Today Saturday November 30th 2013 is Buy Nothing Day, the global holiday from consumerism. To mark the occasion, here are a couple of cartoons from the UK Buy Nothing Day website (read this FAQ for more info on BND). I think they're fairly self-explanatory, so I'll spare you the usual commentary! Which one do you prefer?
NOTE These cartoons would be great to use as a discussion starter about consumerism, supermarkets and the death of the high street. By the way, the Sainsbury's slogan on the traffic sign is a play on Sainsbury's actual slogan from 1959 to 1991 which was 'Good Food Costs Less at Sainsbury's' (read more here).
QUESTIONS 1. Is buying nothing on one day of the year a good way to protest againt rampant consumerism? 2. Can you think of any better/other ways to take a stand against over-consumption? 3. Will you be celebrating Buy Nothing Day? Why (not)?
Today Saturday November 30th 2013 is Buy Nothing Day, the global holiday from consumerism. It's a day where you challenge yourself, your family and friends to switch off from shopping and tune into life. The rules are simple, for 24 hours you will detox from shopping — and anyone can take part provided they spend a day without spending!
Buy Nothing Day was founded in Vancouver by artist Ted Dave in 1992 and subsequently promoted by Adbusters magazine, based in Canada. Here's one of their early ads.
TRANSCRIPT The average North American consumes five times more than a Mexican. Ten times more than a Chinese person. And thirty times more than a person from India. We are the most voracious consumers in the world — a world that could die because of the way we North Americans live. Give it a rest. November 26 is Buy Nothing Day.
LANGUAGE Note that while you can say 'a North American' or 'a Mexican', most people would say 'a Chinese person' rather than 'a Chinese'. The same goes for Japanese. And although they say 'a person from India' in the ad, they could have said 'an Indian'. So when can you use the adjective of nationality as a noun, and when do you have to use another expression? Unfortunately, there are no rules, you just have to learn the list.
Soldier Lee Rigby was run over and attacked with a knife and meat cleaver in what was “a cowardly and callous murder”, a court heard today. Video footage of the Fusilier being mown down and two men dragging his body into the middle of the road was shown to jurors at the Old Bailey. Full story >>
VOCABULARY CCTV is an abbreviation for closed-circuit television. • CCTV could be used in the battle against Aberdeenshire dog owners who allow their pets to foul.
This cartoon by Mac from The Daily Mail relates to news that a diplodocus skeleton, which is believed to be one of only six relatively complete specimens in the world, has sold at auction in West Sussex for £400,000. The 17m-long (56ft) dinosaur, known as 'Misty', was dug out of a quarry in Wyoming, US, before being assembled in Rotterdam and transferred to the UK for sale. It had been expected to make between £400,000 and £600,000. The identity of the buyer is not known. Watch video of auction >>
The cartoon shows a very rich couple in their palatial home. It's Christmas time and the Christmas tree is surrounded by presents — including one with a large bow around it that looks suspiciously like a diplodocus ... The man tells his wife, "Promise now — no peeking". Do I really need to explain?
VOCABULARY If you peek at something, you to look at it quickly and secretly because you should not be looking at it. • She peeked at the audience from behind the curtain.
GRAMMAR Note the use of the gerund ("no peeking") in place of the imperative ("don't peek"). You also find this construction on negative notices such as "No Parking" or "No Fishing".
Wal-Mart is tweaking its holiday strategy this year- using new ways to lure in customers and secure their spot as the top retailer. Bobbi Rebell reports.
TRANSCRIPT REPORTER: The signs are up, the decorations are out - and the staff is ready for what they call their Super Bowl - Black Friday time at Wal-Mart. Fernando Reyes manages the Porter Ranch store in California. FERNANDO REYES, WAL-MART PORTER RANCH STORE MANAGER: "We have a lot of hot items this year. I'll give you some examples: we have a 32-inch TV for $98. We have a 16-GB iPad for $299 and it also comes with a $100 gift card. We have a 60-inch Vizio TV for $688." REPORTER: So the hard sell is on - but the battle for the holiday shopper's wallet will be fierce. Morningstar's Ken Perkins. KEN PERKINS, EQUITY ANALYST, MORNINGSTAR: "Getting people into the stores matters, particularly when you have competition from online and other competitors in things like electronics. It's very difficult and Wal-Mart is going to have to be as aggressive as ever to do that this holiday season." REPORTER: The in-store experience works for customers like Aracely Price. ARACELY PRICE, WAL-MART SHOPPER: "Well, if I go into the store I don't have to pay for the shipping, but if you do do it online, I do it for Wal-Mart as well and it's convenient as well but I like to come into the store so I can take a look at the product and feel the feel of the product as well." REPORTER: Wal-Mart's attack plan includes freeing their customers from lines to get hot items - so they can go get more stuff. FERNANDO REYES, WAL-MART PORTER RANCH STORE MANAGER: "The customer will enter the building, enter the line and upon doing that they will receive a wristband that will look something like this. Once you receive that wristband you are free to leave the line and go do additional shopping throughout the store." REPORTER: And hopefully see better prices than the competition. FRANCIS PALOMADO JR., WAL-MART SHOPPER, SAYING: "I've seen the Nikon D5100 at Best Buy is 6-something but it's on sale too. But here it's $498 for the bundle of Nikon D5100. It's like a $200 difference; it's a very good price." REPORTER: And they are also capitalizing on what worked last year. KEN PERKINS, EQUITY ANALYST, MORNINGSTAR: "I think the things like one hour price guarantees are good. The company trialed about three products last year and they have upped it by seven times to have about 20 products this year, and those sort of things, anywhere from TV's to mini iPads, are things that consumers really want. And if they feel that they are getting the best price for it, that gets people into Wal-Mart stores." REPORTER: And like the competition, they are not waiting for game day. There has been unprecedented price cutting at the top discounter even ahead of the holiday.
WHAT IS BLACK FRIDAY? In the US Black Friday falls the day after the country's Thanksgiving celebration, and is the traditional start to the Christmas shopping season. It has become a discount shopping day when millions of US shoppers are lured by massive savings, both online and at stores around the country. This year it falls on Friday 29 November.
COMMENT A great video for business English students, covering areas such as retail strategy and consumer motivation. Note the language which equates retailing with war (fierce battle, attack plan, aggressive), or sport (Super Bowl, game day). However, given that Black Friday invariably brings reports of assaults and shootings as frenzied shoppers trample on each other in their bid to get the best bargains, these metaphors are quite apt. Still, you've got to 'admire' the ingenuity of a system that allows you to leave the queue to go and get even more stuff. Just remember tomorrow is Buy Nothing Day!
No Thanksgiving meal is complete without a hearty helping of cheap, cheap meat. This seasonal spot from Price Chopper has some fun with the reputation that discount grocers have long had for stocking less-than-prime cuts ... (via AdFreak)
TRANSCRIPT BOY: What's for the big meal, Mom? MOM: Well, I thought I'd make us ... some cheap meat! GIRL: Yay, I love cheap meat. MOM: We'll start with cheap cheese on cheap crackers, then cheap cranberry sauce. YOUNG GIRL: With cheap yams? MOM: Of course I have cheap yams. And for dessert, the cheapest pie we've ever had. GRANDDAD: My daughter's the cheapest. MOM: I learned from the best. VOICEOVER: Don't settle for cheap. At Price Chopper you never have to lower your standards to get low prices. Price Chopper. All the best for the holidays.
COMMENT Lots of useful language in this short 30-second commercial: superlatives, irregular past tense, vocabulary, and a play on words in the final slogan.
Back in July I reviewed iStudyEnglishOnline, a website for English learners which was created by Sançar Sahin, an English teacher based in Barcelona. I also did an interview with Sançar. At the time, I mentioned iUnderstandEnglish, the iOS app which Sançar had created with his business partner Andrew Cox, but didn't go into any detail. So, I thought it would be interesting to ask Andrew a few questions to get some insights into how the app was created and what's happened since it was launched. Here's the result.
THE ENGLISH BLOG: Can you give us a brief overview of the app? ANDREW COX: We consider it a companion app for learning English and general English comprehension. It features 50 real-world conversations between native British English speakers and includes audio along with text transcriptions. In addition, for each conversation there are 2 levels of difficulty, making 100 conversations in total. We used a total of 12 different accents in the app, covering all of the main accents within Britain. It is not aimed at total beginners of the language, but rather students that already have a grasp of the language and want to improve their comprehension skills. We feel that by listening to these conversations, our users can be immersed in the language and culture of Britain and familiarise themselves with the nuances of accents and pronunciation of words, preparing them for interaction with native speakers in real-world situations.
THE ENGLISH BLOG: Can you tell us a bit about your background? ANDREW COX: Sure. I was born in Oxford and have lived here for most of my life. I graduated from the University of Southampton in 2005, specialising in digital media and design. Since leaving University I spent several years working as a web and graphic designer before moving into the publishing industry. I was working in a department that produced educational reference material for children and it was there that I developed an interest in language and language technology. When I'm not working, I'm very much into all things design related, photography, music and travel. THE ENGLISH BLOG: What gave you the idea for the app? ANDREW COX: The idea actually came from Sançar initially. After teaching English for several years in Spain, he realised that a big thing his students were struggling with was comprehension of native accents. The voices that they had been exposed to in a lot of educational material previously were the standard "Queen's English" type of voice, which they felt didn't offer much help when interacting with real people in real-world situations - especially given the diversity of English accents and the ways in which different words are pronounced by different people. In discussing this with me, and from doing a little market research, we agreed there was a gap in the market for a product that would help students with this particular problem and we settled on a smart-phone application as the most convenient platform to realise this. THE ENGLISH BLOG: How long did it take to develop the app? ANDREW COX: Both Sançar and I were working full time when we began development so it's difficult to say exactly. The most time-consuming part of the process was the creation of the content for the app - i.e. the editorial process of writing the scripts, sourcing people to cover all the accents we wanted to include, and the studio time required to actually record all the audio. There were also the technical hurdles to overcome since neither of us had made an app before. All-in-all, I would say this whole process took around 6 months. THE ENGLISH BLOG: Where did you find the native speakers? ANDREW COX: We posted a series of online advertisements in our local cities, requesting voice samples. Thankfully we were able to cover all the accents we needed by doing this, which meant we could get everyone together in the same studio, which certainly cut down on our initial expenses. THE ENGLISH BLOG: What sort of reaction have you had to the app? ANDREW COX: So far, very positive. We've been particularly pleased with how far-reaching it has become; some of our top markets are China, Thailand and Mexico - though we've had sales from almost every continent. Our main feedback has been that although the app isn't a complete solution for learning English, it's certainly a useful addition to the toolbelt - which is exactly what we created it to be so that makes us happy :) THE ENGLISH BLOG: How many apps have you sold so far? ANDREW COX:So far we've had around 4000 downloads. However, we're working on releasing an Android version (it's currently only available on iOS), which we hope expands our reach a bit. THE ENGLISH BLOG: Do you have any other app projects in the pipeline? ANDREW COX: Both Sançar and I are already working on a more complete application for learning English. It will be web-based initially but we will certainly be looking at offering a companion app down-the-line. Additionally, pretty much every time we get together and start talking you'll hear "that would make an awesome app, you know". So watch this space! THE ENGLISH BLOG: Thanks Andrew, we look forward to seeing the results.
EXPLANATION The cartoonist plays on two meanings of the word turkey. As well as being a "a large bird that is often kept for its meat, eaten especially at Christmas in Britain and at Thanksgiving in the US", the word turkey is also used to describe a failure, especially in American English. • That movie about the life of Diana was a real turkey. And the rollout of President Obama's flagship health care programme (aka Obamacare) is generally considered to have been a flop.
VOCABULARY To pardon somebody is to officially allow somebody who has been found guilty of a crime to leave prison and/or avoid punishment. • She was pardoned after serving ten years of a life sentence.
I'm doing a lesson about the American health care system later this week and was wondering how to explain Obamacare to my students. Fortunately, I came across this video from the Washington Post, which does a much better job than I ever could (see here for a fuller explanation).
TRANSCRIPT If there’s one thing that everybody knows about Obamacare is that it’s complicated, really complicated. So we’re going to break it down, starting with the core of the legislation – the insurance marketplaces. The first thing to know is that Obamacare leave most of the health system alone. So in 2016 there’ll be roughly 321 million Americans. 154 million will get insurance through their employer – no Obamacare for them. About 46 million Americans will be on Medicare, the healthcare programme for seniors, and they’ll stay on that. Then there’s Medicaid. Obamacare actually expands Medicaid to cover the very poor. So that will make up for 42 million people. About 26 million will get their coverage from other places, and then there are about 30 million people who will remain uninsured. That leaves 23 million Americans who will be using the new insurance marketplaces. That’s 7 per cent of the population. So what will the new insurance marketplaces look like? Imagine shopping for a plane ticket on Expedia or Travelocity. You put in your destination, your dates, and anything else you might need, and then you compare prices. The Obamacare marketplaces work the same way, although they’re a bit more complicated. Each state will have a website that will offer different coverage options, and people who make a certain amount of money or less will get some help from the government so they can afford insurance. The way insurance companies have traditionally made money is by raising prices or by refusing coverage to people who are sick and people who are old, since younger, healthier people tend to be cheaper to insure. Obamacare puts limitations on how much insurance companies can charge the old and the sick, and it will bring the percentage of Americans whose applications get denied from approximately 18 down to zero. So the sick and the elderly will be added to the insurance pool, but there will still be a range of premiums. Older people can be charged up to three times more for their coverage. There are millions more young people who may also join if they don’t stay on their parents’ plan if their state doesn’t expand Medicaid. The Obama administration says the whole plan is dependent on getting young and healthy people into the marketplaces. That drops premiums low enough for the marketplaces to work. We’ll see what happens when Obamacare enrollment starts on October 1st.
David Cameron last night unveiled a string of new measures to curb EU immigration – including a promise to kick out rough-sleeping migrants. The Prime Minister acknowledged public anger over the threat of a new influx from Romania and Bulgaria, and said: “I share those concerns.” He promised new rules to stop EU immigrants claiming jobless benefits for more than six months. Full story >>
VOCABULARY A crackdown is strong official action that is taken to punish people who break laws. • Michigan's planned crackdown on charitable gaming operations appears less about protecting the public than about protecting profits.
There's a lot of talk about Scottish independence at the moment (see earlier posts today), so I thought it would be appropriate to choose Scotland as the theme for this week's crossword. As usual, you can download a PDF version with solution, or access an interactive web version for phones and tablets.
Yesterday the Scottish government unveiled its 670-page blueprint for independence, (see earlier posts here and here), and The Telegraph has a great picture gallery featuring '22 things that we wouldn't have if it weren't for Scotland'.
Deep fried Mars bar
LESSON IDEA 1. Put your students in groups and get them to brainstorm vocabulary (people & things) connected with Scotland. 2. Get feedback, and put ideas on board. 3. Now show them the Telegraph picture gallery (you will need a videoprojector and an internet connection), and get them to identify the people, places and things. Award points for correct answers. You can hide the captions by scrolling the web page up or down.
BACKGROUND Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond has been pilloried after unveiling a blueprint for Scottish independence that assumes the English would continue to share the UK’s ‘crown jewels’ including the pound and BBC programmes. The First Minister’s long-awaited White Paper on independence promised Scotland "will" retain sterling and would seek to join the EU on the same terms as the UK, including a euro opt-out and a share of Baroness Thatcher’s rebate. A separate Scotland would assume a much lower share of the UK’s national debt than previously thought, spend more on childcare and a new Scottish Broadcasting Service would show the BBC’s output, the document said. Read more >>
THE CARTOON The cartoon by Adams from the Daily Telegraph shows Scotland' First Minister Alex Salmond sitting at home in an armchair before and after independence (or, perhaps following a 'No' and 'Yes' vote to independence). He's watching 'Strictly Come Dancing' on the BBC, and has a picture of the Queen on the wall. His EU membership badge lies on the floor. The reader is invited to 'Spot The Difference'. Of course, there is hardly any difference at all, except for two things: the Union Jack has been replaced by the Flag of Scotland (aka the St Andrew's Cross), and Salmond's glum expression has changed to a smile. Even the weather is the same - rain of course! Note the Loch Ness Monster on the horizon.
COMMENT One thing I didn't quite get was why there was a border post in the pre-independence/'No' vote version of the scene on the left. (Of course, there are no border checks at the moment.) Is the cartoonist suggesting that Scotland is already a 'foreign' country? Or perhaps it's just for entry to Salmond's property.
VOCABULARY To spot means to see or notice a person or thing, especially suddenly or when it is not easy to do so. • I finally spotted my friend in the crowd. • I've just spotted a mistake on the front cover. • Can you spot the difference between these two pictures?
With a referendum on Scottish independence 10 months away the Scottish government has unveilled the potential economic gains of going it alone. But as Ivor Bennett reports, if it ends the 306-year union with England, it will also inherit 100 billion pounds of UK debt.
TRANSCRIPT REPORTER: He's been accused of dodging the difficult questions on Scottish independence. But First Minister Alex Salmond now claims to have the answers. SCOTLAND'S FIRST MINISTER ALEX SALMOND: "This White Paper is the most detailed blueprint that any people have ever been offered anywhere in the world as a basis for becoming an independent country." REPORTER: At 670 pages, the blueprint for independence is longer than the last Harry Potter book. Salmond's hope is it'll cast a spell over the skeptics, by finally tackling the three main issues - currency, monarchy and EU membership. The plan is to keep all three. SCOTLAND'S FIRST MINISTER ALEX SALMOND: "The Bank of England, sterling is part of the assets, they are as much Scotland's assets as London's assets, they are certainly not George Osborne's assets." REPORTER: Britain's North Sea oil is another asset Scotland's staking a claim to. The resources would supposedly provide the platform for economic growth. But along with the assets come liabilities. If it leaves the UK, Scotland would take with it a chunk of Britain's national debt - to the tune of 100 billion pounds. A reason that, many analysts say, makes independence unrealistic. Barclays' Will Hobbs. WILL HOBBS, VICE PRESIDENT RESEARCH, BARCLAYS: "It's difficult to see how, in the event of independence, which chunks of debt would go which way. And I suspect that the UK is better off as one country. And I think the overall trend in the world is towards less regional governments rather than more." REPORTER: With 10 months until the vote, many in Scotland are still undecided - the latest polls suggesting as much as 15 percent. But with as many as 47 percent currently against independence, and just 38 for it, there's a lot of ground to make up.
BACKGROUND The big six energy firms have been exposed to further accusations of profiteering after the industry regulator revealed that profits per customer last year rose by 77%. On the eve of a protest by anti-poverty campaigners against power suppliers, Ofgem said the profit per household had risen from £30 in 2011 to £53, driven by higher prices and increased demand for heating during last year's winter snap. Read more >>
THE CARTOON The cartoon by Kipper Williams from The Guardian shows a couple in a cold house (the woman has a blue nose, and is wearing a jumper, gloves, scarf, and woollen hat). It's snowing outside. The man is reading about the energy firms' profits and has an angry expression on his face. The woman tells him, "At least there's no shortage of heat under your collar."
EXPLANATION We are meant to assume that they cannot afford to heat their house because energy is so expensive; but to fully understand the cartoon you have to know the English idiom to be hot under the collar, which means to be angry about something. • When I suggested he was mistaken he got rather hot under the collar.
