Lesson 5

The topic for our fifth lesson was ‘Is this news?’ We discussed the news media, and whether their reports are always actually newsworthy, or if they are sometimes use sensational reporting to boost sales or increase viewership.

Steve

 

Lesson 4

The topic for our fourth lesson was ‘Politically Incorrect Jokes’. We spoke about a variety of subjects for jokes, and they are ever, or sometimes, acceptable. We also discussed if the subject was acceptable or not depending on who was telling the joke.

Steve

 

Lesson 3

In our third lesson our conversation topic was ‘Telling Lies’. We began with an exercise where you spoke to your partner about a selected specific topic about yourself, and you had to include one lie. Your partner then had to try and guess which bit of information was a lie. We then read an article about a prominent politician who had been caught telling lies. We discussed whether lying was considered worse depending on a person’s standing within society, and whether it is fair to subject different people to different standards in regards to telling lies. After that, you were given a list of common life situations and spoke with your partner if you had ever told lies in these circumstances. Then we went through a few common expressions that are used when talking about lying, before finally asking each other if, and to what extent, they would lie in various imagined scenarios.

Steve

Lesson 2

The topic for our second lesson was ‘National Stereotypes’. We discussed national stereotypes of various countries, and whether we felt they were fair or not. We also discussed if Sweden’s stereotypical views of countries differed to the views of other countries.

Steve

Lesson 1

In our first lesson I began by introducing myself. I then made you all give a brief introduction of yourself to the whole class. next, I gave you a brief outline of what to expect from the course.

We discussed ‘Taboo Conversation Topics’. We spoke about how these differ among cultures, but can also vary depending on individual personalities. Whether a topic of conversation was considered taboo or not often depended on who you were speaking to, and your relationship with that person.

Steve