Intermediate

According to the Japan Times, the Japanese government plans to encourage firms to allow their employees to choose to work four days a week instead of five, aiming to improve the balance between work and life for people who have family care responsibilities.

The coronavirus pandemic has helped the idea of a four-day workweek gain traction as the health crisis has caused people to spend more time at home.

Experts are divided, however, on whether the new initiative, intended to address challenges posed by Japan’s labor shortage, will be widely accepted. Labor and management are both voicing concerns about possible unwanted outcomes.

For employers, while people working four days a week may become more motivated, this may not improve their productivity enough to compensate for the lost workday. An expected advantage is helping people with family care responsibilities avoid the need to quit their jobs.

Vaccination against the COVID-19 virus started in December 2020. It has progressed at an unequal rate around the world. As of late April 2021, only a few million people had received a vaccination in the whole of the African continent, while over 200 million Americans had been vaccinated.

However, for some smaller countries, the situation can change very quickly.

Please take a look at the graph below and discuss what you see with your teacher. 

Will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas has designed a high-tech face mask that looks like something out of a sci-fi movie. Called Xupermask, it has three dual-speed fans to keep you cool, and a design to keep you looking cool. The real money-grabbers are noise-canceling headphones, LED lights for nighttime, and Bluetooth capability. You can listen to music, take and make calls, and put on your own light show while wearing this thing. It doesn't come cheap, but at $299, it costs less than a set of Bose headphones, and a lot less than a mobile phone! And you can use the Xupermask for both, with a bonus face mask thrown in.

The look of the Xupermask was designed by Jose Fernandez. He created Elon Musk's spacesuits, and Marvel characters' costumes in the Avengers, Black Panther, and X-Men 2. So you know it's going to look out of this world.

Here in Melbourne, Australia, we are heading into the colder months. 

Daylight Saving has just ended, so we moved our clocks back an hour. On the plus side, we all got an extra hour of sleep over the weekend. But it also means the sun sets an hour earlier. 

If I want to catch the daylight, I have to walk the dog earlier. I also have to put better lights on my bicycle because I'm cycling more often around twilight and dusk.

But as a Canadian, I love this cool weather. I love crisp autumn mornings and wearing sweaters in the evening. I can go for a run without constantly worrying about dehydration. It is all much more familiar than the typical Australian summer with sweltering days and warm nights.

So I'm happy to bid farewell to the summer and start these cooler, shorter days. I know a lot of people feel differently. To each their own!

The life expectancy of people in Japan has been increasing for the past 65 years. Life expectancy means the prediction of how long people are expected to live. There are many reasons for the increase in life expectancy, such as better food, cleaner water and improved medicine.

Please have a look at the chart below and discuss what you see with your teacher.

People around the world follow different religions. We use specific words to describe them.

• Christians worship Jesus Christ. They believe he is the son of God. There are three main types of Christians: Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox.
• Muslims are part of a religion called Islam. They believe that Jesus is only a prophet. Their main prophet is Muhammed. Most Muslims are either Sunni or Shia.
• Jews follow Judaism. Their main prophets are named Moses and Abraham. Christianity and Islam were inspired by Judaism.
• Buddhists follow the teachings of Buddha, who said there is no God. The three main types of Buddhism are Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana.
• Hindus belong to Hinduism, a religion with many gods. When a religion has many gods, we call it polytheistic. When it only has one God, it is monotheistic.

Languages generally develop organically, following changes in culture. But sometimes we have to purposefully change our language to create the culture we need.

Take, for example, sexism. In English, seeing the masculine form of a word—e.g., adding "-man" to a job title, and using he/him/his pronouns—as neutral had been accepted as the norm since the 19th century and still often is. In the 1970s, however, women began to demand equal representation in all things, and that meant in the language, too. 

Studies have shown that people are influenced by the words they see. In one study, people were asked to read a story with the following sentences in it:

• “The foreman reassured himself he had made the right decision.”

• "The foreman reassured herself she had made the right decision.”

Christmas is very popular in Germany—lights, food and decorations abound. Also, of course, presents are a main component for many people, especially younger people. But the Germans are famous for being pragmatic and no-nonsense. So what kind of gifts are commonly given in Germany? Read the chart below to find out.

Rice straw, or wara, is the waste left over from rice production. It used to be used to make tatami mats, bags, and other daily goods, including shoes. But these days most things are made from plastic and other synthetic materials, so farmers are left with mountains of useless wara. In 2007, farmers along with the tourism board of Niigata City in the Niigata prefecture, asked Professor Shingo Miyajima of the Department of Science and Design at the Musashino University to come up with a creative solution to the problem. He suggested using it to make art.