Discussion topics

A German dog learns English

By Katya on October 27 2022
Evergreen

An abandoned dog named Hector was left tied to the gates of an RSPCA (Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) branch in West Yorkshire, England. When trying to give commands to the dog, staff found that Hector was not reacting. Luckily for Hector, the staff decided to try other languages, and it turned out he knew several commands in German.

A woman in the whisky business

By Di on October 25 2022
Evergreen

Bessie Williamson (1910-1982) was a woman in a man's industry. She ran a whisky distillery in Scotland at a time when women weren't managers in any business, let alone the whisky business. But Williamson worked her way up from a typist to the owner and CEO of the Laphroaig [lah-FROYG] distillery, becoming a well-respected boss and highly successful manager. She brought Laphroaig distillery through difficult times during WWII and began a far-reaching modernization process before retiring.

The importance of close bonds

By The English Farm on October 20 2022
Evergreen

According to The New York Times, research shows that close friendships are necessary for optimal health and well-being. A key to close friendship is intimacy, and a big part of intimacy is being able to be fully yourself and be understood by others.

If close friendships really are vital to people’s well-being, one might assume we would be able to make them easily. However, it turns out that the opposite may be true: close friendships are important to people because they are so difficult to form.

Task: Sell a crowdfunded item

By The English Farm on October 18 2022
Evergreen

Crowdfunding campaigns have been getting more and more popular in recent years. 

They can be great for small groups of people starting a new business, or smaller companies raising money for new products.

A popular crowdfunding website is Kickstarter. You can find all kinds of interesting products and services—who knows, maybe you could discover the next big thing! If you'd like to find something more unusual, I recommend the “Food & Craft” section.

Visuals: Children's dream jobs

By James on October 13 2022
Topical

Adecco, a Japanese company providing human resource services, conducted a national survey asking 900 elementary and junior high school boys and girls what job they wanted to do when they grew up. Many children showed an interest in jobs that involve digital technology, which is no surprise since they have been surrounded by the technology since birth.

The detailed results of the survey are shown below.
 


elementary [adjective] /el-uh-MEN-tuh-ree/—simple or early stages of studying

The platypus

By The English Farm on October 11 2022
Topical

When the first platypus specimen was sent back to England from Australia in the late 18th century, the scientists who examined it thought that someone was playing a trick on them. The zoologist George Shaw wrote in the first scientific description of the platypus that he thought the specimen was a mix of a few different species.

The benefits of living abroad

By The English Farm on October 6 2022
Evergreen

According to studies commissioned by the Harvard Business Review (HBR), international experiences can enhance creativity, reduce racial bias, and promote career success.

HBR set out to examine how international experiences can transform a person’s sense of self, specifically self-concept clarity, or the extent to which someone’s understanding of themself is clearly defined, and consistent.

Self-concept clarity has been linked to multiple benefits, such as psychological well-being, the ability to cope with stress, and job performance.

Moss helps cities breathe

By Di on October 4 2022
Evergreen

The Amsterdam company Respyre has developed concrete and plaster that support the growth of moss. These materials can be used for new construction, as well as on existing buildings. The moss then acts as a respiration system for the city. It takes in water and CO2 from the air and releases oxygen.

Moss has other benefits, too. Watch this short video to find out more.

Do we need to replace the GDP?

By Di on September 27 2022
Evergreen

The standard measure of economic performance, the gross domestic product (GDP), measures the value of goods and services produced within a country over a given period. However, the GDP doesn’t measure social factors like income inequality, domestic violence, drug addiction, or the impact of today’s actions on future generations. It also ignores sustainability and environmental destruction. It’s a very short-term view of market factors without respect to what’s happening on the social and environmental levels.

Visuals: Nature Magazine evolves

By The English Farm on September 22 2022
Evergreen

Nature Magazine is one of the world’s most important international weekly scientific journals. According to its website, it publishes “peer-reviewed research in all fields of science and technology on the basis of its originality, importance, interdisciplinary interest, timeliness, accessibility, elegance and surprising conclusions.”

The first issue was published in 1869. Since then, the magazine has changed quite a bit. Have a look at the graph below and discuss with your teacher how the content has evolved over the past 150 years.

 

Women workers united in the 1800s

By Di on September 20 2022
Evergreen

The city of Lowell, Massachusetts, was famous for its textile mills during the Industrial Revolution. In the 1830s, around 8,000 women worked at the mills. The working conditions were terrible. The air inside the mills was full of dust. Women worked 13 or 14 hours a day for very low pay.

In 1834, the mill owners decided to pay the women even less. The women were angry and joined together to fight the owners. They went on strike (refused to go to work) until they got their wages back. But the owners wouldn’t agree, and the women had to go back to work. 

The origin of the English pub

By The English Farm on September 13 2022
Evergreen

Atlas Obscura, a publication about travel and culture, notes that a pub has always been more than just a place that sells beer for the British. The pub has brought communities together for centuries, and the tavern tradition of spending the evening with your peers continues to this day. Few know, however, that pubs became popular following the plague known as the Black Death of the 14th century.

Animals speak different languages

By Di on September 8 2022
Evergreen

Onomatopeia is a fancy way to describe words that sound like what they mean. For instance, in English, bees "buzz" and cats "meow". Words for animal sounds are almost always built on how the animals actually sound to listeners. But that can be different in different languages. Since each language has its own set of sounds to work with, they hear animals based on those sounds.

For example, a rooster's crow is translated as:

The fastest path to becoming a CEO

By The English Farm on September 6 2022
Evergreen

According to the Harvard Business Review (HBR), common wisdom says that CEOs attend elite MBA programs, land high-powered jobs right out of school at prestigious firms, and climb the ladder straight to the top while carefully avoiding risky moves.

However, HBR conducted a 10-year study in which they assembled a dataset of more than 17,000 C-suite executive assessments to analyze who gets to the top and how. They discovered a striking finding: sprinters—those who rise quickly—accelerate to the top by making bold, at times risky, career moves.

Visuals: The world gets better

By The English Farm on September 1 2022
Evergreen

The Conversation, a publication that promotes academic debate, posits that not only do many people across advanced economies have no idea that the world is becoming a much better place, but they actually think the opposite. This is no wonder, when the news focuses on reporting catastrophes, terrorist attacks, wars and famines. These subjects simply make for more exciting coverage than stories about how more than 300,000 people a day get access to electricity and clean water for the first time.

The many faces of Indonesia

By The English Farm on August 30 2022
Evergreen

Indonesia has over 17,000 islands. If you ever go there, you will see how different some of the major islands are. For example, Bali is the only island where most of the people are Hindu. It attracts a very large number of tourists. It is known around the world as a great place for a holiday.

However, Sulawesi, an island to the north of Bali, has very few tourists. Here, most people are Christian. There is very little made for tourists on the island. Makassar, the main city, has only one hotel. You will also have to take public transportation to get around.

Gas crisis in Europe

By Daniela on August 30 2022
Topical
A group of oil rigs in the ocean

War in Ukraine has created a major global energy crisis. It has affected many countries worldwide. In fact, many people believe Russia is using the gas supply to control Europe.

Recently, Russia closed down a turbine on the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which cut down the amount of natural gas they send to Europe. Nord Stream 1 pipeline stretches from Russia to Germany, and it can send up to 170 cubic metres of gas per day. This pipeline is owned by Nord Stream AG. Its major shareholder is the Russian energy company Gazprom.

Forest bathing stress away

By The English Farm on August 25 2022
Evergreen

National Geographic answers the question: what is forest bathing? The term emerged in Japan in the 1980s as a physiological and psychological exercise called shinrin-yoku. It can mean “forest bathing” or “taking in the forest atmosphere”. The purpose was to offer an ecological antidote to tech-boom burnout and to inspire residents to reconnect with the country’s forests.