There is a new day of celebration marked in WebEnglish.se Calendar: International Day of Democracy on Sept 15th. I have overlooked it before, but with everything that is happening in the world right now, I thought it would be appropriate to discuss democracy in the intermediate-level classes. The actual day is Sunday, but the issue is as topical on Friday or Monday as any other day.
I also added a new Theme Page on Democracy to go with the dedicated date. There you can find facts and definitions to talk about in class with the usual subtitles: warm-up, vocab, reading, listening and viewing.
As Hong Kong has a special place in my heart from the time I was working in China, I sampled a collection of videos that you could watch with your students and learn about Hong Kong students’ efforts to hold on to democracy by civil disobedience through the Hong Kong Demonstrations.
Brexit started with a democratic, national referendum, but turned out into a parlamentary crisis with international tentacles further out than could have been expected.
Then there is the big issue with The USA Now, where the president’s opponents fear that democracy will be forever lost, if the country continues with the current leadership.
Image from Alpha Stock Images – http://alphastockimages.com/