M: Thank you, Rory, for your library story. Well, for your library answers. First of all, what do we say? Go to a library, go to the library, go to library?
R: Well, go to the library or go to a library, not go to library. You need an article, but go to a library for like one of many and go to the library for a specific one of many. That's usually your local libraries, the library.
M: Yeah, and you've mentioned this local library. I usually go to my local library. So local in your neighbourhood, right? Like, your local school, your local shop, your local library, right? In the neighbourhood. So I usually go to my local library or to the local library, right? Or I've never been to a library, a library, yeah? Or I don't like libraries. So, you said that "up my neck of the woods"...
R: Yes, it's an idiom and a spoiler alert, we are working on an idioms course right now. More information on that further on down the line, which is also an idiom. However, up my neck of the woods means where in the area where I live, not that you live in a forest, it just means where you live.
M: Okay, could you give us an example?
R: Oh, well, yeah, sure. There aren't many people up my neck of the woods, because it's a village.
M: As a child, Rory went to the library and he said that we would go there. So, I would go there. Why would? Because it was a regular action in the past. Okay? So Rory is talking about the past, when he was a child, "I would go to a library". Yeah? So kind of, it was a regular action every week. And you can say I went there, or I would go there.
R: Yes. I went there, I would go there, I used to go there.
M: Who is a childminder?
R: A childminder is just someone who looks after you when your parents are unavailable to do that. So... And it's their job to do that. So, a nanny is another word, we just call it a childminder. Like mind means obviously your head and what's going on in there. But, mind can also mean to look after and a minder is someone who looks after something. So a childminder is someone who looks after children. Like, mind the gap, like keep the gap in mind. Yes, it's all connected.
M: Pick up a load of books. When you take books from a library, you pick up books, a load of books, lots of books. So, as a child, Rory used to pick up a load of books on complex subjects.
R: When we talk about what a book is about, it's a book on something, like I'm reading a book on being creative in schools.