The weather is now cold enough in most of our students’ countries to become a topic of conversation. And since people get through the winter in different ways from place to place, why not take advantage of it in a free-talk lesson?

Read on to discover some questions we can ask our students to spark conversation along with plenty of vocabulary (bolded) they’ll want to know!

Hot Pot 🍲

At this time of year, our students in Taiwan and Japan start eating more of something called “hot pot.” You can get an idea of it from this video:

In sum, people sit around a pot of boiling water or broth. Then, they dunk meat, vegetables, tofu and/or seafood into the broth and take them out when they’re ready to be eaten. 

• Do you like hot pot? 
• Is hot pot popular all year long or just this time of the year?
• What’s your favorite hot pot ingredient? What’s your least favorite?
• What kind of ingredients do people in your country generally put in hot pot? 
• What kind of broth do you use?

The meat that’s put into the pot is cut thinly so it can be cooked quickly. A form of hot pot that is popular around East Asia is “shabu shabu,” in which the slices of meat are thin enough to be cooked in just a few seconds!

• What’s your favorite kind of hot pot? 
• Have you tried shabu shabu? What do you think of it? (Note: the term “shabu shabu” is originally Japanese, but now also popularly used in Korea and Taiwan.)
• For Japanese students: Why is shabu shabu called “shabu shabu”?

But let’s not forget about the dipping sauce, another important feature of the hot pot experience. Popular options include sesame sauce for Japanese hot pots and soy sauce with condiments like shacha sauce for Taiwanese hot pots.

Finally, after all the meat and veggies are gone, people usually put in noodles or rice to finish up. These ingredients soak up the stew, absorbing the rich flavor of all the ingredients that came before it.

• What do you do with all the soup when you’re done?

DIY or Restaurant?

You can have hot pot at home, DIY-style, or eat at a restaurant that just serves hot pot. Different hot pot restaurants offer different perks. Some are all-you-can-eat while others offer high-quality meat or nice dessert options. Yet others offer hot pots for one!

• Do you prefer eating hot pot at home or at a restaurant? 
• What are the pros and cons of eating hot pot at home vs. at a restaurant? 
• Do you prefer eating hot pot alone or with someone else?
• Would you ever try all-you-can-eat hot pot?

Now let’s go over some special hot pots in Taiwan and Japan!

Special Hot Pots

Many hot pot restaurants provide the option of a split (or divided) hot pot, with spicy broth on one side and non-spicy broth on the other.

• What are the advantages of ordering a split/divided hot pot? Have you ever ordered one before?
• I hear that split hot pots have a special name in Chinese. Can you tell me about it? (Hint: it’s named after a romantic bird.)
• I heard that duck blood sausage is a common ingredient in spicy hot pots. Are you a fan?

And if you’re looking for an aesthetically-pleasing hot pot, look no further than the Japanese mille-feuille hot pot, consisting of alternating layers of cabbage and pork.

Hot Foods in Korea 🔥

Pots of bubbling hot food are consumed year round in Korea. Yes, even in the dead of summer. For example, the country’s famous ginseng chicken soup is considered a summer food.

So unlike in Japan and Taiwan, hot pot isn’t really its own category of food here. However, you can be sure that hot food definitely gets more popular this time of year. 

A famous type of “food-in-a-pot” in Korea is army stew, which uses kimchi, spam and instant noodles.

Another example is one-chicken soup, a delicious soup that includes chicken which you can dip in a flavorful soy sauce-mustard sauce.

• What’s your favorite hot food?
• Tell me about army stew! Why is it called that? 
• What’s your favorite chicken stew? Do you like one-chicken soup better or ginseng chicken soup?
• Do you like ox bone soup or pork bone soup? (The list goes on.)

Another popular hot dish in Korea is rice porridge, or congee. It’s like risotto, but the rice is cooked to a mush. This dish is also common in Taiwan and Japan, where people enjoy it as a comfort food for breakfast or when they’re feeling under the weather. 

• Do you like rice porridge?
• What’s your favorite flavor of rice porridge?
• What’s your favorite comfort food?

Hot Baths ♨️

And if there’s anything better than eating hot food, it’s taking a hot bath! So it’s no surprise that hot springs become even more popular this time of year in Japan and Taiwan. 

• Do you like soaking in hot springs?
• Where do you go for hot springs?
• What can you tell me about etiquette when going to a hot spring?
• What do you think are some health benefits of taking baths?
• Do you like open-air hot springs?

There are even entire towns dedicated to hot spring tourism.

• Have you been to a hot spring town? 
• How do you think hot spring towns stay alive in the summer when fewer people visit?

Those who want a less touristy experience can soak in wild hot springs in natural areas.

• Have you ever been to a wild hot spring? If not, would you like to go?
• What might be some risks of going to a natural hot spring vs. an indoor one?

Hot springs are not as popular in South Korea, but people do go to saunas and public bathhouses all year round. By the way, we can’t talk about Korean bathhouses without mentioning the famous Korean-style body scrub.

• Do you like saunas? Why? Why not?
• What are the health benefits of saunas and body scrubs?
• For Korean students: I hear you can have your body scrubbed at saunas in your country. Have you tried this before? What’s it like? Would you recommend it?

Finally, keep in mind that baths aren’t all hot. Nature sometimes has cold springs, and some bathhouses come with cold baths.

• Is it common to take cold baths in your country? 
• Do you like taking cold baths?

👋 That’s it for now! 

Wherever you are, we hope this piece has warmed you up! And if you’re in the southern hemisphere, we hope you’re now keen to ask your students about all these foods and baths!

• cross-cultural communication
• free-talk topics