ESL WORKSHEET - Chocolate (III)

LESSON PLAN FOR ENGLISH TEACHERS

ETHICAL CHOCOLATE (listening version)

LinguaHouse

Jul. 5, 2011

Level: Upper-intermediate (B2-C1)
Type of English: Business English
Tags: Ethics and Conduct; Phrasal Verbs; Article Based
Publication date: 07/05/2011

This lesson is the listening version of the popular article-based worksheet Ethical chocolate. The theme is business ethics. Students listen to an interview with the founders of a UK chocolate company called Montezuma’s. The fictitious dialogue is based on an article from The Independent entitled “The innovative chocolate company with a taste for ethical trading”. Students discuss attitudes to ethics in their own businesses and countries. The lesson also introduces a number of common phrasal verbs, which are studied and practiced.

• CLICK HERE to download the student’s worksheet in American English.
• CLICK HERE to download the teacher’s lesson plan in American English.
• CLICK HERE to download the student’s worksheet in British English.
• CLICK HERE to download the teacher’s lesson plan in British English.
• CLICK HERE to download/listen to the audio of the exercise 3 (part 1).
• CLICK HERE to download/listen to the audio of the exercise 4 (part 2).

AUDIO TRANSCRIPTS

Part 1
Presenter: Welcome to this week’s edition of Entrepreneurs. Today we are profiling Simon and Helen Pattinson, founders of Montezuma’s, one of the UK’s most innovative chocolate companies. Welcome to the program. Simon, what gave you the idea for Montezuma’s?
Simon: Well, our aim was to create a chocolate company that was really innovative, good quality, and interestingly packaged. Despite all the chocolate providers in the UK, I still don’t think that exists elsewhere. At one end of the spectrum, you’ve got cheap and cheerful chocolate bars and at the other end, you have boutique chocolate shops - we try to sit comfortably in the middle.
Presenter: Yet, a decade ago, you hadn’t a clue about the chocolate industry. Is that right?
Simon: Yes, that’s true.
Presenter: Can you tell us about that?
Simon: Well, my wife and I were both City lawyers and were getting increasingly dissatisfied with the long hours and long commutes. OK, we were well paid, but we never had any time, so we decided to pack everything up and go off traveling for a few months while we decided what we wanted to do with our lives. The plan was to explore South America, have some fun and come back with a notebook of business ideas.
Presenter: Helen, when did you both decide to go into the chocolate business?
Helen: When we were in Argentina, we came across a little town in the middle of the lake district where a large German population ran several chocolate shops. We got thinking about why there wasn’t more innovation in chocolate in the UK. When we reached Venezuela and accidentally ended up staying on a cocoa plantation, we became fascinated by these beautiful trees and fruit and how it becomes one of the world’s most addictive foods.
Presenter: So, what happened after that?
Helen: When we returned to the UK, we spent six months eating very large amounts of chocolate and researching every corner of the industry until we found a gap in the market. My husband is an amateur and experimental cook, and that definitely helped to develop unusual and exotic flavors for our chocolate, for instance our strawberry and paprika chocolate bar.
Presenter: In 2000, Montezuma’s started with one little chocolate machine and one shop, selling 200 products. After seven years, the 60-person-strong company launched its seventh store and also has a growing wholesale and mail order business. The targeted turnover for this year is 4 million dollars.

Part 2
Presenter: Simon, how important are ethics in your business?
Simon: Very. It was always important to us that growers get a fair price. All our organic cocoa comes from co-operatives in the Dominican Republic and Peru. Both of these co-ops have a strong social structure that re-invests in the local society and infrastructure in a way that makes their cocoa-based agriculture sustainable, equitable and, indeed, profitable. It really was a passion of me and Helen’s that if we could make the business profitable, then we should make part of the aim of the business to make life more comfortable for the societies we come into contact with. In fact, it’s essential to us to deal fairly with all our suppliers so that we don’t exploit anyone in the entire chain from grower to consumer.
Presenter: Your commitment to ethics even extends to your advertising budget. Tell us about that.
Helen: Well, we don’t advertise. The budget that we would normally use for advertising goes towards supporting charitable works - whether that’s providing Easter eggs for a charity Easter Egg hunt or getting actively involved with fundraising for different projects.

Interview based on the article “The innovative chocolate company with a taste for ethical trading” by Kate Hilpern, The Independent, June 5th, 2007.

Adapted from: https://www.linguahouse.com/esl-lesson-plans/business-english/ethical-chocolate-listening-version. Accessed on August 12, 2024. © 2008–2024 LinguaHouse.com. All rights reserved.