Talking point: Fashion and trends

This week's talking point is fashion and trends. Before getting together with the members of your conversation group, go over the questions below so that ideas come to mind more easily the day you get together with your friends and you can work out vocabulary problems beforehand.

1. Do people in your country have a reputation for dressing well or badly?
2. Do you think women pay more attention to their appearance than men, or vice versa?
3. Are people generally very fashion-conscious?
4. What is in fashion at the moment for men and women?
5. What are the “current tribes” of young people? What do they wear? Do you like the way they dress?
6. Why are some people obsessed with the way they look?
7. Why is sometimes beauty more valued than intelligence?
8. Do people tend to judge others by the way they dress?
9. Do you think you dress like a typical person from your country? Why (not)?
10. It’s better to buy cheap clothes that don’t last because then you can buy new ones more often. Do you agree?
11. People who follow fashion are usually vain and superficial. Do you agree?
12. It’s very risky to buy clothes online. Do you agree?


Describe these people's appearance:

Talking point: Generation divide

This week's talking point is generation divide. Before getting together with the members of your conversation group, go over the questions below so that ideas come to mind more easily the day you get together with your friends and you can work out vocabulary problems beforehand.

What do you understand by the term ‘generation gap’?
How different are your attitudes and opinions from those of other generations in your family? Think about the following:

Bringing up children

Importance of social status

New technology

Saving and spending money

Other cultures and nationalities

Fashion

Manners

Music

Working hard

Look at the names of different generations, as used by demographers and the media. Which are you?
Could you outline a stereotypical profile for each generation based on the people you know? Give examples.
Veteran, Traditionalist, Silent Generation: Born before 1945
Baby Boomer, Boomer: Born between 1946 and 1964
Generation X: Born between 1964 and 1980
Millennial, Generation Y, Gen Why? Echo Boomer: Born since 1980
Generation Z: Born after 2000

What are some of the challenges which face those who work in a multi-generational workplace?
In what ways are people who were brought up in the age of social media different from older generations?
What are the factors that affect the beliefs and attitudes of a generation?
How do you think people who are born after 2020 will be different?

To illustrate the topic you can watch Patrice Thompson's Talk at TED London Closing the gap: A millennial proposal for a happy multigenerational workplace.

Author of Spinster talks about single women

Kate Bolick joins Today to talk about her book, Spinster, and says we should rethink the single woman experience. Unmarried women share their thoughts on what the term “spinster” means to them.

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



1 The first woman interviewed says a spinster is usually in her 50's.
2 The third woman interviewed says a spinster wears black.
3 Kate Bolick does not have a positive idea of spinsters.
4 In Kate Bolick's opinion, a lot of spinsters have been successful.
5 There are more single women in US than ever before now.
6 Many unmarried woman are focused on their professional life, and they do not prioritise marrige.
7 Kate Bolick had dreamed of marrying when she was younger.


We are back now. It’s 8:38. With an unprecedented shift in 2014 for the first time singles outnumber married people in the US. Kate Bolick wrote a book about it for The Atlantic and it’s a piece that quickly went viral. She’s now following that up with a book called Spinster, making a life of one’s own. We’re going to talk to Kate in just a moment, but first we asked a few women what the term spinster means to them.
When I hear the term spinster I think of the little lady who’s alone living in that house at the end of the street with 50 cats and she’s by herself, lonely and sad, it’s a bit scary.
I think of a woman who is independent and she doesn’t need a man to survive.
When I was growing up the image of spinster that I had was a school teacher from Little House on the Prairie and a black Victorian dress, who was not always happy and sometimes bitter with her lot in life.
Kate Bolick, good morning to you.
Hi.
Starting a conversation again. Spinster is not a word, as we just saw, that most people associate with positive things. Are you trying to kind of reclaim it in this book?
I am. I think that spinster is an excellent way to broadcast our conflicted attitude around single women, and a way to think about how we can rethink the single woman experience.
And that’s what this book, your article, of course in The Atlantic, really caused disturb, takes it to the next step I guess it’s sort of in praise of a single life that you choose.
Exactly, I wanted to show that the state of being that many women avoid, unmarried and childless, has been a state of being which many women have thrived, past and present, and amazing things can happen when people are alone.
But there’s so much cultural pressure to pursue that certain course. You write at one point in the book, “whom to marry and when will it happen, these two questions define every woman’s existence and govern her until they are answered, even if the answers are nobody and never”. Is society ready for women who decide to, you know, I think I just kind of, maybe I’ll just have relationships, maybe I just won’t get married.
I think society is catching up that, you know. It’s hard to bring attitudes up to date with demographic shifts, it always takes a while, where we still have attitudes that our parents and grandparents dealt with and they were dealing with a different reality on the ground. But now we have more unmarried women than ever before, and it’s really changing the landscape and changing the conversation.
There is a distinction to be made. So is this a question of women who are saying I don’t want to be in any relationship or I just don’t want to be married, that marriage is obsolete in my view.
It’s a lot of things, actually. In all of my reporting I only talked to a handful of people who say I never want to get married, that’s not for me. Mostly the story is about women who are really excited about their careers or their educational pursuits and just keep pushing marriage off, that still feel like something is wrong with them or feel that they are alone in that decision.
And generationally it also must make a real difference.
Yes, absolutely. I see that women of my generation, they are the ones who, we’re a transitional generation, so we tend to grow up thinking that we’ll get married some day because that’s what people do, and then we hit our mid 30’s and go through this internal paradigm shift for like, wait a minute, I’m not married and I love my life, so who knows what’s gonna happen?
There’s a lot to be said for it. I have to say you have a part in the book where you’re talking about walking down the street in the middle of the night, you’re eating a big mac, I remember those days, those are good days. Absolutely. The book is called Spinster, by the way we asked folks to weigh in the Orange Room, our viewers, that asked them the question whether or not being married was easier than being single and 59% said, no, actually that being single was harder, yes it was wait... Is it easier for a woman to be married than single? No, 59%. I think I had that all tops and curvy. But anyway, it’s a good discussion to have, one that will continue online. Kate, thank you very much.
Thanks so much.

Key:
1F 2T 3F 4T 5T 6T 7T

Extensive listening: Very British Problems

Very British Problems is a Channel 4 documentary series which shows Britain's ability to find confusion and awkwardness  in everyday life situations.

The second episode of the series is Out and About: From the resentment the British feel making tea for everyone at work, to the performance anxiety of packing their shopping in front of everyone at the checkout - why do the British feel these oddities?

Talking point: The gender gap

This week's talking point is the gender gap. Before getting together with the members of your conversation group, go over the questions below so that ideas flow more easily when you meet up with your friends and you can work out vocabulary problems beforehand.

• What examples of sexist behaviour and language can you think of?
• How do you feel or react in those situations?
• What are the main differences between women and men's roles in today's society?
• In what aspects of life have men and women achieved greater equality?
• What areas still need improvement?
• Do men and women have equal rights in your country?
• Do you think the situation of gender equality is looking up in your country? And in the world?
• How does the situation compare to 50 and 100 years ago?
• Have you ever felt discriminated against for gender reasons?
• Do you know anyone who has?
• Which jobs are typically done by men and which ones by women these days?
• Why is that?
• Do you think boys and girls should be treated differently? Think about the topics below:

gender

toys

single sex schools

discipline

other issues (example: more freedom for boys than for girls) 

To illustrate the topic you can watch this BBC news item on the pay gap between men and women in top-ranking jobs.



The gender pay gap has been highlighted and condemned before now. Men in the same sort of jobs as women being paid more. Today we learnt that’s been made worse by the gulf between bonuses paid out to executives. A survey by the Chartered Management Institute shows that men earned average bonuses of more than £6,400 last year compared with just over 3,000 for women. In the most senior roles, male directors got bonuses of £63,700 on average whereas their female counterparts received just over 36,000. The group says there are several factors behind this.
Women are perhaps less adept than their male counterparts at negotiating for pay rises in bonuses. The second is, of course, that women leave the workforce to have children and often return with less confidence than they need. And lastly at the top it’s a very male-dominated culture, that can put women off.
If there’s discrimination over pay, women can take legal action, but experts say that’s not always straightforward.
It can take many months if not year to get a full hearing. A tiny proportion of claims get to a full hearing. And inevitably I think some employees may be reticent about bringing claims because of the impact it may have on them in the market.
Today’s report comes at a time of intense debate about how to increase female representation at senior levels across the business world. Of the top one hundred companies just 17% of directors are women. Although that’s upped over the last year, there’s widespread recognition that more needs to be done to boost that number.
Just three of the top one hundred have female chief executives, and business organizations acknowledge that while progress is being made, there’s still a long way to go on boardroom diversity.
The honest truth is that we need to do a lot more and we need to do… we need to move faster, so we need to look at the pipeline, how can we stop women from leaving businesses, perhaps when they have children, and we also need to look at other schemes like mentoring schemes and networking schemes that encourage women to stay in the workplace and get women networking with other women in a similar position.
Ending the agenda pay gap and ensuring equality in the workplace remains a major challenge for employers and the government.
Hugh Pym, BBC News

Why are the Dutch so tall?

The Dutch are, on average, the world's tallest people, but it hasn't always been that way. So what happened?
Jane O'Brien went to the Netherlands to find out more.

Self-study activity:
Watch this short BBC video clip and answer the questions below.



1 How tall was Astrid at 12?
2 What did she weigh at that age?
3 What is the reason why the Dutch are so tall, according to the latest research?
4 Why do the Dutch have a better chance of passing on their genes?
5 What other explanation is suggested for why the Dutch are so tall?
6 How tall do women have to be for the man interviewed in the street to find them attractive?

Astrid is 42 years old and the mother of twin boys. She also has very big feet.
Have you got some, sandals, new sandals.
Yeah, what size?
Forty-three?
Yeah.
Yes.
That’s because Astrid is Dutch, officially the world’s tallest nation. Under almost two meters, that’s 6 foot 6, Astrid is about the tallest.
I don’t mind it any more. (1) When I was 12 years old I was same height as now, so I was very tall, very skinny, at that time (2) I was 50 kilos.
Why the Dutch are so tall is something scientists are still debating. Other European nations have grown up too, but not nearly so fast.
2 metres 5.
1,99.
1,96.
1,86.
1,62.
(3) The latest research suggests height might have something to do with natural selection. Over the last 150 years. Dutch men have grown 20 cms. but Americans have only grown 6 cms. in the same period. Some studies show that tall Dutch people have more children, so (4) have a better chance of passing on their genes. But some much shorter scientists in the US say that that doesn’t explain the speed of growth.
We know that genetics predict that the Dutch would actually be the tallest people in Europe, and they’ve now achieved that, and some of it maybe that the Dutch have further to go than, say, the Americans did over the last 150 years, and so that may explain part of why they’ve grown so much, that they’ve had more genetic potential to achieve, so maybe it took them a little bit longer, they had more growing to do.
Every Friday crowds flock to the old town of Alkmaar to see the famous cheese market. (5) The high dairy diet is another possible explanation, all that calcium contributing to big bones. But there’s no getting away from that natural selection theory.
Do you find taller women more attractive than short women?
Yes, certainly.
How tall do they have to be?
(6) Minimum 1,80.
1,80.
Yes.
So, no hope for me.
No, sorry.
Whatever the reasons and there are probably many, the Dutch are having to adapt to the growth spurt. Doorways have to be higher and there’s a Dutch campaign to get more leg room on planes. That should be welcomed by everybody, tall and short. Jane O'Brien, BBC News, Alkmaar.

An Explanation Of The Pay Gap Between Men And Women

Today's youngest group of working women are the first in modern history to start their working lives at near parity with men. But will they stay this close in the years to come?

Self-study activity:
Try not to watch the video while doing the exercise, as the clip does give some visual  on the listening comprehension questions.

The video is suitable for intermediate 2 students.



1 How much did a woman earn for every dollar a man earned 30 years ago?
2 How much do women earn now for every dollar a man makes?
3 How much did young women early in their working lives make in 2012 for every dollar their male counterparts earned?
4 Note down at least three reasons why the pay gap has narrowed?
5 Did young women starting their professional career in 1995 maintain, reduced or widen the pay gap with men?
6 Why does the pay gap persist? Give three reasons.

Before checking the answers with the transcript below, watch the video and try the activity again. The visual clues will greatly help you with the difficult questions.



Today's young women are starting their working lives at nearly equal pay with men but there's no guarantee that they will stay this close in the years to come. A new study by the Pew Research Center looks at how the pay gap between women and men has narrowed but persisted over the last 30 years. More than 30 years ago, a woman earned (1) 64 cents for every dollar a man earned. The difference in earnings or the pay gap was 36 cents. Since then, the pay gap has shrunk. Now, women make (2) 84 cents for every dollar men earn - a 16 cent gap and each new group of young women has narrowed the gap even more. Let's take a look at the young women starting out in 1980. While women overall earn 64 cents for every dollar men earned that year, young women could expect to make a little more - 67 cents. Taken at five-year intervals, each successive group of young women has started out at a higher level, steadily narrowing their pay gap with men the same age. By 2012, young women early in their working lives earned (3) 93 cents for every dollar their male counterparts earned. These groups of young women also started out with a narrower pay gap than the pay gap for all working women.
Why has the pay gap narrowed? There are several reasons. (4) Women are better educated and more active in the work force than they used to be. Many of them had moved into higher-paying occupations traditionally dominated by men and men's earnings have fallen. Also, many work place barriers and discriminatory practices have eroded over time, but the pay gap has also persisted. In the more recent years, it has narrowed more slowly. Let's take a closer look. Let's look back again at the 1980s, where working women of all ages made significant gains and closed the pay gap by 11 cents. In later years, women did not make as much progress in closing the pay gap. Because of this overall pattern, young women who started out in the 1980s have done better over the course of their lives compared with later groups of young women. The young women who started out in 1980 built on the rapid progress of that decade and narrowed the pay gap with their male counterparts as they aged and the young women starting out in 1985 also benefited from the strong, overall gains for women during this decade. She maintained about the same pay gap with men over her working life. This progress for women overall slowed. The women starting their working lives in 1990 saw their pay gap with men widen slightly over time. (5) Young women starting out in 1995 lost even more ground relative to men as they aged and so did the women starting out in 2000.
No matter what their pay gap was when they started, all groups of women have moved toward the same pay gap. We don't yet know what the future may hold for today's youngest group of women who have been in the work force for less than a decade. (6) Why does the pay gap persist? Why the newer groups of young women failed to hold on to their early gains? Women are still mainly responsible for child and family care. Many of the mothers in our survey say they have taken a significant amount of time off from work, reduced their hours or quit work to care for a child or other family member. Women also remain more likely to work in lower-paying occupations than men do. For example, male dominated Science & Engineering jobs, pay a medium hourly wage of 30 dollars, while female dominated Administrative Support jobs, pay less than 15 dollar an hour. Gender discrimination may also contribute to the pay gap. Our survey found that women are more likely than men to say they've been discriminated against at work because of their gender. Both women and men say, 'more needs to be done' to bring about gender equality in the work place.
To learn more about the attitudes and experiences of women and men at work, read the full report at: www.pewresearch.org

Listening test: Stereotypes

Listen to a BBC radio programme and choose the option A, B or C that best completes each sentence. 0 is an example.

listen to ‘Stereotypes’ on audioBoom

0 Neil says that men’s existence will be
A longer.
B shorter.
C the same.

1 The Y chromosome
A is responsible for men’s intelligence.
B has 10,000 years left.
C still has all the vital functions.

2 Jennifer Hughes has said that
A it is very unlikely that the Y chromosome loses any more genes.
B natural selection is failing to preserve the genes.
C only the mother’s genes pass characteristics to a child.

3 Men's sex chromosomes are
A more sophisticated than female ones.
B less sophisticated than female ones.
C as sophisticated as females ones.

4 Rosie’s boyfriend
A has not used the washing machine in 30 years.
B is 30 years old.
C wasn’t used to doing household jobs.

5  Women
A are more afraid of spiders than men.
B run away from mice.
C take longer in the bathroom.

6 Rosie
A hates the fact that men are stronger than women.
B thinks that men are less violent than women.
C says that women usually try to find a solution to problems.

7 The ratio of men to women in the world is
A 100 males to every 100 females.
B 100 males to every 105 females.
C 101 males to every 100 females.

Transcript
Neil:Hello I'm Neil and with me today is Rosie.
Rosie:Hi there.
Neil:Well, today we're talking about men.
Rosie:That sounds interesting.
Neil:It is very interesting especially if you're a man because it seems we've had our existence extended.
Rosie:I'm sorry?
Neil:Well, some previous scientific research had suggested that the Y chromosome, which is responsible for men's sex organs and hormones, is rotting away!
Rosie:Oh dear. Are you going to make it till the end of the programme, Neil?
Neil:Ah yes – even the most pessimistic findings suggested that men had 100 thousand years left. Scientists compared the decline in the male human's Y chromosome with that of the monkey.
Rosie:Okay.
Neil:And their conclusion was that the Y chromosome still got all of the vital bits.
Rosie:Lucky you! Well, here's Jennifer Hughes from the Whitehead Institute in Cambridge Massachusetts. She was in charge of the research:
Jennifer Hughes, Whitehead Institute in Cambridge Massachusetts
I think that the odds of the Y losing any more genes are pretty slim. It appears that it's been stable for 25 million years and that is a good indication that's it going to be stable for many many millions of years to come and the genes that remain on the Y probably have very important functions and therefore natural selection is doing a very good job of preserving those genes.
Rosie:She said the odds of the Y chromosome losing any more genes are pretty slim – meaning it's unlikely. Genes are the parts of cells which have the information which passes characteristics from a parent to a child.
Neil: So it sounds like us males are safe for many millions of years to come.
Rosie:She also added that natural selection is doing a very good job of preserving the genes.
Neil:Now here's an interesting fact, Rosie. Did you know that men's sex chromosomes are not as sophisticated as female ones?
Rosie:No I didn't know that, but it doesn't come as a surprise to me!
Neil I thought you might say that. But you know what – I'm happy having less sophisticated chromosomes if it means men continue to live for a little longer. Now there's only one way to end this programme, Rosie, and that is to imagine a world without men.
Rosie:OK, well for a start more would get done.
Neil: Are you suggesting that men are lazy?
Rosie:Well, they can be. My boyfriend, for example, had never used a washing machine until he was 30 years old.
Neil:Right, well we're getting into stereotypes here! So how about this one – if there were only women in the world, you'd never get into the bathroom.
Rosie:OK, I'll give you that one. I agree that women do spend longer in the bathroom than men.
Neil: And who's going to catch spiders and mice for you?
Rosie: Ah, now that is absolutely not true! My boyfriend is terrified of mice. In fact he ran away from one in the kitchen just last night.
Neil:Well, to be honest, I don't really like mice either, I must say. But what about lifting heavy things? I am always expected to do heavy lifting, which I hate by the way.
Rosie:Yes I confess that men are useful for that. And on a more serious note, I think there would probably be far fewer wars if there were only women. I think women would be more likely to talk problems over than resort to violence.
Neil:Well you might be right there but it's difficult to say because most of the world's leaders are men of course. OK Rosie, this entertaining debate must come to an end. We need an answer to the question. I asked what the ratio is of men to women in the world. What was your answer?
Rosie:I said 100 males to every 105 females
Neil:And you were completely wrong. It's 101 males to every 100 females. Bye for now!
Rosie:Bye bye!

Key:
1C 2A 3B 4C 5C 6C 7C

Talking point: The average person

In today's talking point we are dealing with the average person. Go over the questions below and think about them before you get together with the members of your conversation group, so that ideas flow more easily and you can work out vocabulary issues.

• How would you define the average man/woman in your country? 
• What kinds of jobs does the average person do? 
• How much does he or she earn?
• What is the average size of a family?
• What are their main ambitions in life?
• What does the average person do in his or her free time?
• How do you think the average man/woman compare with the average man/woman in other countries?
• Can you think of someone you know who represents the average man or woman?
• Do you consider yourself to represent the average man or woman? In what ways?
• In which country do you think it's best to be an average man or woman? Why?

To illustrate the topic, you can watch the National Geographic short video 7 Billion: Are you typical? or read the Mail Online article So THIS is Britain's Mr Average?

Extensive listening: Make me a German

In summer last year BBC aired Make me a German, where two Brits move to Nuremberg, Germany, to live like Germans.

The programme delves into the German efficiency, their attitude to work and money, their social customs, their personality, how they organise their lives and their homes.

Talking point: Stereotypes

This week's talking point revolves around the topic of stereotypes. Before getting together with the members of your conversation group, go over the questions below, so that ideas flow more easily the day you meet up with your friends and you can work out vocabulary issues beforehand.

Have you ever lived or worked or travelled outside your country?
Was it an easy or difficult experience? Why?
What were the main differences from where you live?

How easy/difficult is it for immigrants or vistitors to adapt to the lifestyle in your country? Think about these aspects:

• eating habits
• family life
• greetings
• hospitality
• personal space
• work-life balance
• showing emotions
• sense of humour

Think about typical stereotypes in your country about the relationships between: 
older and younger people
men and women
employers and employees

Which cultural aspects in your country do you think: 
visitors can begin to understand more quickly?
take longer to get used to?
you can only understand when you know the culture very well?

Geographical stereotypes:
name some nationality stereotypes
name some regional stereotypes
name some profession-related stereotypes
To what extent does your experience conform to these stereotypes?

To illustrate the topic you can watch the video below, which shows the way some European nationals view one another.



If you are really interested in the topic, Claudio Azevedo has a comprehensive lesson on the topic of stereotypes in his wonderful Movie Segments for Warm-ups and Follow-ups.

Expat blogs on Spain

In late June this year, Barry O'Leary, the man behind Teaching English in a Foreign Land, made a selection of the best expat blogs about Spain.

It's funny to see how foreigners view your country and your customs. Only for this reason, Barry's list is worth checking out, especially if you are a Spanish learner of English. An added bonus of dropping by any of the blogs on the list is that Spaniards will find the English counterpart for a number of Spanish expressions and words that have a difficult translation into English.

The comments on the blogs below are Barry's, and I have added only a few of the blogs he suggests. Drop by Barry's blog for a full list and for keeping abreast of the latest news of Barry's life in Spain and his round-the-world trips.

Spain Expat is a website and covers loads of topics. Have a look for a great forum, business, finance, language, legal, lifestyle, moving, working, and technology. An amazing resource and a great way to get in touch with other expats.

The Spain Scoop is well worth a visit for expat information on Madrid, Seville, Bilbao, Santiago and the Balearic islands. The Spain Scoop is written by several expat experts and they cover issues such as travel, food, museums, transport, festivals and entertainment.

Spanish Sabores has a mountain of information about Spain, travel, recipes, teaching English, and expat stories.

Sunshine and Siestas is a cool blog about life through the eyes of a Chicago girl, Cat, who lives in Seville. She covers issues on travel, food, teaching, and she has some great photos.

Piccavey is a useful blog. Written by an expat living in Granada who covers issues on travel, tapas, Andalucia, flamenco, and life as an expat.

Christine in Spain is a great blog about expat life, the Basque Country, food, and world travel.

BCN blog is all about Barcelona. A great blog full of posts about sport, music, festivals, food and drink, exhibitions, hotels and business.

Real English series: A tourist in London and what are the Italians/Germans like?

Today we are posting two new episodes in the Real English series of videos for Básico 1 and Básico 2 (elementary) students.

In the first one Lisa, an American tourist in London, answers some questions about herself and about her impressions of London.

Some parts of the video may be difficult for Básico 1 students, but not definitely for Básico 2 ones. Anyway, the clip is a good opportunity to revise the structure of basic questions in English at this level.

It is advisable to watch the same video with English subtitles on the Real English site here.
Students can also do an interactive excercise on the Real English site here.

Below you can find the questions that Lisa is asked in the interview, which may help you for revision purposes.

What’s your name?
Are you from New York?
When did you get to London?
How do you like it so far?
Why did you come to London?
How long are you going to stay?
How long all together?
Do you like it so far?
Could you introduce this person here?
Are you friends?
Do the French like us much?
Where do you live?
Do you like Americans?
Where are you staying?
Is it expensive?
What do you do in New York?
Where is your shop?
Do you live in Staten Island?

The second video follows up on the study of the question pattern What ... like? to describe people, and that we have studied in the last four weeks. This time it is the Italians that people in the street are asked to describe when answering the question, What are the Italians like?

The main difficulty of the video lies on the vocabulary  as some of the speakers use a few adjectives which students  at elementary and even intermediate level may find difficult to understand.

It is more than advisible to download the transcript from the Real English site here, so that you can look up the words that you don't understand and practise the pronunciation of the vocabulary.
You can also do an interactive exercise on the Real English site here.

The last video on today's post follows up on the practice of the question What are ... like?, this time the question is about the Germans, What are the Germans like?

You can watch a subtitled version of the same video on the Real English site here.

American and British politeness

Lynne Murphy is Senior Lecturer in Linguistics in the School of English, University of Sussex. Her research concerns what we know when we know words, and stretches to how non-linguistic knowledge and behaviour affect our use of words. Raised and educated in the US, Ms Murphy lived in South Africa in the 1990s and has been in England since 2000. Her observations on the Englishes of these places (and the linguistics behind them) are chronicled in the blog Separated by a Common Language.

In April this year Ms Murphy gave a talk for TED at Sussex University where she dealt with the issue of politeness in US and Britain and how this key aspect of everyday life differs between the two countries.

As it is stated in the first paragraph of this post, Ms Murphy's blog, Separated by a Common Language, delves into the cultural differences of English-speaking countries. If you click on the link above, you can also read her own observations about her TED talk posted here, American and British politeness.

I have been unable to get a transcription of the talk, but if you watch the talk on the YouTube site, you will be able to activate the subtitles on the lower side of the screen. These  YouTube  online subtitles are less accurate than  we would like to, but they may come in handy for English students as a guideline of the main ideas in the talk.

Five things I hate about living in Spain

Stereotypes have come up a number of times on this blog.

European stereotypes  was a really interesting series of articles from The Guardian where six countries were asked to stereotype each other.

Theresa Dold also showed us the way Google can help us build up a stereotype of a nationality through its autocomplete algorhythm.

We also have a beginner's guide to the British and Benny Lewis's view of US, not to mention the stereotypical roles of men and women within a family.

This new addition to the topic of stereotypes will be of great interest for the Spanish students reading this blog: Five things I have about living in Spain depicts Barry O'Leary's experience of living in Spain. After six or seven years settled down in Seville, this is the way he views his life in Spain:

1 Always a guiri, a foreigner
2 Absolute rubbish
3 Frogger
4 Deadly summer heat waves
5 The word "crisis"

Drop by Barry's Teaching English in a Foreign Land blog and find out what he really means by all those five hateful things of living in Spain.

The blog is well worth a visit on a regular basis as Barry seems to be the guy who always has something interesting to say, and knows how to say it.

Talking point: How do male and female roles differ in your family?

Who would you say does most of the “parenting” in your house?
Who does most of the housework?
Who helps with the homework?
Who usually attends school functions and meetings?
In what other ways do gender roles play out in your family?
To what extent do the roles in your house seem to fall along traditional gender lines? Why?
If you have children, how do/would you divide the work of running a household and raising children? Why?

These are the questions The New York Times Learning Network posed a few weeks ago for their younger readers to comment on. I thought it would make a nice topic for our intermediate students' weekly discussion.

In preparation for your talking sesssion and to gain more insight into the topic, you can read this article from The New York Times, The Census Bureau counts fathers as 'Child Care.'

Miss Universe to learn English

It may sound a bit banal at first but the contest of Miss Universe offers English learners a good opportunity to practise English in several ways.

In Miss Universe 2011 the participants had to do a video in which they answered three questions:
Do you believe in life on other planets?
What advantages do women have over men?
If you were an animal, what would you be and why?

The videos give us the opportunity to listen to a variety of English accents, both native and non-native, and they are not too hard to understand.  Besides, they can be used as an introduction if we are studying or revising the second conditional, or if the topic of stereotypes, women vs men, has come up in class. Finally, students can answer the questions for themselves after they have seen the videos.

Self study activity:
Watch the  videos and complete the blanks in the transcripts with the missing words.

Great Britain

Do you believe in life on other planets?
I actually do believe in life on other planets or I’d like to think that there is life on other planets, to think that we are only one in the whole solar system, it feels pretty (1) ..., so I would definitely like to think that there is life on other planets, even if it is as tiny as an ameba or something, just something is there.

What advantages do women have over men?
I think that women and men are pretty much equal even if they are not treated as such. But I think one advantage is maybe that they can (2) ... better than men. A man would probably disagree, but I think that women have to do so many things, and also they have the advantage of being able to carry life, which is something a man is unable to do, and I think that’s a (3) ..., so that’s a definite advantage.

If you were an animal, what would you be and why?
If I was an animal I would probably be a (4) ..., because (4) ... get to reinvent themselves into a (5) ..., which I have just here. So, yeah, I’d probably be a (4) ... that turns into a big beautiful (5) ... and then they get to fly whenever they want to go, so it’s free-travel, so I’d be a (4) ... into a (5) ... .

Australia

Do you believe in life on other planets?
I do believe it’s very possible and I’m not sure whether I’d like to meet them.

What advantages do women have over men?
Maybe (6) ... , I think women are a lot more (6) ... than men. Obviously this is a big assumption about men, but I think, yeah, men could be a little bit more (6) ... especially at (7) ... .

If you were an animal, what would you be and why?
Probably a (8) ... . I definitely think if I were an animal I would be a (8) ... , because it just would be amazing to fly wherever you had to go.

US

Do you believe in life on other planets?
I do believe in life on other planets. I don’t think that we are the only ones. Well so are science geeks, of course. I'm reading about (9) ... from outer space and if there’s really life on other planets.

What advantages do women have over men?
I think the advantage that women have over men is, the (10) ... about being a woman is that we can create life and they are here because we are here.

If you were an animal, what would you be and why?
If I could be an animal I’m pretty sure I would be a (11) ... and that’s because I feel I’d walk in (12) ... miles per hour, and that’s how fast they go, so I think I would definitely be a (11) ... .

Key:
1 lonely 2 multitask 3 gift 4 caterpillar 5 butterfly 6 patience 7 airports 8 bird 9 aliens 10 beauty 11 cheetah 12 eighty-six

How to do business in India

A few weeks ago, Jeffrey Hill posted the video How to do business in India in his The English Blog, which is suitable for intermediate English students.

Self-study activity:
Watch the clip and note down the do's and dont's of how to conduct business deals in India.

For self-correction you can use the transcript that Jeffrey Hill also provided.

European stereotypes

As part of the Europa project, newspapers from six European countries (Britain, France, Germany, Poland, Spain, and Italy) were asked to stereotype each other, and then asked cultural commentators in each country to assess how accurate they are.  You can read the articles in The Guardian.

This is the beginning of the article about Spain:

Spanish stereotypes: statistics tell us they have Mondays, too.
The sun, the beach and the noisy fiesta were commodities exploited to attract tourists – in real life, Spaniards work longer hours than most Europeans.

Read about the other stereotypes in the project by clicking on these links.
• French stereotypes: Arrogant and good in bed? Bien sûr!
• British stereotypes: Do mention the war, please!
• German stereotypes: Don't mention the towels
• Italian stereotypes: Yes, we are all individuals!
• Polish stereotypes: Hard-drinking Catholic zealots? Nie!

You can check how European you are by doing this interactive quiz.

Ikea's Manland

Self-study activity:
Watch this video about Ikea's latest idea in their stores and answer the questions below.



1 Is shopping one of the most testing things a couple can do?
2 What does Ikea's niffty idea consist of?
3 How long is a man's retail attention span?
4 Who do girlfriends and wives do while their partners hang out in Manland?
5 How many men pretend to enjoy the shopping experience?
6 What are women given when they leave their partners in Manland?
7 How long can the men stay in Manland?
8 Where did Ikea get the idea about Manland?
9 What happens if men stay in Manland longer than allowed?
10 Who benefits more from Manland, wives or husbands?

You can read a The Star online article about Ikea's idea here.

Discussion:
After watching the video you can discuss these questions with an English-speaking friend or relative:

Do you like the idea?
Do you think other big department stores should follow Ikea's example?
Is the distinction between men and women conveyed by the video stereotypical?
Do you identify with it?

Key:
1 Yes, according to the report 2 Manland is an area in Ikea's stores (in Australia) for men to stay and entertain themselves with games like the Xbox and watching the footy (TV) while their partners are doing the shopping 3 very short 4 they go shopping 5 some 6 a buzzer which warns them about their partners staying in Manland 7 We don't really know. They say that the buzzer goes off after half an hour 8 Ikea first created Smalland, a kind of creche where parents can leave their children while doing the shopping  9 the authorities are called 10 wives