A1 Level – Elementary
1. Do you like old photos?
2. What is a happy memory?
3. Do you miss being a child?
4. What is a small toy?
5. Do you watch old movies?
6. What is a favorite song from the past?
7. Do you feel emotional about the past?
8. What is a long time ago?
9. Do you think nostalgia is a good feeling?
10. What is a comfortable feeling?
11. Do you like old fashion?
12. What is a childhood home?
13. Do you talk about the past often?
14. What are three things you feel nostalgic for?
15. Do you think the past was better?
A2 Level – Pre-Intermediate
1. What is the difference between remembering and feeling nostalgic?
2. Why does music often cause strong feelings of nostalgia?
3. What are the good things and bad things about constantly looking back?
4. How can nostalgia help a person feel better about the present?
5. Should all people keep physical items from their childhood?
6. Why is it important for companies to use nostalgia in advertising?
7. Do you think nostalgia is an escape from the present?
8. What is the purpose of collecting old video games or toys?
9. How does social media (Timehop, memories) encourage nostalgia?
10. What is the difference between personal nostalgia and collective nostalgia?
11. Do you think movies based on old stories are better than new ones?
12. What are the problems when people only remember the good parts of the past?
13. When is the best time to share a nostalgic memory?
14. What are two differences between good and bad memories?
15. How does nostalgia affect a person’s buying habits?
B1 Level – Intermediate
1. What are the rules for politely sharing a long, nostalgic story?
2. How does the economy affect the price of nostalgic items?
3. Should the government provide resources to preserve historical sites related to collective memory?
4. What is the difference between nostalgia for childhood and nostalgia for a historical era?
5. Do you believe that nostalgia is a natural human coping mechanism?
6. What are the challenges of recreating a nostalgic memory exactly?
7. How does the focus on past success affect the motivation for future achievement?
8. What is the idea of the “good old days”?
9. Is it fair or unfair when some people profit greatly from selling nostalgia?
10. How does a lack of shared culture affect collective nostalgia?
11. What are the steps for properly creating a time capsule?
12. What is the value of nostalgia in giving a person a sense of continuity?
13. Should public media criticize the negative aspects of past eras (e.g., poverty, war)?
14. What are the reasons why some people feel uncomfortable talking about the past?
15. How does the feeling of nostalgia inspire artists and musicians?
B2 Level – Upper-Intermediate
1. What are the social pressures to appreciate the same cultural references as your generation?
2. What are the moral problems when nostalgia is used by politicians to promote a false or idealized past?
3. How does constant online viewing of retro content affect appreciation for new media?
4. Should companies be legally required to disclose if a product is a nostalgic reprint versus an original design?
5. Analyze the psychological effect of confronting the idea that time is constantly passing.
6. Who is responsible for ensuring that historical education includes the full, complex reality of the past?
7. What is your view on the practice of deliberately seeking out nostalgic experiences?
8. Evaluate the role of media companies in reviving old franchises purely for financial gain.
9. How does the concept of “golden age thinking” affect political views?
10. Discuss the concept of a “nostalgia paradox” (wanting the past but knowing the present is better).
11. What are the problems with having very different interpretations of a shared nostalgic memory?
12. What are the legal differences between general nostalgia marketing and misleading consumers?
13. Do you agree that the purpose of nostalgia is mainly to cope with the stress of change?
14. What steps should be taken to ensure that nostalgia does not become an obsession with the past?
15. How does the economic power of nostalgia affect creative industries?
C1 Level – Advanced
1. Is it fair that consumer culture profits from people’s deep emotional connection to their past?
2. What is the right way to think about a politician’s moral duty to present an accurate and balanced view of history?
3. How do the platform’s algorithms influence the type of highly nostalgic media that becomes dominant?
4. When should the government consider mandatory limits on the reuse of nostalgic cultural property?
5. What are the moral questions when we talk about using psychological tools to trigger consumption based on nostalgia?
6. How does the focus on past aesthetics affect the long-term, necessary investment in new, innovative design?
7. Discuss the impact of major historical trauma on collective nostalgia.
8. How should leaders use knowledge about collective memory to promote unity and forward thinking?
9. What is the idea of “cultural memory” and its link to national identity?
10. What are the long-term effects on society when the highest value is placed on familiarity over novelty?
11. What are the difficulties when courts try to decide if a company is infringing on cultural nostalgia?
12. How does the search for total emotional comfort conflict with the ethical need for facing present reality?
13. Do you agree that the most important thing is the function of nostalgia as a source of self-continuity?
14. What are the simple moral rules a person should follow when they benefit from historical privilege?
15. Should the government set a legal minimum for the amount of historical truth required in all public history presentations?
C2 Level – Proficiency
1. What is the real difference between a person’s subjective memory of the past and the objective historical reality?
2. Debate the idea: Should we completely ban all commercial use of childhood nostalgia?
3. How does the concept of “identity” change when it is highly mediated by curated digital memories?
4. What laws or rules are needed to control how technology platforms use algorithms to target users based on their memory data?
5. How do historical views of progress and decline affect modern nostalgic sentiment?
6. How can communities maintain a forward-looking vision when public discourse is dominated by idealized views of the past?
7. Argue the point that humans should stop all attempts to control the feeling of nostalgia and allow the individual total freedom of sentiment.
8. What protection should laws give to employees who report corporate manipulation of history?
9. How can we stop the problem of using the argument of “tradition” to justify regressive social policies?
10. What did old thinkers say about memory, time, and the moral use of the past that is still relevant today?
11. What will happen to the need for human storytelling if AI can perfectly generate nostalgic content tailored to any user?
12. How do people use the idea of “simpler times” to avoid discussing the complexity of the present?
13. How does the experience of a major life transition improve a person’s ability to appreciate the present moment?
14. What is the power of a collective movement to demand that media prioritizes new, innovative content over endless remakes?
15. If scientists could create a perfect, non-bias record of all human experience, how would that fundamentally change the need for personal nostalgia?
