Jennifer TS#13

Date/Time: July 6, 5:30PM

Location: Taco Speak & Krenshaw Lanes

Topics: ESL Articles, Cultural Differences, & Billiards

Let me first say that Abdulrahman is doing fairly well. His progress for reading comprehension is not as much as I thought it would be so he often picks out some facts from the articles we read/discuss, but misses the main idea. He is good at asking questions and taking things apart for discussion with help though.

The other article was about people’s opinion of the institution of marriage and it’s purpose. http://www.english-online.at/news-articles/living/is-marriage-becoming-old-fashioned.htm I know that his personal beliefs are such that people should get married once, have kids and stay together forever, which is quite different from the content of this article. Abdulrahman and discussed the differences between marriages here and in Saudi Arabia. There were a few words that he needed clarification on such as conduct, obsolete, and liberal.

I asked if his parents “arranged” his siblings’ marriages, but he said that it is the man’s job to ask for permission to marry the woman so his brother had to ask for permission from his wife’s family and conversely his sisters’ husbands had to ask permission from their (Abdulrahman’s) family. I told him that some people who are very traditional still do that here, but generally, people can select and marry whomever they choose. He then asked if people here only get married once, and I told him that many people get divorced and then marry someone different. In Saudi Arabia, there is no divorce. If the husband wants another (read different) wife, he simply marries another so polygamy is a normal occurrence more so than divorce in Saudi Arabia. Also, it is the husband’s job to pay for the wife, meaning the wife does not have to work.

Vocabulary for Is Marriage Becoming Old-Fashioned

·       according to = as reported by …

·       adopt = to take someone’s child into your own home and bring it up

·       care for = look after

·       conduct = carry out

·       couple = two people who are married or have a relationship with each other

·       data = information

·       define = describe

·       divorce = to officially end a marriage

·       economically = financially

·       graduate = a person who has finished a school and has received a certificate or diploma

·       included = also

·       liberal = open-minded, tolerant

·       lower income = without much money

·       marriage = when two people are married

·       marry = to become husband and wife

·       obsolete = old fashioned, out-of-date

·       on average = normally

·       out-of-date = old fashioned, not modern

·       senior = older person

·       separate = split up, go away from each other

·       serious = earnest, something is important

·       share = to split up, divide

·       society = people in general

·       supporter = a person who is for something

·       survey = a number of questions that you ask a lot of people  in order to find out what they think about a certain subject

·       survive = exist, live on in a difficult situation

·       unmarried couple = two people who are not married

·       witness = observe, see