Naming Important Days (Novice-Intermediate)

Practice on Your Own

In all cultures there are days that are celebrated, mourned, or remembered for different reasons, whether religious, national, community, or personal. You must only use the target language for these activities.

• Think of some days that you remember for personal/family reasons. Find their equivalents in the target language.
  • Birthday, wedding anniversary, graduation, death day…
    • Use some of the terms in sentences: Today is my birthday. June 20th is my parents’ wedding anniversary. Tomorrow is the day of graduation. Four years ago was my grandfather’s death day…
• Name some days that are important days for religious reasons and write why they are important. The reason you give does not need to be complicated.
  • March 15th is a holiday. That day is X’s birthday/death day…
• Name some national holidays and festivals. What are they called? Why are they celebrated or remembered?
  • Independence Day, Constitution Day, Revolution Day, End of War Day…
  • Independence from X, communist revolution, end of war with X…
• Write some sentences about what people do on the personal, national, or religious holidays.
  • People cook. People go shopping. People have parties to celebrate. People give gifts. People dress up…
• Also practice talking about important days out loud.
• Search online to find out about important days in the country/ies where the language is spoken.

Practice in Conversation Session

• Your conversation partner will ask you to name some of the days that are celebrated and remembered in your country. Name them, and try to give as much information about each one as possible.
• Ask your conversation partner to name some important days in the country/ies where the language is spoken. Ask them to explain the importance of each day.
• Tell your conversation partner about what people do on some of the days you already named as important in your country. Ask your conversation partner to do the same about some of the days they mentioned.
• Work on some of the verbs that are used to talk about important days: celebrated, mourned, remembered, gather…