- •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?
Nowadays an average family has one child. From your point of view, how many children should there be in a family?
It is true that very few Belarusian families have more than one or two children. Maybe, one of the reasons for this is that it is pretty difficult for many families to make both ends meet. Everything is expensive including education. (And from my point of view, it is quite reasonable. Personally, I wouldn’t like to have many sisters or brothers. I’d like my parents to devote all their love and attention to me.) But from my point of view, there should be at least 3 children in the family. The children in big families are not selfish, they learn to help one another, they become mature persons sooner.
Let’s talk about family traditions.
Let’s talk about family traditions. Why is it important to have family traditions?
Many families have their family traditions and our family is not an exception. I think it is important to have family traditions because they strengthen family relations and unite families. Some of our traditions are connected with the New Year. 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.
Another tradition is connected with visiting the New Year tree in Lenin square. Frankly speaking, it is mostly my tradition, because my parents prefer to stay at home and watch TV. After midnight I usually phone my friends and wish them a happy New Year. Then some of my friends call for me and we go to Lenin square. The tree there is always very beautiful. It is huge and brightly lit.
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 there any family traditions that you follow?
In addition to our traditional New Year celebration we have some other family traditions like making barbecue at our summer cottage, making special gifts or going out for dinner to celebrate some achievements of our family members, going to the cemetery to pay tribute to our dead relatives on ‘Radunitsa’ day and others.
What will you ask your British friend about his family traditions?
What can you advise people who want to have a united family?
I think that the best advice will be: do things together and spend as much time as possible together. When children and parents do many things together, when the children’s ideas and suggestions are taken into consideration and when the parents are involved and protective towards their children, we see happy and united families.
You have to write a short article about family traditions in Belarus for a foreign newspaper. What will you write about?
I will write that there are a lot of family traditions in Belarus and many of them are passed from generation to generation. I think it is important to follow family traditions because traditions strengthen family relations and unite families. Then I will describe our family traditions connected with the New Year.
Let’s talk about family relationships.
Let’s talk about family relationships. What kind of relationships are there in your family?
There is a wise saying “Blood is thicker than water”. It means that family ties are the strongest, and that all the members of the family support one another in times of need. I’m happy to say that my home is the place where everybody understands, respects and loves me. To my mind, this is the way things should be in any family. All the members of my family are great friends, my parents always try to see my point of view and I try to take into consideration all their arguments, and although our opinions do not always coincide, we try to achieve a mutual understanding. My parents are frank and honest with me, they treat me without moralizing or bossing me, and in my turn I learn how to treat other people and how to form relationships with my peers. I enjoy honest and open relationships in my family. I like it when my parents trust me and give me enough freedom. I can always bring my friends home and my parents are very positive about it, although they don't always approve of our tastes or views.