Instructions for Washing Clothes (Intermediate)

Practice on Your Own

Imagine you are in a country where the language is spoken and you need to wash your clothes.

• Make a list of words that are related to washing clothes or doing laundry, such as water, soap/detergent, hot, cold, washing machine, dryer, open, inside, hand, bucket, etc.
• You will need to find out if you have to use a machine or if you have to wash your clothes by hand. Do people in that country usually have a washing machine, go to a self‐service laundromat, wash their clothes by hand, or hire washermen or washerwomen to do their laundry for them? Perhaps someone comes over to the house to do the laundry for them, or perhaps a person picks up the clothes and later returns them washed and ironed.
• If you wash your clothes yourself, you will either use a machine or you will wash by hand. You will need to figure out what type of soap/detergent you can use and where you can wash your clothes.
  • Make a list of the items you will need, such as soap/detergent, tub/bucket if washing by hand, coins or card if needed to pay for a machine, etc.
• You will also need to figure out how you can dry the clothes. Is there a machine you can use? Should you hang the clothes outside in the sun, perhaps on the roof or in a courtyard?

Practice in Conversation Session

• Be prepared to say out loud the vocabulary list you wrote.
• Do a role play where you ask questions as if you are new to the country and your conversation partner will answer your questions related to washing clothes. Find out what your options are for washing your clothes or having someone else wash them.
• Get instructions for how to implement the various options. Repeat the main points of the instructions back to your conversation partner.
• Now switch roles and repeat the conversation.