Fair Trade. Speaking exercise

Fair Trade coffee beans

In this lesson we will be talking about Fair Trade, and looking at the construction “What if…?” in English.

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"I pity the man who wants a coat so cheap that the man or woman who produces the cloth will starve in the process."
– Benjamin Harrison

From the man, woman or child who picks the coffee beans, to you paying for it at the supermarket, there are a lot of ‘middle men’ who all need to make a profit. Surprisingly little of your money goes to the farmers who work 10 or more hours a day, breaking their backs to pick your coffee beans, and so the Fair Trade movement was created in order to get more money to those who work tirelessly for an incredibly low salary and poor working conditions.

Before we get started, here is a list of vocabulary that will help you talk about Fair Trade with your native English-speaking teacher in your conversation classes via Skype.

Vocabulary about Fair Trade

English vocabulary related to Fair Trade

Grammar to use in your online English conversation class

Here are the different ways we can use the “What if…?” construction.

A. “What if + present simple ?”

We use this construction when we are asking about the consequences of an action.

Examples:

• What if it rains on my wedding day? All the guests will get wet
• What if I lose my job? Then we’ll have no money

We can also use this construction to make suggestions.

Examples:

• What if we start going to work together? Then we can save money on petrol.
• What if you bring the food, and I bring the drink to the party?

B. “What if + past simple ?”

We use this construction to talk about future possibility, (with a low probability).

Examples:

• What if the coffee you drink could help farmers in Africa?
• What if the chocolate you eat helped build schools in South America?
• What if we spent a little bit more money to help underpaid farmers?

Useful verb forms:

• sell - sold - sold
• buy - bought - bought
• eat - ate - eaten

Common mistakes:

A café is a place where you go for a drink. A coffee is a drink.

Both café and coffee have the stress on the first syllable!!

False Friend:

X invert = to reverse in position
√ invest = to spend money, hoping to make a profit

Common pronunciation problems:

• European /ˌjʊərə'pɪən/
• Rural /‘rʊərəl/
• Developed /dɪ'veləpt/

Do you buy local?

Questions we will discuss in your online English conversation class:

- Why are products that are made far away sometimes the least expensive?

-What does the term “fair trade” mean to you?

- Do you prefer to buy your products from local farms and family-run shops, or from large supermarkets? Why?

- Do you check where a product is made before you buy it?

- Do you know of any fair trade products that are sold in your country?

- Have you ever drunk fair trade coffee / eaten fair trade chocolate? If so, are fair trade products as nice as non fair trade products?

- Have you ever bought a fair trade product?

- What fair trade products have you seen advertised on TV?

- Do you think fair trade products are too expensive?

- Why do you think fair trade products are more expensive?

- Have you heard of fair trade universities or fair trade towns? What do you think these are?

- Do you think we should have more fair trade in your country?

- Do you think it is correct to have fair trade in all countries?

- What can people in developed countries do to help reduce poverty around the world?

Practice reading and listening before speaking with your native English-speaking teacher:

Although fair trade seems an inspiring initiative, it is not without its doubters and critics. This article looks into just how “fair” fair trade is.

“The Fairtrade label is increasingly common. But while shoppers seem keen to pay a little over the odds for fair trade products, some observers question how effective it really is in helping developing world farmers…” Read more...

Writing Practice:

Improve your English writing skills by answering the following essay question, and sending it to us for correction.

The money given to help poor countries does not solve the problem of poverty, so rich countries should give other types of help instead. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

We will reply within 48 hours with the corrected text, clearly marking your mistakes, and a feedback sheet, which you can use to improve your future written work.

Buy a pack of Writing Corrections!

Speaking practice:

Now book your online English conversation class with one of our native English-speaking teachers to put into practice what you’ve learned in this lesson.

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Only by doing this will you improve the most important communication skill in English: speaking!

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