各种英语角话题

各种英语角话题
English Club Topic Direct and Indirect Communication
1. Do you feel that you are a direct communicator or an indirect communicator? Give an example.
2. Who do you feel you can communicate directly with and who do you feel you should communicate indirectly with?
3. In the following situations, is direct communication or indirect communication more effective? Why?
a) Asking a favor
b) Breaking up with a boyfriend/girlfriend
c) Telling your teacher you didn?t do your homework
d) Firing an employee
4. Have you ever had a bad experience in which someone said something to you too directly?
5. If someone is communicating with you indirectly and you don?t understand the message they are trying to tell you, how do you deal with the situation?
The Fifth Tone
English Club Topic: Friendship
1) Come up with a definition for what friendship means in China. 2) What are 3 qualities you want in a good friend? What are 3 qualities you don?t want in a friend? Why?
3) How and where do people in China make their closest friendships?
4) If you move to a new place, what is a good way to make new friends?
5) What advice would you give a foreigner about how to develop good friendships with Chinese people?
6) If there is a foreign volunteer in your group, ask him/her what advice he/she has about being friends with westerners.
English Club Topic:Work
1) What is your ideal job? (Including: How many hours per week? What kind of benefits? Located in which city?)
2) What does it mean to be successful in your work,
3) What kinds of situations would cause you to change jobs? 4) How can you maintain good relationships with your co-workers? What qualities do you want in a co-worker?
5) If you have a problem with your boss, how can you resolve it? Should you talk to him directly about your problem? 6) If a person has a good job opportunity in a city far away from his/her spouse and child, do you think he or she should take the job?
English Club Topic: Education
1. Tell your group about your most enjoyable learning experience of the past. What made it good?
2. Describe what qualities you think the ideal teacher must have. What are some qualities you don?t want in a teacher?
3. In Chinese society, do teachers have a high status or a low status? Do you think being a teacher is a good job? Why or why not?
4. Is it the teacher/school?s or the parents? responsibility to teach a child good morals and behavior?
5. In your opinion, do men or women make better teachers?
English Club Topic: Holidays
1. What is your favorite Chinese holiday? Which Western holiday most interests you?
2. Do you think holidays are very significant? What meanings are expressed by such holidays as National Day, Mid-Autumn Festival, Christmas, Spring Festival and Thanksgiving?
3. What is the history of your favorite Chinese holiday? (For example, what?s the history of Dragon Boat Festival?)
4. What did you think of the National Day celebration?
5. Describe your ideal holiday.
English Club Topic: Life Stories
1. Briefly share the life story of someone you admire. Why do you admire that person? What made his/her life special?
2. Tell the highlights of your own life story. What major events in your life made you the person you are today?
3. If you could change one circumstance or event in your life, what would it be? Why?
4. Create an …ending? to your life story. What are some things you want to do/accomplish before you die? How can you do/accomplish those things?
English Club Topic: Rich and Poor
1. Rank the following in order of importance to you: a) health b) family c) money d) a good reputation e) education. Why did you choose that order?
2. What are the advantages and disadvantages of being rich? Do you advantages outweigh the disadvantages or vice versa?
3. Can a person be poor and happy? What do you think the hardest part about being poor would be for you if you were poor? What do you do you think would be the hardest part about being rich?
4. Whose responsibility do you think is
it to take care of the poor: their family, the government, their neighbors, everyone? 5. Has the economic crisis affected your life at all?
English Club Topic: Family
1. Describe your family, and tell your group a story about your family from your childhood.
2. Who do you think should have the highest authority in the home- the husband, the wife, or both equally share authority? If you think both should have equal authority, how should they make decisions on where to work or live if they don?t agree with each other?
3. What do you expect to do to take care of your parents when they grow old? What do you expect your child to do for you when you get old?
4. Do you think the Chinese tradition of children taking care of elderly parents will change in the future because of the One Child Policy? How can only children cope with the pressure of taking care of their parents when they are old?
English Club Topic: Cities
1. Describe your hometown, and tell your group 3 things you like about your hometown and three things you don?t like about it.
2. If you were the mayor of your hometown, what problems would you
try to fix? How would you go about fixing those problems? What things would you not want to change?
3. How do you feel about Changsha? What challenges do you think Changsha will face in the next 2 years? 10 years?
4. In your mind, what city is the ideal city? Is there a place where you?d like to live for the rest of your life?
English Club Topic: Happiness
1. Define happiness. Is it a feeling, a state of being, a decision? Is happiness something that comes and goes with changing circumstances or something you can always have?
2. What things in life and the world make you happy? Why do those things make you happy? What things take away your happiness?
3. Complete the sentence: “I would be completely happy if…”
4. Are you the kind of person who actively tries to achieve or
obtain the things you think will make you happy or are you more the kind of person who tries to accept your situation as it is and learn to be happy in it? Do you think it?s better to be resigned to your fate or try to change it?
English Club Topic: What/If…
1. What would you do if someone accused you of a crime you didn?t commit?
2. If you could change a major historical event, what would it be?
3. What would you do if a fierce animal was going to attack you?
4. If you could be an employee of any company in the world, which company would
you choose?
5. What would you do if the person you loved didn?t love you back?
6. If you could be a bird or a fish, which would you be?
7. What would you do if it was your best friend?s wedding, but you didn?t have any money to give him/her?
8. If you had to choose one of the five senses (sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch) to lose, which one would you choose to lose? 9. What would you do if you got lost in an unfamiliar city? 10. If you were going to a foreign country and you could only take one thing with you, what would it be?
English Club Topic: Thanksgiving
1. What five things are you most grateful for in your life? Are they
tangible things or intangible?
2. What person in your life do you feel the most grateful to? Why?
3. If someone helps you in a big way, how do you express your gratitude? Do you use words, gifts, treat them to dinner, etc.?
4. If you do something good for someone but they don?t express thankfulness, how do you feel? Should you do something in that situation? Is it right to expect people to be grateful?
English Club Topic: Being Cool
1. What does it mean to be cool? What does it mean to be a geek/nerd? Is it possible to be both cool and a geek?
2. Do you think the people in your high school thought/think you
were/are cool or a geek (or both)?
3. What social groups or positions were/are there in your high school? (For example, in America, we have groups and positions like jocks, computer geeks, skaters, class clown, teacher?s pet, student body president, cheerleader) What social group did/do you fall into? Did/do you hold any special position in your school?
4. If you could go back
and do high school again, would you? If you did do it again, what would you do differently? Study more or study less? What social group would
you want to be a part of?
English Club Topic: Trust
1. How would you define trust? Is it just a feeling? Is it a decision?
2. How do you come to trust a person? Does trust require time and experience with another person or can you trust someone as soon as you meet them?
3. Who in your life do you trust the most? How has that person
gained or earned your trust? If you found out that person had lied
to you, would you trust them again or not?
4. Do you feel that you are trustworthy? If so, why? If not, why not? Do you think trustworthiness is a characteristic you can develop?
English Club Topic: Personality
1. Which three words would you say best describe your personality? Give examples for each word you choose.
2. Do you think a person?s person results more from nature (they were born with that personality) or from nurture (their
family/society/culture formed their personality)? Why? Are there certain personality traits you think result from nature and others that you
think result from nurture?
3. Do you think people can change their personality through effort? (For example, can a person who is shy change his personality to be outgoing?) Can society or culture change a person?s personality?
4. If you could significantly change your personality, would you choose to? Why?
English Club Topic: Gifts
1. What?s the best gift you?ve ever received? What?s the worst gift
you?ve ever gotten?
2. What?s the best gift you?ve ever given someone else? Why was it special?
3. There?s a saying that goes, “It?s better to give than to receive.” What does this saying mean? Do you agree with it? Does China have any sayings about giving gifts?
4. If you were given $1 million to buy gifts for your family and friends, what would you buy them and why?
English Club Topic: New Year?s
1. What are some New Year?s resolutions you?ve made in the past? Were you able to keep those resolutions?
2. What resolutions do you want to make for 2010? If you could accomplish one thing this year, what would it be? What steps can you take to carry out your New Year?s resolution?
3. If you were to make “Life Resolutions,” meaning the things you want to accomplish before you die, what kinds of resolutions would you make? Is there something you feel like you must accomplish in this life time? How can you accomplish it?
English Club Topic: The Senses
1. What are some of your favorite smells? Is there a certain smell you associate with your hometown?
2. What is the first thing you see when you wake up in the morning? What is the last thing you want to see before you die?
3. What is your favorite flavor of ice cream? Which kind of food do you like least: salty, sweet, sour, bitter, spicy?
4. What is the grossest thing you have ever touched? The softest?
5. If you could only listen to one song for the rest of your life, what would it be? What sound drives you crazy?
English Club Topic: Cheating
1. Have you ever cheated on an exam or a homework assignment? Do you know anyone who has taken an exam for a classmate? Describe the situation.
2. Do you think it?s ok to cheat on a homework assignment? On a exam? To take an exam for another person? Is all cheating wrong or is it ok on some level?
3. Have you or any of your classmates been caught while cheating?
How did you/they feel when you/they got caught?
4. If your classmate came to you and said that if you didn?t take
his(her) English test for him(her), he/she would fail his/her class and not be able to graduate. Would you agree to take the test for him/her?
English Club Topic: Winning and Losing
Quotes about Winning:
- “Winning isn?t everything, but the will to win is everything.”
~Vince Lombardi (American Football Coach)
- “Win as if you were used t o it, lose as if you enjoyed it for a change.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson (American Poet)
- “Winning isn?t always finishing first. Sometimes winning is just finishing.”
~ Manuel Diotte (Inspirational Speaker)
1. What do you think each of these quotes mean?
2. Do you agree with these quotes? Why or why not? Would you change them at all to fit your viewpoint?
3. What sayings are there in Chinese about winning and losing?
English Club Topic: REVENGE
Quotes on REVEGE:
“[Revenge] is sweeter far than honey.” ~ Homer
“ …Tis more noble to forgive, and more manly to despise, than to revenge an Injury.” ~Benjamin Franklin
“Sweet is revenge- especially to women.” ~ Lord Byron
“Those who plot the destruction of others often perish in the attempt.” ~ Thomas Moore
1. Discuss what you think each quote means. How would you say it in your own words?
2. Do you agree more with the first quote or the second quote? Do
you think these quotes contradict each other? Is it possible for revenge to be both sweet and ignoble?
3. Do you think, as the third quote says, that women enjoy revenge more than men? Why or why not?
4. Do you think that a person can take revenge on another person without there being negative consequences?
English Club Topic: Spring Festival
1. How will you celebrate Spring Festival? Who will you spend it with?
2. Which performances are you looking forward to on the New Year?s Eve tv program? What are some of your favorite ones of the past?
3. If you were to receive a present (not money) for Spring Festival, what present would you like to receive?
4. How does Spring Festival these days compare with how it was when you were a child? Do you like it better now or when you were a child?
5. What do you think Spring Festival will be like in the future?
English Club Topic: The Year of the Tiger
1. What are the characteristics of the Year of the Tiger? What personality traits will a person have if they were born in this year?
2. Which animal year were you born in? Do you think you have the characteristic traits that are typical of your year? In your opinion, which years are the best to be born in? the worst?
3. Do you believe that the year you were born in really affects your personality? Why or why not? Are there other factors that you feel more deeply affect your personality (such as poverty/wealth, nature/nurture, birth order) ?
4. When you look for a husband/wife, will it concern you what year that person was born in? Do you to tend to be friends with people that were born in a certain year?
English Club Topic: The Weather
1. What is your favorite kind of weather? Why do you like that kind of weather? What?s your least favorite kind of weather?
2. Do you have a specific memory associated with a certain kind of weather? Maybe a time you were afraid during a thunderstorm or a happy day in the sun.
3. If the winter is very dark and rainy, does it affect your mood? What are some things you do to help yourself cope if the weather is bad? How do different types of weather affect your mood?
4. What do you think about weather manipulation using rockets? Do you think it?s ok for
people to change the weather by using technology or do you think we should let weather be whatever it naturally is?
English Club Topic: Parents and Kids
1. Pick three adjectives that you feel best describe your
relationship with your parents. Explain why you chose those particular words. 2. On a scale of 1 (being the worst) and 10 (be the best), how well do you think your parents did raising you? If you could change one thing about they way they raised you, what would it be? 3. Do you think parents should be strict with their children or lenient? What are the consequences of being too strict or too lenient? What are the consequences of not being strict or lenient enough? 4. Do you think you will be like your parents when you are 40 or 50 years old? In what ways would you like to be like them? In what ways would you like to be different?
English Club Topic: Vampires
1. Do you think vampires really exist? Do you think they ever existed? Why or why not?
2. In your mind, what do you think a vampire is like? Handsome or ugly? Horrible or wonderful? Fascinating or repulsive?
3. In many places in different parts of the world and at different times in history there have been stories about vampires. How do you think so many places and times have come up with stories about vampires? Why do you think people today are so fascinated with vampires?
4. If you had to choose between dying as a human tomorrow or becoming a human-blood-drinking vampire that could live forever, what would you choose? Why,
English Corner Topic: Social Networking
1. What forms of social networking do you use? (QQ, Facebook, MySpace, Xiao Nei) How often do you use them?
2. What do you think are the advantages and disadvantages to different social networks? Do you think one is superior to the others? Do you feel one is particularly safe?
3. What do you primarily use these social networks for? Do you think it?s possible to maintain deep relationships only through social networks?
4. How do you think social networking has changed the way people do friendships? Do you think the friendships you make on a social network are as real as the ones you make in the other areas of your life?
English Club Topic: Being Socially Literate
1. What movies from your country have had the greatest social impact during the last twenty years? What made those movies especially important?
2. Which books (past and current) have made the greatest impact on your culture? How have these books changed the way people think?
3. Which events (natural disasters, political movements, economic changes, etc.) have significantly impacted your society in the last ten years? How did that event impact you personally?
4. What slang words or phrases are most popular in your culture
right now? What slang was popular a year ago?
English Corner Topic: Prison
1. Have you ever been to visit a prison? If so, what was it like? If not, what do you think a prison is like? What do you think life is like for prisoners?
2. Did you watch the show Prison Break? If so, do you think that is
an accurate representation of what prison is like? Why or why not? 3. What do you think is the youngest age a person should be allowed to be sent to prison? Why do you think that?s the right age? What makes a person old enough to go to prison or too young for prison?
What do you think about capital punishment? If you could decide
which crimes were punishable by death, which ones would you choose? Why?
English Corner Topic: Family Stories
1. Tell the group a story from your grandparents? childhood. How was there life then similar to your life now?
2. Tell a story from your parents? childhood. How do your parents
generally describe their childhood?
3. Tell a story from your childhood. How do you think your childhood
differed from that of your parents and grandparents? 4. What do you think your child?s childhood will be like? Do you think it will be happier or less happy than your childhood? Why?
English Corner Topic: Gender
1. When do you think a person changes from being a girl into being a woman? Is this change physical, mental, emotional, social? What characteristics do you think of as being very feminine?
2. When do you think a boy becomes a man? Are there any rites of passage in your
culture that demonstrate a person has become an adult in the social sense? What characteristics are masculine? 3. What personality traits or characteristics do you think are just neutral- neither masculine nor feminine? Do you think some people have more neutral characteristics than masculine or feminine ones?
4. If you could be born again as the opposite gender, would you choose to? Why or why not? What advantages are there to being a man or being a woman?
English Corner Topic: Charity
1. What do you t hink …charity? means? Is it an action, an attitude, an
idea?
2. Have you ever given money to a charitable cause? If so, which
one? Have you ever volunteered at or worked for a charitable group? What different charitable groups have you heard of in China? Internationally?
3. Do you think people will give as much time and effort to the current earthquake victims as they did the Sichuan victims? Why or why not?
4. If you could create your own charitable group, what kinds of people would you help? Why that kind of person and not other kinds of people that are in need?
English Club Topic: Annoying
1. What annoys you most about living with other people? Do you think you have any habits that annoy the people you live with? If you are annoyed by your family?s living habits, do you try not to be annoyed or do you talk to them about it?
2. What new pet peeves do you have as a result of recent technology (texting, twitter, mp3)? When do you think it?s not appropriate to text? Why?
3. What are some things that annoy you that don?t annoy your best friend and vice versa? Why do you think these things are different for different people?
If there is someone in your class or work that really annoys you but you must be around that person, how do you deal with that situation?
Do you think there?s a way to make that person seem less annoying to you?
English Corner Topic: Advertising
1. What are some of your favorite advertisements? Least favorite? What makes an ad memorable?
2. What do you think of celebrity endorsements? Do favorite or annoying celebrities make you want or not want to buy a product?
3. What is the best way to advertise to children? Adults? Seniors? etc.. Should
advertisers be allowed to advertise to children? 4. Can advertising be a force for good? Can you remember an instance in which an advertisement influenced you to take positive action?
English Corner Topic: Immigration/Migration
1. What do you think are the most common reasons people have for leaving their hometown and migrating/immigrating to a new place?
2. Do you think migrants/immigrants should be required to learn the language of the place they move to? If you are living in a place that is not your hometown, have you learned the language here?
3. Do you think China has more immigrants or emigrants? To what extent should an immigrant/emigrant attempt to retain their own
culture? Does immigration/migration threaten local culture? 4. Do
you think there is a relationship between crime and
immigration/migration? How well do you think immigrants/migrants are treated in their host countries/cities? Do you respect
immigrants/migrants?
English Corner Topic: Fear
1. What things/circumstances are you most afraid of? Do you think there is a reason you fear those things?
2. Are your fears now the same as those you had as a child? Which ones have changed? Which are the same?
3. Do you think a person can overcome something they deeply fear? How? Would you ever choose to face one of your deepest fears for money, like on the tv shows?
4. Do you fear death? Why or why not? Do you think being afraid of death is a good thing or a bad thing?
English Corner Topic: Meeting People
1. About how many new people do you meet a week? Do you like meeting new people? If so, why? If not, why not?
2. In China, how do you know if you can trust a person you just met? Do you think it varies in different countries? Are there signs to tell you that you shouldn?t trust someone? What are they signs that tell you not to trust someone?
3. Do you remember how you met your best
friend/boyfriend/girlfriend/spouse? What did you think of that person the first time you met him/her?
4. How important are first impressions to you? Do you think you are
a good judge of character the first time you meet a person? Have you ever had a first impression of someone that later proved very wrong?
English Corner Topic: Acceptance
1. How much do you care about what other people think of you? Do you feel like are you are confident or insecure? Do you feel self-conscious most of the time?
2. If you want to gain other people?s acceptance, what do you think is the best way to do that? Should you try to be similar to them? Should you be yourself? What should you do if the people around you don?t accept you?
3. Do you care most about people accepting you according to physical standards, mental standards, emotional standards, personality? If your classmates don?t like your personality, do you
think you should try to change it?
4 .Do you pay attention to fads and trends? Do you care about
fashion or technology fads? If you don?t care about these things, why?
English Corner Topic: Health
1. On a scale of one to ten (1 being the most healthy, 10 being the least healthy) how healthy do you think you are? In what areas of health do you think you are the healthiest? Least healthy?
2. What do you think are your …healthy habits?? Do you drink enough water? What are some of your unhealthy habits? Do you ever smoke or drink alcohol?
3. How often do you exercise? What kinds of exercise do you like? What kinds do you not like?
4. How is your diet? What thing do you think are important to a healthy, balanced diet? What is one thing you think you could do to improve your diet?
English Corner Topic: Natural Disasters
1. What kind of natural disaster do you fear the most? Why do you fear that one in particular? Which kind is the least scary
2. What kind of natural disaster is the most common where you live? How do the people in your hometown prepare for this kind of disaster?
3. In your mind, what?s the most dangerous place to live? Why do you think people choose
to live in that place? 4. What do you think people?s reaction should be
to natural
disasters? Why do you think there are natural disasters in the world?
English Corner Topic: Names
1. Who chose your name? Why did they choose that name? Do you like
your name? If you could change your name, would you? 2. What?s the meaning of your name? Do you think a person?s name affects their personality? Have you ever disliked a person because of their name?
3. Do you have a nickname? How did you get this nickname? What?s the funniest nickname you?ve heard another person called?
4. Do you think it?s better to give a child a more common name or an unusual name? What do you think China should do about the problem of having too many people with the same name/family name?
English Corner Topic: Generations
1. What characterizes the 70?s, 80?s and 90?s generations? How are
these generations similar? How are they different? 2. What
generation are you a part of? How has being a part of that generation shaped your character? Do you think you would be a different person if
you had been born 50 years ago? 3. How is your generation different from your parents? generation?
What kinds of generational conflicts do you have with your parents? How different is your grandparents? generation from your parents??
4. Is there a particular generation of the last 100 years that you
feel has particularly good character? Particularly bad character? Why?
English Corner Topic: Wisdom
1. What do you think it means to be wise? What does it mean to be foolish?
2. How do you think people become wise? Can all people become wise or are some people incapable of becoming wise? Why?
3. How is a wise person?s behavior different from that of a foolish person? Who is the wisest person you know? How do they act out their wisdom?
4. Plato once said: “Wise men talk because they have something to
say; fools, because they have to say something.” What do you think is the relationship between a fool and a fool?s need to say something? Do you think of wise people as being talkative or quiet?
English Corner Topic: Expectations
1. What kinds of expectations do your parents and grandparents have of you? Do you feel like you are fulfilling their expectations? What happens if you fail to meet their expectations?
2. What kinds of expectations do your friends have of you? Do you
ever feel like your friends have unrealistic expectations of you? If so, how do you deal with that situation?
3. Do you think it?s better for your boss/teacher to have very high expectations of you or low expectations of you? Why? What kinds of expectations do you have for your teacher/boss?
4. What is expected of you culturally? If, culturally, you do something that is unacceptable, how do other people express their disapproval? How does their disapproval affect you?。