General Knowledgespeaking topic
In China you ask for someone's family name rather than their given name, because family comes first; in the West the 'I' comes first and the surname after. Even the order of a name is a society's answer to the question of who comes first. Does which part of our name we put forward reveal how we see the world?
— onomastics, name order and social structure
practice with this topic
Set the timer (5-30 min), take 20 seconds of prep if you like, start talking. Jot your thoughts onto the sticky-note board.
similar topics
- The Balinese calendar runs several weeks at once; some are 5 days long, some 7, all turning inside one another. For a Balinese person, 'today' is the intersection of several different cycles at the same time. How would it change you to live time not as a straight line but as a set of interlocking gears?
- How did the invention of writing emerge in Mesopotamia? Let's talk about how cuneiform began as a bookkeeping tool and evolved into literature.
- Focus on one task, or multitask? 'Multitasking' is really attention bouncing back and forth, and every switch charges a cognitive toll. Why does the thing that feels efficient actually slow us down?
- How did the Industrial Revolution radically change human life? From the steam engine to the factory, let's talk about the social cost of the migration from countryside to city.
- Print book or e-reader? Spatial memory works harder with print, while screens offer portability and search. Which one for depth of understanding, and why?