Let’s talk about family traditions

Let’s talk about family

I believe that everything has its beginning in the family. Family is very important for every person, because it gives you a sense of stability and tradition, a feeling of having support and understanding. There is a wise saying "Blood is thicker than water". From my point of view it means that your parents and other relatives will stick by you in times of need more than other people will.

I do think the family is very important as a unit in our society. Noth­ing else but family can be an emotional centre of people’s lives and a transmitter of culture. Understanding between all members of the family and consideration for others are very important in family relationships. Tenderness, warm-heartedness and respect must always be present in the family to make it friendly. In my opinion, when a child is brought up in a friendly family, he or she will become a reliable and responsible per­son with a strong character and mind.

My family consists of my father, my mother, my sister and me.

I think I’d better start my story with my dad. His name is Vladimir. He is in his late thirties. He’s tall with dark hair and hazel eyes and is of a strong built. He works as an electrician. My father is a very intel­ligent man and he is fond of reading and watching scientific programs. In some situations he is very serious but in general he is a cheerful per­son with a good sense of humour. He enjoys telling funny stories and taking photos. I think I take after my dad both in appearance and in character.

My mother’s name is Galina. She is a programmer. She is very in­terested in her work and she is a professional. It has always impressed me how she can find enough time for both family and work. I can’t say that my mother’s life is easy as she has to keep the house and work but she manages to do everything in time. She is a strong and charming per­son and she does a good job of being a mother. In fact, she means a lot to me. She understands me in the way no other person would and she always finds proper words to comfort me.

My sister Kate is seven years old. She takes after our mother in her appearance. She is a nice girl with green eyes and long fair hair. She is a first-former. She likes music and dancing. She learns to play the piano. She likes playing with toys and watching cartoons in her free time. I love my sister but sometimes we quarrel about petty things. I think I must be more patient and tolerant with her.

We don’t live with our extended family but we have many relations: two grandmothers and grandfathers, aunts, uncles and cousins. All of them live in Belarus and we get together from time to time, mainly on our birthdays or other holidays. It’s also our family tradition to spend summer holidays together either at the seaside or in the country, which I enjoy very much.

As I’ve already said the bonds of the family are always stronger than those between unrelated people. And I am happy to say that my home is a place where even the tea kettle sings from happiness. I can say that my parents trust me, give me freedom, rely on me and respect me. These things, in my opinion, make family relations warm and pleasant.

Let’s talk about family traditions

It goes without saying that the family is very important as a unit in our society. Nothing else but family can be an emotional centre of peo­ple’s lives and a transmitter of culture. Understanding between all mem­bers of the family and consideration for others are very important in family relationships. Tenderness, warm-heartedness and respect must always be present in the family to make it friendly. I do think family traditions help its members respect and support one another.

A lot of activities can help members of a family to be on friendly terms: discussing all the family plans, going on trips together, visiting museums, theatres, exhibitions and exchanging opinions about them, sharing joys and sorrows.

If to speak about my family, I can say I enjoy our honest and open relationship. I like it when parents trust their children, give them free­dom, rely on them and respect them. In my opinion these things make family relations warm and pleasant.

Unfortunately, we can’t spend much time together during a week. My parents have to work a lot to earn money for our family. But in the evening they try to spend as much time as possible with my sister and me. Everybody in our family likes having tea when we can speak about our working day, share impressions and good news, discuss our chal­lenges and make plans for the coming day. It’s one of our family tradi­tions. To my mind, it helps us learn more about one another and makes our family united. Every member of our family looks forward to the weekend. We enjoy going to the cinema and cafes together. In winter we often ski and skate. In other seasons we enjoy riding bikes, going to theme parks or visiting famous sights of our country. We visit our extended family and often help them in the garden. It’s also our family tradition to spend summer holidays together either at the seaside or in the country, which I enjoy very much.

We have other family traditions. Our family see the New Year at home. We cook a lot of delicious food for the night meal which usually starts at 10 p.m. A goose or chicken stuffed with apples is our traditional New Year dish. We sing songs, play games and give presents to one another.

We have a family tradition to celebrate birthdays of each member of the family. On these days we usually have parties. Friends and relatives come with presents and flowers. Our last family birthday was mother’s birthday. We wanted to make it a special day since it was her 38th birth­day. We had selected a nice present for her and my father and I had done all the cooking. The table was nicely laid up. The party was fantastic. All the guests seemed to enjoy themselves a lot.

As you can see, consideration for others is very important in our fam­ily relationships. We have our family traditions which make our life more exciting and interesting, help to understand one another better, to express our emotions and feelings. Our parents feel great affection for us and try to bring us up in a proper way. They devote their free time to us and this makes our home the happiest place for me.

Let’s talk about education

In today’s society knowledge has acquired top priority. The most important thing in every knowledge is blowing the mind and molding one's personality. The way of thinking of every person strongly depends on their knowledge. Knowledge helps to acquire a critical understanding of social, economic and political orders and reasonable set of attitudes, values and beliefs. Not to speak about the fact that it develops a sense of self-respect, the capacity to live as independent, self-motivated adults and the ability to function as contributing members of the society. In fact, it’s like a candle which gives light in the darkness, as it guides us to do better in life.

Education is a form of learning in which knowledge, skills and ha­bits of a group of people are transferred from one generation to the next through teaching, training and research. When a person is young, they need teachers to help them become a literate and educated person.

Our country has a well-regarded education system. Pre-school edu­cation is not compulsory in Belarus but around 70% of children attend nursery or kindergarten before they start school. According to our Con­stitution every person has a right to a school place for a child from the age of 6 or 7. These places are provided free of charge. Primary and ba­sic secondary school education is compulsory. All students must follow the basic education curriculum up to the age of 15, and the vast majority of them stay at school until they finish secondary school at 17. Children study at school for 9 years then they may cither continue their education at school or go to colleges and vocational schools. There is a wide choice of schools, colleges, vocational schools, universities and acad­emies to suit all tastes, income and inclinations. There is also postgradu­ate education which gives students opportunity to do research and get an MA, MSc and PhD

In my view, the main principles of the educational system in our country are the priority of human values, national culture as the basis for education, humanism, scientific basis and support of gifted children. Any person can get the high-quality education according to their abilities and inclinations.

It’s common knowledge that the success of school education de­pends mainly on the teachers, their professional skills, the kind of rela­tionship they can establish with pupils. The task of school is not only to pass some information. Children’s characters and perception of the world are formed here.

Face-to-face learning is most common in secondary schools, col­leges and universities. When learning with a group, discussing and de­bating become possible, which usually create a perfect environment to develop critical thinking skills. Such learning also cultivates students’ good sense of cooperation. Like 1 said, face-to-face learning has a lot of advantages, but distance learning and doing online courses are becoming more and more popular with high school students nowadays.

A modem person has to know where and how to get information and knowledge in order to have a good job and be a success. People have to get education during all their lives.

Let’s talk about shopping

 

Going shopping is a part of our everyday life. For some people it’s a pleasant pastime while for others it’s an everyday routine. At the same time whether people like shopping or not they have to do this because it’s a necessity.

Nowadays in big cities and in many small towns there are all kinds of shops and stores as well as supermarkets.

Supermarkets are primary food stores which sell all kinds of food: fresh, frozen and canned; meat, fish, vegetables, fruit, dairy products and bread. Practically everything a family needs can be found in a supermar­ket. There the customer serves himself and pays at the cash-desk on leaving the shop. Currently people prefer to do a lot of heavy shopping to take home with them in the car. Nowadays supermarkets are bright, clean and spacious, they provide a wide range of goods and services. There are big TV-screens and music. Modern supermarkets accept credit cards which makes exchange more convenient.

A lot of shopping is still done at small comer shops. They can often sell more specialized goods which a supermarket doesn’t stock. For ex­ample, one prefers freshly baked bread and cakes from the baker’s. Some people would go to the florist’s for bunches of flowers rather than buy pre-selected flowers in the supermarket.

If people want to purchase clothes, they usually go to a department store. These shops carry ready-made women’s, men’s and children’s clothes, glassware, perfumery, jewellery, millinery, footwear, sportswear goods, stationery, china, household electric appliances and furniture. A lot of things for sale are in the shop windows so the customers may choose what they want. The two most famous department stores in Lon­don are Selfridges and Harrods. There are also such department stores as the John Lewis Stores, Marks and Spencer. In London a lot of the best department stores are in Oxford Street which is famous for its shopping.

In Minsk there are some department stores but I prefer the ‘Belarus department store’. This is a huge 3-stored building where it’s possible to find all necessary things. In this shop they have a cafeteria where you can have a snack. There are currency exchange banks, a chemist’s booth. High quality goods both domestic and of foreign manufactures are repre­sented in the shop. The shop-assistants are attentive to the customers and they are always helpful when you need some advice.

Nowadays many people prefer doing shopping at the market where the prices are more reasonable. At the same time there are people who can afford themselves to do the shopping in boutiques where expensive clothes by well-known designers are sold.

Frankly speaking, I’m not keen on shopping at all and when my par­ents ask me to buy something I’m often reluctant to do it. Most of all I like book and music shops. I can stay there for hours leafing through piles of CDs or records. But I do think shopping can be a pleasant pas­time when you can afford to buy the things you like.

 

Let’s talk about sport

It goes without saying that doing sports is very important for every person. A certain amount of exercise is necessary to keep your body in good shape. Sport is given a lot of attention all over the world as it helps to bring up strong and healthy people. It creates, so to speak, a healthy body for a healthy mind. It also makes people more self-organized and better disciplined.

There is always a kind of sport which will suit you and there are many different kinds to choose from. If you like team games, you can play football, volleyball, ice hockey, field hockey or basketball. Games to play with a friend include badminton, squash and tennis. There are individual sports such as swimming, riding, horse riding or athletics.

There are summer sports such as track-and-field athletics and water sports and winter sports such as cross-country skiing, snowboarding or skating. There are sports which don’t depend on the weather, since they are played indoors. Extreme sports have also become one of the fast growing leisure activities nowadays. Among them there are parachuting, hang gliding, windsurfing, bungee jumping, cave diving etc.

An important attraction of sport is also its competitive and chal­lenging nature. The roots of men’s desire to display their physical health and beauty go back to ancient times when the idea of the Olympic Games first appeared. For the ancient Greeks the Games were a way of saluting their gods. The original Olympics included competitions in mu­sic, oratory and theatre performances as well. After nearly 300 Olympi­ads they were stopped by the Roman emperor Theodosius. 1500 years had passed and the Games started again in Greece in 1896. The 2012 Summer Olympics were held in London.

At present sport in our country is paid a lot of attention to by the government and much is being done to set up all necessary facilities for its development. Many skating rinks, stadiums are built for people to go in for sports. Our country is preparing for the 2014 Ice Hockey Champi­onship which will take place in M ins k.

Our country provides support to team sports. Our national senior and junior teams have become regular participants in the finals of top tourna­ments, European and world championships. The stunning performance of its athletes has secured Belarus a place among the top twenty sports na­tions. This is the best result the country has ever had in its sports history.

I’m sure that either as a sportsman or merely as a spectator almost every person likes sport. Some people do sports professionally, others have regular workouts to keep fit. As for me, I’m fond of volleyball. I love it because it’s a team game and it requires different kinds of skills. You must do your best and at the same time you should keep your eye on what your teammates are doing and you need a quick brain too.

I do think regular exercise is an essential part of our life. I believe it’s very important for people to have some regular exercises. It’s very good for the posture, which I believe greatly affects the general health of the body, and makes you feel good.

 

 

Let’s talk about fashion

Fashion is something we deal with every day. Even people who say they don’t care what they wear choose clothes every morning that say a lot about them and how they feel that day. A person can say by their clothes, “This is what I think is nice and I believe it makes me look more attractive”.

Psychologists say that 85% of the information people accept is vis­ual information. Fashion is a language which tells a story about the per­son who wears it. We often judge people by what they are wearing. For example, people, dressed in expensive clothes are often thought to be wealthy and beautiful. People who wear old, dirty or tom clothes can't be called beautiful or reliable by others.

In our modern society fashion models, singers, musicians, dancers, actors and sportsmen arc the idols of thousands of teenagers who try to copy them in the way they dress, walk and style their hair. Their life­styles are advertised on TV and in fashion magazines. Numerous ads play on our feelings, emotions, and especially our wish to look beautiful.

Some people, especially women, believe that wearing a lot of make­up, having long nails and long eyelashes makes them pretty. I don't find people who put on a lot of make-up attractive. I don't understand it when both women and men who don't look ugly go to plastic surgeons to im­prove their bodies and look more attractive. Some people make tattoos or scars, have their noses, lips, eyebrows and other parts of the face and body pierced to follow the fashion.

As for me, while choosing clothes, accessories and a hairstyle it is always important to remember the rules of politeness, that there are dif­ferent styles of clothes for different types of events. From my point of view, things that a person has in the wardrobe should be comfortable to wear. It’s better to remain true to yourself. I usually spend little money on new clothes and my favourite items of clothes are blue jeans, grey sweaters and black boots. When it’s cold I often put on my warm jacket. I feel like a fish out of water when something doesn’t suit me.

My favourite fashion model is Claudia Schiffer who is a very suc­cessful German supermodel. She has appeared on the covers and fashion pages of all the major fashion magazines and' is one of the faces of Chanel. She has a slim body and very long legs. Her most stunning fea­ture is her attractive face with sparkling eyes and a straight nose. She is a successful businesswoman who has her own fitness video and spends a lot of time working with charity organizations.

Fashion is not the most important thing in my life, but it helps me to feel in tune with the world I live in. I can't say I’m a dedicated follower of fashion but I always try to keep up-to-date.

In conclusion I would like to say that “all that glitters is not gold.” You should not be deceived by appearances, you should use your mind and soul to determine whether the person is trustworthy and pure in their intentions. As a proverb says: ‘People meet by clothes and set off by mind’. I fully agree with it.

 

Let’s talk about family

I believe that everything has its beginning in the family. Family is very important for every person, because it gives you a sense of stability and tradition, a feeling of having support and understanding. There is a wise saying "Blood is thicker than water". From my point of view it means that your parents and other relatives will stick by you in times of need more than other people will.

I do think the family is very important as a unit in our society. Noth­ing else but family can be an emotional centre of people’s lives and a transmitter of culture. Understanding between all members of the family and consideration for others are very important in family relationships. Tenderness, warm-heartedness and respect must always be present in the family to make it friendly. In my opinion, when a child is brought up in a friendly family, he or she will become a reliable and responsible per­son with a strong character and mind.

My family consists of my father, my mother, my sister and me.

I think I’d better start my story with my dad. His name is Vladimir. He is in his late thirties. He’s tall with dark hair and hazel eyes and is of a strong built. He works as an electrician. My father is a very intel­ligent man and he is fond of reading and watching scientific programs. In some situations he is very serious but in general he is a cheerful per­son with a good sense of humour. He enjoys telling funny stories and taking photos. I think I take after my dad both in appearance and in character.

My mother’s name is Galina. She is a programmer. She is very in­terested in her work and she is a professional. It has always impressed me how she can find enough time for both family and work. I can’t say that my mother’s life is easy as she has to keep the house and work but she manages to do everything in time. She is a strong and charming per­son and she does a good job of being a mother. In fact, she means a lot to me. She understands me in the way no other person would and she always finds proper words to comfort me.

My sister Kate is seven years old. She takes after our mother in her appearance. She is a nice girl with green eyes and long fair hair. She is a first-former. She likes music and dancing. She learns to play the piano. She likes playing with toys and watching cartoons in her free time. I love my sister but sometimes we quarrel about petty things. I think I must be more patient and tolerant with her.

We don’t live with our extended family but we have many relations: two grandmothers and grandfathers, aunts, uncles and cousins. All of them live in Belarus and we get together from time to time, mainly on our birthdays or other holidays. It’s also our family tradition to spend summer holidays together either at the seaside or in the country, which I enjoy very much.

As I’ve already said the bonds of the family are always stronger than those between unrelated people. And I am happy to say that my home is a place where even the tea kettle sings from happiness. I can say that my parents trust me, give me freedom, rely on me and respect me. These things, in my opinion, make family relations warm and pleasant.

Let’s talk about family traditions

It goes without saying that the family is very important as a unit in our society. Nothing else but family can be an emotional centre of peo­ple’s lives and a transmitter of culture. Understanding between all mem­bers of the family and consideration for others are very important in family relationships. Tenderness, warm-heartedness and respect must always be present in the family to make it friendly. I do think family traditions help its members respect and support one another.

A lot of activities can help members of a family to be on friendly terms: discussing all the family plans, going on trips together, visiting museums, theatres, exhibitions and exchanging opinions about them, sharing joys and sorrows.

If to speak about my family, I can say I enjoy our honest and open relationship. I like it when parents trust their children, give them free­dom, rely on them and respect them. In my opinion these things make family relations warm and pleasant.

Unfortunately, we can’t spend much time together during a week. My parents have to work a lot to earn money for our family. But in the evening they try to spend as much time as possible with my sister and me. Everybody in our family likes having tea when we can speak about our working day, share impressions and good news, discuss our chal­lenges and make plans for the coming day. It’s one of our family tradi­tions. To my mind, it helps us learn more about one another and makes our family united. Every member of our family looks forward to the weekend. We enjoy going to the cinema and cafes together. In winter we often ski and skate. In other seasons we enjoy riding bikes, going to theme parks or visiting famous sights of our country. We visit our extended family and often help them in the garden. It’s also our family tradition to spend summer holidays together either at the seaside or in the country, which I enjoy very much.

We have other family traditions. Our family see the New Year at home. We cook a lot of delicious food for the night meal which usually starts at 10 p.m. A goose or chicken stuffed with apples is our traditional New Year dish. We sing songs, play games and give presents to one another.

We have a family tradition to celebrate birthdays of each member of the family. On these days we usually have parties. Friends and relatives come with presents and flowers. Our last family birthday was mother’s birthday. We wanted to make it a special day since it was her 38th birth­day. We had selected a nice present for her and my father and I had done all the cooking. The table was nicely laid up. The party was fantastic. All the guests seemed to enjoy themselves a lot.

As you can see, consideration for others is very important in our fam­ily relationships. We have our family traditions which make our life more exciting and interesting, help to understand one another better, to express our emotions and feelings. Our parents feel great affection for us and try to bring us up in a proper way. They devote their free time to us and this makes our home the happiest place for me.