Seasons work well because everyone experiences weather and the changing year differently. These questions range from simple preferences to discussions about climate change and cultural traditions.
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)
- What is your favorite season? What do you like to do during that time of year?
- What do you think of when you think of winter?
- What is the worst season in your country? What makes it so bad?
- Does it snow in your hometown in the winter? Did you use to make snowmen?
- What is your favorite thing to do in summer? What do you like about it?
- Do you ever go hiking when the leaves change in fall? What’s the best place you’ve been to see the fall colors?
- Does your country have a special food for any of the seasons? What is it and when do people eat it?
- What kind of clothes do you wear in winter? How is it different from summer?
- What do you like to do on a rainy day? Do you stay inside or go out?
- What is the best fruit or vegetable you can get in summer? What do you do with it?
- Who do you spend the most time with in summer? What do you do together?
- What’s the coldest place you have ever been? What did you do there?
- What flowers or trees do you see in spring? What colors are they?
Elementary (A2)
- What are some things your family did when you were a child in spring?
- What festivals or celebrations does your country have during the changing of the seasons?
- Where is the best place to be in summer? How about winter? What makes those places great for each season?
- What is the strangest weather you have ever seen? Tell me about it.
- Do you like hot weather or cold weather? What’s good about each?
- What does your city look like in spring?
- What is the worst thing about winter where you live? What makes it so bad?
- What do people in your country complain about in winter? What about in summer?
- Have you ever experienced extreme weather? What happened?
- What outdoor activities do you stop doing in winter? Why do you stop?
- What sport or exercise do you do differently depending on the season? Why?
- What time do you usually wake up in summer compared to winter? Why is it different?
Intermediate (B1)
- What season were you born in? Do you think that’s a good time to have a birthday? Why?
- Do you think the seasons in your country are changing? How so?
- Should schools have longer breaks in summer or spread vacation time across all four seasons? Why or why not?
- What do you think is the best season to start something new? Give me some examples.
- How do the seasons affect your mood and energy? Is it common in your culture or country to talk about this?
- Do you think people are happier in summer or winter? Why do you think so?
- If you could add a fifth season to the year, what would it be like and when would it come?
- Should people try to adapt to their climate or change their environment with heating and air conditioning? Why or why not?
- How has climate change affected the seasons in your region? What do you think about those changes?
- If you could skip one season every year, which one would you remove? What would you miss about it?
- Do you think children today experience the seasons differently than their grandparents did? How so?
Upper-Intermediate (B2)
- Do you prefer living in a place with four distinct seasons or mild weather year-round? What are the downsides of each?
- What are the advantages and disadvantages of living in a country with extreme seasonal changes?
- How do seasonal changes affect the economy in your country? Consider both tourism and agriculture.
- Compare how people dress for winter in different countries. What cultural and practical factors influence their choices?
- How has modern technology changed the way people experience the seasons compared to a hundred years ago?
- What are the implications of seasonal affective disorder for workplace policies and mental health support?
- Why do some seasonal traditions survive for centuries while others disappear? What makes the difference?
- How do different seasons affect the way people eat, socialize, and use their free time? Which season changes your daily life the most?
- Should governments spend more money preparing for extreme seasonal weather, or is it better to let people adapt on their own? What are the upsides of each approach?
- Compare how people in tropical countries and people in northern countries think about the concept of summer. What’s different about their relationship to it?
Advanced (C1)
- How do the politics and economy of a country influence which seasons people actually enjoy, and how does that differ between wealthy and developing nations?
- To what extent do modern societies’ attempts to neutralize seasonal effects through technology represent progress versus loss of important human experiences?
- How might the disappearance of distinct seasons due to climate change simultaneously threaten cultural traditions and create new ones?
- What tensions exist between economic demands for year-round productivity and biological/psychological human needs for seasonal rhythms and rest?
- How does living in a place with extreme seasons, such as very long winters or intense monsoons, shape a population’s resilience, mental health, and social structures differently from living in a mild climate?
- In what ways do seasonal tourism and migration reveal underlying power dynamics between wealthy travelers and the communities that depend on them?
- How does global capitalism both depend on and disrupt natural seasonal patterns in agriculture, retail, and labor markets?
- How might the way a language talks about seasons for example the words it has or the metaphors it uses reflect deeper assumptions about that culture’s worldview?
- How might seasonal patterns in mental health, crime, and social behavior reflect deeper connections between human nature and environmental cycles that modern society overlooks?
- How do seasonal festivals simultaneously reinforce national identity and become commercialized products marketed to outsiders? Where is the line between cultural celebration and cultural performance?