Lesson: Shipping News
For about a week, pictures of the container ship Evergiven blocking the Suez Canal were splashed across screens worldwide. It’s rare for regular people to focus on the shipping industry, but when one of the world’s shipping chokepoints is blocked by a massive container ship, the effects are long-reaching. Everything you eat, wear, or use has, in one way or another, been on a ship at one point in time. If you eat a Japanese-grown carrot, you may think it has never been on a ship. However, carrots need fertilizer, and Japan has no potash to make it. The potash comes from Canada on a ship. This lesson is a snapshot of some of the challenges faced by the shipping industry.
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Example Article
Each conversation topic is based on a theme. In order to help students acquire a basic understanding of that topic, four media articles are provided for them to read. I will never test you on the articles, but I strongly suggest you book lessons far enough in advance to give yourself enough time to properly prepare. The better prepared you are, the more benefit you will receive from our conversations.
Below is an example article for this conversation topic.