Unit 2 Dialogue 3

Dialogue 3
Tom Hanks, a successful businessman and an amateur pilot , is talking with Barbara Johnson, from a news magazine, about his family.
Barbara Johnson: Are your kids having a much different experience than you did growing up?
Tom Hanks: We were more important than my parents were, in their eyes. I feel that that’s how my wife and I are with our kids. They’re everything to us, and we are secondary to them. People may disagree with that viewpoint, but I don’t know how to be any other way.
Barbara Johnson: What has brought you the greatest personal happiness in your life?
Tom Hanks: My children. I know that sounds cliche, but there’s a reason things are cliche. Because they’re true.
Barbara Johnson: What kinds of things do you do just for fun ?
Tom Hanks: Last weekend, I took the kids to Orlando. We stayed at the Ritz-Carlton and just had a blast. Or I’ll give everybody a ride in the Ultra-light--it’s a flying kite. But we also do the regular stuff--go to movie, have a Sunday barbecue, swim. At the end of the day, we go to Dairy Queen. It’s funny because that’s exactly what I used to do on Sundays during the summer with my mother and father.
Barbara Johnson: Are you just as happy as you were a child?
Tom Hanks: Oh, well more. Because I have my own kids. I loved my life as a child. But that’s the time that you’re saying, “One day I’ll have my own barbecue.” In other words, every generation gets to improve on the dreams of the dreams of the last generation.