Simply Speaking
Pop Culture floods Novadonia
[based on actual events]
Though based on actual events, this is an English lesson only. It is meant to introduce certain political language while remaining as apolitical as possible. Therefore, all proper names in this article are aliases.
Getting Started
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According to Novadonian state-media, America’s young culture is invading Novadonia and must come to a stop before the nation becomes a meaningless and soulless country. 
The warning to its citizens stated that the ideas and cultural influence coming from America are more dangerous than people with guns. General Mills Potkellog, Novadonia’s “First General” and head of state, recently called American pop culture, an epidemic that is corrupting their youth.
At the top of the censure list is the invasion of millennial slang. Novadonian youth have been asked to avoid this and only speak the standard dialect of Novadonia, which the newspaper calls the superior language—no pop-culture slang allowed.
Novadonian leader General Mills Potkellog has been issuing directives for months ordering citizens to turn away from foreign influence such as clothing fashions, hairstyles, dance moves, movies, dramas, and pop music. He has spoken out against the anti-socialist influences spreading to his country.
A new law calls for up to 12 years in labor camps for those caught accessing American entertainment. Parents can be fined if their children are caught watching American entertainment or imitating the way they speak. Even the death penalty is on the table for those caught storing or distributing foreign media.
Foreign influence is seen as a threat to Novadonia's socialist party and communal way of life. The censorship comes at a time when the Novadonia economy is in trouble, making youth more receptive to outside influence. Food is scarce and expensive in Novadonia, so the young people might see the outside world as a better alternative to the socialist state which has strict mandates on hairstyles, clothing, and even dance styles.  
Novadonians don’t have the global internet. So there is no access to sites like Instagram, TikTok, Youtube, and Facebook. Instead Novadonia has a tightly controlled national intranet, called simply “Our Net”. Nevertheless, despite the risks, people find ways around this through underground access to the internet and, more popularly, USB drives. 
Highly sophisticated smuggling rings bring in banned media which is smuggled into the country via password encrypted USB drives, which are small and easy to hide. If the password is entered incorrectly, all content is immediately deleted from the USB drive.
While a closed society such as Novadonia may seem strange to the world, people are influenced not just by laws, but also the state’s propaganda which claims that the First General is also the First Father of all Novadonian citizens.
Comprehension Questions
  1. What is invading Novadonia?
  2. What is more dangerous than people with guns?
  3. What kind of language should Novadonians speak?
  4. What are the kinds of foreign influences that are spreading to Novadonia?
  5. Describe the new laws and punishment for accessing unauthorized foreign media.
  6. Why might young people see the outside as an alternative to the socialist state?
  7. Explain ways people go around the state-sponsored intranet?
  8. How are USB drives brought into Novadonia?
  9. What happens if a wrong password is entered into an illegal USB drive?
Discussion
  1. Censorship exists in all countries, for example, in the USA you can’t  make false statements about someone’s reputation or their business. Think of other examples of reasonable censorship.