Form 11, homework for Monday

№ 14

I.         Read the article and say in 2—3 sentences what it is about.

Video Blogger

In April 2007, a 16­year­old English boy named Charlie McDonnell was studying for his exams. But he was bored, so he turned on his computer and started surfing the web. He soon found a website called YouTube and within minutes he was watching a video of another teenager sitting in his bedroom and talking to his computer about how bored he was. ‘I could do better than that!’ thought Charlie. So, using a cheap computer and a webcam, he made his first video blog and posted it on YouTube under the name Charlieissocoollike.

A few days after the first video Charlie found that he had 150 subscribers. Encouraged by this, he went on to make more videos. A month later Charlie’s audience grew and he started to get hundreds of video messages from his fans. “It was really strange,” says Charlie. “I’d been talking to my computer for a month and suddenly my computer started talking back to me!”

His next big success came a few months later when Oprah Winfrey, the famous American TV host, showed one of Charlie’s comedy videos called How to be English on her programme, which made him popular in the USA too.

Charlie also realised he could use his fame to help people less fortunate than himself. To celebrate his 18th birthday, he raised £5,000 for cancer research. He raised four times as much when he co­presented a live show on the Internet. He stayed awake for 24 hours performing challenges from viewers. All the money went to the children’s charity UNICEF¹.

But what is the secret of his popularity? “I just make videos that I would want to watch,” he says, “and I’m not trying to sell anything. I’m just trying to talk with people and that’s it for me.” His honesty and modesty are perhaps the main reasons why Charlie is so well liked. And of course, he is a talented song writer, camera man, actor and singer.

And if you were wondering how Charlie did in his exams back in 2007...well, he passed with nine A grades and one B! He says that he wants to go on to study at university in the future but decided to try and make a career on YouTube before that.

¹UNICEF [ˈjuːnɪsef] Детский фонд ООН

2.  Charlie says how the idea of making a video crossed his mind. Find this extract and read it aloud.

3.  How did he become popular?

4.  Why do people like Charlie?

II.  Listen to Huan, a Chinese man, speaking about moving out and answer the questions below.

    1. Why do young people prefer to live with their parents in Hong Kong?

    2. How did Huan’s parents react to his decision?

    3. What are the advantages of living on your own? 

III. Let’s talk about national character and stereotypes.

+READ THE TEXT (OUR NEXT EXAMINATION TOPIC IS TOURISM) 

don't try to translate everything, just get the main idea of the text and be ready to tell what this text is about

As another holiday season approaches, it’s time to defend tourists. They need it. Scarcely anyone has a good word for them. They overrun places, ruining them, and among the cultured classes, no one admits to being a tourist. They are all travellers. As if we weren’t all tourists most of the time. So, well, the case for the defence:

Exploitation 

Tourists are renowned for spoiling places. However, travellers are the people that got there first. If they didn’t wander off to unexplored spots, writing and talking about them on their return, the rest of us would be in ignorance. Later, at some stage – generally around the opening of the first Holiday Inn franchise – volume turns travellers into tourists. Then travellers get very upset – hear them complaining about the crowds at Machu Picchu. But why would, or should, travellers deny such obviously enriching experiences to others? There is no evidence – merely the arrogance of travellers – to suggest that the quality of appreciation is any the less because tourists turn up in large groups.

Economics 

No surprise that the locals worldwide have embraced tourism – going to work in the new hotel, opening guest rooms of their own, and running pleasure trips in their fishing boats. Obviously, they lost something in the process, but they were going to lose it anyway. They gained financial security – their families doubtless have health insurance and flat-screen TVs, just like you and me. It is easy to romanticize shepherds and fishermen when you’re only passing through. Then you go home, and they’re still selling single goats and bringing fresh water from five miles away. By wishing to leave the world untouched, travellers do nothing for economic development. By contrast, tourists – with all their varying needs – bring cash in buckets. 

Fun A short time ago, I saw a documentary following a group travelling around Mongolia. They were eating yak. This looked to me like the worst holiday ever. They maintained, though, that they were having a wonderful time. I was thrilled for them – until one started going on about how this was a real experience, far better than the second-hand superficiality of the tourist holiday. Now, as far as I’m aware, there’s no moral or qualitative hierarchy of holiday pleasures. Flying to Alicante is in no way inferior to flying to Ulan Bator. It’s just a different departure gate. If people wish to go riding in Mongolia, that’s fine, and a matter of personal taste. Just don’t let them look down on my holiday activities, for example, playing midnight crazy golf in Benidorm. We all enjoyed ourselves; none of us was a better person for it, just happier – and that’s all there is to say. 

Conviviality 

Tourists like one another. Travellers apparently don’t like anybody, unless they are natives. The presence of other visitors at the temple, mountaintop, or jungle clearing compromises the authenticity. And they get especially irritated if the other visitors are fellow Britons. I’m generally delighted to run into other Britons, especially in places where I don’t master the language (in other words, almost everywhere). They represent the possibility of conversation, a considerable relief from pointing at stuff and smiling stupidly. And, while travellers are busy standing off from humanity, tourists are having a great time together. The purest expression of the tourist experience is, perhaps, the package holiday – reviled by all, except anyone who has ever been on one. I have had the best of times on coach trips throughout Europe. There’s no room here to detail the benefits, except one – and that’s built-in good company. I’ve lost count of the occasions I’ve been in a hotel bar after a fine day, sharing most convivial moments with fellow passengers. Across the bar, lone-travelling couples have looked on, as jealous as hell. We coach-trippers have been moved by the Alhambra or Delphi, we’re doing our bit for the hotel trade, quite a lot for the bar trade, and generally we are an economic good. The tourist is me. I feel no shame. 

1. 1.      Do you agree with the writer's defence of tourists?
   2.      Do you consider yourself to be more of a tourist than a traveller, or vice versa?
   3.       Has tourism had a significant effect where you live? Has it been positive or negative?