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PRE: Begin by asking students to brainstorm how restaurants and other business owners are affected by the pandemic.
DURING 1: Give students access to the article below and allow them to read for five minutes. Students should drag their eyes quickly over an article, looking for key words, phrases, or anything else that stands out. They shouldn’t take the time to read intensively. After 5 minutes, discuss main ideas from the article.
DURING 2: Prepare comprehension questions for the article. Show students the questions and allow them to jot down some answers before reading the article a second time. They should be reading specifically for answers to the questions.
POST: Students can practice writing skills by writing a summary.

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Small Business: Owning the Future

A San Francisco-based Malaysian chef is keeping busy during the pandemic with a diverse business model that has allowed her to improvise and generate revenue.

Azalina Eusope at her San Francisco restaurant Mahila, which opened last year. Credit... Jim Wilson/The New York Times

This article is part of Owning the Future, a series on how small businesses across the country are coping with the coronavirus pandemic.
Azalina Eusope cries every day. "But the food comforts me," said the 41-year-old chef and owner of Azalina's, a Malaysian restaurant business in San Francisco.

"Ten years ago, my business started off in a survivor mode," Ms. Eusope said. "I was selling food under a tent at the farmers' market. As a newly single mother, I needed income. I prepared the food, and at 4 o'clock in the morning, with my kids sleeping in the car, brought it to the farmers' market and set up."

Fast-forward to March 15, when the coronavirus quarantines hit. "Now I'm back in survival mode," she said.

Restaurants have been one of the hardest-hit businesses. A recent report by McKinsey & Company predicted that of the more than 650,000 restaurants that were in business in 2019, about one in five - or more than 130,000 - will be permanently closed by next year.

Independents, like Azalina's, "will bear the brunt of the closures, both because of attributes that make most independents more vulnerable in this pandemic (minimal off-premise presence, limited digital capabilities, low emphasis on value-based menu items) and because of their unfavorable economics (thin margins and poor access to capital)," according to the report. "Independents' share of U.S. restaurant locations could fall from 53 percent in 2019 to 43 percent in 2021."

"It is devastating," said Bonnie Riggs, a researcher and former restaurant industry analyst for The NPD Group's food-service division. "In all my 40-plus years of reporting, we have never experienced anything like this, and no one knows what the impact will be on consumers and the consumer mind-set."

Ms. Eusope is a fifth-generation street vendor. She grew up on Penang Island off the coast of Malaysia and moved to San Francisco with her then-husband in 2001. "I was so far from my family, and I didn't speak English very well," she said.

So she turned to her childhood mamak cuisine, a style from Muslim Indians, for solace. Her version of the style's dishes includes laksa, a lemongrass curry noodle soup; hokkien mee, made with turmeric noodles and vegetables, a variety of curries served with coconut rice; and ayam masak merah, simmered chicken with green tomato chutney.

After she was divorced, "I was thinking, how am I going to survive here in the United States with no savings and no financial stability," she said. "I was a stay-at-home mom. I thought about the food I grew up watching my mother, my father and my grandmother make, and I kept making it for me and the kids. Those foods brought comfort and sometimes the sense of hope that it is going to be OK."

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Mee mamak, with shrimp, egg and turmeric noodles, is a popular dish on the menu. Credit... Jim Wilson/The New York Times

Ms. Eusope's footprint has grown steadily from that food market tent to include a kiosk in the Market Square food hall, retail grocery sales and a catering business that she runs out of a 20,000-square-foot commissary kitchen, which includes a 7,000-square-foot hydroponic garden. Last year, she opened Mahila, a 2,100-square-foot full-service restaurant. She has 70 employees, the majority of whom are women. Construction is underway for three more restaurants.

"Restaurateurs are survivors who build their businesses to be an anchor in their communities," said Sean Kennedy, executive vice president of public affairs for the National Restaurant Association. "Throughout this national public health crisis, small and independent restaurants across the country have been creative and resourceful in pivoting their business models to keep their doors open."

Ms. Eusope's biggest concern is her employees, whom she did not lay off. "Without my employees, I can't be where I am today," she said. "I need them. I can't betray them. In the long run, they will be there for me."

Instead, she asked some of the managers to take small pay cuts to make it possible to keep everyone on the payroll. "I didn't want my employees and their families to worry," she said. "I come from a very poor family, and I know what money means."

A multipronged business model has allowed her to improvise and generate revenue. She shifted from the corporate event catering business that vanished in the pandemic to selling packaged sauces and noodle meal kits to local grocery stores and directly to consumers, which she had not done previously. And, like many restaurateurs, she increased curbside takeout orders via online ordering.

As a result, her employees are preparing daily meals from ingredients grown in the hydroponic garden and food supplied by farmers whom Ms. Eusope has continued to buy from. She donates the meals that are not sold to community homeless shelters and food banks.

Carlos Franco, working in the kitchen at Mahila, is one of Ms. Eusope's 70 employees. Credit... Jim Wilson/The New York Times

Ms. Eusope chops and cooks alongside them. "I don't want to get rusty and lose the momentum," she said. "I come up with creative new dishes. For the restaurant, which is open five days a week, and the food hall location, we change our menu weekly and are selling an average of 150 meals a day."

She has also devoted down time for employee education and training. "We are cross-training our staff to know different aspects of our day-to-day production," she said. "Hot-line cooks are learning pastry. Wait staff are now able to do minor prep. Our dishwashers are able to help our farmers with the hydroponic vegetables."

Ms. Eusope applied for several financial assistance grants, but none have come through. "I don't want a loan that will keep putting me in the hole," she said. "That's stupid. I have to take care of myself. I can't spend the rest of my life paying off my debt."

Ms. Eusope expects Mahila to reopen for dine-in customers on July 15, and seating will be only by reservation and at half occupancy. Credit... Jim Wilson/The New York Times

She also started a GoFundMe campaign. About $15,000 has been raised toward a goal of $25,000.

Ms. Eusope has renegotiated her leases. "One landlord has been very kind and forgiven rent," she said. "The other landlord wants at least 50 percent."

Nonetheless, the financial picture is troubling. She said the company had been healthy before and had a safety net, but she also took some money out of her personal savings.

"We have lost a lot of money, and still continue losing money," Ms. Eusope said. "At the beginning, it terrified me, but I have decided to surrender to the circumstances and continue running my business."

Ms. Eusope is persisting with the last stages of construction for the next locations and planning to open them by December. "It's a big risk, but I am going for it," she said.

In addition to Mahila, Ms. Eusope's business includes a kiosk in the Market Square food hall, retail grocery sales and a catering service that she runs out of a 20,000-square-foot commissary kitchen. Credit... Jim Wilson/The New York Times

She expects Mahila, to reopen for dine-in customers on July 15. Seating will be only by reservation and at half occupancy. The menu will be limited and the prices lower. "This will help with inventory and less waste, and our takeout will be a simpler menu, as well," she said.

Ms. Eusope is nervous, but optimistic about her business. "I am not a big-name Michelin-star restaurant," she said. "We have a good following of people. They have been buying food and supporting us. Some customers bring me flowers and tell me how much they love our food and are so grateful we are still doing this. That feeling of being appreciated is priceless. It makes me want to work even harder."

Offer continuing education and training for staff. Survival will rely on a lean mode of operation. The ability of employees to handle multiple tasks and tackle co-workers' jobs, if necessary, will provide more flexible staffing.

Strengthen digital outreach. An easy-to-navigate online-ordering presence has been a salvation for many restaurants. "Even before the pandemic, restaurants were facing downward pressure on same-store sales, escalating labor costs and labor shortages and needing to adapt to tech-savvy consumers, said Damian Mogavero, a restaurant industry consultant.

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Small Business: Owning the Future A San Francisco-based Malaysian chef is keeping busy during the pandemic with a diverse business model that has allowed her to improvise and generate revenue. This article is part of Owning the Future , a series on how small businesses across the country are coping with the coronavirus pandemic.

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This link contains all resources for a listening lesson related to inferring meaning. The listening content is likely not at an appropriate level. You can use this one, or you may adapt the materials to fit the listening content I linked below. You will have to change the pre, during, and post-listening questions to fit the new content.

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In this lesson students hear a man being interviewed about his life in London. He talks about the different parts of London he has lived in and how things have changed in these areas. The tasks focus students on learning more about London from Google Maps and images and the listening tasks focus them on reading between the lines of what the man says and understanding inferred meaning. Lastly, the lesson finishes with an optional grammar focus with a speaking activity based around 'used to' and 'didn't use to'.

Topic

CEFR B1 Intermediate
Time
60 minutes +
Aims:

to develop students abilities to understand inferred meaning

to develop students' listening skills

to develop students' ability to use 'used to' to talk about past habits and states

Materials

The lesson plan is available to download in pdf format. The audio is available to listen to on this page.

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In this lesson students hear a man being interviewed about his life in London. He talks about the different parts of London he has lived in and how things have changed in these areas.

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Ira talks to Planet Money reporter Zoe Chace about the day she spent with an 11-year-old entrepreneur named Asia Newson, who has a company called SuperBusinessGirl. Zoe says Asia is a natural at making people want to buy whatever she's selling. She seems to instinctively understand a business principle that plenty of adult business owners miss: the first thing you have to sell people on is yourself. (10 1/2 minutes)

Staff Recommendations

We spent five months at a high school in Chicago where in the last year 29 current and recent students were shot.

Part two of our program on Harper High School in Chicago, where in the last year 29 current and recent students were shot.

We spent five months at a high school in Chicago where in the last year 29 current and recent students were shot.

Part two of our program on Harper High School in Chicago, where in the last year 29 current and recent students were shot.

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Ira talks to Planet Money reporter Zoe Chace about the day she spent with an 11-year-old entrepreneur named Asia Newson, who has a company called SuperBusinessGirl. Zoe says Asia is a natural at making people want to buy whatever she's selling.

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Look for examples of stories that you would like students to emulate in structure. Present these examples and show students an outline of how their story should be constructed (introduction, body, conclusion, etc.)
Then, give students some time to write a story using a prompt. Students can share the prompted stories with each other and provide feedback. Finally, plan an activity that encourages students to speak without prior planning. You can split students into breakout rooms with random topics and ask each student to speak for one minute about each topic (i.e: your first time in New York, your first plane ride, etc.)

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Stories are fun and motivational.

Stories allow students to be creative and imaginative.

Stories give students a sense of achievement.

Storytelling gives students a chance to practise oral fluency and extended discourse.

Stories introduce language in a comprehensible and meaningful way.

Listening to stories can develop important skills such as prediction, guessing, hypothesising and message decoding.

Storytelling can provide valuable cultural input.

If the students know the story in their L1 they can use this knowledge to help them understand or tell the story in L2.

There are lots of different fun activities that spin off from stories.
Possible sources of stories

books, magazines, comics, Reader's Digest, newspapers

folk stories, fairy stories, Disney films

local stories and legends

creating your own stories using words or pictures
Choosing and preparing

You need to find stories that are interesting to you and your students.

The stories should have values that are acceptable to you and your students.

You will need to decide which key words may need to be pre-taught.
Activities that you can do

Sharing personal life stories. Get students to divide a sheet of paper into four boxes and then get them to draw pictures about one of the following or similar topics:

my life story

my family story

my last holiday

The students then tell each other their story based on the pictures they have drawn. This works well if you model this on the board by drawing your pictures and telling your story first.

Tell a short funny story, joke or anecdote. Try this at the beginning of class as a warm up and ask the students if they have any funny stories or jokes that they would like to tell you.

Stories and pictures. Get students to bring in cut-out magazine pictures of their favourite stars. Then write different words on the board, such as love, jealousy, fame, travel, murder, marriage, luxury hotel, boat, fast car, money, big dark house, family, friends, accident, disappearance, theft, adventure, suspicious, secretive, treasure, jewels, fortune, etc. Then tell the students they have 10-15 minutes to make up an interesting story about their favourite stars. Tell the students they can use any vocabulary or grammar that they want to but that they must use at least five words from the board. Students then make up their stories and tell them to the rest of the class or other groups.

Tell the students a simple urban legend or a ghost story. Then get them to tell you one that they know. Using pictures to help you tell a story is always a good idea even if it is just stick figures drawn on the board as you are telling the story.

Give students a picture of someone or a picture of a face from a magazine. Write various questions on the board for students to discuss in pairs or groups. Afterwards students can introduce and present their character to another pair or group.

What does this person look like?

What do you think their name is?

Do you think they're happy? Why?

What do you think they're doing now? Why?

What kind of house do you think they live in?

What kind of lifestyle do you think they lead?

What do you think their family is like?

What do you think their job is?

Do you think they like their job?

What do they do in their free time?

Do they have any secrets?

What would a typical day their life be like?

Story dominoes. Students work in small groups. Write a selection of key words onto a set of cards (one word per card) and give each group a set of cards. Tell them to divide the cards evenly amongst the group. The aim of the activity is to tell a story in domino fashion.

Student A puts down a card and starts the story. Then student B puts down one of their cards and continues the story. Then student C continues, and so on, until all the students have used all their cards and the story is complete.

Students then re-tell their story to another group and listen to other groups' stories.

You can easily make up your own story dominoes on other topics such as sci-fi, urban life, football, Harry Potter, etc., or if you are artistic you can even draw pictures on your dominoes instead of words. This set is for a fantasy story:

Modern children's tales. Write the names of popular children's stories on the board such as Goldilocks and the three bears, Peter Pan, Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the beanstalk, etc. and ask if the students know these stories and can tell them to you.

Once the students have told you the rough outline of the stories, put them into pairs or small groups. Now tell the students that they have 10-15 minutes to recreate one of these stories in a different genre, for example as a horror story, a detective story, a love story, an adventure story, etc.

Tell the students they are free to add in new characters or events if they want to and that at the end of the activity they will vote on the most original and creative story.

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Stories are fun and motivational. Stories allow students to be creative and imaginative. Stories give students a sense of achievement. Storytelling gives students a chance to practise oral fluency and extended discourse. Stories introduce language in a comprehensible and meaningful way. Listening to stories can develop important skills such as prediction, guessing, hypothesising and message decoding.

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Shark Tank: Students should prepare a pitch for a made up company. There will be two rounds. Randomly assign some students to be sharks for the first round; they will be presenters in the next, and vice versa. The sharks should take notes on the presenters' companies as a listening activity so they stay engaged. During the next round, switch roles.

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Review skills learned over the past weeks. Competitions such as Beat the Clock or Bingo are encouraged.

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You might know that an adverb clause is a dependent clause that functions as an adverb in a sentence. There are different kinds of adverb clauses in English; in addition, the subordinators can distinguish the different types of adverb clauses. In this lesson, you will learn how to use an adverb clause of contrast or concession.
Adverb clauses begin with a subordinating conjunction (such as after, although, as, because, even, if, once, so that, since, until, when, wherever while whatever, etc.) and answers one of these four adverb questions: how, when, where or why.

You may sit wherever you wish. (Modifies the verb sit and tells where)

Ali and Ahmed look as though they have some exciting news for us. (Modifies the verb look, telling how Ali and Ahmed look)

He is happy because she made an A. (Modifies the adjective happy, telling why he is happy)

Jack can climb higher than I can. (Modifies the adjective higher, telling to what extent or how much higher Jack can climb)

He talked carefully in order to appear fair. (Modifies the adverb carefully telling why he talked carefully)

Also Read:
Adverb Clause of Contrast/ Concession

These clauses are used to make two statements, one of which contrast with the other or make it seem surprising. They are introduced by the subordinating conjunctions like "although, though, even though, despite, in spite of, whereas, while, even if and however.

Though and although mean the same, we use them to contrast two opposite meanings (positive and negative) and it always gives unexpected results, we can use though in any part of the sentence but although can't be used in the end of a sentence. When the though/although clause comes before the main clause, we usually put a comma at the end of the clause. When the main clause comes first, we don't need to use a comma:

Though/ although he has plenty of money, he doesn't spend much.

We enjoyed our camping holiday though/ although it rained every day.

The exam was difficult. I think I did well, though.

Even though

Even though is a slightly stronger form of although.

We decided to buy the house even though we didn't really have enough money.

You keep making that stupid noise even though I've asked you to stop three times.

Even though the exam was easy, I failed.

Despite and in spite of

Despite and in spite of are prepositions which are used with phrase to show contrast and after them we use a noun or a pronoun.

We enjoyed our camping holiday in spite of the rain.

Despite the pain in his leg, he completed the marathon.

Despite having all the necessary qualifications, they didn't offer me the job.

Despite/ in spite of his best efforts, they just could not succeed.

Whereas and while

We use whereas or while to contrast two opposite facts. We don't matter negative or positive meaning.

I like traveling by plane, while/ whereas my husband doesn't.

While there was no conclusive evidence, most people thought he was guilty.

Even if is used to emphasize that, although something may happen or may be true, it will not change a situation. I would not tell you
even if I knew.
Even if she survives, she'll never fully recover.

However is used to introduce a statement that contrasts with or seems to contradict something that has been said previously.

However you look at it, you can't criticize that.

He was feeling bad. He went to work, however, and tried to concentrate.

Related Articles:

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Adverb Clause of Contrast/ Concession - Learn ESL

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You might know that an adverb clause is a dependent clause that functions as an adverb in a sentence. There are different kinds of adverb clauses in English; in addition, the subordinators can distinguish the different types of adverb clauses. In this lesson, you will learn how to use an adverb clause of contrast or concession.

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You are going to learn how to use adverb clauses to present contrasting information and show the order of events, how to give reasons in a discussion or debate, and how to use your tone of voice to express disagreement politely. You are then going to use these skills to discuss the results of an experiment.

Adverb Clauses of Concession; Reduced Adverb Clauses of Time

Adverb clauses of concession use words such as though, although, even though, whereas, and while to add contrasting information to a sentence. An adverb clause is a dependent clause and must go with a main clause with a subject and a verb.

We use though, although, and even though to show ideas that are contrasting but related.

Although we might know what's happening, we're not one-hundred percent sure.

We use whereas and while to compare two different people, things, or situations.

While the polygraph measures stress, this new technology does a lot more.

Reduced adverb clauses of time.

If an adverb clause of time (after, before, when, while) has the same subject as the main clause, you can reduce the adverb clause by removing the subject and putting the verb in the -ing form.

While visiting these islands, I went on an unprecedented excursion. (reduced form).

After I returned home, lots of people asked me how it went. (can't be reduced)

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Arsenio's ESL Podcast: Season 4 - Episode 46 - Grammar - Adverb Clauses of Concession

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You are going to learn how to use adverb clauses to present contrasting information and show the order of events, how to give reasons in a discussion or debate, and how to use your tone of voice to express disagreement politely. You are then going to use these skills to discuss the results of an...