Conversation topics

The best way for someone to learn anything is by practicing - learning languages is surely not the exception, but rather a bodily personification of this. In my six years of experience teaching English as a foreign language, one of the really important things I learned is to let your students talk. 

This can be particularly difficult in classes in which you have 0% enthusiasm -usually the case whenever you have teenagers - or if you are the one doing all the talking (yeah, I know there are plenty of us overenthusiasts, and often overdoers). I hate to break it to you, but you are like that overly-caring, overly-protective parent who only manages to scare their kids away - Sorry!

To really help your students - whether they are 5 or 99 year-olds - I encourage you to take a deep breath, exhale... And bite your tongue until your students talk(!). Don't force them to talk, throw bait at them and slowly pull them towards the conversation until bam! - they have no way out and are trapped  - mwahahaha (clarification: evil laugh).

Here I have written a list of topics. I will be constantly updating the list as I find interesting and useful conversation- stirring topics. Remember to [gracefully, as to not be noticed] insert devil's advocate comments or questions to keep the conversation flowing. 

1. Conversation Topic # 1 - Minimalistic lifestyle.

- Tell your students roughly what it is (don't want to kill their imagination)

"Something that is very simple and has few decorations"  (sound too simple? Read my blog post #1 tilted K.I.S.S. It!)

- Give them/ draw an example

It can refer to a house or your wardrobe - meaning, a house with simple decoration, a wardrobe with only the things you really need 

- Let them talk

- "Bait": 

An article about it: Just type "minimalism" into your favorite search engine. Here is one interesting article I might have chosen to give my students. It is written by the self-proclaimed minimalists - "the minimalists" (I bet you never would have guessed their name)

A quote:

2. Conversation Topic # 2 - 

(Coming soon...)

One last tip: if the conversation dies, put the pressure on them - not on yourself. Tell them that each person will have to stand in front of class and give a summary of what minimalism is for 30 seconds - timed with a stop watch (or your cellphone) and without any pauses! :-) have fun!