‫An extremely popular topic in the whole of Israel speaking is family, but it's also quite likely that
‫you could get a task to cue card on the topic of family.
‫So it will be useful to take a look at a couple of examples of these Cucuy card types.
‫Take a look at a really great moral answer and have a look at some really focused language around this
‫topic.
‫So let's take a look at our first cue card.
‫Describe the person in your family who you most admire.
‫You should say who this person is, what your relationship is, what they do now, and explain why you
‫admire them so much.
‫So it's not just discussing your family in general.
‫It's describing one person who you most admire and you need to say who they are, what your relationship
‫is.
‫Are they in your extended family?
‫So not your mom, dad, brother or sister, or is it someone like your father or mother who you admire
‫the most?
‫You also need to say what they do, whether it's working or something else, and also explain why you
‫admire them so much.
‫And I might go into some other details as well.
‫OK, let's take a look at this model answer.
‫Firstly, I'd like to say I hope they don't ever hear my answer.
‫The reason I say this is because all my extended family will probably hope I say I admire them the most.
‫It is a tough decision.
‫But after giving it some real thought, I'd probably say my grandmother is the person I look up to most.
‫She's such an approachable person and has always been there for me when times were hard.
‫I mean to say all my family are very close, but my grandma really tried her best to always look after
‫me.
‫We are quite a close knit family and often spend evenings and weekends together, when I was an adolescent,
‫both my mom and dad had to work most days a week.
‫That meant it was up to my grandma to take care of me.
‫And she did an amazing job doing that before she retired.
‫She was a cook.
‫So we always had such amazing foods.
‫I can't really remember her working.
‫I think I was too young, but I distinctly remember the amazing meals we would have together.
‫We'd spend hours in the kitchen together making foods and telling jokes.
‫Her food was always better than mine, though it still is.
‫We grew very close and still see each other most days.
‫Now it's fair to say I love my grandma.
‫Right, let's take a look at some of the really great language in this model answer.
‫OK, we will begin with this time opener.
‫Firstly, this is a really great opener that you can use to begin speaking.
‫Firstly, it shows the examining.
‫You have an understanding of what language to use to begin your speaking.
‫And here we have some topic specific vocabulary, extended family.
‫So your immediate family, your immediate family is really your dad's mom and brothers or sisters.
‫Your extended family is your uncles and cousins, nephews.
‫So extended family.
‫Here we have this bit of vocabulary, a phrase, tough decision, a very common collocation, if something
‫it's difficult to decide, you can say it is or it was a tough decision and another very negative phrase,
‫giving it some real thought.
‫You don't have to say, yeah, you could just say giving it some thought.
‫After giving it some thought, I decided I would do this.
‫So that's a really great phrase.
‫You can use someone I look up to.
‫Now, this really is a bit of an idiomatic expression, and it's not someone that you need to look up
‫to say look up to simply mean someone you admire.
‫Next up, we have times were hard or times are hard now that means a time in your life or somebody's
‫life where you are facing some difficulties.
‫So, for example, times were hard last year.
‫We found it difficult to get enough food or something like that.
‫Times were hard.
‫Next up is more topic, specific vocabulary, close knit family, if you say your family is very close
‫knit, it means that you talk and see each other a lot.
‫So you see each other very often.
‫You have a great close relationship, close knit.
‫And here we have adolescent, so when you are talking about yourself as a young child, let's say from
‫two to around six or seven, we can call this adolescent.
‫And here we have take care collocation native expression, take care of somebody to look after somebody.
‫Here we have distinctly remember, again, a collocation, it's a phrase that's very common with native
‫speakers.
‫If you remember something a hundred percent, very clearly you can say I distinctly remember this thing.
‫And finally grew closer, grew very close, you can say we grew close, which means we became a relationship,
‫a friendship developed into something that was really big, really important.
‫And we spent a lot of time together.
‫We grew very close.
‫OK, so there's some great language in this answer.
‫Again, is probably a little bit longer than what we're looking for as we have two minutes.
‫Remember, one minute to plan, two minutes to give your answer.
‫But it's good, even if it's a little bit long just to concentrate on some of this language here.
‫OK, let's take a look at our next cue card.
‫Describe a family celebration, you remember?
‫Well, you should say what the celebration was when it happened, where the celebration took place,
‫and explain why you remember it so well.
‫So we're not talking about a person.
‫We're talking about an event, a celebration.
‫So we need to say what it was when it happened, where it took place and why you remembered it so well.
‫Here is our model answer.
‫I really do try and visit my hometown and family whenever there are celebrations or some family get
‫together.
‫I mean, we have a lot which is good for me as I love seeing all my close family members.
‫The most memorable celebration we had was most probably my younger brother's wedding.
‫He got married in our local community, so the whole village attended.
‫Also, my uncles arrange the celebration after the wedding, and they really know how to throw a party.
‫Luckily, during that week, some distant relatives were visiting us and my brother asked them to join
‫the party.
‫It made the event a special day for sure.
‫I suppose many people only get married once.
‫So for this reason, it made the event really special.
‫And my brother and wife certainly had a memorable time.
‫Luckily, both my mom and dad aren't too strict and letters party after the wedding.
‫It really was so nice to reconnect with my extended family, some of them I hadn't seen for so many
‫years.
‫So I took the opportunity to spend some quality time with them and enjoy an amazing time.
‫OK, let's take a look at our focused language from this model answer.
‫First up, we have the piece of vocabulary hometown, which is where plaiting talk about where you grew
‫up or you were born.
‫Usually our childhood home, our hometown.
‫And here is a great phrase, family get together, get together is basically a synonym for party or
‫celebration.
‫So it's a family get together, a family party, a really useful phrase that you can use here.
‫We have close family members.
‫Now, a close family member or close friend is someone that you have a very close and really developed
‫bond together.
‫So you might speak with each other a lot.
‫You might see each other a lot.
‫You can call these the people in your family, a close family member.
‫Up next, we have local community said that describes a place it can be in a city where the community
‫do things together.
‫Whether it's a town hall or a church or whatever religious place, usually everyone gets together in
‫a local community to do a whole village or whole town activities and events.
‫Here we have the phrase throw a party, and that basically means to organize an event or a celebration.
‫So if someone is really good, like the uncaused here, really good at throwing a party, it means that
‫they know how to organize an event.
‫Here we have distant relatives, which is similar to this vocabulary here, which we looked at before
‫extended family.
‫Except distant relatives are people that maybe you haven't seen for some time, so it could be someone,
‫maybe even from your immediate family, so a brother or a sister who has moved away for a very long
‫time, it could be an uncle and aunty and nephews who have moved to another country a few years before
‫you would call them distant relatives, people that you really don't see very often here, just a collocation,
‫a native phrase, a native expression, special day.
‫You often see these put together to describe a celebration and just some vocabulary, strict.
‫If someone is straight, it means that they have very clear, often tight rules.
‫So if your father is strict, it means that your father has a lot of rules and expects that you can
‫follow them.
‫Reconnect, we can use this with family members or friends, it's a person, you know, that you have
‫not seen for quite some time.
‫If you would like to speak to them again, you can say, I would like to reconnect with that person.
‫And finally, a common collocation, which is quality time.
‫So quality time, it is basically means to concentrate on an activity or a person.
‫So if you spend some quality time together with a person, it means that really you're having a great
‫conversation, you are taking care of one another.
‫So some really useful vocabulary that you can use for family and of course, for some other topics as
‫well.
‫See you in the next lesson.