Talking point: How much do you gossip?

• How much time do you spend every day gossiping or listening to gossip, whether in person or online?
• Do you think gossiping is dangerous?
• Do you think you could refrain from gossiping for an entire day?
• What are some of the consequences of gossip that you have observed in your own life?
• Talk about your experience of gossip.

Before you get together with your discussion group, you may like to gain further background information about the topic by reading this The New York Times article, In Small Town Gossip Moves to the Web, and Turns Vicious.

When you get together with your friends, you may agree or disagree with the ideas they express. Use these expressions to show your attitude to what they say:

Agreement

I quite agree.
You are quite right.
I agree with you entirely.
That’s absolutely true.

Partial agreement

I agree up to a point, but...

I agree with you to some extent.

I see what you mean but...

Disagreement

I’m not sure you’re right there.
I’m afraid I can’t accept that.
I can’t possibly accept that / agree with you.
(I’m afraid) I don’t agree.

Negotiations

Whenever we take part in a conversation in which we need to reach an agreement with our interlocutors, a negotiation is taking place.

This way, the term negotiation is not just restricted to the business world, but it can be applied to many aspects of our everyday life -deciding which present to buy for a friend or deciding which film to see at the weekend are examples of this wider sense of a negotiation.

In our academic life, the second part of the Escuela Oficial de Idiomas oral exam, the interaction, is in fact a negotiation.

Whenever we take part in a negotiation, we must consider our friends' or classmates' perspectives on a given topic as much as our own. To do so, some expressions can help us to give a framework to both our ideas and those expressed by the people we are talking to.

There are some expressions we can use to fully agree with someone:
I completely agree with you.
You are absolutely right.
Yes, you have a point there.

There are some expressions we can use to fully disagree with someone:
I'm afraid that's not how I see it.
I'm not sure I agree.
I'm sorry but I don't agree.
I can see what you mean but ...

There are some expressions we can use to show partial agreement.
I agree with you to some extent.
I agree with you up to a point.

Self-study activity: Get together with an English-speaking friend a discuss this topic:
The only reason to learn a language is if the language will help you gain a good job.
Don't forget to use the above-mentioned expressions to agree and disagree with your friend.