[puu_sawn]

"most of the business agreements are made while having an informal talk" Very true!

I've used the Compelling Conversations book quite regularly with one of my students. Home -They have a few free .pdf's you can try first.

Another thing I did is I emailed all my personal friends (non ESL teachers) and asked for five questions each from them.

My email was something like:
One of the ice breakers I've been using with ESL students is to have a stack on index cards with questions on them. Such as "Do you think Graffiti is art? Why?" It's good for 10-15 minutes of conversation. Makes it more like a game, less like an interview, especially with tutoring one-one-one.

I've asked students to create some of their own but I'm looking for some more offbeat questions.. yet in good taste of course...

I compiled them all, printed them out on stickers and put on index cards. You'd be surprised the topics your friends can come up with for questions. : D