F2F Class Notes (Raph)[W]

Vocabulary

Nuclear Familya family consisting of two parents and their children, but not including aunts, uncles, grandparents, etc.
E.g.: Chinese nuclear families usually consist of a mother, father and one child.

Extended Familya family unit that includes grandmothers, grandfathers, aunts, and uncles, etc. in addition to parents and children
E.g.: My parents have many siblings, so I have a very large extended family.

Town (n): 1- a place where people live and work, containing many houses, shops, places of work, places of entertainment, etc., and usually larger than a village but smaller than a city.
E.g.: He was born in the small town Gansu Province.
E.g.: We stayed in the best hotel in town.

Hometown (n): 1- the town or city that a person is from, especially the one in which they were born and lived while they were young.
E.g.: He was born in Miami, but he considers New York his hometown since he’s lived there most of his life.

Pregnant (adj): (of a woman and some female animals) having a baby or babies developing inside the womb. (n: Pregnancy)
E.g.: She’s five and a half months pregnant.
E.g.: My mother stopped smoking when she became pregnant.
E.g.: Most women feel sick in the mornings during their first months of pregnancy.
E.g.: My first pregnancy was very straightforward – there were no complications.

Hire (v): 1- to employ someone or pay someone to do a particular job:
E.g.: I was hired by the first company I applied to.
E.g.: We ought to hire a  consultant to help improve our image.

Spoiled (adj): 1- A spoiled child is allowed to do or have anything that it wants to, usually so that it expects to get everything it wants, and does not show respect to other people.
E.g.: You’re behaving like a spoiled child!

Twin (n): 1- 双胞胎

Original:

I have a big family, my mother has seven siblings: two brothers and five sisters, she is the fifth child of them. My father has five siblings: three brothers and two sisters, he is the youngest of them. So I have many aunts, uncles and cousins, most of mine cousins are bigger than me and they got married.

My parents have three children, that mean I have three siblings and I’m the oldest child. My younger brother is one year younger than me, he got married three years ago and have a little boy who is two years old presently, Everyone of his little family live with my parents in my hometown which is HuBei Province.

The other one of mine siblings is my younger sister who is three years younger than me and living in Shenzhen. A week ago, she became to a new mother and has her first child. All of my family are very happy for her, it’s too diffcult to have a new baby from ten monthes ago. The new baby is a girl and she was born at 11:00 pm on 10th September. She has the very small hands , feet and soft skin. She doesn’t need to do anything just drinking milk and sleeping everyday. If she doesn’t cry in the night that we all fell very luckly.

My younger sister was looking for a postnatal attendant half a month ago, to take care of herself and the new baby for a month. Although the wage of postnatal attendant is not cheap for ten thousand RMB a month, but she is a professional. Her mother in low who is near sixty years old went there a month ago, she’s major things are do the cleaning , washing and a few cooking, because she is not good at cook. And I went to Shenzhen last week for eight days to took care of her.

Edited:

I have a big family, my mother has six siblings: two brothers and four sisters, she is the fifth child. My father has four siblings: two brothers and two sisters, he is the youngest of them. So I have many aunts, uncles and cousins. Most of my cousins are older than me and they have already gotten married.

My parents have three children, which means I have two siblings, and I’m the oldest child. My brother is one year younger than me. He got married three years ago and has a little boy who is now two years old. Everyone in his nuclear family lives with my parents in my hometown which is in HuBei Province.

The other one of my siblings is my sister, who is three years younger than me and lives in Shenzhen. A week ago, she became a mother and had her first child. All of my family is very happy for her, even though it’s very difficult to have a new baby. The baby is a girl and she was born at 11:00 pm on the 10th of September / September 10th. She has very small hands and feet and soft skin. She doesn’t do anything, just drinks milk and sleeps everyday. If she doesn’t cry during the night we all fell very lucky.

My younger sister hired a postnatal attendant half a month ago, to take care of her and the new baby for a month. Although the wage of a postnatal attendant is not cheap, at around ten thousand RMB a month, she is very professional. Her mother-in-law, who is nearly sixty years old, went there a month ago, to help do the cleaning , washing and a bit of cooking, because she is not a good cook. I also went to Shenzhen last week for eight days to take care of her.

Pronunciation

Hire: /haɪr/

Pregnant: /ˈpreɡ.nənt/

Pregnancy: /ˈpreɡ.nən.si/

Spoiled: /spɔɪld/