After winning two medals at the Paris Olympics, Manu Bhaker encouraged students in India to consider sport as a career. She emphasized that sport offers a lot of experience and personal growth, which makes it a fulfilling and beautiful career. Bhaker also mentioned that sport involves a lot of challenges but it's important to learn from them and keep fighting to achieve your dreams.
Disney is expanding its cruise business by adding a new ship in Tokyo. The new ship will go on it's first trip in 2029. Families with children will be able to enjoy Disney activities and characters on the ship.
Currently, Disney has five ships and this ship will be similar to Disney Wish. It will carry 4,000 passengers and it's expected to cost between $600 and $2,000 per person.
Imagine the possibility of running across the whole continent of Africa! Well, Russell Cook, known as "Hardest Geezer," proved that this is very possible by running the entire length of Africa. Even though he completed his race, he faced many challenges which include an armed robbery, visa issues and injuries.
He was determined to complete this run because he had struggled with mental health, gambling, and drinking. By taking on this challenge, he was able to make a positive impact by raising almost $1 million for charity.
Watch the short and discuss it with your teacher.
The Boy and the Heron won the Best Animated Film award. It beat Disney’s Elemental and Spider-Man Across the Spider-verse. The same film also won a Golden Globe. The film is about a boy who meets a talking heron during World War II, after his mother dies. The film is based on the life of Mr. Miyazaki, who also had to move because of the war.
Cherry blossoms are a sign of spring. There are festivals in many countries to celebrate the bloom of these flowers. The flowers don’t last long and fall off after a week. In Japan, people have picnics under the cherry blossom trees. This is called hanami.
The US also has this tradition because Japan gave them cherry trees in 1912. The flowers mean new beginnings. Now, people sell things that taste like cherry blossoms, such as ice-cream and cookies. They also watch the weather to see when the flowers will bloom.
Big companies in Japan are giving their workers the pay raises they asked for. Some companies are even giving more than what was asked.
Suzuki, Toyota, and Honda, among others, agreed to give raises. Those in the retail and food service are also increasing wages. However, it's still not clear if small and midsize companies will follow suit.
Because wages were low, people were saving more and spending less. Now that many will be receiving a pay raise, it's expected that people will start spending more.
Money is a tool we use to achieve a goal. Different people have different strategies for what to do with money.
Some spend everything on consumer goods or recreational activities, such as enjoying a meal in a restaurant or going to a cinema. Others are in a situation where they can’t save money at all. They have to live from paycheck to paycheck. Such people are said to be living hand-to-mouth.
There are over 7,000 languages in the world. However, some languages are spoken by a very large number of people.
Over a billion people speak English—mainly people living in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and other former English colonies. Another billion speak Mandarin. Mandarin is mostly spoken in China.
Nearly 620,000,000 people speak Hindi. It is a language found mostly in South Asian countries such as India.
Most organizations, such as the widely recognized Henley Passport Index, believe the strongest passports are the ones that allow their citizens to enter more countries without a visa. They rank Singapore as the most powerful passport in 2023 because it provides easy access to 194 countries.
Smartphones are everywhere. People use them in rich countries and poor countries. Sometimes very poor people have smartphones, even when they live in slums. I think that most people understand how important smartphones can be. For example, some taxi drivers would have less business without a smartphone. This is because they can find riders through an app and make more money than just looking for customers on the street.
Japanese artist Takashi Murakami has always taken risks with his art. He blends traditional and contemporary styles to create wildly colorful pop art. He is often compared to Andy Warhol, the famous American pop artist.
Murakami has always embraced new technologies, like NFTs and cryptocurrency. So he isn't afraid of AI-generated art. But he does see the harmful effect it might have on artists. In his words:
Melbourne, Australia—where I live— is a city of festivals. Every year there are arts, music, film, food, beer, wine, and cultural festivals. For example, the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Street Food Festival, and Autumn Festivals.
Video games have changed a lot in the last 30 years. In the 1990s, Nintendo's Super Mario Brothers looked very high-tech.
In 2001, Halo: Combat Evolved was released. It was the first game where a player could explore a limited 3D map. The engine also allowed the player to have different experiences. For example, the enemies acted differently every time you played the same map.
J.J. Abrams has created many action and sci-fi films and TV series. A few of the best-known are Star Wars, Mission Impossible III; and the TV show, Lost. Abrams loved magic when he was a boy. He once bought a Magic Mystery Box. For $15, he got $50 worth of magic. He carried the box everywhere he went, but he never opened it. Why not? He finally realized that it was the mystery that was so special. Not knowing what's in the box allowed him to imagine it. Mystery inspires imagination.
In the US, the labor market is slowing down. Around 250,000 workers found new jobs and the unemployment rate fell to 3.4%, last April.
Gen Z employees have many advantages in the modern digitalized workplace. They are used to remote working and can usually choose their work conditions.
But it can be hard for them to communicate and behave correctly amongst others. That’s because they might not have any experience with casual situations and interactions other generations were exposed to in a physical workspace.
Shoji Morimoto is 38 years old and lives in Tokyo. He has a unique job: people pay for his companionship.
Morimoto charges 10,000 yen per booking. People have hired him over 4,000 times in the last four years. He has nearly 250,000 followers on Twitter, and he finds most of his clients there. He also has many repeat customers.
When I was a kid, my father had a huge vegetable garden. He taught me how to plant and grow vegetables from seed to harvest. One year I decided to grow a tomato plant. I named it Wilson after a song I liked by Livingston Taylor.
"Live" shopping is trending right now. For many young people, it may seem like a new thing. But it actually started in the US in 1982. The Home Shopping Network (HSN) started a cable channel to sell goods on live TV. Other shopping channels followed, and they still exist today. Hosts show clothing, home goods, jewelry, etc., in real time (not pre-recorded). Viewers can call in and buy whatever is being shown.
