My students told me that the last few videos I had shown in class (one on force feeding victims in Mauritania and the other on poverty and war in Congo) were depressing, so I promised them something happy for this time.
I chose this video on King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (or KAUST for short) in order to introduce a lesson on Compare and Contrast. Before starting the video I asked who had been to Saudia Arabia and about 3/4 said they had.
"Do you like it there?" I asked. They mostly responded in the affirmative.
"Would you want to live there?" Nearly everyone said no, never.
Then we talked about how women are treated there, as it's typically considered as being one of the countries with the fewest women's rights. Women cannot go out without being fully covered by an abaya (and they have modesty police enforce this). Women are not allowed to drive (or even ride a bicycle). The universities there are completely gender segregated. Well, until now.
I used this video to have the students practice comparison words (similarly, just as, also, etc.) as well as contrast words (however, nevertheless, although, etc.). The whole activity went pretty well.
As a final note, one thing I like about this video is that the perception is usually that the governments here are the ones who are oppressive. But you can see that the King wants the country to be more progressive, and it's the people who are the ones who are going to take time to convince.
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