Lesson 10

In our tenth lesson our topic was ‘Bribery & Corruption’. This proved to quite a fun topic, with some of you telling some very entertaining stories and offering some interesting perspectives on how opinons on this topic can vary depending on the situation.

Steve

Lesson 9

The topic for our ninth lesson was ‘Nudity’. We spoke about attitudes to nudity, and how these attitudes can vary depending on the situation. We also spoke about how nudity is viewed in different cultures.

Steve

 

Lesson 8

In our eighth lesson our topic was ‘Old enough to be her grandfather’. We discussed relationships where there was a large age difference between the pair. We discussed wheter your views on the same age difference varied depending on the age of the individual, and also if your feelings depended on if one of the people was a close relation to you.

Steve

Lesson 7

In our seventh lesson we spoke about Swearing. We discussed whether you swore yourself, and your attitudes towrds others who swear. We also spoke about the different attitudes to swearing among different ages and cultures.

Steve

 

Lesson 6

In our sixth 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 5

In our fifth lesson, our topic was ‘Are you happy with your body?’.  We spoke about how we would react when meeting a close friend for the first time after they had had cosmetic surgery, and if our reaction would be different if we did not have a close relationship with the person. We discussed  why people choose to have plastic surgery, changing societal attitudes towards plastic surgery, and possible changes in the demographics of those who elect to have such surgery. We discussed different types of plastic surgery, and which types were most popular in each of your countries, and we finished by talking about what changes, if any, we would consider making to our own bodies.

Steve

 

Lesson 4

 

The topic for our fourth lesson was ‘Big Brother is Watching’. We spoke about how our lives are being increasingly monitored, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of this development. We discussed several hypothetical situations and to what degree, if any, they warranted some level of surveillance. We also covered some expressions related to privacy and the revealing of information.

Steve

 

Lesson 3

Our third lesson’s topic was ‘Vanity’.

We began by looking at a series of statements about appearance, shopping, and cosmetics, and how they related to men and women. We had to decide whether we thought these statements were generally true or false. Next, we read an article about the modern growth in the male beauty industry, and about possible explanations for this. After that, we looked at some common expressions that are used to talk about various actions that people undertake to maintain (or fail to maintain) their physical appearance. We finished with a survey to try and assess how vain we are individually.

Lesson 2

For our second lesson the topic of discussion was ‘Not my type’. The proved to be an entertaining lesson where we discussed various supposed negative attributes in potential partners, and whether it was possible to overcome these potential flaws.

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