> Go to Listening Script | Idioms Quiz | Gap-fill Exercise
I. Warm Up
Developing positive relationships with others is one key to a happy life, and dating and marriage are important customs and traditions across cultures, even though there are often differences in the events and expectations. What do you think the keys are to a successful relationship?
2. Conversation
Pronunciation Tip: YOU changes to YA.
Listen to the conversation and answer the questions. Alex and Sarah run into each other at college after not having seen each other for six months since they finished a study abroad program.
3. Retelling the Story
Instructions: Retell the advice above using the vocabulary you have learned. Then discuss with a partner how your own dating experiences have been the same or different.
4. Expanding Your Learning
Instructions: Select one or more of the activities below to expand your understanding and use of the expressions studied in this unit.
- Discussion: Talk with a partner about the joys and challenges of dating.
- Improvisation: Give your partner(s) a new vocabulary word from this unit and ask the partner to think up a sentence or more with the slang used in context. Sharing something from personal experience will make the activity more real and interesting to the listeners.
- Writing: Compose a short paper on the similarities and differences between dating in your area and dating practices in another country. Use transition words to compare and contrast:
- Both North Americans and Brazilians ________
- One thing both cultures/groups have in common is ______________.
- Like Canadians, Koreans ________________.
- North Americans ______________, but the Chinese _________.
- Unlike Mexicans, Canadians ______________.
- The French ___________ while Australians __________.
- Real Speak: Interview a native speaker at your school or in the local community about dating practices in his or her country.