KONUŞMA KULÜBÜ
SORULARI

01Which part of Istanbul do you know best, and what do you like about it?

→ Is there a place there you would show a visitor first?

02How do you usually get around the city?

→ What is the best and the worst journey you make every week?

03Do you prefer the European side or the Asian side? Why?

→ Has your answer changed over the years?

04What do you do in Istanbul on a free Sunday?

→ Is it different in summer and winter?

01Some people say Istanbul is several cities in one. Do you agree?

→ Which two neighbourhoods feel most like different countries to you?

02If you could change one thing about daily life in the city, what would it be and who would object?

→ Would the change have any side effects?

03Is it better to live close to work in a small flat or far away in a bigger one?

→ What would you give up first?

04What would happen to the city if the ferries stopped for a month?

→ Who would suffer most, and who might actually benefit?

01Can a city be loved and hated by the same person at the same time? What does that tell us about belonging?

→ Is your relationship with the city closer to love, habit or loyalty?

02Who really decides what a neighbourhood becomes: residents, investors, or the people who move in later?

→ Can you think of a place where this has happened in front of you?

03Istanbul is often described through nostalgia. Is nostalgia a way of seeing the city or a way of avoiding it?

→ Which memory of the city would you not want to lose?

04How should a huge city balance being a home for its residents and a destination for visitors?

→ Where would you draw the line?

01What does a normal working day look like for you?

→ Which part of the day do you enjoy most?

02Do you prefer working alone or in a team?

→ Can you give an example of when it worked well?

03What is the best piece of advice you got about work?

→ Who gave it to you?

04Would you like to work from home every day?

→ What would you miss about the office?

01Is it better to have one career for life or to change jobs often? Give arguments for both.

→ Which choice is easier in Turkey today?

02What makes a good manager, in your opinion?

→ Is it possible to be liked and respected at the same time?

03If a four-day working week became law, what would change for companies and for families?

→ Would people really rest more?

04Should salaries be public inside a company?

→ What problems would it solve and what problems would it create?

01Why do so many people describe themselves by their job? Is that healthy?

→ How would you introduce yourself without mentioning work?

02Ambition is praised in some cultures and distrusted in others. Where does healthy ambition end?

→ Have you ever been suspicious of someone else’s ambition?

03Is “do what you love” good advice, or a luxury for people who can afford it?

→ What would be a more honest version of that advice?

04If automation removes much routine work, what should humans be proud of at work?

→ Which part of your own job would you defend most?

01What is your favourite meal of the day and why?

→ What did you have for it yesterday?

02Can you cook? What can you make well?

→ Who taught you?

03Which food from another country do you like most?

→ Where did you first try it?

04Do you prefer eating at home or eating out?

→ How often do you eat out in a normal week?

01Is eating together as a family still important, or has it become old-fashioned?

→ What replaces it when it disappears?

02Should schools teach cooking as a basic skill? Argue for and against.

→ What three dishes should everyone be able to make?

03What would happen to restaurants if everyone started cooking more at home?

→ Is that likely?

04Delivery apps: convenience or a bad habit?

→ How have they changed your neighbourhood?

01Food is often called the most honest part of a culture. Do you agree, or is it the most commercialised?

→ Which “traditional” dish do you suspect is not that traditional?

02Where is the line between cultural exchange and cultural appropriation in cooking?

→ Would you be offended if someone changed a recipe from your region?

03Why do people argue so passionately about the “correct” way to make a dish?

→ What is the argument really about?

04Should the true environmental cost of food be included in its price, even if that makes some food a luxury?

→ Who would carry that burden?

01What is the best trip you have ever taken?

→ What made it special?

02Do you like planning a trip in detail or deciding day by day?

→ Has that ever gone wrong?

03What do you always pack?

→ What do you always forget?

04Would you prefer a beach holiday or a city holiday?

→ Why?

01Is travelling alone better than travelling with friends? Weigh both sides.

→ What kind of person should never travel alone?

02How has social media changed the way people travel?

→ Has it changed the way you travel?

03If cheap flights disappeared, what would we lose and what would we gain?

→ Would you travel less?

04Should popular cities limit the number of tourists?

→ How could that be done fairly?

01Does travel really broaden the mind, or do most people travel to confirm what they already believe?

→ When did a trip actually change your mind about something?

02Is there a moral difference between a tourist and a traveller, or is that just snobbery?

→ Which one are you, honestly?

03Can you know a place from a one-week visit? What do you know, and what do you miss?

→ What would a visitor misunderstand about your home?

04How should we weigh the joy of travel against its environmental cost?

→ Is individual choice the right level for this question?

01How many hours a day do you spend on your phone?

→ Is that more or less than you want?

02Which piece of technology could you not live without?

→ What did people do before it existed?

03Have you used an AI tool? What for?

→ Did it help?

04Do you read books on paper or on a screen?

→ Why?

01Should children have smartphones before the age of 14? Give arguments for both sides.

→ What rules would you set?

02Is it acceptable to use AI to write emails at work?

→ Should you tell the person you are writing to?

03If social media disappeared for a year, what would happen to friendships?

→ Which friendships would survive?

04Do algorithms show us what we want or teach us what to want?

→ Can you think of an example from your own feed?

01If a machine can produce a convincing poem, what, if anything, is lost?

→ Does it matter who made a work of art?

02Is privacy a right we are slowly trading away, or an old idea that no longer fits?

→ What would you never share online?

03Technology promises to save time. Where does the saved time actually go?

→ Has any device really given you more time?

04Who should be responsible when an automated system makes a harmful decision?

→ Is “the system did it” ever an acceptable answer?

01What kind of films do you enjoy?

→ Tell us about the last one you watched.

02Have you ever been to the theatre? What did you see?

→ Would you go again?

03Do you listen to music while you work or study?

→ What kind of music helps you concentrate?

04Do you prefer watching films at home or in the cinema?

→ Why?

01Why do people still go to live theatre when they can stream almost anything?

→ What can a live show do that a screen cannot?

02Should films based on books stay close to the book?

→ Can you think of an adaptation that was better than the original?

03If you could only listen to one decade of music for the rest of your life, which would you choose?

→ What would you miss most?

04Is it fair to judge an artist’s work by the artist’s private life?

→ Where would you draw the line?

01Is there such a thing as a “guilty pleasure”, or is that phrase just snobbery about taste?

→ What is yours, if you will admit it?

02What makes a story universal even when it is deeply local?

→ Which very local story has moved you?

03Should public money fund art that most of the public will never see?

→ Who decides what is worth funding?

04Does art need an audience to exist?

→ Have you ever made something only for yourself?

01What was your favourite subject at school?

→ Why did you like it?

02How did you learn English so far?

→ Which method worked best for you?

03Would you like to study something new now? What?

→ What stops you?

04Did you like exams at school?

→ How did you prepare?

01Do exams measure intelligence, memory or something else?

→ What would a fairer system look like?

02Is a university degree still necessary for a good career?

→ In which jobs is it essential and in which is it not?

03If school started at 10 a.m., what would change?

→ Who would be against it?

04Should adults be able to take paid leave to study?

→ Who should pay for it?

01Is the purpose of education to prepare people for work or to prepare them for life? Can it do both?

→ Which purpose did your own education serve?

02Why do some people stop being curious after school?

→ What brought your curiosity back, if anything?

03Can you teach creativity, or only remove what blocks it?

→ What blocked yours?

04How should education respond when information is everywhere and attention is scarce?

→ What would you remove from the curriculum first?

01What do you usually do with your friends?

→ When did you last see them?

02Is it easy for you to make new friends?

→ Where do you usually meet people?

03What makes someone a good friend?

→ Can you give an example?

04Do you keep in touch with friends from school?

→ How?

01Is it harder to make friends as an adult? Why?

→ What could make it easier?

02Can online friendships be as strong as face-to-face ones?

→ What is missing online, if anything?

03Should you tell a friend an uncomfortable truth?

→ When would you stay silent?

04If you moved to another country, how would you build a new social life?

→ What would be the first step?

01Aristotle distinguished friendships of usefulness, pleasure and virtue. Are most modern friendships the first two?

→ Which kind is the rarest in your life?

02Is it possible to stay friends with someone whose values have changed completely?

→ What would be the breaking point?

03Why do we sometimes find it easier to be honest with strangers than with people close to us?

→ Have you experienced that?

04Does a friendship need shared experiences to survive, or is shared history enough?

→ What keeps an old friendship alive?

01Do you like shopping? Where do you usually go?

→ Online or in a shop?

02What do you spend most money on each month?

→ Would you like to change that?

03Do you buy second-hand things?

→ What kind of things?

04Did you get pocket money as a child?

→ What did you buy with it?

01Is it better to spend money on things or on experiences? Argue both sides.

→ Which purchase made you happiest?

02Should schools teach children how to manage money?

→ What would be the first lesson?

03What would happen if everyone stopped buying new clothes for a year?

→ Who would lose, who would win?

04Are subscriptions convenient or a trap?

→ How many do you have, and which would you cancel?

01Can money buy happiness, or only remove some reasons for unhappiness?

→ At what point does more money stop helping?

02Why is it so hard to talk openly about money with friends?

→ Is that silence useful to anyone?

03Is minimalism a genuine alternative or another lifestyle product?

→ Who can afford to own very little?

04What do our spending habits reveal about our values that we would not admit?

→ What would your bank statement say about you?

01Do you do any sport? How often?

→ How did you start?

02What do you do when you want to relax?

→ Does it always work?

03How many hours do you usually sleep?

→ Is it enough?

04Do you prefer walking or taking public transport?

→ How far would you walk?

01Should companies be responsible for their employees’ wellbeing?

→ Where does the company’s responsibility end?

02Is it better to exercise alone or in a group?

→ Which is easier to keep doing?

03If everyone had to walk 30 minutes a day by law, what would happen?

→ Could it ever work?

04Do fitness apps help people or make them anxious?

→ What do you think of tracking everything?

01“Wellness” is now a huge industry. Has it made people healthier, or just more worried?

→ Which wellness trend do you find hardest to take seriously?

02Is rest a personal responsibility or a social one?

→ What makes rest difficult in a big city?

03Why do people find it so hard to change habits they know are bad for them?

→ What finally worked for you, if anything?

04Should sport be about competition or participation?

→ Was school sport good for you?

01Do you recycle at home?

→ Is it easy where you live?

02Has the weather in your city changed since you were a child?

→ How?

03Do you prefer the countryside or the city?

→ Why?

04What do you do to waste less?

→ Could you do more?

01Who should do more about climate change: individuals, companies or governments?

→ What can individuals really change?

02Should flying be more expensive to protect the environment?

→ Who would be affected most?

03If cars were banned from the city centre, what would happen?

→ Would you support it?

04Is “green” advertising helpful or misleading?

→ Can you give an example?

01Is it fair to ask people in developing economies to give up what richer countries already had?

→ What would a fair arrangement look like?

02Does climate anxiety motivate people or paralyse them?

→ How do you deal with bad news about the planet?

03Can a consumer economy ever be truly sustainable, or is that a contradiction?

→ What would have to change first?

04What do we owe to people who are not born yet?

→ How would you explain our choices to them?

01What games did you play as a child?

→ Who did you play with?

02Where did you spend summers when you were young?

→ What do you remember most?

03What did you want to be when you grew up?

→ Is any part of that still true?

04Did you have a favourite toy?

→ What happened to it?

01Are children today freer or less free than you were?

→ Is that good or bad?

02Should children be allowed to make more of their own decisions?

→ At what age, and which decisions?

03If you could relive one day from your childhood, which would it be?

→ Would you change anything?

04Is it better to grow up in a big city or a small town?

→ What did your place give you?

01How reliable are our childhood memories? Do we remember events or the stories we have told about them?

→ Is there a memory you are no longer sure about?

02Why does nostalgia feel good even when the past was not?

→ What are we really missing?

03Which values did you inherit without choosing them, and which have you rejected?

→ When did you notice?

04Is adulthood a loss of imagination or a different use of it?

→ Where does your imagination live now?

01How do you usually follow the news?

→ Every day, or only sometimes?

02Do you read news in English?

→ Which websites or channels?

03What kind of news do you like to read?

→ What kind do you avoid?

04Do you believe most of what you read online?

→ How do you check?

01Should news be free, or should we pay for good journalism?

→ Would you pay?

02How can ordinary people tell the difference between news and opinion?

→ Can you give a recent example?

03If you stopped following the news for a month, what would you miss and what would improve?

→ Have you ever tried?

04Is it good that anyone can now be a journalist with a phone?

→ What are the risks?

01Is objectivity in journalism possible, or should journalists simply be transparent about their point of view?

→ Whose reporting do you trust, and why?

02Does constant access to news make us better informed or simply more anxious?

→ How do you protect your attention?

03Who benefits when people stop trusting all sources equally?

→ How is trust rebuilt?

04What kind of story do you think gets too little attention, and why?

→ Who decides what is newsworthy?

01Why are you learning English?

→ When do you use it in daily life?

02What is the most difficult thing about English for you?

→ What helps?

03Do you watch films or series in English?

→ With or without subtitles?

04Which other languages would you like to learn?

→ Why that one?

01Is it more important to be correct or to be understood?

→ Has a mistake ever caused a real misunderstanding?

02Should we try to lose our accent, or is an accent part of who we are?

→ How do you feel about your accent?

03If translation apps become perfect, will people still learn languages?

→ What would we lose?

04Why do many people understand English well but find speaking difficult?

→ What is your own experience?

01Do you have a different personality in another language?

→ What changes: humour, politeness, confidence?

02Is a language a tool, an identity, or both?

→ What does Turkish give you that English does not, and the other way round?

03Some ideas seem impossible to translate. Is that a problem or a richness?

→ Give an untranslatable word from your language and try anyway.

04Does the dominance of English threaten smaller languages, or does it connect people who would otherwise never talk?

→ Can both be true?

01Where do you see yourself in five years?

→ What do you need to get there?

02Are you an optimistic person?

→ About what in particular?

03What would you like to learn in the next year?

→ How will you start?

04Will people still use cash in the future?

→ Do you use cash now?

01Will cities be better or worse places to live in 30 years? Give reasons.

→ What could change the answer?

02Would you live to 120 if you could? What are the consequences?

→ For you, for your family, for society?

03If you could know one fact about your future, would you want to?

→ Which fact?

04Which jobs will disappear and which new ones will appear?

→ Is your job safe?

01Is it irresponsible to be optimistic about the future, or irresponsible not to be?

→ What does hope require of us?

02We usually imagine the future as technology. What will remain the same in human life no matter what?

→ Why are we bad at seeing that?

03Why do predictions about the future say more about the present than the future?

→ Which old prediction makes you smile?

04How far ahead should a society plan, and who represents the long term in a democracy?

→ Can anyone really do that job?

01You find a wallet in the street with money inside. What do you do?

→ Would it change anything if no one could see you?

02Your friend asks if you like their new haircut. You don’t. What do you say?

→ Is that a lie?

03Is it OK to take a sick day when you are not really sick?

→ What about when you are very tired?

04Would you tell a shop if they gave you too much change?

→ What if it was a big supermarket?

01You discover a colleague is taking credit for your work. What are your options?

→ Which would you choose and why?

02Is it fair to judge people by things they wrote online ten years ago?

→ Where is the limit?

03Should rules always be followed, even when they seem wrong?

→ Can you think of a rule you broke for a good reason?

04Is it ever right to break a promise?

→ What would make it acceptable?

01Are good intentions enough, or do only consequences count?

→ Think of a case where they point in opposite directions.

02Is it hypocritical to care about an issue but not change your lifestyle?

→ Is some hypocrisy unavoidable?

03When does loyalty to a person become a betrayal of a principle?

→ Have you faced that choice?

04Do we have a duty to forgive?

→ Is forgiveness for the other person or for ourselves?

01What are you reading at the moment?

→ Would you recommend it?

02Where and when do you usually read?

→ How long can you read without stopping?

03Did you read a lot as a child?

→ Which book do you remember?

04Do you prefer novels or non-fiction?

→ Why?

01Is it acceptable to stop reading a book you don’t enjoy?

→ Have you ever finished a bad book out of duty?

02Do audiobooks count as reading?

→ What is different about the experience?

03If schools let students choose all their own books, what would happen?

→ Would they read more or less?

04Should famous books be rewritten to remove offensive language?

→ Who should decide?

01Can fiction teach us something that facts cannot?

→ Which character changed how you see someone in real life?

02Is reading in translation reading the same book?

→ What is lost and what is gained?

03Why do we feel we must defend reading in a culture of screens? Is it worth defending?

→ What would you say to someone who never reads?

04Does a book belong to the author or to the reader once it is published?

→ Can a reader be wrong about a book?

01What is your favourite holiday or celebration?

→ What do you do on that day?

02Is there a tradition in your family that other families don’t have?

→ Where did it come from?

03What would you tell a foreigner about Turkish hospitality?

→ Is there anything they might find surprising?

04Do young people in Turkey keep traditions?

→ Which ones?

01Should traditions change with time, or is changing them losing them?

→ Give an example of a tradition that changed for the better.

02What do visitors often misunderstand about life in Turkey?

→ What do Turks misunderstand about other countries?

03If a tradition hurts nobody but no longer means anything, should we keep it?

→ Who decides what it means?

04Is it easier to keep your culture abroad or at home?

→ Why do some people become more traditional when they move away?

01Is “national culture” a reality or a story a country tells about itself?

→ Which parts of that story do you recognise in your own life?

02When a tradition is turned into a tourist attraction, is it preserved or emptied?

→ Can you think of an example?

03How do people living between two cultures decide which rules to follow?

→ Have you ever had to choose?

04Can politeness be universal, or is it always local?

→ What counts as rude in one place and normal in another?