Talking point: Talent

This week's talking point is talent. Before getting together with the members of your conversation group, go over the questions below so that ideas come to mind more easily the day you get together with your friends and you can work out vocabulary problems beforehand.

How long does it take to learn something well?
What’s the best time of day to learn something new for you?
How important is memory when we learn something new?
Which of these factors are most important to be talented or become successful at something?

 attitude
luck
genetic make-up and natural ability
support from the community/family
technique
training and practice

Do you know anyone who excels at anything? If so, how did this person reach this level of mastery?

ANECDOTE
Think of something you’ve done that you have put a lot of effort into. For example:

your job
a free-time activity
study of some kind
playing a musical instrument
learning a language
some craft or art

Make notes about these questions:
What special skills or talent do you need?
What level of ability do you think you have achieved?
Have have you learnt new information necessary for this activity?
Do you need to remember a lot of things to do this well?
How much time have you put into it?

Now tell the members of your conversation group about it.

To illustrate the point, you can watch this video from Britain's Got Talent.

Extensive listening: Alive and kicking

Alive and Kicking is a CBS 60 Minutes segment aired early this year. This is the way reporter Lesley Stahl introduced the segment.

A show opened in New York recently that didn't get a whole lot of attention, but it features some of the most powerful singing voices you've never heard. You haven't heard them because for most of the performers, this is their first time on the stage. They've been singing their whole lives -- in church, in amateur groups, in the shower -- but like so many who had dreams of making it big, life somehow got in the way.

The show was created by a theater producer and former disc jockey named Vy Higginsen, who has made it her mission to preserve a special part of American culture: African-American music, both gospel and popular music like soul and R&B. She found a pool of untapped talent, men and women in what she calls their "second half of life" just waiting for their chance to shine.

The show is called "Alive: 55+ and Kickin'," and while that certainly fits the men and women who fill this Harlem stage on Saturday afternoons, "Alive" also refers to the music, and that is just how Vy Higginsen wants it.

You can read a full transcript here.