Seasonal Trends- Meetings Practice

Responding to Seasonal Trends- Meetings Practice
The language of trends/ Xmas vocabulary/ Festivals and celebrations discussion
Part One: Describing Xmas and New Year trends
Choose one of the things below and talk about changes in that thing in the past, present
and/ or future, for example “The amount of snow used to be quite high but has been slowly
declining for years. In the future I think it will flatten out at almost nothing”. Does your
partner agree with your description?

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Celebrating the Lunar New Year/ Chinese New Year

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Crowds

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Drinking

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Eating out over Xmas/ New Year

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Giving cash

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Going to the cinema

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Healthiness of what people do/ Unhealthiness of what people do

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Hotel availability/ Hotel prices

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Household spending on (imported/ traditional) Xmas or New Year foods

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Length of time that Xmas decorations stay up

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Loneliness/ Social isolation

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New Year sales/ Winter sales (starting date, length, popularity, number of shops, size of
discounts, queues etc)

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Number of presents

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Overseas holidays over Xmas/ New Year

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Overseas visitors/ Overseas tourists

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People viewing Xmas lights

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Religious celebrations over Xmas/ New Year

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Spending (on presents, on Xmas decorations/ New Year decorations, on food, on
travel, etc)

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Spending time with your family/ friends

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Superstitions

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Traditional games

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Traditional New Year celebrations/ New Year traditions

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Traffic/ Traffic jams

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Travel (going abroad, going to visit people, etc)

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Watching sporting events (football, sumo wrestling, etc, live or on television)

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Watching variety shows (on TV/ live)

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Weather (amount of snow, temperature, etc)

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(Doing or watching) winter sports (skiing, snowboarding, etc)

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Working over Xmas/ New Year

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Xmas bonuses/ New Year bonuses/ end of year bonuses

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Xmas lights and decorations (amount, length of time, when they go up and come down,
in the home, outside the home, in the street, in shops)

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Xmas music in shops and cafés (amount, length of time, starting date, etc)

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Xmas parties/ New Year parties (number, spending, etc)

Written by Alex Case for UsingEnglish.com © 2016

Part Two: Responding to Xmas and New Year trends

Choose three of the trends described below. Imagine those things are true (without
discussing what the trend really is this time) and hold a meeting to decide how your
company should react to those changes. Many of them are problems which you must find
solutions to, but others are possible business opportunities. You may also want to discuss
the reasons for those changes and consequences of those things happening. You might
need to imagine you are in a different kind of company, e.g. a trading company, and/ or
have a different job to make the discussion more realistic. You can make up any relevant
trends and numbers which are not mentioned below. Start from greetings and small talk at
the very beginning, move through the three topics, then smoothly end the meeting.

Useful questions to prompt discussion
What can we do about it?
How should we respond?/ How should we react?/ What should our response be?
How can you take advantage of…?/ How can we profit from…?/ How can we make
money out of…?

Useful language for talking about reasons
The main reason for this is probably…
This could be due to…
This might be because of…

Useful language for talking about consequences/ effects
One consequence of this could be…/ A possible effect is…
This could lead to…
This can affect…
This allows us to…
This gives us the opportunity to…

Useful language for talking about solutions
To tackle this, we could…
The best solution would probably be…
Why don’t we…?
Have we thought about…?
We’d better…

Written by Alex Case for UsingEnglish.com © 2016

Possible Xmas and New Year trends to discuss
1. The number of people skiing domestically has steadily fallen.
2. After it grew steadily for many years, the number of people going to winter sales has

recently plateaued.

3. Hotel overbooking has quickly risen in the last few years.
4. The number of workers who are willing to work over the winter holidays has collapsed.
5. Demand for traditional New Year and Xmas foods has slumped.
6. Traffic jams over Xmas and New Year had stabilized but have grown again in the last

three years.

7. Winter temperatures are predicted to rise by over two degrees over the next thirty

years.

8. Cinema attendance over the winter holidays has levelled off.
9. Loneliness over the holidays has worsened slowly but steadily over the last two

decades.

10. The number of foreign visitors over the end of the year has gone up steadily and

reached five point one million.

11. Staff are complaining that Xmas bonuses have remained flat for three years.
12. The amount of snow falling has been wildly unstable recently.
13. Sales of fizzy wine (= sparkling wine) has decreased but is forecasted to bounce back

(= rebound) in the near future.

14. Giving cash instead of presents at Xmas is accelerating.
15. Hotel rates will be raised (= will rise) at the beginning of the next financial year.
16. Interest in Lunar New Year is declining.
17. The number of hospital admissions over the Xmas break has soared this year.

Do the same, but this time making up Xmas and New Year trends (for example from the
list on the first page) and then talking about how to respond to them.

Written by Alex Case for UsingEnglish.com © 2016

Part Three: Responding to other seasonal trends
Do the same thing with trends connected to one of the other seasons below, imagining
what the changes could be and how you could respond.
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April Fool’s Day

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Armistice Day/ Remembrance Day/ War Memorial Day/ Poppy Day

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Autumn

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Bonfire Night/ Guy Fawkes Night

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Buddhist festivals

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Carnival

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Cherry blossom viewing

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Chinese New Year/Lunar New Year

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Diwali

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Easter (Good Friday etc)

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Eid

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Gay Pride

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Halloween

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Hanukkah

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Hunting season

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Lent

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May Day

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Monsoon/ Rainy season

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National day/ Constitution Day/ Independence Day

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National holidays/ Bank holidays

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Oktoberfest

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Ramadan

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Saint Patrick’s Day

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Shrove Tuesday/ Pancake Day

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Skiing season

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Spring

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Summer/ Summer festival

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Tanabata

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Valentine’s Day

Written by Alex Case for UsingEnglish.com © 2016