China232.com Blog

I was just on Yahoo.com and I read an article about the latest news with the divorce of Tiger Woods.  He got divorced a while ago for cheating LIKE CRAZY on his beautiful wife with many other women.

Note:  Add and I already did a podcast about Tiger Woods and what happened with his wife.  Here is the Tiger Woods podcast

Anyway, his wife found out about the cheating and obviously wanted to leave him.  Tiger Woods is obviously a very rich and famous golfer.  It’s no surprise that he has A LOT of money.

Cheating on your wife or husband is clearly a very bad thing to do (I think in any culture) but it’s an interesting topic because cheating is handled very differently all over the world.  I wanted to have a little discussion here about this, teach some English, and get your thoughts and cultural opinions.

I don’t know all the laws in all western countries, but in Canada and the US, getting divorced is expensive!  If you are the rich person, getting divorced can often cost you at least half of your money and assets.  The reason for the divorce doesn’t even matter.  If you are a rich guy and your wife cheats on you, she still gets half of your money.  It sounds crazy, but it’s true.  It’s the same if a man did that to a woman.  (Mini English lesson:  Cheating on your wife or husband is called having an “extra marital affair”)  Sometimes people just use the word “affair” to make it simpler.  Anyway, that’s what it means.

Do you think that is fair and reasonable?  How does it work in your country?  Should couples split money 50/50 for ANY reason in a divorce?

As many of you know from our podcasts, my girlfriend is from Seoul Korea.  We were talking about this and she told me something that shocked me.  She said that cheating on your husband or wife is illegal in South Korea.  If you get caught doing it, it’s possible you go to jail for up to 2 years.  I just read the same thing online.  (I should believe her more when we talk.  It’s my habit to always look up facts on the internet)  I actually think it’s an interesting law.  It’s new to me, but I think it makes sense. 2 years is a long time, but cheating is really horrible and it destroys families.  It’s a difficult question.  What do you guys think?  How is this handled in your country?  Any Koreans reading this want to comment?  We’d love to hear from you!  (And from everyone around the world too of course.)

Ok….. Back to Tiger Woods and his ex.  She got a HUGE divorce settlement.  (A “settlement” in this case means a lot of money, or a lot of stuff with value, things like houses, cars, etc)  It’s what the divorce courts “settled” or agreed upon.  That’s why it’s called a”settlement”.

Tiger cheated on her, so it’s certainly fair that she should get a lot of his stuff, but it’s quite amazing how much she got.  Do you think this is fair and reasonable?  Maybe it is, I just want to hear your honest opinions.  She’s one rich lady.  She got about $100 million USD in the settlement!

Love to hear your thoughts on all this guys!  (By the way, I read your comments from the last article and am working on a good lesson to teach those words and phrases.  Thanks for all the support!)

Here is the Yahoo article I was reading.  You can see photos of the house she’s getting.

Again, here is the Tiger Woods Divorce Podcast if you are interested and haven’t heard it yet.

I just read a really great article about how successful people lower or reduce their stress levels.

I naturally get stressed all the time so I often find myself reading these kinds of things.  Most of the articles I find online aren’t really that good, but this one was one of the better ones I’ve seen.  It’s from the Harvard Business school.

I wanted to share it with you for 2 reasons.  The first reason is that I’m sure you’ll find it interesting and helpful.  Even if you aren’t a stress case, I’m sure that you’ve had times in your life where stress was annoying and you wanted a healthy way to get rid of it.  This article will help you for that.  It’s enjoyable to read and think about.

The second reason I wanted to share it with you is that it is a perfect level of English for us to discuss together.  I’m sure you’ll learn some great English in here.  This will help improve your reading comprehension.  (“Reading comprehension” means how well you understand what you read).

I want you to read it first and try to get the main idea.  Don’t use a dictionary.  Then read it one more time and write down any words or phrases that you don’t understand 100%.  Even if you almost understand them but not quite perfectly, write them down and share them in the comments section.  After I get about 20 good comments, I’ll write a free lesson which explains all these words.

I hope this is quite useful and I think it will be.  Enjoy the article and remember to comment.  Don’t be shy!  Thanks gusy:)

Here is the article:  How to Lower Stress

This video lesson talks about the term “….. like”

If we don’t know exactly how to describe something, we can say it’s “something like“.  That means, “similar to”.

If I’m trying to describe a food my friend has never tried before, I could say something like this:

“It’s got a banana like taste and a coffee like smell.”

I’m not really sure what kind of food that would be, but I think you get the idea.  It basically means it tastes a bit similar to a banana and smells kind of like coffee.

Now please watch the video below and see how Add is using this term

SUBSCRIBE HERE to all our VIDEO LESSONS

Love to hear your comments!

Add and I are in Thailand for 6 weeks.  This year we’ve decided to show you what our trip is really like, and teach some English at the same time.

Below is the first video blog.  Add will be the star of this show for each episode.  This video was taken using Add’s Samsung Galaxy Note phone and I think the quality is not bad considering I’m just holding it.  Technology is amazing!

Each blog is supposed to be a quick fun way to check out our vacation and learn one new bit of slang English.

The first blog is teaching what a “cannonball” is.  The slang meaning in this case is a certain way of jumping into a swimming pool.  Watch the short video below and you’ll see!  The next time you are in the right situation (at a swimming pool) you can run and jump in the water this way yelling “CANNONBALL”.  Native speakers will know what you mean.

It can be a hilarious thing to do when other people are in the pool.  The idea is to try to make the biggest splash (the most water come out) as possible.

Go here and click “SUBSCRIBE” (near the top of the page) to get all the lessons!

Love to read your thoughts in the comments section!

Add and I are “branching out” in 2013.  ”Branching out” means to try new things.  It’s a good thing to do.  I hope you learned a new phrase there

Anyway,

One area we’re branching out on is in videos.  We’ve bought some awesome video equipment and are planning on making a SICK (super awesome) video English learning website.

I may have mentioned it before, but we’ve decided to expand the “232″ brand.  232 is going to be a number that represents general awesomeness and kick ass English learning of all kinds.  Watch out LV and BMW, 232 is coming after you!

Add is working on his video editing skills and we’re starting out by going through our old free podcasts and making them into videos with written text and a slick intro.  We’re trying to make it as good as possible so any comments would be fantastic!

LearnEnglish232 is going to be a site with a ton of info and a different partner site of China232.  We’re going to work on both and we’re still “in the midst” of figuring out exactly how we want to run learnenglish232.  We’ve got some ideas.  Your ideas are always more than welcome!  By the way, if you are “in the midst” of doing something, it means you are in the middle of it, or still in the process of it.  You have started but have not finished yet.  (I hope that was a good explanation)

Thanks to you guys, our last blog post got over 50 awesome comments.  Please “keep it up” (ie. continue) by leaving any comment that pops into your mind.  No need to be shy with your writing abilities.  Just try.  No one is judging you, I promise

Please check out the video below and let us know what you think.  Also, please SUBSCRIBE TO OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL to get all videos and see the other one on there.  Hope you like our old stuff now on video.  The more comments and more Youtube subscribers we get, the more stuff we’ll make.  That’s the secret trade!  Love you guys!  :)  Enjoy…

By the way, if you are not yet a VIP member, NOW is the best time ever to purchase a VIP membership.  You won’t regret it!  If you are at all considering it, don’t waste your time being “on the fence” (undecided)  There is SO MUCH awesome stuff in there.  You will love it immediately.  And don’t just trust me, read the comments on other blogs from our other VIP members.  Add and I are happy if you guys are happy.   That’s pretty much how we think when we make our lessons for you guys.  :)