Friday, January 13, 2012

Mooching mocha drinkers

If you owned a cafe, would it be with or without Wi-Fi?  And if you had it, would you do something to make sure customers didn’t abuse the privilege?  As a customer at a cafe, how long do you feel comfortable sitting before ordering something else?  Have you ever been made to feel that you have overstayed your welcome?

Someone in my situation...

What do you think about the requirements for obtaining a residence permit here?  Do you think Fernando’s experience is a typical one?  Should Slovakia encourage or discourage immigrants?  Is the Migration Information Center a good idea?

What sports fans can accomplish

Do fans have a tendency to take sports too seriously?  Would you rather play sports or watch?  Can watching sometimes be the more demanding role as this article suggests?  Are you convinced by the ideas presented here for how fans can help to influence results?

Testing (no) testing

Perhaps this would be a more appropriate article for you a year from now, when you will be taking standardized tests, such as the SAT.  What criteria do you think universities should use to select prospective students?  What role should tests play in this process?  What role should tests play in assessment in general?  Is there too much emphasis put on testing in the IB programme or too little?  What about in Slovak high schools and universities?

Dolls or rocket ships?

This was something we started to discuss in class, so here is more fodder if you would like to continue.  So, should parents accept the natural inclinations of their children or try to get them to be more flexible and develop other parts of their personalities?  What would you do if you were a toy manufacturer/marketer?

Shelling it out for blockbusters and penny-pinching for indies

This is the last entry you can comment on for January.

How important is going to the cinema to you?  If it is, what can be done to save cinemas in the age of DVD's and downloading from the net?  Are cheaper prices a way to get people coming back to see films?  What would be good criteria for deciding which films would be cheaper?  Feel free to follow the links to the articles which this article is responding to.