In France, thanks to a road-safety campaign, the designated driver (who opts not to drink when going out with a group of friends) is universally known as ‘Sam’. The Sam homepage, www.ckisam.fr, has lots of great links for the AS level topic of alcohol Read more...

In France, thanks to a road-safety campaign, the designated driver (who opts not to drink when going out with a group of friends) is universally known as ‘Sam’. The Sam homepage, www.ckisam.fr, has lots of great links for the AS level topic of alcohol or for a light-touch cultural aside to the GCSE topic of health.

Teaching ideas

On the Sam YouTube channel you’ll find a series of five 30-second videos, each giving one ‘bonne raison d’être Sam’ using a short slogan in the simple future tense. Try using them as a series of starters in which students translate the reason given before watching the clip.

For homework, students can find out more by exploring the Sam homepage themselves and making notes on their own reading/listening and new vocabulary encountered. They could also follow the simple French instructions to personalise a Sam video using a photo of themselves or of a friend.