Intro
1. Learn Vocabulary - Learn some new vocabulary before you start the lesson.
2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.
When we’re young, we expect that our parents will be together forever. Unfortunately, this isn’t always what happens in life. Divorce affects children and teenagers in challenging ways. Sometimes kids blame themselves for their parents’ break up even though it’s not their fault.
Even adult children of divorcing parents have a hard time understanding what’s going on, but it’s most difficult for the people going through the divorce themselves. Parents fight over custody of their children. Couples fight over things, or over who will live in the apartment or house. People who are divorced are often wary of making another commitment.
Lily and Rafael discuss their experiences with divorce in today’s English lesson about families.
Dialog
1. Listen and Read - Listen to the audio and read the dialog at the same time.
2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.
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Rafael: I’m feeling really excited because my mom and dad are coming to visit me.
Lily: That’s great that they’re still together.
Rafael: Yeah. I’d love to meet your parents sometime.
Lily: Well, that’s kind of hard, because their relationship is kind of tenuous. They divorced when I was a kid, so they’re not on very good speaking terms. It’s kind of bad.
Rafael: Did that make you skeptical of marriage?
Lily: It’s definitely made me feel wary about the whole thing. I have commitment issues. It affects a lot.
Rafael: So, who had you in their custody when you were growing up?
Lily: It was my mom. My mom is great, and I think that both of my parents are wonderful. It’s really sad to be around all the blame. Lots of times you kind of feel responsible when you’re a kid. You hear your parents fighting and, because you’re young, you kind of think that it’s your fault.
Rafael: Do you feel like they still have a lot of commitment to you?
Lily: Well, yeah. They have commitment to me, but they don’t necessarily have commitment to each other anymore.
Rafael: As long as they have commitment to you, that’s the important thing.
Lily: True.
Grammar Point
Go Super to learn "Present Perfect Tense" from this lesson
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Discussion
Lily shares with Rafael that her parents divorced when she was young. Even though it was a long time ago, her parents are not on very good speaking terms, and it’s clearly difficult for Lily. Rafael asks if she’s skeptical about marriage because her parents are divorced, and Lily says that she is.
Lily lived with her mother when she was growing up, and she still has a good relationship with both of her parents. Rafael reminds Lily that her parents are very committed to her, and that’s the most important thing. She agrees, but it’s obvious that Lily wishes her parents were still married like Rafael’s.
Are your parents divorced, or are you divorced? What did you learn from the experience?
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