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!  

A myth for business?

 Do you enjoy telling stories? What kinds?

How important is storytelling in your culture? 

Are storytelling traditions a thing of the past or should they be preserved for future generations?

Watch Daveed Diggs acceptance speech in Tony Awards. What do you notice about his use of a story?

FOCUS ON

When telling stories, jokes, and anecdotes, Present tenses might often be used instead of past tnses. This can help the listener experience the story as it was happening right now and to them, thus making it more engaging. 

Read the following Aboriginal fable. Change the verbs to an appropriate present tense.

Rainbow Serpent: Aboriginal Story from Australia 

One day, it started to rain. And it rained like it had never rained before. Rain fell for days and days and the world was becoming flooded with water. Two young men, Bil-bil, or the Rainbow Lorikeet brothers, had no shelter, so they came to Goorialla, the Rainbow Serpent. They asked for help sheltering from the rain. The rainbow serpent was hungry and tricked the young men, '1 have no shelter, but you can hide in my mouth. You'll be safe from the rain in there.' The young men climbed into Goorialla's mouth and he closed it shut, swallowing both men. 

He soon realized that people would notice the young men missing and come looking for them. He knew they would find their tracks leading right into his mouth. He didn't want to be caught and so decided to hide in the only place he knew he would be safe: the sky. He saw people's sadness at losing these two young men, so he decided to try and make them happy again by turning his body into big arc of beautiful colours. 

Now, just after it rains, you can see the Rainbow Serpent sharing his beautiful colours with the people on the ground as his way of saying sorry for taking those Rainbow Lorikeet brothers.

 VOCABULARY

OWN IT!
Now, using the tips we explored today, turn your childhood story into an inspirational one to promote your company's message.

A natural or a hard worker?

 What have the masters achieved? To what extent are their achievements due to natural talent or hard work in your opinion? 

 

So how did Judith become so good ____chess?

She had a long-term commitment _____ becoming the best.

So, from a very early age, she focused ____ the game and pracised.

Where do Stephen's amazing abilities stem ___?

Already as a child, he had a passion ____ drawing.

Practice prepositions

https://create.kahoot.it/share/prepositions-advanced/20ca120f-311c-4ae7-a6f9-30c426e8afb5

Circle all the /dj/, /tj/ and /sh/ sounds in the tongue twisters (1-8). 

Practise saying the tongue twisters in pairs. 

1. I'm sure 1 saw Sheila selling seashells on the seashore, but I can't be sure she sold seashore shells. 

2. Julia, George, Jean and Joan joyfully jumped down the jagged hill. 

3. Chester the Cheetah chewed a chunk of cheap cheddar cheese. 

4. Fresh fried fish, 

Fish fresh fried, 

Fried fish fresh, 

Fish fried fresh. 

5. If a dog chooses to chew shoes, whose shoes does he choose to chew? 

6. Jenny just got jeans and a jacket for graduation in June or July. 

7. Jump then touch your chin, jaw and cheek. 

Jump then touch your jaw, cheek and chin. Jump then touch your cheek, chin and jaw. 

8. She saw Shirley's shoes on the sofa, but was she so sure she saw Shirley's shoes on the sofa? 

B Discuss the questions in pairs.

1. Which of these sounds exist in your language?

2. Which of these tongue twisters did you find the most challenging? Why? 

3. Did you find any of these tongue twisters easy? Which, and why? 

YOUR TURN

Find a person you know for being a master in his domain (business, sports, etc). Prepare to talk about them using the words from the exercise above and the vocabulary of the lesson.

It must have been invented by...

 When and where do you think there were invented?

brain surgery, concrete, eye make-up, water sanitation systems

Read the text and check your predictions

Which information did you find the most surprising? 

How certain is it that the sentences are true? 

Write certainly true (CT), possibly true (PT) or certainly not true (NT). 

1 Egyptians invented make-up.  

2 Both men and women in ancient Egypt wore make-up. 

3. Our ancestors knew about bacteria. 

4. It was a bad idea to perform brain surgery.

5. Roman concrete was good as modern concrete. 

6. Roman concrete was very strong. 

7 The people in the Indus valley were safe from dangerous diseases. 

Find the sentences in the text that told you the answers to Exercise 3. Match the modal structures with their meaning (1-4). Then read the Grammar box to check. 

1 It's very probable or certain that something happened 

2 It's quite possible that something happened. 

3 It's impossible that something happened. 

4 It was wrong to do something. 

GRAMMAR Speculating about the past 

You can talk about possibility and certainty in the X past using the structure: modal verb have X past participle. 

• Use must have if it's very probable or certain that something happened. 

Some of these operations must have been successful. 

• Use may have or might have if it's possible that something happened. 

Egyptians may/might have been the first to use make-up. 

• Use can't/couldn't have if it's impossible that something happened. 

Roman concrete can't have been as strong as modern concrete. 

• Use should/shouldn'"t have to talk about mistakes or express criticism. 

They shouldn't have been doing surgery then.

Practice

Social media sharing

LESSON GOALS Formal and informal English distinction

Omit pronouns and auxiliaries to make writing more informal 

Use informal quantifiers, expressions and phrasal verbs 

Write and respond to social media posts 

SPEAKING Work in pairs. Look at the infographic and discuss questions. 

1 Which social media platforms do you use? If you don't use any, why not? 

2 What content would you be most and least likely to share on social media? Why? 

3 Which type of social media person are you? Are you sometimes a different type depending on what and why you share? Why? 

READING FOR WRITING

Read the three social media posts. Match them with a type of content and a personality type from the infographic. Explain your choices to your partner. 

Work in a group Discuss the questions. 

1 Which of the social media posts would you be most likely to read in real life?

2. What comment would you leave below each post?

Look at the Writing skill box. Find two examples of each type of informal language in the social media posts and comments.

 
WRITING SKILL
Informal language
When writing on social media. we tend to be more informal. Some common examples are
Omitting pronouns and auxiliary verbs
Have you ever. seen a bear doing yoga?
Informal quantifiers
after a bit of a nap
got a ton of comments
Phrasal verbs
She's quite into yoga
What have you been up to?
Informal expressions
I might give it a shot myself!
You'd love it! It's right up your street.


Change the expressions in bold to make them more informal. 

Use the Writing skill box and social media posts to help you. 

1 I've just got back from the city. There's a large amount of air pollution there 

2 I think I' ll try yoga. I've never done it, but it looks fun 

3 The benches can be installed in many different places. 

4 Have you got any thoughts on this? 1 would love to hear your opinion 

5 1really hate people who always postpone things 

WRITING TASK

Write three social media posts. Use your own ideas or choose from the table. Write about 200 words in total and leave room for comments underneath. Find or describe any photos or links you would like to include with your post. 

Things you've read about (interesting articles/ funny stories/ important news)

Personal stories Places you've visited, frustrations and complaints)

Recommendations (a film, book, product you liked) 

CHECK Use the checklist. I have ... 

written posts that are engaging  and/or aldor useful to other people 

used informal quantifiers 

replaced formal verbs with phrasal verbs 

omitted unnecessary pronouns and auxiliary verbs. 

REVIEW Stick your posts up around the classroom. Walk around the room and read your classmates' posts. Leave a comment below at least two of the posts. 

SPEAKING 

Discuss the questions as a class. 

1 Which post did you find the most interesting? 

2 What new information about your classmates did you learn from their posts? Based on the posts, what sort of social media personality from the infographic are your classmates? 

Are you a result of your genes or your lifestyle?

•  

Is our way of living more important or our genes and the way we grew up? What is your opinion?

Let's watch a video on our genome, first.

1. genetics

2.heredity

3.traits

4.inheritance

5.factor

6.implement

7.determine

8.compound

a. decide/ affect

b.characteristics

c. the characteristics or things passed down from previous generations

d. decide

e. the process that determines what biological characteristics are passed down to the next generation

f. something that determines a result

g. apply

h. mixture

i. the science of analysing the human genes

1. What is the function of the gene in an organism?

2. What did ancient people know about heredity?

3. How long would DNA be if we unraveled it?

4. How many genes do we have?

5. Where are genetics useful?

6. What are the dilemmas that humanity is facing now?

So if our genes are so important, what role does our lifestyle play to our life?

Let's watch it on the news!

Adjectives

What is the extreme form of these adjectives?

very big
very small
very clever
very bad
very sure
very good
very tasty

Walking/running as exercise

alcohol/ junk food for health

vegetables/ food for brain

swimming quick way to build arm muscles

smoking bad for the lungs

Playing along

 Did you use to play any of the games in the photos?

What toys or games do you remember playing from your school days? Were any of them crazes? (i.e. fads for a short time?) Do not name it, only explain the rules and let others guess 

Did you use to improvise any games? (i.e. invent them while you played? Can you name one?

 According to the author, why did some games stand the test of time?

What point does the author wish to make by mentioning each of the following?

a. 'toothpaste', 'snake eyes' and jumbos' (lines 1-2)

b Egypt three millennia ago (lines 6-7) 

c. video/computer games (lines 11, 23 and 25) 

d. cognitive growth (line 19) 

e. In the attic (line 29) f rules and structure (line 34) 

READING SKILL

Using topic sentences 

Paragraphs in more formal texts, such as articles and essays, often include topic sentences. Most topic sentences are at the beginning or end of a paragraph. They summarize the paragraph in some way: by stating the argument, asking a key question or establishing its structure or content. 

It may be useful to identify topic sentences, such as when you need to summarize a text. When a topic sentence sums up the message of the entire text, it can be used as a 'pull quote'. These are short quotes from the text that are displayed in larger writing to encourage people to read the article 

GRAMMAR

EXPLORE MORE! Find an article or video that discusses the benefits of video games for children's development. Search online for "effects -+ video games + child development"

Staple or exotic- flavours around the world

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 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. 

The benefits of walking

 Have you ever counted how long you sit during the day? With a partner, create a mind map for the benefits of walking. 

      .

If you sit on your _________ all day you get to suffer.

What do you think can be the consequences of sitting too long?

Write habits that you would like to change. Exchange papers with a partner and ask him for three possible options.

Do you agree? What expressions can you use?

Do you disagree? What expressions can you use?

PRACTICE:: Talking about the future in the past

Sort out your vocabulary

So, do you have a suggestion for your company? Offer it now!

Human humour?

 What do you think helps build rapport among people?

What is AI?
Does it exist in our lives today?
How do you think it will affect the human society in the future?




Read an article about AI and its implications

COMMUNICATION SKILLS

Adding emphasis to what you wish to say

Making small talk

 Are you shy or outgoing when you meet new /or not-so-new people? Do you like to make small talk?  

Where do you usually have the chance to do so? (in the office kitchen/ at the reception area/at the park/ on the way to work/ waiting in line/ ?) 

What is your pet subject for small talk?

Use the following expressions and take it in turn to strike a conversation with a different partner:

How do you like this weather? 

Are you enjoying this class?Did you hear about__________?

How long have you been waiting (for the elevator/ the train/ the class to begin, etc)

My Bucket list

Do you have a bucket list? What are 3 items in it?

Let's watch a guide on how to set one.

What are the steps?

What's a good piece of advice you heard from Vanessa?

• He's worked at the company since 2009.
• He's been working at our company since 2009.

• They've been waiting for hours! (This emphasises the length of time).
• They've waited for 3 hours. (This emphasises the amount of time).

• I've been reading the book you recommended. (I'm enjoying it, but I'm not finished).
• I've read the book you recommended. (I've finished it, so we can talk about it).

• She's been running a lot recently. (She doesn't usually do this).
• Usually, I study at home, but I've been studying in the library for the last week.

• I've been eating dinner, so there are plates all over the table.
• I've eaten dinner, so let's go out.

Let's Kahoot!

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