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Lesson 3
A Kenyan family
Objectives: By the end of the lesson you will have
• read two passages about Kenyan family patterns and problems
• discussed important words and ideas in the passages
• made comparisons between living in different places
• written about past experiences
A Do you know in which continent Kenya is located? If you have a world map in your classroom, find the country or at least the continent on it.
Discuss in pairs what you know about Kenya. Do you know anything about marriage and family life there?
Do you understand 'polygamy' and 'monogamy'? Match the words on the left with the examples on the right.
1 polygamy
2 monogamy a Azam and Rabeya are a happy couple.
b Mr Habib has a large family consisting of 2 wives and 7 children.
B Now read the following passage about Kenyan family traditions.
Marriage and Family life in Kenya
In the past, the common form of marriage among the various cultural groups in Kenya was polygamy and the polygamous families were embedded in extended family units consisting of a man, his several wives and their married sons and children. But in line with the modern world, things are now changing there. The old custom of polygamous marriage is yielding to the new practice of monogamy, although many polygamous families can still be found in the rural areas of Kenya. Many monogamous Kenyans are now living in nuclear families with their single spouses and their children. Many of them have given up their pastoral lives and have become wage-earners in cities. But they can hardly give up their extended family and lineage connections back in their villages. Some families have to maintain two households, one in their extended-family home in the village and the other in the city. This often poses a dilemma for them.
Now discuss in pairs the following questions. You can agree or disagree with what your partner says.
1 From your understanding of the passage, what do you think is the dilemma of a modern Kenyan?
2 Can you guess why polygamy is disappearing day by day in Kenya?
3 What is your attitude towards polygamy? Do you find it in Bangladesh?
C Mr Charles Karoro is a Kenyan university graduate who works for a nationalised bank in Nairobi. He is married with two children. Read what he says.
Hello. My name's Charles Karoro and I'm a banker. My salary's okay but the
day-to-day expenses in Nairobi are pretty high. Both housing and food are costly in the capital. I've rented an apartment but it's really too small for my family.
Of course it doesn't have a garden. So my wife Maria, who loves gardening, can't grow anything. She can't go out to work either because there's no one else in the house to look after the children. So the whole family depends on my income alone. I've great hopes for my children and would like to send them a good school. But good schools are very expensive. I'm not sure how much I'll be able to help them. Moreover, I'm often in a fix about whether I should share my income with my brothers in the village who need help with their children's education and other things, or use all my money on my own family. I've another problem too. My relatives often come to Nairobi hoping to find jobs. They expect to move into my apartment and stay for long periods of time. They don't seem to realise that the cost of living is so high in the city. I love my relatives a great deal but life can be very difficult at times.
Now think about Charles' life and, in pairs, see if you can find some points of similarities and differences between his life and the life of an average city-dweller in Bangladesh.
D Here are the dictionary meanings of some words taken from the two passages above. Place the missing headword in the appropriate place to match its meaning.
1. : established socially accepted practice
2. : the custom or practice of having more than one wife at the same time
3. : concerning simple peaceful country life
4. : series of families from which one is descended
5. : custom or practice of having one wife or husband at one time
6. : a wife or a husband
7. : a difficult choice to be made between two courses of action
E How do you feel when you have to put up a guest at your house? Do you face any problems? Write about one of your past experiences with guests in about 10 sentences.
Focus:
Skills.
Intensive reading, speaking,
writing
Functions.
Making causal connections, expressing attitude, comparing
Grammar/Structure.
Simple present tense, simple past tense,
comparatives
Vocabulary.
polygamy,
monogamy, embedded, spouse, hardly, lineage, nuclear, dilemma, pastoral
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Lesson 3
A Kenyan family
Objectives: By the end of the lesson you will have
• read two passages about Kenyan family patterns and problems
• discussed important words and ideas in the passages
• made comparisons between living in different places
• written about past experiences
A Do you know in which continent Kenya is located? If you have a world map in your classroom, find the country or at least the continent on it.
Discuss in pairs what you know about Kenya. Do you know anything about marriage and family life there?
Do you understand 'polygamy' and 'monogamy'? Match the words on the left with the examples on the right.
1 polygamy
2 monogamy a Azam and Rabeya are a happy couple.
b Mr Habib has a large family consisting of 2 wives and 7 children.
B Now read the following passage about Kenyan family traditions.
Marriage and Family life in Kenya
In the past, the common form of marriage among the various cultural groups in Kenya was polygamy and the polygamous families were embedded in extended family units consisting of a man, his several wives and their married sons and children. But in line with the modern world, things are now changing there. The old custom of polygamous marriage is yielding to the new practice of monogamy, although many polygamous families can still be found in the rural areas of Kenya. Many monogamous Kenyans are now living in nuclear families with their single spouses and their children. Many of them have given up their pastoral lives and have become wage-earners in cities. But they can hardly give up their extended family and lineage connections back in their villages. Some families have to maintain two households, one in their extended-family home in the village and the other in the city. This often poses a dilemma for them.
Now discuss in pairs the following questions. You can agree or disagree with what your partner says.
1 From your understanding of the passage, what do you think is the dilemma of a modern Kenyan?
2 Can you guess why polygamy is disappearing day by day in Kenya?
3 What is your attitude towards polygamy? Do you find it in Bangladesh?
C Mr Charles Karoro is a Kenyan university graduate who works for a nationalised bank in Nairobi. He is married with two children. Read what he says.
Hello. My name's Charles Karoro and I'm a banker. My salary's okay but the
day-to-day expenses in Nairobi are pretty high. Both housing and food are costly in the capital. I've rented an apartment but it's really too small for my family.
Of course it doesn't have a garden. So my wife Maria, who loves gardening, can't grow anything. She can't go out to work either because there's no one else in the house to look after the children. So the whole family depends on my income alone. I've great hopes for my children and would like to send them a good school. But good schools are very expensive. I'm not sure how much I'll be able to help them. Moreover, I'm often in a fix about whether I should share my income with my brothers in the village who need help with their children's education and other things, or use all my money on my own family. I've another problem too. My relatives often come to Nairobi hoping to find jobs. They expect to move into my apartment and stay for long periods of time. They don't seem to realise that the cost of living is so high in the city. I love my relatives a great deal but life can be very difficult at times.
Now think about Charles' life and, in pairs, see if you can find some points of similarities and differences between his life and the life of an average city-dweller in Bangladesh.
D Here are the dictionary meanings of some words taken from the two passages above. Place the missing headword in the appropriate place to match its meaning.
1. : established socially accepted practice
2. : the custom or practice of having more than one wife at the same time
3. : concerning simple peaceful country life
4. : series of families from which one is descended
5. : custom or practice of having one wife or husband at one time
6. : a wife or a husband
7. : a difficult choice to be made between two courses of action
E How do you feel when you have to put up a guest at your house? Do you face any problems? Write about one of your past experiences with guests in about 10 sentences.
Focus:
Skills.
Intensive reading, speaking,
writing
Functions.
Making causal connections, expressing attitude, comparing
Grammar/Structure.
Simple present tense, simple past tense,
comparatives
Vocabulary.
polygamy,
monogamy, embedded, spouse, hardly, lineage, nuclear, dilemma, pastoral