Know Your World #62: 🇮🇱Israel and 🇵🇸Palestine explained

▶️ It’s tempting to get emotional about the news these days. But as with every conflict there’s a long story to it that gets forgotten about when a conflict intensifies (=becomes stronger). Watch this explainer video by VOX to catch up on some background knowledge.

🔤 Subtitles provided.

👉@afandi_english👈 #know_your_world

Know Your World #63: Is friendship in crisis?

▶️ There are studies that suggest people have less friends today than they used to. Watch this talk by British-American scholar and writer Richard Reeves.

🔤 Subtitles provided.

👉@afandi_english👈 #know_your_world #talk

🎉 Special Day: The History of Halloween

▶️ Whether you have any special feelings today or not, it’s worth looking into the history of Halloween as a festival that has conquered the world.

🔤 Subtitles provided.

👉@afandi_english👈 #special_day #know_your_world #documentary

Know Your World #64: Guns, Germs and Steel (Part 1)

▶️ This documentary from 2005 is a real classic. It tries to answer the question why Europeans, and more broadly Westerners, have dominated the globe for so long. Watch Part 2 here.

🔤 Subtitles provided.

👉@afandi_english👈 #know_your_world #documentary

Know Your World #65: Central Asia’s new alliances

▶️ Read this recent article from the Economist about the Stan countries’ foreign policy outlook for the coming years.

👉@afandi_english👈 #know_your_world #article #economist

Know Your World #66: All major religions in 10 minutes

▶️ Here’s a pretty concise (=short but informative) overview of the world’s religions. Check out their basic beliefs, in the name of world peace!

👉@afandi_english👈 #know_your_world

Know Your World #67: The Great Global Warming Swindle

▶️ Here’s a 2007 British documentary that claims global warming is a swindle (=cheating). The term “global warming” has since been abandoned in favour of the more universal “climate change”. It’s been heavily criticised for going against mainstream science.

👉@afandi_english👈 #know_your_world #documentary

Know Your World #68: AI can do your homework. Now what?

▶️ Should students be allowed to use AI? Here’s how the world of homework is changing. Good food for thought!

🔤 Subtitles provided.

👉@afandi_english👈 #know_your_world #documentary

🎉 Special Day: The #1 classical New Year song

▶️ Auld Lang Syne is a 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿Scottish song that is rivaled (=challenged) only by ABBA’s Happy New Year. Check out the story behind it.

🔤 Subtitles provided.

🎊 And Happy New Year, everyone! Look forward to Afandi English nourishing (=feeding) your hungry mind in 2024.

👉@afandi_english👈 #special_day #documentary #know_your_world

Know Your World #69: The benefits of being bilingual

▶️ Demand more from your brain and it will do more for you! Such is the case with bilingualism, which has been shown to be more beneficial than we thought!

🔤 Subtitles provided.

👉@afandi_english👈 #know_your_world #documentary

🏮 Special Day: Welcome the Year of the Dragon!

▶️ Tune in to the world’s biggest televised event – the Chinese Spring Festival Gala. It’s a potpourri (=mix) of bombastic (=big, shocking) musical performances, spectacular kongfu (=Chinese martial art) shows, not that funny standup comedy and lots of propaganda (=advertising for the government). And it’s going on RIGHT NOW! 👇

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTEG19BHt1U

🐉 By the way, the year of the dragon is considered the luckiest one!

👉@afandi_english👈 #special_day #know_your_world

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

Know Your World #71: What brands do to your brain

▶️ We like to think that we’re in control of ourselves, but brands seem to be very close to our heart and have more power over us than we like to think.

🔤 Subtitles provided.

👉@afandi_english👈 #know_your_world #documentary #psychology

Know Your World #72: Guns, Germs and Steel (Part 2)

▶️ This documentary from 2005 is a real classic. It tries to answer the question why Europeans, and more broadly Westerners, have dominated the globe for so long. Watch Part 1 here.

🔤 Subtitles provided.

👉@afandi_english👈 #know_your_world #documentary

Know Your World #73: People in the World

▶️ How many people have ever lived on this planet? Let this infographic give you some idea.

👉@afandi_english👈 #know_your_world #infographic

Know Your World #74: The pork taboo

▶️ Billions of people around the world don’t eat pork, usually for religious reasons. But it’s interesting to investigate (=check) this taboo (=a rule not to do sth) scientifically and look into historical reasons.

❗️Contains potentially (=possibly, maybe) upsetting imagery (=pictures).

🔤 Subtitles provided.

👉@afandi_english👈 #know_your_world #documentary

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

Know Your World #76: The History of English as a Global Language

▶️ How did English become the world’s first language? Watch this animated video to understand the basics.

🔤 Subtitles provided.

👉@afandi_english👈 #know_your_world #documentary