B2 – Upper Intermediate
Building a relationship early in your career is vital, especially for those who are migrating to a foreign city and have no existing connections. These friends focus on providing assistance during both personal and professional shocks, and in some cases, they even become lifelong friends.
While work has traditionally been a place to make connections, many of these young people have lacked chances as businesses shifted to hybrid, distributed, or remote-working concepts. While making friends as an adult can be tough in and of itself, hurdles have never been significantly greater, particularly for Gen Z.
According to experts, social circles have downsized generally speaking after a desolate period of time during the global epidemic and in some cases, they were never established at all. This indicates that some young adults are searching for fresh ways to form relationships.
Generation Z, in particular, is using mobile innovations to build long-term strong ties in different manners that earlier generations did not. Put bluntly, young employees are increasingly becoming innovative in their approaches of making new acquaintances.
Read the article to know more about how Gen Z or zoomers make meaningful connections in the pandemic era.
https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20230201-can-gen-z-make-friends-in-the-pandemic-era
Vocabulary Questions:
- What does “top of mind” mean, “For many, limited social networks have been top of mind, and they’re working on innovative ways to build the kinds of friendships older generations found more readily at places like offices.”? Use this expression in your own sentence.
- What does “all walks of life” mean, “The 24-year-old grew up in Ireland, and was eager to “meet people of all walks of life.” Use this idiom in your own sentence.
- What does the idiom “to put one’s self out there” mean, “During the pandemic, I was shocked with how anti-social I’d gotten, how nervous I was to talk to new people and put myself out there”? Use this expression in your own sentence.
Discussion Questions:
- How did the pandemic take a toll on your friendships? Please share.
- During the lockdown, how did you maintain contact with your friends?
- How did friendship help us cope with the isolation during the lockdowns? Talk about it.
- Are you comfortable extending your social circle online? Why or why not?
- How has your way of meeting new people or making new connections changed over the years?
- What are the advantages and pitfalls of online friendships?