What is the biggest water fight you’ve ever been to?
In today’s episode, Lindsay shares her experience of Songkran in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
Learn how to start a conversation on topics like childhood memories of water fights in English today.
Water fights
Lindsay shares that the Songkran Festival is where she experienced the biggest water fight in her life.
This is a celebration in Chiang Mai, Thailand she attended several years ago.
Aubrey hasn’t experienced it but she looks forward to it someday.
The Songkran Festival was put on hold during the pandemic and is now recently back.
There were so many people who attended and they had water fights.
In the American culture, water fights are also a big thing.
When Lindsay and Aubrey hear ‘water fight’, they think about:
- summer
- water guns
- slip n’ slides
It brings back a lot of memories of your childhood.
Adults also have a lot of fun using big super soaker water guns.
Aubrey shares that her kids love these water guns out by their swimming pool.
In today’s episode, Lindsay will share her water fight experience at the Songkran festival.
You’ll also learn some vocabulary you can use to talk about water fights in English.
Songkran
In 2007, Lindsay was living in Japan and her contract to teach was about to end.
She wanted to travel in Southeast Asia before heading home.
She visited Thailand, Vietnam, and Laos.
She planned her trip really well in advance and knew that if she landed in Chang Mai, Thailand, she would arrive just in time for Songkran.
She stayed in a hostel where all the big water fights were happening in the streets.
It was such a wonderful and lovely experience.
The people were happy and light-hearted.
Lindsay had to wrap all her stuff in plastic before heading out.
It was a great cultural experience being in the middle of the water fight and participating as well.
Jessica mentioned to Aubrey that she attended Songkran in Cambodia as well.
However, in Cambodia, they called it Khmer New Year and exchanged water balloons with some monks in a boat.
This celebration is pretty common in Southeast Asia.
Water parades
Aubrey shares that on the 4th of July there is a big water fight parade in Arizona.
Big trucks full of water are used to fill big water guns.
Those in the parade shoot at people watching on the street.
Everyone on the street also brings water guns to shoot the participants in the parade.
Talking about all this reminds Aubrey about the ice bucket challenge a few years back.
Vocabulary about water fights
Water fights are fun and it is a good conversation starter.
A great way to connect is talking about your childhood memories during summer or water activities.
Sharing cultural celebrations helps others get to know you on a deeper level.
Today we’ll share vocabulary you can use to talk about water fights.
#1: Water guns
These are toy guns that hold water and shoot out water.
They look nothing like real guns.
It usually is colorful and made out of plastic.
This is used by kids to have fun and try to soak their playmates.
Aubrey shares that when she was a kid, water guns were really tiny.
Nowadays there are big ones that shoot a heavy stream of water.
#2: Water balloons
These are balloons that are filled with water.
They are usually quite small.
However, they can be very big.
You can drench a person by throwing a number of these at them.
#3: Hose
This is a water hose where you can point at someone and make them wet.
You will definitely soak them using a hose with really high pressure.
It can spew out big amounts of water.
Start the conversation
Here are questions you can ask someone to start a conversation about water fights.
- Did you have water fights as a kid?
- What’s the biggest water fight you’ve been in?
These are very informal questions.
You can ask these to start a connection with a native English speaker who is traveling.
You can get a conversation going by sharing memories or something about your culture.
This will definitely not only start a connection but deepen it too.
Takeaway
Asking about a person’s past, childhood memories or holidays are all excellent ways to deepen a connection.
This is low-hanging fruit that you can try when talking to a native English speaker.
You don’t want to keep doing small talk but rather talk about something fun and relatable.
You want to have substance in your relationships!
Find ways to share ideas and experiences that will help you build a relationship with each other.
Have you ever participated in a water fight?
We’d love to hear from you so, share your experience in the comments below.
