phone english blogB2 – Upper Intermediate
What leads to success? Richard St. John, a success expert who spent a lot of years researching about it, gives 8 principles to address this question.
Click on the link to find out:
https://www.ted.com/talks/richard_st_john_s_8_secrets_of_success
Discussion Questions:
B2 – Upper Intermediate
Retail therapy is the act of shopping and spending to improve one’s mood. Often seen in people during periods of depression or transition, it is normally a short-lived habit. Items purchased during periods of retail therapy are sometimes referred to as “comfort buys”.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/features/6-minute-english/ep-171207
Discussion Questions:
1. What do you do to feel better when you are sad?
2. Do you believe in retail therapy or is it just an excuse to go binge shopping?
3. When is retail therapy unhealthy?
B2 – Upper Intermediate
The emergence of the Internet has allowed people to communicate in faster and more efficient ways. Dissemination of opinions and self-expression have been pushed into even more new areas where everything can be exposed with the advent of social media, especially Facebook. For this reason, can this be a tool to hinder corruption?
Discussion Questions:
1. Talk about corruption in your country. What are the government’s actions to fight corruption?
2. If you were to post about your thoughts on corruption on Facebook now, what would you say?
3. How else can Facebook and other social media make a positive impact?
B2 – Upper Intermediate
Has anyone stripped you of your happiness before? As the saying goes ‘Don’t let the silly little things steal your happiness’. Similarly, we should not let toxic people drag us down. Take note of these negative people and avoid interacting with them.
Read this article on different kinds of toxic people you could encounter on a rather regular basis.
https://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/8-types-of-toxic-people-you-should-always-avoid.html
Discussion Questions:
1. Share your experience about an interaction with a toxic person.
2. What could be best ways to deal with these eight types of toxic people?
3. Among these eight types of toxic people, which do you consider the most crippling?
B2 – Upper Intermediate
One of the most common and serious work issues is work burnout. It is often confused with stress. But there is a big difference between the two.
Listen to the audio and read the transcript to find out more about occupational blues.
https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/business-english/podcasts-for-professionals/work-burnout
Discussion Questions:
1. What’s the difference between stress and burnout?
2. What are ways to fight work blues?
3. Share any story about being burned-out.
B2 – Upper Intermediate
Working part-time while studying used to be the norm in the UK but the trend is changing. The number of student part-timers has decreased in the recent years.
Find out more through this podcast:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/features/6-minute-english/ep-171214
Discussion Questions:
1. Should schoolchildren have jobs?
2. What are the pros and cons of working while studying?
3. Share your own story about juggling work and studies.
B2 – Upper Intermediate
When you were young, have you ever thought of being a farmer? Do you want to work outdoors or indoors? This new school is trying to teach millennials who want to work on a farm. In a society where technology is everywhere, farming has been often put behind thus creating a huge demand in the workforce for young people to work in the land.
Let’s watch and read the article below about this below:
Discussion Questions:
B2 – Upper Intermediate
Thomas Jefferson said, “All men are created equal.” Everyone should have access to education regardless of his race, gender, religion or nationality.
It may sound absurd because we are already in the 21st century and almost everyone can go to school, but this is a sad reality for some women in third world countries.
Let us read the link below to know more about how educating women can create an impact on the society.
Discussion Questions:
B2 – Upper Intermediate
In many countries, women take their husbands’ last name when they get married. Is this the case in your country?
Click on the link to check if this tradition still holds true to most countries and how people feel about changing their last names:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/features/6-minute-english/ep-180201
Discussion Questions:
1. Do women take their husband’s surname when they get married in your country?
2. Would you change your last name or would you expect your partner to change his/hers?
3. Do you think it’s fair that children usually take their father’s family name?
4. Have you ever thought about changing your name?
5. What could be good reasons for a name change?
B2 – Upper Intermediate
Nothing has been more enduring than the stereotype of women as chatterboxes, gabbing about everything and anything at any time, all the time. However, some reports conclude that men are chatterboxes too depending on the context of the conversation.
Read the article below and be ready to answer the questions that follow.
Who speaks more, men or women? Most people wouldn’t hesitate to say that women speak more. There are many jokes about how much, and what, women talk about. But research which some may find surprising indicates that both men and women speak more or less equally.
Four hundred university students in the United States and Mexico participated in the study. Researchers recorded the students’ daily conversations for several days. After analyzing the data, they discovered that both sexes are in a statistical dead heat when it comes to speaking. Women used a little more than 16,000 words every day. Men used a little less than 16,000 words. The report admits, though, that the numbers could change as men and women grow older, because the study only tracked university students.
The current idea that women are chatterboxes just isn’t true. In addition, men only speak when they have something important to say also isn’t true. Both ideas probably come from cultural and political discrimination against women. But the study explains that men gossip just as much as women. Men and women also talk equally about unimportant topics. But women actually talk more about relationships.
A psychologist at Yale University has a somewhat different opinion. She suggests that the idea about men and women probably come from arguments between the genders. Unfortunately, the study doesn’t know how speaking patterns change in an argument. But other studies have supported the stereotype that guys become quiet and women talk more in an emotional conflict.
Source: headsupenglish.com
Discussion Questions: