- •Let’s talk about family.
- •Let’s talk about your family. What is family for you?
- •Are there any things that you do with your parents together?
- •What will you ask your British friend about his family?
- •What can you advise people who want to have a close and happy family?
- •Nowadays an average family has one child. From your point of view, how many children should there be in a family?
- •Let’s talk about family traditions.
- •Let’s talk about family traditions. Why is it important to have family traditions?
- •Are you on good terms with your parents and grandparents?
- •What will you ask a British teenager about his relatives?
- •What can you advise people who want to have a good relationship with their parents and grandparents?
- •They say that parents and children have difficulties understanding each other because of the generation gap. What do you think about this problem?
- •Let’s talk about friendship and relationship with friends.
- •Let’s talk about friendship. What role do friends play in your life?
- •Do you agree that Belarusian secondary school provides a person with good knowledge? Why (not)?
- •Ask me whether I liked school when I was a pupil.
- •What can you advise a student who is not very good at languages to do to achieve better results?
- •Today some young people think that having a good education is not very important. Do you agree with them?
- •Let’s talk about studying at school.
- •Let’s talk about studying at school. What can you tell me about the place where you study?
- •Do you agree that our school gives a person a good start in life? Why (not)?
- •Ask me what kind of pupil I was when I was at school?
- •You are talking with a British student. What would you advise him to do to prepare for an exam well?
- •Today some young people want to study abroad because they believe that the level of education is higher there. Would you do the same?
- •7. School Traditions.
- •Let’s talk about school traditions. What traditions does your school have?
- •Does your school differ from any other school you know?
- •3. Ask your British friend about his school traditions.
- •4. Which school club would you advise your classmate to join?
- •5. Do you think it is easy to organize a good school party? What problems can you face?
- •Let’s talk about choosing a career.
- •Let’s talk about choosing a career. What would you like to become?
- •Does a person need to possess special qualities to become a good specialist in this or that particular field? Why?
- •What questions will you ask your future employer about your future job?
- •Give me some advice on what I need to think about when choosing a job.
- •Some people think that it is necessary to have a good command of a foreign language to get a good job. Do you agree with this?
- •Let’s talk about life in the city and life in the country.
- •Let’s talk about life in the city and life in the country. Describe your place.
- •Do you find your city/town/village a comfortable place for living?
- •What questions will you ask a person who decided to move to the country?
- •Your friend doesn’t know what to choose: to live in a city or in the country. Give him some advice.
- •They say that living in the country is better than living in a city. What do you think about this?
- •Let’s talk about different types of houses.
- •Let’s talk about different types of houses. Tell me about the house/flat you live in.
- •Do you know any recipes of our national dishes?
- •What questions will you ask a friend about his favourite dish?
- •Which national dishes can you recommend a tourist to taste in Belarus?
- •Let’s talk about the national cuisine of an English-speaking country.
- •Let’s talk about British national cuisine. What can you tell me about eating habits in Britain?
- •Do you know any traditional British dishes ?
- •What questions can you ask a British friend about their national cuisine?
- •Your British friend can’t stop eating fast food. Try to persuade him that is unhealthy.
- •Does British cuisine differ from Belarusian cuisine?
- •Let’s talk about shopping.
- •Let’s talk about shopping. Who does the shopping in your family?
- •Do you like shopping? Why (not)?
- •What questions will you ask your friend who has bought an expensive telephone?
- •What can you advise a person who wants to buy many things (clothes, foodstuffs, etc.) but has little time?
- •5.Parents usually give pocket money to their children. How do you usually spend your pocket money?
- •Let’s talk about leisure time.
- •Let’s talk about leisure time. What do you do in your free time?
- •Let’s talk about customs and traditions of Belarus.
- •Let’s talk about customs and traditions of Belarus. What can you tell me about your favourite holiday in Belarus?
- •Are you proud of our national holidays and traditions?
- •Do you find some British holidays and celebrations special? Why (not)?
- •What questions can you ask a British teenager about his birthday celebration?
- •What British festivals would you advise your friend to visit?
- •Nowadays more and more people are getting interested in customs and traditions of different countries. What do you think about it?
- •Let’s talk about modern means of communication.
- •Let’s talk about modern means of communication. What are they?
- •Is there any means of communication you can’t live without? Why (not)?
- •Let’s talk about sport.
- •Let’s talk about sport. What is your favourite kind of sport?
- •What do you do to keep fit?
- •What questions will you ask a professional sportsman?
- •Are there any sports clubs at the lyceum? Which of them will you advise your friend to join?
- •Some pupils try to skip pe lessons thinking they are of less importance than other school subjects. What do you think about it?
- •Let’s talk about fashion.
- •Let’s talk about fashion. What clothes do you prefer to wear in different situations?
- •Do you prefer fashionable clothes to comfortable ones? Why (not)?
- •What questions would you ask a fashion designer?
- •What can you advise a person who wants to change something about his/her style but doesn’t know how to do it?
- •5.A famous person once said: “Fashions come and go, style is forever.” What do you think about it?
- •Let’s talk about travelling and tourism.
- •1.Let’s talk about travelling. What role does it play in your life? (Do you like travelling? Why?)
- •2. How do you like to travel? (What means of travel do you prefer and why?)
- •3. What questions will you ask a tour guide on a tour to London?
- •4.You’ve visited some foreign countries. Which of them did you like most and would recommend your friend to visit?
- •5. Today people are tired of exotic countries and prefer to spend holidays in the countryside in Belarus. What can attract people to it?
- •Let’s talk about environment.
- •Let’s talk about environment. People say that our planet is in danger. Do you share this opinion?
- •What do you think people should do to protect the environment?
- •Are you weather dependent?
- •What questions will you ask your British friend about the weather in his country?
- •Your friend wants to know what climate change is caused by. Can you explain it to him?
- •They say there’s no bad weather, there are bad clothes. What do you think about it?
- •Let’s talk about Belarus.
- •Let’s talk about Belarus. What can you tell me about our Motherland?
- •Do you know any symbols of our country?
- •What questions about Belarus do you expect to hear from a British teenager?
- •What Belarusian sights would you advise a foreigner to visit?
- •Let’s talk about Great Britain.
- •Let’s talk about Great Britain. What do you know about this country?
- •What part of Great Britain would you like to visit? Why?
- •3)_What would you like to ask a British teenager about Britain?
- •4) Give me a piece of advice on what sights to see in London.
- •5)They say it’s important for a person to speak English nowadays because it is popular all over the world. What is your opinion?
Let’s talk about customs and traditions of Belarus. What can you tell me about your favourite holiday in Belarus?
Every country has its customs and our motherland is not an exception. We have a lot of very interesting customs and traditions. Some of them date back to ancient times. But my favourite tradition is of comparatively recent origin. It is the tradition of celebrating the New Year. I suppose it is the favourite holiday of most Belarusians. This holiday is so colourful and beautiful that everybody looks forward to it months beforehand. I’ll tell you how we celebrate it and I’m sure that the majority of Belarusian families celebrate it in the same way. First of all, we decorate a real fir tree, not an artificial one. Father is responsible for bringing home a nice New Year tree and I’m in charge of decorating it. We go on long shopping rounds trying to buy beautiful toys. We also make paper chains and some other decorations ourselves. Mother is busy with cooking tasty things for the New Year festivities. She is especially good at cakes. Traditionally, her special dish is cake “Napoleon” and there is nothing like that cake for me. It is so delicious that I can never resist the temptation (устоять против соблазна) to have a slice of it, however full I am.
As a rule, we see the Old Year out at 11 p.m. to the chimes of the Kremlin clock. We see the New Year in to the Belarusian time. When the clock strikes 12, we raise our glasses with champagne. My parents allow me to drink only a drop of it. We certainly think of some wishes but it is not traditional for our family to write our wishes on paper and then burn it and pour the ashes into the glasses as most people do.
I always look forward to this holiday because everybody is in a good mood, we do everything together, and my ideas and suggestions are taken into account too. There is a lot of music, tasty food and very good company.
Are you proud of our national holidays and traditions?
There are quite a number of national holidays and traditions that I’m proud of. For example, Kupalle is a very spectacular holiday that dates back to pagan times. Calling the spring is another interesting holiday. Probably, the favourite Belarusian holiday is Christmas carols or ‘Kalyady’ . Songs, performances of the traditional Belarusian puppet theatre ‘Butleika’, fortune-telling and many other exciting events take place on this holiday. ‘Radunitsa’ and ‘Dzyady’ are connected with paying tribute to the dead. ‘Dozhinky’ is a harvest festival which takes place every year in a different place. There are many more interesting traditions and holidays in our republic that we all can be proud of.
What questions about our traditions do you expect to hear from a British teenager?
Which holiday celebration in Belarus will you recommend your British friend to see?
I would recommend my British friend to take part in celebrating ‘Kupalle’. I’m sure it will be exciting for him to jump over a fire, to watch girls throw wreaths into the river and do a lot of other interesting things.
Do you think it is important to follow our grandparents’ traditions? Why?
I think it is important to follow our grandparents’ traditions because traditions strengthen family relations, they are passed from generation to generation and they have a positive influence on people.
Let’s talk about customs and traditions of English-speaking countries.
Let’s talk about customs and traditions of Britain. What can you tell me about your favourite holiday in Britain?
Great Britain is a country of customs and traditions. Some of them date back to ancient times like St. Valentine’s Day, for example. As a matter of fact, it is my favourite holiday. I think it is a very romantic holiday. St. Valentine is considered a friend and patron of lovers. For centuries St. Valentine’s Day has been a day of choosing sweethearts and exchanging Valentine cards. At first a Valentine card was hand-made, with little paintings of hearts and flowers, and a short verse composed by the sender. Now they are sold in shops brightly coloured, with verses and decorations. The tradition of sending Valentine cards is widespread all over the country, and lots of Valentine cards are posted and received every year on the 14-th of February.