lesson, I'm going to talk about all of the things that make

life just a little bit nicer. I'm going to talk about all of

the little inventions and techniques and things that can

happen in the world that make life a little easier. That make

life a little bit more convenient. I thought as I was

making this lesson, maybe I could even do a lesson someday

on inconveniences. I'm not sure there are enough of them. I'm

sure there are. But let's stay focused. This English lesson

today will be about conveniences. So the first

convenience I have is the washing machine and possibly

the dryer. Now, I do wanna say one thing about this lesson. I

recognize that things are different in different parts of

the world and when you go back in time, things were different

as well. I think that uh the washing machine is a relatively

new invention this century. Um and it has very much made it

easier to wash clothes and if you have a dryer as well, it

makes it easier to dry clothes. In English, we that we're going

to do the laundry at least in Canada. So, when we have a lot

of dirty clothes in the hamper, we take them to the washing

machine and we use the washing machine to do the laundry. Um

we use it to wash our clothes and then we use the dryer to

dry them. We actually, I think, I've mentioned this in past

lessons, we don't have a dryer. We do have a washing machine

but we usually hang our clothes on a drying rack outside so

that they can dry naturally. It's a little cheaper than

running a dryer but I know many people who live in a small

apartment, they might do their laundry and then hang it up in

their apartment or they might have a dryer as well. And if

you don't have a washing machine or dryer, you might go

to the laundromat. That's a place where you can go to wash

your clothes. Contact lenses. So, contact lenses, I don't

wear them but I hear they are very very convenient. Um they

are one of modern conveniences in life. A modern convenience

is something that's been invented in the last fifty or

100 years. Um many people who wear glasses love wearing

contacts instead. Notice I call them contacts. That's kind of

the short way to refer to them in English. So Jen wears

contacts. I could also say Jen wears contact lenses. And some

of my kids wear contacts as well. They wear contact lenses.

The thing that's inconvenient about contact lenses that is

that you have to take them out and put them back in every

evening and every morning at least that's what I understand.

I don't actually wear them so I don't know. I think yes they

they take them out at night and they put them back in in the

morning. Online learning. So, online learning is definitely a

convenience. It's definitely something that makes life a

little easier. Now, for kids and for myself as a teacher, I

prefer in-person learning but for many of you, you are doing

some online learning right now. You are learning using the

internet. You're either watching this on your phone or

on your computer and so, in some ways, you are doing some

online learning right now. It's very convenient that I can do

an English lesson this morning and people from all over the

world um can watch it. Um it's very convenient. Um many many

years ago this would not have been possible. It would have

been impossible. But certainly the internet makes things a lot

more convenient. Running water. So running water is anytime you

have water that just comes out of the tap or the faucet when

you turn it on. Um if you think back in time and there are some

parts in the world of the world still where there is no running

water. Um but I know that uh one of the teachers I taught

with they didn't have I think they had running water in the

kitchen but they still had an outhouse when they had to go to

the bathroom. So in the middle of the Canadian winter when he

was a kid he had to go out of the house if he had to go to

the bathroom. So running water is certainly very very

convenient. And in addition to that having hot water in the

house. Having a hot water heater is very very convenient

as well. Pizza delivery. So this is the one thing that I do

not have where I live. When I lived in the city I actually

really enjoyed pizza delivery. I enjoyed the fact that you

could just make a phone call and a person would show up at

your door within 30 minutes with hot pizza. That was very

very convenient for me when I was a university student. I

really enjoyed the fact that um and it wasn't very expensive.

So I could make a phone call and for a few dollars a person

would bring a pizza to my door. Um and if you're having a party

you can order a stack of pizzas like this. This person is

bringing a whole bunch of pizzas but pizza delivery is

certainly uh one of the modern conveniences in some larger

cities in the world. And then we have this new delivery

service in North America, parts of Europe and other places in

the world called Uber Eats or Skip the Dishes. I think

there's something called DoorDash. There's a number of

different names for it but basically, they will bring you

food from any restaurant. It costs quite a bit of money but

if you for instance, we're stuck at home for a long time

and there was a lockdown, it was possible that you could

still get Uber Eats, okay? Or skip the dishes. You might have

been able to get food delivered to your house. I have never

used Uber Eats or skip the dishes. I have never had food

delivered. Um I think I've too cheap. I think I would rather

just go get the food myself or make the food myself at home. I

have done this though. Curbside pickup is a new modern

convenience. It's when you order things in advance from a

store or restaurant. Either you make a phone call or you order

it using an app and then they say your order will be ready

for curbside pickup at 930 and then you go to the store and

they bring the items to your car or they bring the groceries

to your car depending on what you ordered. I have used

curbside pickup quite a bit during the pandemic. When

stores were closed in this part of Ontario, Canada, most stores

and restaurants still offered curbside pickup. So, you could

drive your car up to the store or restaurant and a person

would come out and bring you your food. It was very, very

convenient. Out of season fruit and vegetables. So, I think

you'll understand this one uh once I explain it. In Canada,

we can buy a lot of different fruits and vegetables out of

season. We can buy strawberries in the middle of the winter.

That means that we can't grow strawberries in Canada. In the

winter. We have a lot of strawberries in June and July

but when the winter comes, all of our strawberries come from

California or Florida. So, it's very and very convenient to be

able to buy out of season fruit and vegetables and then we have

things like bananas which I love. We wouldn't call it an

out of season fruit but we would definitely say um it's an

imported fruit. So, it's really nice and very convenient to be

able to eat different fruits and vegetables from around the

world um and to eat them during the winter season when we can't

grow them ourselves. Let's see here. Fast food. So, as I

mentioned in the description, not all of the conveniences are

necessarily good. Fast food is very convenient. If you don't

have a lunch, you can quickly go to a fast food restaurant

and get something to eat um but it isn't necessarily healthy.

So, something can be convenient but also be unhealthy. So, um I

have to admit that I am guilty of buying fast food every once

in a while. There is something Convenient about you give your

order or you place your order and within minutes you have

food to eat. So fast food definitely a modern

convenience. Frozen food. So in our grocery stores there is a

section called the frozen food section. And in the frozen food

section you can buy frozen vegetables um and things that

are probably healthy for you. But you can also buy frozen

meals. You can buy frozen pizza. You can buy what's

called a TV dinner which is a meal in a tray that you just

microwave. Uh and frozen food, they're kind of like pre-made

meals and then they're frozen and this is another example of

something that maybe isn't healthy for you. Frozen food

often uh has a lot of salt in it and maybe isn't the best

thing to eat. At least not on a daily basis. Coffee makers. So

coffee makers have evolved over time and now we have coffee

makers where you simply put in a little pod of coffee and you

push a button and it brews a cup of coffee for you very

quickly. Even older coffee makers were very convenient but

certainly the newest coffee makers are super convenient. Um

you can also say they're very handy. Handy is another way to

say that something is convenient. Uh but certainly uh

a coffee maker. We sometimes just call it a Keurig because

that's one of the companies that makes this type of coffee

maker. Um I actually have a Keurig but mostly I just use it

for hot water to make tea. I used to use it to make coffee

and it was very convenient but now I just use it to make tea.

And then of course the microwave is super convenient.

If you take food to work that you would want that you would

like to heat up. It can be very handy to have a microwave at

work. You put your food in. Um you punch in 1 minute and you

hit start and then when it goes ding it's done. Um so yeah um

we we have a funny uh uh phrase in English. Sometimes we say,

I'm just gonna nuke it for a bit and I know that sounds like

nuclear like nuclear bomb but we sometimes in informal

English or slaying will say, um oh, I brought uh a couple hot

dogs to work. I'm just gonna nuke it. I'm gonna nuke them

for a sec which means you're going to put them in the

microwave. That might be regional. I'm not sure if

that's just this part of Canada. Uh but but it is a

funny thing to say, I think. There are a lot of different

appliances that are very convenient. I don't want this

to be a lesson about appliances but things like blenders and

mixers and bread machines are all very convenient. In fact,

the kitchen is a place where you will find a lot of modern

conveniences. You will find a lot of things that have been

invented to make life easier. In fact, just having our new

oven, we can tell it to turn on at a certain time of day. Um

all of those little things are very cool, very handy, and

very, very convenient. So, appliance large and small.

Bottled water. So again, not all of these conveniences are

actually good. Um if you drink bottled water every day, all

day and you don't recycle the bottle, then that's not a good

convenience. But it certainly is very convenient to be able

to buy bottled water when you are thirsty. If you go on a

trip or if you are out and about, out and about, you might

be thirsty, maybe you forgot to bring some water. It's very

convenient to be able to buy some bottled water. But please

drink bottled water when you need to um and please recycle

the bottles. Please don't throw them in the ditch. When I go

for a walk in the morning, there's often uh empty water

bottles in the ditch. So, please recycle. The drive

through. So, that is not how you spell the word through in

normal English. The THRU spelling almost only shows up

in drive through, okay? It's a short form. I always think they

didn't have enough money to put all the letters the sign. Um

but a drive thru is certainly uh very convenient. There are

many people in North America that go through the drive

through sometimes once a day. I don't go through it once a day.

Um and it's a way to buy food, to buy coffee, to buy something

to drink um without having to get out of your car. So if you

don't want to get out of the car, um I know it sounds kinda

lazy, doesn't it? You go through the drive-thru, you

drive up, you order something when you get to the drive-thru

window, uh you pay and give you your food and your drinks. So,

the drive thru is certainly very, very convenient. This is

one of my favorite conveniences and that is GPS. The global

positioning system is amazing to me. Uh a few weeks ago, Jen

and I had to drive to another city. We had to go to a city

that we had never been to before. And it was very nice to