SESSION 10: EXERCISES FOR DISCUSSION AND FINAL TASK
THIS WILL BE OUR LAST ORAL SESSION BEFORE CHRISTMAS, SO I HOPE YOU PREPARE IT THOROUGHLY
2. EXERCISES FOR DISCUSSION:
2.1 Think of the five texts and choose one topic you would like to find out more about on the internet.
2.2 DISCUSSION: Here are some questions you can try asking yourself before you come to our discussion next Wednesday.
a) What do families in your country normally do on Christmas Eve?
b) Do you think Christmas Eve is more or less celebrated the same around the world? Do you know any country where it´s celebrated differently?
c) What do you think of Christmas shopping and consumption at Christmas?
d) Do the children in your country like Father Christmas or do they prefer the Three Wise Men?
e) When you decorate your house do you do it with the Christmas Tree or with a Nativity or both? Why?
f) Do you sing Christmas Carols at home with your family?
g) Do people in villages celebrate Christmas the same as people in cities?
h) Do you celebrate Christmas the same as your parents or grandparents did?
i) Did you know about Boxing Day?
j) do you have something similar to Boxing Day in your country?
k) Had you heard about Kwanzaa before? What new things have you learned?
l) Does Kwanzaa have anything to do with Christmas?
m) What do you do on New Year´s Eve in your country? Are there fireworks in your city too?
n) Which celebration of the five we have seen do you like best? Why?
o) Do you think Christmas is to be with the family or a good opportunity to go on holiday?
p) What does Christmas mean to you?
PREPARING A DISCUSSION IS FUNDAMENTAL:
THIS MUST BE DONE IN TWO DIRECTIONS:
FIRST, YOU NEED TO LEARN NEW VOCABULARY AND EXPRESSIONS THAT YOU WILL HAVE TO USE FOR THE DISCUSSION.
SECONDLY, YOU HAVE TO PREPARE THE TOPIC BY LOOKING UP INFORMATION IN THE INTERNET, BOOKS, ENCYCLOPAEDIAS.
THIS WAY YOU WILL FEEL MUCH MORE CONFIDENT AND AT THE SAME TIME YOU WILL HAVE MUCH MORE TO TALK ABOUT.
FINAL TASK:
HERE IS ONE FINAL TASK THAT YOU MAY DO IN ORDER TO COVER THE FOUR SKILLS YOU SHOULD FOCUS ON WHEN LEARNING A LANGUAGE: LISTENING, READING, SPEAKING AND WRITING.
Write a composition and leave it in the blog as a comment to Session 10, I will edit it in the blog so that everybody can learn from other people´s opinions.
- THE MEANING OF CHRISTMAS FOR ME
Christmas, as the rest of the things, has two faces. A negative one, if we talk above all consumerism or hypocrisy, and other positive, if we choose love and generosity.
ReplyDeleteDuring this time most of us spend a lot of money buying unnecessary things, not thinking maybe this money would be more useful if it were shared with poor people, which is, in my opinion, a bit hypocritical.
But behind of the bad face, I can remember the illusion I felt when I was child waiting The Three Wise Men, the family meeting where we were eating Christmas sweets and singing carols with a bottle of anisette, a zambomba and a mortar. Nowadays I have the same illusion when I play the role of Baltasar giving presents, cook a special dinner with the rest of my family and eat twelve grapes in a few seconds wishing a happy new year.
I want to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. God bless us everyone.
Bob Cratchit
The meaning of Christmas has been changing many times throughout my life, so I am sure about my current opinion and about what I thought before now.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was younger, I wished for Christmas because I was on holidays, I got new toys and I could waste my time playing and playing the whole day, so I think it is not necessary to explain what my opinion about Christmas was.
After that, I become a little bit more adult and I kept enjoying Christmas holydays, but I didn’t get so many gifts and I started to give them to my family and to my close friends, so my personal and selfish opinion about the meaning of Christmas had got worse.
When I matured enough, I was able to find a meaning more polite than the aforementioned. Obviously, I had still holydays these days and it helped a lot to build a diplomatic opinion, about things like peace and love, but without the plus in the living room.
Nowadays and happily, I can still enjoy the holiday period and I try to stay with my family and my friends as often as I can, buying gifts as usual more or less. However, I don’t feel anything different from each day because I really believe that we should be as Christmas spirit pretends every day of the year.