Today is Thanksgiving in the USA, and I’m on the other side of the world in Vietnam. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little homesick, and as much as I love phở and Vietnamese food in general, I’m bummed to not be eating turkey with my family and watching my beloved Detroit Lions. But enough with the whining and complaining – my job here is to help you learn Chinese! Talking about holidays from your home country is a very popular topic of conversation in China, so here are some useful vocabulary words for you Americans (or Canadians, to some extent) to talk about this holiday:

Photo by Ralph Daily from www.flickr.com

Practice your pronunciation for a lot of these words by following this YouTube video:

Now see if you can follow along with this short write up about the holiday in Chinese. You’ll see a few of the words above in use:

感恩节是美国的节日。每年11月第四个星期四是感恩节。感恩节的时候，很多人回家跟家人一起吃晚饭。感恩节的食物是：考火鸡，土豆泥，红莓果酱，南瓜派，什么的。人民也喜欢一起看电视。早上可以看梅西百货感恩节游行。下午可以看美式橄榄球比赛。感恩节的次日是黑色星期五。疯狂的购物月从这一天开始。感恩节快乐！

gǎn’ēn jié shì měi guó de jié rì. měi nián 11 yuè dì sì gè xīng qí sì shì gǎn’ēn jié. gǎn’ēn jié de shí hou, hěn duō rén huí jiā gēn jiā rén yī qǐ chī wǎn fàn. gǎn’ēn jié de shí wù shì: kǎo huǒ jī, tǔ dòu ní, hóng méi guǒ jiàng, nán guā pài, shén me de. rén mín yě xǐ huan yī qǐ kàn diàn shì. zǎo shang kě yǐ kàn méi xi bǎi huò gǎn’ēn jié yóu xíng. xià wǔ kě yǐ kàn měi shì gǎn lǎn qiú bǐ sài. gǎn’ēn jié de cì rì shì hēi sè xīng qí wǔ. fēng kuáng de gòu wù yuè cóng zhè yī tiān kāi shǐ. gǎn’ēn jié kuài lè!

Thanksgiving is an American holiday. Every year the 4th Thursday of November is Thanksgiving Day. On Thanksgiving, many people go home to eat dinner with their family members. Thanksgiving food is: turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, and so on. People also like to watch TV together. In the morning they can watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. In the afternoon they can watch American football games. After Thanksgiving it’s Black Friday. A crazy shopping month starts from this day. Happy Thanksgiving!!