Hello everyone! I’m Faith, and this is The Vita English Podcast.
Welcome to The Vita English Podcast. You’re listening to Language Stories. Language Stories is a series where listeners learn specific English skills through simple personal stories. In each episode, I'll focus on a different part of language as I tell my story. This podcast is for people who have a basic understanding of English but want to improve their fluency! Today we’re going to learn all about how to use past perfect progressive as I tell you about the time we celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving in South Korea.
It is Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada. When I think of the major holidays we celebrate in Canada, I’d say Thanksgiving is the second most celebrated Holiday– second only to Christmas, of course! Do you know much about this holiday? Thanksgiving is a holiday where people give thanks for the harvest and celebrate the fact that they will have food to get them through the winter. It is our Harvest celebration holiday, and it is hugely important in both Canada and in the United States. Here’s an interesting fact– Canadians and Americans celebrate Thanksgiving at different times. For Canadians, Thanksgiving is always celebrated on the second Monday in October, for Americans Thanksgiving is always celebrated on the fourth Thursday in November.
I absolutely love Thanksgiving, and this year, as I’ve been getting ready to celebrate this holiday, I started thinking about some of the happy Thanksgiving celebrations I’ve had over the years. One of the Thanksgiving memories that came to mind was when we celebrated Thanksgiving in South Korea way back in 2012.
It was October 2012, and we had been living in South Korea for about 8 months when Thanksgiving weekend arrived. It felt weird to be away from our friends, family, and our home country during this important holiday. South Korea had just finished celebrating their harvest festival, which is called Chuseok, and although celebrating Chuseok was a blast, we still wanted to keep up our cultural traditions, and have a Thanksgiving celebration. Do you know what it means when we say something is a blast? In English, when we say something was a blast, we mean it was a really good time and we really enjoyed ourselves. So, as I was saying, celebrating Chuseok in South Korea was a blast- but we still wanted to have a Canadian Thanksgiving celebration.
Luckily, there are only a few things you really need to have a successful Thanksgiving celebration: a lot of food and people to eat it with! We decided to invite all of our friends over to our small apartment to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving. I remember when I invited one of my Canadian friends to our Thanksgiving party, she was really happy and she said she had been hoping someone would have a Canadian Thanksgiving party.
We had a great time, but we did have to make a few changes from our usual Thanksgiving celebration– the most major change being the main course. Do you know what the main course is at a Thanksgiving dinner? It’s roasted turkey. We usually only eat a big roasted turkey twice a year– first on Thanksgiving and then again at Christmas. Generally speaking, turkeys are huge and they require a big roasting dish and a big oven. We had neither of those things at our little apartment in South Korea, so we came up with a different solution –instead of turkey roasted in an oven, we roasted small chickens in toaster ovens. Everyone brought side dishes and desserts and drinks, and we ended up having a fantastic party that went late into the night! I remember that I was so tired at school the day after the party because I had been celebrating late into the night- but it was all worth it!
Now it’s 10 years later– and another Thanksgiving weekend is upon us! Wishing a Happy Thanksgiving to all of you who are celebrating this weekend- and a great weekend to everyone else.
In the story I just told, I used the past perfect progressive several times. Let’s look at the different ways I used this verb tense.
Number 1:
To talk about something that was happening in the past before another event happened in the past.
Example:
It was October 2012, we had been living in South Korea for about 8 months when Thanksgiving weekend arrived.
*unscripted*
Number 2:
To report actual words spoken in past progressive
Example:
My friend said she had been hoping someone would have a Canadian Thanksgiving party.
*unscripted*
Number 3:
To explain the cause of something that happened in the past
Example:
I remember that I was so tired at school the day after the party because I had been celebrating late into the night- but it was all worth it!
*unscripted*
Alright, now it’s your turn. I want to give you a chance to practice using past perfect progressive. Try to answer these questions. Say your answers out loud! Remember to use the past perfect progressive.
Question number 1
How long had you been studying English before you felt comfortable speaking it?
Question number 2
Can you report these words? Remember to use the past perfect progressive.
“I was hoping someone would make pumpkin pie this Thanksgiving!’
So when you report it, you can start off my starting, Faith said that….and then continue.
Question number 3
Can you tell me about a time that you stayed too late and because you’d been celebrating a holiday or a wedding or a birthday? How did you feel the next day?
Thanks for tuning in to the Vita English Podcast. Tune in to the next episode of Language Stories to learn the future perfect.
If you have any questions, comments, or ideas for future episodes, OR if you’d like information on taking 1:1 online English language classes visit my website www.vitaenglish.ca that’s www.vitaenglish.ca or email me at info@vitaenglish.ca
See you next time
