Speech Topics
General/Life
1. Where did you go last weekend? What did you do?
2. What are you going to do this weekend?
3. What do you do to get rid of stress?
4. What is something you love or are obsessed with?
5. Who is your favorite entertainer (comedian, musician, actor, etc.)?
6. Do you have any pets (or did you ever have any pets)? What are their names?
7. What is something that is popular now that annoys you?
8. What did you do on your last vacation?
9. When was the last time you worked incredibly hard? What did you do?
10. Are you very active of do you prefer to just relax in your free time?
11. Who is your oldest friend? Where did you meet them?
12. What’s the best / worst thing about your work / school?
13. If you could have any animal as a pet, what animal would you choose?
14. What three words best describe you?
15. What would be your perfect weekend?
16. What do you think of tattoos? Do you have any?
17. What’s your favorite number? Why?
18. What’s the most useful thing you own?
19. If you opened a business, what kind of business would it be?
20. What is the strangest dream you have ever had?
21. Who in your life brings you the most joy?
22. Who had the biggest impact on the person you have become?
23. What is the most annoying habit someone can have?
24. Where is the most beautiful place you have been?
25. Where do you spend most of your free time / day?
26. Who was your best friend in elementary school?
27. What’s your favorite season? Why?
28. Which is more important, a great car or a great house? Why?
29. Where is the most beautiful place near where you live?
30. What do you bring with you everywhere you go?
31. Which recent news story is the most interesting?
32. If you had to change your name, what would your new name be?
33. How should success be measured? By that measurement, who is the most successful person you know?
34. If you could learn the answer to one question about your future, what would the question be?
35. What trends did you follow when you were younger?
36. What was the best time period of your life? What do you think will be the best time period of your entire life?
37. What do you do to improve your mood when you are in a bad mood?
38. What are some things you want to accomplish before you die?
39. What is the best room in your house? Why?
40. Where is the best place to take a date?
41. What smell brings back great memories?
42. How often do you help others? Who do you help? How do you help?
43. What are you best at?
44. What makes you nervous?
45. Who, besides your parents, had the biggest impact on your life?
46. What weird or useless talent do you have?
47. Who would be the worst person to be stuck in an elevator with? How about the best person to be stuck in an elevator with?
48. What was the best birthday wish or gift you’ve ever received?
TV Shows
1. What’s the funniest TV series you have seen?
2. Which TV show do you want your life to be like?
3. How have TV shows changed over the years?
4. What’s the best show currently on TV?
5. What do you think about reality TV? Why is it so popular?
6. What will be the future of TV shows?
7. What cartoons did you watch as a child?
Movies
1. What was the last movie you watched? How was it?
2. Do you prefer to watch movies in the theater or in the comfort of your own home?
3. What’s the worst movie you have seen recently?
4. What’s the strangest movie you have ever seen?
5. What is the most overrated movie?
6. What’s your favorite genre of movie?
7. Do you like documentaries? Why / why not?
8. When was the last time you went to a movie theater? What did you watch and with whom?
9. Do movies have the same power as books to change the world?
10. Which do you prefer? Books or movies?
11. Do you like horror movies? Why or why not?
Books
1. What was the last book you read?
2. What book has had the biggest impact on your life?
3. What was your favorite book as a child?
4. Do you prefer physical books or ebooks?
5. What is the longest book you have read?
6. What was the worst book you had to read for school? How about the best book you had to read for school?
7. What book genres do you like to read?
8. Do you prefer fiction or nonfiction books?
9. What book has influenced you the most?
10. What book has had the biggest effect on the modern world?
11. Do you think people read more or less books now than 50 years ago?
12. How often do you go to the library?
13. Now that indie publishing has become easier, have books gotten better or worse?
Music
1. What song always puts you in a good mood?
2. Which do you prefer, popular music or relatively unknown music?
3. Do you like going to concerts? Why or why not? What was the last concert you went to?
4. Who was the first band or musician you were really into? Do you still like them?
5. Records, tapes, CDs, MP3s. Which did you grow up with? What is good and bad about each?
6. What’s the best way to discover new music?
7. How has technology changed the music industry?
Apps
1. What are the three best apps on your phone?
2. What’s the most addictive mobile game you have played?
3. An app mysteriously appears on your phone that does something amazing. What does it do?
4. How many apps do you have on your phone?
5. What is the most annoying app you have tried?
6. What is the strangest app you have heard of or tried?
7. Which app has helped society the most? Which one has hurt society the most?
8. What is the most useful app on your phone?
9. What apps have changed your life a lot?
10. What do app makers do that really annoys you?
Phone
1. How often do you check your phone?
2. Do you always have to have the latest phone?
3. What was your first smart phone? How did you feel when you got it?
4. Do you text more or call more? Why?
5. What will phones be like in 10 years?
6. How do you feel if you accidentally leave your phone at home? What would you do?
7. What do you wish your phone could do?
Sports
1. What sports do you like to watch?
2. Who are some of your favorite athletes?
3. Which sports do you like to play?
4. Which sport is the most exciting to watch? Which is the most boring to watch?
5. Do athletes deserve the high salaries they receive? Why or why not?
6. What is the hardest sport to excel at?
7. What defines a sport? Is fishing a sport? How about video game tournaments?
8. Why do you think sports are common across almost all cultures present and past?
9. What do you think the oldest sport still being played is?
10. Do you play sports video games? Which ones? Is playing the video game or sport more fun? Why?
Restaurants
1. What is the worst restaurant you have ever eaten at?
2. What restaurant do you eat at most?
3. What is the best restaurant in your area?
4. Would you eat at a restaurant that was really dirty if the food was amazing?
5. If you opened a restaurant, what kind of food would you serve?
6. What was your favorite restaurant when you were in university? How about when you were a child?
7. What is the strangest themed restaurant you have heard of?
8. What is the fanciest restaurant you have eaten at?
Travel
1. Have you traveled to any different countries? Which ones?
2. Where is the most relaxing place you have been?
3. Do you prefer traveling alone or with a group?
4. What do you think of tour group packages?
5. Talk about some of the interesting people you have met while traveling.
6. Where would you like to travel next?
7. What’s the best way to travel? (Plane, car, train, etc.)
8. What’s the best thing about traveling? How about the worst thing?
9. How do you think traveling to a lot of different countries changes a person?
10. What is the longest plane trip you have taken?
11. Do you prefer to go off the beaten path when you travel?
12. Where do you get your recommendations for what to do and where to stay when you travel?
13. What is the worst hotel you have stayed at? How about the best hotel?
Technology
1. What is your favorite piece of technology that you own?
2. What piece of technology is really frustrating to use?
3. What was the best invention of the last 50 years?
4. Does technology simplify life or make it more complicated?
5. Which emerging technology are you most excited about?
6. What problems will technology solve in the next 5 years? What problems will it create?
7. Will technology save the human race or destroy it?
8. What piece of technology would look like magic or a miracle to people in medieval Europe?
9. Can you think of any technology that has only made the world worse? How about a piece of technology that has only made the world better?
10. What technology from a science fiction movie would you most like to have?
11. What do you think the next big technological advance will be?
Clothes / Fashion
1. Do you care about fashion? What style of clothes do you usually wear?
2. What is the most embarrassing piece of clothing you own?
3. Does fashion help society in any way?
4. What is a fashion trend you are really glad went away?
5. Who do you think has the biggest impact on fashion trends: actors and actresses, musicians, fashion designers, or consumers?
6. What old trend is coming back these days?
7. If you didn’t care at all what people thought of you, what clothes would you wear?
8. How do clothes change how the opposite sex views a person?
Goals
1. What is the craziest, most outrageous thing you want to achieve?
2. What are some goals you have already achieved?
3. What personal goals do you have?
4. What do you hope to achieve in your professional life?
5. Have your parents influenced what goals you have?
6. Do you usually achieve goals you set? Why or why not?
7. What is the best way to stay motivated and complete goals?
8. What are some goals you have failed to accomplish?
9. When do you want to retire? What do you want to do when you retire?
10. What are your goals for the next two years?
11. How have your goals changed over your life?
12. How much do you plan for the future?
13. How do you plan to make the world a better place?
Seasons
1. What’s the most refreshing thing on a hot summer day?
2. What’s the best thing to do on a cold winter day?
3. Where is the nicest place you have been to in fall?
4. What is your favorite thing to eat or drink in winter?
5. Do you prefer summer or winter activities?
6. What do you like to do in spring?
7. Which season are you most active in?
8. Is it better to live where there are four seasons or where one season takes up most of the year?
Holidays
1. If you could make a holiday, what would it be like? What traditions would it have? What would people eat on your holiday?
2. What is the biggest holiday for your family?
3. Do you wish there were more or less holidays? Why?
4. If you had to get rid of a holiday, which would you get rid of? Why?
5. What is your favorite holiday?
6. What kinds of food do you usually eat on your favorite holiday?
7. Does having a day off for a holiday increase or decrease productivity at work?
8. What holidays have been over commercialized?
9. If some of the lesser known holidays were commercialized, what would the commercialization look like?
10. What do you know about the history of some holidays?
Education
1. What are some good and bad things about the education system in your country?
2. What do you think of online education?
3. How can governments make education more efficient?
4. What do you think of standardized tests?
5. How can technology improve education? Can it hurt education?
6. Are bigger or small schools better?
7. Is teaching a skill that can be taught?
8. What will the future of education be?
9. What do you think of homeschooling?
10. How has the education you received changed your life?
11. What or who has taught you most of the information you use on a regular basis?
Food
1. What is your favorite food?
2. Do you like spicy food? Why or why not? What is the spiciest thing you have ever eaten?
3. What foods do you absolutely hate?
4. What food do you know you shouldn’t eat but can’t help yourself?
5. Does government have a place in regulating food? To what extent should government regulate food?
6. If your life was a meal, what would kind of meal would it be?
Creative Questions
1. Time freezes for everyone but you for one day. What do you do?
2. If you could call up anyone in the world and have a one-hour conversation, who would you call?
3. You have to relive one day of your life forever. Which day do you choose?
4. If your mind was an island, what would it look like?
5. What does your own personal hell look like? How about your own personal heaven?
6. A portal to another world opens in front of you. You don’t know how long it will stay open or if you’ll be able to get back after you go through. What do you do?
7. You find a remote that can rewind, fast forward, stop and start time. What do you do with it?
8. If you were on the run from the police for a crime you didn’t commit, where would you go?