Cultural Small Talk
Aims
Goal: make small talk across cultures — safe topics everywhere, the questions to avoid, and how to recover from a faux pas.
The lesson, stage by stage
- Warm up5 min
Warm-up: Small talk across cultures
2 warm-up questions
- Reading10 min
Reading: Small Talk Around the World
Read a 275-word text about Small Talk Around the World
- Framework6 min
Framework: Cultural Do's and Don'ts
Cultural Do's and Don'ts, 4 steps
- Practice7 min
Practice: Cross-Cultural Communication Vocabulary
Gap-fill exercise, 5 items
- Dialogue10 min
Dialogue: Meeting an International Colleague
Role-play: You're at a company welcome lunch for a new colleague who has just relocated from another country. You want to make them feel welcome while being culturally sensitive. (4 lines)
- Discussion10 min
Discussion: Your mission: small talk without borders
5 discussion questions
Open the full lesson
The remaining 5 stages of this lesson, with the procedure, the examples and the exercises, are included with Starter, along with the interactive version you can teach from. Lesson 1 of this course is free: the full plan is on this site, and a free account opens it in the interactive player.
This plan comes from the Small Talk Mastery course in the Tuton library. Browse all free lesson plans.