📙 Part 2: Describe an important event you celebrated

This episode's vocabulary

Casual (adj.) - not regular or fixed.

To delegate (verb) - to give a particular job, duty, right, etc. to someone else so that they do it for you.

To throw a party (idiom) - to have a party.

Milestone (noun) - an important event in the development or history of something or in someone's life.

Culmination (noun) - the point at which an event or series of events ends, having developed until it reaches this point.

Elation (noun) - a state of extreme happiness or excitement.

Relief (noun) - a feeling of happiness that something unpleasant has not happened or has ended.

Ignorant (adj.) - not having enough knowledge, understanding, or information about something.

Ultimately (adverb) - used to emphasize the most important fact in a situation.

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Questions and Answers

M: Rory, are you all ready?

R: Yes.

M: Let's celebrate it.

R: I suppose it's not traditionally considered a major event, but recently I celebrated the last day of my placement in primary schools as part of my teacher training course. My mentor and I decided that the last day, which was also the last Friday of the month, would be more relaxed and casual compared to what things are usually like. It was just a quite happy coincidence because the last Friday of the month is usually casual Fridays anyway. We started out with a PE lesson and we delegated that to the PE specialist and he was going to teach an engaging lesson, but we prepared everything for later in the day. I went to observe another class to finish off my CPD goals, and then I spent the break handing out presents to the staff at the school to say thank you very much for having me there. And afterwards, we gave the students a short maths and French lesson before throwing a party for them just before lunchtime. It was actually quite a pleasant day and we managed to finish on time with everything tidied and ready for the weekend break. I thought it was worth mentioning because it represents a milestone in my training and the culmination of ten months of work, planning and research that was part of my course. Plus, it's nice for the students to see adults celebrating things going well, so they can join in the feeling and have a model of how they might do things when they're older as well. I felt a weird combination of elation and relief, since it was the closing moments of the course and the end of quite a stressful and tiring time. And as for the feelings of others, I think the staff were pretty happy about it. It had been a good placement. Though, the kids were probably largely ignorant of the whole thing. There's just too much going on in their lives for it to mean much. But it meant something to me, and I think that's ultimately what counts. And certainly, it would also mean a lot to any teacher who is finishing off their course. And it was funny because it wasn't just me that was celebrating that particular day for that particular reason. It was all of the teachers on the course because we all finished on the same day. So it's nice to have a happy ending to something like that which has been so demanding.

M: Sweet. What a happy story. Hey! Celebrate! Celebrate! Come on!

R: Is this the new form of follow-up question which the examiner will be asking?

M: Yes, but I don't know to ask, to be honest with you. I can't... Can I ask you something like, oh, what about your friends? Did they find it important? I don't know.

R: And I could say, the ones who are teachers - yes.

M: Right. What about your friends did they find it important?

R: The ones who are teachers did. Yes.

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