Vending Machines

1. Do you ever use vending machines? If so, what do you buy from them? If not, why not?

2. What do you think are the benefits of selling food items from vending machines? What are the drawbacks?

3. What do you do when the product you want gets stuck? Do you have a technique? Choose from the following:

a) I tilt the machine forwards and backwards.

b) I bang on the window.

c) I try to rebuy the product.

d) I try to buy an item higher up, and hope that it will knock my item free.

e) I call the number on the machine.

f) I seek assistance nearby.

Read article here: Vending Machine Reading

4. If food-vending machines of the type mentioned in the article appeared in your neighbourhood, what items should they stock? Which locations would be most suitable/unsuitable?

5. Some schools in the UK are banning vending machines as they are seen as part of the obesity problem. What is the situation in schools in your country? Do school vending machines usually sell unhealthy snacks?

6. Have you come across people selling food in other innovative ways?

7. Have your food shopping habits changed in the last five or ten years? If so, how? Do you go shopping more or less frequently? Do you shop more online? Do you buy more or less local or organic produce?

8. Do you grow any of your own food? Would you like to?

9. Have there been shortages of any particular items?

10. Have any of these changes during the pandemic encouraged you to try new foods, combinations or recipes? If so, how did they work out?

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Situation

You want to persuade your boss (your teacher) to install one of these machines at your workplace. Approach him and explain the possible benefits of having one of them.

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Discuss quotes

"My favorite machine at the gym is the vending machine."

- Caroline Rhea

"Anyone who says having a child is the best moment of their life has obviously never had two Kit-Kats fall out of a vending machine at once."

- Anon

"You don't truly know someone until you see how they react to their bag of chips getting stuck in a vending machine."

- Anon

"If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need."

-  Marcus Tullius Cicero

"Growing your own food is like printing your own money!

-  Urban Gardening Republic

Student Handout PDF: Vending Machine Outline

Difficult Journeys

 

1.Have you ever experienced any of these travel problems? If so, talk about them.

- Luggage lost or delayed

- Flight cancelled or missed

- Double-booking or overbooking

- Car accident

- Illness or personal accident

- Sunburn

- Getting lost

- Problems with the hotel

- Very bad weather

- Belongings stolen

- Running out of money

2. What is  the longest period of time you have ever spent in an airport lounge?

3. What circumstances would stop you from going into work?

Read article here: Difficult Journeys

4. What do you think are the pros and cons of Mishel Zrian's job? What character traits do you need to do this sort of work?

5. In terms of bureaucracy, which countries would be the hardest to deal with for international travel, do you think?

6. Have you ever done any volunteer work? Do you know anyone who has done volunteer work? Have you ever benefitted by someone's volunteer work?

7. How can volunteers benefit from their work?

8. There are currently more than 22 million people in Britain who work as volunteers for many different organisations. What are the numbers in your country?

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Situation

You are the founder of an organ donation and collection charity. You are to give a presentation of your work at a local civic hall. Your goal is to attract volunteer couriers. Answer any questions your audience has.

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Discuss quotes

"Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on Earth."

- Muhammad Ali

"You make a living by what you get, but you make a life by what you give."

-- Winston Churchill 

"He who wishes to secure the good of others has already secured his own."

-- Confucius

“A journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it.”

― John Steinbeck

“Did you ever notice that the first piece of luggage on the carousel never belongs to anyone?”

― Erma Bombeck

“An airport is a place where you go through hell to reach your alleged paradise.”

― Stewart Stafford

Student Handout PDF: Difficult Journeys

Photo: Ivica Dzambo

Portuguese Lessons

 

1. Have you ever been to Portugal? What do you know of the country?

2. What measures have schools in your country put in place to make schools safe places during this pandemic?

3. Do you know anyone who has switched from face-to-face teaching to online learning? What has been their experience? Has the change from classroom to online been done in an orderly manner?

4. Are you happy with state schools? Have you ever considered using private education? Are there any reasons why you would/wouldn't?

Read the article here up to/including the 16th paragraph:

Portuguese Lessons Reading

5. What is your reaction to the article? Which of the following are closest to your point of view?

a) "We're in the middle of a pandemic - lots of institutions are under pressure, and we're bound to get the occasional strange decision. It's nothing to worry about."

b) "Typical Lefties, instead of allowing some to thrive, everyone must be brought down to the same poor standards."

c) "The Portuguese government should ensure that state schools improve their online programmes."

6. Do you think that state-school pupils will benefit from this ban on private online tuition? Is Antonio Costa's heart in the right place, in that he wants to protect families who can't afford private education? Or is his government blinded by ideology? Which of the following phrases sums up their position best/worst: 

"If I can't have it, neither can you", "we're all in this together", "cut down the tall poppies", "we should have a level playing field"?

7. Private schools typically outperform state schools in the UK.  Occasionally, private schools will help state schools and provide support such as course materials or mentoring younger teachers. But this support is purely optional and probably only happens if school headmasters know each other. Is this a satisfactory state of affairs? Should the state provide everything at a universally high standard for education?

8. If you have children of your own, would you ever consider educating them yourself?

9. Isn't technology the solution to inequality in education? Shouldn't having the internet as a teacher be the ideal way of ensuring that everyone has equal provision?

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Situation

You are the Portuguese parent who has created the petition against this ban (paragraph 9). The local newspaper has sent a journalist to ask you about your campaign. Answer their questions.

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Discuss quotes

"People of my generation in Portugal fell into the magic potion of political ideas. What was very funny about this revolution was that it did not bring wealth to the Portuguese. But it brought language, ideas. You'd go to the fish market, and all the women who were selling fish would call each other fascist, or communist."     

--- Maria De Medeiros

"Levellers wish to level down as far as themselves; but they cannot bear levelling up to themselves."

--- Samuel Johnson

"Broadband access is the great equalizer, leveling the playing field so that every willing and able person, no matter their station in life, has access to the information and tools necessary to achieve the American Dream."

--- Michael K. Powell

“I am, at the Federal level, libertarian; at the state level, Republican; at the local level, Democrat; and at the family and friends level, a socialist. If that saying doesn’t convince you of the fatuousness of left vs. right labels, nothing will.”

― Nassim Nicholas Taleb

"I never let education interfere with my learning."

---- Mark Twain

Student Handout PDF: Portuguese Lessons

Tax Working From Home

 1. How many different types of tax do you pay? Which one do you resent paying the most? Does your country have any unusual taxes? (e.g. the UK's window tax)

2. "Civilisation starts with paying taxes". Do you agree? Why?

3. Do you work from home more now than you did before the arrival of Covid-19? Was that your choice or the employer's? Has working from home resulted in you saving money? In which areas?

4. Would you be happy to pay slightly more tax from the money you have saved if the money was redistributed fairly?

Read article here: Tax Working From Home Reading

5. Why does Deutsche Bank want people to pay more tax? Choose one from the below:

a) They're a caring, sharing kind of organisation which wants to help others.

b) They own a lot of commercial office space in central London which is now empty.

6. If your government introduced such a scheme, what could you do as a way of expressing your discontent? Tell me about changing banks (assuming you are with Deutsche), refusing to pay the tax, civil disobedience, organising petitions etc.

7. Have any taxes been successfully repealed in your country? (e.g. UK poll tax)

8. Is 2020 a time for more taxes or less? How will economies recover from the pandemic?

9. Will working from home lead to even more outsourcing of work to 'third-world' countries? (e.g. call centres in India)

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Situation

You are a green-activist shareholder at Deutsche Bank who is against these new proposals. Attempt to persuade fellow shareholder (your teacher) of the wisdom of your arguments.

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Discuss quotes

“I hate paying taxes. But I love the civilisation they give me”

― Oliver Wendell Holmes

"A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul"

---- George Bernard Shaw

"Elections should be held on April 16th- the day after we pay our income taxes. That is one of the few things that might discourage politicians from being big spenders."

---- Thomas Sowell

“When you work from home there is no such thing as a holiday.”

― Anthony T. Hincks

"Next to being shot at and missed, nothing is really quite as satisfying as an income tax refund.”

 — F. J. Raymond

Student Handout PDF: Tax Working

Photo: Nataliya Vaitkevich