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Learning English with CBC
Calgary
Monthly feature story:
Walking with no purpose
May 2014
Lesson plans created by Amie Sondheim and Justine Light
www.alberta.ca http://www.cbc.ca/calgary/learning-‐english/
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Feature Story Objectives
Purposeless Walking
CLB competency outcomes Listening: Reading: Speaking: Writing:
L: Identify main ideas, supporting details and implied meanings. L: Identifies speaker’s purpose and intent. R: Identifies main ideas, key details and some implied meanings. R: Recognizes purposes, context and authors’ intents with point form lists. S: Uses appropriate levels of formality with increased ability. S: Shows awareness of appropriate eye contact, body language, volume and rate. W: Conveys a clear message to the reader. W: Reduces information to important points with accurate details and no major omissions.
Language skills Vocabulary:
Use new vocabulary in context
Grammar:
The language of making generalizations
Speaking:
Public Speaking Power – Learning to pause and minimize your fillers (um, ah)
Language Activities (In order of appearance in materials) -‐ Answering comprehension and probing questions about a short background
text about Purposeless Walking. -‐ Completing pre-‐listening activities to build vocabulary and prepare learners
for the audio. -‐ Listen to the audio for gist and general comprehension. -‐ Listening Strategies: listening for details -‐ Speaking strategies – Public Speaking Power – pausing and minimizing
Fillers -‐ Grammar activity – Making Generalizations. -‐ Pre-‐reading vocabulary – complete vocabulary activity to prepare for the
reading. -‐ Reading for meaning/comprehension. -‐ Reading strategy – Using graphic organizers to understand a reading -‐ Writing – S.M.A.R.T. goals – setting and reaching goals.
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Introduction – Background Reading
The slow death of purposeless walking
“Walking is a luxury in the West. Very few people, particularly in cities, are obliged to do much of it at all. Cars, bicycles, buses, trams, and trains all beckon. Instead, walking for any distance is usually a planned leisure activity. Or a health aid. Something to help people lose weight. Or keep their fitness. But there's something else people get from choosing to walk. A place to think.” -‐ Finlo Rohrer
According to BBC journalist Finlo Rohrer, walking for the sake of walking, a term he coined “purposeless walking”, is slowly dying. There are two main reasons it has become less common:
1. Because people have gotten to be busier in their daily lives 2. Transportation has become far more accessible.
If purposeless walking is dying, then that means that people used to do it more often than they do today. According to Rohrer, this is unfortunate because people are missing out on the benefits of such walking. Although purposeless walking is something that has many health benefits for people, it is something that should be part of all of our lives for another big reason: it helps us think better. Does that surprise you?
Below are certain tips that Rohrer gives in order to successfully go on a purposeless walk:
Key tips for purposeless walking
• Walk further and with no fixed route • Stop texting and mapping • Don't soundtrack your walks • Go alone • Find walkable places • Walk mindfully
Food For Thought: Do you like to go for walks? How long do you walk for? Where do you go? Do you go alone? Do you listen to music while walking? What do you think about when you walk? What do you think the benefits of walking are for your mind?
Information on this page taken from: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-‐27186709
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The Audio In this audio, you will hear CBC host, David Gray, interview BBC journalist, Finlo Rohrer on the topic of the mental benefits of walking.
Before you listen: Do you find you are walking less here in Canada than in your home country? Why do you think that is the case? 0:34 David Gray Thank you for joining us. What exactly is the purposeless walk? 0:40 Finlo Rohrer I think it’s probably, first of all, easiest to say what its not. It’s not
that kind of functional walking that so many of us do while going from A to B. We leave our house and go to a metro station, or a bus stop, or to a car, a nearby car park. And, its also not that kind of organized leisure walking we might do at the weekend, where we hike to a particular spot, and we’ve planned it out before hand, or looked at a map, set ourselves a schedule. The purposeless walk is almost opening the front door, walking out and not knowing where we’re going. Your only real plan is you hope that you might see something you haven’t seen before. Explore a new place… not a million miles away from home. Perhaps think creatively, or perhaps work on your problem solving.
Image taken from: http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/episodes/2014/03/12/walking-‐matters-‐part-‐1/
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Pre-‐Listening Vocabulary The words below are from the audio. The definitions are next to the words. Read the
definitions then complete the sentences.
Word
Definition
1. purposeless (adjective)
Without a clear aim or purpose
2. endangered (adjective) A threat of dying; almost gone
3. functional (adjective) Useful; relating to a purpose
4. glued to (verb)
Stuck to; always with
5. enhance (verb)
Make bigger or better
6. obsessive (adjective) To think or worry about, or do all the time
7. insomnia (noun)
Sleeping problems; not able to sleep
8. atmosphere (noun)
A feeling that a place gives you
9. crop-‐up (verb) To come up; to appear
10. notorious (adjective)
Famous or well known for something bad
11. embody (verb)
To be a very good example of
12. sound-‐track (noun)
Recorded music that goes with a movie
13. anecdote (noun) A short story based on personal experiences
14. factor in (verb) To include
15. counter-‐intuitive (adjective)
Against an idea based on a feeling, rather than knowledge
16. advocate (noun)
Someone who shows support for something
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Pre-‐Listening Vocabulary: Use the vocabulary words above to complete the following sentences. (Answers found in Appendix.)
1. All sorts of ideas could __________________when you are out walking and thinking. 2. If you’re tying to given an example of something, you may give an
__________________ to show people what you mean.
3. Finlo Rohrer is an __________________ for purposeless walking.
4. You didn’t have a reason or a goal for doing that… it was __________________.
5. This cell phone is fully __________________, since all of the features on it work.
6. She listens to the __________________ from the movie Frozen when she goes walking.
7. Walking just for the sake of walking has become __________________ because
people don’t make the time for it like they used to.
8. Some people like walking so much, that they almost become __________________ over it.
9. So many people are __________________ their cell phones nowadays.
10. That doesn’t make sense to me; it seems __________________ to walk on a treadmill
indoors during the summer time because the weather is so nice.
11. I love the __________________ downtown; the people, places, sounds and smells.
12. He __________________ everything a good writer should be.
13. There are many things you have to __________________ when you are making a difficult decision.
14. If you have __________________ and you can’t sleep, you could try going for a
midnight stroll.
15. Teenagers are becoming more __________________ all the time for texting on their cell phones while walking.
16. You can __________________ your walking experience by going somewhere where
there is nature, running water and wild life.
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Listening for Meaning Read the questions below. Then listen to the audio and answer the questions.
(Answers found in Appendix)
True/False – Read the following statements below and decide if they are true or false.
1. _______ People have a specific place they are walking to with functional walking.
2. _______ Purposeless walking means to walk without an aim or agenda.
3. _______ People should listen to music when walking because it helps them think.
4. _______ Most people make time for purposeless walks.
5. _______ Charles Dickens and Paul Dirac benefited greatly from purposeless walking.
6. _______ You can’t go for a purposeless walk in a car-‐focused city, like Los Angeles.
Listening Comprehension – Short answer
1. Listening for the gist: What is this reading about?
2. How does Finlo Rohrer know so much about purposeless walking?
3. What is the difference between functional walking and purposeless walking?
4. What is a major benefit of purposeless walking?
5. Why should you leave your electronic devices at home when you go walking?
6. What are the three tips Rohrer gives about purposeless walking? a) b) c)
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Listening strategies – Listening for details (Answers found in Appendix)
The goal of the listening section of the monthly feature lesson is to help you to improve your listening skills for all listening situations, not just this audio. When you are listening for specific information, you want to find out certain details about a specific topic. This requires careful listening. Follow the steps below and then listen to the audio and take notes on the topics that are listed below. Steps to follow when listening for details:
1. Think about the topic you are about to listen to, if possible. 2. Read and think about any possible questions that you will have to answer, before
listening. 3. Listen carefully to the audio. 4. When listening try to hear the key words that are stated in the questions, so you will
know the answers and try to take notes at that time, if you can. 5. You don’t have to understand every word; you just have to understand the main
points for each topic or question that you are to answer. Now, go and listen to the audio and listen for specific details about the three men listed below. You will listen for the men’s names to be mentioned. When you hear their name, focus on how their work (writing, ideas or poetry) was positively affected. Also, decide which of these men were a writer, a poet or a scientist.
Time in audio
Great writers and thinkers
Writer, poet or scientist?
How has purposeless walking helped them?
2:49 Charles Dickens
2:49 Paul Dirac
4:21 Baudelaire
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Speaking strategies: Public speaking power – Minimizing fillers (Answers found in Appendix)
Public speaking can be tricky to get right. There are a few tips and tricks that you can do to help build up your speaking skills, so that when you have a presentation, you will engage your audience. You should definitely practice speaking about your topic a lot, so you become familiar with it. This will help you be more fluent, so you will use less fillers (e.g. um, ah). Go back and listen to the audio at 1:40. Notice the changes in Finlo’s tone of voice. But, also listen to where he pauses. Fillers like “um” and “ah” are natural and okay to use, but when giving a presentation, you want to have as few as possible. Instead of using fillers, you should just pause for a moment and then continue speaking. Listen to how Finlo uses minimal fillers and lots of pausing, which makes him sound more fluent.
1:40
I think you can PAUSE see the evidence of it in PAUSE most towns and cities across PAUSE pretty much every Western country. You’ll see people who appear to be glued to their smart phones PAUSE. Um, I like to call them the smart phone map zombies, ah, Cause they’re looking down at Google maps PAUSE, um, which is telling them where to go and they’re not really PAUSE looking around them. PAUSE They’re not really listening to what’s going on around them.
Listen to this next section and try to figure out where the pauses are and identify any fillers you hear too.
2:03 And I think another important point is, that people are very busy these days. They’re constantly fighting over their work-‐life balance. They work long hours at work, they have a family. If you turn around and say to them, why don’t you take a couple of hours, a couple of times a week to just go and have a purposeless walk. And they might very well look at you as though you’ve said something completely insane. And yet, it’s something that can have benefits. You know, you can get, not just the physical benefits of walking, but also a mental benefit. The possibility of enhancing your thinking, because of this link between walking and thinking. Now, prepare a short 2-‐minute oral presentation on a topic of your choice. Practice it if you forget what you were saying, instead of using a filler, just pause until you think of the next part and then continue to speak. Check out the following strategies that can help you become a better public presenter or speaker:
1. Make eye contact with your audience. 2. Don’t be mono-‐toned (same tone of voice). Use a variety of tones in your voice to make
the audience interested. 3. Use your hands and your body to tell the story.
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Grammar: Making Generalizations (Answers found in Appendix)
Sometimes we need to make statements that apply to a certain group of people, or just to all people in general. This is called a generalization. You have to be careful when making generalizations, especially if you are in a formal setting, such as giving a work or school presentation, or writing an academic paper. Often any generalization should be supported with some kind of proof (a solid reason for why you are saying it; examples). Generalizations are often made when in an informal setting, such as conversation.
Common terms used to make a generalization include: -‐ People need water in order to live. They would die without it. It keeps them alive. -‐ A lot of cars run on gasoline, instead of diesel. -‐ We’re all in this together. We + verb…. We + have + verb. -‐ So many of us don’t know how to play the piano. Not many of us can do it. -‐ Generally speaking, parents love their children very much.
In the audio, Finlo Rohrer makes numerous generalizations and he is able to do this because he has done a lot of research on the topic of purposeless walking and so we can assume these generalizations are based on some kind of proof that he has collected during his research. Read the transcript and identify the generalizations.
0:15 David Gray Now that seems like an odd thing to say in this day and age, where we’re all focused,
we all have our own agendas, but that’s the phrase that’s recently coined by a British journalist. And apparently, it’s endangered. To tell us more about what he’s discovered about purposeless walking, we have reached the BBCs Finlo Rohrer. He’s in London this morning. Good morning!
0:40 Finlo Rohrer I think it’s probably, first of all, easiest to say what its not. It’s not that kind of functional walking that so many of us do while going from A to B. We leave our house and go to a metro station, or a bus stop, or to a car… nearby car park. And, its also not that kind of organized leisure walking we might do at the weekend, where we hike to a particular spot, and we’ve planned it out before hand, or looked at a map, set ourselves a schedule….
1:40 Finlo Rohrer I think you can see the evidence of it in most towns and cities across pretty much every Western country. You’ll see people who appear to be glued to their smart phones. Um, I like to call them the smart phone map zombies. Ah, cause they’re looking down at Google maps, which is telling them where to go and they’re not really looking around them. They’re not really listening to what’s going on around them. Um, and I think another important point is, that people are very busy these days. They’re constantly fighting over their work-‐life balance. They work long hours at work, they have a family. If you turn around and say to them, why don’t you take a couple of hours, a couple of times a week to just go and have a purposeless walk. And they might very well look at you as though you’ve said something completely insane. And yet, it’s something that can have benefits….
Now, you try and write some generalization statements!
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Reading Activity – Pre reading Vocabulary The following vocabulary activity will help you to understand the reading below. Match each word to its correct definition. The first one is done for you.
(Answers found in Appendix) Word/Phrase Letter Definition
1. facility (noun) a. to eat very little
2. approach (noun) b. another choice
3. co-‐ordinator (noun) c. the changes a body goes through in a period of 24 hours
(eat, sleep, bathroom breaks, etc.)
4. shift-‐work (noun) d. a place with equipment that is provided for a particular
purpose
5. jam (verb) e. a way to do something
6. fall by the wayside (v) f. something that is in foods like bread, pasta, sugar, potatoes,
which gives your body energy
7. eat light (adverb) g. a town that is growing rapidly because of businesses that
are in, e.g. oil companies
8. digest (verb) h. a person who helps organize something
9. carbohydrate (noun) i. a program that is run to get people to work out intensively
10. circadian rhythm
(noun)
j. a condition of employment stating that you work a certain
period of time, (days, nights, 12 hours, etc.)
11. climate (noun) k. the process of changing food in your body into usable
substances
12. accessibility(noun) l. to fit many things into one
13. exercise (verb) m. a place people can to exercise in
14. fitness centre (noun) n. to become less important
15. boomtown (noun) o. the environment and weather around you
16. boot camp (noun) p. to move to get into shape, sweat, build muscle and burn
calories
17. alternative (noun) q. easy to get to or access something
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BEING ACTIVE IN BOOMTOWN
It can be a challenge to stay active in an oil town. You may be new to town and not know where you can go or you might live in a camp without easy access to facilities. Maybe you know where the facilities are but always find them crowded? Then again, you may not be into structured activity or like to hike or bike but don’t feel really safe on the trails by yourself.
People living in an oil town face challenges that can be hard on their health. They work long hours, often in shifts, eat unhealthy food and, generally, have less time for themselves. Staying fit and healthy requires more creative approaches.
Dayna Sinclair is the co-‐ordinator of the Be Fit for Life Centre at Keyano College in Fort McMurray. Through her job, she sees people who work a lot of shift work, a lot of overtime and a lot of different hours. “If you only have one day off out of 12, it’s hard to have a life. You try to jam errands, family events and exercise into one day. Exercise can fall by the wayside,” she says.
“Shifting to Wellness” is one of the programs the centre offers to help shift workers lead healthy lives. People generally find working shifts harder on the body than they first thought it would be, says Sinclair. The 12-‐week program looks at what to eat on night shifts, how to get the sleep needed in the daytime and how to still see friends and family when working a shift schedule. “You want to eat light and eat less when working at night. You can’t digest carbohydrates as well, so eat more protein to help you feel fuller,” says Sinclair.
Some people work shift work for 20, 30 years. They need to understand their Circadian rhythms, the stages the body goes into during different phases of sleep. They learn to understand how much sleep they need.” Laura Hancharuk is the director of the Be Fit for Life program at Grande Prairie Regional College. Several different factors affect people’s activity levels in an oil town, she says. “One is certainly the climate [she’s in Northern Alberta] or the environment. With it being very cold and with winters being so long, people have difficulty exercising outdoors,” she says. “The other factor is accessibility. There aren’t enough recreation facilities available.”
Hancharuk points to the one indoor 25-‐metre pool in Grande Prairie, a city of 50,000, as an example. “That just doesn’t cut it for all the swimming activities and swim clubs. G.P. is a little bit of a hockey town, and previously, we didn’t have enough ice surfaces. We are lucky that in the last couple of years, we have seen an increase in the number of ice surfaces.” Grande Prairie now has five indoor ice surfaces, having added another twined arena in the last year. However, Hancharuk adds that having only one indoor soccer pitch is presenting a problem for year-‐round soccer games, both for adult and children’s teams.
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For some activities, such as fitness classes, Hancharuk says that the college lacks the facilities to offer classes because there isn’t enough space. However, staff members have come up with some practical alternatives. In the summer, there are many “Boot Camps” that take advantage of the better weather by offering outdoor activities. The walking program, which is for everyone in the community, uses the college to walk in because there is no field house or indoor track.
“We have to get a bit more creative and utilize some spaces that perhaps you might not normally use … To one end of the college building and back is 1 km and so you do that a few times,” says Hancharuk. She points to other practical ideas such as extending the hours on fitness facilities. One privately owned gym in Grande Prairie recently extended their hours from 5 a.m. to midnight, which Hancharuk thinks is helpful. “It gives workers more of a chance to work out,” she says. “In a boomtown with high oilfield activity, a gym could be open 24 hours a day.” She adds that in Grande Prairie and Fort McMurray it’s difficult to attract and retain qualified staff for 24-‐hour fitness centres because it’s hard to attract any type of worker. They have nowhere to live, she says.
Dayna Sinclair thinks that oil and gas companies can help encourage employees to be healthier and more active. She said one camp near Fort McMurray, Suncor Firebag, has its own ice arena. “A lot of the oilfield camps have onsite gyms, which is good. It’s likely easier for the people who live in the camps to have the time to go to the gym, unlike the people who work a 12-‐hour shift and commute an hour to get home.”
Karen Gooden, the director of the Some Other Solutions Society for Crisis Prevention in Fort McMurray, encourages companies to be involved in the health of their employees. Some Other Solutions runs a wellness program. One of the company’s services is to send out information on wellness issues, such as physical activity, to various oil and gas companies. The companies share the information with their workers at the Toolbox safety meetings held every day. Gooden says that there are wonderful services available in her city, with one difficulty. “The only problem is the city is growing faster than the services — medical, fitness, social — can keep up,” she says.
Living and working in an oil town doesn’t have to be a barrier to being active. In fact the better you take care of yourself, the better you’ll be able to perform at work and the better you’ll feel overall. It may take a bit more effort and creativity to be active in a boomtown, but it’s well worth the investment in your health to do so. A few creative solutions can help everyone reach their fitness goals.
Excerpted from Healthy U – Alberta Health http://www.healthyalberta.com/1237.htm
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Reading for Meaning Answer the following questions about the reading. (Answers found in Appendix).
1. What is this reading about?
2. What are 4 reasons people don’t stay active in an oil town?
3. What are 3 health challenges people living in an oil town face?
4. Why does Dayna Sinclair say exercise falls by the wayside for many people?
5. Who has the program “Shifting to Wellness” been created for?
6. What does the 12-‐week program help people with?
7. How does climate affect peoples’ activity levels in Alberta?
8. What facilities does Grande Prairie lack?
9. What alternatives to fitness classes did college staff members come up with?
10. What 2 practical, creative ideas does Hancharuk have in order to get people exercising?
11. How does Sinclair say oil and gas companies help encourage employees to be healthier?
12. How does Some Other Solutions Society distribute information to people?
13. Why do people have to be creative with their workouts in a boomtown?
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Reading Strategies: Using a graphic organizer
(Answers in the Appendix) Sometimes readings such as this month’s contain multiple ideas and perspectives, which can make it difficult to determine who said what, if you need to. Should you ever need to write a summary or response to a reading, you may first need to organize your ideas from what you have read. This month’s reading strategies will show you how to keep a long reading text like this one clear and organized. First, you should determine how many categories you will need and that depends on the assignment. 1. In this case, we will compare the perspectives of the three ladies in the reading on healthy living and creative solutions. So, we will start with three categories: Dayna Sinclair Laura Hancharuk Karen Gooden -‐ See’s shift workers to try and help them get healthy -‐ Shifting Wellness Program
-‐ Director of Be Fit For Life Program
-‐
-‐ …
Take point form notes in each category on what each woman had to say about healthy living in a boomtown.
2. In this next case you may be asked to show the problems and solutions presented in the reading. So, you could create another graphic organizer to show both sides:
Problems getting healthy Solutions to get healthy Long hours worked Shift work No time for themselves …
Eating light on night shift Get proper sleep …
3. Another thing you could do is to create a brainstorm wheel that includes all possible solutions to the problem of not having time or a place to work out. You could include the solutions the reading suggested and add some of your own too.
There are so many different ways to organize information. Can you think of any more?
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Writing – The Language of Goal Setting Goal: a result or end point that you can get from commitment, hard work and desire. If you are trying to achieve a goal, it is very important to make sure you set yourself up for success. First, you have to set goals that are within your reach. The way to make goals reachable is to follow the SMART format. Look at the example below: SMART Goals should be– Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Reachable and Time frame Your Overall Goal:
To get a university degree in education from the University of Alberta (U of A)
Specific What: To get accepted into the education program at the U of A Why: Because I want to become a teacher How: I have to take a 4 year program and apply for student loans
Measurable I will know I am on the path to reaching my goal when I get an acceptance letter from the U of A. I know I am achieving my goal as I pass all of my exams, assignments and courses.
Attainable Getting an education degree will be split into smaller goals: I will focus on each course and each assignment, not on all four years of school. First goal: send application for acceptance into the U of A
Reachable I know this goal is reachable because I am smart, I want this and I have good study habits. I know I can do it.
Time I expect to start my program at the U of A in September of 2014 and complete it by April 2019.
Now, make a health goal for yourself. See the link at the bottom of this page for more information on making SMART goals related to your health. Your Overall Goal:
Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Reachable
Time
This writing portion has been adapted from http://www.healthyalberta.com/Choosewell-‐Logbook-‐2011.pdf.
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Links Benefits of Walking http://www.tescoliving.com/health-‐and-‐wellbeing/fitness/2013/october/top-‐10-‐health-‐benefits-‐of-‐walking-‐everyday http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/1919104 Finlo Rohrer’s article http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-‐27186709 Walking Matters, Part 1 http://www.cbc.ca/ideas/episodes/2014/03/12/walking-‐matters-‐part-‐1/ Health Canada http://www.hc-‐sc.gc.ca/hl-‐vs/index-‐eng.php Graphic organizers http://www.eduplace.com/graphicorganizer/ Healthy Alberta – SMART Goal Setting http://www.healthyalberta.com/Choosewell-‐Logbook-‐2011.pdf. Goal Setting http://www.wikihow.com/Set-‐Goals
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Answer Key Listening Vocabulary
1. All sorts of ideas could crop-‐up when you are out walking and thinking. 2. If you’re tying to given an example of something, you may give an anecdote to show
people what you mean.
3. Finlo Rohrer is an advocate for purposeless walking.
4. You didn’t have a reason or a goal for doing that… it was purposeless.
5. This cell phone is fully functional, since all of the features on it work.
6. She listens to the soundtrack from the movie Frozen when she goes walking.
7. Walking just for the sake of walking has become endangered because people don’t make the time for it like they used to.
8. Some people like walking so much, that they almost become obsessive over it.
9. So many people are glued to their cell phones nowadays.
10. That doesn’t make sense to me; it seems counter-‐intuitive to walk on a treadmill
indoors during the summer time because the weather is so nice.
11. I love the atmosphere downtown; the people, places, sounds and smells.
12. He embodies everything a good writer should be.
13. There are many things you have to factor in when you are making a difficult decision. 14. If you have insomnia and you can’t sleep, you could try going for a midnight stroll.
15. Teenagers are becoming more notorious all the time for texting on their cell phones
while walking.
16. You can enhance your walking experience by going somewhere where there is nature, running water and wild life.
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Listening for Meaning True/False – Read the following statements below and decide if they are true or false.
1. ___T____ People have a specific place they are walking to with functional walking.
2. ___T____ Purposeless walking means to walk without an aim or agenda.
3. ___F____ People should listen to music when walking because it helps them think.
4. ___F____ Most people make time for purposeless walks.
5. ___T____ Charles Dickens and Paul Dirac benefited greatly from purposeless walking.
6. ___F____ You can’t go for a purposeless walk in a car-‐focused city, like Los Angeles.
Listening Comprehension – Short answer
1. Listening for the gist: What is this reading about? How purposeless walking is something that not very many people do anymore, but that they should, because it can help with problem solving and it leads to better thinking.
2. How does Finlo Rohrer know so much about purposeless walking?
Because he researched it in preparation for an article he wrote because it is National Walking Month in the UK.
3. What is the difference between functional walking and purposeless walking?
Functional walking is to get from point A to point B. We do it because we need to go somewhere in particular. Purposeless walking is to walk without a goal or a specific place to go.
4. What is a major benefit of purposeless walking? Problem solving and deep thinking.
5. Why should you leave your electronic devices at home when you go walking? Because
they distract you with maps, music and other things and then you can’t focus on the walk, or on thinking.
How did purposeless walking help the famous poet, Baudelaire, with his poetry? He would go out walking in the streets and would find things that were strange or out of the ordinary and he would write about them.
6. What are the three tips Rohrer gives about purposeless walking? a) leave your technology at home; including your smart phone and music player
b) walk alone so you can focus on walking and thinking, not the conversation
c) walk mindfully; think about the walking, not the thinking
Listening Strategies
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Time in audio
Great writers and thinkers
Writer, poet or scientist?
How has purposeless walking helped them?
2:49 Charles Dickens
Writer He is arguably the best writer to ever describe London. He walked all the time and he would soak up the atmosphere of the city and this would appear in his writing, making his books very rich and colourful with imagery.
2:49 Paul Dirac Scientist He walked all the time, as he thought about complex ideas. He figured out the Uncertainty Principal after a long walk, which he later added into his work.
4:21 Baudelaire Poet He would go out walking in the city in many places different places. He expected to see things that were a little strange and these unique ideas and observations came out in his poems.
Speaking Strategies:
2:05 Um, and I think another important point is that PAUSE people are very busy these days. PAUSE They’re constantly fighting over their work-‐life balance PAUSE. They work long hours at work, PAUSE they have a family PAUSE. If you turn around and say to them, why don’t you take a couple of hours, PAUSE a couple of times a week to PAUSE just go and have a purposeless walk. And they might very well look at you as though you’ve said something completely insane. And yet, it’s something that can have benefits. You know, you can PAUSE get PAUSE, not just the physical benefits of walking, but also a mental benefit. The possibility of enhancing your PAUSE thinking, because of this link between walking and thinking. Grammar: Making Generalizations
0:15 David Gray Now that seems like an odd thing to say in this day and age, where we’re all focused, we all have our own agendas, but that’s the phrase that’s recently coined by a British journalist. And apparently, it’s endangered. To tell us more about what he’s discovered about purposeless walking, we have reached the BBCs Finlo Rohrer. He’s in London this morning. Good morning!
0:40 Finlo Rohrer I think it’s probably, first of all, easiest to say what its not. It’s not that kind of functional walking that so many of us do while going from A to B. We leave our house and go to a metro station, or a bus stop, or to a car… nearby car park. And, its also not that kind of organized leisure walking we might do at the weekend, where
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we hike to a particular spot, and we’ve planned it out before hand, or looked at a map, set ourselves a schedule….
1:40 Finlo Rohrer I think you can see the evidence of it in most towns and cities across pretty much every Western country. You’ll see people who appear to be glued to their smart phones. Um, I like to call them the smart phone map zombies. Ah, cause they’re looking down at Google maps, which is telling them where to go and they’re not really looking around them. They’re not really listening to what’s going on around them. Um, and I think another important point is, that people are very busy these days. They’re constantly fighting over their work-‐life balance. They work long hours at work, they have a family. If you turn around and say to them, why don’t you take a couple of hours, a couple of times a week to just go and have a purposeless walk. And they might very well look at you as though you’ve said something completely insane. And yet, it’s something that can have benefits….
Pre-‐Reading Vocabulary Word/Phrase Letter Definition
1. facility (noun) d a. to eat very little
2. approach (noun) e b. another choice
3. co-‐ordinator (noun) h c. the changes a body goes through in a period of 24 hours
(eat, sleep, bathroom breaks, etc.)
4. shift-‐work (noun) j d. a place with equipment that is provided for a particular
purpose
5. jam (verb) l. e. a way to do something
6. fall by the wayside (v) n f. something that is in foods like bread, pasta, sugar, potatoes,
which gives your body energy
7. eat light (adverb) a g. a town that is growing rapidly because of businesses that
are in, e.g. oil companies
8. digest (verb) k h. a person who helps organize something
9. carbohydrate (noun) f i. a program that is run to get people to work out intensively
10. circadian rhythm
(noun)
c j. a condition of employment stating that you work a certain
period of time, (days, nights, 12 hours, etc.)
11. climate (noun) o k. the process of changing food in your body into usable
substances
12. accessibility(noun) q l. to fit many things into one
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13. exercise (verb) p m. a place people can to exercise in
14. fitness centre (noun) m n. to become less important
15. boomtown (noun) g o. the environment and weather around you
16. boot camp (noun) i p. to move to get into shape, sweat, build muscle and burn
calories
17. alternative (noun) b q. easy to get to or access something
Reading for Meaning
1. What is this reading about? How to stay active and healthy in a boomtown that has few facilities for exercising available.
2. What are 4 reasons people don’t stay active in an oil town? 1. You may be new to town and not know where you can go to work out. 2. You may live in a camp that does not have work out facilities. 3. The facilities are too crowded. 4. You may not like structured activities that the facilities provide, but you’re too scared to go on the hiking trails alone.
3. What are 3 health challenges people living in an oil town face? 1. They work long
hours (shift work), 2. Eat unhealthy food, and 3. Generally they have less time for themselves.
4. Why does Dayna Sinclair say exercise falls by the wayside for many people? Shift work leaves very little time for exercise because people have to jam errands, family events and exercise all into their one day off.
5. Who has the program “Shifting to Wellness” been created for? Shift workers
6. What does the 12-‐week program help people with? What to eat on night shifts, how
to get the sleep needed in the daytime and how to still see family and friends.
7. How does climate affect peoples’ activity levels in Alberta? The winters are so cold and long that people don’t exercise outdoors very much.
8. What facilities does Grande Prairie lack? Swimming pool, a soccer pitch, facilities in
the college to support fitness classes.
9. What alternatives to fitness classes did college staff members come up with? Boot Camp and The walking program.
10. What 2 practical, creative ideas does Hancharuk have in order to get people
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exercising? 1. Use spaces that you may not usually use to work out in (e.g. walking in the college on a cold day). 2. Extend the hours of the fitness facilities.
11. How does Sinclair say oil and gas companies help encourage employees to be
healthier? By having their own ice arenas and an onsite gym.
12. How does Some Other Solutions Society distribute information to people? They send out information on wellness issues and the companies share that information during safety meetings.
13. Why do people have to be creative with their workouts in a boomtown? Because
working out and exercising can be a challenge for many reasons, so people have to find ways to exercise that may be a little different from what they’re used to.
Reading Strategies Dayna Sinclair Laura Hancharuk Karen Gooden -‐ See’s shift workers to try and help them get healthy -‐ Shifting Wellness Program -‐ thinks oil and gas companies can encourage their workers to be healthy -‐ solutions are provided: ice arena and oilfield camps
-‐ Director of Be Fit For Life Program
-‐ People need to understand their circadian rhythms
-‐ Several factors affect people’s activity levels
-‐ Points out problems: pool, soccer pitch and no facilities for fitness classes
-‐ Staff member have come up with solutions: boot camps, the walking program
-‐ director of the Some Other Solutions Society for Crisis Prevention
-‐ runs a wellness program -‐ sends out information on
wellness issues to companies
-‐ says the problem is that the city is growing faster than the services (main problem)
Problems getting healthy Solutions to get healthy Long hours worked Shift work No time for themselves Cities are growing faster than services People are not in touch with their circadian rhythms Gyms are too crowded Not enough facilities People don’t know where to go The cold winter climate
Eating light on night shift Get proper sleep Get in touch with your circadian rhythms Don’t eat carbohydrates when working at night, eat protein Get creative – make space to work out in places that aren’t normally set aside for exercising (e.g. walking in the college) The gym could have longer hours Onsite gyms and arenas at the camps
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Audio Transcript Time Speaker 0:00
David Gray
Looking out the window, after a couple of snowy, chilly, days, a bunch of them actually. This seems to be the first in a while that would be a fine day to go for a walk.
0:12 CBC interviewer -‐ female
It would be.
0:13 David Gray A purposeless walk. Perhaps. 0:14 CBC interviewer -‐
female Just wandering.
0:15 David Gray Now that seems like an odd thing to say in this day and age, where we’re all focused, we all have our own agendas, but that’s the phrase that’s recently coined by a British journalist. And apparently, it’s endangered. To tell us more about what he’s discovered about purposeless walking, we have reached the BBCs Finlo Rohrer. He’s in London this morning. Good morning!
0:33 Finlo Rohrer Good morning. 0:34 David Gray Thank you for joining us. What exactly is the purposeless walk? 0:40 Finlo Rohrer I think it’s probably, first of all, easiest to say what its not. It’s not that
kind of functional walking that so many of us do while going from A to B. We leave our house and go to a metro station, or a bus stop, or to a car… nearby car park. And, its also not that kind of organized leisure walking we might do at the weekend, where we hike to a particular spot, and we’ve planned it out before hand, or looked at a map, set ourselves a schedule. The purposeless walk is almost opening the front door, walking out and not knowing where we’re going. Your only real plan is that you hope that you might see something you haven’t seen before. Explore a new place. Not a million miles away from home Perhaps think creatively, or perhaps work on your problem solving.
1:33 David Gray The article you wrote about the death of the purposeless walk certainly caught our attention; why do you think it’s on the decline?
1:40 Finlo Rohrer I think you can see the evidence of it in most towns and cities across pretty much every Western country. You’ll see people who appear to be glued to their smart phones. Um, I like to call them the smart phone map zombies. Ah, cause they’re looking down at Google maps, which is telling them where to go and they’re not really looking around them. They’re not really listening to what’s going on around them. Um, and I think another important point is, that people are very busy these days. They’re constantly fighting over their work-‐life balance. They work long hours at work, they have a family. If you turn around and say to them, why don’t you take a couple of hours, a couple of times a week to just go and have a purposeless walk. And they might very well look at you as though you’ve said something completely
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insane. And yet, it’s something that can have benefits. You know, you can get, not just the physical benefits of walking, but also a mental benefit. The possibility of enhancing your thinking, because of this link between walking and thinking.
2:43 David Gray What I like about this is you have some proof. Tell me about some of the great writers and thinkers who were also great purposeless walkers.
2:49 Finlo Rohrer I think probably the best example, uh, simply because I am sitting here speaking to you from London, is Charles Dickens. He’s arguably the best writer ever to have described London and he was an incessant, almost an obsessive walker. He would often wake up during the night. He suffered badly from insomnia. Not be able to get back to sleep and just decide to go out walking. And he would walk for miles and miles, often until daybreak. And, he got a benefit from it in one sense, in that he would come back tired enough to finally catch an hour or two of sleep. But, also, he kind of soaked up the atmosphere of the city. He would see places, sometimes sinister side streets, interesting people going about their business that would then crop up as part of the kind of color and richness of his books. Which everybody today, loves. But, it’s also not just, its not just creative writers like him. There’s also scientists that have benefited from this…this walking process. The British physicist Paul Dirac, he died many years ago, but he was notorious in the science community, as a walker and that’s how he himself got to grips himself with particularly complex ideas. One day there’s an anecdote that describes how he was wrestling with something called the “Uncertainty Principal” and he went for a long walk and finally he really got to grips with it then factored into his work.
4:15 David Gray Now the British and French have a long tradition of this kind of walking. Can you describe the tradition a bit for us?
4:21 Finlo Rohrer Yes, I mean in France they have a wonderful word for it. The flâneur. And the flâneur just literally translates as the stroller, or the saunterer. Probably best embodied by the poet, Baudelaire, he would go walking out into the city, sometimes through crowds, sometimes down unusual side-‐streets and byways and he would expect to observe things that other people wouldn’t quite see, he was at a bit of a distance from people and he would expect to just notice something that was a bit out of the ordinary. And in his poetry, those ideas come across, those strange ideas that he picked up out walking.
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5:01 David Gray
Does it matter where you are necessarily, do you have to be in the lake district, or in the wonderful markets perhaps of France, or England? Or, can you just go out walking anywhere?
5:10 Finlo Rohrer I mean… people will talk about cities being difficult to walk in. um… Los Angeles is always given as an example, but, actually I’ve spoken to people in Los Angeles who have said that even in the toughest, most car focused city, you’re still going to find places that you can walk in. It might be a slightly more quiet place than the rest of the city, where you can walk in and properly think, and properly experience the walk. You just have to find it some… some how.
5:35 David Gray Can you give me some tips then, for those who might want to take a purposeless walk?
5:40 Finlo Rohrer Yes. I think probably the most important tip is to leave your smart phone behind. Difficult for many of us these days, but take it out of your pocket, put it on the shelf and then go to the front door. And, as well as that, make a decision to walk further and for longer. And again on the electric device front, don’t take an mp3 player out with you. I know many of us are guilty of sound-‐tracking every walk we go on. We listen to endless music. But, don’t do that. Go out and listen. And another thing that seems slightly counter intuitive to some people, but a lot of people I’ve spoken to about walking have recommended it strongly, is to go alone. We tend to think about going for a walk with a partner, a husband, wife, or a friend. But, then, there’s a sense in which you’re going out for a conversation and that means you’re thinking more about the conversation than you are about the walking. And I think the final point and it’s a word I think comes from Buddhism, some of these walking advocates talk about trying to walk mindfully, or with mindfulness, which just means to just be sub-‐summed in the activity. Just be concentrating on putting one foot in front of another and not anything else that might be on your mind.
6:55 David Gray Mr. Rohrer, I wish you a pleasant walk. Thank you for joining us. 6:58 Finlo Rohrer Thank you for having me. 7:00 David Gray Finlo Rohrer is a journalist with BBC magazine. He wrote an article to
mark National Walking Month in the UK called ‘The Death of Purposeless Walking’.
