English for Urban Planners, A Source-Based Approach for Spatial Research

pln 241 English for Urban Planners I, Wednesdays 17.00-19.30

pln 353 English for Urban Planners II , Mondays 14.00-16.30

Aslı Odman, Instructor, asli.odman@msgsu.edu.tr

Görüşme Saati / Office Hour: Çarşamba, 14-16.00 (Bölüm, Asma Kat)

Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Department of Urban and Regional Planning

This course was offered for the first time Güz/Fall 2018/2019

work in progress; draft version per 23.11. 2020

Aim and Method of the Course / Dersin Amacı ve İşlenme Şekli:

The aim of this course is familiarizing the students of Urban Planning with varied sources
on urbanism in the English-speaking world. During the course the students will deal with
the terminology in urbanism on the basis of the most relevant and recent sources of our field
(open data dashboards, academic databases, professional periodicals, blogs, mailing lists,
websites of associations, data visualisations, old and new maps, urban plans, interactive
historical maps, urban atlases, newspaper clippings, audiovisual materials, statistical
databanks, encyclopaedic entries, open online courses etc) will serve as our means.

* * * * * * * * * *

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Dersin Amacı, siz Şehir Planlama öğrencilerine (veya mimarlık, beşeri coğrafya, sosyoloji,
tarih... gibi herhangi bir mekansal çalışmalar dalında kendini geliştirmek isteyenlere)
İngilizce konuşulan ülkelerdeki akademik ve mesleki bilgi ve veri kaynakları ve platformlar
hakkında bilgileneceğiniz, bunları takip edebileceğiniz, temel okuma ve anlama becerilerinizi
edineceğiniz mesleki dil eğitimi vermektir. Bu dersi okuma ve anlama İngilizcesi 'temel'
seviyede olan öğrencilerle, yapılacak seviye tespit sınavı sonunda iki farklı oturum şeklinde
işleyeceğiz. Bizlere ayrılan dersliklerimizdeki yer imkan verdiği sürece bir derse kaydolup,
ikinci derse de dinleyici olarak girmeniz mümkündür. Bu dönem dersimiz, bir şehir
plancısının ihtiyacı olan ingilizce dilindeki kaynak türlerine (meslek örgütleri websiteleri, veri
görselleştirme işleri/infografikler, şehir planları, tarihi ve güncel haritalar, veri
mekansallaştırma çalışmaları, interaktif tarihsel haritalar, kent atlasları, basın, akademik veri
bankaları, istatistiki veribankaları, mesleki ansiklopedik kaynaklar, online açık dersler,
mesleki bloglar, mesleki mail grupları vs) göre tasnif edilmiştir. Dönem başında üye
olacağınız whatsapp grubuna, bir sonraki haftanın güncel içeriği, şehircilik gündemleri takip
edilerek iletilecektir. Dersten önce bu içerik hakkında bilgilenmeniz, ders takibi için
önemlidir. Bu dersi başarılı bir şekilde verenler Bahar 2020'de verilecek pln 456 English for
Urban Planners III veya pln240a Advanced Readings in English for Urban Planners and
Architects dersine devam edebilirler.

Evaluation of the Course / Dersin Değerlendirilmesi:

Attendance is the most important prerequisite for a successful course. Please try to come
regularly to classes. You are free to attend the second session if you fail to attend the course
you are registered to. But please let me know about this since we have very limited seats in
our classrooms for the selective courses.

Students are required to hand out (upload in the classroom system) in total 3 papers during the
term, based on the weekly chosen sources. The papers constitute 50 % of the grade and the
final exam the remaining 50%.

Listen, read and watch content in English that you enjoy every day! At least 15 minutes a day!

Don't use Google translate for any of the take-home papers, this improves neither your
language skills nor your grades.

* * * * * * * * * *

Dil öğrenmek, her gün düzenli bir şekilde o dille haşır neşir olununca mümkün olan bir
faaliyettir. Bu yüzden derse devamlılık ve dersin yönlendirdiği kaynaklarla vakit geçirmek
amaca ulaşmak için elzem. Derse devamlılık sağlayan öğrenciler, dönem içinde (classroom
sistemine yükleyerek) teslim edecekleri 3 ödev ve bir final sınavı ile (eşit ağırlıklı olmak
üzere) notlandırılacaklar. Vize ödevlerinin 'google translate' üzerinde son anda hazırlanması
ne derste not, ne de dilde gelişmeyi sağlayacaktır. Ödevlerinizi el emeği göz nuru ile
hazırlayınız!
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Defter tutmak / Not almanın Önemi: Ders sırasınca 'Cornell Not Alma tekniğini
kullanacağız: The Importance of Notetaking: We will use the Cornell Note taking method
during this class. For more information see:

Some additional information on Critical Thinking:

**************************************************************************

1. Introduction to the Course and Language Helpers:

 Presentation of the course; How to love to learn a language? Possible methods and
sources.
 English proficiency test, written and oral

Language Learning Helpers, every day at least 30 minutes!

 Webster Online Dictionary and Thesaurus English-English, Oxford Online Dictionary

English-English, Longman English-English Dictionary, Cambridge English-Turkish
Dictionary
 Visual Interactive Lexicon, Visual Thesaurus, Dictionary
 English Grammar Online
 Word Matters, Merriam-Webster editors challenge supposed grammar rules, reveal the
surprising origins behind words, tackle common questions in a podcast
 Voscreen: Voscreen helps you improve your English language skills on your own
through short video clips
 Just the Word: Helps you WRITE in English
 6 Minute English BBC
 6 Minute English Vocabulary BBC
 1 Minute English BBC
 1 Minute English Grammar Courses BBC
 RSAnimate (Royal Society of Arts Animate)
 Voice of America Learning English
 TED Talks (register online for free:), English listening and comprehension of texts
 MOOCs (massive open online courses, especially EdX, coursera, planetizen and
futurelearn) and free online course on urban issues
 Tandem Language Exchange in Istanbul (speaking clubs), or online conversation with
people with English as native tongue
 Be a member of the International Club at MSGSÜ and be a buddy to a foreign student!
 Kahoot! (Learning by playing)
 Rosetta Stone App, Learn English (available through msgsu library registration for
free)
 online language learning sites, like duolingo.com, on a daily basis
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  Listen to the News Channels or Read in English aimed at the 'overseas' audience:
BBC World News, Al Jazeera World News for our region in English, NKH-
World Japan, Deutsche Welle in English, Voice of America, CNN World News
France 24 in English, AFP in English, RT Russian Today English, CGTN (China
Global Television Network) 
 A list of tips and tricks of learning English on your own, daily, regular effort is the key!
(vocabulary, grammar, reading, listening), prepared by Ferhat Zabun 
 Enrich your vocabulary according to your level, Vocagarden 
 Use words in a context, phrase them
 Watch movies and series and learn English or check the English with Movies channel, or
Language Learning With Netflix chrome extension
 Improve and practise your listening skills with music videos. Fill in the gaps to the
lyrics as you listen and sing Karaoke to your favourites.
 reading Audiobooks (audible, storytel, kindle etc) in English, whilst reading that
book in English
 read dual-language / bilingual books English and Turkish, even books to teach
Turkish to Foreigners, childrens' books, lyrics of songs, easy stories, novels that
you have read in Turkish and loved... (parallel texts) 

Some more tips for everyday routine and enjoyment (thanks to the compilation by @mirkovich
and @oferhatzabun)

** Discover history ,
 discover world history maps and timelines,
 British Museum, the Interactive World History Museum

** Learn geography through movie locations ;

 discover movies about specific periods;
 internet movie script database,
 watch short movies with English subtitles,
 watch documentaries ;
 your personal physical constitution, an interactive BBC story
 live webcams of world cities;
 tunnels to the other side of the world ,
 discover how the world is feeling ;
 let's go and guess the city https://www.geoguessr.com/you are moving in virtually;
 comparing cost of living in different cities of the world;
 country comparison tool to compare living conditions in your own country to those of
another,
 neal.fun, Bringing back the weird web

** music from different periods;

 Improve and practise your listening skills with the best music videos. Fill in the gaps to
the lyrics as you listen and sing Karaoke to your favourites;
 radio channels of the world like radio garden, radios all around the world and
radioooooo, The Musical Time Machine, drive around cities listening to their local
radios;
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  type your voice using google speech recognition and work on your pronunciation

**conversation with people with English as native tongue, online



2. Reading and Understanding on the urban Issues in Daily and Weekly Press

What is the story of this piece of news / newspaper article (WH-Questions:

what/when/where/who/whom/which/whose/why/how?) //

What does this specific / concrete story tell us about the 'big picture' in a country,
region, city etc? //

What is the main idea? //

Where is the main idea situated in the article //

Can you find any supporting ideas/arguments to this main idea?

Differentiate the key vocabulary (key words) from secondary vocabulary

Concentrate on the factual issues!

 BBC World (online edition and fragments of documentaries)

 The Guardian
 The Times
 Financial Times
 The Economist
 The New York Times
 Los Angeles Times
 Washington Times...

3. Reading maps, their legends/keys and understanding their contexts

(Map type 1: Historical 2D Maps)

[What do the maps tell us? Who made maps? For which reasons? What types of maps do
exist? Since when do we have maps with scale and why? What is 'georeferencing' and how
does it function at i.e. www.oldmapsonline.org? [Why is the map of Piri Reis not
represented at www.oldmapsonline.org?] How can you ask questions to 'historical' maps? ]

!Read the entry on 'maps' in Britannica:

!Read:" What is a historical map?"

Watch!: Tutorial – On our and other maps and

check out the book This is Not An Atlas!

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  The search engine for historical maps OldMapsOnline.org indexes over 400.000 maps. This
is only thanks to the archives and libraries that were open to the idea and provided their online
content. (includes also Maps of Turkey and the Ottoman Empire in English you can use
in your urban studios)
 Harvard Interactive World Maps, compose your own map according to your needs (see
the short intro in Turkish)
 GeoCron, Comparative Historical Geography Tool 
 1944 Maps of the British War Office on Istanbul and its surroundings (read the
legend)

Interactive Historical Maps and Spatial History Projects:

(Map Type II: Spatialization of Historical Data /

Socio-historical cartography)
[by way of text mining- on openstreetmap/googleearth/wikidata or
georeferenced historical maps!)]

!read: What is Spatial History?, by Richard White

 Hand-Colored Maps of Wealth & Poverty in Victorian London: Explore a New

Interactive Edition of Charles Booth’s Historic Work of Social Cartography (1889)
 Check the 'MAP' section of Citylab on maps on historical data of different time spans
(medical cartography, disease maps, infrastructure maps, eviction maps, mobility
maps, maps of natural disasters, climate change maps, urban development maps etc.)
 Mapping Prejudice Project, mapping the racial segregation in Minneapolis,
Minnesota, USA [read and listen together with the Turkish translation and and
interview with one of the authors of the project: 'George Floyd'un Katledildiği
Minneapolis'te Planlamanın Irkçı Tarihi ve Irksal Tapu Şerhleri' via
@suburbanistan] 
 İstanbul Urban Database, is an ongoing digital humanities project, digitizing and
visualizing the historic urban archives of Istanbul [citylab article on the project]
 Explore the Beta Version of the Online Atlas for Occupational Structure of England
and Wales bw. 1600-2011:Atlas of Occupational Structure and Population Geography
by University of The Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social
Structure,
 Digital Atlas of the Roman Empire,
 The Standford Geospatial Network Model of the Roman World,
 The Roman Empire Interactive Map,
 The Harvard Digital Atlas of Roman and Medieval Civilizations
 Time Maps, Map as History, History of Greece (an example of a storymap from
Anatolia, in Turkish: Mémoirs of Hagop Mintzuri, beginning of 20th century, by M.
Tülek)
 Historical Atlas of the Mediterranean
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 Explore the Shape of History project, an interesting way of using digital resources to
visualise historical events based on the nineteenth-century work of Elizabeth Palmer
Peabody. Take some time going through the interactive website.:
 Stanford University Spatial History Project :
 Stanford CESTA, Center for Spatial and Textual Analysis, "CESTA is Stanford’s digital
humanities research hub, where students and faculty bring the power of humanistic
investigation together with new technology to document, analyze and understand the changing
human experience." 
 Stanford University Environment Topographies and Infrastructure, @MapOttoman, "Epirus
is a historical region surrounded by the Adriatic Sea and the Pindus Mountains. The
land features inner seas, lakes, and fertile valleys. MapOE is developing a number of
GIS-based maps to examine Epirus topography and the built space, including human
settlements, roads and bridges in the region." 
 (A good example of those projects is the spatialization of historical data on Ottoman
Cyprus is: Kitchener's Survey on Cyprus 1878-1883 by Antonis Hadjikyriacou,
'Osmanlı Kıbrısı'nda Tahıl: Unutulmuş Bir Mal Üzerine Notlar. XVII. YüzyıldanXIX.
Yüzyıl Başlarına' , in: Buğdayın Kitabı, editör: Alp Yücel Kaya, İzmir Büyükşehir
Belediyesi, 2019, 54-77
 Postindustrial Montréal (Canada): (a similar, plant-based project in Turkish: 'İzmit
Seka'nın Dönüşümü')
 Urban History and Actuality Project: 'Spacing Montréal' (Canadian Urbanism
Uncovered)
 European Route on Industrial Heritage
 Memoryscapes London: Soundwalks at the Riverside of Thames
 Soundscape mapping examples lik Distant Forests, World Sounds, Favourite Sounds,
The Soundscape of Istanbul 
 Witches Project, The University of Edinburgh [The Data and Visualisation internship
project at the University of Edinburgh had as its core aim to geographically locate and
visualise the different locations recorded within the Survey of Scottish Witchcraft
Database.]
 Map The Rebellion: The Whiskey Rebellion, USA Late 19th Century. An Interactive
Mapping Project (This digital history project explores the Whiskey Rebellion through
time and space. This site includes an interactive map, a responsive timeline, and an
audio tour of the major sites of the Whiskey Rebellion.)
 Louisiana Slave Conspiracies, 1795 (USA, State of Louisiana)
 Slave Map of Australia
 The Valley of the Shadow, Documenting / Spatializing two Communities in the
American Civil War
 NYC Space/Time Directory: The NYC Space/Time Directory will make urban
history accessible through a set of resources including: a searchable atlas of
New York past, an historical location directory and geocoder, a set of APIs and
data sets, and a discovery tool linking NYPL collections together in an
historical and geographic context.

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4. Map Type III: Urban Atlases and Land Cover Maps

 Copernicus Urban Atlas: Copernicus Land Monitoring Service – part of the

Copernicus Programme [Map Type III: Land Use Data, Contemporary Snapshots
and Transformation of Land-Use between 1990-2018, European Countries, including
Turkey, [Data only on urban Turkey is only for 2012, no data for 2006)
"Copernicus is a European programme for monitoring the Earth, in which data is
collected by Earth observation satellites and combined with observation data from
sensor networks on the earth’s surface. Once collected the data is then processed,
providing reliable and up-to-date information within six thematic areas. These areas
are: land, marine, atmosphere, climate change, emergency management and security.
 Copernicus Corine Land Cover (2018 for Turkey)
 NASA Night Light Pollution Map (Tracing the macroform development, additional
info on Ecological Light Pollution and Night Light Pollution) OR Light Trends,
Light Pollution Map OR Dark Sky, Light Pollution Map 
 Forest Monitoring Designed for Action, Global Forest Watch (Global Forest Watch
(GFW) is an online platform that provides data and tools for monitoring forests. By
harnessing cutting-edge technology, GFW allows anyone to access near real-time
information about where and how forests are changing around the world.)
 Global Forest Change by University of Maryland, Dep. of Geographical Science
 Global Solar Atlas
 Urad, Global Environmental Monitoring Network
 Online portal for Marine litter/debris map, microplastics
 AirVisual, Spatial and Realtime Air Quality, Air Pollution and Wind Data
 Air Quality and Air Pollution around the world
 Hazardous Waste Statistics 
 AidData. Leveraging data and research to make international health efforts more
effective (on China, Beijing's Public Diplomacy, Environment, Health, Infrastructure,
Global Goals, Sustainable Cities)
 NASA, Images of Change (before/after aerial images on effects of climate change,
disasters, urbanization, deforestation etc.)
 NASA, Earth Now. Fly along with NASA’s fleet of Earth science missions and explore
our planet’s vital signs in an immersive, real-time environment.
 Natural Earth free vector and raster map data at 1:10m-1:50m, 1:110m scales

5. Open mapped urban data (Dashboards)

(Map Type IV: Social Mapping, Mapping the Social Indicators in a City)

!Read and watch on urban dashboards and open data platforms: Kentsel Politikanın
Desteklenmesi İçin Yeni Araçlar: Açık Veri Platformları ve Dijital Kent Panelleri,

Watch on medyascope, 11.11.2019

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[What are indicators for social mapping? What is data mining? What is big data and how
can it be represented in social relational mapping projects?]

 http://harita.kent95.org/ :
Real Estate Values / Census data on Age groups from TURKSTAT
[Project for The Analysis and Mapping of Services Directed at
Children and Their Families in Istanbul’s District Municipalities]
 Networks of Dispossesion. Mapping the relations between capital and power in
Turkey
 Discover New York City Data: and some chosen maps:
 NYC Map Galery:
 NYC Crime Map:
 New York Street Tree Map:
 New York Hurricane Evacuation Zone: (disasters and mapping)
 Using Google after the Puebla Earthquake/Mexico (exists also in Turkish)
 Open Data on London:
 Mapping New Politics Of Care: A map that links the effects of COVID-19 in the United
States with a wide range of social, economic, and environmental conditions.

6. Mapping social relations in the city (Listening and Reading, combined)

(Map Type IV: Social Mapping, Mapping the Social Indicators in a City)

 Listen to the TedX Talk: 'How the 'Ghost Map' helped end a killer disease': "Author
Steven Johnson takes us on a 10-minute tour of The Ghost Map, his book about a
cholera outbreak in 1854 London and the impact it had on science, cities and modern
society."
[guided reading and peer teaching in group work: !find the main argument; find the
supporting arguments; to which question does a specific paragraph respond; find the
question; find the verb and the subject; draw the 'tree of argumentation; make the
wordrobe and a partial translation! ]

 Spatiotemporal evolution of Primary School Absenteeism during the Pandemic

A(H1N1)

7. Visualisation of Data: Charting Data, Classifying Data

 Visual Capitalist on urban issues: (i.e. 'The Evolution of Urban Planning', 'Mapped:
The Dramatic Global Rise in Urbanization 1950-2010'; 'Mercator Misconceptions:
Clever Map Shows the Real Size of the Countries', 'Form and Functions: Visualizing
the Shape of Cities and Economies' etc)
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  Examples of data visualizations and how to do your own infographics 
 Good Data Visualization Websites:
 Brilliant Maps
 Understanding Money on Jobs and Incomes
 Peter Atwood Maps and Graphics
 MapFight compares the size of any two geographical areas.

8. Professional Institutions in Urban Planning and Geography in the Anglophone World,

A Selection
[Their agenda, discussion groups, foci, 'job market', calls…in a comparative manner]

 AESOP (Association of European Schools of Planning) and its current agenda

(thematic working groups), curricula, working/discussion groups, comparing it with
the curriculum at MSGSÜ, ŞBP
 EURA (European Urban Research Association):
 RTPI (Royal Town Planning Institute)
 TCPA (Town and Country Planning Association, founded by Sir Ebenezer Howard in
1899) 
 ACSP (Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning, USA)
 American Planning Association
 www.planningportal.gov.uk
 International Society of City and Regional Planners (ISOCARP)
 Association of Critical Heritage Studies
 International Seminar on Urban Form, ISUF
 International Association for People and Environment Studies (IAPS)
 Europa Nostra: Pan-European Federation for Heritage
 Geographical Association, UK, Teaching Sources 

9. Reading Encyclopaedic Entries on Urban Issues

How to approach an entry in an encyclopaedia? What difference does it make to check the
biography of an author before your start reading her/his book? (check the biography of Jane
Jacobs, the entry on Robert Moses and the entry on 'Life and Death of American Cities', and
her book)

 Encyclopaedia for Human Geography, vols. 12, Elsevier, 2009.

 Wikipedia entries in English (to consult wikipedia off-line you can use kiwix.org/en/)
 Britannica, (entries on single biographies, urban historical events, concepts, books etc.
etc...) and https://academic.eb.com/levels/collegiate
 Read entries in the The Language of Towns & Cities: A Visual Dictionary, Written by
Dhiru A. Thadani, Introduction by Andres Duany, Foreword by Leon Krier

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  Visual Dictionary, showing words in their semantic network 
 https://www.encyclopedia.com/ [Search over 200 individual encyclopedias and
reference books from the worlds most trusted publishers.] 

10. Reading statistical information relevant for urban planners.

 International Institutions who produce or publish statistics on Turkey

 EuroSTAT, European Statistical Institute on Turkey
 TUIK, Turkish Statistical Institute in English
 World Bank, Country Profile Turkey and World Integrated Trade System
 OECD, How is Life in Turkey, Data on Turkey (indicators which are relevant for
urban studies)
 Mapping Chinese Global Development Footprint, Chinese Investments in Turkey
 Professional and for-profit data compilation on Turkey
https://www.statista.com/topics/1442/turkey/
 UNICEF, United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund on Turkey
 UNHCR United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees on Turkey
 World Health Organisation WHO on Turkey
 not producing merely statistical data, but still important especially in urban
conservation is UNESCO :'Dive into Intangible Cultural Heritage' (United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization)
 UNESCO- ICOMOS (World Heritage Lists) (International Council on Monuments
and Sites)
 Turkish Ministry for Culture and Tourism in English
 World Cities Culture Forum, Public Green Spaces 

11. Online Databases for Urban Planners

Presentation by the Head of the Library: What online databanks are available at the
MSGSÜ Library? What is the difference between a website What is the difference
between 'google' search and keyword research in the academic research database
catalogues?

Assignment: Getting a subscription for off campus reach.

Turning RESEARCH QUESTIONS into CLEVER KEYWORDS

1. Searching with the 'trending' keywords in urbanism studies in academic databases (i.e.
urban regeneration, urban transformation, urban design, megaprojects, gentrification,
urban sprawl etc..);
2. experimenting with the snow-ball effect when formulating keywords;
3. creating semantic clouds around them out of abstracts of articles;
4. grouping them according to geographical areas, journals, periods etc.
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  Catalogues, search engines and finding/creating the smart keywords for research in
the journals in the English language:
[Journal Rankings in Urban Planning]
[Journal Rankings in Architecture]
[Journal Rankings in Geography, Planning and Development]
[Top Human Geography Journals]

 Most relevant e-journals and other electronic sources for urban planners and learning
to read abstracts of academic articles (Some examples: Urban Studies, International
Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Urban Geography, City and Society,
City, Urban Geography, Journal of Urban Economics, Urban Education, Housing
Studies, Antipode, Journal of Urban History, International Journal for Critical
Geographies, Environment and Planning A, Progress in Human Geography, Urban
Geography and METU Studies in Development etc).

12. MOOCs and free open online courses and professional blogs/mailing groups

 EdX, coursera, futurelearn, planetizen courses on urban planning, urbanism, urban

architecture, spatial studies, urban geography

 MOOCs to learn / improve your English, i.e. coursera specialization [some are
free, some are not-free courses]
 Professional blogs (how to differentiate between for-profit, non-profit, public-private
blogs and how to use them?)
 City Livability Blog, and Liveable Cities Blog 
 and mail groups at H-Net ( Humanities and Social Sciences Net Online)
 How to search for concepts covering current urban debates on social media?

13. Evaluation of the Course, Feedback of the Students and Outlook for the Term
Break
TedXTalk: 'The Secrets of Learning a New Language' (Enjoyment and Everyday Routine)


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