General Strike on the Way in Belgium? English lesson

It took the Belgians a while but they finally woke up and on Thursday Nov. 6th they staged a General Strike.  The strike turned out to be violent, a number of policemen are in the hospital, there were over 100,000 people in the center of Brussels.  They are protesting the right wing government, that there are not enough jobs, and unemployment is high.   I was told that there will be another strike in December.


Read this article and discuss it with your English teacher.
http://ek.fi/blogi/2014/10/27/a-general-strike-on-the-way-in-belgium/

Key Terms
little publicity
 coalition
ambitious reforms
programme- UK spelling , USA spelling program
paralyzed.
competences



Questions
What is the strike about?
Why did it take so long for a government to form?
What is the main aim of the government?
Why does the government want to raise the retirement age?
Which competences should be transferred to the regions?
Which ones should be kept for the Federal government?
What is significant about the fact that the new government does not include socialists?
Do you think that Charles Michel will be able to negotiate with the strikers?
What was his last job?
What experience does he have in government?



Lesson Plan  by Rachael Alice Orbach - Professional English teacher

German Bakers threaten to go on strike -Business English lesson

German bakers are threatening to go on strike, just in time for Oktoberfest.  The world's largest beer festival. What do you do at this festival? Drink Beer and eat pretzels.  What will the Germans do without the pretzels?  They are an integral part of the festival 

Listen to this audio, and then only after listening twice read the text and discuss it with your teacher
 http://www.npr.org/2014/09/02/345158284/the-last-word-in-business

Key Terms
Strike
 place a bet 
 a shortage
 gastronomy
 union
wage increase
Negotiations
stalled
a brat
 backup plan

Grammar
have now stalled.  - This is the Present Perfect tense, which talks about an action that is in the past, with no specific time, that has an influence on what is going on now. 

Questions
What do the bakers want?
Why are they choosing exactly this time to go on strike?
Where are the workers going to strike?
What is the backup plan?
What do you think about this strike?
Do the workers deserve more money?
How can they justify the increase in proposed wages?
Have you or anyone in your family ever been on strike?
If so, what did the strike accomplish?
What happens during a strike? 
What do the workers do?  
Do workers on strike get compensation?
Do strikes in your country ever turn dangerous? 
Do you belong to a union?
Are unions powerful in your country?
Do workers pay dues to the union? 
In your experience, are strikes necessary?


Lesson plan by Rachael Alice Orbach Professional English teacher

Back to School in June!

The student strike is over, and boy is there a lot of work to do!!
When I was at UCLA over 20 years ago, the routine was go to class, take notes , take the Final!
Now, there are projects to do, papers to write and teach classes. But all in all, going to univeristy in the 21st century is a lot easier than it was in the 1980's.
The information is much easier to obtain, I don't have to go to the library to find biographies, and if I do go to the library, the records of the books that I took out are on the Internet so writing a bibliography is much easier!

Rachael Alice Orbach