Example Discussion Questions

So on this topic of how to have discussions we’ve talked about some techniques.

Then we looked at some phrases we can use to actually start these questions.

And again those are not the only phrases we can use.

There are just some examples.

There are many variations.

Different ways of asking these questions.

Now let’s actually look at some real examples so that we can get a feeling about how to do this.

Our topic is something I care very much about.

Street food vendors street food being not so clean sometimes.

But the problem is it’s very delicious.

So I always want to eat it but I think maybe I can’t.

It’s not very clean.

So we could ask some questions if we’re going to have a discussion about this.

I’m always having discussions about this with friends.

OK what do you think.

What do you think could be done to ensure ensure means make sure.

What do you think could be done to ensure that street food vendors again these are people selling food on the street that street food vendors are selling clean food and following food safety rules.

What do you think could be done.

Sort of like saying what could we do.

What could people do that basic question that I’ve mentioned before now we’re getting somebody’s idea about how to solve this problem.

Give me some solutions.

Give me some ideas.

Well we could have an app or we could make sure that people have a Yelp sticker or something like that with a QR code that people could scan or we need to keep street food vendors in certain areas so that the whatever blah blah blah blah blah people can give their ideas.

OK let’s look at another one.

What are the best local snacks and street foods in your city.

OK.

So this is related to street food vendors in a very direct way just talking about your favorite things.

Everybody likes to talk about their favorite things.

So what are your favorite street foods if you don’t have any in your city maybe you’ve been to a city and you could talk about that.

Oh well there’s a blah blah blah.

And in this city I could talk for an hour about this one if you were going to open a falafel stand falafel is how food falafel.

Maybe maybe Middle Eastern food.

I like falafel.

I’m not sure if there are any stands that sell just falafel.

Maybe I just like falafel so much that I call them falafel stands even though they actually sell other stuff too.

If you were going to open up a falafel stand in New York City NYC is New York City.

That’s where I live.

So I used this example and wanted to stand out.

That means you want people to notice you.

You want people to go Oh what’s that.

How would you market your stand.

Stand is your where you sell right.

Sometimes it’s called a cart.

Sometimes it’s called a stand sometimes in New York it’s called a truck.

OK.

How would you marketed how would you promote.

How would you get others to know.

How would you advertise.

So you would use maybe you would talk about social media.

Talk about videos talk about how you would spend money.

Talk about discounts and coupons.

I don’t know whatever you would do to get people to come to your falafel truck or your falafel stand.

And it’s just an example.

Right.

But it’s an interesting question.

What do you think about the idea of making food carts illegal.

Now someone could just say I don’t like the idea bad idea.

That’s a simple answer right.

But then you have to say well why why do you think it’s a bad idea.

Then they have to explain.

So it’s OK to answer this question in a simple way and then follow with why.

So hopefully this has given you a pretty clear idea about how we can explore or talk about a main topic and then ideas related to it and use different ways to ask questions that are interesting about interesting ideas that make the other person feel I have something to say.

This is an interesting question because you’re asking me for my opinion.

You’re asking me to explain something about my life.

You’re asking me to talk not just asking me for information.

OK.

Keep that in mind.

And let’s let’s look at an assignment.

You can do to practice this.

So you should have now a very good idea about how to ask these questions from the last lesson.

How to start a conversation.

And now here’s how to ask good questions that can make other people want to talk with you.

So I’d like you to practice it.

What I’d like you to do is look at this topic famous people who have dropped out of college that means they’ve quit college or they quit college for example Mark Zuckerberg Steve Jobs and Bill Gates all of these three very famous people left university.

They QUIT.

They come up with three interesting questions around this topic using some of the phrases that we learned in this lesson and then to test it.

I would like you to ask yourself the questions and answer the questions give the answer to the question and record yourself doing that.

Or have the discussion with a friend ask a friend the questions.

If they go.

I don’t know.

Or if they say Oh yeah.

The answer is blah blah blah.

And then it feels like it’s hard to move the conversation forward and keep going.

Probably a problem with your questions.

So to do this well remember your goal is to get the other person’s brain to turn move get the juices flowing we say get the juices flowing.

All right.

Good luck.