"Hobbies" are a great British and American tradition. A "hobby" is a special interest or activity that you do in your time off.
Some people have animals as hobbies. They keep rabbits, or go fishing. They train dogs to do tricks, or keep pigeons to race and carry messages. Some are crazy about plants. They try to grow cacti or rare tropical flowers in their kitchens and sitting rooms.
Others are mad about their car or their motorbike. They spend their Saturdays and Sundays washing them, painting them or buying new bits and pieces to make them go even faster.
Children and teenagers are great collectors. They collect stamps or postcards or matchboxes or pictures of a favourite footballer or pop star.
Many people make things as a hobby. Some teach themselves at home, but a lot of people go to evening classes at their local college, just look wider letter B in a list of London or New York evening classes and you'll find: Ballet, Batik, Bengali, Body building, Bread-making and Byzantium.
But not everyone goes to evening classes to learn about their special interest. No one helped the people below to do what they did.
Hobbies in Russia
Millions of people all over the world spend their holidays travelling. They travel to see other countries and continents, modern cities and the ruins of ancient towns, they travel to enjoy picturesque places, or just for a change of scene. It is always interesting to discover new things, different ways of life, to meet different people, to try different food, to listen to different music.
Those who live in the country like to go to a big city and spend their time visiting museums and art galleries, looking at shop windows and dining at exotic restaurants. City dwellers usually like a quiet holiday by the sea or in the mountains, with nothing to do but walk and sit in the sun.
Most travelers and holiday-makers take a camera with them and take pictures of everything that interests them - the sights of a city, old churches and castles, views of mountains, lakes, valleys, plains, waterfalls, forests; different kinds of trees, flowers and plants; animals and birds.
People travel by train, by boat and by car.
All means of travel have their advantages and disadvantages. And people choose one according to their plans and destinations.
If we are fond of traveling, we see and learn a lot of things that we can never see or learn at home, though we may read about them in books and newspapers, and see pictures of them on TV. The best way to study geography is to travel, and the best way to get to know and understand the people is to meet them in their own homes.
Making things includes drawing, painting, making sculpture, designing costumes, and handicrafts.
Almost everyone collects something at some period in his life: stamps, coins, matchboxes, books, records, postcards, toys, watches. Some collections have no real value. Others become so large and so valuable that they are housed in museums and galleries. Many world-famous collections started in a small way with one or two items. People with a good deal of money often collect paintings, rare books and other art objects. Often such private collections are given to museums, libraries and public galleries so that others might take pleasure in seeing them.
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No matter what kind of hobby a person has, he always has the opportunity of learning from it. By reading about the things he is interested in, he is adding to what he knows. Learning things can be the most exciting aspect of a hobby.
A hobby is a favourite pastime of a person. Hobbies differ like taste If you have chosen a hobby to your liking, lucky you are: you have made your life more interesting.
Numerous hobbies can be subdivided into four large classes: doing things, making things, collecting things, and learning things.
Recreation Russian style
Russians enjoy watching television, reading, playing chess, seeing motion pictures and plays, visiting museums, walking, and taking part in sports. The government actively promotes athletic activities, especially team sports. Soccer is the most popular participant and spectator sport in Russia. Other popular sports include gymnastics, basketball, and such winter sports as hockey, ice skating, and skiing. Tennis is growing in popularity.
Russia has many athletic clubs, stadiums, recreational centers, and other sporting facilities. Schools provide physical education at all levels. There are also special sports camps and clubs for children and adults.
The people of Russia are avid nature lovers, and they enjoy spending time in the countryside. Many Russians have country cottages called dachas. There, they garden, hike, bicycle, swim, fish, gather mushrooms, and take part in other outdoor activities.
The majority of Russia's people vacation in the summer. Price increases, an end to government support, and ethnic unrest have made vacationing away from home more difficult for many Russians. However, resort areas along the Black Sea, the Baltic Sea, and the Volga Riverand in Siberiaremain popular destinations.
Recreation American style
A "hobby is usually something that a person does alone. But American (and British) families sometimes like to do things together, too. Some American families have quite a lot of money to spend on their recreation. They can all enjoy their holiday home or their boat somewhere in the country away from home.
Americans love to get out of town into the wild, and many go for holidays or long weekends into the thirty-five fabulous national parks. These magnificent areas of countryside include tropical forests, high mountains, dry deserts, long sandy coast, grassy prairies and wooded mountains full of wild animals. The idea of these parks, which cover 1% of the whole area of the USA, is to make a great breathing place for national lungs, and to keep different parts of the land as they were before man arrived. There are camping places in the national parks as well as museums, boat trips and evening campfire meetings. Americans really enjoy new "gadgets", especially new ways of travelling. In the winter, the woods are full of "snowmobiles" (cars with skis in the front). In the summer they ride their "dune buggies" across the sands or lake to the sky in hang gliders.
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But Americans do not only spend their free time having fun. They are very interested in culture, too. Millions take part-time courses in writing, painting and music, and at the weekends the museums, art galleries and concert halls are full.
Have a nice holiday!
Most British people take a two-week holiday in July or August, when the schools are closed, but shops, offices and factories do not usually close for the holidays. Some people have a short holiday in the winter or spring as well, if they can afford it, they go abroad, to sunny Italy, Spain or Greece. In the States, the school summer holidays are longer than in Britain (nearly three months in the States, six or seven weeks in Britain). Richer American families often go out of town to the country for the hot summer months. Many fathers stay at work in the cities and visit their families at weekends. When some people are on holiday, they like just sitting in the sun, but others want a bit more. "Special interest" holidays are very popular, and you can find a hundred interesting things to do in Britain and the USAfor a week or two. Do you like riding? Why not see the Grand Canyon in Arizona, USA, on horseback? What about a winter holiday? There are hundreds of ski resorts in the mountains of the USA: the Rockies, the Sierra Nevada and the Appalachians. Yon ran ski in Britain, too. Perhaps you prefer to be less energetic? Try a painting holiday or a musical holiday of even a computer holiday. You can get some hours of teaching every day, meet other people who share your special interest and have time to relax as well in a pleasant country hotel or college campus.
