Motto: “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” ----Gandhi
Hello. This is gonna be a class on travelling around the world. Let’s first do a quick travellers’ quiz.
Task 1. Let’s share some info.
1. Are you planning on going anywhere abroad for your next vacation?
2. If so, where? Who with? How long will you stay?
3. Which one of the countries would you like to visit most? Which ones would you skip? Bulgaria, Kenya, Australia, Iceland, the US, Qatar, Brazil.
4. When you travel do you like to visit the popular tourist attractions or do you like to visit less frequented places? What’s your idea of getting to know a foreign culture?
Task 2. Brainstorming. We want to go travelling. Let’s collect as many ideas as we can to minimize our costs. How could you save money during a foreign trip?
Let’s collect a few ideas for how we could connect with the locals once we’re there.
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Task 3. What is couchsurfing? Check out http://www.couchsurfing.com, then read this intro from The NYTimes.
Surfing the World Wide Couch
September 20, 2007
Couchsurfing.com is a three-year-old global community build on a MySpace/Facebook model of personal profiles connected through a network of “friends.” According to statistics on the site, it has well over 300,000 members from more than 31,000 towns and cities around the world.
The group’s philosophy is also its method, which might be summed up this way: I will offer you my couch free, along with the company of my friends and a tour of my favorite spots in my city. In return, you will give of yourself, and not just slink into my home at 3 a.m. after you’ve done your own tour of my city. In this way, we will be friends, if only for a day or two.
Or, as its mission statement proclaims: “Participate in creating a better world, one couch at a time.”
Task 4. Video: Couchsurfing history. Founder tells about history of Couchsurfing.
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Find phrases with similar meanings in the video:
1. ……………………………………..….: sleep in sy’s home
2. ………………………………..………..: say this when you want to shorten your story
3. ……………………………..…………..: contacted
4. …………………………….…………..: spend time together
5. …………………………….…………..: I will never forget
Complete the history with information from the video.
It was in 2004, with the launch of The CouchSurfing Project, that a verb was coined and a mainstream travel trend born. Couchsurfing.com was the brainchild of Casey …………………., an American web consultant who, after buying a ……………… flight to …………………………….., realised that he had no interest in spending his hard-earned greenbacks on “rotting in a hotel all weekend playing Mr Tourist”. After a bout of beard-scratching, he came on the idea of using the random networking potential of the internet to ……………………………. a couple of thousand Reykjavik students, asking whether they’d put him up on their sofas and show him around their home city. The same year, Fenton launched the CouchSurfing Project.
Task 5. Video: Insert the words into the sentences by watching the video.
.
Overnight, look up, encouraged, hosted, out, verify, referral, there’s no way, embrace
1. Let’s say you’re planning an ………………………… trip
2. You ………………… people willing to let you spend the night in their home
3. Although not required, you’re …………………………… to make your home available to other surfers
4. I’ve only been a member for probably less than a year, I’ve only ……………… one person, only surfed once, but those experiences were so positive. I met people that I would have never met.
5. I wanted to help …………………. where I can.
6. I’ve done everything the website recommends to …………………… my host.
7. A ……………………………….. and verification system helps to ensure potential guests are who they say they are
8. A lot of the stuff you see on the internet is just made up. ……………………….. to prove to who that person is until you get there.
9. Couchsurfers …………………………….. it as much more than a way to save money. They see the strangers willing to host them as “friends they haven’t met yet”
Task 6. Opinions. It’s cheap, it’s sociable, but would you stay in a stranger’s home? Which view below do you share?
1. With regard to Couchsurfing, he added, “This is a generation that’s all about talking to strangers. And why stop there? Why not crash at their place?”
2. Then Mr. Torkells, 38, asked “This is for the young, right? I don’t even want to sleep on my sister’s couch.”
3. Couchsurfers and hosts see eachother as “friends they haven’t met yet.”
4. My friends and coworkers say I’m nuts having you here, of course,” laughs Elizabeth, the straight-talking, 26-year-old Californian stranger in horn-rimmed specs who’s my host for a spring city break in New York. “Inviting a complete unknown off the internet to stay in my small apartment... they say you’re out to rob me. But there would be much easier ways to do that, wouldn’t there?”
Questions
Who is taking more risks, the visitor or the host?
Do you think strangers can be trusted?
Do you think you could trust vouched for members?
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A hozzászólások a vonatkozó jogszabályok értelmében felhasználói tartalomnak minősülnek, értük a szolgáltatás technikai üzemeltetője semmilyen felelősséget nem vállal, azokat nem ellenőrzi. Kifogás esetén forduljon a blog szerkesztőjéhez. Részletek a Felhasználási feltételekben és az adatvédelmi tájékoztatóban.
kisdobos 2008.03.13. 14:38:32
Solutions to Task 4.
stay with sy (crash on sy’s place): sleep in sy’s home
to make a long story short: a phrase to use when you feel your story has been too long
ended up getting in touch with: contact
Let’s hang out for the weekend: spend time together
Memories I’ll cherish forever: I will never forget
But it was in 2004, with the launch of The CouchSurfing Project, that a verb was coined and a mainstream travel trend born. Couchsurfing.com was the brainchild of Casey Fenton, an American web consultant who, after buying a bargain flight to Iceland, realised that he had no interest in spending his hard-earned greenbacks on “rotting in a hotel all weekend playing Mr Tourist”. After a bout of beard-scratching, Fenton alighted on the idea of using the random networking potential of the internet to spam a couple of thousand Reykjavik students, asking whether they’d put him up on their sofas and show him around their home city. The same year, Fenton launched the CouchSurfing Project.
Solutions to Task 5.
Overnight, look up, encouraged, hosted, out, verify, referral, there’s no way, embrace
1. Let’s say you’re planning overnight trip
2. You look up people willing to let you spend the night in their home
3. Although not required, you’re encouraged to make your home available to other surfers
4. I’ve only been a member for probably less than a year, I’ve only hosted one person, only surfed once, but those experiences were so positive.
5. I met people that I would have never met.
6. I wanted to help out
7. I’ve done everything the website recommends to verify my host
8. A referral and verification system helps to ensure potential guests are who they say they are
9. A lot of the stuff you see on the internet is just made up. There’s no way to prove to who that person is until you get there.
10. Couchsurfers embrace it as much more than a way to save money
11. They see the strangers willing to host them as “friends they haven’t met yet”