Discussion Topics: Neighbours
- What sort of things can neighbours do to help each other?
Well I suppose there are a few common things that neighbours might do to help each other out. For example, when you are cooking something but you have run out of some common ingredient and it’s too late to go to the shop, then maybe you can ask your neighbour to lend you some. Also it’s quite common for neighbours to keep an eye on each other’s places, you know, to look out for thieves and things like that. Robberies aren’t too common in my neighbourhood but they do happen occasionally. When I was young, my mother used to look after our neighbour’s dog sometimes too, when they went away on holiday somewhere. I’m sure there are a million more things that good neighbours can do for each other.
- How well do people generally know their neighbours in your country?
I think that depends on whether you live in the city or in the countryside, or even whether you live in a house or live in an apartment building. You know, people who live in the countryside often know their neighbours quite well I think. Probably because they see them more often, and because there are less people living in the countryside, so people tend to know a lot more people in their neighbourhood or village. In the city though, people don’t always know their neighbours very well, especially if they live in an apartment building with squillions of other people. I guess when you live in an apartment building you just don’t see your neighbours very often, so you don’t get much chance to socialise at all.
- How important do you think it is to have good neighbours?
Well, I guess it’s quite important really. I mean, nobody wants to live next door to bad neighbours do they? People naturally prefer to live next door to someone that they can trust, or depend on when times are tough. Or someone that is respectful and doesn’t make loud noises all the time, or play music loudly when you are trying to go to sleep. I guess in an ideal world you would be great friends with all the people in your neighbourhood.
Facilities in cities
- Which facilities are most important to people living in cities?
I guess that would depend upon different types of people. On the one hand, younger people probably want to have access to entertainment facilities, like movie theatres and shopping malls, while elderly people or those who like exercise might want to have access to parks, exercise equipment, and maybe gyms and fitness centres. I suppose people also want access to good educational facilities and things like hospitals and medical facilities too.
- How does shopping in small local shops differ from shopping in large city centre shops?
Well, I suppose there are a few differences between the two. Firstly, by shopping in small local shops, you are often supporting locally owned businesses, which means more money into the local economy. A lot of large city centre shops are chain stores which aren’t owned by local people, which means a lot of the money spent in these shops leaves the local economy, which is quite often not a good thing. Furthermore, when shopping in smaller local shops you can quite often negotiate the prices of things, whereas in the bigger stores in cities, you can’t bargain for a better deal because the prices are usually fixed. That’s from my personal experience anyway.
- Do you think children should always go to the school nearest to where they live?
No, not really. I mean, I think that children should be able to go to any school they want to go to if there is room for them in a class. I think children who live near the school should have first preference to go there, and if there are any extra spaces for other children from other areas then they could also attend that school too. I don’t really see any point in travelling long distances to go to school. I think that all schools should try to uphold the same high standard of education. I guess some schools might specialise in a particular field of education, or have a special sports program for gifted children. In those situations I think it is ok for children to choose a particular school.
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