Possible Dangers Associated With Becoming a Millionaire Overnight
Gerard CounihanprofesorSs [at] blabla.es
The following activity basically takes an old idea and exploits it from a different angle.
Level: Intermediate to advanced
Age: Adult
Activity A
I split up the students into pairs and got them talking about millionaires or being millionaires.Activity B
I then got them to offer comments on the main title above, and here is what I got: (Do not show these to your pupils until they have made an effort)- Avoiding friction with partner
- Leaving work
- Having too much free time
- Becoming arrogant
- Losing old friends
- Worrying more about what to do with the new-found wealth
- Being unaccustomed to luxuries
- Making foolish investments
- Being taken in by financial advisers
- Handling media interest
- Going to too many parties
- Having nothing to fight for
- Becoming more attractive to the opposite sex
Activity C
The idea now, apart from debating any interesting comments ensuing from above, is to look for more new angles on old topics.Some suggestions:
- Positive aspects of a rainy day.
- Negative aspects of a night out on the town.
- Positive aspects of school.
- Negative aspects of being a vegetarian.
- Positive aspects of watching TV.
- Negative aspects of doing sport.
- Positive aspects of being poor.
- Positive aspects of being in jail. (!)
- Negative aspects of being very beautiful.
- Etc.
Very often, what starts out as a brainstorming exercise can turn into a full-blown conversation.
The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. IV, No. 12, December 1998
http://iteslj.org/