How to talk about family?
There are particular words in English that you can use to describe your family history
These are words worth knowing because they give you the chance to talk about your unique
family
How big it is and where they are from
and then you can learn more about other people
It’s part of the back and forth of conversation in English
So I’m going to use my family as an example
My ancestors, meaning my great-grandparents and great-great- grandparents
from a long time ago
were from France and from Scotland
so I can say “My ancestors were from France and Scotland”
or I can say
“My ancestry is French and Scottish”
That describes why I look like I do.
If someone looks at me with my brown (now gray) hair and they see these spots on my
skin called freckles, they can figure out I’m from the northern part of Europe
and especially people from Scotland and parts of Ireland have this particular skin type
I used to have red hair when I was a kid and it got darker and now gray because I’m older
That’s my ancestry
and I’m proud of that
so I can also say also
“I am descended from French and Scottish ancestry
Descend means to go down like when you descend stairs or ascend stairs
descend means to go down and ascend means to go up
so a descendant means that I come from or from something that’s above me
in terms of the family, those would be my ancestors, they came before me
When talking about your family, you can say
“My family is made up of”
or
“In my family I have”
five (5) siblings
siblings are brothers and sisters
they could be older than you or younger than you
In my case, I have four (4) older sisters and an older brother
so I’m the youngest in my family
of you can say I’m the baby in the family
That’s a cute thing to say
even when you are an adult and you are very old like me
I’m still the baby in my family
and some of my brothers and sisters like to remind me of that
They think it’s funny and I do too
you can also say
“I’m from a family of”
and give the number
“I’m from a family of eight (8) people
because I have a mother and a father and four older sisters and a brother so there are six
kids and two parents so there’s eight of us
“I’m from a family of eight people”
Then you can ask your conversation partner or business colleague or your friend
“What is your ancestry?”
They may have a very interesting story to tell about it
Someone’s ancestry can tell you where their ancestors came from
maybe what religion they are
that might be important for them to talk about
it might tell you what kind of food they grew up eating
Some ancestries are proud of the type of food their grandparents or great grandparents or
great great grandparents ate
and these recipes and eating traditions are handed down in the family history
and some of it can be quite delicious
so in my family we ate mostly English style or French style food when we were growing
up
that was our ancestry and that was the kind of food that we ate
and then later on in America Italian food became a lot more popular and now food from
all over the world
But originally my ancestry is French and Scottish
I am a descendant of French and Scottish people
and this is all a beginning of a conversation where you can talk about yourself and describing
even where you are from
“I grew up in”
I grew up in Maine (a state in America) in a very small town
All of these things offer information about you using very specific words
that a native English speaker can respond to
and then you get a conversation going
so try this
Try outlining where are your ancestors from
Are they from a particular country?
Are they from a particular region in a country?
and where did you grow up
how many siblings do you have?
and then you can talk more about what your family does together
different types of ancestries may have different types of religions
they have different types of food
they may celebrate different does of festivals or holidays
all of this is great for you to think about
and maybe draw your family tree
from your ancestors all the way don to you
and then whether you have kids or cousins
when I think of a tree there lots of branches on it
you can talk all about this different history that combines to make us who we are
another thing to say is how your parents met
some husbands and wives meet because its arranged by their family
or they are introduced by friends
or maybe its just an accident
for example
my father was from Boston in America and he was a geologist
and my mother was from Nebraska in America and she was a nurse
but they both found work in a mine in New Mexico in America
so they were both far away from home
My dad was helping a company look for copper out in the desert in New Mexico
na day mom was a nurse to take care of any of the miners who injured themselves on the
job and make sure they were healthy
and that’s how they met
and they met and fell in love and got married within three months
they just were crazy for each other in love
and they lived together for a long long time
and had six kids and they worked together
so that’s all part of my history that I can tell someone
that’s interesting about me
and where my ancestors are from
and where my family is from
and how many people are in my family
and how my parents met.
You can use the same kinds of techniques and words
to describe yourself and make up (create) a story or write down what makes you unique
and use that as a way of talking with people
give it a try
people will be very interested in your story
and you can ask them about their story