Blog

Vocabulary:

• founder – creator, person who started a company, school, or business
• space – the area beyond Earth’s atmosphere
• colonies – a group of people who left their homes to live in a new place
• space exploration company – a company that makes and builds things to explore space

 

Discussion:

Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, and Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla, both think humans will live in colonies in the future.

Jeff Bezo’s space exploration company Blue Origin is preparing to make a colony on the moon as early as 2024. Elon Musk’s space exploration company SpaceX is planning to create a colony on Mars.

Are Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk crazy? Will humans live in space in the future?

Would you like to live in a colony in space? Why or why not?

If you made a colony in space where would you make it? What would it have?

1. Do you think gifts are important when dating? What is the best way to show your love for your partner?
2. What kinds of gifts should you buy your girlfriend for your anniversary? What kinds of gifts should you buy your boyfriend for your anniversary?
3. What about when you get married – should you buy your husband or wife a gift for your wedding anniversaries? If so, what kind of gift?
4. What is the best gift you have ever gotten from a partner? What is the worst gift you have ever gotten from your partner?
5. What is your dream gift for a partner to give you?

White Day

Some people say that sanbai gaeshi (三倍返し), literally “thrice the return,” should be practiced during White Day. They think that the White Day gift should be 3 times more expensive than the Valentine’s one they were given. Do you agree? Why or why not?

Do you think this is a good or bad tradition for relationships?

 

 

 

Do you agree with these rules for riding trains in Japan?

1. Don’t speak on the phone.
2. Don’t eat food.
3. Don’t do your make-up.
4. Give up your seat to pregnant women.
5. Give your seat up to children.

What rules would you add?

Questions about riding trains in Japan:

1. What is the craziest thing you have seen on a train?
2. What is your biggest pet peeve that people do on trains?
3. How old does someone have to be for you to give up your seat to them?
4. Have you ever fallen asleep and missed your stop?
5. Have you ever missed the last train? What did you do?

 

---

Newsela News

Rules for digital communication

Do you agree with these rules? 

1. Don’t randomly FaceTime people. If you want to Facetime, shoot them a text or call first.
2. One word texts like OK and LOL are conversation killers. Don’t respond with one word, unless you don’t want to talk anymore.
3. If someone you know comments on a photo or video you posted, you should respond.
4. If someone communicates to you using a certain form of communication, e.g. e-mail, then you are expected to respond using the same form of communication.
5. Don’t like your own posts. People see that, and it makes you look weird.
6. Don’t ask for likes, comments or shares.
7. Don’t take hours to respond without an excuse.
8. You don’t actually have to leave a voice message.
9. If someone asks you multiple questions via text, don’t just reply to part of the message.
10. Don’t post dozens of photos of cheezy quotes back to back.
11. It’s OK to text Happy Birthday, Merry Christmas, etc. You don’t have to call.
12. Don’t have one-on-one’s in the group-chat, better yet, rarely send group chats. They’re mostly annoying and usually avoidable.
13. Try not to deliver bad news via text. Don’t deliver bad news via DMs.
14. If you don’t get a response, you don’t have to get angry. It’s not always that big of a deal.
15. If you have time to post on Snapchat, you have time to respond to text messages.

---

Read this news article and
bring some questions, thoughts,
and new words to the English Plaza:

---

Download the free Newsela App

---