Text: “Dating Problems”

In the United States dating often starts early. In some families thirteen-and fourteen-year-old boys and girls go out on dates. When young teenagers go on dates they often go with a group, and usually the group has a chaperone. But older teenagers usually do not have a chaperone on their dates.

When a third person arranges a date between two strangers, it is called a blind date. Some people send information about themselves to a computer dating bureau, which matches them with blind dates.

In the past it was customary for the boy to pay for a date. Sometimes today a girl pays for herself. This is called going Dutch. Frequently a boy asks a girl for a date, but more and more often girls are asking boys for dates.

There are different reasons for parents’ being worry about their children going out on dates. When a girl and boy date only each other, they are said to be going steady. Some parents do not want their children to go steady because they are afraid the children will get too serious about each other. These parents want their children to date many people so that they will not get serious about any of them. Some parents do not allow their children to go on dates because they do not approve of this custom. However, this sometimes causes difficulties.

Ex. 1. Read and translate the text.

Ex. 2. Answer the questions.

1. When does dating start in the United States? What is your opinion of it?

2. Do young people go on dates in your native country? How young are they when they begin?

3. Do they have a chaperone? If so, who usually goes as a chaperone?

4. Have you ever had a blind date? What do you think of this custom?

5. How do people in your native country find someone to marry? Do their parents find someone? Do they use a marriage broker? Do they ever advertise in a newspaper?

6. Do young people in your country go Dutch?

7. Can you think of five different things that parents might worry about when their children are out on a date?

8. What do you think of the custom to date many people not to get too serious about your date?

9. What is Russian parents’ opinion about that?

10. What are some difficulties dates might cause?

Discussion

Ex. 1. Role play the following scenes with another member of your group.

1. You meet your blind date in the train station. How do you recognize each other? What do you say to each other?

2. You want to ask someone to go to see a movie with you, but you have very little money. How do you tell the person you want to go Dutch?

3. You are the chaperone for a group of high school seniors on a trip. It’s 1:30 in the morning and you want to go to bed. They want to go out dancing in a discotheque. What do you say?

4. Your sixteen-year-old daughter wants to go to a drive-in movie with an eighteen-year-old boy who drives a car. What do you say?

5. Your son wants to borrow the car to take his girlfriend to a party. They will be taking two other couples. What do you say?

6. Your seventeen-year-old son has a 12:00 o’clock curfew. He thinks this is unreasonable, because most of his friends do not have any curfew at all. What do you say?

7. Your daughter is a freshman in college. She wants to go away with her boyfriend and some other students for a skiing weekend. There will not be a chaperone. What do you say?

Ex. 2. Read the teenagers’ letters about dating problems. Choose one of the letters and write a letter in reply. Try to express sympathy and give some explanation as well as practical advice.