Happy Birthday?

 

Discuss before you watch

• How do you feel on your birthday? How do you like to celebrate it? Is there anything you'd rather not do?
• How did you celebrate your last birthday?
• What is your best and worst birthday memory?
• Do you like surprise parties? Have you ever had one?
• What’s the best/ worst gift you’ve ever received? What’s the best/ worst gift you’ve ever given?
• Do you think getting older (40, 50, 60) is depressing for people, or a happy occasion?
• How do people celebrate turning 15 and 40 in your country?
• Is there anybody whose birthday you always remember?
• Have you ever forgotten an important birthday? Has anybody who’s important for you ever forgotten yours?
• What are the most typical bad signs of age?

Match up the collocations

1.            Have/ throw                   a. 20

2.            To turn                          b. an old watch
3.            Wish                              c. in your early/mid/ late 20’s/ 30’s

4.            Reconnect                      d. a party

5.            Make                             e. the pages in your telephone and address book

6.            Come across                  f. somebody a happy birthday

7.            Flip                               g. a loose wire

8.            Be                                h. the invitations

9.            Blow out                       i. the candles

10.          Send out                       j. a wish/ a fool of yourself

 

Watch and answer

 

1. Does Andy like the phrase “Happy Birthday”? Why? Why not?

2. What are some of the things that remind Andy that he’s getting on a bit?  

Focusing on language: WISHES

After watching the video twice, think of some of  Andy's wishes.


Use WISH + Simple Past (Present Wishes)
Use WISH  + WOULD (to express annoyance)
Use WISH + Past Perfect (to express regret)

The following prompts might help!

• Getting back on his feet easily.
• People making fools of themselves.
• Having to look in the bathroom mirror when he first gets up
• Having to remove names from his telephone and address book.
• Having to wear the same shoes every day.
• His shoes looking terrible!
• Younger people accepting the use of 4-letter f-words as normal conversation.
• Needing more light to read the newspaper.
• Having seen it all before.

What about your wishes? Provide examples that are meaninful to you.
 

Follow up

Choose one of the following points, find out about it and prepare a short presentation to share with the class. You can work with the aid of PPT or Prezi.

• Some birthday traditions from other countries.
• A/ some big event(s) that happened the year you were born.
• The origins of the song "Happy Birthday to You"
• The lyrics of the song "Happy Birthday to You" in another language

Transcript:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/01/12/60minutes/rooney/main1204160.shtml

Video Source: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=1207133n

Zhang Xin: China's real estate mogul

To my dear and highly committed student Gaby M.

Before you watch

Look at the woman in the picture. Do you know who she is? Make assumptions about her age- nationality- job- etc using MIGHT- MUST- CAN’T

  

Before you watch, focus on some language that will appear in the video. It will help you undertand the video better and see the expressions in use!

COLLOCATIONS

ADJECTIVES

1.      Real Estate                              business

2.      Assembly                                line

3.      Sweatshop                              corruption

4.      Uncertain                                billionaire

5.      Thriving                                   people

6.      self-made                                developer/ bubble

7.      cutting edge/ futuristic              future

8.      a one way                                skyscraper

9.      Funny looking                         girl

10.  Widespread                            ticket (to London)

VERBS

1.      Go back                                 duties

2.      Split                                       for democracy/ food/

3.      Earn                                       a scholarship/ a masters in economics

4.      look down                              home

5.      crave                                      on the poor

 

Watch

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/zhang-xin-chinas-real-estate-mogul-11-08-2013/

Watch the introduction.What is said about the woman in the picture above? Check (√)  the statement which are right.

Her name is Zhang Xin           She’s 30 years old        
She’s a real estate developer.                     She’s a communist                   
                  She’s now in Wall Street                               
  She’s a  mogul                        She’s come into a fortune

Watch the rest of the video, pause it every 3 minutes and make connections with the help of the following collage.

Watch the video again and put the following events in order:

·         At age 14 she was forced to slave away on assembly-lines as a sweat shop girl in Hong Kong.

·         She was born during the Cultural Revolution, when Mao Zedong brutally purged all the capitalists and intellectuals ("running dogs.")

·         She came back to China and met Pan Shiyi (her future husband), who worked in real estate

·         She decided to get married in 4 days.

·         She earned a scholarship to the University of Sussex

·         She ended up working at a fish and chips stand

·         She got a masters in economics from Cambridge

·         She got hired by Goldman Sachs and sent to the US  to work in the field of investment banking.(competitive and cutthroat)

·         Her parents were sent to countryside (re-education camp)

·         She quit the job at Goldman Sachs and started working with Pan in RE with no money or backing

·         She bought a one way ticket to London - packed up her bags, and left.

·         She went back to England but changed her mind after a short while.

      ·         She got pregnant with the first of their two sons, while Pan was making a success of       
              the company.  (SOHO China)


REVISITING CONDITIONAL 3

Think of Zhang’s life. What would have happened if…?

1.      She hadn’t worked in a sweatshop?

2.      She hadn’t moved  to London?

3.      She hadn’t learned English?

4.      She hadn’t studied economics?

5.      She hadn’t worked in Goldman Sachs?

6.      She hadn’t met her husband Pan?

7.      She and Pan had had some backing at the outset?

8.      She hadn’t changed her mind about leaving China?

9.      She hadn’t been such a gifted designer?

10.  She hadn’t got pregnant?

  
DISCUSS

·         What strikes you about Zhang Xin’s life and career? Do you think she might be a source of inspiration for women in China? Why? Why not?

Transcript

Key to exercises  


FOLLOW UP

 ·         The following are some terms/ names the video makes reference to. How much do you know about them? Pick one or two, do research and be ready to present it/them.

COMMUNIST SOCIALIST CHINA                THE AMERICAN DREAM 

                              THE GREAT WALL                    THE CITY OF BEIJING
                

                        WALL STREET

SELF-MADE BILLIONAIRE WOMEN IN THE WORLD                 

SWEATSHOPS IN CHINA                     FISH & CHIPS STANDS

Dickensian