Valentine’s Day means saying numbers
ENGLISH TEACHERS: if you want to use this post in class, click here for a free downloadable Lesson Plan using this material, which includes lots more activities
Ich liebe dich (German). Je t’aime (French). Ti amo (Italian). Te quiero (Spanish) Mina rakastan sinua (Finnish). Ya tebya liubliu (Russian). Wo ai ni (Mandarin Chinese). Szeretlek (Hungarian). ‘Rwy’n dy garu (Welsh).
No matter how you say it, if someone holds a special place in your heart, then today is the day to say ‘I love you’.
St. Valentine’s Day on February 14th is the day, of course, when people traditionally express their love and affection for each other in a variety of ways. The origins of the day are unknown.
A legend that may, or may not be true is that there was a priest called Valentine, who served in Rome during the third century. At this time, Emperor Cladius II thought that single men without wives and children made better soldiers, so he made marriage illegal for young men. However, Valentine secretly continued to perform marriage for young couples, until he was discovered and was sentenced to death by Cladius.
On the night before his execution in 270 AD, Valentine sent the first ‘Valentine card’ himself from his prison cell. While he had been awaiting his fate, a young girl had kept visiting him and Valentine had fallen in love with her. It is alleged that the letter he sent signed off with, “From your Valentine”, which is the expression still used today in millions of cards around the world.
In the middle ages, the French and the English believed that February 14th was the beginning of birds’ mating season. This reinforced the idea that the day should be considered as romantic.
By the time the 18th Century came around, it was quite common for people of all social classes in Great Britain to show their lovers their affection by giving them handwritten notes. Towards the end of the century, ready-made cards were being produced and sold in England, which avoided the problem of social disapproval for showing one’s emotions in public. In America, it wasn’t until the 1840s that the first mass-produced cards went on sale.
Nowadays, it is estimated that around one billion cards are sent on Valentine’s day, which makes it the second highest card sending day of the year: approximately 2.6 billion cards are sent at Christmas. Unsurprisingly, it is thought that women purchase around 85% of Valentine’s cards.
In a survey carried out by The American Retail Association in 2010, results showed that on average, Americans spend $103 on Valentine’s Day. Just over 50% send cards, 47% choose chocolates and 36% of respondents said that they send flowers.
If you are a bit strapped for cash, then I’ve got a cheaper alternative for you. Why don’t you write a love list? Write down 10 things that you adore about your partner and put it under their pillow, or somewhere secret like inside their bag, or in their cupboard/locker/desk. If you can’t think of 10 things and numbers 8, 9 and 10 are things like….you can read, you are always on time, you’ve still got all your teeth, then just write 5 things instead!
Happy Valentine’s Day!
If you listen to the mp3 of this article you can hear how you should be saying numbers in English.
There are also lots of examples here of passive sentences, which you can read about in Barney’s recent post.
Posted by Bren Brennan on Feb 14 2011. Filed under Vocabulary.
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It was a nice try, but you can never to speak Hungarian well. Where did you learnt all the love sentences?
GREAT ARTICLE BREN!!Good pronunciation. other not expensive ideas for today..
create a CD with your favorite song, my boyfriend create a book where we write our story, our memories, photos and thoughts, cooking his favorite dish.
It’s awesome how you say “ich liebe dich”
. Very nice touch with the background music. I think I found my new ring tone 
.
Kevin – I thought that music was already your ring tone! I thought I should start the love-round-up with German because everyone knows that it is THE most romantic language in the world.
Laura – Thanks. Are you going to publish your book eventually?
Fruzsina – My Hungarian is second to none! I learnt all the love sentences because people said all those words to me, of course!
))))
Hi Bren!
Have you ever seen the cartoon “Up”? Is the same idea.You create a book and you put inside your photo your moment togher you write about your relation, your fears, your dream ecc. We have just started but think in future we will read this book or will show it to our children.
[...] use this lesson plan, you need to use the Valentine’s Day means saying numbers post on the SGI School Blog. The lesson works best if you can use the internet in your classroom [...]
Hey Bren, that was a marvelous lesson plan, which I used for a pre-valentine class of teens in an English Language Center where I teach in Hanoi, Vietnam. I really commend your efforts. The lesson worked very well, especially, with connonations of the history;f numbers, and the listening parts. The distinct pronunciation was a depictive form of practice for the entire class. Well done, more grease/ink to your pen and God Bless.
Pato
Thank you Pato for your kind words.
I’m really glad that it worked in a non-European context and that it was useful for your teens.
Did you do the written exercises – the Love-List? I wonder what they came up with for that!
(BTW, if other teachers are reading this and wondering where the free lesson plan is, it’s here)
Thanks again, Pato
Hi Bren,
Thanks for the great lesson. I especially liked the part which practised different ways to say numbers and the students had a real laugh doing the love-list and different messages to put in the cards.
I got them to use eyejot.com for the homework task. First time I’ve used it. Could you offer any advice on how to go about giving feedback for the videos? I just got them to speak for 1 minute on:
* what they thought was good and bad about Valentine’s Day
* what they liked and didn’t like about learning English
* their family
Not exactly the most riveting of questions but I thought I’d keep it simple for the first time.
Thanks a lot,
Jess
[...] 2013 | Posted by Bren BrennanTweetHow to say numbers: Apple share price dropYou can hear how to say numbers in British English with the latest news about the share price of Apple. Click on the grey [...]
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