Secrets of a Summer Village as an ESL/EFL teaching tool

Something I have in mind for Secrets of a Summer Village is an ESL/EFL (English as a Second Language/English as a Foreign Language) teaching version.  Not necessarily for teaching grammar, but more for teaching culture and as a conversation starter.  American culture is discussed in the book in contrast to Turkish culture, and each chapter naturally raises multiple cultural questions.  A friend recently suggested that the book might also be useful for Turkish students who are learning English, and the book could in that case be formatted with English on one page and Turkish on the facing page - an idea that I love, but that I could not do unless the book were, in fact, taken up by a Turkish publisher and professionally translated.

Months ago, I started writing discussion questions for each chapter.  I haven't finished them all, but I am going to start posting them on this blog.  Feel free to respond with your thoughts in the comments section!

Here are the Chapter 1 questions:

Chapter 1

1)   Many American high school students get after school and/or summer jobs.  They use the money to pay for a car, as pocket money, and/or they save the money so that they can attend college.  Do high school students in your home country usually get jobs in the summer or after school?  If so, what do they use the money for? 

2)   Rachel’s mother didn’t know where in the world Turkey was when the letter Rachel received mentioned it.  Did you know where Turkey was before you started reading this book?  Geography is not a regular school subject in the United States.  Is it in your country?

3)   “Pig Latin” is a code language that is created by taking the first letter of every word, putting it at the end of the word, and then adding the sound “ay” at the end of the word.  For example, “Pig Latin” in Pig Latin would be “Igpay Atinlay”.  Do you have such a code language in your language?