Category: Class

Nike: A Billion-Dollar Brand

C1 – Advanced

Nike is the biggest sportswear brand in the world. As of 2017, the company is valued at 30 billion dollars and consistently ranks in the Fortune 500 each year.

How did this athletic brand come about? Let’s learn more about Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman, the founders of Nike, and how they established this huge multinational corporation over 50 years ago.

Discussion Questions:

  1. How did Nike begin?
  2. What do you think about Nike as a brand? What sporting equipment brands do you like?
  3. If you could set up a company of your own, what kind of company would it be?

The Pecking Order

B2 – Upper Intermediate

By definition, hierarchy is a way of organizing people, in which people or groups are ranked one above the other according to status or authority. When is hierarchy bad and when is it not?

Let’s listen to know the answer and learn how chickens’ pecking order work as well.

Discussion Questions:
1. What did you learn from the chickens’ pecking order?
2. According to the audio, what is the best hierarchy? (Do you agree?)
3. When is hierarchy bad?
4. Talk about your workplace pecking order.

A Movie on Incentives

C1 – Advanced

We are offered a lot of carrots to motivate us to be at our best in everything we do. The most popular of which is monetary incentives. The best performers get rewarded with cash. Thus, this became a pattern for most to achieve more productivity.

Discussion Questions:

  1. Do you think money is a good motivator?
  2. How well do rewards and incentives motivate you?
  3. Do you think extrinsic motivation creates a lasting change to your commitment or values?
  4. How would you like to be motivated?
  5. What do you think are some positive and negative effects of incentives on people?

Throw in the Towel

B2 – Upper Intermediate

When things don’t turn out the way you wanted them to be despite your hard work and determination, quitting is probably something you would consider to do next. For some, quitting is not in their vocabulary. Is it really that bad to just give up? Are some dreams just aren’t worth chasing?

Read this lesson about the expression “throw in the towel”.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/features/the-english-we-speak/ep-181119

Discussion Questions:

1. What does “throw in the towel” mean?

2. When is it right to give up? Do you think twice before doing so?

3. What do you do when you feel like giving up?

4. Share your own experience wherein you had to throw in the towel.

How Do Vampire Bats Survive on Blood?

B2 – Upper Intermediate

Have you ever wondered how vampire bats live? Scientists have recently discovered how these “flying mice” can survive on a blood-only diet.

Watch the video to find out more about these creatures and also learn some vocabulary associated with their “bloody” lifestyle.

Discussion Questions:

1. According to the video, how do vampire bats live only on blood?

2. What comes to mind when you hear the words “vampire”, “bats” and “blood”?

3. Do you know of any vampire legends/folk stories from your country? Tell us about them.

Pronunciation: Tongue Twister Poem

Let’s twist those tongues!

Let’s have fun while practicing your pronunciation. Here is an entertaining poem that shows the absurdities of English pronunciation.

 

 

I take it you already know

Of tough and bough and cough and dough

Others may stumble, but not you

On hiccough, thorough, laugh, and through.

 

And cork and work and card and ward

And font and front and word and sword

Well done! And now if you wish, perhaps

To learn of less familiar traps.

 

Beware of heard, a dreadful word

That looks like beard and sounds like bird.

And dead: it’s said like bed, not  bead–

For goodness sakes don’t call it deed.

 

Watch out for meat and great and threat,

They rhyme with suite and straight and debt.

A moth is not a moth in mother,

Nor both in bother, broth in brother.

 

And here is not a match for there,

And dear and fear for bear and pear.

And then there’s dose and rose and lose–

Just look them up–and goose and choose,

 

And do and go, then thwart and cart.

Come, come, I’ve hardly made a start!

A dreadful language? Man alive!

I’d mastered it when I was five.

Practice,Practice,Practice!

Discussion Questions:

1.What problems do you have with pronunciation?

2.What areas of pronunciation are you working on at the moment?

3.Can you easily pronounce all of the sounds in English?

4.How can you improve your pronunciation

4.Try some tongue twister activities.

Freakshakes

B1 – Intermediate

Freakshakes are epic super-sweet treats that are guaranteed to indulge your inner sweet tooth. Ingredients include sweetened whipped cream, chocolate bars, mini-doughnuts and even slices of cake, cookies… The list goes on! This maybe worrisome because it contains very high calories which can be dangerous to our health.

Read the article below to know more about this extremely sugary milkshakes.

https://breakingnewsenglish.com/1811/181115-freakshake-milkshSakes.html

Discussion Questions:

  1. What do you think of milkshakes? How about freakshakes? Would you like to try a freakshake?
  2. Should calorie information be on restaurant menus?
  3. Why do people “invent” things like freakshakes?
  4. What are some absurd food craze that have become popular in your country?
  5. What is the sweetest dessert you have ever tasted?

 

 

How Buffet Restaurants Make Money

B2 – Upper Intermediate

Buffet restaurants typically offer all-you-can-eat (AYCE) food for a fixed price.

The good thing about buffet themes is that the customers can immediately see all the food being served and then choose which dishes they prefer to eat. They can also control how much food they put on their plates.

This dining style is usual in events like business conventions or big parties.

Watch the video below and find out how this kind of restaurants make profits.

Discussion Questions:

  1. Talk about the tricks buffet restaurants apply to make money.
  2. What are your thoughts on this type of restaurants?
  3. Have you ever experienced going to a buffet restaurant? Share about it.
  4. How can you get the most out of a buffet?
  5. Talk about your favorite restaurant and its strategy on getting people in the door.

Work Friends

B2 – Upper Intermediate

We spend so much of our time working. It is quite unhealthy not to be happy where you work.

Watch as author Annie McKee tells us why it’s important to have friends at work and why getting too personal can sometimes be a problem too.

Discussion Questions:
1. What’s the importance of having a work buddy?
2. Do you think it is wise to be too personal with your colleagues?
3. Talk about your work best friend.

Man Lived in a Paris Airport for 18 Years

C1 – Advanced

For most people, having a flight delayed can be a cause for annoyance or stress. But can you imagine being stuck in an airport for almost two decades?

In this video, check out the bizarre story of Sir Alfred – a man who was stranded in Charles de Gaulle Airport for 18 years.

Discussion Questions:

  1. Who is Sir Alfred? What was his situation?
  2. According to the video, how can someone be ‘stateless’?
  3. Have you ever been trapped or stuck somewhere? Tell us about it.