Tasks
Situation
The Hong Kong Youth Travel Association (HKYTA) is holding an “Asian Travelling Award Competition” for lower secondary students in Hong Kong. Winners will be awarded a free five-day tour to a country in Asia that they propose for their visit. Interested applicants have to work in groups of four. Each group will (1) submit a mini guide to the country in Asia ; (2) submit a brief proposal giving the reasons for visiting the country and describing where they would go as well as what they would do during the trip; and (3) deliver an oral presentation.
You and three classmates would like to join the competition.
Task 1: A Mini Guide to a Country in Asia
A mini guide to a country contains a lot of information, which should be well-organized for readers’ easy understanding and reference. You have asked one of your schoolmates, Gary, for help because you know that he entered a similar competition last year. In reply, he has sent you an e-mail message to tell you about his experience and give you some advice. Read Gary’s e-mail message and the attached mini guide to Greece.
Hi, ___________
Glad to hear that you and your friends would like to join the Asian Travelling Award Competition. You’ve got the right person. Our group ent ered the European Travelling Award Competition last year. Guess what, we won the award and went to Greece. We had a wonderful holiday and learnt so much about the history of Greece and the ways of living there. Here is my advice for preparing a mini guide to a country:
1. Use the search engines on the Internet to look for information on the countries in Asia. Here are some useful search engines:
AltaVista http://www.altavista.com/
Ancarta http://www.ancarta.com/
Ask Jeeves http://www.ask.com/
Google http://www.google.com/
Lycos http://www.lycos.com/
MSN http://search.msn.com/
Yahoo http://www.yahoo.com/
2. Here are some useful websites on trave lling that we used last year.
You will find a lot of useful information.
World Travel Guide
http://www.worldtravelguide.net/
- Click ‘Guides’ on the menu. Choose ‘World Trade Guide’ or ‘World City Guide’, then select a destination. Click ‘Mini Guide’, then tick the items (e.g. General Information, Map) on the lists. Click
‘Create Mini Guide’.
Lonely Planet http://www.lonelyplanet.com/
- Click ‘Worldguide’ on the menu, then choose a destination.
Tasks Yahoo Travel http://travel.yahoo.com/
- Click ‘Travel Guides’ on the menu, then choose a destination.
Rough Guide http://travel.roughguides.com/roughguides.html - Choose a destination.
Let’s Go Online http://www.letsgo.com - Choose a destination.
3. Discuss in your group to decide on a country that you like to work on.
4. Collect brochures and pamphlets about the country from travel agencies and travel magazines. You can also visit its embassy in HK.
I have attached the mini guide to Greece we submitted to the HKYTA last year.
Hope that it can give you some ideas to prepare yours. Discuss with your group to see if you want to include other useful information.
Cheers.
Gary
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Gary's mini guide
General Information
Capital City: Athens
Weather: Wet and warm in spring, dry and hot in summer, dry and cool in autumn, and wet and mild in winter
Religion: Mainly Greek Orthodox Language: Greek
Currency: Euro (EUR)
Time Zone: GMT+2 (GMT+3 from last Sunday in March to Last Sunday in October) Useful Tel.Nos.: Police – 110
Ambulance/Fire – 112 Culture
Festivals: Gynaikratia in Northern Greece (8 Jan) Carnival Season (Feb – Mar)
Athens Festival (mid June – late Sept)
Food: Cucumber Yoghurt Dip 1
Tasks
3 Meat Kebab (skewered, grilled meat) in pita
bread
Spinach and Cheese Pie
Greek Yoghurt (made from goat’s milk) Greek Salad (consisting of cucumber, tomatoes, onions, feta cheese and olives)
Drink: Greek coffee (usually served chilled) Ouzo (alcoholic drink which is often drunk with water)
Tourist Attractions
Athens: Acropolis (an ancient temple)
Ancient Theatre of Dionysos (an ancient theatre)
Plaka (an old village)
Agora (a marketplace for shopping) Olympic Stadium (built in 1896) National Archaeological Museum
Islands: Mykonos (superb beaches for swimming) Santorini (black-sand beaches and mighty cliffs)
2
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Follow Gary’s advice in his e- mail message (p.82 – p.83) to prepare your mini guide. You may use the following table to organize the information about the country you have chosen.
Information Sheet
Country Name Capital City Weather Religion Language Currency Time Zone Useful Telephone Numbers
General Information
Festivals
Food
Drink Culture
Tourist Attractions
Tasks
Part B : Producing a mini guide
Now, use the information about the Asian country you have chosen to produce a mini guide.
Refer to Gary’s mini guide (p.84 – p.85) and discuss in your group how you can make your mini guide informative, attractive and interesting. Be creative in the overall design and the arrangement of information.
Part C : Designing the cover of a mini guide
Your group is going to design the cover of a mini guide. You have to decide on an appropriate title and design an attractive cover for the mini guide. Prepare your draft below.
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Part D : Evaluating and revising the mini guide
You want to see how well you have done and whether you need to improve the guide before sending it to enter the competition. Evaluate your own work and ask your classmates to give you some comments or suggestions. You may use the following feedback sheet to help you.
*Feedback given by
__________________
(Name)
Feedback Sheet
Task 1: A Mini Guide to a Country in Asia
Aspects Yes / No Comments or Suggestions Is the title appropriate?
Is the design creative?
Is the information relevant?
Is there adequate coverage?
Is the information well-organized?
Is the content interesting?
Are the pictures relevant?
Are the headings appropriate?
Is the word limit followed?
Others
* This feedback sheet can be used for self-, peer and/or teacher assessment. The person who provides the feedback may put his/her name down if necessary.
Tasks
Task 2: A Brief Proposal
Your group is going to do a piece of writing about the destination of your trip to enter the
“Asian Travelling Award Competition”. Based on the information collected about the Asian country you have chosen, in about 200 words, give reasons for your choice and describe where you would go as well as what you would do during the trip.
Your schoolmate, Gary, has sent you an e-mail message to give some advice on writing the proposal. Read his e- mail message and the attached proposal and outline to get more ideas.
Outline of Gary’s proposal