How did you choose ... ?
Being able to ask open questions is a skill you need to develop even in your native language. 'How' questions require much more than just a yes or no.
Use the following prompts to dive deep and understand your conversation partners’ way of thinking and how they felt at those times.
How did you choose your university or college?
It’s a hard decision for many students – choosing a university or college, not to mention a specific field and degree.
What factors influenced your decision on where you wanted to study?
For myself, it was a campus that was not in the middle of the city as I’m a little crowd-a-phobic and the trains to get there would be packed. It had to be in my home city of Melbourne, and a campus that had a lot of park-like open spaces and good libraries, a swimming pool, a medical clinic and access to counsellors - all on campus.
I went to several university’s open days to get the feel for the many different campuses in my home city. Once I had knocked out the ones I didn’t feel ‘comfortable’ at, I chose my final university, and then looked for the courses I wanted complete there.
If I had my time over, I would perhaps choose a different degree, focusing on learning languages instead of computer science and programming, and one which would have allowed me to study overseas for a year.
Although, I’m more than happy with the friends I made during my particular course. I was also grateful and happy that my course led me to lecture in the subjects I previously studied, and cemented my love of teaching. Although, these days I’m not using my programming knowledge in my current line of work or studies overly much.
How did you feel when … ?
Another open ended question that encourages conversation partners to talk are how you felt about specific topics widely covered in the news - most people have strong feelings about big events and/or famous people.
_This can get a bit heated when the topics are controversial. Make sure you have a good understanding of your co-students or the whole group if you are the teacher. _
What were the five most important news stories that have happened in the last five years that you felt most strongly about?
- How did you feel? And why did you feel so strongly?
- If you can remember, what were you doing at the time when the news broke?
- Did you have any news stories, situations or feelings in common with your conversation partners?