Neighborhoods

Neighborhoods are something everyone can talk about, whether they’re describing their current area or comparing it to where they grew up. These questions work well for practicing descriptive language and discussing community life.

Questions are organized by level from beginner to advanced. A printable PDF of all the questions is available at the bottom of the page.

Beginner (A1-A2)

1. Where is the best place to eat in your city? What kind of food do they have there?
2. Are there any areas in your city where people say there is a lot of crime? Why do you think some neighborhoods have more crime than others?
3. Where is the best place to shop in your city? What do you like about shopping there?
4. What neighborhood do you live in now? Do you like it there?
5. What places are in your neighborhood? What’s your favorite one?
6. Who do you know in your neighborhood? What do you do together?
7. What is the noisiest thing about your neighborhood? Does it bother you?
8. What is the biggest building in your neighborhood? What is it used for?
9. Do you know most of your neighbors? How many have you talked to?
10. How do you get to work or school from your neighborhood? How long does it take?
11. If you could add one thing to your neighborhood, what would it be? (A pool, a park, a shop, etc.)

Elementary (A2)

1. Did you like the neighborhood where you grew up? What was one thing you liked or didn’t like about it?
2. What did you think about your neighbors when you were growing up? Did you have any weird or odd neighbors?
3. What did you like most about the neighborhood you grew up in? What made it special?
4. What is one thing your neighborhood needs? Why?
5. Have you ever had a neighbor who was really helpful? What did they do?
6. Have you ever had a problem with a neighbor? What happened?
7. What don’t you like about your neighborhood? Why?
8. Have you ever helped organize something in your neighborhood? What did you do?
9. Have you ever brought food or a gift to a neighbor? Why did you do that?
10. Have you ever moved to a new neighborhood? What was the hardest part about it?

Intermediate (B1)

1. What is the worst thing a neighborhood can have? Why do you think that is so bad?
2. What kind of neighborhood do you want to raise your children in?
3. Do you think neighborhoods are more, or less, friendly these days? Why do you think that?
4. What will neighborhoods be like in the future?
5. Do you prefer living close to the city center or far away from it? Why?
6. What makes a neighborhood feel safe? Give me some examples.
7. Do you prefer living in a quiet neighborhood or a busy one? Why?
8. Do you prefer to live near your family or far away from them? Why?
9. Do you feel like you belong in your neighborhood? Why?
10. Should landlords be required to maintain their properties to a certain standard? Why or why not?
11. What do you think makes neighbors become friends? Give me some examples.
12. What kind of neighborhood events help bring people together? When are they worth organizing?
13. Should neighborhoods have strict rules about noise, yard maintenance, and house appearance? Why or why not?
14. What changes would improve your neighborhood the most? Is it common in your culture or country to organize and push for changes like that?
15. What kind of neighborhood do you think is the best place to grow old in? Why do you think that?
16. If you could live in any neighborhood in the world, where would you choose and why?
17. Do you think children today play outside in their neighborhoods as much as children did in the past? Why or why not?
18. What do you think makes some neighborhoods feel like a real community while others do not?
19. How has your neighborhood changed since you were a child? What do you think about those changes?

Upper-Intermediate (B2)

1. Do you think it should be the government’s responsibility to clean up neighborhoods or are the people in the neighborhood responsible for cleaning it up?
2. Do you think it is better to live in a neighborhood where everyone is similar to you, or where people are very different? What is good about each?
3. What are the advantages and disadvantages of living in a neighborhood where everyone knows each other?
4. How do economic factors shape which neighborhoods people can afford to live in? How often have you seen people forced to move because of rising costs?
5. What features attract young families to a neighborhood? How is that different from what attracts retirees?
6. How do walkable neighborhoods with good public transit differ from car-dependent suburban neighborhoods? What are the trade-offs of each?
7. What are the advantages and disadvantages of living in a neighborhood where all the houses look the same?
8. When new shops, cafes, and restaurants move into an older neighborhood, what are the benefits and drawbacks for the people who already live there?
9. How does the design of a neighborhood — the streets, the buildings, the green spaces — affect how people feel and behave? Give me some examples.
10. What role do schools play in shaping the character of a neighborhood? How have you seen this in your own experience?
11. How do crime rates in a neighborhood affect property values, businesses, and daily life? What is the bigger issue — the crime itself or how people react to it?
12. When a neighborhood gets more expensive and the original residents can no longer afford to stay, who benefits and who loses? How does this play out in your city?
13. Gated communities promise safety and exclusivity, but they also separate people from the wider community. What trade-offs come with choosing to live behind walls?
14. When governments try to improve struggling neighborhoods through new housing or business incentives, the original residents sometimes end up worse off. Why does this keep happening, and is there a better approach?
15. How does a neighborhood’s history — what happened there decades or even centuries ago — continue to shape the kind of place it is today? Give me an example you have seen or heard about.

Advanced (C1)

1. Neighborhoods often develop their own identity and reputation. How much of that identity is real, and how much is just a story people tell? What shapes that story?
2. Some neighborhoods resist change while others welcome it. What makes a community open to transformation, and at what point does change stop being progress and start being loss?
3. Why do people who grew up in tough neighborhoods sometimes feel a strong loyalty to them, even when they have the chance to leave? What does that say about how we form attachments to places?
4. Some people argue that strong neighborhoods make a strong society, while others say that too much local identity creates division between communities. Where do you see the truth in both sides?
5. How do neighborhood associations and community organizing function as both tools for local empowerment and mechanisms for exclusion?
6. How do different cultural attitudes toward privacy and community shape neighborhood design across the world? What does this reveal about underlying values?
7. People often say they want diverse, mixed-income neighborhoods, but when they actually move, they tend to choose places where most people are like them. Why is there such a gap between what people say they value and what they actually do?
8. When a neighborhood becomes trendy — artists move in, new cafes open, street art appears — the very things that made it attractive often disappear once it gets popular. Why does this cycle keep repeating, and can it ever be broken?
9. Social media now lets people publicly shame neighbors for noise, parking, or messy yards. How has this changed the way neighbors deal with conflict, and is it making neighborhoods more civil or more hostile?
10. In many cities, wealthier neighborhoods get better parks, cleaner streets, and faster emergency response times. How much does the neighborhood you are born into shape the opportunities you get in life, and what does that say about how fair our cities really are?
11. Some neighborhoods keep their character for generations while entire cities change around them. What gives certain neighborhoods that kind of staying power, and is preserving that character always a good thing?

PDF: Download a PDF of all the questions