This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 2128.
What is New Year's Eve like in New York City?
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How do you celebrate New Year's Day?
In today's episode, get four ways to start the conversation with your colleagues when you're back in the office to learn how they spent their holiday.
Plus, find out how Lindsay and Michelle like to celebrate.
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Expires at midnight on Friday. allersenglish.com slash b-l-a-c-k-f-r-i-d-a-y Hey there, Michelle.
How you doing today?
Good.
Lindsay, how are you?
Oh my gosh.
I'm so excited.
We are in 2024.
It's going to be a good year.
By the way, Michelle, many of our listeners heard from Spotify about what their top shows were, and we got a ton of messages on Instagram. oh wow for our students letting us know that we're in their top five they're or we're their top one i want to do a really quick shout out to david fernandez padilla edson perez luciano armanini sheila octaviani oh my god michelle there are so many of them this is amazing fernando nunez all of these listeners have come to our Instagram channel and told us we're in their top 10 or top one or top five shows on Spotify. that is so cool thank you guys that really means a lot that's really a big honor so thank you so much it's amazing and we are doing some really exciting things particularly this year over on spotify so check it out over there guys and michelle we have some poll results to announce yes so speaking of spotify guys one of the things if you haven't heard yet we've been doing something really really interesting on spotify so we are interacting with you through polls.
So at the end of this episode, also, we will be giving another poll.
So definitely stay tuned for that.
But recently on episode 2100, which was three social gaffes from Seinfeld that you must know, we asked a poll question.
And the question was, do you watch Seinfeld?
Lindsay has the results.
Yes.
So we found out that 30% of you guys said you do.
Yes, you do watch Seinfeld.
And 70.
No, so 70 of you have a very exciting thing to discover.
Michelle, does that poll surprise you or did that feel about right?
I guess it doesn't surprise me.
Actually, i feel like i i've had a lot of students.
It seems like more people watch friends, um so, but i don't often hear like it's just kind of few and far between of my students who watch seinfeld.
So um yeah, i guess i'm not surprised to see these results, but it makes me want to encourage you.
If you are one of those 70, give it a try.
Oh my God.
It's so funny.
It is just so funny.
And, like we said in that episode, if you didn't listen to that episode, go back and check it out again.
It is so embedded into American English and American culture.
It's almost required that you at least know the references.
Yes.
Yes.
It's everywhere.
So yeah, definitely listen to that episode to find out what are these references that we're talking about.
Okay.
Awesome.
So Lindsay, I know we're a little bit into January, but what do?
What do you usually do for New Year's Eve or New Year's Day?
Do you have a typical tradition?
Yeah, I think this year we're going to go skiing on New Year's Day, on New Year's Day.
Yeah, because you know what?
No one does that.
And you get the mountain to yourself.
We do that sometimes on Christmas Day as well, because no one does it.
It's the opposite.
It's like when what's that saying, michelle?
When others zig, you should zag.
Oh, i've never heard that.
When others do the opposite of what everyone else does, it's a good uh.
It's a good uh, rule of thumb in life.
So that's what we like to do yeah, Great.
That's great.
Well, today we have a listener question that came through on Spotify, actually.
And this is dealing with New Year's Day and asking questions about it.
So and again, like I said, listen up for the poll at the end.
So Lindsay, would you like to read the question for us?
Yeah, this is from Krizai and our listener says hello.
Talking about New Year's Day, what kind of ceremonies in different countries do they have?
Like a family vacation, like in Farsi-speaking countries, or do you all go on vacation?
Good question, right?
So this listener maybe lives in Iran and is saying they go on family vacations together and wondering what we do.
Right?
Right, right.
Exactly.
So this is a great question.
Today, we're going to talk about it.
We're going to talk about New Year's Eve, New Year's Day in the US.
So guys also, if you haven't listened recently we did.
Episode 2123 was six ways to say party in English.
Love that because there are a lot of parties around this time of year.
I mean, we are kind of finishing up that time, but there will be valentine's day.
There will be lots of parties in the spring and the winter coming up dinner parties michelle, do you like to host dinner parties in the winter?
Uh i, i mean it's a nice idea.
I don't host them.
It's i think one day Maybe I would like to.
But I like to go to dinner parties.
Sure, sure.
And then there's all of our listeners in the Southern Hemisphere, sorry, who it's summer for them.
So you guys are in summertime enjoying your summer party.
So good episode to check out.
That's right.
That's right.
So Lindsay, I mean, did you do anything special growing up for New Year's Eve, New Year's Day?
When I was a kid, I thought well, when I was a teenager or in college, I thought I had to go out and had to have an amazing evening.
And I thought that meant like clubs, that kind of thing.
It had to be just the best night of the year.
I put so much pressure on it.
And then gradually the pressure came off.
And now very like no pressure.
I do nothing on New Year's Eve.
Yeah.
Same.
It was always... I feel like it is a lot of pressure.
At a certain point in people's lives, they feel this pressure to go out, do certain things.
Maybe if you're single, find a person on that night or whatever it is.
And so yeah, the pressure's off.
Um, and now it's like me and anderson cooper.
Um yeah, at what point did you say to yourself pressure's off?
Is it when you ended up like dating dan?
Or like, when did you kind of like change your mindset towards new year's eve?
I guess probably around then, because i remember always feeling like oh you you, you have to go out.
And i remember when i lived in the city before i met him, i remember being and i'm not a huge club person.
And so I never was that excited about that stuff.
But I always felt like, oh, okay.
And then yeah, because I guess you just feel I don't know this need to, which is we really shouldn't.
It's kind of a shame.
But what about you, Lindsay?
When did it change for you?
Probably in my 30s, maybe when i was in my 20s.
Well, i was traveling a lot in my 20s and kind of spending new years in different places, different countries, so i don't remember what that was like.
But maybe as i moved into my 30s i kind of became more comfortable with myself and thought okay, i can make new year's eve what i want it to be, and that is, just hanging out at home, ideally a dinner party with friends, would be fantastic right, it just doesn't always fall on that night Right exactly, exactly.
Yeah, I remember as a kid, our family friends would always get together.
I still remember... like when Y2K was happening.
And I remember I feel maybe we've talked about this a little bit before, but I remember this moment of I wasn't nervous.
I wasn't nervous when I was going to be, you know, strike midnight.
And then just, I still remember so clearly where I was in my friend's living room and we were counting down 10 nine, eight.
And I had this little moment of, oh no.
That's what everyone did.
Yeah.
And for our listeners who, you know, maybe don't weren't tuned in then.
Uh, you know, we weren't sure what was going to happen with the computer systems and with the internet and really every the infrastructure of the world.
I guess we weren't really sure what was going to happen when the clocks turned over to the year 2000.
I remember that too.
I was at a house party, i was a senior in high school and i had the same feeling, michelle.
It's like maybe we should be worried, but now it's too late.
Okay boom, nothing happened Exactly.
Exactly.
So guys, we'll talk more about about New Year's in just a second.
But remember, guys, if you haven't already, please hit follow so you never miss any of our episodes.
Yeah, totally.
All right.
So are there any special ceremonies?
That is what our listener is asking us.
I mean, are there, Michelle?
Yeah.
What do you think?
Yeah, I know.
I was trying to think about if there are special ceremonies, because I think of like okay, in New York there's the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and there's the tree, you know.
Well, I mean, of course, you have the ball drop, right?
Yeah, the ball drop.
Exactly.
So yeah, that's true.
So yeah, you're right.
I wasn't thinking of New Year's Day.
Actually, this past New Year's day, we did go into the city and and we were we were in and we were like we went to what i meant was we went to the times square area but on new year's day and it was cool because you could still see the confetti on the ground that's cool yeah but i could never do the actual times square ball draw no i don't think i'd be into that either but so the famous icon from that i think he's passed away now dick is he passed away now dick clark right yeah yeah yeah so he was the famous guy but now they've rotated in new uh who is the current host of that do you know michelle of the ball dropping in times square is it is it ryan seacrest i could be i don't know actually to be i actually don't know either i think it's ryan seacrest yeah usually if that person is in that position usually they're in it for many years and they become an icon of that event yeah right yes yes exactly so i mean aside from the ball dropping i don't know if there's necessarily like a special new year's day ceremony that is celebrated all over the country i feel like it's more just kind of a relaxing yeah i mean it yeah yeah i don't think there is anything i mean you know it's not a new year's eve is not a new year's day is not a religious um thing and so i don't think there isn't any kind of official holiday.
Obviously, it's a day off that most people have the day off.
I think for me, it's just a quiet day.
If I'm not skiing, it's usually a very quiet day at home, like very low key.
Everything's closed.
So you don't try to get anything done.
A day to kind of recoup, maybe watch movies, just quiet because it's cold out, right?
Yeah.
I also feel like I think of it.
I know this is terrible, but as a kid, because I mean it was always then you're going back to school after winter break.
And so it was always like, oh, now winter break is over.
I'm going back to school.
And so in that sense, yeah, it's like kind of the end of that.
I mean, obviously it's a nice thing, but I think that January and February are a little bit tough to get through because the holiday season is over.
There's not as much cheer in the air.
Now it's just kind of cold and gross.
And now we have to make it through.
And that's when you start itching for the spring, you know?
Yeah.
But I mean, some people write New Year's resolutions, right?
And we're going to ask you guys in a minute in our poll today, you know, whether you do, right?
I want to know what our listeners have to think about that.
But it is a good day to do that.
I actually like that time because it's a clean slate.
You're I don't know.
I kind of like that opportunity.
But I remember as a kid feeling like, oh, vacation's over.
There are no more presents under the trees.
You know, that kind of thing.
Yeah.
And guys, I mean also for this listener.
There is usually kind of this winter break in between Christmas and New Year's.
A lot of businesses are... It's a very slow time.
That's not a time when you want to make a lot of big moves, when you want to expect a lot of people.
You might call a business for a question and they're not even there, so it's kind of a.
It's kind of a everybody is relaxed week.
Um yeah, did you go on vacations during winter break as a kid or as a kid?
Uh, maybe a few times, but generally no.
I went uh to germany a few years ago during that time, which was great.
I mean, it was.
It's a great time to travel.
Yeah uh, I'm not usually that crowded in terms of the travel scene, because most people are home for Christmas, right?
Or the holidays rather.
So Michelle, should we teach our listeners some phrases here on how to talk about this?
Yes.
Well, we're going to ask because this listener is asking about the customs in this country with New Year's, New Year's Eve, New Year's Day.
So we're going to give you some ways that you can ask people about these things.
Um, so the first one is what is X like and why so?
For example uh, what is New Year's like in the US?
Yeah, and I like this.
What is something like?
Because it's very broad right, it's not a yes or no question.
It really leaves it very open for the person to answer it.
However, they want a lot of freedom for your, your listener, your person in front of you.
Right, that's right, That's right.
What's another thing that you could ask?
Okay, we can say, is X a big deal in Y?
So is Valentine's Day a big deal in Italy?
That's a good question, Michelle.
I don't know.
Guys, if you're in Italy, let us know.
And then you could say, what are some X customs in Y?
So for example, what are some Christmas customs in New Zealand?
Or here's your fourth one.
How is X typically celebrated in Y?
I feel like we're doing math here.
I know, me too.
X times Y times Z divided by two.
How is Halloween typically celebrated in the US?
Nice.
These are great questions.
Guys, put these in your back pocket.
These are questions for connection, right?
Definitely.
Okay, Michelle, do we have a key, our poll for today?
Do we have our poll of what we want to know about our listeners?
Yes, let's do it.
So we were talking a little bit about New Year's resolutions.
So we want to know, do you guys, our listeners, do you write New Year's resolutions?
Yes or no?
So let us know on the Spotify poll and the results will be coming up in a future episode.
I'm curious about this.
Um, Michelle, do you, first of all, real quick, do you write, do you write new year's resolutions?
Okay.
You're now, um, I do sometimes it depends on my mood.
I don't do it.
I try.
No, I don't.
Okay.
Fair enough.
No, no, no.
That's okay.
Should we jump into a role play real quick before we finish up?
Sure.
Let's give it a try.
Okay.
Here we go.
Okay.
Hey, what is July 4th?
Like in Washington, DC.
I know you grew up in that area.
Yeah oh, it's fun.
There's usually a huge concert on the national mall.
What about in new hampshire?
Is new year's a big deal there?
Oh, not really, it's a.
I grew up in a quiet town in new hampshire, so just people doing their own thing.
Okay, great well.
So you asked me what is july 4th like in washington dc?
And then i told you about it and then you said is new year's a big deal there Right?
Kind of a follow up question.
Similar question.
You're just reflecting back the same question to me.
Right.
Yes.
Yeah.
Exactly.
Yes.
So, Lindsay, what do you think the takeaway is for today?
I mean, the takeaway is, guys, make your conversations timely. make them timely right now.
We're just coming off of this season.
So you still can ask these questions, because maybe you're now seeing your coworkers for the first time since the holidays, since the New Year's.
And so this would be the time to drop those questions, especially if you're on a remote meeting and you have a colleague in another country.
Oh, what is New Year's like in Japan?
For example, we can do that.
This is how we connect based on timely questions.
Love it.
Love it.
Okay, good.
All right.
Well, guys, we hope that you have a wonderful 2024 and we will see you on the next episode.
All right, Michelle, talk soon.
Bye.
Bye.
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