Dating Game Conversation Hour (17/6)

 Hello all,

This past Monday, we learned about the word "date" as both a noun and a verb. As a verb, "to date" means to go out with someone in a romantic sense. For example, "I am going out on a date with John tonight" or "I am dating Henry right now."

As a noun, "date" simply means a meeting with someone, and does not have to imply anything romantic. For example, "I have a brunch date with Sally on Sunday" or "Joan and Rachel have a shopping date this weekend." A "playdate" refers to a meeting of children organized by parents. For example, "George Jr. and Little Sally have a playdate this weekend at the Children's Museum." George Jr. and Sally are obviously not going on a "playdate" without their parents!


Next, we played a dating game based on "Lonely Hearts" ads in American and British newspapers. Here is an example of a "Lonely Hearts" section of a newspaper if you guys are interested in seeing a real one. Do they look like the ones we produced in class? How are they different?

Using photographs cut out from a magazine, students made up descriptions of individuals of a variety of backgrounds: some were old, young, African-American, caucasian, slender, athletic, voluptuous, and the list goes on etc.

Next, we created a description of who these individuals were looking for in a romantic partner using the "lonely hearts"ad style. Finally, students went around the room trying to find a match for their character using 4 questions we cam up with:

1. Are you a man or a woman?

2. How old are you?

3. What do you look like?

4. How would you describe your personality?

Here is a picture of our wonderful students with the matches they found for their characters.

Do you have any dates this weekend (romantic or not)? Let me know in the comments below! Thank you to everyone who came. See you next time.