Hobbies

A hobby is an activity that we do for pleasure in our free time. Hobbies are good relaxation. If you are under stress you can rest with nice book or watch a comedy on TV. Our hobbies lead us to be more responsible, hard-working and thoughtful. Hobbies teach us to play fair and not only in sport games, but also in the real life. We have to keep rules. Unfortunately, in our country it isn´t true. Someone says that passive hobbies, such as reading, listening to music, playing video games aren´t hobbies. They´re just things we do in our free time. I don´t agree with it. Passive hobby is a hobby as well as active one. Hobbies are usually things we are interested in. Many busy people don´t have any leisure time, but if they want they can certainly find the time to go skiing, play chess,. . . It´s a great help if we can plan our daily schedule well. It´s good when people can find an activity that brings all people closer together. It sometimes happens that a person gets to obsessive about his hobby. Then they are doing everything to get something for their collection. It´s called mania. Your job can be also a hobby, but I think you should make a line to determine what is job and what is hobby. Others can find their job monotonous and search for an escape or at least a change from daily routine. If we like our job we want to be better than others and spend a lot of time doing it. Then we almost forget our family and there is a danger of workholism. People may have many different hobbies during their lifetimes. Hobbies change with our interest. Hobbies are very important. Our life would be empty without them. We´d only work. I know some people, who go to work every day and when they get home they eat their dinner and then watch TV all evening and night. In my opinion it isn´t a life. These people live only for their work. In average, the most common hobbies in our country are these: Many families have their cottages and people spend lots of time there (gardening, cutting grass, repairing the old house). The other rather popular hobby is watching TV or video. Many people spend their leisure time reading books, magazines and newspapers. Plenty of people in USA collect the toys from children Happy Meals from McDonald´s.

Sports are one of the most popular leisure time activities.

We can practise: judo, sailing, bodybuilding, skiing, swimming, ball games, cycling, bungee jumping, snooker, ice-hockey, tobbogganing, snowball fighting, windsurfing, aerobics, orienteering, .. You can choose what you enjoy.

Your hobby can also be going out. You can go to the cinema, theatre, museum, .. You can also play the musical instrument.
Family hobbies are for example keeping pets, travelling, gardening, watching TV, hiking, camping, picking up mushrooms, ...
Women hobbies are knitting, sewing, cooking, crocheting, embroidering, ...
You can collect stamps, postcards, badges, old cars, plane models, motorbikes, coins, phone cards, .. In USA there is a big tradition of collecting tea spoons with pictures of different states. They also collect souvenirs from countries they´ve visited.
Men hobbies are mostly repairing something, playing or watching football, working with computer, drinking beer, taking care about their cars, fishing, ...
Other hobbies are taking photographs, keeping aquariums, cooking, baking, interest in literature, history, science, technology, ...


My hobbies

I like doing sports. Among my favourite ones belong basketball, baseball, volleyball, aerobics and sometimes gymnastics. I like skiing and swimming as well. When I was small I wanted to be a basketball player. My friends say that I look like a furious bull when I´m playing basketball. It´s great to feel like a winner. I do sports for pleasure, not for winning. I used to hate playing volleyball. Once I´ve even tried to play beach volleyball. It´s quite difficult because you´re moving in sand, which is usually hot and very soft. Swimming is another activity I like. Every summer we go to Koryčany to swim. There is a great swimming pool with cool and clear water. There is also a life-guard. I don´t usually go swimming in winter, although there is a swimming pool in Prostějov. I started to ski when I was 11. I love it. Every winter we go to the mountains to downhill ski. After skiing you´re exhausted. Then it´s good to have delicious pancakes with chocolate and cream. Aerobics is also my favourite hobby. Sometimes it can look like dancing because it´s quite similar. You´re moving with the rhytm of music. Every Friday and Saturday I go to the gym. Sometimes we play football or volleyball there. I spend quite lots of time on studying, but I have enough leisure time for my hobbies. My other hobbies are reading, listening to music, travelling and learning foreign languages. I´d like to travel round the world. When I was 5, I played the violin and the flute. Two years later I started playing the piano.

If I had been wiser, I wouldn´t have give up playing these instruments especially violin. Every Monday I go to Olomouc for special English lessons. I´d like to prepare for FCE examination next year. I don´t watch TV very often because I don´t have much time for it. In our school you don´t have many possibilities for group hobbies. Mostly you can do some sport or learn foreign languages (Spanish, Russian, French).