| Level: | Topic: | Speakers: | Length: |
| intermediate | bathhouse | man – man | 01:38 |
Pre-Listening Exercise
Name two customs or traditions visitors to your country may have difficulty adjusting to. As part of this discussion, talk about any points that visitors should be aware of when staying as a guest at a home in your country.
Idioms
“take a bath” = lose money
“His family business took a real bath when the giant superstore moved into town.”
“doesn’t/won’t wash” = used to say that you don’t believe someone’s explanation or attitude about something
“Your excuse that your dog ate your homework won’t wash with the teacher.”
Listening Exercise
A. Listen to the recording and answer the questions. The story describes the very old-style baths that are often not seen today.
Vocabulary Practice
Do the vocabulary quizzes with the words from the conversation for more practice:
Post-Listening Exercise
Discuss the topics below with a partner:
- three aspects of your culture that may require foreigners to get used to
- an experience in visiting a foreign country where you had difficulty with the language or culture.
Online Investigation
Use the Internet to learn about a unique cultural tradition of one of these countries, or a country that interests you:
- Cheese chasing in England
- The water festival in Thailand
- Wife-carrying tournament in Finland
- Groundhog Day in the United States
- Throwing baby teeth on the roof in some countries
- La Tomatina in Spain
- The Haka in New Zealand