Speak With Me English Speaking Practice
Vanessa:
Hi, I’m Vanessa
from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com. It’s your
birthday. Happy birthday. Let’s talk about it.
Hey, I heard you have a birthday
coming up. Do you got any plans?
If I asked you this, would you know what to
say or would your heart start pounding? Oh no,
oh no, what do I say? Well, in today’s lesson,
you are going to master some common answers to
birthday questions, some common questions that
you can ask other people when it’s their birthday,
and at the end of this lesson, you’ll have
a special speaking practice where you will
finally have the opportunity to speak with me out
loud. There will be a little mini conversation
challenge. I want to help you be able to
grow your confidence. When you can speak
English confidently, the world opens up to you.
So let’s get started. But before we do, I want
to let you know that to help you with this lesson,
I have created a free PDF guide with all of these
expressions, all of the questions, and the sample
conversation so that you can master this topic.
You can print it out, put it under your
pillow, sleep on it, whatever you need
to do to really feel confident in English.
All right, let’s get started with some common
expressions to talk about birthdays. Let’s
talk about some types of birthday parties.
A birthday bash, this is a big party,
lots of people, lots of presents, lots of
games. It’s a big one. So you might say we’re
throwing a birthday bash for my niece because
she’s turning 10, double digits, quite exciting.
To throw a party. Are you holding the party and
throwing it? No. I mean, maybe you’re throwing
some confetti, but this is just another way to
say we’re having a party or we’re going to plan a
party. We often use the verb to throw. You might
say we’re throwing a party for my grandma’s 90th
birthday. It’s going to be a big birthday bash.
What if you’re not a fan of birthday bashes? You
want to keep things more low key. You might say
a gathering or a get together. This is something
small and intimate, just family, a few friends
maybe. You could say I’m not a fan of big birthday
bashes, so we’re just going to have a little
gathering at my house, or we’re just going to
have a little get together at my house. This is
true for me. Usually for my birthday we just have
a little get together at my house with a couple
of friends, maybe some family, nothing too big.
Surprise. Oh, what did I just do? I surprised
you because it’s a surprise party. Usually with
a surprise party, the person who is having the
birthday doesn’t know about the party, this is
the ideal situation. So someone is planning,
inviting guests, setting up everything, and they
try to get the birthday person to come into that
area without knowing anything and they walk in
and then everybody jumps up and says surprise.
So I’m curious. Have you ever
had a surprise birthday for you?
Have you ever helped to participate in a surprise
birthday? I don’t think that I ever have, but
one time when I was in college, my friends
threw a surprise birthday party for me
and another friend who has the same birthday, and
I didn’t want to go. I’m studying, I have a test.
I can’t go down there now. I’m not going to go
have dinner with you guys. No, I’m… I need to
study. And then one of my friends finally realized
that I wasn’t coming. And she said, “Hey, Vanessa,
it’s a surprise birthday for you. Come on.” So
I kind of had no choice at that point because I
realized, “Oh, they’re doing something nice for
me.” So you might say we’re throwing a party for
Vanessa, it’s a surprise party. Don’t tell
her. Well, unless you can’t get her to come.
Next, let’s talk about some common phrases
that are just associated with birthdays.
The first one is RSVP. Now this is occasionally
something that we use in spoken conversation,
but it is more common on a written invitation.
It could be a physical invitation, or it might be
an internet invitation using Facebook events
or something like this. But RSVP stands for the
French repondez s’il vous plait. It means please
respond. Please tell me if you’re coming. So
usually you will see this sentence, RSVP by June
30th, RSVP by Saturday whatever date. So there’s
a deadline. Please tell me if you’re coming
so that I can order the right amount of cake,
so that I can make the right amount of food. This
is just a polite thing to do to RSVP. Wonderful.
Another common phrase for birthdays or
for parties is BYOB. What if I said dinner
and cake are provided. BYOB. What would
that mean to you? Bring your old bag?
Bring your old balloon? No, This means bring your
own beer or bring your own booze. Booze is a slang
term for alcohol. So this means I am not
providing alcohol. If you want to drink alcohol,
bring what you want to drink. Bring it for
yourself. This is very common and it’s not
really rude. In fact, it’s good to tell guests if
they are allowed to drink alcohol at your house
and you’re not going to provide any, it’s good to
tell them I don’t have any, bring your own. BYOB.
This is quite a common expression, especially
in an invitation you might see that written.
Dinner and cake provided. BYOB. Excellent.
Make a wish. Usually after we sing Happy
Birthday, you blow out the candles and you
close your eyes and you make a wish. There’s
kind of a superstition that if you tell people
your wish, it will never come true. So usually
it’s a surprise. I will never tell you what my
birthday wishes are because it probably won’t
come true then. This is kind of a superstition.
But you might say, after I blow out the candles,
I’m going to make a wish. But often you will hear
people say this, so after they sing Happy Birthday
and you blow out the candles, someone will say,
all right, make a wish. And they’re telling you
this is the time to make a wish. This sometimes
happens at children’s parties more often that
someone will say it. So they’re reminding their
child this is the time to make a wish, close
your eyes and make a wish. Don’t tell anyone.
This is a fun little tradition I would say.
A goodie bag. This is like a little
plastic bag of, in my opinion, usually junk
that is given to all of the kids at a children’s
birthday party. I’m not a big fan of goodie bags
because they’re usually made up of junk, it’s
stuff that comes from the dollar store and
parents feel some kind of social pressure to give
out a goodie bag at their child’s birthday party,
but usually those things just end up in the
trash. So for me, I would rather do a craft at the
birthday and the children can take home the craft
or maybe there’s an extra cupcake and the children
can take home a cupcake. This seems a little
bit better to me. I think that the idea of a
goodie bag is falling out of tradition a bit, but
there’s still a little pressure to give something
to your guests, this is only for children’s
birthdays, to give something to your guests.
A sweet 16. If I said, I can’t believe your
daughter is already old enough to have her
sweet 16. How old do you think that she is?
Sixteen years old. For some reason, 16 is a
big number. I think this is because this is when
you can get your driver’s license in the US,
so it’s usually just for girls. I hate to say
it, but usually teenage boys who are 16 years old
aren’t usually labeled as sweet. Maybe that
was just my experience when I was a teenager,
but usually a 16-year-old girl might
have a sweet 16 party. And this is a
big birthday bash to celebrate turning 16.
The next big birthday is turning 21. And
this is for anyone, boys or girls. And this is
a big birthday because you can finally legally
drink alcohol. So a lot of people will have
a 21st birthday party with their friends
where they get to go to a bar or they go to
a pub or they go to a brewery or a restaurant
and they get to drink alcohol in public. That’s
not to say that nobody drinks alcohol before 21,
but usually your 21st birthday is kind of a
symbol of now I am an adult. There you go.
After 21, you have to wait a long
time for your next big birthday.
If I said, I don’t feel that old, but
somehow I’m already over the hill.
What do you think over the hill means? Well,
the average life span is about 80 years,
I think now it’s a little bit more than
80 years old, but what is halfway? Forty.
So this birthday is a little bit
dark, a little bit depressing,
but we say that when you turn 40 years old, you
are over the hill, and any time after 40, if you
don’t want to tell someone your age, you can just
say I’m over the hill or I’m way over the hill,
because you are past the peak of life and
now you’re just going down the other side,
very sad. So usually if you go to the grocery
store and you buy any kind of balloons or
birthday bags or birthday decorations for a 40th
birthday, they all are black or gray or have to do
with like gravestones or skeletons. It’s very…
it’s a little bit silly because obviously when
you’re 40, you’re still young, but it’s just
this silly idea that now you’re over the hill.
Our last birthday expression, before we get
to some common birthday questions is a trip
around the sun. This is just another fun way to
say that you’re one year older. So if somebody
is having a birthday, you could tell them
congrats on another successful trip around the
sun. They have successfully gone around the sun
one more time, which is one more year. Congrats
on a successful trip around the sun. You did it.
All right, let’s go onto some common questions
that you might get asked on your birthday or
you could ask someone else on their birthday
and we’ll talk about some common answers
as well. Any plans for your birthday?
This is an extremely common question. If someone
asks you any plans for your birthday? You could
say, yep, we’re planning a big bash this weekend.
It’s going to be exciting. Or no, we’re just
going to have a small gathering with a couple of
friends. Excellent. Any plans for your birthday?
What do you want to do for your birthday? This is
a great question to ask if you know that you will
also be included in the birthday plans. If you
are a family member or a close friend who will
help to organize the birthday activities, you can
use this question. What do you want to do for your
birthday? That kind of is asking, hey, what should
I plan for your birthday? And you could say,
yeah, I’d like to have just a small get together
at the house. Maybe we can have a cookout, maybe
some cake, just some kind of small get together.
A little bird told me it was your birthday.
What would you like? This expression, a little
bird told me, is kind of almost a universal idea
I think. A lot of languages have this concept of
hearing something from a little bird. You’re not
saying who told you, but you’re just saying a
little bird told me that it was your birthday
or that your birthday is coming soon. Do you have
this type of expression in your native language?
It’s a great one to use for birthdays. You could
just say a little bird told me it’s your birthday.
What would you like? You’re asking for a present
idea. What kind of present should I give you?
And an answer to that could be, yep,
my birthday is coming up on Saturday,
but instead of a present I’m asking that everyone
bring some kind of food or drink to the party.
Okay. You don’t need presents, you don’t need
more stuff. You’re just asking that people bring
food and drinks to your party. Simple. And it’s
a good way to give at a party and participate.
How old will you be? Or maybe if it’s on
someone’s birthday, oh, how old are you now?
Don’t ask an adult this. I would say after the age
of 21, usually it’s not a good idea to ask someone
how old are you or how old will you be. In
American culture, it is quite rude to ask
someone their age when they’re an adult. For a
child, it’s no problem. Children love telling
people their age. Usually they’re very specific,
like I’m seven and a half, I’m eight and three
quarters. They’re very specific about their age
because they’re so proud of it. But once we become
adults, we become a little bit more hesitant
to share our age, especially with anybody.
And it’s not required in social circumstances to
say your age. So I recommend asking how old are
you now, or how old will you be only to children.
When someone invites you to a party, you can ask
is it a surprise party? That way you can
not be the one who spoils the surprise.
So maybe they forgot to tell you, oh, it’s a
surprise party. So it’s a good thing to ask
is this a surprise party? And they might say,
oh no, he knows about it. Or he might say,
oh yes, it is. Don’t tell him. It’s a great
question to ask. Is it a surprise party?
Do you need me to bring anything? Can I bring
anything? This is a great question to ask any time
that you go to someone’s house for dinner, for a
meal, for even just tea or coffee, and especially
for a birthday party or a holiday gathering, it’s
great to ask do you need me to bring anything,
or what can I bring? I ask this all the time and
I really appreciate it when my guests ask this,
because maybe it would be nice if someone else
made the salad or someone else made a dish for
the meal or maybe even someone just brought
a game or something to do. This can help to
ease the burden of the person who is throwing
the party or just having a holiday gathering.
So this is a great question to ask, I highly
recommend it. And if someone asks you,
oh, can I bring anything? You can think,
okay, well, yeah, maybe bring your own booze.
Or, yeah, do you have a favorite board game? Maybe
after dinner we could play a game. Bring a game.
Or could you make a salad? Could you make a
dessert? Not even make, could you just bring
one? You can buy it, that’s okay. But this kind
of question can help to have everyone feel like
they’re participating in the evening.
All right, now that we’ve practiced
some common expressions for birthdays,
some common questions for birthdays,
let’s go on to our conversation. I’d like you
to see this sample conversation that I had with
my husband, Dan, about birthdays. You’re going
to recognize a lot of these questions, a lot of
the expressions about birthdays. Listen to this
conversation carefully because in just a minute,
Dan will leave and I will be asking you those
questions and it will be your turn to speak out
loud. Let’s watch the sample conversation.
Hey Dan.
Dan:
Hey Vanessa. You have a
birthday coming up, don’t you?
Vanessa:
Yeah. Pretty soon. Another trip around the sun.
Dan:
Cool. Do you have any plans for your birthday?
Vanessa:
Yeah. I’m going to have a big birthday bash.
I would love for you to come. I can send you
an invitation.
Dan:
That sounds fun. Do you need me to bring anything?
Vanessa:
You can bring your
favorite party game and a big appetite for cake.
All the other details will be in the invitation.
Dan:
Sounds great. I’ll be there.
Vanessa:
Great. See you then.
Okay. You watched the sample
conversation. Now it’s time to
take a deep breath and practice this yourself.
I’m going to ask you a couple questions and
I will pause, I will be listening to you.
No matter where you live around the world,
I will be listening and we will be having this
conversation. If it seems too fast for you,
if you want to try it again, the good news
is that you can click pause on the video
and go back and practice it again. No
problem. Are you ready? Let’s get started.
Hey, a little bird told me that your
birthday is coming up. Do you have any plans?
That sounds like fun. Is it a birthday
tradition or is that something new?
Cool. I would love to come. Can I bring anything?
Great. I’ll be there. I can’t wait to
celebrate another trip around the sun.
So how did you do with this little sample
conversation? I hope that it was a good challenge
for you and it helped to boost your confidence
speaking in English. That is the goal. You can
always go back and review this. So now I have
a question for you. Let me know in the comments
when is your birthday. If you want to tell me just
the month, that’s fine. The month and the day,
that’s fine. Just the year, that’s fine.
Or all of it, go ahead. It’s your choice.
Well, thank you so much for learning English
with me. And don’t forget to download
the free PDF for this lesson with all of these
phrases, questions, and the sample conversation,
plus Vanessa’s challenge question so that you
can practice everything that you’ve learned.
Well, thanks so much and I’ll see
you again next Friday for a new
lesson here on my YouTube channel. Bye.
The next step is to download the free
PDF worksheet for this lesson. With this
free PDF, you will master today’s lesson
and never forget what you have learned.
You can be a confident English speaker.
Don’t forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel
for a free English lesson every Friday. Bye.