Holidays are a wonderful time to spend with friends and family, eating and sharing stories.

Whether you are celebrating at home, waiting at airports or spending time on trains, buses or cars, these situations can give you great chances to learn English.

Here are some ideas that you can use to improve your English over the holidays.

Podcasts

The Learning English Broadcast is a 30-minute daily podcast that features the audio from our main stories each day. Listening to the podcast will help develop your ability to understand spoken English and keep you informed of news and information.

Once you have finished a program, tell someone what you have learned - tell them about an interesting story in English or your native language. Either way, you are confirming your understanding of what you heard in English.

Published materials

Airports and train stations often have stores selling published materials. Buy an English-language publication to read it while you are waiting or spending quiet time at a hotel or in a home.

Look at the images and read the lines below them. Even if you do not understand all the words, you can use the images to help you understand some of them. Later, you can use an online dictionary to look up the words you want to learn.

Conversation

While traveling, it is not unusual to see people from other countries who are also waiting or exploring a new place. If you hear someone asking for information in English, you might offer to help or simply greet them in English to talk. A friendly conversation is usually welcome as travelers share their experiences.

Writing about your day

Writing about your day is a great way to practice your English writing skill. Draw images of what you see or do in your travels and look up the English words for the places or events later if you cannot think of them at the time.

Using English to describe how you spent your holiday will help you to put new words to use and make them stay in your memory longer. And you will have a wonderful record of your travel to look at long after the holiday is over.

We hope you enjoy your travels this year, especially as we have spent much time at home the past two years. If you must stay home this holiday, you can always spend more time with us here at VOA Learning English.