Birthdays in Britain | BRITISH ENGLISH Culture & Traditions

Hello everyone, it's my birthday.

Yay!

Hello, everyone and welcome to English like a Native with me, the birthday girl,

Anna English. I hope that you are all well...

and I am really excited to see you here at my birthday party, of course being a remote birthday party...

It'll be a little odd because you're not actually here, but I'm glad that you're here with me in spirit.

So today, I thought as it's my birthday It would be a good opportunity for me to share with you...

how we celebrate birthdays here in the UK, because I know it is very different in different...

countries and cultures as to how we celebrate. So, I'm also really interested to hear about your experiences...

and how your country, your culture celebrates birthdays and...

yeah, I hope that you all have a good time. So, hello if you are joining me here in the chat room.

Hi those of you saying hello, you like my dress. Thank you very much. Shall I give you a twirl?

Should I show you my dress?

It's actually one of my favourite dresses... and...

Usually when it's your birthday you can wear your favourite outfit...

whether it's a spider-man outfit...

or a pretty dress, or your pajamas. You can do whatever you want to when your birthday.

So, you can wear anything you like.

What do you like to wear on your birthday?

Something actually to note if someone says to you...

"I'm going to wear my birthday suit" or "Are you going to wear your birthday suit?"

They mean naked, so take it as a joke, it's a joke.

Your birthday suit is the suit you were born in, and lots of people say "will you wear your birthday suit?"

Strongwit thank you so much, bless you, you have kicked off the superchats by saying "happy birthday" and...

donating € 5,00. Thank you, that's very generous of you. That's very very kind indeed. Thank you so much.

So

Yes, birthday suits, what kind of thing do you like to wear on your birthday, hmm?

As you are responding in the comments... I will...

I will get started and teach you a little bit about birthdays in the U.K.

So, we have here...

One birthday year, so we all celebrate the anniversary of our birth once a year...

except for the Queen who has two birthdays, so some of you may or may not already have heard this...

but the Queen celebrates two birthdays every year, her actual birthday...

Which I'm not quite sure when it is. I think it's around March time.

I should know that, shouldn't I? And then she has a birthday around...

early summer, like around the June time.

But it does change every year and let's have a look at the reason, shall we? So this was a tradition started by...

Edward VII who feared that the weather would be inclement.

This means changeable or not very pleasant, so it might be cold or wet, or there might be thunder...

and lightning. So, he feared that his birthday would have... there would be inclement weather to...

celebrate his birthday which was in November. So he wanted a nice sunny warm day..

so everyone could celebrate his birthday and be happy and relaxed outdoors.

And so he decided to introduce a second birthday...

which was in the summertime, which suited him. So he had the two birthdays and some of the Royal family...

along the way have continued that tradition.

All right for some, isn't it?

Wow! Goodness me! Strongwit you are being so kind! You sent another € 2, 00.

another € 2,00 superchat, thank you so much, that's very sweet of you.

Okay so, lots of you being very sweet in the comments box or sending me good wishes,

that's very kind of you.

Didrik says he likes to wear a nice shirt, nice trousers, and maybe a tie on his birthday. Yes, dress up smart, lovely.

Caddy has said "Hello Anna it's nice to see you, very happy birthday; your dress is beautiful" Thank you Caddy.

"I love your red dresses they match you well". What you should say is they suit you well, thank you very much.

Right, so, I'm gonna jump over to my patrons now. Who are over in the patron Skype room and...

What's going on over here? Hello Jay. Hi, how are you? "Happy birthday in advance wishing you all the best" Thank you Jay.

Eureka, Anna's channel was mentioned in this video...

well, I'll have to look at that. The best English teachers, that's very kind of whoever that is. I don't know that gentleman.

I will check him out, thank you, and Jay says "It´s an absolutely beautiful dress".

Thank you very much. All right, so we've learnt about birthday suits

We know that the birthday girl a boy can wear whatever they like on their birthday, that is their prerogative.

You should know this word. It's your prerogative. It means you can... it's your choice to do what you like...

and we know that the Queen has two birthdays and we now know why?

So let's carry on, have a look at some other things. We will usually mark the occasion on our actual birthday or...

on the closest convenient day. So, if you are not the Queen will normally, actually,

celebrate our day of birth, the anniversary of our birthday or...

we will celebrate on the most convenient day, so for example, if your birthday falls on Wednesday like mine...

It's not convenient for everyone to come out and have a good time because of work.

So, I might instead decide to have a party on Friday.

Even though my birthday is today. I would celebrate on Friday because that's convenient and...

and so yeah, that's what we normally do. Julia bless you...

thank you, Julia, and Strongwit both of you very very sweet, these donations...

and you said "this is so funny, you're the best."

Thank You Julia, this is very sweet of you.

Okay, so...

today like any other day if you do send a superchat, then you are entitled to the notes, the notes...

I've made are shorter than normal, but you can choose any notes from any previous lessons you'd like.

So guys, just let me know.

Okay so, let's carry on with these notes, so normally we would celebrate with some form of party and...

particularly for children, but also sometimes as adults if it's a big birthday like your 40th or your 60th and..

so most children or some adults throw or have a party. So, there's a difference you throw a party...

if you organise the party.

So, if you are my best friend and I say to you "I'm not gonna do anything for my birthday."

And you say secretly "she's gonna have a party". I'm going to make sure there is a party organised for Anna,

then you have thrown me a party, so you throw the party for me, and...

I have a party, so you have a party but the person who organises it throws the party.

Does that make sense?

To have a party or to throw a party.

Slightly different.

Cool, so have you ever thrown a party for somebody else?

I have once and it was very stressful,

very stressful indeed.

Eureka bless you, thank you so much. you've sent a superchat and you said "Happy birthday Anna...

thank you for always answering my questions and helping me". Eureka,

you are most welcome, and thank you so much for coming to my party, yay!

Right back to the notes, so...

when you decide you're going to have a party or when someone throws a party for you, invitations will be sent or given out...

guests are asked to RSVP.

Now you might see these letters a lot, particularly on wedding invitations or in emails.

Perhaps if you want to go to a restaurant even and you want to reserve a table,

this is basically an abbreviation of the French words...

"Réserve s'il vous plaît" I think.

If anyone is French here, then you know correct me if I'm wrong, but I think it's "réserve s'il vous plait" which is...

"Reserved please" so please let us know that you're coming to the party...

or please let us know if you would like to hold a table.

Okay.

So, Sky has said "My birthday is next week, on Wednesday."

Well, happy birthday for you next week on Wednesday. I have a little secret actually...

today is not my actual birthday,

my actual birthday is also next week, Wednesday.

And the reason I'm having my birthday party today is because next week...

I will be on holiday in Italy and so I won't be able to hang out with you guys on my actual birthday.

So I am holding my party on the most convenient day for all of us.

So Skye we share a birthday,

amazing!

Okey dokey, what else is going on? Lots of you responding to me, Reserve...

"résponde s'il vous plait" is the actual French, so I was slightly wrong there,

thank you for correcting me "résponde s'il vous plait", please reply to this invitation, that means.

So you must reply to your invitation, normally at school...

you'll just go around the class and give everyone an invitation which is quite awkward at school because...

you just want to invite your friends, and there's always someone in your class that you don't want to invite to your party.

But because you're handing invitations out to most of the people you have to hand an invitation to...

everybody, and you can guarantee the people you don't like will come to your party,

and the people you really want, they never come.

And so I used to hate when I had parties and I had to go to school with the invitations because it was always awkward.

Nowadays I can just invite who I like, I just invite them on Facebook instead.

Oh bless, Eric, thank you so much, that it's very sweet.

You've also dropped a superchat and said "Happy birthday dear Anna, may your big day...

be as special as you are". Bless you, thank you. "You are the best teacher ever hugs and kisses".

You guys, you're making me blush. Thank you, thank you very much. It's very very sweet.

Okay

So back to the notes, so we give out these invitations or posts them out and guests have to RSVP...

to those invites and a party could beheld at your home.

I mean if it's a party for very young children you might not want 30...

terrible...

five-year-olds running around and making a mess and screaming and going crazy for sweets and cake.

But maybe you like that kind of thing.

But some people have their parties in their home...

or if they can't stand the noise and the mess instead they will take out the children, all the adults will go to a...

restaurant that could even be a fast-food restaurant. I've seen many parties held in places like McDonald's.

It could be in a theme park.

It could be at the zoo or anywhere like that, somewhere where people can have a good time.

Thank you Dennis, I've just seen that you too have sent through a superchat, a € 12,00.

Thank you very much, it´s very sweet of you, said "Happy birthday Anna, you are the best."

You guys are the best, thank you.

Okey-dokey, so, where was the best location...

you ever had a party? I think as a child most of my birthday parties were at home...

because it was easier that way for my family, so we had most of our parties at home...

but they were excellent parties.

And I think I once had... we hired a town hall, so we hired out a hall,

and we had a magician and...

a disco, and we had lots of food and sweets and stuff.

And I think that was a quite a good one.

I don't really celebrate in terms of a big party as an adult, I haven't really.

I'm usually too busy, but not today. I'm with you.

Ok so...

We hold a party.

Now, if you hold it in the house, the house will be decorated with bunting. If you don't know what bunting is...

let me show you, I have some bunting up behind me, here you see.

That is called bunting, it's kind of decoration that you hang.

Slightly different to a banner, a banner you hang...

but it's just a long strip, a banner is just a long strip whereas these kind of cut out triangles are called bunting.

So you decorate the house of bunting and banners, maybe with some balloons.

Sometimes you have the balloons with helium so that they float up high and...

sometimes we have confetti. You know, the kind of bits of paper or rice...

and you throw them, you get them in all sorts of different colours and...

shapes these days. You can have little birthday cakes and candles and presents in the confetti and they´re glittering, you just throw them around.

And we also have poppers, now these are very noisy. I'm going to go and pop one over here.

You ready?

Always fun, obviously you don't want to do it near someone's face because that could be...

that could be quite dangerous.

So there we go, a little bit of a popper there.

Then, also...

we ask the guests to dress up, so you would normally dress up smart if there is no theme particularly.

So you would just dress up in something... you know like a shirt and tie or a nice dress or whatever you feel comfortable in.

But children normally have a theme to their birthday party, so it might be superheroes or...

princesses or Disney or something like that.

And then all the guests will dress up in their fancy dress.

So they would be wearing fancy dress.

Ok, and this means to dress up as a character and then they´ll arrive, and they´ll normally bring a gift and a card.

So, card giving, I think...

I think originated in England actually. I know the story of the guy who first sent the first card,

I did know it. I've forgotten it right now.

But it was about a hundred years ago and...

card giving has become quite a big thing in the UK, if I didn't receive any cards on my birthday I would be...

very sad, and this year so far even though my birthday's actually next week, I've received 3 cards. I'll show you...

so I've received this one from my grandma.

It was a very very sweet card and she says

"Granddaughter, you're the star of some magical memories...

but as a little girl who twirled around my garden...

you have twirled your way through all the ups and downs in your own life, and you keep on going.

Sparkling all the way...

sparkling moments from the start, brilliant times.

The starring part one year older same sweetheart. We love you so much".

Isn't that sweet? Actually made me cry when I opened that one.

My grandma, bless her soul, it´s not very well at all.

She's battling cancer and being very strong, and so it was lovely to receive a card from her.

And then this one I got from my mum...

it says "If people could pick their daughters...

each and every one would pick a daughter just like you". Isn't that nice? Isn't that sweet?

So that was very nice. I must phone my mum and thank her for that one, and I got this one...

from my boyfriend's mum and dad. She was also very nice, very kind of them.

And these are exactly like the Wellies I have...

Brilliant

So yes, card giving is very important...

not only for birthdays, but for most celebrations like Christmas, like you've passed your exams, you've passed your driving test.

We even have cards on Happy Teacher Day. Happy Grandparent´s Day, also all sorts of things.

We just love giving cards and sharing our thoughts and our feelings with the people that we love and care about.

So if you're going to a party if you've been invited to a party and you're going over, you should always take a card.

it's polite to take a card and...

If you love someone very much, or you have a very very dear friend and you can't go to their party...

It's custom over here to send one in the post.

Not everybody does but if you really care for someone then...

it's a nice thing to do. Harrison said "What does Wellies mean?" Wellies are...

Wellington boots, these kinds of boots that you send in the rain. Okay?

Eureka, bless you, you sent another superchat, thank you so much...

you said "We will soon reach a hundred thousand subs Anna"

yes we will, thank you, "Can we have another party then?" Sure, why not ? Let's have another party...

and I'm going to drink from my special little party cup.

Okay so...

so cards and gifts, now gifts should be wrapped up in wrapping paper or...

sometimes we put them in bags.

So I keep some bags, so this is a bag that you would put a bottle of wine in, perhaps...

and we can decorate them with bows and...

like this...

and all sorts of pretty things.

I have had one present so far and I put it here, my mum..

my mum bought me a lovely necklace and...

or she might have made it actually, I got some pajamas. I tend to get pajamas off my mum.

Isn't that nice? Cozy...

Cozy, and it has some matching bottoms as well.

Pajama bottoms we call them, pajama bottoms. The bottom of a set of pajamas.

Alright, let's head back over to the notes, so where are they? I've lost them. I closed them,

that's why, here we go.

So...

gifts as I said, gifts are normally wrapped or in a gift bag. Card giving is very popular here, if you cannot attend the...

celebration then you would normally post a card in advance of a loved one or close one. Close friends birthday.

Now let's talk about food, the most important part, there will normally be a meal or a buffet.

So if it's a big party, lots of people coming and you don't know exactly when they'll arrive, normally...

we'll have a buffet. A buffet is when you can just pick up food.

So it'll be things like a typical buffet for a birthday party will be things like...

cheese on a stick with a pickled onion, so a pickled onion and a cube of cheese you'll have on a cocktail stick. Really nice.

Pickled onions in general just on their own. We seem to be obsessed about pickled onions. It's strange.

Sandwiches of all sorts of flavours, so you'll have cheese sandwiches, ham sandwiches,

chicken sandwiches, ham and cheese sandwiches,

jam sandwiches.

You might have peanut butter and jam, although it's more American...

but we are getting into it over here, more and more.

And then you'll have sweets... in a lot of parties these days we have things like hummus and...

carrot sticks and...

cucumber baton, so we cut the cucumber into sticks so we can dip that into hummus as well.

We might have other dips like...

sour cream and chive...

guacamole, and then you also have lots of crisps. We have to have crisps,

remember the difference between American crisps and

Is there a difference?

So for us...

Americans call our crisps, chips,

but it's just the snack, the little potato crunchy snack and that you eat cold, crisps.

And you'll have all sorts of different flavours as well, and we have cocktail sausages...

which are the tiny little sausages you can pick up with a cocktail stick, so I normally have those and we might have "vol-au-vents".

Which are little pastries with tasty things inside.

So that's what you'd find on a typical British birthday buffet.

And then, of course, there has to be cake.

You can't have a birthday without having a birthday cake, now...

I have a story to tell you, sometimes our birthday cakes are immense.

Sometimes we go to town when it comes to our birthday cakes, and...

one year my birthday cake was a skull, so someone made this for me.

it was a skull with jelly snakes coming out of the mouth and through the eyes and out of the head.

And then if you lit the candle which was in the head...

it would burn down and the eyes lit up, and smoke came out of the mouth. It was amazing and the reason I had a...

skull birthday cake was because that year I had a kind of Halloween themed birthday party and everyone came as...

zombies, I dressed as a witch. I had curly hair then, I had a perm and...

so what was the most elaborate birthday cake you've ever had?

This year one of my lovely patrons has donated my birthday cake.

Messaged me this morning and said...

"Please go and get yourself a birthday cake I won't have a birthday cake on me".

And so I did go and get a birthday cake which I'll bring over in just a moment.

And all of these items, the cake and the meal will be served on a themed...

paper plates and paper cups. Now be things like at the moment...

it'll be Disney frozen or spider-man plates, or it could just be general party cups like this.

Just little paper cups and plates that you could throw away at the end of the day and...

not worry about anyone breaking your precious China.

Lovely

Okay, one of my patron´s saying...

"Happy birthday", says Eric. "I wish you well, and hope all your birthday wishes come true". Thank you Eric, sweet.

Hi, Anna, happy birthday to you, thank you Leila.

Andreas, hi Leo, wow.

Great okay, so...

with regards to cake if you are...

working in an office, in the work place...

it's typical for someone else to buy the cake and surprise the birthday girl or birthday boy.

Okay

so, I know in some other countries, it's typical for you to take the cake in yourself...

if it's your birthday you have to bring the cake.

Is that the same in your country? But in our country it's different, I... generally not buy myself a birthday cake.

Someone else will normally buy it for me, so at home my boyfriend would normally buy me a birthday cake or..

my mum would sort out a birthday cake, make a birthday cake even and...

if I was working in an office, in my old office, they would have made or bought a birthday cake in secretly and...

at some point they get everyone together when they turn out the lights...

when they come in with a birthday cake and sing happy birthday.

So shall we do the cake?

so...

the cake, whether it's elaborate or not, should always have a candle...

and what we do is, the candles are lit and everyone sings "happy birthday".

Our version of this song is different to some countries, so what we're going to do now is we're going to...

light the candle, I've only put one on.

Normally when they're younger we put as many candles as the child has years.

So, if they're three years old we put three candles on the cake, if they're ten we put ten candles on the cake.

But then as we become older...

we don't want people to know how old we are anymore, so we don't want to see all those candles on the cake.

So we tend to just have one, which is much easier.

Is there any special age when you have a huge party? For example, most 15 year old Mexican girls...

have a Cinderella party.

We have a big celebration normally when we are 16,

18,

21, and then 40.

50, 60, 70, I think so yeah.

Kind of around the middle, it doesn't really matter so much when you're like 30, 35.

Doesn't matter

Okay, I think it's cake time

So I'm gluten-free at the moment. I'm on a special diet, but I managed to find a special gluten-free cake.

Most birthday cakes will be made up of sponge because it's sponge, which is the light...

the light...

cake. It's quite... quite airy inside. It's not too heavy...

It's quite light, and then we have a layer of like icing or jam or buttercream, depending on the type of cake or chocolate...

something or other. This particular cake is called a Victoria sponge, a Victoria sponge...

it's a very traditional cake here in the U.K. for things like birthdays and celebrations.

Mine said "this candle says happy birthday", so I'm going to light the candle...

I'm going to light the candle then we have to sing happy birthday...

and...

then I will blow out the candle at the end of the song and...

what happens then is, when you blow out the candle you have to make a wish.

I'm going to wish for something very special...

but I'm not allowed to tell you, this is our tradition if I tell you the wish it won't come true.

Okay, now, let's hope...

please, wish that I don't set the house on fire, will be the first thing.

Here we go, okay.

Okay, so we sing "Happy birthday"

and then I blow out the candle and I make a wish and...

I'm going to put on some music to sing to, hopefully your sing along with me.

All right, we´re ready.

♫ Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me ♫

♫ Happy birthday, dear Anna ♫

♫ Happy birthday to me ♫

Yay!

Then what we would normally do is shout "hip-hip" and someone else would go "hooray."

Hip hip hooray!, hip hip hooray!

And sometimes we also add on to the end of the song, ♫ Happy birthday da da da...♫

♫ Happy birthday to you, and many more ♫

I don't know why that happens.

It's just sometimes we add on "and many more" because we want them to have many more happy birthdays.

And sometimes they go into singing...

♫ For she's a jolly good fellow, for she's a jolly good fellow, for she's a jolly good fellow... ♫

♫ and so say all of us, and so say all of us, and so say all of us, for she's a jolly good fellow ♫

♫ for she's a jolly good fellow, for she's a jolly good fellow ♫

♫ And so say all of us ♫

Yes, I hope you were singing along with me there.

Great, so thank you very much. You've wished me a happy birthday, we've sung happy birthday,

I've blown out the candle and made my wish. We've sang all the extra little bits that go on and

now what happens is the birthday girl...

would normally cut the cake, the birthday girl the birthday boy, would cut the cake...

unless they're very young of course, you don't want children playing with knives, very dangerous.

Oh bless, another superchat has come through from Gzdable. I´ve never known how to pronounce your name.

You're very sweet though. You've you've sent messages and chats before, thank you so much.

Okay

so, I'm now going to just remove this and put that down for another time...

and I'm going to cut the cake with a fork because I left the knife in the kitchen.

So I'm going to cut in like this. Who would like a piece of cake?

Just put your hand up if you want a piece of cake.

Okay, you do.

It's a gluten-free cake, but I'm sure it's going to be delicious.

Yiheyo Zing says "Happy birthday Anna" has sent across a superchat, thank you so much. That's very sweet.

Just so you know, all my birthday superchats are going towards the thing I care about most which is you guys.

I want all the donations to go towards making this channel better.

So that I can bring you...

really really great content on a regular basis.

So thank you guys being so kind and now I'm going to put my slice of cake on my little plate...

and I'm going to eat it.

And you guys can take your cake now.

What would normally happen is, either the children would eat or the adults would eat their cake there and then.

But sometimes they would have already eaten a lot by the time...

we've done the birthday cake so they might not want to eat the cake right then and there.

So if it's children's party...

they'll normally be a goodie bag and...

a goodie bag is just a bag of like little toys, a couple of sweets and...

maybe a bottle of glitter or some you know little trinkets, and then...

they will wrap up a piece of cake like this in a napkin and...

put it in the bag. And you can take it home and enjoy it later.

And that's quite typical.

I´m trying to see your...

okay, Yang wants a piece. Yes, Yang come and get yourself a piece.

Yeah, she like about trying.

It's quite late for some of you, and you some of you have to go.

Thank you so much for joining me if you do have to leave that's fine.

Once you've sung happy birthday to the birthday girl, and it's okay to leave.

Delicious... very very nice indeed.

Yum, I need the rest of that in a little while, so.

Goodness me! Another superchat has come through. Thank you darling, that's very sweet, that's your second one.

Bless you, thank you, and is that dollars?

$ 51,00 goodness me! Thank you, that is very generous, very generous indeed. Thank you.

Okay so, we've done the candles, we've done the song...

which I know is different in some countries because I've been in some restaurants here.

I think it's in India. It's different?

You do something with clapping and you change the tune slightly, I think you do and...

♫ Happy birthday to you ♫... or something. I can't remember quite.

I wish I could speak to someone who was Indian right now, and they could tell me how it goes.

But I feel like it's different...

anyway,

let's carry on, so we've done the singing the...

we make a wish, we wrap the cake up, send it home in the goodie bags. Ah...

then, no party is complete without party games.

And these are the most typical party games that you would have at a children's party in the U.K.

So, musical chairs,

musical bumps and musical statues. Of course all involve music.

The first one, musical chairs, is a game where...

Say you have 10 children...

you put out 9 chairs...

and you put them in a line.

So, 5 facing one way and four facing the other way and the children walk around the chairs in a circle.

And then the music is playing and when the music stops they suddenly have to sit down, but because there's only...

only 9 chairs, one child will not get a chair.

And if that child doesn't get to share they're out, and then the music starts again, and they remove another chair and...

until there is only 2 children walking around and one chair.

And then whoever gets that last chair is the winner of the game and usually we get some sort of prize.

Maybe some bubbles... or something like that, a glow stick or something.

And then we have musical bumps. I don't know if you have heard of this, but musical bumps is very similar.

But it means that when the music stops, the children have to sit down and the last person to sit on the floor is out.

And then we have musical statues...

which is when the music stops the children have to stop really still and not move...

even if the person judging is whispering silly things in their ears or making silly faces in front of them. If they can't smile or...

flinch in any way or they'll be out and I always found that one fun. I was very good at musical statues actually.

So we have those three, and then we also have my favourite game, Pass the parcel...

which is where a present has been wrapped up.

Maybe twelve times, so one wrapping, two wrapping, three, four, until it's been wrapped up...

loads and loads...

and then we all sit in a circle...

and we pass it along and the music is playing...

and when the music stops whoever's got the parcel has to take off another layer of wrapping.

Now sometimes there will be little gifts...

in between the layers, so you might unwrap it and not still have the present.

But there'll be a little bag of sweets or something, which is always a nice little surprise.

And then, whoever gets it last will unwrap it and they get the present.

It's always quite a furious game.

"Give it to me, give it to me." And you don't want to let it go, ever.

So, Pass the parcel, and then we have a fun game Pin the tail on the donkey.

Pin the tail on the donkey

This is where you have a picture of a donkey's behind, a donkey's backside and...

some child will have a tail with a pin, and then you're normally blindfolded,

spun around a few times to make them disorientated, and then they have to try and...

pin the tail in the right place, and it's normally way off. It's very very funny to watch.

I think it's similar to when you have a... what's it called? A piñata? When you have the horse...

hanging with lots of sweets inside the horse and you have to hit it with a stick? Is that called a piñata?

Someone tell me in the comments, I'm sure you'll correct me in a minute.

But it's kind of similar to that. It's just at the end you actually get some sweets if you can...

burst the thing open, and I have started to see those in supermarkets in the party section.

So it's definitely something that we're doing here in the U.K. now as well.

Not when I was younger, but they do now.

So the next one on the list is Simon Says.

Simon Says, now this is a fun game, someone is in charge and...

everyone has to listen and they have to follow instructions.

So the instructions will normally start with Simon says stand on one leg.

Simon says put your hands on your head.

Simon says put your hands down. If any instructions come without...

Simon says at the beginning, then you mustn't do it. So if I go Simon says touch your nose,

Simon says touch your ear, Simon Says touch your eyebrow, touch your nose.

If I touched my nose then I'd be out, because Simon didn't say.

It's very fun. Eureka bless you, you just send another superchat.

That´s three gifts from Eureka, thank you so much. You said "Hope you got your new passport,

enjoy in Italy and take care, I'm so jelly."

Don't be jelly, darling.

I will take lots of pictures and hopefully some videos,

so that you are there with me in some respect and yes, I got my passport.

Thank you so much. So my boyfriend's gift to me this year is to take me to Italy for my birthday and...

it's very very sweet, and I'm very excited about going...

so yes, although I nearly didn't get my passport, which is why Eureka was asking about my passport,

but yes, I got it, thankfully thankfully I got it.

Alright so, the next one is Sleeping lions, always good to calm the children down...

at the end of a session, at the end of a party.

Sleeping Lions you ask all the children to lie down on the floor and pretend that they are sleeping.

They are sleeping lions, and if they move or flinch then they're out.

So, you basically just get the children to lie down on the floor be very very quiet, and they generally do.

It's a really great way, if you're a teacher or a parent...

it's a really great way to get the children to be quiet and to calm down...

to get them to get rid of all that extra energy and just...

be calm.

Yeah so, Sleeping lions.

Nice and easy, now adults of course still want to have fun, but they won't necessarily have...

a party like that with games like that, but sometimes adults will do activities like paintballing or they will...

they will... I don't know... go to something called like Go Ape, have you heard of Go Ape?

We have them in the U.K. which are outdoor...

fun activity...

places, where you have rope ladders going up into the trees and you can walk across ropes from tree to tree

or you can swing on rope swings or you can balance or do zip wires.

So it's all up in the in the trees, you're hooked on of course.

It was always safe, but that´s Go Ape or you could go to like a trampoline place and go jumping around.

Yeah, adults do fun stuff, too.

You just have to find the the right date, that's suitable for everyone in your party to go.

Okay, so that kind of brings me to the end of everything I was going to teach you about. If you have any...

questions now is the time to ask, but what I'd like to know from you guys is...

what was the favourite birthday present of yours? What was your favourite ever present you ever received in your life?

And, have you ever had any themed parties that you really enjoyed? Like my Halloween party which was good fun.

And, our birthday´s celebrated in a completely different way in your country,

so if you can answer any of those questions I'd love to know.

And I will shoutout those ones that I see going by. Let's have a quick look at what the patrons are saying.

"It's about 1:00 am in Taiwan...

I use my mobile phone to watch the live lesson so I have to switch to Skype back and forth."

Oh bless you Leyla, I'm sorry about that.

"Happy birthday." Thank you very much, "...and your birthday party is the most amazing I saw."

So you'd say "your birthday party is the most amazing party that I ever saw, that I ever saw."

Strongwits says "More than 200 viewers." Did we have more than 200 at one point?

It's dropped down to 188 now, but wow, that's amazing and thank you for your superchat. That's very sweet.

Okay, so...

Obviously you guys have been really cool, and you've attended my birthday party. Now I have a request.

I did make my birthday wish and I can't share that with you because otherwise it won't come true.

But I want to request something from you, for my birthday if that's okay.

I want more than anything to help you guys, that's the reason I'm here, is to help you to improve your English.

Now, I know sometimes it can be a drag, it can be hard to study when you're studying from home.

And so, I'm always saying to my students...

repeat, repeat and review your work. That's the only way to really get that work into the back of your head,

but reviewing videos and...

lessons that you've already worked on can be boring.

So, I want to take a little bit of a forceful step with you...

I'm going to be your teacher again for a moment, and I want you to do me a birthday favour.

I would like...

for you after this party or at some point very soon for you to go and make a playlist on your Youtube channel.

You all have Youube channels because you're able to comment on this video.

So, I want you to make a playlist, you can call it whatever you like...

"My English learning" or "My favourite English teacher" or...

"My review playlist" or "My lesson", "My favourite lessons playlist", and then I want you to choose at least..

3 of the lessons which you felt you didn't know very well.

So, 3 of the lessons where there was a lot of vocabulary or when you came away afterwards...

you didn't feel like you've thoroughly had it in your head.

3 lessons that you didn't really understand in that playlist...

from my channel and...

or from any other channel.

And then, I want you to put your favourite lesson also in there, so 3 that you didn't quite get that you know...

there was vocabulary you forgot and then one that you really loved in that playlist.

And then I want you to come back to this video...

and I want you to comment and share the link to your playlist and...

I'm gonna do you this favour, if you share the link to your playlist...

with me on this video, I will then go to your channel...

I´ll subscribe to you. I like your playlist and give it a thumbs up, okay? And then of course...

I don't want you to just leave the playlist there doing nothing, I want you to actually at some point play that playlist...

Ideally once a week for a month and then once every month for the rest of the year. Okay? For the next 12 months.

So that it really sticks, and I promise you that way you are going to start to really...

cement those words, phrases, rules into your head.

And then also if you can add to it...

take stuff out if you think you've really got it, take it out, put more stuff in but let's start getting into good habits.

So...

one last time, make a playlist, call it something like "My English lessons" or "My English review list."

Add 3 videos which you didn't quite get...

into there, and one of your favourite videos into there, then share the link with me on this video.

I'll come back from Italy and I'll want to see lots of links commented in, it will probably go to spam...

but I'll bring it back out and then I'll come to you and I'll subscribe to you if you do this.

I'll subscribe to you and I'll give your videos a thumb up.

Okay? so do that for me please and hopefully it will then help you to get better at English.

Do we have a deal?

Yeah bump.

Fist bump that's a fist bump. That's what you call it, a fist bump.

Brilliant okay, so now it's time for me to answer your questions, so...

Lots of comments come through, what have we got?

"We'll get money on the birthday, we can normally get money on our birthday in... usually Chinese"

I'm sorry Sky, I don't understand this.

"We'll get money on the birthday usually Chinese in Malaysia do"

So I think you mean on your birthday in China Malaysia you get money, you receive money.

Sometimes we put money into a card.

So, if we don't know what to get someone, or if we're not coming to the party...

and we can't bring a present we will put a £ 5,00 note to £ 10,00 note.

Sometimes £ 50,00 into a card and give it so they can buy something nice for themselves.

Go to the Golden Mile at Blackpool yeah, the Golden Mile is fun.

I was actually born not very far from Blackpool, so I've been a couple of times.

"I got a D.J. set when I turned 25, and it was the coolest present ever." That sounds really cool actually.

My favourite present that I ever got was a karaoke machine and...

is something I never expected, I'd never thought about having a karaoke machine.

And it was the best thing, I used it every day for years...

and he got me into singing and as most of you will know I love singing.

I didn't mention that a lot of our cards will include some form of badge that we are then expected to wear for our entire birthday.

And usually it will be quite an embarrassing badge. Maybe a massive one like this, and it will say something like...

I can't even think but it'll say something embarrassing or silly.

I just got a normal birthday girl one.

"Hi Anna" says Amhal, "I'm Indian and we clap while singing happy birthday to you...

and then follow it up by singing may God bless you dear in the same tune." Cool, thank you for letting me know.

"Hello Anna, I travel to London on my next holiday, I would love to meet you, is it possible?"

Well, I hope you have an amazing time here in London.

It really is very difficult for me to make time for anybody, even myself.

I literally work from like 7:00 in the morning till 8 9 10 o'clock at night sometimes and last night...

I was working till gone 11:00 o'clock.

But you know, you never know and if anyone ever...

bumps into me in the street, if you ever see me do come over and say hello, I don't bite.

"A training room and machines were the best present I ever got." Awesome Batham. "My best present..." says Natasha "... was a visit to...

Neuschwanstein castle" and probably mispronounced that, "in Germany the castle of my dreams." Lovely.

Anastasia says "where in Italy are you going? I could suggest you a very special place called Salento,

please take a look." I'm going to...

the Dolomites to climb some mountains, and I'm going to visit lake Garda, and I might go into Verona for a day.

But I'll look into Salento, definitely.

"Remind me again." Oh no, hang on, that wasn't to me.

"We celebrate everyone's birthday in our close family, so we have every month a birthday party but in October."

"We only have 3." Wow, that's a lot of cards, a lot of presents and a lot of birthday cake for you.

Okay guys. I'm terribly sorry, but I have to go because I'm teaching a private student in 4 minutes time.

I've just realised, so I do have to say goodbye, wrap up and get on...

to my private student and eat my cake quickly before I start that lesson.

Thank you so much for joining me, if you are new here then please do press subscribe and the bell notification. button.

Make sure you have a look at some of my older videos so you can catch up.

Don't forget guys to fulfill my birthday wish and...

create a playlist and let me know what the playlist link is and I'll come and subscribe to your channel

Otherwise have an amazing day.

I will be live at 11:00 o'clock tomorrow morning with the next vid cast, I hope you'll join me.

Until next time take care, thank you for coming to my birthday.

And thank you to all those people who donated superchats, you are so generous.

Lots of love from London, happy birthday, goodbyes.