This is an advanced conversation topic page. You can find many topics related to life stages. Feel free to peruse around and use these questions with your students in class for class discussion or in your online classes for conversation starters or for getting your students talking. Good luck!

1. Childhood

1. What do you remember about being a child?
2. Where did you grow up?
3. Did you grow up in the city or in the countryside? Which do you think is better? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each one?
4. Do you remember your first day of school? What was it like?
5. Who were some of your childhood friends? Can you remember them? What were they like?
6. How old were you when you learned how to ride a bike? Who taught you?
7. How old were you when you learned how to swim? How did you learn?
8. Do your parents still live in the house you grew up in?
9. What was your toy growing up? What did you used to do for fun as a child?
10. Nowadays children grow up with a phone in their hand. Do you think it’s an advantage or a disadvantage? Why?

2. Being a teenager

1. How were your teenage years? Did you enjoy them?
2. How did your parents feel about dating as a teenager? Were they for or against it?
3. Did you enjoy going to school as a teenager? Why or why not?
4. What were some things you enjoyed doing as a teenager?
5. Did you have any hobbies back then? What were they?
6. Some people feel embarrassed about their teenage years, how do you feel about them?
7. Did you get along with your parents when you were a teenager?
8. Do you still keep in touch with friends from those years?
9. What did you want to be when you grew up back then?
10. Are there any things you did as a teenager that you regret?

3. Adulthood

1. What were you most excited about being an adult?
2. Adults can drink alcohol and smoke cigarettes. Did you start doing any of those?
3. Adults can drive a car. Do you enjoy driving? How often do you need to drive?
4. Being an adult also means getting a job and being more responsible. Did you get a job? Are you responsible?
5. What is something every adult should do in your opinion?
6. What is something adults shouldn’t do in your opinion?
7. Adults also start dating more. Where do you think is the best place to meet someone?
8. As an adult you have more freedom and more responsibilities. With that in mind, do you think it’s better to be an adult or a child?
9. By getting a job, you have less time to do the things you want. If you had more time, what would you do?
10. As an adult you also have to start paying bills and moving out of your parent’s house. What age do you think is best to move out?

4. Being a senior

1. What are your plans for when you get older?
2. Are you afraid of getting older? Why or why not?
3. Have you started planning for retirement? What are your retirement plans?
4. What are some advantages and disadvantages to being old? You can think about economic situation, health, stability, free time etc…
5. A lot of people travel when they are older. Is that something you are interested in or not? What other fun things would you like to do when you get older?
6. Where would you like to live when you are old?
7. Do you think you will have a calm older life, or would you like it to be exciting? Why?
8. In order to stay healthy in old age there are some things you should start doing now. What can you do now to make sure you are mentally and physically healthy as a senior?
9. Older people are not known for their sense of fashion¹. Do you think you will be a fashionable older person?
10. What song would you like to play at your funeral?

5. College Years

1. What were your college years like? If you haven’t gone to college, what do you think they will be like?
2. What did you study/want to study in university?
3. What do you think about getting a graduate’s degree² and a PHD? Does it appeal to you³ at all?
4. Most people go to university nowadays. For the people who don’t want to go to university, what are some alternatives you can think of?
5. A lot of university students think this time is the best time to have fun. What do you think?
6. Did you do crazy things in university? What did you do? If you haven’t gone to university yet, what crazy things would you like to do when you get there?
7. Did you go to university close or far away from home? Why?
8. What kind of people did you meet in university? Do you still keep in touch with them?
9. Did you change in university? In what ways did you change?
10. What are some things you can only do in university? Why?

6. Your Twenties

1. What an incredible time in one’s life. What do people usually do in their twenties?
2. What are some things all twenty-year-olds should do? Try to give at least 5 examples.
3. What interesting things did you do in your twenties? / What interesting things do you want to do in your twenties?
4. A lot of twenty-year-olds are using dating apps to meet new people. What is your opinion on dating apps and dating culture nowadays?
5. In your opinion, should you work a lot or party a lot in your twenties?
6. A lot of twenty-year-olds like to travel but they don’t have a lot of money (Unless their parents pay for it.) What are some ways to travel with little money?
7. Is there a difference between your early twenties and your late twenties? What differences can you think of?
8. At what age should twenty-year-olds move out of the house?
9. At what age should twenty-year-olds stop asking their parents for money in your opinion?
10. What should your goals be for your twenties? What should everyone accomplish by the time they turn 30?

7. Getting Married

1. Do you plan on getting married?
2. What do you think is better, a big wedding or a small wedding? Why?
3. Does a wedding need to be expensive? Why?
4. Where would you like to get married? Where did you get married?
5. In your opinion, how do you know when you’ve found the right person to marry?
6. What is the perfect age to get married? Do you think it’s a good idea to get married young?
7. Is it important to get parental approval before getting married?
8. A lot of people are choosing to not get married and either stay single or date the same person without marrying. What do you think about this?
9. Can you meet the love of your life at the club? How about on a dating app? Can you explain?
10. Divorce is increasing nowadays, why do you think that is?

8. Middle Age

1. What do you think are the biggest differences between being twenty and being middle aged⁴?
2. What expectations do you have for your middle-aged years? What do you think you will have accomplished?
3. What are some advantages and disadvantages to being middle aged?
4. Have you ever heard of a mid-life crisis⁵? Why do you think men and women have them?
5. What would you do if you were having a mid-life crisis?
6. A lot of people go through mid-life crisis because they regret not having done as much as they wanted to while they were young. What are some regrets you might have by the time you are middle aged?
7. What will your goals be for your mid-life years? Are you going to focus more on your personal life or your career?
8. What will you do if you have a child, and your child doesn’t think you are cool?
9. Middle aged people don’t like to change much. What will you do if you are not satisfied with your life when you’re middle aged?
10. Is there anything you feel like you must accomplish before turning 40? What is it and why do you feel you must accomplish⁶ it?

9. Parenting

1. Do you think parenting is easy or hard? Why?
2. Do you want to be a parent? Why?
3. How do you feel about adopting a child? Why?
4. What do you think is the hardest part about raising a child?
5. Some people say that having a child is expensive. Why do you think it is so expensive?
6. What would you like your children to be like? Would you like them to be studious, funny, hard-working, sporty⁷? Why?
7. We all want our children to be perfect. What can a parent do to help their child do well?
8. Is it more important for your children to be happy or successful? Why?
9. Have your ever heard about helicopter parents⁸? What do you think about their parenting style?
10. What would you name your children if you had any? Why?

10. Life Advice

1. What do you think are the most important things in life?
2. If you are experiencing some tough times, who can you turn to⁹?
3. What have you learned from watching your parents? Anything good?
4. How about your grandparents? What have you learned from them?
5. What have you learned from your past experiences?
6. Do you think it’s important to reflect on our past mistakes? How about your past successes? Why or why not?
7. If you could go back in time, what would you tell your younger self?
8. Some people believe in “Lifelong learning”. What do you think that is and do you agree or disagree with it?
9. Do you think it’s more important to focus on the past, think about the future or live in the moment? Why?
10. Have you called your parents recently?

Definitions

1. Sense of fashion: It is your style and how you dress.
2. Graduate’s degree: It is also called a master’s degree. It comes after a bachelor’s degree.
3. Appeal to you: Does it appeal to you is another way or saying, “Do you like it?”
4. Middle aged: People between 40-60 years old.
5. Mid-life crisis: A period in a person’s life normal when they are middle aged when they go a little crazy because they are getting older and want to feel young again.
6. Accomplish: When you complete something or when you achieve something.
7. Sporty: A person who likes sports.
8. Helicopter parents: Parents whose entire focus is their child and how well they are doing. Usually, they are constantly asking their children to do more and all they want is for their child to be successful in everything.
9. Turn to: It usually means the people you depend on or the people you ask for help.

There you have it, ten advanced conversation topics about life stages. Let me know what you think by leaving a comment!

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