Busy bragging and other pet hates

Title separator

Vocabulary - idioms for expressing annoyance

pet peeve lesson

photo of the author Justa |

LESSON OVERVIEW

Busy-bragging has become an element of every talk with friends, family and co-workers and a status symbol in modern society. People boast about being busy in a manner that resembles complaining. Moreover, they often just want to say: “Can you see how important I am?”. This pet peeve lesson consists of various tasks, but the main focus is discussion.

B2 / Upper Intermediate45 minStandard LessonUnlimited Plan
Unlock Printable & Digital worksheets with the Unlimited subscription

VOCABULARY

In this pet peeve lesson, students will learn the ways to express their annoyance and talk about pet hates they have. Firstly, they have to answer questions including such phrases as: get on one’s nerves, drive somebody nuts, etc. Then, they move to the discussion on annoying things in modern life. There is a list of 10 things, however, you can search for other examples too.

VIDEO AND DISCUSSION

Next, students watch the video about busy-bragging and answer the comprehension questions. There are two questions at the end of this exercise which are not based on the video, but students’ own opinions. After watching the video, they will also have the chance to discuss the most annoying things connected with their workplaces. To help them collect some ideas, there is a short text which they have to complete with words given, and then discuss.

RELATED WORKSHEET – COMPLAINING ROLE-PLAY

We prepared a special set of tasks to build on this lesson and have more vocabulary and speaking practice. With this extra worksheet, you will teach your students some informal and formal expressions for complaining and practice them in a role-play activity with a twist. See Complaining and responding to complaints.

WORKSHEETS

1

Comments

Title separator

Leave a Reply

  1. Stephanie

    Very good class!

    1. Justa

      Thanks!

  2. Karan

    Transcripts would be beneficial for all of your lessons.

    1. Stan

      If it is a TED Talk, transcripts are available on TED.com. However, if it is a YouTube video, you can use the auto-generated transcript. Just click the ellipsis button (…) under the video and click Open transcript. Transcript will be displayed on the right from the video. Remember though that it is automatically created and more often than not it is far from perfect.

  3. Natalia

    Thanks a lot for this lesson! Already used it in class and it worked great.

    1. Justa

      Great to hear it! Thanks 🙂

  4. Audrey Smith

    Great topic!

  5. pam

    Very interesting topic, it was a bit fast for some off my students but they liked the challenge.

  6. Paja

    Thanks a lot, excellent lesson plan!

    1. Justa

      Thanks!

Browse other materials recommended for you

Title separator
speaking lesson about shopping addiction
B2 / Upper Intermediate | C1 / Advanced
Speaking Class 45 min / 60 min
Loading

How does shopping make you feel?

Global Issues Lifestyle

As shopping is part of everyone’s life, this speaking lesson on shopping addiction won’t leave your students indifferent. Discuss whether it is a serious problem, discover hacks on how to control it and dive into how instant gratification works.

Unlimited Plan Show
talk about life balance
B2 / Upper Intermediate
Standard Lesson 60 min
Loading

The four burners theory

Lifestyle

With this lesson, students will definitely enjoy talking about life balance and learning useful vocabulary on the topic. Show them the vlog about the four burners theory and let them reflect on their experiences.

Unlimited Plan Show
B1 / Intermediate | B2 / Upper Intermediate
Speaking Class 45 min / 60 min
Loading

Talking about leaders

Business

Students talk about good and bad leadership, watch an explainer video and share their experiences. Let them explain why they’d rather be a good leader or have a good leader.

Unlimited Plan Show
warm-up activity
B2 / Upper Intermediate | C1 / Advanced
Standard Lesson 60 min
Loading

How bad is a humblebrag?

Lifestyle

In this lesson, students discover what humblebragging is, watch an ad and do a multiple choice vocab task. They also write social media posts and have a discussion about bragging online.  

Unlimited Plan Show
ESL lesson about running
B2 / Upper Intermediate
Standard Lesson 60 min
Loading

Is running your thing?

Lifestyle

In this ESL lesson about running, students have a chance to learn and practise some useful phrases, watch a video and discuss running. Students also read a short text and talk about motivation. 

Unlimited Plan Show
suffixes ‘-ful’ and ‘-less’
B1 / Intermediate | B2 / Upper Intermediate
Standard Lesson 60 min
Loading

Ready to go paperless?

Business Grammar

In this lesson, students learn some vocabulary related to document management, talk about going paperless, watch a video, and work on word building learning suffixes ‘-ful’ and ‘-less’.

Unlimited Plan Show
ESL lesson about happiness
B2 / Upper Intermediate | C1 / Advanced
Speaking Class 45 min / 60 min
Loading

Happiness is…

Lifestyle

In this ESL lesson about happiness, students talk about the feeling, watch a video and discuss happiness myths. The teacher can also choose to do an optional vocabulary activity with students.  

Unlimited Plan Show
B2 / Upper Intermediate | C1 / Advanced
Standard Lesson 60 min
Loading

Would you ever renovate a house?

Lifestyle

In this ESL lesson about houses and renovation, students learn some useful vocabulary related to the topic, watch a video and talk about house renovations. 

Free+ Show
talk about challenges
B1 / Intermediate | B2 / Upper Intermediate
Speaking Class 45 min / 60 min
Loading

Stepping out of your comfort zone

Lifestyle

In this Speaking Class, students watch a video and talk about challenges, and how doing certain things makes them feel. There is also an optional vocabulary activity.

Unlimited Plan Show
Show more lessons

Questions

Title separator

Is there a minimum subscription period if I choose a monthly subscription?

No, there’s no minimum required number of subscription months. You can cancel any time you want. Basically, you can sign up and then cancel your subscription the next day, which will mean you have access for 1 month and won’t be charged again.

What currencies can I pay in for my subscription?

Our default currency is USD (American dollar), but you can also pay in EUR (euro), GBP (British pound sterling) or PLN (Polish zloty). You can change the currency you want to pay in at the Pricing page before selecting a subscription plan.

How can I edit an e-lesson plan?

You can get your own editable copy of an e-lesson plan and make changes to it. To do so, either (1) make a copy of it on your Google Drive (preferable method) or (2) download it in a Powerpoint format (but formatting might be a bit off so we can’t guarantee that it will work well).

Read more FAQ

Privacy settings

Decide which cookies you want to allow. You can change these settings at any time. However, this can result in some functions no longer being available. For information on deleting the cookies, please consult your browser’s help function. Learn more about the cookies we use.

With the slider, you can enable or disable different types of cookies:

This website will:

  • Remember which cookies group you accepted
  • Essential: Remember your cookie permission setting
  • Essential: Allow session cookies
  • Essential: Gather information you input into a contact forms, newsletter and other forms across all pages
  • Essential: Keep track of what subscription you select to buy
  • Essential: Authenticate that you are logged into your user account

This website won't:

  • Remember your login details
  • Functionality: Remember social media settings
  • Functionality: Remember selected region and country
  • Analytics: Keep track of your visited pages and interaction taken
  • Analytics: Keep track about your location and region based on your IP number
  • Analytics: Keep track of the time spent on each page
  • Analytics: Increase the data quality of the statistics functions

This website will:

  • Remember which cookies group you accepted
  • Essential: Remember your cookie permission setting
  • Essential: Allow session cookies
  • Essential: Gather information you input into a contact forms, newsletter and other forms across all pages
  • Essential: Keep track of what subscription you select to buy
  • Essential: Authenticate that you are logged into your user account
  • Functionality: Remember social media settings
  • Functionality: Remember selected region and country

This website won't:

  • Remember your login details
  • Analytics: Keep track of your visited pages and interaction taken
  • Analytics: Keep track about your location and region based on your IP number
  • Analytics: Keep track of the time spent on each page
  • Analytics: Increase the data quality of the statistics functions
  • Advertising: Tailor information and advertising to your interests based on e.g. the content you have visited before. (Currently we do not use targeting or targeting cookies.
  • Advertising: Gather personally identifiable information such as name and location

This website will:

  • Remember which cookies group you accepted
  • Essential: Remember your cookie permission setting
  • Essential: Allow session cookies
  • Essential: Gather information you input into a contact forms, newsletter and other forms across all pages
  • Essential: Keep track of what subscription you select to buy
  • Essential: Authenticate that you are logged into your user account
  • Functionality: Remember social media settings
  • Functionality: Remember selected region and country
  • Analytics: Keep track of your visited pages and interaction taken
  • Analytics: Keep track about your location and region based on your IP number
  • Analytics: Keep track of the time spent on each page
  • Analytics: Increase the data quality of the statistics functions

This website won't:

  • Remember your login details
  • Advertising: Use information for tailored advertising with third parties
  • Advertising: Allow you to connect to social sites
  • Advertising: Identify device you are using
  • Advertising: Gather personally identifiable information such as name and location

This website will:

  • Remember which cookies group you accepted
  • Essential: Remember your cookie permission setting
  • Essential: Allow session cookies
  • Essential: Gather information you input into a contact forms, newsletter and other forms across all pages
  • Essential: Keep track of what you input in a shopping cart
  • Essential: Authenticate that you are logged into your user account
  • Essential: Remember language version you selected
  • Functionality: Remember social media settings
  • Functionality: Remember selected region and country
  • Analytics: Keep track of your visited pages and interaction taken
  • Analytics: Keep track about your location and region based on your IP number
  • Analytics: Keep track of the time spent on each page
  • Analytics: Increase the data quality of the statistics functions
  • Advertising: Use information for tailored advertising with third parties
  • Advertising: Allow you to connect to social sitesl Advertising: Identify device you are using
  • Advertising: Gather personally identifiable information such as name and location

This website won't:

  • Remember your login details
Save & Close
Title separator

ESL Brains

Forgot password?
or continue with
Don't have an account? SIGN UP