miércoles, 21 de mayo de 2014

Talking point: Money

This week's talking point is money, and we will be dealing with it from different points of view, so don't be put off by the number of questions that you can see in the questionnaire. In addition, the questions can also help us to learn the vocabulary related to a specific topic.

Before getting together with the members of your conversation group, go over the questions below, so that you're not at a loss for ideas when you meet up with your friends and you can work out vocabulary problems beforehand.
  • When do you buy lottery tickets? Have you ever won anything? 
  • What numbers do you pick when you buy a lottery ticket? Why do you choose these numbers?
  • If you won a lot of money, what would you do with it?
  • Do you know anyone who has won a lot of money?
  • If you were down to the last of your money, what would you spend it on? 
  • 'Money can't buy you happiness.' Do you agree? Why/Why not? 
  • What is more important than money? Why? 
  • Do you like finding bargains in the sales?
  • When do you prefer to pay by cash, and when do you prefer to pay by card?
  • Has a cash machine ever ‘eaten’ your bank card? If so, how did you get it back?
  • Have you ever given money to a charity, like Caritas or Oxfam?
  • What kind of things do you normally buy online? Why don’t you buy them in a shop?
  • Does anybody owe you money? Do you owe anybody money?
  • Have you ever taken out a loan from the bank? Why?
  • Is there anything you’d love to buy but can’t afford at the moment?
  • Have you ever bought something you couldn’t really afford?
  • What’s the most expensive thing you’ve ever bought?
  • Have you ever bought something and then regretted it?
  • Have you ever inherited money or property, or something more unusual?
  • Have you, or anyone you know, ever been robbed of money? If so, what happened?
To illustrate the topic, you can watch this video from our Speakout series Does money make you happy?, where the people interviewed answer these three questions:

Do you think money makes you happy?
What things are more important than money?
Should wealthy people be taxed more to support the poor?



You can read the transcript here.