The end of the year is a great time to look ahead and draw up (make/put together)a plan for what to do next. But first, let’s go back to what happened this year.

Gratitude benefits us on many levels. It’s good for emotional balance and positively affects our personality. 

It also helps us appreciate the things we have, do, and are in our lives, giving us the chance to feel good about them rather than focusing on the feeling that keeps telling us we need to have, do and be more.

Cultivating gratitude increases well-being, happiness, energy, optimism, and empathy.

This is what makes it onto my 2021 grateful list:

• Being alive: my family and I, and all the people I care for;
• My daughter: so proud of her! She’s facing challenges, in a foreign country, all by herself, and beautifully achieving her full potential;
• My dear students, former and current ones. Each one is unique, and I’m grateful for the chance to help them with their goals;
• Every person or being who made me smile, who offered me help, who taught me something, who showed me a better way to be or to do something;
• Food and shelter;
• My effort to set the time to make progress in my studies, to think, to self-reflect;
• New challenges and accomplishments, although simple for others;
• Making the most out of good and bad experiences;
• Finding joy in the most simple, tiniest details and this world’s natural beauty;
• What has gone and what is yet to come.

This video, A Good Day, was recorded fourteen years ago and watched over 1 million times. It features Brother David, a highly-respected Benedictine monk, author, and spiritual leader, and is a blessing to all those with “eyes to see and ears to hear.” Look, listen, and feel inspired by this powerful message on grateful living. 

And if you want more, Brother David says that the one thing all humans have in common is that each of us wants to be happy. And happiness, he suggests, is born from gratitude. Below is an inspiring lesson in slowing down, looking where you’re going, and above all, being grateful. 

It is a listening and reading practice if you work on the transcript. You can find it in English and Portuguese if you need it. Look up the words you don’t know.

Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on November 25, the biggest and the most important holiday in the US, even more than Christmas or the Fourth of July.

It officially marks the beginning of the holiday season, the period between Thanksgiving and New Year.

Do you want to know when the first Thanksgiving happened?

And are you ready for a dose of American culture while building your English vocabulary? Let’s first look at some words.

Next, there is a little more advanced video. If you feel that the listening is too fast, change the setting.

Now it’s your turn. What are the things you are thankful for, the things you are most grateful for this year?

I’m sure you have a list of things to be grateful for:

• your family
• close friends
• good health
• your home
• your job
• healthy food
• your pets

Este foi um feriadão, um feriado prolongado para você?

Todos rapidamente sabem dizer feriado em inglês, HOLIDAY, public holiday e também bank holiday (no inglês britânico). Mas e feriadão?

Para se referir à fim de semana prolongado ou feriadão, você pode usar as expressões LONG WEEKEND ou THREE-DAY WEEKEND (feriado na sexta ou na segunda), e FOUR–DAY WEEKEND (feriado na quinta, com recesso na sexta, ou na terça, com recesso na segunda).

A expressão DAY OFF, significa dia de folga, mas dependendo do contexto (sempre ele!), pode ser vista no sentido de feriado.

E as perguntas mais comuns antes e depois de um feriado prolongado são a respeito de seus planos com relação à ele: 

As duas primeiras, são as construções mais utilizadas pelos alunos, pela semelhança com as estruturas da língua portuguesa.

As seguintes, são as utilizadas pelos falantes nativos:

Agora pratique, completando as frases com as palavras ou expressões que faltam:

1- Monday was a _____________________.

(Segunda-feira foi feriado.)

2- It was a ____________________________________.

(Foi um feriado de três dias.)

3 – It was ________________________________.

(Foi Proclamação da República.)

4 – There are many ____________________in Brazil.

(Há muitos feriados nacionais no Brasil.)

5 – Next long weekend, Christmas, ________________ a Saturday this year.

(O próximo feriado prolongado, Natal, cai em uma sábado este ano.)

5- On Friday, I was in a __________________.

(Na sexta-feira eu estava em clima de feriado.)

7- I _______________ the holiday at home.

(Passei o feriado em casa.)

Confira suas respostas:

1 – holiday; 2 – a three-day weekend; 3 – Republic Day; 4 – national holidays; 5 – falls on; 6 – holiday mood; 7 – spent

Clique em  feriado e feriado prolongado, se quiser ouvir as expressões mencionadas na primeira parte da lição.