#1 Talking Point: Is history a lie?

🆕 Get to grips with (=understand sth difficult) controversial (=causing disagreement between people) issues and force yourself to think. In this series of posts Afandi English will give you the gentle push you need!

▶️ Worried about how he would go down in history (=the way people remember sth or sb), the late 🇫🇷French emperor (=king of an empire) Napoleon told these words: “History is a set of lies agreed upon.”

👉@afandi_english👈 #talking_point

#2 Talking Point: Is education like cutting wings?

▶️ What an image – parents are cutting their child’s wings. The wings here stand for imagination and creativity, and also for independence. Parents, and teachers as well, cut them and thereby limit the child’s natural abilities. Now is that cruel or not?

👉@afandi_english👈 #talking_point

▶️ Afandi English is over 4 years old now and there’s a ton of stuff you’ve missed. Here are some hashtags for posts about knowledge:

#article
Stay informed about the world.

#economist
Grab information and vocab from the mother of news magazines.

#future
Feel the world of tomorrow even today.

#infographic
Let your eye travel across important topics.

#inspiration
See the world in a new light.

#know_your_world
Understand today’s world.

#know_yourself
Know thyself and live well.

#maps
Realise reality with maps.

#psychology
See the human nature so no one can fool you.

#talk
Hear what experts have to say in TED Talks, etc.

#talking_point
Sharpen your mind with controversies.

#travel
Travel the world while staring at your phone.

#uni_vocab
Get to grips with key concepts in higher education.

#wikipedia
Feel the weirdness of this world.

#world_englishes
Be sure you know really know the world’s first language.

#world_food
Check out some lovely meals that you may prepare at home, too.

Talking Point #4: Teach or do?

▶️ Here’s another provocative (=making people ready to argue or fight) quote by George Bernard Shaw, this time shaming teachers.

👉@afandi_english👈 #talking_point

Talking Point #5: Invasive technology

▶️ How times have changed. For a bit of convenience (=sth is easy and practical) we’re giving up our privacy. Smart assistants like Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri and Google’s creatively named “Google” save our time and make for (=create) some funny interactive moments. But they listen to everything that happens in our homes. How do you feel about that?

👉@afandi_english👈 #talking_point #future

Talking Point #6: Snippets

▶️ Cats are amazing creatures. They manage to teach complex history lessons in just 20 seconds. But it doesn’t stop there. People form their opinions about society and politics on TikTok, and even one minute is a long time there. And damn me if I write too much on my channel – people will unsubscribe.

We live in a world of “snippets” – super short pieces of written information with more and more visuals (=using pictures or videos). What’s your take (=your opinion)?

👉@afandi_english👈 #talking_point #know_your_world

Talking Point #7: Life before the internet

▶️ Technology is unstoppable and excites us because it makes the impossible possible. But we sometimes forget that it’s actually a trade. As we get something new we also have to give up something old. What do you think about that?

👉@afandi_english👈 #talking_point #future

Talking Point #8: Ambitions

▶️ Humans are never truly satisfied. Once we have what we want we start wanting more. Where in this rat race (=stressful competition for success) are you? Or are you different?

👉@afandi_english👈 #talking_point #know_yourself

Talking Point #9: Hate Speech

▶️ Social division (=people being against each other), discrimination and hate crimes (=crimes against groups in society) – especially Western countries who are promoting freedom of speech are struggling with the effects of hate speech. Each solution comes with other problems.

👉@afandi_english👈 #talking_point #know_your_world

Talking Point #10: Unexpected future

▶️ We used to think that robots will do manual labour for us, and white-collar jobs (=office jobs, not physical work) will remain as a human domain (=field, area, sector). The rise of AI has made us less certain. Are you optimistic or pessimistic?

👉@afandi_english👈 #talking_point #know_your_world #future

Talking Point #11: Influencers

▶️ Here’s a short video of a so-called “influencer factory” in 🇮🇩Indonesia. What’s your feeling seeing this?

👉@afandi_english👈 #talking_point #know_your_world #future