Saying How You Are Feeling (Novice-Intermediate)

Practice on Your Own

• Do you remember the names of body parts? Do some review if necessary.
• Learn words related to health, such as health, healthy, to hurt/ache, to feel, good/well, bad/unwell, sick, cold/flu, to have a cold, tired…
• Think of a dialogue between you and a friend in which you don’t feel well and you want to tell your friend how you are feeling.
  • Friend: How are you doing today?
  • You: I don’t feel well.
  • Friend: I’m sorry to hear that. What is wrong?
  • You: I have a cold/I have a headache/My back aches/I feel tired…
  • Friend: I hope you will feel better soon.
    • Learn about expressions you would use to respond to someone who does not feel well – expressing sorrow, wishes, hopes, prayers…
• Learn some other expressions about health, like toothache/backache/stomachache…
• Do you see any pattern in expressing health issues? For instance, in English “ache” can be used as a suffix (like in “headache”) or as a verb (as in “my back aches”). Is there a similar word in the language that you are learning? Ask your conversation partner if there is such a term or a main structure to talk about health.

Practice in Conversation Session

• Repeat the terms that you have listed for your conversation partner. Make sure you pronounce them correctly. Show the list to your conversation partner to see if you have spelled them correctly.
• Role‐play the dialogue you have prepared. Your conversation partner plays the role of the friend who calls you to ask how you are doing. You should explain to them that you don’t feel well and answer their follow‐up questions.
  • Switch roles – now you ask your conversation partner how they feel.
• Imagine you were absent from one of your classes. At the next class, your teacher asks you about why you were absent. You should try to explain to him that you did not feel well.
  • If you have not learned to talk about things in past time, you can use the present tense for this role play.
  • Switch roles – now you are the teacher and your conversation partner is the student.
• You can role play similar scenarios where you explain to your supervisor about an absence from work.