Compelling Conversations: for Advanced students
14
TRAVELING
“Travel is never a destination, but a way of looking.”
—Henry Miller (1891-1982), novelist
Sharing Experiences
Traveling can be wonderful or awful. How have you fared? Chat with your conversation partner about your travels.
1. What is your native country?
2. In which region or city did you live in your homeland?
3. Were there any nearby tourist attractions? If so, what were they?
4. What did you travel to see in your native land?
5. What spot in your homeland was most interesting to you? Why?
6. Would you recommend that tourists from other lands visit there? Why? Why not?
7. Are there popular vacation sites in your homeland? What are they?
8. Do you like to use travel guidebooks? Which ones? How are guidebooks useful?
9. What are some other good sources of travel information?
10. In which other countries have you traveled?
11. Did you plan where you would go before you left?
12. Did you make reservations ahead of time?
13. Did you travel alone or with others?
14. Of the places you have been, which was the prettiest?
15. Of the places you have been, which was the most impressive?
16. Of the places you have been, which was the most educational? How?
17. In the countries you visited, which people were the friendliest?
18. In the countries you visited, which people were the least friendly?
19. What languages have you spoken while traveling?
20. What are some useful phrases to learn in a foreign language? Why?
Vocabulary
With the help of your conversation partner, define the meaning of each of the following words or phrases.
site | homeland | native country | region | popular
recommend | luggage | eventually | cheated
exchanged | wander | impressive
Proverbs
Can you add another proverb about traveling?
When in Rome, do as the Romans. —Latin
All roads lead to Rome. —Latin
Every land has its own law. —Scottish
Fish and visitors smell after three days. —American
In an undeveloped country, don’t drink the water. In a developed country, don’t breathe the air. —Anonymous
Let yourself go. —Travel slogan
The Conversation Continues
1. While traveling, were you ever afraid? Why?
2. While traveling, were you ever lost? Where were you?
3. Have you ever taken a tour? When? Where?
4. Have you ever asked a person on the street for help while you were traveling? What happened?
5. Have you ever asked for help from an embassy or Traveler’s Aid? What happened? Did you receive help?
6. Were you ever cheated by a store or restaurant while you were traveling? What did you say or do? How did you react?
7. Have you ever taken a wild taxi ride? What happened?
8. Did you ever lose your luggage? Did you eventually get it?
9. Where do you exchange money when you travel? Is foreign money confusing?
10. Is there any country you would like to visit again? What sites would you visit?
11. Is there any country outside your native country in which you would like to live?
12. Where have you traveled in the United States?
13. Has any place surprised you? How was it different from what you expected?
14. Where would you like to travel next? Why? What would you most like to see?
Discussing Quotations
Read aloud each of the following quotations. Talk about their meaning with your conversation partner. Then, select your favorite.
1. “The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.”
—Saint Augustine (354-430), Catholic theologian
2. “Your land and home and pleasant wife must be left behind.”
—Horace (65-8 B.C.E.), Roman lyric poet
3. “I travel for travel’s sake.”
—Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894), writer
4. “What was important then was not that the beggar was drunk and reeling, but that he was mounted on his horse, and, however unsteadily, was going somewhere.”
—Thomas Wolfe in You Can’t Go Home Again
5. “When traveling with someone, take large doses of patience and tolerance with your morning coffee.”
—Helen Hayes (1900-1993), American actress
6. “He travels best who knows when to return.”
—Thomas Middleton (1580-1627), playwright
7. “What gives value to travel is fear.”
—Albert Camus (1913-1960), French writer and winner of Nobel Prize for Literature
8. “Traveling is a fool’s paradise.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), writer
9. “There is wisdom in turning as often as possible from the familiar to the unfamiliar; it keeps the mind nimble; it kills prejudice, and it fosters humor.”
—George Santayana (1863-1952), philosopher
10. “ traveling, we are born again, able to return at moments to a younger and more open self.”
—Pico Iyer (1957-), travel writer
11. “Never go on trips with anyone you do not love.”
—Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961), Nobel Prize-winning novelist
12. “Travel is the best way we have of rescuing the humanity of places, and saving them from abstraction and ideology.”
—Pico Iyer (1957-), travel writer
13. “The traveler sees what he sees; the tourist sees what he has come to see.”
—G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936), English writer
On Your Own
Write a short report on a place you have been. Then, present your report to your conversation partner, a friend, or your class. Use at least one map, photograph, or other visual aid to share your experience.