New Year’s Resolutions with Teacher Robin

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Hello, welcome to my last class of 2020. I’m Robin and today we are going to be talking about our New Year’s Resolutions. So as we come to the end of this year, which has been a very difficult and very different year, we look to the future, to the next year, and we can start to plan what we want to accomplish. So, for you, I know that this year has been difficult. But one good thing for our ABA students in 2020, you have learned English or you have started to learn English, you have practiced, you have watched these videos, maybe you’ve attended one of our live classes. So that is a great accomplishment. And I want to say to you, congratulations, you should be proud of yourself. So now let’s look to the future, to next year 2021 and let’s look at how we plan our New Year’s Resolutions. I’m going to give you some of the grammar and vocabulary that we use to talk about this.

So first, in case you don’t know, what is a New Year’s Resolution? So a resolution is a promise that you make to yourself to start doing something new, something good, or to stop doing something bad or to quit a bad habit, etc. Okay, so sometimes people make a resolution to start doing something or maybe they have a bad habit and they want to stop doing that. So these are different kinds of resolutions that you can make.

So let’s look at some common ones that people make. For example, you might want to start a new hobby in the new year. So this is very common, people start new hobbies. People make resolutions related to money. So maybe managing your finances, better budgeting, etc. Maybe you want to save more money in the new year. So that’s a very common resolution as well. Travel. Now, we don’t know exactly what’s going to happen in 2021. Hopefully, maybe in the second half of the year, we can start to travel more. But this is a common resolution that people make. Maybe we will adapt it a little bit this year. But you could say I want to travel more, it could even be just in your, in your country, in your area to visit places that you haven’t seen before. So it could be a different kind of travel. People make resolutions related to their health. So I want to be healthier, I want to exercise more, I want to eat healthier, etc. Okay, that’s a good resolution. You might want to start volunteering with an association. So that’s something that people do as well. And then as I mentioned, quitting bad habits. So maybe you are a smoker, or maybe you drink a little bit too much alcohol or maybe you bite your nails or you do something that you know that’s not good for you or that you shouldn’t do. So your New Year’s resolution could also be to stop, to quit doing this, this bad habit.

Okay, so let’s look at some vocabulary that we can use when we talk about our resolutions. So first we have “to stick to” something okay, this is a phrasal verb. When you stick to something, it means that you set this goal and you actually do it follow through. So from January to December, if you stick to your resolution, it means that you actually accomplish it, you do it. Okay, “to kick off”. That means when you start something, so we’re going to kick off January with these new resolutions. All right, “to stay on track”. This is similar to the “to stick to”. So “to stay on track” means that you are on the right path, you are doing what you have said you want to do. And to accomplish this you need to have a lot of “willpower”. So this is the energy, the motivation to, to continue. Okay, so you need to have willpower to accomplish these goals. And when we talk about New Year’s Resolutions, we normally set them, we make them on a yearly or annual level, which means every year. So some people could make a monthly resolution, but normally it’s for the entire year, so all of 2021.

Okay, so what are some other ways that we can talk about our New Year’s resolutions? When we know what we want to do, we can say for example, “I plan to”, alright, “My goal is to”, “I resolve to” or “My intention is to”. Okay and you would follow that with the infinitive. My intention is to lose weight, my intention is to start a new hobby, etc. Okay, so those are some ways that you can talk about your resolutions.

And now, I want to do a quick review, a very quick review of the future tenses because as we talk about the future, we need to use the future tenses. So I’m going to quickly review four of the future tenses and we’re going to give you an example related to New Year’s resolutions. Let’s start with the future simple. All right. So we form the future simple with “will” plus the infinitive. For example, “I will get my driver’s license in 2021”. This is always one of my resolutions and I have never achieved it. But I’m going to set it again, why not? All right, another future tense is future going to. So this is the other way to express the future simple. So instead of using will, we use “going to” plus the infinitive. For example, “This year, I’m going to journal every day”. So to journal means to write down your thoughts in a notebook. And I have a video coming up in a couple of weeks with recommendations about journaling. So stay tuned for that. Now the future perfect. Okay. So the future perfect is something that will start in the future and be ongoing, or will be completed. So you will start it in the future and you will complete it at a specific time. So for example, we form it with will have plus the infinitive, for example, “By next December…”. So we set this time this deadline, “By next December, I will have lost 10 pounds”. So that’s something that you will start in January and you hope to finish in December. So that’s why we use the future perfect. Okay. On the other hand, we can use the future continuous for an ongoing action in the future and we form this with “will be” plus the verb with “-ing”. And we also refer to specific time. For example, “In the summer”, so in the summer of 2021, “I will be studying English”. So if your goal is to start in January or if you are going to take a specific course in the summer, you can refer to the future, an ongoing action in the future. So, “In the summer, I will be studying English”.

Okay, so I hope that this review of the future tenses and vocabulary and grammar you need to talk about your resolutions has been helpful. And I want you to tell me in the comments, what are your resolutions for 2021? And what are your plans for New Year’s Eve? So New Year’s Eve is almost here and I know we are going to celebrate a little bit differently this year. We’re not going to have big parties and probably not going to go out somewhere. But tell me what are your plans? Maybe you’re having a virtual call with your family or something like that. There’s all kinds of fun New Year’s traditions in different countries. So tell me about that. And tell me what your New Year’s resolution is for 2021. So again, thank you so much for being a part of this ABA family this year. We appreciate you so much and I hope that your holidays are wonderful, as wonderful as they can be in this situation, and I look forward to seeing you in 2021. So take care. Bye!