{"id":3217,"date":"2015-03-23T05:27:27","date_gmt":"2015-03-23T09:27:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/?p=3217"},"modified":"2020-10-02T12:56:28","modified_gmt":"2020-10-02T16:56:28","slug":"whats-the-greatest-topic-of-conversation-ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/language-news\/2015\/03\/23\/whats-the-greatest-topic-of-conversation-ever\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s the Greatest Topic of Conversation Ever?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Itchy<\/a><\/p>\n

As language learners, we hope to find ourselves in conversations on a wide variety of topics. That\u2019s really the point of all these conjugation tables, vocab flash cards and grammar drills, isn\u2019t it? Sure, reading a foreign\u00a0newspaper is great, watching TV shows and movies in their original language is rewarding and all that, but for most of us I imagine the ultimate goal is to express one\u2019s ideas, ask intelligent questions, and tell stories; to converse<\/em>.<\/p>\n

But when starting out your language learning odyssey, we quickly learn that not all conversation topics are created equally.<\/p>\n

The news<\/strong>, for example, can seem at first like tempting, low-hanging fruit for the budding second-language conversationalist. No need to translate \u201cBoko Haram\u201d or \u201cHillary Clinton,\u201d after all\u2014you\u2019ll feel you can just dive right in. But once you\u2019ve started down the topical path, you\u2019ll find it quickly ends in a bramble of unpleasantly specific vocabulary, such as \u201ccourt case,\u201d \u201celection campaign manager,\u201d \u201cquarantine\u201d or \u201cstate censorship.\u201d No problem if you\u2019re already a seasoned speaker, but not the biggest confidence-booster for a beginner.<\/p>\n

Politics<\/strong> has a similar problem of specific vocabulary (\u201csanctions,\u201d \u201cmilitary dictatorship,\u201d \u201ceconomic downturn\u201d) required for even a cursory discussion, with the added drawback of carrying an emotional charge. Don\u2019t get me wrong; good-natured arguments over politics, religion, and other tinderbox topics are brilliant for taking away your worries about word choice and pronunciation and focusing your attention on just speaking<\/em>. But you want to have enough rhetorical ammunition to defend and attack, otherwise you\u2019ll just be left in the corner, burning with something to say but no way to say it.<\/p>\n

Are we then cursed to discuss the weather<\/strong>? Ugh, the deadest dead end there ever was. It can only begin with what the weather currently is, and end on how it might be different. Not exactly scintillating conversation, and it leaves both parties wishing they were speaking to somebody else.<\/p>\n

So what, then, are we to talk about?<\/p>\n

I submit for your consideration my nominee for the Greatest Topic of Conversation Ever: food<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Like tasting wine, talking about food starts simple and builds steadily to more advanced complexity, all the while being thoroughly enjoyable. Everyone likes food, so it\u2019s difficult to alienate the other person by stumbling on your grammar. Every culture and sub-culture on the planet has their own unique way of preparing, eating, and growing food, and everyone\u2019s got their own stories about or relating to food, so there\u2019s an infinite number of conversational roads to take.<\/p>\n

Best of all, you can learn nearly everything a beginner needs to learn through the topic of food alone. You\u2019ll learn simple vocabulary at first (\u201csoft,\u201d \u201cyellow,\u201d \u201cturkey,\u201d \u201csoup,\u201d \u201csalty,\u201d \u201cburnt\u201d) and smoothly work your way up to the more detailed (\u201cbottled,\u201d \u201coven-baked,\u201d \u201cfarmland,\u201d \u201cpreserves\u201d). It\u2019s hard to discuss food without discussing its origins, so geography will play a big part, and you\u2019ll find yourself practicing all the important verb forms (\u201cis produced,\u201d \u201cwill yield,\u201d \u201chas been fermenting\u201d).<\/p>\n

You simply can\u2019t go wrong talking about food. Or maybe I\u2019m just hungry.<\/p>\n

What do you<\/em> think the Greatest Topic of Conversation Ever is?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

As language learners, we hope to find ourselves in conversations on a wide variety of topics. That\u2019s really the point of all these conjugation tables, vocab flash cards and grammar drills, isn\u2019t it? Sure, reading a foreign\u00a0newspaper is great, watching TV shows and movies in their original language is rewarding and all that, but for…<\/p>\n

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