Guides to Global Issues

The Council on Foreign Relations offers a number of interactive guides to contemporary global political and economic issues. There are twenty-three guides in the collection ranging from nuclear energy to the Iraq War or the economic crisis and climate change.

The guides are divided into chapters containing videos, graphics, text, and timelines. Consequently, each guides makes an in-depth and detailed study about each of the issues.

H/T to Free Technology for Teachers.

Bridget Jones's Diary

Here's an activity for after the Christmas break I have adapted from The English Blog.

Discuss these questions with a friend or record yourself answering them:

Did you speak English over the holidays? Who with?
Did you read anything in English, or see an English film? Which one?
Did you celebrate New Year’s Eve? Who with? How?
Did you see your family or long-lost friends? Who? When?
Did you get any unexpected presents? What presents did you give?
Can you think of TWO things you were happy about from last year?
What are you looking forward to in 2011?

Now watch the first eight minutes of Bridget Jones's Diary and note down the New Year's Resolutions Bridget makes.

You can check your answers with the script here. At the same time, you may also wish to read all the script in the video click, as there are some tricky expressions which might have escaped you.

Now watch the video again and make notes about the following characters. How do they come across to you? It would be great if you could compare your ideas with those of some other English speaking friends, as this is an entirely personal activity, with no right or wrong answers.
Bridget Jones
Mark Darcy
Bridget’s Mother
Bridget’s Father
Uncle Geoffrey
Daniel Cleaver

Here are some popular New Year Resolutions. Would you like to do any of them?
Quit smoking, eat more healthily, do more exercise, lose weight, learn a language.
Have you ever made any New Year Resolutions in the past? What were they?
Are you going to make a New Year Resolution this year? Which one(s)?

110 Things New Yorkers Talked about in 2010

The title of this The New York Times article is self-explanatory. Here you can read the hottest topics for New Yorkers in 2010.

How well acquainted are you with them? What topics do you know anything about? Which are news to you?

What's Next in 2011

What this CBS video about what 2011 has in store for us.

H/T to Free Technology for Teachers.

New Anti-smoking Rules

It seems that the new Spanish anti-smoking law has had great repercussion all over the world. Watch this Newsy video on the topic.

Multisource political news, world news, and entertainment news analysis by Newsy.com

You can read a transcript of the video here.

And if you want to read about this issue, the BBC published this article yesterday.

Christmas in Bethlehem

Some days ago The Washing Post released this video showing a different Christmas being celebrated in Bethlehem.

Holiday Windows

From The New York Times, On the Street, comes this video which shows different ways of celebrating Christmas along the stores in Madison and Fifth Avenue.