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What was the first international sporting event in your life that kept you up glued to the screen? Was it the World Cup, WBC, or the Olympics? This week on English Cafe, John and Patrick discuss those matches that get your blood pumping and keep you coming back for more!
If you've also had the experience of "not understanding the rules but still watching anyway," we share some insights about watching sports in this episode that you might really relate to. Additionally, Teacher John also shares memories from the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa—although the software used to watch the games back then has disappeared, a small habit formed from following the matches then has continued all the way to now without stopping. Do you know what that habit is?
In this dual article episode, we find that Microsoft has opened a permanent work from home policy for employees in response to the struggles of getting to office amidst the pandemic. Once the pandemic subsides, Microsoft employees can choose to work from home permanently with their manager’s approval. Next piece of news is about the Korean government moved kindergarten and elementary school students back online in response of the surge in the number of COVID19 infections.
Provisions n. action of supplying or providing something / financial or other arrangements In response to COVID19, Microsoft expanded their work-from-home provisions. Financial provisions have to be made to avoid the impact from a market crash.
英語咖啡館 Ep.335: 演唱會、旅行、收藏…哪一種花錢最值得？The Purchases We Wish We Never Made
Since the investigations into Russian manipulation of US elections, FB, Twitter and other major social media companies have strived to crack down on fake news and fake information. However, according to social media analytic firms, false and misleading information tripled from Q3 of 2016 to Q3 of 2020. About two thirds of the likes and comments were of the articles published by “false content producers” or “manipulators”. These publishers pose as news sites online.
Disinformation n. false information intended to mislead Online social media were used to spread disinformation during the elections. Disinformation can be easily shared through private channels.
英語咖啡館 Ep.334: 法國出手封殺網紅帶貨，財經網紅也要被管了？The Dark Side of Finfluencers During a Bull Market
國際時事跟讀 Ep. L257: Indonesia Quake: 53 Dead, Nearly 1,000 Aftershocks
Highlights 主題摘要
A magnitude 7.7 quake off Indonesia's Flores island killed at least 53 people and displaced 5,000.
Memories of the deadly 1992 Flores tsunami sent villagers running uphill the moment the sea drew back.
Landslides cut off the worst-hit districts; thousands still sleep outdoors after nearly 1,000 aftershocks.
The shaking began just before six on Saturday morning, while much of Flores was still asleep. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, only ten kilometres deep, ruptured the seabed off the island's north coast. In Ruteng, hospital ceilings caved in and patients were moved outside into tents. At a Catholic seminary in Sikka, an assembly hall roof collapsed during morning Mass, sending students and nuns scrambling into the open. By Sunday, Indonesian authorities had put the death toll at 53, with more than a hundred injured and some 5,000 people displaced.
What sent villagers running uphill was not the shaking so much as what lives on in local memory. In 1992, a quake of the same magnitude struck the same water and triggered a tsunami that killed about 2,500 islanders. So when the sea visibly drew back on Saturday, residents near the epicentre did not wait to be told. The tsunami warning was lifted three hours later, once monitors detected no dangerous rise in sea level. Indonesia sits astride the Pacific Ring of Fire, among the most seismically exposed countries on earth.
The rescue effort has been shaped less by the quake than by the terrain. Landslides severed sections of the Trans-Flores Highway, a 700-kilometre artery through mountainous country, leaving three of the worst-hit regencies cut off for more than a day. Search teams reached them only on Sunday, some arriving by ferry. "We have cleared most landslides and reopened roads to previously isolated villages," said Fathur Rahman, who heads the search-and-rescue office in Maumere, though communication blackouts and power cuts continued to hamper the work.
Relief has begun to trickle in: 50,000 aid packages weighing 275 tonnes, at least five helicopters, a naval vessel and a fourteen-day emergency response across the province. Even so, monitors logged close to a thousand aftershocks by Sunday afternoon, and thousands spent a second night under tarpaulins rather than return to houses left standing but no longer trusted. "The shaking was terrifying, so intense that my house nearly collapsed," one farmer told the Associated Press. Officials cite the same mix behind the full shelters: aftershocks, damaged homes and the memory of 1992.
Drag on ph. V – process or situation that continue at unnecessary length If the COVID19 situation drags on, the market may react badly. You should not let your health condition drag on.
Surge n. - powerful upward or forward movement The number of Porsches surged in the streets of Taipei. Share prices of Tesla surged after the positive outlook on their production schedule.
Have you ever done something ridiculous for the sake of saving or making money that makes you laugh thinking about it now? This week on English Cafe, John and Angel discuss a topic that's not usually easy to bring up: financial regrets.
This episode is full of the blood, sweat, and tears of the two teachers—there are embarrassing stories about being overly frugal, and costly investment lessons learned. Beyond practical English idioms, we've also compiled some simple reassuring phrases, because after all, who hasn't made mistakes? Learn them and you'll be ready the next time you hear a regrettable story.
國際時事跟讀 Ep. L253: 36,000 Homes Still Without Water 10 Days After Kumamoto Quake
Highlights 主題摘要
A magnitude 7.1 quake killed 38 people in Kumamoto on July 28, yet open roads let relief reach stricken communities within hours.
Water outages hit tens of thousands of homes as temperatures topped 40 degrees Celsius, turning the aftermath into a slower, quieter emergency.
Care-home residents and disabled people living alone risk being overlooked, a warning ahead of the far larger Nankai Trough quake Japan expects.
When a magnitude 7.1 earthquake tore through central Kumamoto Prefecture at 4:27 p.m. on July 28, it registered the maximum reading of 7 on Japan's seismic intensity scale and killed 38 people, making it the country's strongest quake since the Noto Peninsula disaster of New Year's Day 2024. Yet the comparison with Noto is instructive. Where landslides and severed roads once cut off entire communities for weeks, most routes across Kumamoto remained passable, allowing rescue crews, volunteers and relief supplies to reach stricken districts within hours.
What Japan has learned about logistics, however, did little to blunt what came next. For thousands of residents, surviving the earthquake quickly gave way to surviving its aftermath. Nearly 7,000 people were still sheltering in evacuation centres this week, while more than 36,000 households across Kumamoto remained without running water. Temperatures in the prefecture climbed past 40 degrees Celsius for the first time on record, and families slept in their cars simply to run the air conditioning.
That combination of heat and thirst has revived a long-standing anxiety. After the 2024 Noto quake, disaster-related deaths, meaning those caused by illness, exhaustion or the worsening of injuries during evacuation, reached 520, more than double the 228 killed directly by the quake. Those most exposed are often the people who depended on support long before the ground moved: residents with disabilities living alone, and care-home residents whose staff must provide round-the-clock help without running water. Relief workers argue such facilities routinely fall through the cracks of the national response system.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who toured the region on Aug. 3, pledged to restore critical infrastructure as quickly as possible, while Kumamoto's governor pressed for more help at shelters lacking clean water and medical care. Officials fear these same weaknesses would be magnified many times over in a future Nankai Trough megathrust quake. There were brighter notes: TSMC said its Kumamoto fab had returned to normal operations and pledged 250 million yen for relief. For residents, recovery is likely to be a long battle.
Manipulator n. a person who controls or influences others in a clever way Manipulators on FB or Twitter can pose as news outlets. Without the necessary information and judgment, one can be easily manipulated.
Legitimate adj. conforming to the law or rules Reuters, Bloomberg, and Associated Press are legitimate news outlets. Documents that are not signed or chopped with company seal is not legitimate.
Remember when Teacher John discussed the word FOMO on the show a couple years ago? It was rarely heard in Taiwan back then, but recently even TV stations have been putting FOMO directly on screen. This week on English Cafe, John and Cariya are discussing a topic somewhat related to FOMO (Fear of Missing Out): influencers—from fashion, product endorsements, lifestyle products, to the finfluencers (financial influencers) running around everywhere these days.
Have you noticed? Why is the line between celebrities and influencers becoming increasingly blurred, why are lifestyle influencers particularly good at selling things, and what new regulations has Europe recently introduced for ultra-fast fashion e-commerce, even managing influencer sponsorships? Just how dependent is the younger generation on social media for lifestyle and financial information? The data we found in this episode might surprise you!
國際時事跟讀 Ep. L249: A Hoax Sent 60,000 Into Spain's Ceuta
Highlights 主題摘要
Roughly 60,000 people swam or waded into Spain's North African exclave of Ceuta in a single day, and at least 75 died.
A court ruling on sea arrivals was twisted online into a promise of open borders, while Moroccan surveillance quietly thinned to almost nothing.
Almost everyone returned within days, but the crisis split the EU, pushed Italy to suspend Schengen travel with Spain and hardened Europe's border politics.
On the morning of 30 July, the stretch of water between Morocco and the Spanish exclave of Ceuta filled with swimmers. Wearing wetsuits, flippers and inflatable rings, tens of thousands of mostly young Moroccan men rounded the breakwaters at Tarajal and Benzú, or simply waded along the shoreline into European Union territory. Some kissed the ground when they reached it. Within 24 hours, officials estimated that around 60,000 people had crossed, a figure equivalent to roughly 70% of Ceuta's population. What awaited them was neither work nor shelter, but a city overwhelmed within hours.
The trigger appears to have been a rumour that took on a life of its own. Spain's Supreme Court had recently ruled that migrants arriving by sea could not be summarily deported, unlike those who scale the border fence. That narrow legal point was distorted online into a promise that Spain had thrown its doors open, and the claim spread like wildfire across accounts, some only weeks old. Analysts have also pointed to geopolitics: Moroccan surveillance thinned to almost nothing days after Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez made his first visit to Algiers in four years.
The consequences were lethal. At least 75 people died, some drowning in the strait, others crushed in a stampede at the Tarajal breakwater, while Ceuta's regional president said the city morgue had received 88 bodies. Spain deployed its armed forces alongside the Civil Guard, and by Tuesday its interior minister said about 70,000 of the 72,000 arrivals had gone back. The political fallout travelled faster than the returns: Italy reimposed checks on travellers from Spain, France tightened its own crossings, and 22 governments demanded coordinated action.
At an emergency videoconference on 4 August, EU interior ministers agreed to dismantle smuggling networks, speed up returns and fortify the bloc's external borders. The migration commissioner called the episode a test of European resilience and offered Madrid full solidarity, in talks an official privately described as an effort to lower the political temperature. Ministers also endorsed early-warning tools, including social media monitoring, a quiet admission that a viral post can now move a border.
