CONGRATULATION

Objectives

DESCRIPTION: Analyzing social functions, text structure, and linguistic elements in a congratulation according to the context of its use.

LESSON

Key Points

Showing to others that you are happy when they are successful is part of what is called empathy. Furthermore, congratulating people shows that you care for them, appreciate their achievement and be happy for them. It is very ethical and polite to do this in different situations such as to your friends, teachers, parents, sibling, even to rivals. In a competition, your best friend is the winner. You want to congratulate him over his success. Do you know, what will you say to show that you are happy for him? In this discussion, we will learn about the expressions of congratulation. Congratulation is an expression that we use to give acknowledgement, show happiness and appreciation to someone when s/he succeeds doing something.

When can we congratulate someone? The following social and personal contexts are some examples where someone will normally congratulate someone else:

• winning a competition
• passing national examination
• succeeding in doing something important
• having a successful presentation
• getting high scores in tests
• successfully getting over some personal problems
• finishing targets in learning, group projects, etc.

Do we congratulate others just because they have good relationship with us? The answer is no. In competitions and sports match, it is very important to show respect and appreciation over competitor’s success. Although it feels disappointing to see other people or team perform better that you, show appreciation by congratulating the winning person or team.

Let’s read the following dialogue, illustrating the above situation when a student wants to congratulate his friend after winning a badminton match :

Galuh : “Hi Rudy, how are you?”
Rudy : “Hi, I am fine thank you. How is everything with you?”
Galuh : “I am great. I heard you won a badminton competition yesterday.”
Rudy : “Yes, I won the first place in the competition.”
Galuh : “Gee, ... Well done! Congratulation!”
Rudy : “Thank you very much. I was just lucky to win the competition.”
Galuh : “No, you deserved it. You are a very talented badminton player.”
Rudy : “That is very nice of you saying that, I really appreciate it.”

The dialog above shows us how to congratulate someone. The expression is:
“Well done! Congratulation!

The accepted common response is:
“Thank you very much.”

Here are some expressions of congratulations:

CONGRATULATING EXPRESSIONS
* I’d be the first to congratulate you on….
* I’d like to congratulate you on…..
* Please accept my warmest congratulations.
* May I congratulate you on…
* I must congratulate you.
* It was great to hear about…
* Congratulations!
* Congratulations on….!
* Well done! / Fantastic!

www.quipperschool.com