Christmas Communication - Practical Practice
It’s Christmas season.
And you know what that means?
Conversations and socializing!
Christmas gatherings are a great opportunity to practice your English pronunciation and communication skills. Whether you're attending a holiday party with native English speakers or simply spending time with family and friends who speak English, there are plenty of ways to improve your skills and have fun at the same time.
In typical productive fashion by yours truly, I’ve created a list of things you can do this holiday season to use these holiday times to practice your English communication and be more productive!
Whether that’s socializing with work parties, meeting your significant other’s family, socializing with English-speaking friends, or meeting new people during social gatherings where multiple friend groups meet, the holiday season can be a predictable time to work on your English communication.
Let me explain a few key things that happen during Christmas and New Years events (since New Years is right around the corner too)
1. Conversations are predictable.
During the holiday gatherings, it’s usually a recap of the year. How are you doing? What have you been up to? How are the kids? You are catching up with people about what you did in 2022, asking questions about what they did this year, and either meeting new people (so standard introductions), meeting the significant others of people you know (so shallow conversations as you learn about these new people), or reconnecting with people you haven’t seen in a while.
Anticipating conversation topics can be a helpful strategy for preparing yourself to communicate in English, especially if you are learning the language as a second language or if you feel nervous about speaking in front of others. By anticipating the topics that might come up in a conversation, you can take the time to practice the vocabulary and phrases that you might need or want to use.
One way to anticipate conversation topics is to think about the context of the conversation. For example, if you know that you will be attending a holiday party or family gathering, you might expect that topics such as gift-giving, holiday traditions, or travel plans might come up.
You aren’t thinking about job interviews or work experience, so no point in practicing phrases related to your work experience, education, and career goals.
Another way to anticipate conversation topics is to pay attention to current events and popular culture. The main event in Vancouver this year is the snowfall and icy weather. Other recent events would be the Fifa World Cup for example. By staying informed about what is going on in the world, you can be better prepared to participate in discussions and contribute to conversations, especially if you can tie in words or phrases that are relevant and you are interested in.
Let’s say you want to practice the pronunciation of the word “Lebkuchen” (the Word of the Day for December 24, 2022) on Dictionary.com.
Yes, I understand the irony of discussing a German-origin word for practicing English pronunciation but the pronunciation practice principles still apply.
You can predict and practice situations that may be predictable.
“Is this a lebkuchen?” - while gesturing at one of the cookies on a table spread out for Christmas
“Do you make lebkuchen?” - while discussing Christmas traditions or family recipes
“I tried venturing out into the snowy weather to find lebkuchen at the grocery store to bring for the party, but couldn’t find any!” - while discussing the snowy weather in Vancouver
2. Paying Attention to the Sounds of Rhythms of English
One thing that needs more attention from English language learners is sound stress and rhythms of English. Even if you have the right pronunciation of English, if you don’t have the sound stress and rhythm practiced, you can end up sounding robotic or stand out. Robotic English speech still has the correct pronunciation but doesn’t have natural rhythms which makes it sound artificial.
To practice your English pronunciation, pay attention to the sounds and rhythms of the language as you listen to others speak. Try repeating words and phrases out loud to get a feel for how they should sound.
Why do we say, “MER-ry CHRIS-miss”?
We don’t say, “mer-REE chris-MAS”?
And what happened to the T-letter? Why isn’t that pronounced.
There’s always opportunities to question and intentionally recognize the weird pronunciation rules or patterns. Using the predictability of phrases during the holiday season is a good way to practice those specific words.
Over the holiday season, you will say Merry Christmas at least 30 times. Same with Happy New Year!
You can also try singing along to Christmas carols or holiday songs, as the repetition and melody can help you learn and remember new words, phrases, or intonation patterns.
Why do we say “MER-ry CHRIS-miss” with the stressed syllable at a higher pitch than their unstressed syllable counterpart?
There are lots of nuggets of information that can be gleaned during these situations and making a mental note for yourself about the observations you have can be a good way to hone your listening skills.
3. Christmas Games
Christmas games are a regular occurrence amongst friends, families, and work parties. Participating, listening, and observing during these games can be a fun social and engaging activity while practicing your English skills.
Here are some Christmas games that can help you practice your English pronunciation:
"Charades" - This classic party game involves acting out a word or phrase without speaking. When you aren’t acting, you can help you improve your vocabulary skills, observe the phrases and sayings that native English speakers use when they’re at a loss for words or when they’re guessing, and you can make note of appropriate actions to do when you are speaking. If you speak while using gestures, it can be an effective non-verbal cue to support your pronunciation (even when you aren’t playing charades!)
"Pictionary" - In this drawing game, players take turns drawing a word or phrase while their teammates try to guess what it is. This game can help you practice your vocabulary, boost your confidence if you’re good at art, and again observe what native English speakers will say or how they say it. You may notice certain phrases that they say very quickly like “whaddizit?” instead of “what is it?” or “younahhwhaddimean” instead “you know what I mean” Certain contractions are used by native English speakers that non-native English speakers do not use easily. By avoiding these common phrases or contractions, non-native English speakers can sound overly cautious or overly formal. Sometimes, this means native English speakers interpret that as by-the-books, serious, overly formal, or not casual.
"Secret Santa" - In this gift-giving game, players draw names to determine who they will be giving a gift to ahead of time. This means you only buy a gift for one person but you can spend time to think about what suits that individual. If you want, you can tell your group why you bought the specific gift for this person. That way you can practice your explanation ahead of time. Whether it was a favourite hobby, a wanted present, a recommended book or whatever else you want to explain for your decision-making process. This game can help you practice your communication skills as you discuss your choice.
As the year comes to an end, take some time to recognize how far you’ve come. Remember how your English pronunciation has developed so much and how you keep learning more each day. You’re doing awesome! Be proud of your hard work. And enjoy the holidays!
