Thursday, December 11, 2014

ESL Discussion Questions about Blindness

Blindness: What is it?


Word forms related to the word blindness: blind, blindly, to blind, to be blinded,


What is the opposite of blindness? Sightedness.

What is the opposite of being blind? Being sighted.


Physical Blindness

What would it be like to be blind?


If you became blind, what would you miss most about being sighted?


What are the advantages of being blind? (Do blind people have special powers.)


Do you know anyone who is blind? Has limited sight? Has a bad eye?


Are we all blind in our own way? 


Willful Blindness

What does this mean? That we choose to be blind.

How can we say that we chose to be blind?

  • We choose to be blind to certain things.

What do people choose to be blind to?

  • Their faults, their bad habits, the faults of people they love or have to deal with, omens of disaster, the suffering of others.

Why do people choose to be blind to these things?



Blind Spots

What does this mean?

Sometimes we are unthinkingly or unknowingly blind to things. We never notice them perhaps.

Example: We don't notice that we talk too much. We don't notice how our actions annoy other people. We have a flaw in our appearance that we never notice except when we see them in a mirror either in a public place or after we have been in public.


Everyday Blind Spots

Are there some things you may be blind to?

Are there some things that you have noticed that other people are blind to?

What is a common blind spot people have?

What would it mean to have a store in a blind spot?


Driving Blind Spots

Where are the blind spots on a moving vehicle?

Without mirrors?

With Mirrors?

Why shouldn't you pass cars on the right?

Why shouldn't you be on the right hand side of a truck?


Blind Idioms and Expressions

A case of the blind leading the blind

blind as a bat

to blind someone to something

Love is blind.

A nod is as good as a wink to a blind horse

  • You cannot get people to take a hint if they are determined not to.

There's none so blind as those who will not see.

  • You cannot make someone pay attention to something that he or she does not want to notice. 

  • (Used often to upbraid someone for being unwilling to notice what you are trying call attention to.) 

turn a blind eye (to someone or something)

  • to ignore something and pretend you do not see it. 

Blind date

Blind Alley

Blinded by the light

Blindfolded

Drink oneself blind


Bonus Chinese Idiom

瞎子摸象 (xiāzi mō xiàng)

 

The blind men feel an elephant ─ To take a part for the whole.





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