So I figured I'd share this if anyone is interested, even though it's not like, groundbreaking, lmao. But basically I put this together for myself cause I do a language diary and get tired of writing effectively "I went to work and made dinner" etc. every day. Prompt lists I found online were often either focused on advanced topics and clearly work focused, or way too simple. It's 30 prompts!
I wanted to make sure these are very open topics so you can take it multiple directions and use both simple and more advanced language to answer. For me it was just the right balance between practising words I already know and looking up new ones to learn. (Ig if you're very advanced already these might not be the best though.)
Introduction / Who are you?
Describe your family.
What are your hobbies/interests?
What do you like to eat? What do you typically eat?
Describe your current outfit / What do you usually wear?
Why are you learning [language]?
(Especially if you're learning/speaking multiple languages:) What do you like about which language? What is easy/hard?
Talk about a holiday / Where would you like to travel?
Talk about your current or ideal job / field of study
Describe a person (friend, family member, celebrity…)
Describe your hometown or country.
How is your life different now vs. as a child?
Are you in a relationship? What do/would you like about them? / What do you like about being single?
What was/is school like? What did you like/dislike?
Describe your ideal place to live
Do you have a pet? (/Why not?) What animals do you like?
What is the best time of year? (Can be a season or specific days, holidays)
What is a typical day for you like?
Explain how to do something (activity of your choice, e.g. "How to do laundry", "How to play chess" etc.)
What is something everyone should do or know?
How many people are in your friend group? How many people do you interact with daily?
Describe what happens in your favorite film/book/game/etc.
What is a stereotype of your country? Is it accurate to you?
What do like about [(a) country of TL]? Were you there before?
What are some future plans? What is on your bucket list?
What are the usual things you get at a grocery/general goods store?
What is something you would be famous for, if you were?
Describe something you got as a gift. (+ Was it a good gift?)
Have you talked to a native TL speaker? How did it go?
Before passing away, your grandmother taught you a language she told you was Arabic. However, when you finally got a chance to test it out, you found that it wasn't Arabic- or any known language at all.
I should be sleeping but I really wanted to do this! The following is 100% fictional - although I would be over the moon (pun intended) to have an astronaut as a dad. 我家有六口人。我爸爸，妈妈，两个姐姐，一个妹妹还有我。我爸爸是太空人，他是六十岁。我妈妈是作家，她五十岁。我大姐是中学的老师，她三十五岁。我二姐是大学的学生，她二十一岁。我妹妹是小学的学生，她十岁。我大姐比我二姐瘦可是我二姐比我大姐高多了！我二姐很喜欢听鹿晗的歌-天天晚上我们一起听鹿晗的歌！你知道吗？我大姐很喜欢狗可是我爸爸不喜欢狗。因为我爸爸不喜欢狗所以我家没有狗。我家有一只可爱的小猫！我妈妈和我很喜欢吃北京烤鸭，所以我们一起去中国菜饭店。我爸爸也喜欢吃北京烤鸭可是我妹妹很喜欢巧克力！
- characters having trouble communicating since they don’t speak the same language
A) the languages being entirely different; trying to guess what the other is saying based on tone, accompanying gestures, etc.
B) the languages being somewhat similar so they might understand a word here or there, and attempt to get the overall meaning from that
- only knowing the basic things in the other’s language and struggling in an attempt to explain what they want to say
- a character understands the language well, but their speech is full of grammatical errors and literal translations from their own language
- a character trying to hide the fact that they aren’t fluent in the other’s language, so they talk as little as possible
- perhaps resorting to just nod whenever the other person seems to expect a response, and accidentaly agreeing with something they normally never would
- the awkward situations that happen when someone directly translates a phrase from their own language and it turns out such a phrase does not exist in the target language
- the misunderstandings because the same word/phrase has a different meaning in the other language
- accidentaly slipping a word from their mother language into the one they’re currently using
Roleplayers use the same language for their interactions, and often forget that their muses might come from a completely different linguistic background. Yet fellow linguists might find the listed situations very interesting!~
