Question 1

1

Question 2

2

Question 3

3

Question 4

4

Question 5

5

Question 6

6

Tough Vocabulary

Question 1

I have four cousins on my mum's side and I think I have ten on my dad's side. I think I have fewer cousins that my parents, I certainly have much less contact with them then they did!

Question 2

I think the oldest cousin is around 45 years old, his name is Steven and he lives in England. I am not sure which city. He is from my mum's side and he is my mum's brother, son.

Question 3

I never see them as I moved from England to New Zealand when I was seven years old. I basically have no relationship with them.

Question 4

I last saw them in 2009 at my first wedding.

Question 5

No, it is impossible due to the distance between New Zealand and England.

Question 6

I think people talk less in Japan due to the invention of the internet. I imagine that many young people have secret lives and this could mean that family ties are getting weaker.

Tough Vocabulary

- English -	- Japanese -
certainly	是非
basically	基本的に
invention	発明

Question 1

I have three cousins on my mother's side and seven on my father's side. Yes, for some reason I have way fewer cousins compared to my parents and grandparents. My father has 4 brothers so I naturally have more cousins from my father's side.

Question 2

My oldest cousin's name is Hendy (pronounced /ˈhandi/). He's 33 years old if I remember correctly. He's been living in Indonesia his whole life in a city called "Bekasi." He's actually my mother's eldest brother's son. My youngest cousin, on the other hand, lives in Melbourne, Australia. His name is Miguel Adriano. He's my father's youngest brother's son and he still goes to school.

Question 3

I rarely see them nowadays, perhaps once in two to three years. We all live in different countries and the pandemic has made it a lot harder to travel abroad.

Question 4

I haven't seen any of my family members in at least two years now. The only people that I've met recently are my students and friends.

Question 5

We usually get together twice a year during the Chinese new year and Christmas. However, ever since I graduated from University, we haven't gotten together to celebrate special occasions.

Question 6

With globalization, I think family ties are generally getting weaker. More and more people move to the cities and if this trend persists, it is estimated that 60-70% of the world population will live in cities. Coupled with our addiction to technology, humans don't interact the same way as before. There's also neoliberal capitalism that prioritizes individual goals' rather than relationships within families and communities.

Tough Vocabulary