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Planning a Party

Learn the Zero Conditional

Date: Nov 04 2011

Themes: Party

Grammar: Zero Conditional

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Intro

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A lot of different elements go into the perfect party. Not all of them are things you can control. If two of your guests get in a fight, or someone happens to choke on a potato chip, no amount of careful planning will help. Still, there are a lot of things you can control when you decide to throw a party.

Choosing who to invite is just the beginning. Next you have to choose what kind of music, food, and drinks to have. You might even want to give your party a theme, or move your furniture around to make it easier for people to mingle or dance. It all depends on how much of a planner you are. Find out how much party planning Marni and Jason like to do.

Dialog

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2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.

Marni

Jason

Marni: When you like to have a party at your house, do you do a lot of planning? Are you a planner?

Jason: I am not a big planner. I mean, my parties are kind of thrown together and just sort of go with the flow. I like to just sort of see where the party goes. If it turns into a rager, great, that’s welcome. But if it ends up being a more low-key affair, that’s OK too. It sort of depends on what the guests bring in terms of energy and alcohol.

Marni: Those two go together really well.

Jason: Yeah.

Marni: Yeah, I have noticed as I’m getting older that I’m much more of a planner. And I have done a lot of catering in my past, so I think that might have something to do with it. You know, I’m just constantly kind of getting in there and moving things around and making sure that things look good, and constantly clearing away beer bottles and things like that.

Jason: OK. Oh, so you’re cleaning up as the party is happening. Wow.

Marni: Yes, and that is the key to having a successful next day, not feeling overwhelmed, ‘cause I am constantly just like pulling recycling as it’s going.

Jason: Very cool.

Marni: Yeah, I think that has been my biggest success, is the cleaning up as the party is going.

Jason: Well, that sounds good. I’ll have to observe you at your next get-together.

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Discussion

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Marni asks Jason if he likes to do a lot of planning when he throws parties at his house. Jason says he doesn’t do very much planning. He likes to go with the flow at parties.

If Jason’s guests feel like having a rager, that’s fine with him. But he is also happy if the night ends up being low-key. He doesn’t try to control every aspect of a party at his house. Instead, he responds to what his guests are feeling.

Marni is more of a party planner than Jason. She likes everything to look perfect for her parties. She also likes to clean while the party is happening. That way, she doesn’t have to do a lot of cleaning the next day.

Do you do a lot of planning when you have parties at your house? Do you like to throw parties?

Comments

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Monser

China

Actually I don’t like parties… Instead, I like go hiking or climbing moutains with my friends.

SuzySDA

Germany

I don’t like to throw parties and I live in a small place where I can’t have a party. But my best friend Stefan has a nice apartment on the first floor where we celebrated a New Year’s eve party. At twelve we looked out of the window and saw the fireworks. We did a lot of planning for that party. Especially on food, alcoholfree drinks and music. My friend Bianca and I danced a lot.

selvgali

Honduras

My house is too small for having parties, instead I preffer to rent a place. Besides I’m very bussy most time and I don’t have time for planning much, unless it is a big and memmorable event in my life.

yyyuan

Taiwan

cleaning up while the parting is holding is really weird.

If I were one of the guest, I might be sort of embarrassed.

pretty much weird= =

Christianny

Brazil

I don’t like parties in my house! lol,

I really enjoy going to party in my friends house because i hate have to clean up the mess after it is over!

whipiry

South Korea

I’m not a big planner, but planning may be needed for throwing a party to mingle and be low key. at first, it can be go as what a host wants. but soon or later it goes with the flow. i think it’s good. maybe it turns into a rager.

Maria del Alba

Spain

I threw parties only few times in my life and I more like Jason, I like to go with the flow and let people decide what kind of party they want. Maybe that’s because I am more spontaneous and I like improvisation.

lesleiar

Jordan

im not a good parties planner because i dont like to have parties but i like to mingle with others

peyman gh

Iran, Islamic Republic Of

I’m not a good planner but i like to go to party whit my friends.if i forced to planning a party i wreck it.

girafinha

Japan

I’m so bad at planning. Not only about throwing a party but on everythinglol I guess it’s just not my thing. I love things easy and going with the flow!

belisqui

Brazil

My wife is a good planner, she is always in charge of organizing everything when we decide to throw a party at our place! I’m the one who mingles.

orival

Brazil

In Brazil we like to throwing parties, so always i throw parties in my house.

Is really difficult to choose de song, the people who invited, and worst thing is the messy to clean in the next day

alhgag

Libyan Arab Jamahiriya

in Libya there are no parties just bridal or picnic
in for me i’m unsociable and limited people who i know them
have a nice day!

antonionia

Turkey

My favorite parties are the one’s that are small and relaxed.

Pszosa

Poland

I don’t like to throw parties I rather prefer going to them :)).

But I think if I ever threw a partie I would be a big planner just like Marni. I like to have all set but I also think that cleaning while party is happening isn’t the best idea, beacuse we’re losing our party! On the other hand having such passive attitude as Jason isn’t good as well. So, I can finally claim that I would be someone between Jason and Marni.

Namadi

Nigeria

In my area we don’t go to parties we only do what we called ‘walima’ a word derived from Arabic languagebut it is totally different from party.

kenlin16

Taiwan

We don’t have really so-called party here, What we have is a casual meeting together with friends or strangers. Everyone just chats , drinks and sometimes eats. We are just enjoying the moment of talking and relaxing. I think that would be all for what we so call a party.