The activities below come from a book for English as a second language learners by Eric Roth and Toni Aberson. The title is “Compelling Conversations: Questions and Quotations on Timeless Topics.” See http://www.compellingconversations.com/ or email eric@compellingconversations.com

The activities below come from "Compelling Conversations: Questions and Quotations on Timeless Topics." by Eric Roth and Toni Aberson. (See ad on this page.)

From the March 2010 issue

Describing family ties

The family remains the center of society. Share your experiences with a classmate or your teacher. Start your conversation with any of the following questions.

1. Do you have a large, medium or small family? How many people are in your family?
2. What are your parents’ names? How do you spell them?
3. Where were your parents born? Were they born in a hospital? Somewhere else?
4. How did your parents meet? What attracted them to each other?
5. How many aunts and uncles do you have?
6. Which aunt or uncle is your favorite? Why?
7. What language or languages did you hear in your childhood home? Which languages are spoken now?
8. What do you appreciate about your family?
9. Whom do you respect the most in your family? Why?
10. How do you keep in touch with your relatives? Do you use e-mail?
11. What were some important events in your family history?
12. Which ancestor would you most like to meet? Why?


Proverbs: Read the common sayings and proverbs below. Can you add another one?
1. Like father, like son. --Latin
2. Like mother, like daughter. --Persian
3. A brother helped by a brother is like a fortified city. --Book of Proverbs
4. Of all the virtues, family duty is the first. --Chinese


Quotations: Choose a quotation that you like and memorize it.
1. "Am I my brother’s keeper?" Genesis 4:9
2. "All that I am or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother." --Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), 16th President of the United States
3. "We never know the love of a parent until we become parents ourselves." --Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887), clergyman/abolitionist
4. "Nobody can do for little children what grandparents do. Grandparents sort of sprinkle stardust over the lives of little children." --Alex Haley (1921-1992), American novelist and biographer
5. "We must learn to live together as brothers or perish as fools." --Dr. Martin Luther King (1929-1968) Nobel Peace Prize recipient
6. "The first duty of love is to listen." --Paul Tillich (1886-1965), theologian

On your own: Make a Family Tree back to your grandparents and, if you have children, including your children. Give birth dates if they are known and death dates if a person has deceased. Share it with your classmates or teacher.

VOCABULARY HELP*
ancestor - a person from whom one is descended
fortified - strengthened
in touch - communication between people
sprinkle - to cause to fall in drops or tiny pieces
virtues - moral goodness, such as honesty or clean living

*Definitions from the Collins COBUILD Intermediate Dictionary of American English, published by Heinle, a part of Cengage Learning © 2008 and the Newbury House Dictionary of American English 4th edition, by Rideout. © 2004 Monroe Allen Publishers. Heinle, a part of Cengage Learning enjoys an exclusive license with respect to the copyright and all the exclusive rights comprised in the copyright in the work and all revisions thereof.