt
fend for yourself
mouser
gesture
5. Do you believe in love at first sight?
Yes. I know it defies logic, but I do believe in love at first sight.
defy logic
First of all , thanks for sharing us a part of your life which I think you make your life beautiful and romantic by your charming smile .I think your amazing , smart , lovely and a woman with many talents , you are unique .I am sorry about Tom , About cooking it is better not to cook 😂 a woman like you should be a princess.My lovely teacher Mrs.Jeniffer I really appreciate this and I wish you wonderful life full of happiness , By the way I wish if you have a snap chat or skype to improve my English very fast 😂😂 .
Sign
Your handsom student
Abdulaziz 🌹
You’re very welcome, Abdulaziz! Thank you for being such a delightful member of our English family, and for caring enough to ask these questions!
And I agree: It is far better for me to avoid the kitchen altogether! I might burn the house down! :o)
I don’t have time to do tutoring these days, but I’ve heard that italki.com offers a good way to talk with native speakers. (I haven’t tried it myself.) However, if you have more questions, feel free to ask them, and I’ll do what I can to help you improve your English by creating more posts!
I hope you have a wonderful life, too!
Take care!
Jennifer
Thanx a million again , I forgot someting , your taste in choosing clothes is very awesom , you look great in blue shirt and very romantic in sheep fur
I’m glad you like my wool coat!
When I tried it on, it made me feel like a Viking or a Wildling from Game of Thrones. I feel adventurous and powerful when I wear it. 😁
Greetings,
Nice to know about your personal life. Your answers include modern words that i seen for the first time. The verbcards you shared are helping your steppers and me too.
A personal question I would like to ask you is what would you prefer going outside from these below places :-
1- Library
2- Museum
3- Cinema
4- Sports Stadium
5- Air show
Would like to know your top priorities if other than above you can also add in answer!
Thank you so much!
Your student,
🙋🙋🙋
Fahad Zia
Thanks for your comment, Fahad! It means the world to me that the verb cards in the email lessons are helping you 🙂
I would be delighted to answer this! I’ve already written this week’s post, but I’ll share my response the week after that.
Big hugs all the way from Washington!
Jennifer
Hello From UmeshParse,
Student from India…one of the laziest of all…
Well, I didnt ask any question to you Teacher so far, but I am trying to read all questions from other team mates asked you and ofcourse your wonderful answers to them. Nice to know your personal life, hobbies and your taste. I am glad to be a part of NextstepEnglish Team.
I am moving forward to read part 2. Will catch the stream soon.
Regards,
Umesh Parse
Woohoo! Thanks so much for checking these posts out, Umesh! 🙂 I hope you enjoy them and learn some new things!
I’ll do another of these posts in the future, so you’ll always be able to ask something next time 🙂
Happy weekend!
Yes, Teacher, I am checking thoroughly and trying to grasp every word you have written. I am addicted to this now. Thanks for this.
That makes me so happy! Happy learning! 🙂