Free English Class! Topic: Celebrations! 🎉🥳🎊 (Lesson Only)

Well hello and welcome to this English lesson about

celebrations. Life has moments where we like to celebrate

things. Sometimes there's a special day just for you.

Sometimes you go to a celebration for someone else. A

celebration is anytime we have a party. Sometimes we give

gifts to kind of mark a special occasion in someone's life. And

I'll talk about all of the different celebrations that I

have created slides for in just a bit in this English lesson.

But celebrations are certainly very very enjoyable and very

fun. You look forward to celebrations. You remember them

fondly as well. They are just moments in your life where you

are happy about an accomplishment or an

achievement. So welcome once again to this English lesson

about celebrations. Here we go. So today is Friday and it's

actually a small celebration for a lot of people. Most

people work from Monday to Friday and then they have the

weekends off. I don't work on Saturday and Sunday. So Friday

is a little day in the week. Uh a day where you can have a

little celebration. Often times at work people will say it's

Friday and then they'll smile. We all love our jobs or most of

us do. But it is fun to feel the accomplishment of almost

being done the week. Friday always feels like a day to

celebrate a little bit. A small celebrations because the week

is almost over and it's almost time to relax or just do

something else for a couple of days. So what's the first thing

I would celebrate? Um today I think I'm celebrating the fact

that it's it's finally Friday it says in the slide. It's

Friday. People sometimes also celebrate when they have a day

off. This is definitely something to celebrate as well.

Um I actually have a day off coming up because Canadian

Thanksgiving is in a couple of weeks. Two and a half weeks.

About. And so I will have a day off. And so I will celebrate

that. Not only will it be a Friday the weekend before but

it will be a holiday on the Monday as well. So I will

certainly be happy and celebrate. Um I thought this

couple was very cute. They're just sitting and chatting and

having a cup of tea or coffee. Um I can see Jen and I doing

something like that on my day off. Just sitting for a bit and

chatting and enjoying the fact that I don't have to go to work

that day. So a day off is certainly something to

celebrate. And people usually celebrate a holiday. Um my

sister just went on a vacation. She was on holidays a few weeks

ago. And she was quite excited. And the last day that she

worked she was celebrating the fact that she was going on a

holiday. So she was pretty I was going to say she was pretty

pumped. I don't know if you've heard that word before. In

English when you say someone is pumped to do something it means

they're very excited about it. So a little bit of slang just

slipped out there. She was very pumped and I think they had a

very enjoyable time when they had a holiday. Certainly

something to celebrate. Um but let's get into some more

traditional celebrations. Um and one of the first ones that

comes to mind is something called a milestone. A milestone

is a time in life when you have accomplished something that's

very very awesome. That's something that people respect.

One of them might be having a number of years of service

working somewhere. Maybe you've worked somewhere for five years

or 10 years or 15 years or 20. We would say that that's a

milestone. Every time you hit one of those marker points. Um

I have taught for almost 25 years when I have taught for 25

years that will be a cool milestone in my life. And I

will celebrate that milestone. It will be something that I

think about and something that I am happy about. I don't think

there will be a party when you have a milestone. You don't

usually celebrate with a party. But certainly milestones for me

as well would be when I passed my B one French test that was a

milestone. And when I passed my B two French test that was a

milestone as well. So something to celebrate. Definitely the

most traditional celebration would be a birthday. When it is

your birthday you are celebrating the day you were

born. Usually in Canada you'll have a birthday cake and it

will have the same number of candles as your aid For me in

my early fifties I don't put that many candles on. Sometimes

we put one candle for every 10 years. And then a few extra for

the little years after that. But certainly when it is your

birthday it is a celebration. And probably the most common

type. Um you have a party usually or you at least invite

some people over. Um I didn't have a party for my birthday

this year. My sister and I were born in the same month. My

older sister and I and we usually have a party together

and this year we just decided not to. Usually we have a small

party but I wasn't feeling wasn't in the party mood this

year but I did turn fifty-one. I'm getting old. Uh something

else to celebrate would be an engagement. An engagement is

when someone asks someone else to marry them. Usually they get

down on one knee and they usually have a ring. They have

an engagement And they usually will go on a date and then the

person will propose to the other person and the

celebration is just with the couple but after if the girl

says yes afterwards they will tell everyone else and everyone

will celebrate with them. You might have a small engagement

party but usually it's just a lot of people saying

congratulations. Whenever someone's is celebrating the

fact that they are now engaged people will usually say

congratulations to them and by the way when you're engaged it

means you're planning to get married either in a few months

or in a year or sometimes two years, but usually in Canada if

someone gets engaged they usually get married the next

summer or within a year or two is about the normal amount of

time. Uh the bride might have a bridal shower. So shower is

another name for a type of party. A bridal shower is when

the bride before her wedding will go and all kinds of other

women will come and give her gifts. So a bridal shower is a

cool event for the bride. A cool celebration. Everyone is

celebrating the fact that she is getting married. And one of

the things they do is they have a party called a shower and

they give her gifts. And then of course the actual day is a

huge celebration. When you have your wedding it's a day when

you go and you get married Sometimes it's hard to know the

difference between the word marriage and wedding. But

wedding is the word we use for the celebrations. The day when

you actually get married. When you promise to spend your life

with the other person. You invite a lot of guests, family

and friends. Uh and on your wedding day you exchange vows.

You exchange rings. And you are then married. Your marriage

begins on your wedding day. That would be a good way to

remember it. But certainly a huge Celebration any wedding I

have been to has been has been a huge celebration for sure and

then every year after your wedding you get to celebrate

your anniversary so Jen and I have been married for over 20

years, so we can celebrate our anniversary every year and keep

counting the years it has been a very very enjoyable marriage

I hope Jen's watching it has been awesome but an anniversary

is just A day to celebrate and remember sometimes you look at

pictures from your wedding day. Sometimes Jen and I will go out

on a date. Even though we're already married we can still go

out on a date. We'll go out to eat. And we'll just enjoy each

other's company for the day. So an anniversary in other

languages sometimes versions of anniversary are used to meant

to mean birthday. But in English an anniversary is

referring to the day you got married celebrating that every

year.

Graduation so in Canada students graduate from grade

eight they graduate from grade 12 and then they graduate from

college or university after two or four years or even more. A

graduation is a celebration of the fact that you have finished

part of your schooling. When you are 13 years old in Canada

12 or 13 you have a graduation from grade eight. You have been

in school for 9 years. From kindergarten grade one grade 2

all the way up to grade eight. By the way if you are in

America you would call it the eighth grade. In Canada we call

it grade eight. We're a little bit different. Um and then

students will go to high school and then they'll graduate from

grade twelve. They'll have a graduation. A celebration

recognizing the fact that they have finished four years of

high school. So lots of fun celebrations when you're a kid

as well. A retirement party. So when you have a job Eventually

you get old and you retire. And many times when you retire the

place where you work will have a retirement party for you.

There was a teacher at my school who retired last year

and we had a retirement party for him. We were very happy

because we were allowed to have a retirement party. There was a

teacher two years ago that retired and because of COVID we

couldn't have a retirement party for him. So he came to

last year's retirement party for the other teacher and we

kind of celebrated both of them at the same time. But a

retirement party is a celebration for someone who is

retiring. So you have cake. Um you do sometimes wear silly

hats and sometimes it does say happy retirement on the wall.

Um but it's just a party where someone who has worked for a

very long time is retiring and you get together to celebrate

it. So retirement parties are a lot of fun by the way. If you

have recently moved into a new house or a new apartment you

might have a housewarming party when you buy a new house or

start renting a new house or when you start renting an

apartment or maybe you've bought a condo you might have a

housewarming party where everyone can celebrate the fact

that you have a new place to live. A housewarming party you

usually bring a housewarming gift. Probably the most common

one is a plant or something to hang on the wall like a a piece

of art. Uh I haven't been to a housewarming party in a long

time. But usually there's food and people bring housewarming

gifts. But certainly something to celebrate. Especially if

someone Sometimes in Canada people will rent an apartment

and then eventually they'll buy a house and then they'll be

excited because they own their own house and they'll have a

little housewarming party. Lots of fun. Our kids sometimes went

to something called a pool party. This is not a specific

celebration but it is a very common party for kids to go to

when they're younger. Like between age I don't know six

and fourteen or something like that. Um a pool party is just a

party that a kid has. If they happen to have a pool in their

backyard they might have a pool party during the summer. I have

driven my kids to a couple of different pool parties as time

went by each summer. Usually two times a summer I would take

someone to a pool party. Sometimes people will have a

birthday party and in the invitation it will say bring

your bathing suit because it's also a pool party. So a pool

party is just a party where people go swimming in a pool.

Nothing super special about it. You might have a celebration

event in terms of fundraising. Um you might have a fundraising

sale. You might have a fundraising bake sale. You

might go to a fundraising dinner. Jen and I sometimes are

invited to fundraising dinners. A fundraising dinner is when an

organization that does good in the world needs money and so

they have a celebration and they celebrate the work they've

done and then they ask you for more money. Um but a simple

version of a celebration would be fundraising by selling baked

goods, cookies, or other things. So let's talk about

receptions. So in English the word reception has a few

different meanings. One meaning of reception means a party

usually a formal party after a wedding or even after a

graduation or some other formal celebrations. I've been to a

reception after a graduation. I've been to many receptions

after a wedding. So a reception is simply a more formal party.

By formal I mean people are usually dressed up. Men are

usually wearing ties and women are usually wearing dresses.

Not always but that's usually that's still a very common way

to dress up. Um and definitely it's after some kind of

important celebration like a wedding or a graduation.

Definitely after a wedding in Canada you'll end up going to a

reception. And we would just call it a wedding reception. We

would add the word wedding to it. Um I have never been to one

of these. But there's a celebration called an after

party apparently. Uh an after party is a party that people go

to when the main party is done. You'll hear about this often

after some award shows. Sometimes there are a lot of

after parties. So it's a party that takes place after another

celebration or after another party like I just said. Um I

it's not that I haven't been invited to after parties. It's

just that I I don't like staying out late. So if I go to

a celebration. And someone is having an after party at one or

two in the morning. I I go home and I go to bed. So but an

after party is a party that takes place after a different

celebrate or after a celebration or after another

party. Some people go to a party and then they go to an

after party. Not Bob the Canadian. Bob the Canadian goes

goes home and goes to bed. I have been to block parties or

street parties though. So a block party our cities and

towns are usually divided into blocks. So you have city blocks

every square of the city is a block. And sometimes the city

or town will decide to close the street. And to have a

party. A town near us is celebrating 100 years of being

a town. And they are going to close the street and have a

street party. When you close a street it means cars can't

drive down that street. They'll put roadblocks at each end. And

then everyone can just walk on the street. So they're going to

have a street party. People will just go. The street is a

beautiful place to have a drink. Do some dancing. Talk to

friends. Listen to some music. It will be a really really fun

event. So a block party or street party is when a town or

city closes the street. So that they can have a party to

celebrate some kind of special event. So noone has ever thrown

one of these for me. A surprise party is a party that other

people plan for you and they don't tell you about it. And

then when you walk in everyone yells surprise. Um I oh wait. I

I did go to one I did have a there was a surprise party in

my life. When Jen and I were expecting our first kid when

Jen was pregnant the people from work so a work a colleague

Jen was friends with invited us to go out to eat with her and

her husband. And when we got there there were like 20 people

from my work and they had a little surprise party for us.

Where they gave us gifts for the new baby. So yes I my

mistake. Generally those surprise parties are for

birthdays. And usually it's when someone comes home from

work they open the door and their apartment is dark and

when they turn the light on there's like 25 people there

all yell surprise and it is a surprise party. Sounds fun. I

should plan one someday. For Jen maybe a surprise party. I

have been to costume parties when I was in university. I

went to a couple costume parties. Um sometimes little

kids will go to a costume party. A costume party is a

party where you dress up. They're very common around

Halloween. Halloween is at the end of October. It's when kids

go trick or treating and when kids wear costumes. Um but even

adults sometimes have costume parties where everyone is told

to dress up in some way. I imagine these two guys are

either waiting for the bus or they're on their way to a

costume party. Um but I have not been to a costume party for

probably 25 years or more. Um sometimes parents dress up and

go to costume parties at Halloween as well. Um sometimes

their kids will have a costume party and the parents will also

dress up. But I have not done anything like that for a while.

I'm pretty boring actually if if I do think about my old

life. But maybe this year should be the year where I

dress up and go to a costume party. We'll see. This is more

my style. In English when you say something is more your

style it means it's something you like to do. I really enjoy

hosting a bonfire or campfire. Uh or going to a bonfire or

campfire. I was sad because last weekend a friend of mine

was going to have a bonfire and he invited people over but I

actually couldn't go. I was busy that night. But this is

something I really enjoy either hosting. Meaning I have a fire

at my house and invite people over or I like going to which

means if someone else has a bonfire and the difference

between bonfire and campfire. A bonfire is just bigger. I

usually have a campfire like oh we're going to have a little

campfire come on over. Um bring your launch here. It's a very

very enjoyable time. Some of you in my videos have seen

where we have a fire pit. And that's where we usually have

our our little campfires if we invite people over. Lots of

fun. Very enjoyable time. A birth. So we talked about

birthday but there's also a time to celebrate when a young

couple has a new baby. So you celebrate the birth. It's kind

of the kid's first birthday isn't it? But certainly when a

young couple has a new baby. You celebrate the fact that

they have given birth. That they have a new child. So a

birth is certainly something fun to celebrate also a time to

give gifts as well. And just I just know with the birth of

each of our children Jen's parents would come down and my

mom would come down within a day or two to congratulate us

and to celebrate the fact that we had had a baby. Lots of fun.

And before you have a baby you will often have a baby shower.

Uh and sometimes after you have a baby you'll have a baby

shower. And so you'll see again you'll see again the word

shower. Um to mean a party. So we had bridal shower earlier.

Um but yeah Usually a baby shower happens in advance. Um I

know Jen went to a baby shower a couple months ago for a

relative. Um and it was I think four weeks before the baby was

due. When you're expecting you have a due date. And then

usually you'll have a baby shower at some point. Um

usually before but sometimes after. I mean it's always fun

to celebrate a new baby and and to get gifts right? So lots of

fun. Uh sometimes you have a going away party. Sometimes

maybe one of your kids is going off to university. Uh maybe a

neighbour is moving away to another country or province. So

you might have a little party to celebrate the fact that

they're leaving. It sounds kind of funny. You're not happy that

they're leaving. But it is fun to get together and to have a

little going away party. Um probably the most common type

is when if one of your is leaving for university. You

might have a little going away party. Have a have a nice

supper. Um no gifts really but just maybe some cake for a

going away party. And then of course the opposite would be a

welcome home party. Sometimes people come home from far away.

Maybe one of your kids is at university. When they come home

you might have a welcome home party. Maybe someone was

serving in the military and they were far away. Maybe they

were deployed and when they come back the family might Have

a welcome home party to welcome them back. I went to a welcome

home party for a teacher who taught in a different country

for two years. And when they came back we had a little

welcome home party for them. Lots of fun. So yeah you can

have a going away party and then a year or two later you

can have a welcome home party. A family reunion. So family

reunions are celebrations that families have where someone

will invite all of the brothers and sisters and uncles and

aunts and cousins and grandparents all to one place

and they will just celebrate the fact that they're a family.

So a family reunion is just a big party with all of the

family and extended family. When we use the term extended

family in English when I talk about my family I talk about

Jen my kids and my brothers and sisters and my mom. That's my

family. When I talk about my extended family I mean my

uncles and aunts and cousins. That's my extended family. So a

family reunion is when you invite your family and your

extended family and you in Canada it's often at a park or

at someone's house with a really big backyard it's

usually in the summer and it's usually outside and people will

barbecue and play outdoor games. Usually a family reunion

is lots of fun. Uh let me get to the next slide in a sec

here. I just gotta make a small change. There we go. Mother's

Day. So I mentioned Mother's Day and Father's Day. Mother's

Day is a day where we celebrate all of the work that our moms

have done to raise us. Father's Day is similar. We celebrate

the fathers in the world. So Mother's Day is usually a day

where we will go to either Jen's mom's house or my mom's

house. We kind of alternate year to year. And we will have

some cake and we will celebrate the fact that it is Mother's

Day. Um usually we will send a card. We will usually give a

gift. Sometimes on Mother's Day we will give my mom flowers if

we have some. It's a little early in the year for us to

give flowers. Sometimes we'll buy an outdoor potted plant or

something nice for my mom. Uh Father's Day is the same. Uh

because my father passed away. I will sometimes visit the

cemetery. And I'll just go and visit the grave site where my

father is buried. Um and we will definitely go to Jen's

parents' house and celebrate Father's Day with her dad. So

Mother's Day a day where we celebrate mothers and Father's

Day a day where we celebrate fathers. And then Teacher's

Day. So just a month ago someone said happy Teacher's

Day to me. Most of you know that I find Teachers Day to be

since I've started YouTube. It has been a very fun day to

celebrate for me. Because it happens almost every month.

Quite regularly someone will say in the comments of a video.

Happy Teachers' Day. It's Teachers Day here in Bolivia.

Or happy Teacher's Day. It's Teachers Day here in Indonesia.

And so there seems to be different days around the world

that are considered teachers days. Uh and because I teach

everyone around the world I'm quite often congratulated like

congratulations. Happy Teachers' Day Bob the Canadian.

Thank you for everything you do. So I appreciate that. It's

kind of fun to teach people around the world because I get

thanked a lot on all of the different teachers days. I

think there's another one coming up in October if I'm not

mistaken. Uh we'll see. I don't actually know when the Canadian

one is. Uh New Year's Eve someone mentioned this earlier.

Uh New Year's Eve happens on December 31st. When the clock

strikes midnight we all yell happy New Years. Um and we give

each other's hug each other hugs. Generally though the New

Year's Eve party happens mostly the year before. Does that make

sense? Mostly it's December 31st when you're celebrating

New Year's Eve. And then you say happy New Years you maybe

stay up for another hour and then if you're old like me you

go to bed. But New Year's Eve is a fun Celebrations. A day

where we celebrate the new year and we look forward to all the

new things we're going to do. This is another one where it's

different in different parts of the world. Often my

international students will be celebrating Chinese New Year a

few weeks after our new year's so it's fun because they are

they have a nice fun day a bit later than us as well but New

Year's Eve celebrating the New Year always a fun celebration.

We have a lot of different kinds of festivals. Especially

in the fall. There are a lot of festivals in Ontario Canada. A

festival is anytime a town or some place has a big party

celebrating one thing. We have food festivals. A food festival

is a place where you can go and there's all different kinds of

food to eat. Um we have something we have a lot of

music festivals where you can go for a weekend and you can

listen to all different kinds of music. But a festival isn't

it's celebrating a specific thing. So it's a festival

because people like food. It's a festival because people like

music. Um and so they'll get together and they will

celebrate that thing and you can go and enjoy yourself as

well. A parade. So we really like going to a parade every

year at Christmas. There are a lot of different kinds of

parades in the world. Um when we go to a parade it's usually

quite cold. It's usually the end of November or beginning of

December. And it's a parade about Christmas. In the parade

there will be marching bands. These guys aren't playing

instruments. I think the marching band is behind the

flag bears. Uh there's usually different floats. A float is

some in a parade who drives by. So they decorate their vehicle

or they pull a trailer that's all decorated. You would call

that a float. In Canada if you go to a Christmas parade the

very last float in the parade usually has Santa Claus on it.

You might celebrate a championship. It might be the

Super Bowl. It might be World the World Cup. It might be the

Stanley Cup if you watch hockey. Um when the team you

like wins a championship it's a time to celebrate. Um if you

live in Toronto and if the Toronto Raptors won the NBA

Championship again there would be a parade a week later and

people would celebrate the fact that the team won the

championship. Um I'm sure if you Live close to a city where

a football or soccer or baseball or hockey team has won

the championship. There is a large celebration about a week

afterwards. Hey we mentioned Valentine's Day earlier.

Valentine's Day is a day for couples where they buy each

other gifts. The most common gifts on Valentine's Day would

be red roses, chocolate, jewelry, those would be very

very common. It's a day to celebrate love. Um so it's a

day where you'll probably go on a date if you're in a

relationship and you will just celebrate the fact that you

enjoy each other's company so much. Um that you want to

celebrate it. Fun day. Uh then lastly there is usually a

celebration for your country at some point. In Canada it's

called Canada Day. It's on July 1st. Every year on July 1st we

celebrate the fact that Canada is a country. Usually there's

fireworks. I actually posted a photo this year because Jen and

I and the kids we went to see live music. Uh and we saw

fireworks after the concert. So on Canada Day we celebrate the

fact that Canada became a country. It's kind of like

Canada's birthday. And I'm sure in every country in the world

there is a day where you celebrate your country. Um and

that would be probably similar to what I experienced. There's

probably fireworks in every town and everyone is really

happy to celebrate the fact that your country is a country.