Roger Hartopp​

English conversation: The subjects

I have a full A-Z list below of all the subjects, but for those students who only want to discuss particular areas, I have broken the topics down into these sections. Those subjects in red are either new topics that have been added in 2024, or topics that have had new texts written to keep the subject up-to-date:

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Activities: being boring, conversation, driving, exciting stuff, good cook bad cook, fitness, hanky panky, improvisation, laziness, music, pets, Poland, procrastination, Polish TV, public holidays, radio, reading, shopping, sport, summer/annual holidays, transportation, United Kingdom, weekends 

Attitudes and Perceptions: apathy, being boring, conspiracy theories, cynicism, dares, dilemmas, ecomentalism, exciting stuff, good or evil, grumpiness, happiness, humour, laziness, motivation, nimbyism, public relations, procrastination, sheep, snobbery, spontaneity, supers, town mouse or country mouse, vanity, wimpy kid, young at heart

Business/Work: AI (artificial intelligence), are you a good student, breaking the rules, competitiveness, conferencing, control freak, customer service, dilemmas, email, English language, ethics at work, give us a job, good boss, good job bad job, human resources, improvisation, logistics, man or a mouse, meetings, motivation, negotiations, numbers, quality, public relations, presentations, procrastination, public holidays, risk, self-esteem, speaking, stress at work, success or failure, supers, team player, thick skin, typical errors in English, typical errors in English 2, workaholism

Difficult topics (subjects that are not usually discussed, may have an emotional impact, or other areas which might come with a warning): are you a good student, are you financially savvy, are you getting old, bad language, death, fear and terror, good or evil, hanky panky, health and illness, hypochondria, man or a mouse, money, pets, politics, religion, romance, stress at work, thick skin, vanity, wimpy kid, workaholism, young at heart

Education: a, an & the, bad language, are you a good student, conditionals, conversation, English language, geography, grammar (advanced), hanky panky, intonation, numbers, phrasal verbs, Poland, presentations, present perfect tenses, reading, social media, space, speaking, typical errors in English, typical errors in English 2, United Kingdom, vocabulary

Finance and competition: Are you financially savvy, competitiveness, money, negotiations, nimbyism, numbers, quality, shopping

Health: anger, being boring, control freak, ecomentalism, fitness, hanky panky, health, health and illness, hypochondria, procrastination, retirement, self-esteem, stress, stress at work, thick skin, workaholism

Leisure: Christmas, conversation, driving, English language, exciting stuff, fitness, good cook bad cook, laziness, living abroad, music, pets, Poland, radio, reading, shopping, sport, summer/annual holidays, town mouse or country mouse, transportation, United Kingdom, weekends

Psychological: AI (artificial intelligence), are you a good friend, anger, are you getting old, arrogance, breaking the rules, conspiracy theories, control freak, death, fear and terror, good or evil, hanky panky, happiness, humour, hypochondria, introvert or extrovert, man or a mouse, motivation, nimbyism, optimism or pessimism, procrastination, retirement, risk, self-esteem, sheep, spontaneity, stress, stress at work, success or failure, temper temper, thick skin, vanity, weekends, workaholism, would I lie to you?

Stereotypes: American, British, French, German, Polish, living abroad

Technology: AI (artificial intelligence), conferencing, driving, mobile phones, Polish TV, presentations, radio, social media, space, technophile or technophobe, the internet

You will notice that some topics appear in more than one section, but often the subjects covered will mean there is some degree of overlap.

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All these subjects that include a piece of text to read that is connected to the topic, along with a vocabulary list (that usually - but not always! - have no more than thirty words or phrases) for further practice. These are usually prepared as handouts. Those subjects in red are either new topics that have been added in 2024, or topics that have had new texts written to keep the subject up-to-date. Afterwards, there is usually a fun quiz in the form of a PowerPoint presentation and sharing screen.