Game

1. What games are popular in your country?
Well, if we can consider sports as games, then football is definitely the most popular game in my country, but we also love board games like chess.

2. Do you play any games?
Not regularly these days. I play the occasional game of tennis with my brother-in-law, and I recently played a bowling game on the Nintendo Wii with my nephew. I wasn't very good at it.

3. How do people learn to play games in your country?
I think children teach each other to play games. I remember a friend at primary school teaching me to play chess, for example.

4. Do you think it's important for people to play games?
Yes, it's really important, especially for children. I think research has shown that play can improve brain development, intelligence, creativity, and the ability to cooperate with others.

Describe an open-air or street market which you enjoyed visiting.

• where the market was
• what the market sells
• how big the market was

and explain why you enjoyed visiting this market.

I think nowadays small local markets are disappearing for many different reasons. I can remember my parents selling junk and other household things they didn't want anymore at a garage sale, but I know people now who do the same thing but on eBay and other internet sites like that. I think internet auction sites are more popular than traditional markets especially for young people.

Yes, markets can be a good option depending on the kind of items you want to sell. I think that if you're selling food then it's a good idea to try and sell it at a local market if you can. After all, it's a little difficult to taste food on an internet auction site, so it's much easier at a market. A lot has to do with the local culture, I think produce markets are more popular in agricultural areas of the country, but not so common in cities and town nowadays. I suppose another item might be furniture which is handmade or antique, you know, the type made by local crafstmen, that still seems to be popular at some markets.

No, I don't. Most young people aren't really interested in going to markets and places like that. Most of my friends buy things on the internet and rarely go shopping like our parents used to. It's just so much easier, maybe it's not as interesting as meeting people in a market, but it's certainly more convenient and it doesn't depend on the weather, and you can also get a better choice when you look on the internet. I think the future of traditional markets might be somewhat limited to certain items which are very specialized.

Part 3 – Two-way discussion:

Shopping at markets:
Q. Do people in your country enjoy going to open-air markets that sell things like food or clothes or old objects? Which type of market is more popular? Why?
Q. Do you think markets are more suitable places for selling certain types of things? Which ones? Why do you think this is?
Q. Do you think young people feel the same about shopping at markets as older people? Why is that?
Shopping in general:
Q. What do you think are the advantages of buying things from shops rather than markets?
Q. How does advertising influence what people choose to buy? Is this true for everyone?
Q. Do you think that any recent changes in the way people live have affected general shopping trends?