1 Family

Kinds of families:
Classical family – consists of mother, father and their children
Extended family – consists of mother, father, their children and grandparents
Step family – one of the parents marries again and the children have a stepmother or
stepfather
Single-parent family – children live only with mom or dad because the parents are divorced,
one of the parents died or there is single mother in the family

Functions of the family:

Parents
 take care of their children
 love their children
 support their children
 are with them in all important moments of their lives
 teach them all the skills needed for life
 how to get on with people,
 how to be tolerant, self-disciplined, polite, helpful, understanding, sensitive,
independent, hard-working, honest, organised…
 how to communicate.
 worry about things like their health and how they do at school

Children
 learn
 go to school
 help parents with housework, for example…

The family is functional when

 members have a place to live,
 they are healthy,
 parents have jobs so
 they have money for living,
 they have good relationships…

Good parents should

 be friendly, democratic, helpful, emphatic, responsible, reliable, kind, patient,
sensitive, optimistic, supportive, caring, sharing, understanding, loving…
 listen to their children
 talk to their children
 solve their children´s problems
 spend free time with their children
 play with their children

Problems of the family:

 they don´t have money because
  the parents are unemployed, they don´t work
 they drink alcohol, take drugs, gamble
 there´s violence, crime in the family
 members of the family have bad relationships
 there are problems between teenagers and parents or adults. It is called generation
gap. Teenagers think that their parents don’t understand them. They want to:
be independent,
make their own decisions,
spend time with their friends,
have more freedom and privacy.
Parents think that teenagers do not respect adults, are impolite, rude and lazy.
They are overprotective and worry too much.
The only solution is to compromise.

Coming from a big family:

+ you are never alone
+ you have someone to talk to
+ older siblings can help you with HW
+ it’s always active, lively and busy at home
+ you share duties at home
- you have to share clothes, rooms
- you have less space for yourself
- it’s noisy in the house
- the family has less money
- you have no privacy

Family occasions:
Family members get together on special occasions such as birthday, name day, christening,
graduation, wedding, Christmas, Easter, (wedding) anniversary, Mother’s Day, Father’s
Day, funeral…

Housework and duties:

Clean the windows, do the washing up, work in the garden, take out the rubbish, cook, do the
shopping, wash and iron the laundry, dust and polish the furniture, vacuum clean the carpet,
sweep the floor, water the flowers, tidy rooms, make beds, wash the car, repair broken things,
walk and feed the pet….

People get married because

 they love each other
 they want to spend their lives together
 they want to live together
 they want to have babies
 they have common hobbies and interests
 they understand each other
 they trust each other

People get divorced because

 they don´t love, understand, trust each other anymore
 they have problems with money, alcohol, drugs…
 they always argue and don´t get on well together
 they find other partners
 they can´t have children
Characterize your family
In my family there are (mother, father, brother, sister…)
- I have a younger/an older brother/sister
- I´m the youngest/middle/oldest child in our family
- I ´m the only child in the family
My parents are (friendly, democratic, strict, authoritative …)
My grandparents are (alive, dead, retired, still working)
They live/lived in …
We all live in a family house/flat in a town/village called …
We share housework in our family. My mum (cooks …). My father (repairs …). I help my
parents with (doing shopping …)
In our free time we (eat in restaurants, go fishing, watch television, work in our garden, play
cards, cook special meals, have barbecues, go abroad for holiday, go to the cinema/theatre…)
We usually meet at (birthday parties, barbecues, Christmas …)
The head of our family is …......................
We are a (large, small, happy, sad, functioning…) family

Describing a person: (name, age, looks, personality, hobbies, job)

I have the best relationship with my .......... His/her name is…..............He/she is …....years
old.
He is handsome/attractive/good-looking/sexy.
She is nice/pretty/beautiful/gorgeous/attractive/sexy/good-looking.
He/she is tall/short/medium height. He/she is thin/slim/plump/fat/well-built.
He/she has got short/long, straight/wavy/curly, black/brown/red/fair/blond hair.
He’s got a beard/moustache. He/she has got brown/green/grey/blue eyes.
He/she is nice, kind, friendly, helpful, responsible, reliable, democratic, liberal, strict,
emphatic, likeable, fair, tolerant, easy-going, patient, communicative, creative, flexible,
modest, generous, polite, willing
He/she likes/loves…....................................His/her hobbies are…...........................................
In his/her free time he/she ........................................…
He/she is a …........................ (job)
He/she works in a ….......................(place)
He/she works for ............................… (name of the company)