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The Language Works ~ Journal Entries ~ Spencer 3 |
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~ TLW ~ Short Essays ~ Let's Discuss ~ Group Three ~ |
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© COPYRIGHT The Language Works and its licensors 2006 ~ 2025. All rights reserved. |
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S3~2: You Can’t Always Get What You Want
The development of window shopping as a form of recreation could be linked to the rise of the
middle classes in the industrial "revolution" of Europe. Yet, common sense tells us such shopping
has been in the windows of our minds over time and in all cultures. As standards of living improved
during various periods in history, people from all cultures and social backgrounds began to purchase goods
that were in excess of their means. They began to overspend. They were in the middle class but they
wanted more. They desired luxury goods. Shopping was seen as a pleasurable pastime or form of entertainment.
But at what cost (literally)… Shopping, like most activities can become an addiction.
Of course the consequences of debt were sometimes more severe long ago. Now we can claim "bankruptcy".
But we must consider the social repercussions that were dished out in the past in other cultures.
Severe penalties were imposed even imprisonment and death. Perhaps the idea of "credit" or receiving goods
with a promise to pay sometime in the future arose from the innate desire for "more and better".
Welcome to the credit card. These days we have smart phones to pay our expenses for us… Hmmm….
The Rolling Stones: You Can’t Always Get What You Want
1) What is window shopping? Do you go by yourself or with others? Where do you like to go? Explain.
2) Why do people aspire to buy luxury products (Chanel, Dior, Gucci, Armani)? Explain.
3) Among friends and family (and yourself) who shops most? Who shares most? Who hates shopping? Tell.
4) Describe your shopping experience in a supermarket, department, or convenience store (practice English).
5) How many credit cards do you have? How do you use them? Are smartphones the new currency?
6) How could anything "go wrong" using/relying on electronic commerce? Is it possible to be "robbed" online? |
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S3~3: Fancy Words and Simple Meanings
Fancy words for simple ideas exist in every language in abundance. They often arrive in pairs (maybe near opposites)
Here are some examples:
One: Mellifluous vs Cacophonous = sweet, musical or pleasant to hear vs harsh, discordant mixture of sounds
Example: The songs of birds at 6 am were mellifluous… but the jackhammer was cacophonous.
Two: Arduous vs Affable = requiring strenuous effort vs good-natured or easy to talk to
Example: At the party, we were sitting near the arduous speech of drunks talking. This made us less affable.
Three: Callous vs Benevolent = feeling no emotion vs well meaning and kindly
Example: The political candidate appeared callous, while the press/journalists seemed benevolent.
Four: Joie de vivre vs melancholy = joy of life vs sadness sometimes with no obvious cause
Example: Busy streets presented joie de vivre until the sirens rang… Weeks later, the town became melancholy…
Five: punctual vs tardy = on time vs late
Example: My wife is never punctual and I’m always tardy… She’s coffee and I’m wine... so we always meet on time...
1) Do you admire people who can express themselves with impressive vocabulary or not? Explain.
2) Out of the ten vocabulary words above, would you use any of them in conversation? Tell.
3) Of all the sounds you have ever heard, which one is most mellifluous… which is the most cacophonous? Describe.
4) Who is the most affable person you know in the present moment? What’s your most arduous task today?
5) What’s your joie de vivere… your joy in life? Your children… your job… your phone… ice cream?
6) Are you tardy or punctual for work, events, birthday parties, other parties, funerals (not yours), weddings. Tell.
7) If a person is callous, what could be the possible causes for such a personality. Likewise benevolent. Explain.
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S3~1: Who Was da Vinci? (Click underlined words for links)
Leonardo Da Vinci was the original "renaissance man". He painted, sculpted, drew, invented, wrote, and other things as well. He probably would have been an excellent film director if he had lived in our time. He is best known for his portrait painting of Mona Lisa the wife of a merchant. Mona = "my lady" in Italian. That he took such effort may be a tale to be told elsewhere. Yet, his inventions and other efforts are probably more significant. His works include a human flight machine that inspired the modern hang glider. It has been theorized that da Vinci may have sabotaged his flying machine's design in the hopes that it would be dismissed and abandoned. We can only guess that he was concerned for people’s well-being. If you fall from the sky, you will die. No one argues. Da Vinci was a genius. The human mind is a miraculous thing.
1) Is the Mona Lisa as great as people think it is? What artwork, movie, or celebrity do you think is great? Explain.
2) Are pop groups as important as they seem? What pop singers are you interested in? Why do you like them?
3) Is there anyone in your family or perhaps a friend (or even you) that has a "knack" for writing? Explain.
4) Do you have any favorite writers, poets, essayists, playwrights, directors, actors, musicians, or comedians?
5) Can you remember a play written by Shakespeare? What is it about? Tell. (Hamlet, The Tempest, Macbeth, Othello)
6) How are television dramas written? Do you think writers collaborate or create them themselves? Explain.
7) Is it possible for an AI (Artificial Intelligence) program to write a best-selling novel or witty poetry? Don’t Explain.
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S3~4: Salt and the Remarkable History of Snacks
Snacks are more than cracking open bags of unknown crispy wonders between meals – they are a part of a social fabric deeply embedded in most cultures. Throughout history, meals have always varied from place to country. Make no mistake, people enjoyed "snacks" between meals even then…
From ancient times, people had ways to preserve leftover food from meals. Salt was an expensive commodity, but it was essential. Dried fruit and nuts required little or no preparation. Yet drying fish and meat required the magical ingredient named "salt"…
However, in the 19th-century United States, the interest in snack foods changed. People went from consuming natural foods to consuming prepared commercial snacks with high sugar and salt content in a mass productive approach. Fast forward to the 21st century and the snack industry is now a result of this industrial production. The Evolution Of The Snack Foods Industry
1) What foods do you consider snacks? Is peanut butter or jam/jelly a snack even though it’s served as a meal? Explain. 2) What kind of snacks (if any) do you sometimes indulge in? How often do you enjoy snacks. 3) What kind of snacks would you serve at a home/house warming party? How about a birthday party for kids? 4) Do you think there are ingredients in "commercial snacks" have any dangerous elements? What are they? 5) How important to the consumption of commercial snacks are due to advertising? Explain. Do you enjoy these ads? 6) Tell about the snacks from your parent’s or your childhoods. Are you nostalgic about these? Share a memory. 7) What about children? Do the children in your country consume too many snacks. When and why? Tell. |
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S3~5: Google and AI Overview ~ An Overview
AI has entered the search engine universe. Look something up on google and likely you will get an "AI Overview". Results have no references… No Universities, no think tanks, no journals, no magazines, no newspapers… Just AI and no references nor sources…
As a search engine… google is the best… but we need sources… If you are writing an academic paper you need to refer to your sources and connect with the institutions in which you are being educated or employed. AI is fantastic… but letting AI govern it’s human interface is a teetering drunkard vs superman. We are drunk. I trust the collection of mega-data, but I don’t trust what can be done with it… Looks like the wild west is here to come.
1) What search engines (Microsoft/Google) do you use? Do you trust them? Are you computer literate (software)? 2) Why would you want a computer to drive your car? Especially a Porsche, Ferrari, or Lamborghini ? 3) Is it possible for AI to develop a curriculum and teach a class robotically? Explain (teachers, please). 4) Also, is it possible AI can analyze substances that can possibly cure disease? How about vaccines? 5) Certainly AI contributes to computer programming in robotic factories, but how many human jobs "fit in"?
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Contents:
1) Who Was da Vinci?
2) You Can’t Always Get What You Want?
3) Fancy Words and Simple Meanings
4) Salt and the Remarkable History of Snacks
5) Google and AI Overview ~ An Overview |