Hi again,
It's me, Jo, with my final blog for this week. I really enjoyed reading all your comments about festivals but I need you all to help me with a few Chinese words. Firstly, I know NIAN is year but what is GUONIAN? Can you explain?
I'm afraid I also don't really know about the Liu Yang He song. Can someone tell me something more about it in English?
I was really impressed that some of you used the firework vocabulary in your replies and you made some really good points. Someone talked about the custom of spending so much money to buy moon cakes in China. Many people in the UK also feel that Christmas is too commercial, which means that people just want make lots of money from the festival rather than think about the true meaning of why we celebrate it.
I also really enjoyed reading the detailed explanations of the water splashing festival. You are really helping my knowledge of Chinese culture with your replies - so thank you!
Anyway, today I thought maybe we could look at some language related to holidays. There are certain days in Britain, and maybe in China too, where everyone has a holiday and doesn't have to go to work. Christmas Day is one of them for us and New Year's Day is another. We have a few days like this throughout the year. The are called 'public holidays'.
On public holidays everyone is off. 'Off' here means you don't go to work. Well, some people like nurses, policemen, firemen etc have to work on public holidays but most people have 'a day off'.
In addition to public holidays, everyone in the UK has 'annual leave'. 'Leave' is another word for holiday and 'annual' means every year. So annual leave is holiday that everyone can take throughout the year. You usually ask your manager permission to take time off - you might want a week off or two weeks off to go on holiday with your family. Most British people have 20-25 days annual leave that they can take in addition to public holidays.
I took two weeks off in September to go on a summer holiday. I travelled to the Island of Cyprus which is in the Mediterranean Sea near to Greece. Here is a picture of me enjoying some time off, with a cocktail by the beach! Looking at the picture makes me want to be there again. It's cold in the UK now .
I would like to know if you have annual leave. When did you last have some time off? What did you do? This is a great chance for you to communicate with us and practice your English. Lots of you say your English is poor but I think you are doing a great job writing in. Don't forget, it's OK to make mistakes when you're learning. You won't improve your English if you don't at least try to communicate.
I look forward to reading your comments. Have a good weekend. china custom tours
Jo
