Question of the day

Are you good with conflict?

Even though I know how to stand up for myself, it is not my favorite thing to do. It will inevitably cause awkwardness perhaps even anger. I might be perceived and agressive or unreasonable.

Yet, we all have to deal with conflicting view points at some time or another. Perhaps some have to deal with it every day. Heck , some make a career of it.

That’s why I like this article from Thrive Global (Ariana Huffington‘s wellness publication). In it there are practical tips on how to deal with relationship conflict. The article is nicely organized, well supported and each part succinct. It makes for a great Tell Back article and probably a few anecdotes.

Pre discussion

  • How are you with conflict? Are you more a fighter or lover?
  • Do you have any moments (perhaps not too personal) where you have had to stand up for yourself?

The Article: 9 Ways do Deal with Relationship Conflict

  • Take each of the 9 points and pull out the main recommendation
  • Are there any recommendations that you disagree with?
  • Are there any that you see yourself adopting?
  • Is there a pattern or something that each recommendation has in common?

Are you emotionally intelligent?

What is emotional intelligence? Daniel Goleman introduces the four dimensions of emotional intelligence in this YouTube presentation.

What are the four dimensions of emotional intelligence?

What are the characteristics of a person who is emotionally intelligent?

What are the advantages of being emotionally intelligent?

Do you think we should teach emotional intelligence to children?

Do you think there is a difference between women and men where emotional intelligence is concerned?

Do you think there are cultures have more emotionally intelligent characteristics?

What’s for dinner tonight?

Food is probably one of my favorite topics. Not only because I like to eat, but I like to cook, I like to discuss the politics of food, food production, food safety. It is the single most ubiquitous element in our lives.

For this discussion, let’s keep it light and explore some basic food vocabulary through these fun cooking videos.

Pre discussion

  • What are some of your favorite dishes?
  • What are some of the things you like to cook?

The Website: TASTY.CO

  • Select any of the recipes on this site
  • Review the ingredients
  • Watch the video
  • Have the participants do a Tell Back of the recipes they watched (or that you watched together)

Bon appétit!

 

 

 

 

Are billionaires a good or bad thing?

I don’t know if any of you buy lottery tickets, but I don’t. I suppose my logical brain tells me that the chances are so low that I shouldn’t waste my money. Still, when the jackpot goes up high, I can’t help my thoughts wander to odd fantasies of what I would do if I had that much money.

I’ve often heard that we need billionaires because they create wealth for everyone. In the financial terms, this notion of trickle down economics  is rooted in the idea that over taxing the wealthy will do more harm than good. Forbes magazine poses this very question and ask famous billionaire and philanthropist Bill Gates about the consequences of a wealth tax. The answer may surprise you.

This article is a vocabulary rich text, appropriate for intermediate to advanced learners.

Pre discussion

  • What would you do if you were a billionaire?
  • Which billionaires are philanthropic (use their fortune to better the world)?
  • Do you think billionaires are a good thing or a bad thing?

The article–Forbes Bill Gates gets why people are doubting billionaires

  • Pull out the economic related vocabulary
  • Do a Tell Back of what Gates says about over taxing billionaires

The article is pretty intense, so I will leave it at those two points for now, but if you have a question suggestion, please don’t hesitate to add it to the comments.

What was better then, what is better now?

Do you ever find yourself thinking “things were better in the old days…simpler, less stressful.” Well Coca-Cola knows that you are thinking this and has made a funny ‘then and now’ video depicting the changes in our daily routines.

The video is short and has no dialogue, but I think it might be fun to have students describe the actions in the video. You could even ask them to do in the past and present tenses–for an added language challenge.

Pre discussion

  • Think of your daily routine (work, transportation, what you eat, how you relax), what did we do differently 40 years ago?
  • What was better in the past?
  • What is better now?

The Video: Coca-Cola Advertisement Grandpa-Living a Healthy Lifestyle

Discussion

  • Tell Back all the actions in the advertisement.
  • What are the common elements?
  • What is the advertisement trying to tell us? And do you think they are right?

Let me know how it goes…

What is your parenting philosophy?

Parenting is probably one of the toughest jobs on the planet. We all do it slightly differently and usually have fairly strong beliefs about how it should be done.

In this post I have two references for you. First a psych-quiz on parenting styles:

And then a series of open ended questions from the TESL Journal to fuel discussion further:

http://iteslj.org/questions/parenting.html

 

What is your Everest?

Meet Scott Parazynski, he is a NASA astronaut, reached the summit of Everest, has ventured down the mouth of a volcano and did one of the most dangerous space walks in the history.

Although my life goals are no where near those of Parazynski’s, his story absolutely fascinates me. It’s crazy what can be accomplished when you stretch your limits.

Of course, even though I admire adventurers like Parazynski, I also know about the underside of pushing limits through stories like Jay Moriarity, famous surfer who drowned while free diving or Jason Wells and Tim Klein, Yosemite climbers who fell to their deaths while climbing El Capitain in Yosemite National park.  And of course some of my own close calls climbing in the Alps.

So I ask you, what are some of your craziest adventure fantasies?

Pre discussion

  • What are your craziest adventure fantasies?
  • What is on your “bucket list” (things you want to accomplish before your die…before you “kick the bucket”)
  • When are adventures too dangerous?

The video: on the Business Insider: Meet the only NASA astronaut to climb Mound Everest

  • List some of the actions/adventures Parazynski has done?
  • Why is Parazynski so bold?
  • Where does he get his sense of adventure?
  • What are some of Parazynski’s personal characteristics?
  • What is the most important message you take away from this story?

Let’s make some comparisons…

Cats or dogs? Chocolate or ice cream? Making comparisons can ignite some interesting debates with the simplest of prompts.

Most of my posts include some sort of first language ressource to use as a launch pad or a vocabulary building tool. However, sometimes I like to see what words live spontaneously in the minds of my students.

Some of my more extraverted learners enjoy this because they do not have to struggle with the dual task of incorporating new words while stringing together meaning. Others find it utterly daunting because they have nothing to inspire their thoughts. Or the idea of just talking makes everything jam up inside.

In both cases, open ended questions can be either a good relief or a good challenge (that you can scaffold with various prompts if necessary).

Here is a good ressources to practice comparatives. The site features a ton questions organized in different themes and focuses, but I like this one because it contains a lot of variety and a relatively easy grammar element.

eslconversationquestions.com: equative

 

What do you do differently in your culture?

I grew up in multicultural Canada. Just in my small group of friends there was me (franco-british), an Indian girl, a Lebanese girl, an Israeli girl, and a German girl. We loved to compare ourselves. We could spend all evening just playing “how do you say…in your language,” we would compare breakfast rituals, religions, fatherly roles, mothers, everything.

Back then I took the wealth of this environment for granted, but now I see how it has shaped me into an open, curious and culturally inclusive person. It takes a lot for me to make negative cultural generalizations about any one person, yet I do allow myself to notice certain patterns and rituals that can  define us more than we know. Even though that may seem contradictory, in my head it makes sense and it is beautiful.

Derek Sivers presents a very short TED talk on this very topic. But in areas that we probably never ponder. Like how home addresses are organized, or how the world map is looked at. It seems a good launching pad to think about some of the aspects cultures may differ and take a look at the world for the opposite perspective.

Pre discussion

  • Tell us something about your culture that we probably don’t know.
  • What habits or rituals surprised you about other cultures?

The Video: Weird, or just different

  • What bubbles up in your mind after watching this talk?
  • Why do you think Sivers in making this point?
  • Make a list of what is the same across cultures and what is different.
  • What do you think would happen if we were more exposed to cultural differences?

Please share the results of your discussion.

 

 

 

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