tofluency.com, and we are back with

another conversation that is going to

help you learn real English. Now, today

we're going to talk about Valentine´s Day

and romance.

Yeah! Valentine's Day and romance because

we are filming this February. Now, be sure

to check out the description because

I'll leave a list of the different phrases

and vocabulary that we use in this

lesson, and we're going to try to speak

at more or less our normal speed and

this will give you great listening

practice. So, Valentine's Day can you tell

everyone what Valentine's Day is?

Valentine's Day is February 14 of every year.

It's a holiday which is supposed to

celebrate romantic love, so the love

between two partners, and it's a

holiday where there's sometimes a lot of

pressure to do things in a certain way

but it can also be quite fun, and as

we were talking about it, we realized that

we had a lot of memories of Valentine's Day from

growing up what it was like to

celebrate this holiday, which is really a

romantic holiday in school - when you're child.

Yeah, and we had some good memories and some

bad memories. I think we're only going to

share the good memories, and one of

the big things is, on Valentine's Day, one of the main

that people do is to send and

receive cards, so let's talk about that -

how you did that school in America.

Yes! Absolutely, and so basically the

whole Valentine's Day celebration was

everybody would buy or make cards for

everybody in their class, and usually

attach a little piece of candy, so...

Oh, candy as well... it came with candy.

Of course! Usually, the most popular ones were

Hershey Kisses and Conversation Hearts.

So both of these are types of chocolate?

No! Well, Hersheys

Hershes is, you know what a Conversation Heart is?

Oh, we call that something else.

Is it one of those little round candy,

like, sweet things with some kind of

message on it... YES! What did we call call these?

I'll leave this in the description. It's gonna...

I can't remember but, yeah, we used to have

these as well... Absolutely, and they would

say a little message like: 'Fax me'

which really dates... Fax me? Send me a fax!

Now it would be 'send me a Snap'.

Yeah, it's probably like email me or

Instagram me. I don't know if it would fit in a

little tiny candy... I'm sure they would fit in.

So, you would attach those to

the card and send them to one person, two

people, ten? The rule was really

everybody in the class. Really? we didn't

have that rule. Well, that was when we were

younger.

And then, as you get older, and it's

less typical to give people Valentine's

unless you are in a romantic

relationship with them. Or you like someone, right?

Yeah, or you like them.

I don't remember sending Valentine's Day

cards to everyone in the class, but I do

remember you would send a card to one

person, basically, and you would put from

your secret admirer.

Really? Yeah! So the idea is that you

don't tell people who the card is from.

Right! A lot of times, though, they would

guess who it is, based on your

handwriting,

I remember... because what

you'd do is you'd give the card to a friend to

give it to them or you'd put in their locker,

you'd put on their desk so they that they

don't know who it is, but you could

always write your name, some people did

write their name too.

So Jack... be honest, how many secret admirer

Valentine's Cards did you send? I used to

send one... one every year.

One every year? I think so...

Sometimes, I was in, you know,

"relationship" when I was 12 or 13, so

I would send a card to that person

obviously. But other than that it was, yes,

sometimes I didn't send them.

Sometimes you didn't But most years you did? I think most years I did.

And how often did you sign

your name and how often were you a

secret admirer?

I can't remember. I remember receiving cards from

secret admirers... plural, but

I don't remember sending cards,

sending, you know, "from your secret admirer"

Ever? Never?

I can't really remember doing it. So, you only gave one

special girl a card every year?

I think so. And you signed your name?

Yeah! Because I was in a relationship

Do you think that there was a, because I

remember, especially once you got a

little bit older, there there was a lot of

pressure to be in a relationship for

Valentine's Day. We didn't have that.

I'm pretty sure we didn't have that.

And it was nothing additional. I don't

remember going on, like a date, around

Valentine's Day or making a big deal (our of it)

Maybe we had presents too... I just can't

remember, but, yeah, I know in America

though, dating is big, and this is

something that we didn't really

understand growing up, watching American

TV, and it's what we learned from watching

things like Friends and Dawson's Creek

that dating is big. What is a typical thing

that people do for a date on Valentine's Day?

Well, it depends, ovbviously, on whether

you're 12 or you're in your forties and

anywhere in between.

Let's talk about...

Let's talk about, you know, adults....

Adults? Okay, probably going to a nice

restaurant. That's typical... So, what you would

consider to be kind of a fancy meal,

where you dress up... we have

our baby here, by the way, you may hear her.

She's very excited about us having

this conversation.

She's trying to join in. Sorry, to a restaurant...

Hi Emma!

You go to a restaurant - probably the most

stereotypical romantic cuisines are French

cuisine. French, yeah. Maybe

Italian, and you would have a fancy

meal with your loved one. Right! And I imagine

things are... it's very difficult to get

into restaurants on Valentine's Day...

Absolutely! I think you have plan in advance.

Yeah! Book in advance, planning in

advance, and you know, take initiative and

say: "Okay, we're going to go to this

restaurant. We're gonna book it in early

January. We're going to go on Valentine's Day...

I think it's different once

you get married, but I know during the

dating stage

there's a lot of pressure on the

male in the relationship, if it's a

male-female relationship to book the

restaurant and get the flowers.

Yeah, it's a lot of pressure.

A lot of pressure, but yet feel like it's generally not the men

who care as much about Valentine's Day.

Typically not... Yeah...

But they... Yeah, I feel like they've got the

pressure to do it and the woman expects

something. Generally, you know now... traditionally

Jewelry, chocolates, perfume.

I wouldn't get perfume.

Yeah, it's a little personal but I mean

I think that people do get it.

I think chocolate is always safe for me

in case you're

wondering. I always love chocolate

and of course, jewelry... By the way, I'm just

kidding, there is no presure on Jack.

No pressure at all. I don't feel any pressure. I've got

a question, though, about dating and

relationships. If you say you're

dating someone, are you in a relationship?

That's a good question. I feel like there's...

you're dating someone in general, you're

in a relationship when you have that

conversation where you say that you want

to be exclusive... So

you won't date other people.

Ok so when you... you can go on a first

date with somebody...

And then if you go on a second and third

day, that's when you would start having a

conversation about: Ok are we in a

relationship?

Yes! and I know like with us, we were...

I.. we can't explain it.

We were traveling around the

world, but we did have that

conversation (We did), and after that, we

were in a relationship.

We were in a long-distance relationship because we weren't in the

same place, so we actually started in a

long-distance relationship and I feel we

you know spend time together in the same city,

It's kind of interesting... But we met each other in person

Which is not always the case now.

Well that's it because things have changed.

In the past, let's go back 20

years, you would have to approach

somebody and ask them the question

directly,

either, meeting someone at a bar, meeting someone through a friend, at a

party, but now obviously online dating

is a big thing. I think online dating

is the way people meet their their husbands

and wives now.

Definitely... It's a huge change. It really is.

It's just, erm, changed the way that people

date and start relationships. Have you

ever online dated? I have online dated.

When it wasn't very popular or

common, I think it was in 2005,

2005-2006. I used to... well, I put my profile up there and

you know contacted

people, went on a few dates, you know. It was fun.

What information about your

profile? So, if I had been looking on

your online profile, what would I see? You would

see a very young version of me with

information about the music that I like.

I was really into music back then.

I think I talked about that...

What bands did you put on your profile?

Bob Dylan, New Young, Artic Monkeys... they're they three that I always remember...

And then, erm, I

think it there was like different questions that

you could ask and answer. And I can't, really, sorry,

I can't remember what I had on that to be honest.

"You can't remember:" I... I choose not to remember

Choose not to remember... But based on your

music profile, I think I would have

wanted to go on a date with you.

Well, I think music is one of the

big things that people ask about first, you know,

What kind of music do you like?

But, yeah, online dating.. it was fun, it worked, you know,

it was okay. I met some people but obviously

I didn't get into any relationships from it.

And then I went travelling and, then, I met Kate

so, yeah. I want to talk

about a date nights because a lot of

people are thinking about having a date

night for Valentine's Day and what some are

typical date nights in America? We're

back

with Emma! Kate, you were just saying

Date night! Date night, and what kind of things that

people do when they go on a date.

Let's just talk about someone who is in

a relationship or someone who is

married... What kind of things do