My That's English! Revisited -Mapping Africa

The In Pictures section of the BBC News website hosts slideshows about a wide range of current and historical topics.

One of the audio slideshows is Mapping Africa, which gives us a five-minute presentation of the changing map of Africa from 14th century to today.

Self-study activity:
Watch and listen to the audio slideshow and say whether the following statements are true or false.

1 The Sahara has always been infertile.
2 A Berber tribe gives its name to the continent.
3 The maps shows a mix of religions in the north of Africa.
4 Some of the kingdoms in the 1625 map are real.
5 The 1625 map was drawn with information from travelers and traders.
6 Ethiopia in Greek means South Atlantic.
7 People at that time showed respect for the boundaries.
8 The map shows places where slaves were kept.
9 The 1898 map shows borders for the first time.
10 The blank areas in the map show that the area is not populated.

H/T to Free Technology for Teachers.



MAPPING AFRICA

A 14th century map produced by the Catalan state, and this map is really a composite of information brought by Arab travellers, Portuguese explorers just beginning to explore the coast of West Africa and hitting on the Canary Islands.

The Sahara has not always been the sort of empty place that we think of it as it was the bread basket of the Roman Empire, and it’s the top end of the Sahara that actually gives its name to the whole of the continent. A tribe of Berber people lived in what is now Tunesia, who called themselves the Africhia, who gave their name to Africa as a continent, on the map their position in what is now the Sudan.

There’s a river that runs north to south, that’s the Nile. The upper ends of the river contain a
number of cities with crosses on the top, denoting that these were Christian kingdoms, but the map also depicts on its northern coast a city with the star of David, so clearly a Jewish city.

For 1625 it’s quite an accurate description of the landmass of Africa. What we learn from this that some of the kingdoms we hear about in the 19th and 20th century were actually real rather than imaginary. This map would have been made or drawn with narratives collected from Africans who came from the hinterland to the coast, because the European travellers were not necessarily familiar with the areas further inland, so would have relied upon that, people who came to the coast to trade.

Also in this particular map what I thought was really striking is that while the North Atlantic is called the Atlantic Sea the south Atlantic is called the Ethiopian Ocean. Ethiopia is the Greek word for somebody who is black, and so clearly the old name for the South Atlantic was the black people sea.

This map has no borders, I think that’s because the rivers and the mountains depicted in it are the borders of different ethnicities.

These trade routes show products coming from modern-day Ghana, products coming from north of Nigeria and products going towards the coast. We can see through the range of things that were exchanged cattle, cloth, salt. People have always moved to play their trade. They have had to disregard the boundaries because the boundaries were almost always arbitrary.

This map would have been made for and by the British government. It just confirms the point of long-established trade routes. We know that this area is maybe further than, is very rich in copper because then they are going to the central Africa. We know the huge history of cloth-making around here. I’m not too pleased with the word slaves, but human beings were sold from here perhaps these were, places where, they were kept.

And this is the map produced in 1889, for the first time you see borders of some sort or the other. What is interesting is the majority of these borders are straight lines and clearly not drawn by Africans or for Africans. The map is also colour-coded, the yellow areas representing the areas of the German sphere of influence, the Portuguese areas are two green areas on either end, Angola , Mozanbique. And the rose colour at the bottom of the Cape colony, slowly and gradually moving up to cut Africa in two. There are large areas inland which are blank, and that’s kind of saying, you know, free for sale, nobody’s here, unlike the earlier maps that show all these places fully populated. And so within this map you see the emergence of the kind of empty dark Africa ready for exploitation and the kind of notions that still have a legacy today.

Key:
1F 2T 3T 4T 5T 6F 7F 8T 9F (1889) 10F

My That's English! revisited -Experience hotels

Launching a new hotel in tough economic times might seem a tall order - with some travellers inclined to seek out the safe and familiar. But in fact there is a trend for distinctly unusual new hotels which try not to compromise on levels of service.

The recession led to a whole wave of creativity in hotels design and experiences. With the help of a robotic luggage handler, Ramon Goni travelled from Switzerland to New York in search of a night away from the bland, beige box.

Self-study activity:
Watch the video and say whether the statements below are true or false.



0 Example:
Travellers these days are trying to save money. True

1 Null Stern is ideally located.
2 Today's top priority for most customers is service.
3 Experience hotels have no critics.
4 Experience hotels are being opened in both Europe and America.
5 The five abandoned boats can still be rented for the summer.
6 The boatels are in a quiet location.
7 Guests at the botels are looking for luxury.
8 Technology at hotels is detrimental for hospitality.
9 In general, travellers of all ages welcome the high technology in hotels.

Switzerland, synonymous with plush hotels and luxury holidays, but with travellers looking to cut costs in tough times this hotel outside Zurich has hit the underground. Sparse and windowless this nuclear bunker was used in the Second World War and soon Zans Da Gout could be your shelter from the recession. High end is no longer as popular.
All the hotel is focused on service so there is never something missing in your stay, though the location of the setting might not seem ideal at first glance, but they argue that a clean bed and basic facilities will do. The questions is, after the biggest economic recession in decades, what are hotels saying we are really looking for?
Art insulation hotels like New Stern are really fine in luxury and quality in Europe. Stripping the frills to the minimum but focusing on personalized guest services. If you are in lockdown, you might as well have your own butler.
We believe that if the guest has to choose between a flat-screen TV and to choose between a modern butler or somebody who will recognize that you need a certain specific service, either it is to help you with your luggage, either it is to help you organise a tour, I think people today go for the service.
Such experience hotels have doubters in the luxury industry, those who see them as arty projects with little future beyond making a statement, but with internationally-acclaimed architects in touch with New Stern to build the first underground hotel in London, they could be proven wrong.
Mushrooming across Europe from sewage pipes in Austria to dockside cranes in the Netherlands and a silver mine in Sweden, unusual hotels are now also swimming across the Atlantic.
I’m here in Rockaways, an hour from New York, five abandoned boats are fully booked for the whole summer despite the planes, and yet again, this boatel does not focus on the setting or the location, but on providing a unique experience.
From check-in to check-out the staff directs guests to restaurants and lesser known local attractions, A-level of personal service even most of luxury hotels do not provide.
The demographic of the people staying here are individuals that do want that experience. I think it’s because it’s missing in other aspects of their lives in the way that the ATM has replaced the bank teller.
Meanwhile in Manhattan…
‘I am only a machine.’ ‘Next.’
This is your new bellboy. For the hotel, the high tech option could be lower costs and higher productivity.
Our idea is we are not using technology to replace human experience. It’s trying to push the human angle and that technology helps you, you know, to improve human interaction. We’re using technology to enhance the hospitality experience.
And increasingly, it seems, so are traditional hotels. Big market brands like Marriot are using technology to emulate services provided by their luxury counterparts. But it’s not for everyone. There is a generation gap.
The traditional fifty, the sixty-year-old traveler they are the most frequent, likes the personal interaction of speaking to an expert and hearing impressions and asking questions and likes that personal interaction, but that has to happen at a particular place in a particular time.
‘We’d like to see you pick up the suitcase and put it in the drawer behind you.’
‘Your move, creep.’
So can the experience be sustained? Some of these unusual hotels may flop, however, the sometimes impersonal other times diligent workforce will keep fighting for their guests’ attention…
Next?
… by all possible means.
It’s safe to say that you are hired!
Congratulations, Yobot.

KEY:
1F 2T 3F 4T 5F 6F 7F 8F 9F

My That's English revisited: War of the Sexes

My That's English! revisited is a new section of the blog in which we look back at some of the most outstanding and popular entries so far. Today... War of the sexes.

Self-study activity:
Watch the video and answer the questions below.



1 How many Americans fight over housework?
2 How many women feel they do all the housework?
3 What are typical chores that men do?
4 What effect does sharing the housework have on a marriage?
5 What pieces of advice does the psychologist give on how to handle housework? (She gives five)
6 Why should all the family get involved in the housework?
7 What is the least popular chore?

Male presenter: This morning on Today's relationships, the chore wars. There's a new survey that found that one out of every five Americans admits to fighting over housework with their spouse every month.
Female presenter: So how do you end this battle of the sexes. Psycotherapist and contributor Robbie Ludwick has some advice for keeping the peace. This is a universal problem, a lot of couples can relate to this and the survey was very telling.
Robbie Ludwick: Clr did a survey, and they were really the first to look at this problem, how are men and women different when it comes to cleaning, who cleans more and how do people really feel about it? And no surprise 69% of women feel that they did all of the house work or most of it and 53% of the men said no, I disagree, I really feel like I pull my weight.
Female presenter: Was that surprising?
Robbie Ludwick: No, because I think men are really doing a lot more than they ever did before, so to them, taking out the garbage and maybe picking up after the kids feels like they are doing half the work, but women are working outside the home, so there is this kind of idea shift that's going on.
Male presenter: And while these little fights can seem trivial, but they can actually be damaging to a marriage?
Robbie Ludwick: They can, because what the study also showed was women who felt that they were overburdened and taking on most of the responsibility really were angry with their husbands and not feeling as good about their marriages. But on the up side, women who felt that their husbands were helping and that things were fair and square really felt good about their relationship and this is something that comes up on a regular basis, one out of five couples on a monthly basis argue about it. It's reality.
Male presenter: So you say one of the things you should do is assign appropriate assignments.
Robbie Ludwick: Right. So what you want to do is don't go against the grain. If your husband likes doing the laundry, let him do the laundry, if you like cleaning the dishes, separate it along the lines where people are actually good…
Female presenter: Consider compliments.
Male presenter: Where?
Robbie Ludwick: You should all be complimenting. Nagging doesn't work, if your partner, let’s say, really one day cleans up the table, say thank you, that really meant a lot to me. Success builds on success. And that’s the way to really help somebody do more of what you want them to do.
Male presenter: And you said also baby steps, start small.
Robbie Ludwick: Right. It's overwhelming to clean a house, who wants to do it. Do it in five minute intervals, it's amazing what can get done in five minutes. And after a while you start to realize, well, we’re really cleaning up the space together, but if you start small it’s more manageable, less resistance.
Female presenter: And you get the kids involved?
Robbie Ludwick: I did this summer. If you make it a family activity, you can burn calories, it's something everybody does together and then you reward yourself after the fact with movies or a nice dinner out. But get everyone involved. Everybody's messing up so everybody should clean up.
Male presenter: I remember I'm saying to my mom, we should get a dishwasher, she said I've got six of them already. And one of the things you say, just do it.
Robbie Ludwick: Yeah. You're not going to like cleaning all the time. Clr also studied that cleaning the toilet is the least popular thing to do.
Male presenter: Really?
Robbie Ludwick: Big surprise there. But sometimes you just have to do it. A clean home has a better chance of being a happier home so you have to do things in life you don't want to do all the time, so just make yourself do it.
Female presenter: And it sounds like you should also come up with a plan for these things so that everyone knows up front what they're doing.
Robbie Ludwick: Don't surprise me with an assignment. Don’t compare,  I did this, you did that.  We have a personality quiz that you can get on Clr chorewars.com/, it's also on the todayshow.com site. So you can find out what is your cleaning personality and find a way to make that work in your house. Mine is a can-do. I took the quiz, I'm a can-do instead of a honey-do. Are you a honey-do or are you a can-do?
Male presenter: I'm avoiding you as a possibility. I'm hiding in the closet.
Female presenter: Avoidance is not the solution. You can take that cleaning personality quiz on our web.

Key:
1 one out of five
2 69% 
3 taking out the garbage and maybe picking up after the kids
4 couples are happier 
5 assign appropriate assignments; compliment; take baby steps; get the kids involved; have a plan ready
6 everybody's messing up so everybody should clean up
7 cleaning the toilet