SESSION 24: EXERCISES FOR DISCUSSION AND FINAL TASK
2. EXERCISES FOR DISCUSSION:
2.1 PAYMENTS: What are the pros and cons of the following types of payments?
- Cash
- Credit Card
- Prepaid Cards
- Cheques
- Online
- Bartering
2.2 SOCIETIES: Associate the following words with a society and imagine what kind of society we would have under these conditions. Is it possible to have these types of societies in the future? Would you like to? Should we try?
- cashless
- wireless
- crimeless
- clueless
- debtless
- fearless
- mindless
- flawless
2.3 DISCUSSION: HERE ARE SOME QUESTIONS AND STATEMENTS WHICH YOU CAN THINK ABOUT AND TRY ASKING YOURSELF BEFORE YOU COME TO OUR DISCUSSION ON WEDNESDAY:
a) What did you think when you read the headline?
b) What springs to mind when you hear the word ‘cash’?
c) Do people use mainly cash in your country?
d) What do you think of a cashless society?
e) Do you prefer cash or digital payments?
f) Would you miss having banknotes and coins in your pocket / wallet / purse?
g) What will people who prefer to keep their cash under their bed do?
h) Do you think countries going cashless is just a question of time? When do you think your country will go cashless?
i) Do you think cashless is safer?
j) Would you have any problems with a cashless economy?
k) Would you be able to do things quicker if you paid for everything digitally?
l) Is cybercrime more serious than physical robbery?
m) Will politicians still find ways to be corrupt?
n) Is it inevitable that economies will become cashless? Why?
o) What device will we use to make cashless payments?
p) Are you comfortable with paying for things online?
q) Will the hobby of coin and banknote collecting disappear with the emergence of a cashless economy?
r) Would the world’s currency system change with a cashless economy?
s) What questions would you like to ask a banker about cashless economies?
PREPARING A DISCUSSION IS FUNDAMENTAL:
THIS MUST BE DONE IN TWO DIRECTIONS:
FIRST, YOU NEED TO LEARN NEW VOCABULARY AND EXPRESSIONS THAT YOU WILL HAVE TO USE FOR THE DISCUSSION.
SECONDLY, YOU HAVE TO PREPARE THE TOPIC BY LOOKING UP INFORMATION IN THE INTERNET, BOOKS, ENCYCLOPAEDIAS.
THIS WAY YOU WILL FEEL MUCH MORE CONFIDENT AND AT THE SAME TIME YOU WILL HAVE MUCH MORE TO TALK ABOUT IN THE ORAL SESSION.
FINAL TASK:
HERE IS ONE FINAL TASK THAT YOU MAY DO IN ORDER TO COVER THE FOUR SKILLS YOU SHOULD FOCUS ON WHEN LEARNING A LANGUAGE: LISTENING, READING, SPEAKING AND WRITING.
Write a composition and leave it in the blog as a comment to Session 24, I will edit it in the blog so that everybody can learn from other people´s opinions. Choose one of these two options:
- Write a letter to Emilio Botín asking him about your doubts in relation to a cashless economy and giving your opinion about it.
- 'The Black Market, corruption and a cashless society.' How do these three relate. Express your opinion.
For ages, our society has changed, supposedly, into a better world, but evolution has his dark size too because it is usually more powerful and when it makes mistakes its consequences are stronger and worse than in a less developed world. It is easy to see this if you compare the effects produced by a sword or by an atomic bomb.
ReplyDeleteThe topic we are analysing this week, a cashless world, is just the tip of an iceberg which was born with the appearance of the computers just fifty year ago what have transformed many of the aspects , habits and behaviour of our life. Mobile phones, internet, chips, chats, etc. are part of most of us and it seems their presence will keep growing in the future.
But new technologies, which started being helpful for human being, are becoming very strong and have begun to show a dangerous face trying to know everything of us with their big possibilities of store much information in a very small space, so,much of the time people use in their jobs is dedicated to input information into the computer.
The result of this new tendency implies that all the details of our life are stored in some computer we do not know where it is who can have access to and if that person want to use our information for his own profit. Other negative aspect is that we depend more and more on energetic system, but what would happen in an extreme situation as an earthquake, a war, a nuclear crisis, etc.? Then we do not have electricity or phone lines and consequently we cannot buy anything in a cashless world.
This new technologic world advances very quickly in a kind of world without laws as in the far west but I hope little by little we can combine technologic evolution and respect for human freedom.
Nowadays Spain is living a very difficult situation due to the great crisis that affect all over the world, Black Market or Political Corruption are some of the most important factors which have caused this crisis, without forgeting the big problem of construction.
ReplyDeleteIf I had to relate the balck market to corruption, the relation is very simple, the most part of the money is moved today it is in the black market, and this generate a big corruption because in this small dark world, people earn plenty of money, money that is imposible to declare to the authorities. On the other hand the relation with cashless economy is more difficult, especially, because I support the fact of a society cashless, I make a bis use of my credit card, I prefer to pay by credit card rather than cash, I love the idea than in a future, our country to become like Sweden and pay by credit card in a public transport or even in a snack machine is a big advance for us, not like now where pay by credit card o mobile phone is something imposible for many things, like some bars or monuments such as "The Alhambra".
To say it briefly, I believe in all kinds of progress for our country and I consider that cashless economy is a big one and very important in the fight against corruption and black market due to the fact that this kind of transactions are more safe.
C/Euclides nº 18
ReplyDeleteHuercal de Almería
Almería 04230
March 28 2012
Banco Santander
Gran Via 33
Madrid 08820
Dear Mr. Botin,
I am writting in relation to a cashless economy. I want to ask you some doubts and give you my opinion about it
Firstly, Spanish people use mainly cash for their payments because is popularly belief that using cash is safer than using credit card or digital transactions. Maybe, our unknownledge about digital security helps nothing to move Spain in a cashless economy.
Secondly, banks charge a tiny quantity of cents for every payment made by credit card. As a consequence, changing coins to cashless payments is extremely dificult because small businesses only accept cash. Personally I think, we will never be able to pay a coffee with a credit card.
Finally, I collect coins and I would be upset if my favourite hobby dissapeared one day.
Apart from my hobby, I am in favour of a cashless economy. I think is a good way to make the life easier. Furthermore, tecnology and economy must work together in order to improve the society. But I mainly want to know how the banks are going to avoid the cybercrimes.
I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Yours faithfully
ANGEL MOLINA