In this session we explored what makes a person happy, what happiness means to different people and how it can be achieved.
Ice breaker
The 'Love is...' a comic strip that appears in British newspapers offers weekly definitions of what 'Love is...' I ask you to provide 3 examples of what 'Happiness is...' for example, 'Happiness is a cold beer on a warm summer day' or 'Happiness is carpet under your feet.'
Grammar section
We focus on how to pronounce English like a native, using a variety of online and offline tools. This is based on the Bulldog article found here
Open debate
The following slideshow is split into two parts, first the 'objective' definition of happiness based on the World Happiness Index you can download here
The World Happiness Index was produced by the UN as a more humane way to look at Global positioning than GDP
What do you think about the position of your country?
The second part of the slideshow is about the neurochemicals of happiness, what happiness means in science. We ask these questions? What does happiness 'feel' like? Where does it come from? IS there a formula?
Video
Watch this video on Happiness and winning the lottery.
PAUSE at 0.24 Would you be happy years after winning the lottery?
PAUSE at 1.46 Are you as happy now as you were 10 years ago?
PAUSE at 2.39 What is rigged?
PAUSE at 2.48 What is hogging?
PAUSE at 3.09 How COULD you spend your money to make yourself happy? What would you do with a million Euros?
Debate
Split into groups to discuss the following questions. After 5 minutes stop and move to a new group, with different people. NEW PLACES, NEW FACES. Try to communicate with as many people as possible to benefit from different vocabulary, grammar, accents and opinions.
AT HOME: try this as a writing exercise or start a discussion in the FORUM
1 Is happiness a goal to pursue?
2 Is happiness geographical? Physical? Psychological? Imaginary?
3 When are you happiest?
4 Is it more difficult to be happy today than 50 years ago?
5 If happiness came in a pill, would you take it?