Daily Dose of English 114
Socks
Daily Dose of English 114
Intermediate
Hey everyone, my name is Ben and you're listening to a Daily Dose of English. This is a short, simple podcast that you can listen to every day to improve your English. You can find the transcripts for all episodes and more on benslanguagelab.com. I'm glad you could make it today. In this episode, we're going to be talking about SOCKS. S-O-C-K-S. which is a very important piece of clothing that I think that sometimes gets taken for granted. And I like socks and I want to talk about them. So here we are. Socks are, of course, the piece of clothing that you put on your feet under your shoes. So they touch your feet directly, sort of like underwear for your feet. And they keep you warm, they make sure that your feet don't get wet. There's a lot of different purposes that they serve. And they're very important in pretty much anywhere that's not really, really warm all the time. But even in lots of parts of the world where it is really warm, It's still nice to wear socks because they can actually help keep your feet not sweaty and they can keep your feet dry like that. They can also keep your feet cold or warm rather inside if there's a lot of air conditioning. So there's a lot of reasons that you might want to wear socks even if it's already warm where you live. I'm nearly positive that you own socks. I don't think there's very many people in the world that have no socks at all. That has to be a very strange circumstance that leads them to have no socks. If you have no socks, please tell me. I'd be very curious to know how you ended up owning no socks. Um, because maybe that's just, it's just my mind. I can't really think of who wouldn't really own any socks because even just the most basic socks are very, very helpful for keeping yourself healthy because they keep your feet warm. So I want to talk a little bit about socks and their role, um, right now. I like socks, like I said. I think that they can be really fun and also serve a good purpose. I wear socks pretty much every day. Not always, because if I'm going to wear flip-flops or go to the beach or something, then I'm not going to want to have socks on. But I still like to have socks around, because they can be very helpful. And I don't own that many pairs of socks right now, but part of that is because I just got rid of some socks that I have had for years. I think I got these socks early during the COVID pandemic, so like 2020, maybe 2019 even. And I wore these socks to death, because they were like most of my socks were this type. It was a brand that I got. And they were okay. They were all right. Their marketing was better than their socks, but they were fine. They were functional socks. I wasn't like upset with them. They were okay. but I wore them down so much, cause I think I only had like six or seven pairs, probably like six, I think, six pairs of socks. And I totally wore them out to the point where my toes would stick out of my socks. And I still have those actually. And I wore them just the other day, but I finally decided that I needed to get some new socks because they really weren't that comfortable. They weren't that warm anymore. They were like really ripping. And so I finally am getting rid of them and I bought some new socks. And again, I hope that they, not again rather, I hope that they aren't the same sort of thing where their marketing is better than the sock. Because I decided to get socks that aren't super duper cheap because I want them to last. because I do have several pairs of socks that have lasted quite a while. I have two pairs of Merino wool socks. Merino wool is a type of wool that's just really nice. Those socks aren't cheap, but they also last a long time. I think that they probably cost over $10 per pair. and so you don't have that many pairs, but they last a very long time and they're quite nice. Because I've just not been happy with cheap socks in my life. If I get really cheap, just cottony, plasticky, polyester socks, they just rip really quickly, I don't like them that much, they're uncomfortable, they have other issues, and so I just have to end up getting rid of them faster, and then have to buy more socks in less time. And so if you do like the math on that, let's say you end up buying four pairs of cheaper socks in the same lifetime as the more expensive socks, but very likely these expensive socks aren't going to be four times more expensive and they're probably nicer to wear. And that's a big thing for me. I want my socks to be nice to wear. I want to wear them often and not feel like they're annoying and uncomfortable. It's especially true for me because I have pretty large feet. And so I'm towards the end of the high size spectrum. And so if I get socks that are too small that don't go into my size, it's annoying. And I'm actually a little afraid that the socks that I ordered online are going to be too small. Um, because my size is at the upper limit of what they say is one size fits all, but like, I don't know. That's always bullshit. Right? So we're going to see, I really hope it works out. Um, because I'm ready for some new socks. I also think that socks should be fun, right? The standard regular socks are just black or white, right? But having a little bit of design or color in them is just really fun. I don't know, it seems to people like that a little bit better. It's sort of like having a tie, right? When somebody's wearing a nice tie, it sticks out. If they're just wearing a simple blue or black tie, it's just like, eh, it's kind of boring, right? But if somebody comes in with a cool tie with fun designs and they have some cool socks to go with that, especially if they match, that's just fun. I don't know. I enjoy having socks that are a little bit more fun than boring. But I also don't like them to be so crazy or wild or whatever that it's just distracting. A little bit of fun is subtle, right? Going into other stories about socks, I actually wanna talk about a time, so back in middle school for me, so I must've been, God, when's middle school? Like when you're like 10 years old? Yeah, I think I must've been like 10 or 11. And I remember that there was this brand of Nike socks that got really, really popular and they were the cool thing for sure. And for any of like the sports kids at least. And even non-sports kids, they were seen as the cool thing. And there were these Nike socks, I think they're called Elites, I'm pretty sure. And they were good socks. They were comfortable, they'd last a long time, but they were very expensive, mostly because of the fashion statement. And I remember this being sort of a big thing because everybody wanted elite socks. Obviously, because if you're 12 years old, things like that are really important to your life. Like, I got to have the cool socks. Everybody has to know that I'm cool. And especially because around that time, No, actually, that's not true. That was before I actually learned how to play basketball, so never mind. But they were meant for basketball, rather, is why I thought of that. They were basketball socks to sort of go with your basketball shoes and be cool. But yeah, they were fine socks, not like anything crazy, but at least they weren't super cheap and flimsy at the very least. But that memory has sort of stuck out in my mind because they were just such a, I don't know, like a cool thing to have for the boys. And yeah, that's just a memory of socks that I have. I'm curious if you have any memories of middle school and what was cool back then. Was there any big craze of like clothing or toys? I remember they were like some they were like these weird gummy wristband things I have no idea what they were called. They were and they were like in shapes and All the kids wanted to have the cool They're basically just rubber bands and shapes. They're called like slinkies or something. I don't remember. But like some kids would just have so many on their entire arm, right? They would try to cover their entire arm with these rubber bands. And that was a cool thing for like two weeks. So there's all these random little fads that kids go through for sure. And so yeah, that's what I sometimes think about when I think of socks and fun socks. There's plenty more socks, right? I have a pair of socks that I only wear on the airplane, or not only, but I usually wear them on the airplane because they're thicker and warm. I'll also wear them if I go skiing or something. but I like them because they're thicker and warm. And on the airplane, I like to take off my shoes because my feet feel like tight or tense. And so I take off my shoes, which lets my feet breathe, but they're still warm because I have these socks on. And so that's definitely my flying hack is that it's really nice to take off your shoes because your just feet aren't as squished in there, but you want them to stay warm because it's kind of cold on an airplane. So having a nice pair of socks for that is really, really nice. But that's all that I have at the time for today. That's all the time that I have today. And I hope that you enjoyed this episode. I'm curious to know what kind of socks that you might have. Do you own no socks maybe? Or if you remember any fun fads from middle school. But that's all that I've got for today. Thank you so much for listening and I'll see you again tomorrow.
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