A flexible behemoth!

 Dell's story provides an interesting outlook to a contemporary company's growth. 

 Let's watch a relevant video (Ch 4 & 5) and discuss the questions here

Michael's future and future tenses here!

Discover IT Vocabulary here

Now, imagine you are Dell's Training officer and you are planning a seminar. Look at this example of an email to the participants and find ways to improve it.

Time to sing!

Will the future surprise you?

  

 

Well, what do you think? Will it have happened 25 years from now? 

Do you think it's a good thing?

Read the following emails written by people to their future self. 

What can you guess about the writers?

What is the reason for writing them?

What do they expect to have happened?

What does each writer think they will be doing in the future?

LANGUAGE TIME

Check FUTURE TENSES here and play Quizzes here

Practice Future uses here

He's bad enough!

 

1. What makes this person success special?

2. Which of these things mean success to you? Put them in order from 1 (most important) to 8 (least important): Then discuss with your partner 

• the ability to help others
• the chance to travel
• dealing with challenges
• enormous wealth
• inner peace and happiness
• a lot of friends
• a loving family
• a rewarding career

Now, discuss with your partner what you would like to achieve personally 

a. this year

b. in a few year's time

c. by 2050

Check this article on SMART goals. Set your goal for 2025 and let's discuss it at the next class!

Song time!

AI - As human as it possibly can?

 What do you think helps build rapport among people?

How has AI affected your life so far? How does think it will affect the human society in the future?

Read an article about AI and its implications

Underline the expressions you find intriguing and write each in a separate piece of paper.

Exchange with partners to create a story.

This is a sentence taken from the article:

"If AI significantly complements higher-income workers, it may lead to a disproportionate increase in their labor income."

• What is the time reference of this sentence? 
• What does the use of this form imply?
• How can it be restructured to refer to something the speaker considers unlikely/improbable?
• How can it be restructured to refer to a past event?
• What other words could be used insted of "if"?

Study Conditional sentences here

Practice (to your heart's desire) here

LYRICS

Flavours - Cultural wonders

 Remember the fast story we saw some time ago?

Well, here's the solution to what happened!

What's your favourite food? 

Is there a controversial food that you like -one or more acquaintances of yours detest?

Guess! The first countries where pizza appeared were___________________

Although pizza has long winding roots from ancient Greece through Italy to the rest of the world, it is genuinely most people’s delight. With every slice comes a rich history of different parts of the world. Social, economic, and cultural markings are baked into pizza’s goodness.

Over time, the toppings have changed to accommodate the different cultures of the world. Despite/ Although bakers from all over the globe now custom-making the pizza, the bottom line remains the same. Every good pizza has a crust that holds it all together.

To top it all up, the world got sight of the largest pizza in 2012, measuring more than 1,260 square meters.

Today, over 70,000 pizzerias offer this U.S. delicacy, not to mention its popularity across the world.

1. People thousands of years ago made flat bread and added _______________of different ingredients.
2. In ancient times the bread served as the ______________  
3. _______________,  pizza has changed to _______________ the cultures of every nation in the world
4. The common ingredient of all pizzas is ______________
5. Tomatoes from America in the 18th century are the reason for ______________pizza
6. Later pizza became a ______________ food for the upper class.
7. Nowadays, pizza is __________food in Italy and the USA.

prominent, toppings, crust, plate, over time, modern-day, accommodate, staple

Let's play KAHOOT! 

C. Make a list of popular foods that came from other countries. Where did they come from? Discuss.  

D. Invent a new kind of pizza for Lombardi's, the oldest pizza restaurant in the USA. You should agree on toppings, sause and the type of crust.

Durian fruit is______________

 

 E. Make a short video guide for tourists visiting your country. Describe the foods that are popular in your culture but people from other cultures might find unusual or even disgusting. Give reasons why tourist should try these foods. 

Travelling Stories

  OWN IT- Be ready to present!

Think of three words or phrases or cultural concepts from your first language or another language. Be ready to present them to the class in the next lesson. you can include

• a word or expression
• a festival, dance, or celebration
• a type of humour 
• an important place that isn't well-known abroad
• a dish that reflects the best food from home
• an aspect of the national character that you want people from other countries to know about
• a well-love TV show, film, or song that represents your country

TRAVEL STORIES

Do you like travelling? 

Read this funny story and underline the past tenses

The stories I had heard about hitchhiking were mostly shortcuts to getting murdered, so I hated the idea. However some friends persuaded me to give it a try when we missed our bus during a badly planned trip to Bosnia. 

The sun was setting when a truck slowed down in front of us. We pilled up in the back. The driver had no English and we didn'r speak his language but he kept repeating the word "Lavanda" in an ever louder voice. BY the time we arrived at our destination we were horrified!

As we were getting ready to escae he opened the trunk of his car. Ready he was going to murder us, we all screamed...

But no. None of that happened. Instead, he flashed a toothy grin as he unveiled his roomy trunk… Which was filled with tiny draw-string packets of dried lavender. Lavanda. Lavender.  All this time he had been trying to explain to us that he was a lavender farmer! “Lavanda!” he said for a final time and went off.  

Relieved and dazed, my friends and I continued our walk home, laughing to ourselves that we had just rode through Bosnia & Herzegovina with a baller lavender mogul. And true fact: he’s the reason why to this day, I still smile every time I see lavender.

NARRATIVE TENSES

Practice online here

Fixing misunderstandings

 PAIRWORK

Think of misunderstandings you've had with people either in your own language or in English/another language. What happened? 

What were possible reasons?

• the message relied on cultural information that the listener had no idea about
• the message used vocabulary the listener didn't know
• the message was disorganised
• the speaker spoke too fast

Now watch the video. What do you think was the reason of the misunderstanding?

What's wrong with the message?

to the point, succinct, summarise, culture, start, clear, complicated, misunderstandings, disorganised

1. Messages need to be _____ , _____ and _________.

2. If a message is long and ______________, you could ask the speaker to _____________ it.

3. Information that is specific to your ______________ can cause _____________ if you don't explain it.

4. If a message is _________________, it might be necessary to _______ over from scratch.

Communication Skills

Fixing a misunderstanding

Simplify

• The speaker can: identify the key information and repeat; check the listener has understood
• The listener can check for a summary

Clarify

• The speaker can: assume cultural knowledge will not be known; explain anything unique t their culture /language
• The listener can ask the speaker to explain

Organise

• The speaker can: signpost the order clearly; write or draw the instructions
• The listener can ask the speaker to start over.

1. A. Let's meet at 8.

B. Sorry, I'm getting mixed up. Are you _________ eight in the morning?

2. A. So, in other _____ I think we should look at train prices before we book a flight.

b. Yes, that makes _______.

3. A. Ok, if I've been _________you correctly, this should be right now.

B. Let me see....No! You've got it the wrong way_____. This goes here and that goes there. 

4. A. Let me ________ it back to you. Out of the station, turn left. After 500 metres, second right into Broad street.

B. You've  ____it!

OWN IT!
Now think back to the misunderstanding you recalled at the start of the class. Use your new communication tools to fix it.

What on earth is he doing?

How do you usually communicate at work?

Look at these experessions 

VOCABULARY

Delete the verb that does NOT go

0 an email                                 send/draft/post

1. a phone call                          do/make/receive

2. a press release                     put up/issue/put out

3. an advertising campaign       launch/run / make

4. a presentation                       give / make/ tell

5. a meeting or seminar            hold/attend/carry out

6. a report                                 produce /run /publish

7. a notice                                 put out /put up / display

8. a memo to all concerned      publish /send out/circulate

9. information on the net           post/ make / put out

For which of the following would you feel most/least confident using English?

a presentation/ a meeting/ a phone call/ a report/ an email 

This is an extract from an old comedy with Mel Gibson. 

After you watch it, what are your answers to the questions?

What job does Gibson's chracter have in the film?

What do you think is expected of him?

Do the viewers like the product of his work?

What does the gesture his co-protaconist makes at the end mean?

Revise the use of  Present Simple here 

Practice here

Watch another clip from the same film. What is he doing now?



What is he telling himself while he's trying on female cosmetics?
What is he doing tomorrow, you think?

Learn about Present Continuous and Practise here

I do or I am doing? Practice in Kahoot.

Do you communicate at work?

VOCABULARY

Delete the verb that does NOT go

0 an email                        send/draft/post

1. a phone call                do/make/receive

2. a press release            put up/issue/put out

3. an advertising campaign            launch/run make

4. a presentation            give / make/ tell

5. a meeting or seminar        hold/attend/carry out

6. a report                    produce/run/publish

7. a notice                        put out/put up / display

8. a memo to all concerned        publish/send out/circulate

9. information on the net            post/make / put

For which of the following would you feel most/least confident using English?

a presentation/ a meeting/ a phone call/ a report/ an email 

DISCUSSION

Have you had good experiences of dealing with companies through call centers? 

Do you shop online?

About which products or services is f2f contact helpful / not necessary?

READING

Match the paragraphs with the statements

LANGUAGE

Verb Patterns

Company benefits

What is most important for you when choosing a job? Rank from 1-10

an impressive job title                                                    training and staff development

a good salary                                                                  a pension

flextime                                                                          traveling opportunities

opportunities for promotion                                          parental leave

days off and long holidays                                            a company car

READING SKILLS

Read an article here about XErox. What incentives does the article mention for employees at Xerox?

Now answer the questions here

VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT

What are some expressions with take in the Xerox text that mean:

1. not completely believe smth

2. look after

3. for exaple

4. participate in

5. employs 

6. regarded as important

LANGUAGE PRACTICE: The Past

What tenses can you spot in this job profile? What are they used for?

Steve started as a project manager in global services and since then has moved into sales. He has only been working in the company for two years. 

You can practise narrative (past) tenses more extensively here.

SPEAKING SKILLS

Asking questions about jobs

-

Work in pairs. Use the prompts to ask questions 1 to 6 about working for your company

Example: Q. Why /like the company? Why do you like the company?

A: It's like a family.

1 Q: long /working /the company?

P. Two years.

2 Q: when / join?

A: In 1978

3 Q: was /first job?

A: A project manager.

4 Q: what /responsible?

A: Growing and maintaining customer relationships.

5 Q: where based?

P. At Uxbridge.

6 Q: would /like/do// in the future?

A: Work abroad and be part of the senior management team.

WRITING SKILLS DEVELOPMENT

Write a short piece (110 words approx) about a turning point in your life, work or studies; a moment when you decided to pursue a different route to the one you had until that point. 

Focus on ME-WE

Do you often meet new colleagues, clients, or business partners? What do you discuss?

Here are some answers given by a student to some general questions, They contain one mistake. Can you correct them?

EX. Nice to meet you. My name (is) Pierre.

A Yes, I am thinking English is very important for this kind of work because everyone

uses English in business nowadays.

B Well, it's a business studies degree and I'm interesting in marketing.

C I from a small town in northern Switzerland.

D I'd like work in a marketing department so I've started applying for jobs with

companies in Switzerland.

E Actually, I'm just finish my degree at the University of Zurich.

F Since about six years

Use the answers 0-F from exercise 1 to complete this dialogue,

A. Hello, nice to meet you. I'm Karl.

B

A And where are you from?

B

A Do you work or are you student?

B

A That's interesting What do you like most about your studies?

B

A What are your plans for the future?

B

A Do you think English will be important to you U! your Career?

B

A So how long have you been learning English?

B

After you have exchanged personal information, you may go on to talk about

business topics. Here are some topics you might discuss.

• Business in your home town or country.
• The importance of English in business.
• effect of technology on business.
• Present and future changes in working
• Training and developmentin the workplace.
• Ways of selling products or services.

WRITING

Making contacts

 Tell your partner about your job. Use the expressions (with the correct preposition):

I work for/of/about.....                              I'm involved of/in/with

I'm responsible of/for/about...                  I deal for/with/ of....

I usually report up/at/to...                         I'm in charge of/for/to....

I specialise on/for/in....

Think of one person you see and speak to in connection with your work...

at least once a day                                                       once every six months

Why is networking an important part of many jobs? Is that true for you?  

READING

Read the article about new networking groups. Where do people network and why?

 Choose the correct answer.

Match the expressions with the answers

OWN IT!

How easy is it for you to develop a conversation with strangers?

Imagine you are in a networking event. Meet people and have a conversation following the steps

WRITING

How to write a memo

This part will be done from a hand out

 

Ways of working

1. How do you work most effectively? By working...

Regular/flexible hours                            in a team/on your own

from home/in an office                           for a boss/as your own boss

Answer for yourself and then compare your answers with a partner.

Have you heard about work-sharing? What do you think it is?

How easy would it be for you to job-share? Would your employer think it was a good idea?

VOCABULARY

LISTENING

You will hear a woman called Michela talking about working from home.

What is important for her?

What does she think are some advantages and disadvantages she mentions?

What are her tasks at:

7.00 - get up - get the kids ready 

8.30

9.00

12.00

14.30

How long has she been with her current employer?

Is she doing anything different this week?

LANGUAGE

Present Tenses

OWN IT!

Work in pairs to create a mini presentation on one of the ways to work from activity 1.

• First create a bullet point list of the important points.
• Then decide who presents each point.
• Presto!