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House Guests

Date: Jul 11 2008

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.

It’s nice to have friends come over, but what about when those friends never leave? Or what about that relative that has no place to stay and ends up sleeping on your couch for a day or 90? That can be pretty annoying.

But sometimes you invite people to stay with you for a long time. Students often stay with generous families eager to show off their culture. Listen to Amanda and Mason talk about the different kinds of house guests.

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.

Amanda

Mason

Amanda: I’m a pretty good hostess with the mostess, but that’s with regard to someone coming over for dinner, drinks…short term.

Mason: Short term.

Amanda: When someone becomes a house guest and they’re…

Mason: There’s different rules at that point, right?

Amanda: Yeah! A week, a month, more…

Mason: It kind of switches, you know, when you’re the hostess, you have to do all these wonderful things for your guests. When someone’s staying for more than three days, they’re basically your butler.

Amanda: I don’t know about that. But you’re right, the roles are a little reversed because you’re putting them up, and so in exchange they need to help out a little bit, around the house…

Mason: Absolutely. No question.

Amanda: ...with cooking and cleaning…

Mason: ...buying groceries every once and a while.

Amanda: They’re not staying at a bed and breakfast and I think a lot of people aren’t aware of those guidelines.

Mason: You know, it’s funny. Have you ever had a foreign exchange student?

Amanda: I haven’t.

Mason: Because we had one when I was younger and they get the rules, right. It was a Japanese exchange student, who are notoriously polite and wonderful house guests, so we had to practically restrain her from doing stuff and letting her enjoy her time.

Amanda: So did you find that you always had to include her because she’s staying with you? That you couldn’t really do anything on your own or watch a show by yourself?

Mason: I suppose since that was a cultural exchange there was a novelty to like…It was cool for me to show her everything that was normal to me but not to her.

Amanda: OK, the whole American experience.

Mason: Yeah, but if it was just a buddy crashing on my couch? Yeah, that would be a burden.

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Discussion

As long as the visit lasts an evening, or even a few days, Amanda likes to host. It’s when someone camps out at her place that she gets upset.

Mason points out that after a few days, the customs change. When you host guests for a little while, you do things to make their visit enjoyable. But when guests stay for a long time, it’s their duty to help out and make their stay as little of an inconvenience for you as possible.

One time Mason’s family hosted a Japanese student. She was so polite that they had to force her to quit helping out around the house and to go out and see the USA. Amanda asks if it was annoying having a student around all the time, but Mason says it was fun to show her things about American culture.

What is the proper way for a long-term house guest to act?