Istanbul (if you’ve never been to Istanbul, talk about your city)
1. Tell us about your favourite places in Istanbul.
2. Tell us about your favourite cafes, bars and shopping centres in İstanbul
3. What do you like and dislike about Istanbul?
4. What’s your favourite district in the city? Why?
5. Which places in Istanbul don’t you like and why?
6. When was the last time you had a great time when you went out in Istanbul? What did you do?
7. Tell us an unforgettable memory that you had in Istanbul.
Related Words: crowded, rush hour, parking spot, shopping centre, bakery, bus station, tram station, underground station, old city, downtown, street vendor, stressful, tranquil, historical district, modern district, dangerous district, active, quiet, calm, public transport, university district, national park, public museums
EXAMPLE ANSWERS: Istanbul (if you’ve never been to Istanbul, talk about your city)
1. I like Şehremini, Eminönü, Beyazıt and Taksim.
2. My favourite cafe in ıstanbul is Spoken Cafe 🙂
3. I like Istanbul because it is always active. But sometimes it is tiring and crowded.
4. My favourite district is the Old City, Fatih.
5. I don’t like any part of Istanbul after Topkapı
6. We had a great time last week. We went to an excellent restaurant, Mahir Restaurant. All the food was great.
7. I have a lot of memories of Istanbul, mostly of Spoken Cafe. In 2010, one of our students, Mahmut Abi, had problems with an American teacher. He didn’t like Americans very much. One day, they started arguing again. He turned to me and said, “söyle hocam şuna, bana gözünü belertmesin.” I answered, “Mahmut abi, how can I say that in English?”
Watch the video above and discuss what you learned from it during your Spoken Cafe session
Believe it or not, the Eiffel Tower was originally supposed to be in Barcelona. The city rejected Gustave Eiffel’s plans, thinking the tower would look like an eyesore. Luckily, Eiffel found a home for his idea in Paris. Amazingly, Parisians didn’t favour the Tower, either. Some people even said it looked like metal asparagus. Truth be told, the Eiffel Tower wasn’t supposed to stay up for very long. In fact, it was spared only because it looked useful to the French army. They thought its 300m height could work as a communications tower. Thankfully, Gustave Eiffel’s terrible structure has managed to survive; the structure received its 200 millionth visitor in 2002 and has become one of the most famous man-made landmarks in the world.
READ/SPEAK
What’s your favourite attraction or historical place in your city? Why do you like it?
Have something more important to do
LEARN THE IDIOM AND SPEAK
Have you ever done something important for your city or neighbourhood? Like planting a tree, cleaning a park, cleaning your schoolyard, helping homeless people, etc.