Category talk:Conversation questions

Proposed future topics

Topics
I've been thinking about what makes a good conversation topic - especially since I was using and testing the new dentist ones in class this week. A few thoughts occurred to me, all pretty obvious, but I thought I'd get them down.

The dentist stuff went down very well (at least for me). "Why?", I asked myself. First off, it's something which everybody has some intimate experience of and consequently has an opinion on. Secondly, it's something which gets an emotional response out of many people. Thirdly, people can express strong feelings quite freely - giving strong opinions about dentistry is hardly going to offend someone or get you into hot water. (OK, it could if one of the other students is a dentist but in general it's a pretty "safe" topic.)

Equally though I accept that it's an "easy" topic for the same reasons - and talking about important social issues is also a good idea. But we're not short of, shall we say, "dangerous" topics already so I'm not sure that we shouldn't be looking for more stuff along the "dentist" line.

On the other hand, it's a bit difficult thinking up other mildly traumatic experiences which the average person experiences of a regular basis. Let me think - begin brainstroming doesn't matter if we already have something similar or they don't exactly fit the description : exams, driving, first dates, buying/selling/building a house, moving home, getting married/divorced, having children, computer breakdowns, breaking up with your boyfriend/girlfriend, starting a new job, asking for a salary increase, speaking in English in public, meeting "the parents", visiting the doctor, having a baby, dealing with bureaucracy, removing a computer virus, having a car accident, buying a new car, bringing up a child, problems with neighbours.

Out of breath now. OK, many of them don't exactly fit the description, some of them we have covered elsewhere, they are not all experiences which everyone will have had and they're not all appropriate for expansion into a full class by any means. But I'm sure that come morning I'll be able to mine that for something, if only to expand existing stuff.--Bob M 21:18, 24 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Good points - will be back... --Technopat 09:26, 25 June 2009 (UTC)


 * As you mention, some are not necessarily appropriate for developing into full class discussions, and are anyway already included as questions/prompts in other conversation topics, but they nevertheless make great "mini-conversation topics" and could be linked from those question/prompts. I therefore propose the setting-up of a new section so titled and linking away. Feedback? (Great danger that I don't even wait for feedback and just press ahead, as is my wont...) --Technopat 10:25, 25 June 2009 (UTC)


 * Or how 'bout "Quick conversation questions"? It adds another one to the "Q"... --Technopat 11:13, 25 June 2009 (UTC)
 * Actually, Quick Conversation Questions sounds good. Especially if we set it up with topic headings. That way if we find that we (or others) add a significant number of points under one heading then we could hive it off under its own section.--Bob M 13:36, 25 June 2009 (UTC)
 * :) --Technopat 14:35, 25 June 2009 (UTC)

100 topics
As TP mentioned on my talkpage that 100 topics as of today.--Bob M 16:08, 2 July 2009 (UTC)

140 topics
Hit the 140 mark! Going for nice, round number? 150? --Technopat 10:20, 24 June 2010 (UTC)

Suggestions for J
Anyone feel inspired enough to do Justice conversations questions and Jokes conversation questions? --Technopat 10:24, 24 June 2010 (UTC)

Under E
Ethics conversation questions

Taboo subject?
When I did my teacher training - way back in the early '80s :) - we were told never, ever to broach topics related to sex, religion and politics. I see now that times have changed, and both religion and politics have been added to our list of conversation questions. But what's happened to sex? Do I detect a certain old-fashioned prudishness among members of our English-teaching community? I'm aware that teflpedia is British English by default, but surely "No sex please, we're British" is old hat by now? --Technopat 18:15, 5 March 2011 (UTC)
 * As far as "taboo" subjects are concerned, I've used politics, religion sex and abortion in the past. But obviously you've got to know you've class. Most of the "sex" questions I've used were to do with homosexual rights - gay marriage and so on. But I usually like to have a least ten non-polar questions before starting a set - and once you've asked for opinions on gay rights I can't think of much more to ask.  I suppose we could ask questions along the lines of "What is your favourite sexual position?", but I'd be a bit shy of doing that myself.--Bob M 20:28, 5 March 2011 (UTC)
 * I did once have a one-to-one class talking about taboos in society in which the subject of anal sex - heterosexual - was broached by the student. The nearest I got with a group was chatting about piercings - thanks to "our" Beauty conversation questions and there were a couple of them who said they had 'em in places which they didn't wish to mention in front of their classmates. The collective mind boggled... --Technopat 21:21, 5 March 2011 (UTC)
 * On one-to-ones I suppsoe some things of that nature have come up (err) from time to time. I can't very recall being very explicit with groups though.--Bob M 07:50, 6 March 2011 (UTC)

Gimme an "O"
Can anyone come up with another topic to include under this letter? --Technopat 18:21, 5 March 2011 (UTC) Opinion polls conversation questions?

Design for All/Universal design
A reminder to myself for a future topic.--Technopat 18:47, 5 March 2011 (UTC)

Duplicated?
Just noticed that there's a Soccer page and a Football page. At first sight they seem to be identical, and if that's the case, a simple redirect would be in order, but won't do anything until others have checked it out... --Technopat 17:19, 16 October 2011 (UTC)

Investment conversation questions
Anything money-related in there? Savings? Credit cards?--Technopat 10:47, 1 November 2011 (UTC)

Unemployment conversation questions
With blinks to Poverty conversation questions, etc. --Technopat 11:15, 23 November 2011 (UTC)
 * Wouldn't a redirect to Employment conversation questions be more appropriate?--Bob M 13:41, 23 November 2011 (UTC)
 * Yep. --Technopat 22:39, 24 November 2011 (UTC)

Redirect
This page needs a redirect from the search "discussion questions" - not sure how to do that... --Jameson2000ad 17:46, 20 October 2012 (CDT)
 * Good call! Done (discussion questions). --Roger 17:52, 20 October 2012 (CDT)

Request (if anyone feels up to it...)
Obviously, there'll be some overlap with existing content, but that's the case already anyway, so no big deal. The idea is to get folks talking.
 * Architecture conversation questions
 * Conflict resolution conversation questions
 * Consumer rights conversation questions
 * Discrimination conversation questions
 * Lifestyle conversation questions
 * Performance-related pay conversation questions
 * Personal development conversation questions
 * Traffic conversation questions and/or Driving conversation questions

The idea of this list is to make existing items go blue and add any new ones that may occur to y'all... --Technopat 05:10, 7 December 2012 (CST)