Person's life and education

My Family Circle (Я и моя семья)

Family mutual relations (Взаимоотношения в семье)

Housekeeping, family duties and traditions (Семейные обязанности и традиции)

About myself

Before I start talking about my family let me introduce myself. I am … . (My name is … and … is my surname). I am a true Siberian [saɪ-] because I was born in Novosibirsk. Even my parents were born in this city. I have been living in this town since my childhood.

I was born into a family of a builder on the 21 of May in 1994, so I am 17. I have finished school this year. But now I’m not a school leaver, I’m a first-year student. I am an ordinary boy of my age and extremely fond of music, books and computers. I devote a good deal of my spare time to reading and listening to my favourite groups. My mum always tried to develop interest in reading in me and my sister, that is why one of my hobbies is reading and only the next is computers. When at school I fell into the habit of reading a lot. At first I read everything I caught hold of but the older I grew the more definite my tastes in books became. I took to reading historic books. I’m grateful to my parents for their encouraging my reading. I did well at school and was especially good at math and geometry, but also coped with the rest of the subjects. And I’d like to master English.

I’m very active person and from my earliest days I prefer outdoor games. When at school I went into swimming and want to go on with it at the university. As for my appearance, everybody says I look like my mum. I have the same blue eyes, a snub nose and chestnut curly hair. I am not tall and I am not thin.

I have some duties about the house. As I like our home to be clean and tidy, I clean the rooms. It's not difficult for me. Returning home after classes I usually drop in at the bakery and at the dairy.

My family

I think that a family is the most important thing for every person and home is the nicest place. As the proverb says, "East or West, home is best". There is no place more delightful than home and there are no people more dear than relatives. Family are the people that always love you, support you and help you.

And now I am going to tell you a few words about my family. I don’t think we are a large family though we are a family of seven. (There are seven of us in the family). Our family is an extended family consisting of my parents, my elder sister and younger brother, my mum’s parents and me. We are happy to be living together and never fighting among ourselves. We get on well with each other. My parents are pleased with me and my sister and brother, they try hard to be wise parents. They give much thought and care to our health and education. All they want of me is that I make good progress at the University.

I must say that all of us are not alike in tastes, manners and characters. But as a matter of fact we get along with each other. We like humor and joking, so we argue and tease each other, but it does not prevent us from being on friendly terms. We usually show our interest in what others think and do, exchange our impressions on films or plays we have seen. We share each other’s joy and sorrow, and never remain indifferent to what happens to others. We are attentive and sincere to each other and all these things unite our family. In the evenings, when all the members of our family get together after work and study, we discuss all our problems together.

It’s a custom for our family to discuss things during the meals. Our favorite time of the day is dinnertime. At weekends we sit around the big table and talk about family matters. I love my family dearly and everyone in my family is my best friend. In short, for me it is impossible to live without my family.

My father

Certainly I am going to talk first of my dad. His name is Alexander. He is neither old nor young. He is in his early forties, a little above medium height, rather thin, handsome, with regular features and dark brown hair, slightly grey at the temples. He has brown eyes. His manner is friendly and quiet, but he is an energetic person and very sociable.

My dad is indeed a man of great intelligence. He is an engineer and works for a building company and is the head of our family because he clothes, feeds and supports us. Everybody pays sincere respect to him because he is considered to be an experienced engineer. Last month he was promoted and appointed manager in his company. We are very proud of him. What I don’t like about my dad is that he is always busy. He is a hardworking man and very often he works over time. Sometimes it seems to me that it’s an endless business! But despite of his late hours he always had time for my sister, brother and me. He gives me a sound advice when I need it. He checked our homework quite often, helped us with math and physics. Last year he organized a great New Year’s party for my class. Now he teaches me to drive a car.

Dad can do a lot of things and does well in everything he undertakes. He likes to make or repair something and teaches me to repair furniture. He is keen on tennis and chess but moreover he is fond of going to the country. Dad also likes to clean the flat with a vacuum-cleaner. I suppose it's his little hobby. But speaking seriously his real hobby is taking photos. He can do it perfectly well. We have several family albums with the pictures taken by him.

My mother

My mummy’s name is … . She is a woman of forty, two years younger than my dad. They have been married for 20 years. My mum and dad met each other when they were students at the Polytechnic University in Saint Petersburg. They have much in common, but they have different views on music, books, and films. For example my dad likes thrillers and my mun likes adventure films and fantasy. My mum is not tall and she is slim, with a lovely face and large blue eyes. Her smile is very pleasant and kind. She has dark hair always carefully arranged. She makes up very little, if at all. My mum is decidedly pretty and looks young for her age. She’s a very smart and elegant woman, always well-dressed. Everybody likes her at once because she is a quiet woman, silent and shy, she is a good listener and often encourages people to speak but she is not much of a talker herself. My mum is very loving and caring. She takes a very good care of everybody. Mum is very kind, but she is strict about our free time as she doesn’t want us to waste it.

My mum has a part-time job as an interior designer in a large company and gets good money. So my dad isn’t the only bread-maker in our family. Her job is to design things by making drawings of them. The firm she works in deals with decorating dwellings and offices. They have business in different towns of Russia, so mum is to go on business trips from time to time. You can imagine it, she is fond of her work and spends a lot of time there. So she has a lot of work to do both at her designing company and about the house as she has to cook the food for all of us at home. She is a good housekeeper and cooks perfectly. We all love dearly our Mum and think the world of her.

My sister

My elder sister Rita is a pretty girl with blue eyes and fair hair. She looks like our mother. She is a 19-year-old medical student. Rita took musical classes and played beautifully. My parents wanted her to be a musician but I think my sister is a born doctor and more into science. She got good grades (marks) at school and she reads a lot. She likes chemistry and biology, and often tells me interesting things she reads in her textbooks.

My brother

My younger brother’s name is Maxim. He is a tall strong boy broad at the shoulders and slim at the waist. He is fifteen, and naturally he goes to school. He is a pupil of the ninth form. So he is a teenager, and teenagers are sometimes difficult. He is so messy at home. He never keeps things in their right places. From time to time he shocks our parents because he is crazy about football. He wanted to be a professional footballer. He plays football always and everywhere. And sometimes he falls out with our parents but our granddad always helps him make it up. Our parents worry about his coming home rather late because of his trainings. We live far from the stadium, so it takes him quite a lot of time to get home. He is rather brainy and inquisitive and does well at school. He is mainly interested in sciences and our parents expect a lot of him. My brother spends more time thinking than talking. He likes school but he is very fond of sports. When he went to the kindergarten he was very funny playing ball and I liked teaching him to score goals.

My grandmother

   My granny Tatyana is a real darling. She is a very tender-hearted and good-looking woman though she has reached a great age. Last week she celebrated her 70^th birthday. My granny worked hard on the farm in her youth and now she is still very industrious and is fond of knitting. I am so sorry her health is in a bad state. My granny is practical in approach to life. She is probably the most down to earth person I've ever met. Her sincerity and down-to-earth common sense help us be on good terms with each other. She believes in bringing up her grandchildren in the strict manner and deep respect for the elders. She is in favour of regular hard work. Our affairs are of great interest to her. Her views on modern education are clear-cut, though a bit old-fashioned, perhaps.

My grandfather

And finally my granddad Sergei. My granddad retired from the railway company and is enjoying life on a pension. He has lived to be seventy but is incurably optimistic. He is handy with many things and can fix almost everything. My granddad is generous and kind-hearted, and I must tell you, he is my best friend. He is a very understanding person and is always ready to listen to my endless stories about school and about my friends. He often buys us presents for no particular reason. My granddad always looks on the bright side of things and when he sees a glass which is half empty he always says that the glass is half full. My granddad is so energetic that he brings that energy to us. He reads a lot and thanks to him our family library is very rich.

I also have other close relatives: uncles, aunts and cousins. We love each other very much.

Housekeeping, family duties and traditions

My mum keeps our house well. Our rooms are always neat and tidy. Shopping and cooking is nearly half a day’s work for her. We try to help her about the house as much as we can and put our house in order so she does not have too much work. My sister and I buy food very often to help our mum. My younger brother and I have our duties about the house. Maxim helps mother and sister to set the table and wash the dishes. He usually sweeps the floor and dusts the furniture. On Saturdays Dad joins us in our work about the house. We do a lot of things together; share our duties to help each other.

It is the custom of our family to have our birthday celebrations together. It’s a good opportunity to spend time with our relatives. We always have parties on grandparents’ birthdays. They prefer to celebrate it at home. We usually invite our close relatives and have an abundant dinner. We clean the house the day before birthday and it looks nice and cosy. Usually they hold their birthday parties in the evening. We get up early in the morning and Dad goes shopping to the district marketplace and supermarkets and buys everything we need. Mum cooks tasty food and bakes a cake or a pie. By the evening food is cooked, and we lay the table together. Then we put on evening suits and dresses and wait for the guests.

And my birthday is also a very remarkable day for all of us. It is spring and the weather is fine. In the morning my parents, sister, brother, granny and granddad come to my room to wake me singing "Happy Birthday, dear Alex". They give me presents. I like to get them very much. You know, we have a small summer house in the country and, as a rule, we celebrate my birthday there. It’s another tradition of our family to go to the countryside and take a picnic lunch. We make a fire, eat barbeque with potatoes and fresh vegetables, play different outdoor games and we all have a great fun. Then we go home and make a small tea-party with cakes, juice and sweets. I invite my friends and relatives to the party. They bring a bunch of roses for my mum and presents for me. Mum brings the birthday cake and I blow the candles out. We dance and sing songs, make jokes and play games, tell stories or just listen to music in my room. I enjoy my birthday party.

I’ve mentioned that we have a small cottage in the country with a kitchen-garden. In summer we often drive to this place. The nature is very beautiful there. Countryside is always the nicest place for everybody as its fresh air cheers you up and peace and quiet helps relax and have a real rest. It is the nicest place for me. There is a sand beach and a deep forest not far from our place. Every day is full of adventures – you may investigate woods, get sunburn and swim in the river. We got used to spend our summer vocations at this place.

My grandparents like gardening. They spend a lot of their time in the garden. We are always looking forward to going there. There is much work in the kitchen-garden and on week-ends we go there and work and have rest all together. We grow vegetables and fruits and enjoy having fresh vegetables and green on our dinner table.

That is my story about my family which is house and home for me. It’s really nice to know that your family are your best friends.

Subject List for “My Family Circle Family mutual relations, Housekeeping, family duties and traditions” (Тематическая карточка)

Nouns	Verbs	Adjectives, adverbs and other parts of speech	Colloquial, common, figurative and fixed expressions
subject	to clothe	good-looking	Where do you come from?
chemistry / biology / math / physics / sciences /	to feed	broad-shouldered	Who are you? What’s your name?
a school leaver	to support	well-dressed	What are you?
education	to consider	old-fashioned	What does your father do for a living?
accountant /doctor, born doctor / a surgeon / engineer /shop assistant/ vendor / teacher / manager / lawyer / interior designer / an engineer in computers/ a computer programmer /	to check	kind-hearted	What is he/she like?
housekeeper	to repair	even-tempered	What does he/she look like?
a part-time job	to drive	clear-cut
drawing	need	handsome	How did you do at school?
pension	to design	fresh
bread-maker	to cook	friendly	and what not
true Siberian	to spend	quiet	a good deal of
childhood	to expect	regular	as a rule
youth	to believe	generous	to go on business trips
person	to retire	sound	to be a first –year student
uncle / aunt / cousin / close relatives / elders	to clean	pleasant	to be a little above medium height
features	to sweep	kind	to be pleased with
manner	to dust	cosy	to be appointed
sense	to join	several	to be promoted
health	to suppose	smart	to be especially good at …
hair	to talk	experienced	to be always busy
temple	to grow	sociable	to be proud of
sincerity	to buy	neat	to be on good terms
views on smth	to devote	tidy	to be of great interest to
opinion	to manage	silent	to be fond of
approach	to wash	shy	to be down to earth
affair	to mention	chestnut	to be in a good mood
advice	to enjoy	messy	to have dinner
food/ meals	to bake	brainy	to have a fun
dairy/ bakery	to fix	inquisitive	to have a rest
supermarket	to wait for	common	to have much in common
marketplace	to look forward to	strict	to get used to
cake/ pie/ sweets/ juice	to take after	modern	to get good grades/marks
floor	to drop in	slim	to get on well
furniture	to bring up	delightful	to get sunburn
washing machine / fridge / vacuum-cleaner	to fall out with	hardworking	to give thought and care to
dishes	to wash up	understanding	to take care of smb
duties	to make up	slightly grey	to hold a birthday party
order	to put on	incurably optimistic	to make jokes
spare time	to take to	rather thin	to lay the table
week-end	to live to be	decidedly pretty	to keep house
village/countryside/ nature	to look like	dark brown	to work for a company
peace and quiet	to encourage smb	carefully arranged	to work over time
a deep forest	to do well at …	tasty	to enter the University
sand beach	to play the guitar	remarkable	to finish school
kitchen-garden	to catch hold of овладеть чем-л.	real	to make good progress
vegetables / fruits / green			to cope with the subjects
a bunch of roses			to think the world of
district			for no particular reason
			peace and quiet

Tasks

1. Give a detailed description of your family by answering the following questions:

Who are you? (What’s first your name? What’s your surname?)

What are you? What year student are you? Use: a school leaver, a first-year student, a fresher, an undergraduate, a post-graduate

Where do you come from? What place do you come from? Use: I come from the Russian Federation, I come from the city of Novosibirsk,

When and where were you born?

How old are you? Use: be young, old, of middle age, in my twenties, a boy (girl) of seventeen.

How many are you in the family?

Who are your parents?

What are (were) they? Where do your parents work? What do they do? Use: to work for a company, to work at hospital, at school/ to run a company, to have one’s own business

How long have your parents been married? Use: to have been married for …

Do they have much in common?

Do your parents work very hard? Use: to go on business trips, to work over time, have a part-time job as a designer, have a full-time job, to work at two jobs, to have a second job in addition to one's regular employment (to moonlight as …)

What does your father do for a living? Use: to work for a company,

Is he a devoted father? Use: develop interest in …, encourage his children to …, give much thought to children’s education, be proud of.

What is he like? Use: be tall, be strong, be short, have a lovely face, have an ordinary (plain) face, be silent, shy, quiet, not much of a talker, reserved, talkative, a good listener, a man of intelligence, friendly, sociable, have an outstanding reputation in the field of … a true Siberian.

What is your father’s hobby?

When is his birthday? Use: a man of forty, in his forties, of middle age, rather young (old).

Who keeps the house in your family?

Does your mum keep house well?

Is your mother a good housekeeper? Use: run the house well, cook perfectly, keep house well.

Does your mummy do all the cooking herself?

Why is your mother on flexi-time? Use: to keep house,

Can you describe your mother?

What does he/she look like? Use: be full of life, be pretty, be above medium height, very tall, rather thin, with regular features, have chestnut hair, have fair hair, have short straight hair, grey at the temples, brown (grey, blue) eyes, hair carefully arranged, make up very little (a lot).

What are your parent’s views on the on the children’s upbringing? Use: be clear-cut, old-fashioned, in favour of hard work, bring up one’s children in a strict manner, give much thought and care to education (sport, good manners, health).

Which of the parents do you want to be like?

Do you always inform your parents of your plans?

What sort of things do you do together?

Do you spend a lot of time with your family?

Do you go out with your parents?

Have you got any brothers or sisters?

Do you have a brother or a sister?

Does your sister take care of her looks?

Who are (were) your grandparents?

How old are your grandparents? Use: a woman of sixty, in her sixties, rather old.

Did your grandmother take early retirement?

Have you got any other relatives?

Do you all live together? Use: extended family, single-parent family, family circle

Are you clever (bright, intelligent, dull)?

How did you do at school?

Do your parents give much thought to your education?

Are your parents sure about your behaviour and academic progress?

What do your parents think of you? Use: be very pleased with, be proud of, be fond of, think the world of, approve of, expect a lot of.

What do your parents expect of you? Use: want me to do well at my study, be obedient, read a lot, be fond of sport.

Did you attend sport sections and subject circles?

What sport do you go in for?

Are you shy (reserved, sociable)? Do you prefer to be in the company of other people?

Are you quiet or talkative?

Are you fond of books and music?

Do you have quarrels with your relatives?

Do your parents understand you?

How do you get along with your family?

Do you listen to other people patiently?

Do you frequently disagree with what other members of your family say?

What are your household duties?

Will you show us the photo of your family, please?

In what way do you help your parents?

What are going to be?

Do you know about the difficulties of your future profession?