40 Conversation Starters That Make Mingling Fun

1. Where did you grow up? This is a great icebreaker that gets someone talking about the
past, which often puts others at ease.
2. Do you have any pets? People love their pets, and inquiring about them encourages
further conversation. And, even if the person you're chatting with doesn't have any, it's
still a good start.
3. What's your favorite book? Instead of asking what people are reading right now, which
can be a bit too intimate, asking about a book they love can create a mutual connection.
4. What's the first thing you do after work? Do you kick off your shoes? Hit the gym?
Asking how people relax makes them feel relaxed.
5. What's your dream job? Even at a corporate gathering, inquiring about someone's
dream job is a fun way to get a conversation started.
6. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be? Not everyone gets to
travel tons, making this a fun question for anyone.
7. What countries have you traveled to? Even if you haven't traveled the world, asking if
others have encourages someone to share memories.
8. Do you like to cook? Asking about favorite dishes and culinary adventures sparks
delicious dishing.
9. What's your favorite food? Everyone eats, making this an icebreaker that works
anywhere, anytime.
10. What's your favorite drink? A wonderfully basic question, asking about best-loved
beverages works at any gathering.
11. Do you have a favorite local restaurant? This is a great conversation to get people
talking about their favorite local hangouts, which puts everyone at ease.
12. What's your favorite movie? You can find out a lot about a person when you chat about
a favorite movie. Follow it up with specific questions, such as scene stealers and actors in
the flick.
13. What movie are you dying to see? Jump in with a question that involves everyone and
will get a group chatting over new releases.
14. What are you watching on TV? This is another question that won't offend and is open-
ended, encouraging even the supershy to start chatting.
15. What's the last concert you went to? Another easygoing question for one-on-one
conversation or for jumping into a group conversation. And it's a fun way to find out
what kinds of music your new friends listen to.
16. What's the craziest thing you've ever done? For those who are ready to make a bold
first impression, this is a question that gets attention and can lead to fun conversation.
17. If you were stranded on a deserted island and you could have only one item, what
would it be? Yes, a classic one-liner, but this convo starter always gets a good answer.
18. What's your favorite season? Here's a question that works well with the "it's always
easy to talk about the weather" concept. Follow up by asking about the current weather
conditions, and you have a conversation.
19. Do you speak any other languages? Asking a semipersonal question encourages others
to share information about themselves without feeling guarded.
20. Do you have anything fun planned for the weekend? Make chatting easy by asking
about future plans without setting off a stalker vibe. Keep it light and share your plans
too.
21. Where's your favorite place to hang out in town? Here is another fun way to start a
conversation about your community without being threatening. And it opens discussion
to favorite restaurants, bars, and shops.
22. I like your shirt! Where did you get it? A genuine compliment makes anyone smile.
23. I can't place this song do you know it? Hey, even if you know the tune, asking
someone else about the music playing is a simple start.
24. How long have you been at your job? Even at a corporate event, asking others about
their job titles, roles, and how long they have been at the company breaks the ice.
25. Tell me about something that made you laugh this week. Everyone loves a good
laugh! Asking about something that brought on a chuckle makes anyone smile.
26. If you had a million dollars, what would you do with it? A bit more direct, but asking
a specific question that requires thought can really make an impression.
27. How are you today? Sure, this is a no-brainer question, but it gets people talking.
28. Where is the best place you have ever visited? Taking a vacation is always wonderful.
Asking someone new about a favorite destination is always an easy way to start talking.
29. Did you hear about (something trending in the news)? Pick something pretty generic,
remembering to stay away from politics and religion, and the conversation will get
rolling.
30. So, what's your story? OK, this one is borderline pick-up line, but it's also a direct
approach for chatting.
31. This place is awesome! Have you been here before? Complimenting the venue is a
positive way to chat with others.
32. If you could be an animal, what would you be and why? Just don't roar after asking!
This question is also a fun and light way to break the ice.
33. If you could invite a famous person over for dinner, who would it be? Also an often-
used convo starter, this question has lasted the test of time, which makes it a winner
anywhere, anytime.
34. What's your favorite holiday? Open and generic, a basic question is an easy way to
start mingling.
35. What's the craziest thing you've ever eaten? Here's another fun question that gets
people talking! And it's a great question to use when you feel awkward joining a group
that's already chatting.
36. What is one thing you couldn't live without? Wine? Chocolate? Bread? There's no
wrong answer to this question, which makes it another winner.
37. Have you ever won anything? It feels good when you win something, so asking
someone about this special moment encourages sharing.
38. Do you have any brothers or sisters? Slightly personal without requiring too much info,
asking others about their family is a smart way to make connections.
39. Have you ever met anyone famous? A brush with a famous person is always a thrill,
making talking about it with a stranger a fun icebreaker.
40. Do you prefer texting, calling, or emailing? Emailing! This is actually a great question
to ask someone after you have made a connection. Follow up by asking for your new
friend's phone number or email address.
Surefire Ways to Make Your Lessons More Fun
If you've ever taught English before, you have probably had this complaint (or have at the very
least known someone who has received it before):

"Your class is too boring. The students want more activities/games!"

It happens to the best of us, so I'm going to share five proven activities that can be adjusted to
work for almost any lesson. Every one of them emphasizes student talk-time, and they are all
genuinely fun for both you and the students.

Mystery Theater
This one is great for the teacher. You get to sit back and watch some really original and wacky
student-created plays! The trick is, don't tell them they will be acting anything out until the last
minute.

Materials needed:
Just a whiteboard and some markers!

The setup:
You will need to write a list of genres (romance, comedy, horror, drama, and action, for
example) in one corner of the board. Also on the board, you will have a list of a few questions.
For example, I might ask students things like:

What are the tastiest foods?

What is scary?
What is something you would say to the person you love?
What are things you might find in the sky?
What kinds of things do people keep in their pockets?
What are boy's names?
What smells very bad?

You probably want to choose 3 to 5 questions to brainstorm as a class.

The activity:

1. First, direct the students' attention to the questions written on the board. Conduct a class
discussion about each, writing your students' answers on the board (clustered around the
question). Have them brainstorm at least ten quick answers for each question.
2. Then choose which question-and-answer the class likes best: This will be the word group
you'll be working with.
3. Assign each student to a small group of 2-6 students, depending the size of your class.
4. Draw their attention to the genres you listed in the corner of the board, describe each one,
then assign a different genre to each group.
 5. Okay, now it's time to explain that this game is all about creating role-plays. Every team
must make and perform a role-play for the class in which they find a way to use every
word that's clustered around the question at least once, in the genre they've been
assigned!
6. Give them 10-15 minutes to work in their groups and figure out just what the heck they
are gonna say! After that, bring the class back together for presentations, and I promise
you're going to see some very original, hilarious plays being acted out in English!

Note: A good teacher will give the class a clear example of how to do this. In other words, it's
only fair that you do a role-play yourself. This will help your students understand the assignment
and will also break the ice!

Mystery Theater Brainstorm:

For each question, cluster at least ten of your students' answers on the board!

Dangerous Definitions
This one is based on the classic board game Balderdash, a game I always love playing with my
friends, so I thought, why not find a way to bring it to the classroom?

Materials needed:
A list of very strange words and a pile of small papers for teams to write definitions on.

The setup:
Find about 20 words for which your students will have absolutely no clue what the definitions
are. I'm not kidding: The weirder and more obscure the word, the more fun this game will be.
You're not trying to teach these words, you're simply trying to get them to work together using
English in a fun way.

The activity:

1. Divide the class into balanced teams of no more than four people. If you have a small
class, playing individually is just as fun.
2. Write the first word on the board. Tell them the part of speech it is if you want, but do not
tell them the definition and don't let them use a dictionary.
3. Ask each team to create a definition for this word and write it on one of the small pieces
of paper provided. Tell them to do their best to make it sound as real and believable as
possible.
4. Once all teams are finished with their definitions, they hand the papers to you and you
read each paper out loud to the class. You should also slip in the actual definition and
read it out to the class. It's very important that you read all the papers the same way and
give no clues as to which one is the correct definition.
5. Once all the definitions have been read, the teams must decide which they think is the
correct one. Once all the votes are in, you tally the scores like this:

If a team guesses the correct definition, give them 2 points.

If a team guesses a definition that was created by another team, give 1 point to the team that
made up that definition.

See how it works? The object is to create a definition that seems so real it will trick the other
teams into choosing it. It's fun for everyone and helps students think about words and their
meanings in a different way. You'll all be surprised at how creative some of the student
definitions are!

Balderdash: Define Words That Sound Like Nonsense!

Have You Ever Played a Game Like This?
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Yes, Love it!

Can't Stand it!
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Original Origins
This is a really fun game if you have a creative class. It might not work so well for a class that
hates to talk, but then again, this might just be the push they need to get going!

Materials needed:
Absolutely none, although a whiteboard is helpful.

The setup:
Think of a few "deep" or difficult questions that most people can't really answer, things like,
"Why is the sky blue?" "Which came first: The chicken or the egg?" or "Why do monkeys have
tails?"

The activity:
Play in teams or individually, depending on what better suits your class. The purpose of the game
is to answer the questions. Simple as that. The only rule is that the students can not give the
actual answer to the question (if they know it)! They must create the most entertaining and
original answer they can think of. The more outside-the-box they get, the better.

Give them about 15 minutes to work on their answers. Once the time is up, bring everyone back
together and have students take turns presenting answers to the class. They get points for
presentation, originality, and creativity. When everyone has finished presenting, you can either
pick the winner yourself or have the class vote on who they thought created the best answer for
each question.

It's a fun game and it really tests their English. Great for intermediate/advanced classes.
To Play the Game, You'll Need a List of Deep Questions

Sphere Selector
This one's an old favorite of mine. It's basically a quiz game with a twist that makes it even more
enjoyable for the students.

Materials needed:
One soft ball (one that won't do any damage if thrown around a classroom), a whiteboard, and
pre-made question cards.

The setup:
Before the lesson, prepare questions of varying difficulty in at least five categories. Categories I
often use are: Geography (questions about the world), grammar (they must correct a sentence),
synonyms (they must provide a synonym for a word), general knowledge (I just find odd facts on
the Internet for this one), and acting (you give the student a word or sentence, they must act it out
without making a sound for their team to guess). You can design your own categories so you can
manipulate the game however you wish, depending on the language and skill level that you want
to target. You will need four questions per category, ranging in difficulty from easy to hard.

So once you have your questions ready, draw a jigsaw map on the board with five big pieces, and
assign one of your categories to each piece. In the center of each space, write the name of the
category, and surround it with the numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4.

The activity:
Divide the students into two teams, and give one team the ball to start with. They must throw the
ball at the board to select a category. This makes it harder for them to pick the category they are
comfortable with, and they have fun throwing the ball in the classroom.

Once they have a category selected, ask them how many points they will play for; they get to
select a number from 1-4. 1 means an easy question, but only 1 point. 4 would be a very difficult
question, and therefore you get 4 points for it.

If for some reason their team can't answer the question, or they get it wrong, the other team then
gets a chance to steal the points if they can answer it correctly.

It's fun, and all you have to do is sit back and ask the questions. They enjoy throwing the ball and
they get to talk with each other about what the correct answer is.

Of course, keep a running tally of the scores somewhere on the board, and at the end of class,
you can declare who is the champion!

Fun Games = Happy Students!

One of my best classes from years back!

Ring of Fire
I saved the best for last. My students requested this game more often than any other game we
ever played. It's based on the old drinking game "Ring of Fire," modified for the classroom.

Materials needed:
A standard deck of playing cards, a whiteboard, 20-30 small slips of blank paper, and a bowl.
The setup:
Almost none! Place the bowl in the center of a table and spread the cards out, face down, in a
circle around the bowl. On the whiteboard (or on a photocopied handout if a whiteboard isn't
available) list the 12 cards (ace to king) and the actions associated with each card. (For more on
what exactly those actions are, see below.)

The activity:
Before you start the game, hand every student two small slips of paper. Instruct them to write
down two questions and to keep them secret! When they are finished, they need to fold up the
papers and place them in the bowl on the table.

The students will take turns pulling a card. When it's their turn, they choose one and hold it up so
the whole class can see it. Now here's the fun part. They must perform the action associated with
that card, whatever it is!

Here are the actions I assign to cards and the penalties involved:

K: Ask anyone. (The person who draws the king must pull a random question from the bowl and
pose it to any of their classmates.)

Q: Ask a girl. (Same as above, but the classmate must be a girl.)

J: Ask a boy. (Ditto, but a boy this time.)

10: Ask your teacher! (This is dangerous! They love it of course, but once they catch on to the
game, they will start slipping dangerous questions in there, hoping to catch you, i.e. which
student in the class do you think is the most attractive?)

9: Bunny ears! (Everyone must make bunny ears with their fingers. The last person to do so must
select and answer a question.)

8: Words. (You choose a topic: The students must go in a circle naming new vocabulary for that
topic. The first one who can't say a new word has to answer a question. For example: For the
topic of fruit... Apple! Banana! Orange! Carrot! Oops! The person who said "carrot" has to
answer a question!)

7: Pick again.

6: Touch your nose! (Like bunny ears, except students must now touch their noses with both
fingers to avoid answering the question.)

5: Answer one question.

4: Ask the person on your left.

3: Ask the person on your right.

2: Answer two questions. (Ouch! The person who picked this has to answer two questions in
front of the class.)

A: Free card. (The student got lucky; she doesn't have to ask or answer any questions.)

Note: This is just an example of a setup I use for intermediate university level classes. You can
adjust the actions and penalties however you want to suit the topic or grammar point you would
like to work on. Students love this game: They get to talk and act silly, and the suspense of
waiting to see which card will be picked is really intense!