Hello everyone and welcome to English pod.
My name is Marco. My name is Katherine and today we have an upper intermediate level lesson.
It's kind of bitter.
It's a little bit sad but it's also kind of sweet.
That's right we have a lesson today all about getting a divorce or divorcing someone.
Yeah so this is what happens when two people's marriage ends.
They decide they want to leave each other they have a divorce so let's take a listen So today's dialogue and we'll be back in a moment.
Joanne, let's not make this divorce any more acrimonial than it already is, okay?
Let's just get down to business and start dividing this stuff up fairly so we can go our separate ways, all right.
Fine with me, I just want to get this over with.
It's important we make a clean break.
Oh, should I sign a pre -note.
What was that? Nothing.
Anyway, you're right.
But there's no reason this has to be nasty.
My lawyer tells me that you've accepted our alimony proposal and the division of property as well as the custody agreement.
I keep the cat and you get the dog, so that's done.
Well, let's not go there, Joanne.
Okay, so let's start with the record collection.
I'll take the album to I contributed and you can have your cheesy disco albums back.
Fine, but I'm keeping the antique gramophone as my grandfather gave it to me.
I believe that was a wedding present to both of us Joanne and you hardly ever use it.
He's my grandfather, and he never really liked you anyway.
Whatever! Alright I will concede the silly Gramophone if you agree I get this silver T -set.
How typical! When are you ever going to use a silver T -set?
Fine. I don't want to drag this out any more than necessary.
What's next? What about these old photographs?
Which ones? Let me have a look.
Oh well. look at that that brings back memories.
Remember that? Our trip to Italy, I remember that day, we are going to visit the Trevi Fountain and we got caught in the rain.
And he looks so adorable with your hair all wet.
I did take a picture of yeast tinning there in that little alley smiling and laughing in the rain.
Well we really did have fun back then didn't we?
Oh Joanne, are we making a big mistake?
I know our relationship has been on rocks for some time.
But are you sure we can't reconcile and try again?
They still love you.
Oh Jeff, I love you too!
I'm so glad we didn't have to decide who keeps the motorcycles.
The motorcycle. But that's mine.
All right. We're back so now, why don't we take a look at six key words on language takeaway.
Language takeaway? OK, Marco, this first word is what we call an SAT word. That means it's very difficult.
It's so hard that many high school students in America study it before they go to college.
Acrimonius. So the sentence starts off by saying, let's not make this divorce any more acrimonius than it already is.
This divorce is very acrimonious, but let's not make it worse.
So acrimonious would be bitter, bitter, very complicated.
So people emotional about it.
You know, people, Joanne and Jeff are getting a divorce.
They're very angry at each other.
So, uh, they're not, they're not having a peaceful divorce.
So this is the opposite.
It's, it's very bitter.
It's very angry. Can you say this test is very acrimonious?
No. Usually relationships are acrimonious, For example, ever since they had that big fight, Jeff and Joanne's relationship has been very acrimonious.
Okay, awesome. So acrimonious.
A very hard word there, as you say, many people studied to pass exams in order to go into college.
So now you know. Now, moving on, we have a very common legal term.
When people are getting married, they want to sign sometimes a prenup.
Yeah, you said it's common. You hear this a lot in movies and TV.
Yeah. I use celebrities.
You read about celebrities.
So basically, a prenup is a short way of saying a prenupual agreement.
Nupual means having to do with marriage.
So basically, if you sign a prenup, you are agreeing to certain conditions before you get married.
That's right. It's a contract between future husband and future wife about what happens if they divorce.
For example, I decided not to get a prenup with my fiancée, because I don't think we'll get divorced.
But maybe he decided to get a prenup because in case they divorced, he wants to keep his car.
Right, so it usually happens a lot with celebrities as we say because they have a lot of money.
And if they get divorced and usually it can get complicated, how much money the spouse gets, et cetera, so maybe their prenup shul agreement or prenup will be that if they get divorced, the wife may get maybe a million dollars instead of 100 million dollars.
Exactly. It's a way many people protect themselves financially in case of divorce.
Very good. Now, moving on another legal term and related to money is an alimony.
Okay, so let's look at the context of this word, Joanne is talking and she says, My lawyer tells me you've accepted our alimony proposal.
Alimony, so this is probably something to do with money, right?
So, she said her lawyer has proposed an alimony and that's usually a settlement, an amount of money that you agree on when you get divorced.
Right, so this is exactly it.
In a divorce, this is how much money one person will pay the other.
That's right. So if two people are married and when they get divorced, their alimony may be the husband if he's got a lot of money he will pay an alimony of five hundred thousand dollars.
Right? And so this is different from property, which is the next thing.
Division of property means that you talk about who will receive the car, the house, like that.
Okay. Very good. So very complicated situations when you're getting divorced, the pre -nubs, and They were talking about custody as well.
Custody of maybe children, maybe a custody of their pets.
That's right. So you talk about alimony.
This is money. Property, which is things.
But what about people and animals?
This is called custody.
I want custody, custody means caring for something or looking after something.
You could say the child is in the grandmother's custody.
In the care of the grandmother.
That's right. So usually, as well, when people get divorced somebody gets custody of the children.
Right, so he wants custody, but he doesn't have a job, so she will receive custody.
You can say that in this case that we're talking about custody of pets animals.
Right, in this case it's animals, but it's actually true, people when they get divorced, they may ask the court for custody of their pets.
That's right, and sometimes custody is what makes a divorce extremely acrimonious.
Yes, who gets to keep the children who gets to keep the pets.
Now moving on in a little bit away from legal terms, they were dividing up their properties and say, Well, I get to keep this, you get to keep that.
And Joanne said, I'm keeping the antique gramophone as my grandfather gave it to me.
So who cares about pets and money?
I want the gramophone.
Right. All right. So this is actually a word you don't hear very often anymore.
It's an old thing. And that's what antique means, right?
Antique is old. Right, so antique, this is an adjective here.
It can also be a noun.
An antique table, an antique gramophone, is something that's very old, like 100 years old, or 150 years old.
And a gramophone is one of those machines that you see in movies that played the old vinyl records, and has like a big horn, where the sound echoes.
That's right. So in the 19th century, early 20th century, people didn't have CDs or NQ3's or iPods.
This is how they listen to music.
So you usually have a hand crank, you have to turn the machine and then the music will play and you can dance and do whatever.
Right, so that's a gramophone.
Now we'll be going to our last word, Geoff said.
You know what? Okay, fine, keep the gramophone.
Alright, I'll concede the silly gramophone.
So to concede. To concede means to give up an argument.
Okay. So, you give up.
You give in, you say, all right, take it.
That's exactly right.
So, in this case, the argument is, who will receive the gram of phone?
They fight. They argue.
And finally, just says, I can see it.
Okay. I give up. You take it.
And is it only for things or can you also concede someone?
Like, you say somebody is right.
You can say that or an election.
For example, there are two people who want to be president and the vote is counted and It's not clear who the president is, and one person says, fine, I concede.
That means I give up you in.
Okay, very good. So to concede, all right, six key words there.
They're very interesting, especially the legal terms, very common and it's very, it's very common and it's very useful for you to know next time you're watching maybe a movie or something related to this topic.
Hopefully not the next time you're getting divorced, but move, let's move on now to four key phrases that we have for everyone on Fluency Builder.
Fluency Builder. Margot, let's get this over with.
I am tired. I want to go home.
Let's get it over with.
Come on. Just do it and get it over with.
All right. So this is our first phrase in Fluency Builder to get this over with or to get it over with?
Okay, so let's take that as a phrase and to get something over with means just finish it quickly.
Let's stop delaying.
That's right. This is a this is a way to ask to finish something quickly or just stop something so for example, I have to go to the dentist later.
Maybe I really don't want to go.
I'll say to myself Let me just get this over with then once it's done.
I don't have to worry about it Or maybe you have Homer to do instead of doing it later.
You just like okay I'm gonna do it now.
I just get it over with all right to get over with to get something over with okay and when they were talking about breaking up or separating Joanne mentioned it's important we make a clean break what does she mean by making a clean break alright we hear this phrase all the time it's very important phrase in relationships it means when two people leave each other you don't then call them or see each other or hang out it means a clean break you stop all together okay you you stop something completely so you don't talk anymore you don't see each other anymore you you completely just stops contact
with each other exactly you can also say this about breaking something um you could say it was a clean break when I broke my arm it was a clean break there were no little pieces of bone or any problems like it was a clean break that means completely broke okay so when we talk about clean break in a relationship it we completely break up we stop talking to each other and it's over with it over it's in the past exactly all right so moving on they were talking and completely you know arguing about I get the gramophone I get the t -scene and Joanne said okay fine I don't want to drag this out any longer
than necessary so you can her I don't want to drag this out any longer than necessary.
So to drag something out means to extend to make something longer to make something take more time than it should.
Okay so for example if someone's giving a speech they may be dragging it out right and you're wait so someone's giving a very long speech you're like oh my god he's dragging the speech out so long.
Yeah I'm tired of arguing, let's not drag this out anymore.
Let's just stop. OK, so to drag something out is usually time related to make things longer than necessary.
All right. And for our last phrase, when Jeff was talking about the relationship, he says, I know a relationship has been on the rocks for some time.
OK, so the relationship was on the rocks.
OK, so this is an interesting phrase.
think about rocks, you know, you see rocks on my ground and the ocean, something that's on the rocks in this case means something that is not going well, something that has problems. Yes, it's not smooth.
So when Jeff says our relationship has been on the rocks, he's saying we fight a lot, we have problems. It's not working.
So if I say, my company has been on the rocks recently, it means it's not doing very well.
Business is not going well.
Okay. So you You may have heard it before for drinks.
You say, a Scotch on the rocks.
Right. That's different.
Be careful. In that sentence.
Mark was talking about ice.
So that's different if you ask for a drink on the rocks, but if you describe yourself or your company or a relationship as being on the rocks, it means you're having a tough time.
It's a bad situation.
So, it's a very useful phrase.
I think that's very native, very colloquial with you say something like this.
Absolutely. It's a great phrase to use.
I encourage you, I mean, I hope that your situation, your work and your relationships are not on the rocks, but I do hope that when you're practicing speaking, you use this phrase a lot, because it's really, really cool, you're like, like you say Marko.
Yeah, it's really good.
So I think we've taken a look at a lot of phrases, a lot of vocab.
Why don't we go back, listen to the dialogue for one last time.
Joanne, let's not make this divorce any more acrimony as thin at all as it is.
Okay, let's get down to business and start dividing this stuff up fairly so we can go our separate ways.
All right, fine with me.
I just want to get this over with.
Is important we make a clean break.
Oh, should have signed a pre -nup.
What was that? Nothing.
Anyway, you're right.
There's no reason this has to be nasty.
My lawyer tells me that you've accepted our Alimony proposal and the Division of Property, as well as the custody agreement.
I keep the cat and you get the dog, so that's done.
Finally... I'll take the albums I contributed, and you can have your cheesy disco albums back.
Fine, but I'm keeping the anti -gramophone as my grandfather gave it to me.
I believe that was a wedding present to both of us Joanne, and you hardly ever Use it.
He's my grandfather and he never really liked you anyway whatever All right, I'll concede the silly gram of phone if you'll agree that I get this silver tea set How typical when are you ever going to use a silver tea set?
Fine, I don't want to drag this out any more than necessary What's next?
What about these old photographs?
which ones? Let me have a look.
Oh well, look at that That brings back memories Remember that?
Our trip to Italy. I remember that day.
We were going to visit the Trevi Fountain, and we got caught in the rain.
And he looked so adorable with your hair all wet.
I did take a picture of Easton in there in that little alley.
Smiling and laughing in the rain.
Oh, we really did have fun back then, didn't we?
Oh, Julien. We're making a big mistake.
I know our relationship has been on the rocks for some time.
But are you sure we can't reconcile and try again?
I still love you. Oh Jeff, I love you too.
I'm so glad we didn't have to decide who keeps the motorcycles.
The motorcycle? But that's mine!
Alright, we're back so a very interesting dialogue all about divorce now.
This is a very common situation nowadays in many countries such as the United States or Europe.
divorce rates are very high lately, like in the past 10, 20 years.
Yeah, they do say that since maybe the 70s or 80s divorce rates have been on the rise, I think the average now in America is about 50%.
Yeah, it's like 5 in 10 marriages and in divorce.
That's right. And then from what I understand or I read once, I think out of those 50 % that get divorced, if they remarried again, the probabilities of those that get remarried are again half, So most likely people will get divorced at least twice.
That's true. Although sometimes you meet people who got married when they were very, very young and they realized that they grew up a little bit and their personality changed or their goals changed and they divorced at one time but then later in life when they marry again, they know who they are.
They get married again, it's better.
So I think the situations are all quite different but it is true that there are a lot of divorces in America.
What about Ecuador, though?
I mean, is the divorce rate similar?
Um, not really, I think people are still a little bit more old -fashioned in that sense.
Like it was before, you know, it was even a little bit taboo to be divorced.
Um, but I don't think people get divorces off.
And especially if people have been together for quite a while, that's one of the things that surprises me a lot is, I've met people who have been married 20, 30 years and then get divorced.
And it's like, why was it like you've been through the toughest times, you know, you pretty much beef the odds and why do you get the divorce at such a late age?
Yeah, it does seem counterintuitive, but it's possible that they were unhappy for that time, and they didn't want to affect their children's lives.
Right. And so when their children go to college or leave, they say, okay, now I can, I can, you know, make a big decision.
I know in countries, for example, such as Chile, divorce is still illegal.
I think in the Philippines as well.
Really? Yeah it's still illegal to get divorced.
Is that because they're very religious countries?
Um, I know Chile is not really that religious.
I don't know what it is exactly by law, but a lot of people.
I think it may be legal now I can't really remember very well I think one of our Chilean listeners can help us out here But I know a lot of people used to annul their marriages because of this So they would be like, oh, I put the wrong address so no, this marriage is not it's not valid Or I spilled my name wrong, yeah, yeah Interesting, well, I'd be curious to know as you said whether any virtually in friends know more about this or for the rest of you in your country is is it uncommon?
Are there laws that prohibit or that allow divorce?
Let us know on our website, EnglishPod .com.
All right, we'll see you guys there.
Bye. Bye.
