Improve your Speaking online in our Episode 26:

This week we bring new current topics in Episode 26 so you can improve your online speaking from home.

Topic 1: Language and culture

«Does our language influence our culture, or the other way around?»

The fact that we share the same language as other people is not a mere coincidence. Are we really aware of the importance of speaking a language?

We will focus the conversation on the following questions:

1. Would an individual be the same individual without speaking their mother tongue?
2. To what extent do stereotypes condition a language? 
3. Is it possible to break down social barriers through communication?
4. Learning new languages facilitates the formation of different skills. Why is that so?
5. Would we be experiencing the same social changes if language transmission were not that rapid? 

Here we leave you some vocabulary you can use during the talk:

• -To looking forward to: Informal use of ‘To look forward to (-ing)…’

• -Multilingual: Someone who is able to use more than two languages. 

• -To spread: To propagate. 

• -Drivefulness: Dynamism.

• -To come together: To join in a single purpose. 

• -Native language: Mother tongue. 

• -Vividly: Clearly.

• -Mindset: Mentality.

• -Cultural boundaries: What makes a culture unique from others.
  

Topic 2: Grammys 2023

«The Nobels of music»

The Grammys nominations for 2023 just happened. Who were the lucky artists, and who got the cold shoulder?

 We will focus the conversation on the following questions:

1. Which artist do you think should receive the award for ‘Best New Artist’? Why?
2. In your opinion, which song should be given the award for ‘Song of the Year’? Has it impacted you in any way?
3. What is your favourite genre of music?
4. Do you consider that there is original music nowadays? If you think that there is, why do you think so?
5. When a boyband separates, do you think that a member can achieve success with a solo career?
6. Have you ever gone to a concert? Do you think that the experience is worth it?

Here we leave you some vocabulary you can use during the talk:

• Nomination: to shortlist someone, to select them to advance to the next phase. 

• To prevail: to triumph over someone else, to win a competition. 

• Controversy: discussion marked by opposing views on something. 

• Record: to store sounds using electronic equipment, to be heard later.  

• Category: division within a system of classification. 

• Tidbits:  small pieces of interesting information.

• Snub: act of snubbing, treating with neglect or contempt.

• Mainstream music: music that always plays on the radio, normally reflecting the actual taste of the society and not overly original.
  

• Shutout: contest in which one side fails to score a single point, an overwhelming defeat. 

Topic 3: Rural work and agriculture

«This might be the last generation of traditional farmers»

Agriculture, the most common occupation in the passt, has now become a rare and heavily industrialised job.

We will focus the conversation on the following questions:

1. Do you think we could live in a world without people engaged in rural work?
2. What do you think would be the consequences of a world without agriculture?
3. Would you work as a farmer? Why?
4. Do you consider that working as a farmer compensates economically for the hours of dedication?
5. Do you think that by working in the countryside you can develop skills that can be useful for a city job?

Here we leave you some vocabulary you can use during the talk:

• Stock growers: Cowman (profession), rancher.
• Cattle: a group of animals that includes cows, buffalo, and bison, that are often kept for their milk or meat
• A combine: a large farming machine that cuts the plant, separates the seed from the stem, and cleans the grain as it moves across a field.
• Ranching: the activity of keeping animals on a ranch.
• Pulling: to move something toward yourself, sometimes with great physical effort.
• Journalism: the activity or profession of writing for newspapers, magazines, or news websites or preparing news to be broadcast.
• Consumers: a person who buys goods or services for their own use.
• Internship: the position of a student or trainee who works in an organization, sometimes without pay, in order to gain work experience or satisfy requirements for a qualification.
• Branding: the promotion of a particular product or company by means of advertising.
• Hired full-time: getting a job in which the employee works the maximum number of legal hours in the work week — typically 40.

Topic 4: Free topic

Do you find these topics boring or uninteresting? Don’t worry. Dilo gives you the opportunity to choose your own topic for a conversation class.

Think of some vocabulary you would like to learn related to your topic and send us some information about it with the subject «Free topic». We are certain your ideas will be great! 😁.

This is the end of Episode 26. See you on the next one!

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