miércoles, 11 de marzo de 2015

Talking point: Feelings

This week's talking point is feelings. Before getting together with the members of your conversation group, go over the questions below, so that ideas flow more easily when you meet up with your friends and you can work out vocabulary problems beforehand.
  • Do you find it easy to talk about your feelings?
  • Who do you talk to if you have a problmem?
  • What would your do or say if a friend was upset?
  • Would it be different if it was a man or a woman?
  • What kind of things do you do to cheer yourself up?
  • Are you good at sorting out problems?
  • When did you last feel exahusted, stressed, furious, pleased, worried, annoyed, disappointed, guilty?
  • How often do you hug people / kiss people on the cheeks or lips? 
  • How often do you walk arm in arm with people or hold hands / shake hands / touch people on the arm or put your arm round their shoulder?
  • Do you do any of these things more often or less often than most people in your country?
  • Have you ever been anywhere where they do these things differently to you?
To illustrate the point, you can watch the Speakout video Emotion.



Hello. I’m in a really good mood today. The sun is out and that always brings a smile to my face. How are you feeling today?
I’m feeling stressed due to a lot of work.
I’m feeling quite happy and confident. The weather certainly helps: it’s a bright, sunny day so I’m feeling quite optimistic.
I’m excited about my project for school, we’re doing a documentary on film.
I’m feeling pretty good. I’m feeling good ’cos I’m on a day out with my friend and we’re having a fun time.
Very happy, very relaxed. We have a day off, my wife and I.
I’ve had a good start to my day. I woke up early and I had a good breakfast, so I suppose I’m feeling well-balanced and optimistic about my afternoon.
Today’s a good day. Visiting from New York.
Really good. It’s a beautiful day, the sun’s shining and I’m just wandering about London. It’s nice.
Would you describe yourself as an optimist, or a pessimist?
100% optimist. I think that you always have to look on the bright side. And I know it’s cheesy, but it’s best to think what you can do and not what you could have done.
I think I am an optimist. I think generally I look on the bright side. I hope I see the best in people. I don’t expect bad, you know, disasters or to be let down in things.
I’d say I swing between the two. I mean, I am pretty optimistic about my, myself.
I’m very optimistic. Um, whenever I get in a tricky situation I might get a bit frustrated at first, but I always manage to pull myself through and think of the positives.
I consider myself to be more of a ‘functional pessimist’: I do tend to plan and cater for the worst case, but more often than not I’m then happily surprised when things go well.
Probably an optimist, but I like to be realistic about things and then I’m not disappointed.
I think I’m an optimist.
What’s the best thing that’s happened to you this year?
The best thing that has happened to me in the last 12 months is the success of the business that my wife and I opened in Oxford last June.
The best things that’s happened to me this year is the successes I’ve had in the garden, growing vegetables and flowers.
I got all distinctions, all distinction stars and A*s in my last project in Art.
I went to Canada to visit my father with my boyfriend a couple of weeks ago and that was really nice: we got to see lots of amazing sights.
Getting into university. It was really difficult ’cos there was a, like, a lot of applicants, a very high standard and I managed to get a spot.
I met my boyfriend. Well, I didn’t meet him, actually, I met him years ago, but we got together and became a couple, which is good. So, I think that’s the best thing that’s happened this year, for me.
The best thing that happened to me this year was getting a job as a trainee solicitor at a firm in London. I’m really excited about it: it’s very difficult to get into and it’s, like, the culmination of a lot of hard work over a long time. So, I’m really happy about it.