Meeting Your Friend's Grandparents (Novice)

Practice on Your Own

• Imagine your friend invites you to their home on the occasion of your friend’s birthday. When you arrive at your friend’s house, you are introduced to their grandparents. You talk to them for a few minutes.
• Write down the words and phrases used to greet people. In some cultures, people use different levels of formality or there are different ways to show respect. For example, it may be considered inappropriate for a younger person to call an older person by their first name. You need to learn how to greet people politely according to the culture of the country/ies where the language is spoken.
• In some cultures, a younger person is expected to greet an older person first. Practice how greetings should be done according to what is appropriate in the culture of the language you are learning. Think about gestures and body language as well.
• Make sure you know what pronoun(s) you should use to address older people. Make a list of different pronouns in the target language.

Practice in Conversation Session

• Read your list of greetings to your conversation partner. Make sure you are pronouncing them correctly.
• Do a role play where your conversation partner will play the role of the grandparent and you will be the friend of the grandchild.
• You can ask any questions that come to mind about the culturally appropriate ways of greeting, asking how others are doing, how their health is and anything else that you think of.