What are the things you dream about achieving in your life? Today’s episode is all about big personal goals and accomplishments. Join Andrew as he interviews Morag about her bucket list: the things she dreams about doing before she dies.

Fun fact

According to the Canadian website Bucketlist.org, some of the most popular bucket list items are to swim with dolphins, learn a new language, see the Northern Lights, and go on a cruise. Some of the more unusual ones are to go ghost hunting and donate a kidney!

Expressions included in the learning materials

* To kick the bucket

* Stage fright

* To knock [something] off

* To gut

For a complete transcript, click:

  

Sample transcript

Andrew:           Today we are going to do a Simplified Speech episode. And this is where Morag and I will have a very natural conversation. But we’re going to speak slower than we usually do in our everyday lives.  And today our topic is Morag’s bucket list.

Morag:              Ooo, exciting.

Andrew:           Yeah. If you are a regular Culips listener, you’ll know that recently Suzanne and I recorded an episode about our bucket lists. But I’m really curious about your bucket list, Morag. And I’m sure all of our listeners are, too. So could you share with us? Could you tell us what’s on your bucket list? But maybe right before you do that, you could just remind everyone what a bucket list is. What is a bucket list?

Morag:              Well, Andrew, I’m pretty sure that it comes from a movie with Morgan Freeman. Am I right?

Andrew:           Yeah, it does come from the movie, yeah.

Morag:              Yeah. And the idea of a bucket list is that it’s a list of things that you want to do or accomplish or experience before you die. That’s the basic idea.

Andrew:           Before you kick the bucket.

Morag:              Yeah. Before you kick the bucket, the things that are really interesting or important to you to experience and get done.

Andrew:           Right on. OK, that is very clear now to me and I hope to everyone listening too. So let’s get to it. What’s on your list? What’s on your bucket list?

Morag:              Well, I think travel is one of the most common things on a bucket list. And I don’t have one particular place that I want to go, but I just love oceans. I love the ocean. So I would really like to visit and swim in every ocean on the planet.

Andrew:           Wow, every ocean on the planet.

Morag:              Mmhmm.

Andrew:           That’s really cool.

Morag:              I’ve visited and been to just the Atlantic and Pacific right now, but there’s gotta be so much beautiful water out there, you know?

Andrew:           Well, one of those oceans is going to be very cold.

Morag:              Mmhmm.

Andrew:           The Antarctic Ocean.

Morag:              Yeah. The North Sea also won’t be … I guess it is oceans or seas.

Andrew:           So if you’re including seas, then you have quite a few places you need to swim.

Morag:              Oh yeah. It would take the rest of my natural life. It’s not a bucket list item that could be done quickly.

Andrew:           Yeah. You can’t do that one in a day.

Morag:              No, you could not do it in a day.

Andrew:           OK. That is very cool.

Morag:              So my second bucket list item would be to bicycle across Canada.

Andrew:           Bike across Canada, wow!

Morag:              Mmhmm.

Andrew:           That’s great. I like that one.