New Vocabulary and Phrases: May

small talk: (noun or verb) conversation that is not serious (example: Hello, How are you? How is the weather? How is your son/daughter?)

homogenous: (adjective) all one type of people or things

commercial holiday: (noun) a special day that is not from tradition, a holiday that developed to make companies money

birthrate: (noun) the average number of children produced in the country by one family

multi-cultural: (adjective) when more than one culture is found in a place or group (example sentence: Most developed countries are multi-cultural.)

"national identity": the identity of a country. This includes the culture, traditions, history, and sometimes physical (body) looks of a national group.

"contentious areas": areas where fighting is happening or enemies may be hiding