UNITED NATIONS SCENARIO PRINTOUT

BORKAZIA VS. ZEIKISTAN (CAPTURED SOLDIERS, OIL, HIGROW)

This is from Graham Dixon's lesson, "United Nations" (http://busyteacher.org/22185-united-

nations-fantastic-esl-negotiation.html). The current document is mostly just a set of event
cards to use with that game, although I have summarised his information, and included a
couple of suggestions. Just to be clear, it is not my idea, and the event cards are also based
on Graham's suggestions. The format here worked well for my college English majors, and
my Chinese middle school intermediate class.

A crisis is growing, between the neighbouring countries of Borkazia and Zeikistan. They have
been at war in the past, and if they are not careful, these angry feelings might develop into
war again.

There are four problems/issues:

1 Land: The Highlands, on the border between the two countries. No one lives there, but
last month, people found it has lots of oil.

2 Border fighting. Last week, there was a gun fight at the border. In this fight, Borkazia
captured 7 soldiers from Zeikistan.

3 Science: Zeikistan has invented a new fertilizer ("medicine water for trees" in an
intermediate class) called Hi-Grow.

4 Ramaria: There is a third country to the south, Ramaria. Much richer than B or Z, R
wants to sell weapons ("guns and bombs" for an intermediate class) to both B and Z.

The simplest way to explain all this is with a map. The Highlands are in the middle, and
Ramaria is to the south. Borkazia is on the west; Zeikistan on the east.

I just use the map to explain points 1 and 2 and 4: mark the Highlands, and write "OIL" there;
mark a point on the border (I put it just south of the Highlands) and write F for fight; then
finally, mark R for Ramaria, and put a big $$ sign next to it, because it is rich. For point 3, you
can't use the map - I just draw a picture of a tree going from small to big, as I tell them about
"medicine water for trees". I tell them, if add this water when you grow food, you get "rice x3".
I also write points 1-4 in point form beside the map.

Then I ask lots of check questions for each point, but the main one is to ask, "Who wants
what?" at each point.

Then I assemble the teams (you can have more than 2 teams, and just do multiple, separate
role plays). Then I ask each nation:
Are you angry?
Why are you angry?
What do you want?

I then just leave them to do it, in whatever order they want. I tried imposing more structure,
but they weren't interested. It seems to work this way, and there was quite a lot of English in
most of my classes where I did this. One class (college students doing an English minor) had
more mixed results.
 EVENT CARDS

These are cards that each have an event that might happen (technically, some are "events"
such as a news broadcast, and others are "facts" such as the fact that Hi-Grow doesn't work).
At the start of the game, I choose a set of four cards for each group, but I only use them if the
group is going well, and especially if one group finishes too early. You can choose them at
random, or select them yourself. I choose them at random, but I only show them to the
students within a group who I feel may be getting left out of the discussion. Then they get to
lead for a bit.

Some of the cards have an extra item called "Chance of knowing", which is a bit complicated,
and you can leave it out. It works like this:

"Hi-Grow is useless. Chance = 100/50." - Zeikistan invented Hi-Grow, so it is mentioned first.

This means that in fact, Hi-Grow doesn't work, and Zeikistan has a 100% chance of knowing
this (so they know it certainly) but Borkazia has only a 50% chance. You can flip a coin for
this. If the chance is 75%, flip two coins, and two tails = they don't know; anything else, they
do know. If the chance is, say, 75/50, both countries might fail the coin flip. Then no one will
know. It cannot affect the discussion, but you can tell them after the role play, and see the
looks on their faces.

There is one special case: "Chance = 100/RUMOUR":

This means Zeikistan knows Hi-Grow works; Borkazia doesn't know anything - it only has the
rumour of the lack of effectiveness of Hi-Grow.

If you are running this game for the first time, the "News" cards are the simplest, and the most
interesting - just announce a news story, and remind them of the importance of this.
 EVENT CARDS

HI-GROW IS POISON HI-GROW IS USELESS HI-GROW IS ONLY

SLIGHTLY USEFUL
CHANCE OF KNOWING CHANCE OF KNOWING
= 75/50 = 100/50 CHANCE OF KNOWING =
100/75

HI-GROW IS HI-GROW IS HI-GROW IS EXTREMELY

EXTREMELY USEFUL: EXTREMELY USEFUL: USEFUL:
YOUR SCIENTISTS YOUR SCIENTISTS YOUR SCIENTISTS HAVE
HAVE CONFIRMED IT. HAVE CONFIRMED IT. CONFIRMED IT.
CHANCE = 100/100 CHANCE = 100/100 CHANCE = 100/100

HI-GROW IS HI-GROW IS HI-GROW IS EXTREMELY

EXTREMELY USEFUL: EXTREMELY USEFUL: USEFUL:
BUT NO ONE WILL BE BUT THERE ARE BUT NO ONE WILL BE
ABLE TO PROVE IT RUMOURS OF ITS LACK ABLE TO PROVE IT
(CHANCE = 100/0) OF EFFECTIVENESS (CHANCE = 100/0)
(CHANCE =
100/RUMOUR)

HOSTAGES: ALL OK HOSTAGES: ALL OK HOSTAGES: ALL OK

HOSTAGES: ONE SICK HOSTAGES: ONE SICK HOSTAGES: ONE VERY

SICK AND ONE DEAD
RAMARIA: RUMOURS RAMARIA: RUMOURS RAMARIA: RUMOURS OF
OF RAMARIA BRIBING OF RAMARIA BRIBING RAMARIA BRIBING BOTH
BORKAZIA ZEIKISTAN COUNTRIES

RAMARIA: NO RAMARIA: NO RAMARIA: NO RUMOURS

RUMOURS OF RUMOURS OF OF RAMARIA BRIBING
RAMARIA BRIBING RAMARIA BRIBING ANYONE
ANYONE ANYONE

NEWS: PRESIDENT OF NEWS: PRES OF B NEWS: PRES OF Z SAYS

ZEIKISTAN SAYS B SAYS Z MUST AGREE PEOPLE OF B ARE BORN
MUST GIVE BACK THE TO GIVE HI-GROW TO BE VIOLENT. PEACE
SOLDIERS OR THERE BEFORE ANY DEAL IS UNLIKELY.
WILL BE NO CAN EVEN BE
TECHNOLOGY CONSIDERED.
EXCHANGE

NEWS: SCIENTISTS NEWS: SCIENTISTS NEWS: PRESIDENT OF R

FROM R CLAIM HI- FROM R CLAIM HI- SAYS THERE CAN BE NO
GROW DOES NOT GROW DOES NOT PEACE BETWEEN THESE
WORK WORK WEAK AND STUPID
NATIONS.

NEWS: R SAYS IT HAS NEWS: R SAYS IT HAS NEWS: R SAYS IT HAS

TESTED A NUCLEAR TESTED A NUCLEAR TESTED A NUCLEAR
BOMB. IT WILL SELL TO BOMB. IT WILL SELL TO BOMB. IT WILL SELL TO
THE HIGHEST BIDDER THE HIGHEST BIDDER THE HIGHEST BIDDER
FROM Z OR B FROM Z OR B FROM Z OR B