Day 26: Claire talks about her family

Seonaid: Uh, so Claire, could you tell us a little bit about your family?

Claire: Of course, yes. So I have a mum and a dad who are divorced. Uh, my dad, eh, has been in
a long-term relationship with his girlfriend, but they're not married yet, and my mum is
married to, um, a Jersey City fireman in the United States. So she lives in New York.

My brother and sister, um, are both younger than me. I'm the oldest, or eldest, and my
sister lives in France, and my brother. How do I explain my brother? He, he lives in
Leeds in the north of England, and he mostly drives, um, musicians around Europe in his
blue van. But because of the current situation, I don't think he's doing a lot. I think he
plays on Twitch. I think he plays Pokémon and I don't know what else, really.

My sister's very interesting, though, because she is ... Well, before she started, um,
working as a mechanic in a ski resort, like fixing these big machines that bash the snow, I
think they're called snow bashers, I have no idea what she really does but she works in a
garage, before that, she fixed helicopters in the Royal Navy. That was pretty cool.

Seonaid: Cool, that is awesome. So, she lives in a ski resort – all the time?

Claire: Yes, she lives in the French Alps.

Vocabulary

A long-term relationship: A romantic relationship that is serious where the people have been together for
a long time.
Jersey City: A city in the USA.
Eldest: 'Eldest' means the same as 'oldest' but is only used for people and is a bit more polite.
Leeds: A city in the north of England.
Twitch: A computer game.
Pokémon: A computer game.
The Royal Navy: The British Navy (the part of the army that has ships).

Notes

Eldest: Claire uses the word ‘oldest’ and then changes her mind and uses ‘eldest’. ‘Eldest’ is more polite
when we’re talking about people, though in casual speech, ‘oldest’ is fine. We use a few expressions like
this to be polite about age, because saying someone is old isn’t polite.

Here are some more expressions that you might use when speaking about someone to be polite.

Old woman -> older / elderly lady

Old man -> older / elderly gentleman

Old people -> elderly / older people