Discussion Topic - Colour
- Details
- Written by IELTS Mentor
Discussion Topic - Colour.
Part 1: Introduction & Interview:
Q. 1. What is your favourite colour? [Why?]
Answer: Well, to be honest, I am more like a “colour” blind kind of person. In other words, I guess that I like all kinds of colours. However, if I must be biased, I would say that I like “light green” colour the most because it is the colour of “youth” and “nature” as well as because this colour doesn’t create any “colour pollution”.
Q. 2. Do you like the same colours now as you did when you were younger? [Why/Why not?]
Answer: No, I didn’t like the same colour now as I did when I was younger. I used to like any kind of colour that was “bright”, especially, the bright maroon colour was my favourite probably because as I aged, my taste and preferences in colour, just like with other things in life, have changed over time.
Q. 3. What can you learn about a person from the colours they like?
Answer: In my opinion, I don’t think that much can be learned about a person from the colours they like, even though I have read several articles to this effect, mainly because there is no concrete or scientific data or information to indicate as such. Besides, “judging” a person based on what colour, he or she likes, would be rather “misleading”, I guess.
Q. 4. Do any colours have a special meaning in your culture?
Answer: Yes, there are some special meanings of “colours” in our culture (even though some people completely disagree with it). For example, white colour means “purity” in my culture while “black” colour symbolizes “mourning”. Similarly, red means violence and sacrifice while green means "juvenile" and "nature".
Part 3 - Details Discussion:
Q. 1. How colours are important when people buy things?
Answer: Well, it very much depends on what people are buying. But, generally speaking, a great deal of purchasing habit of the prospective customers depends very much on the colour or appearance of the products above the other factors such as smell, sound and texture. Having said that, however, we should also keep in mind at the same time that people don’t tend to prefer the same colours all the times because the issues of moods, occasions and matching also come to play when choosing a particular colour. In other words, if the colour of a particular product doesn’t match or complement the existing design layout, decoration, get-up or fashion of a particular place or person, the chances are that the people wouldn’t choose that colour, no matter how great it really looks. Finally, when it comes to buying fashion items like clothes and shoes, people tend to purchase them with a variety of colours.
Q. 2. Why do different people like different colours?
Answer: Generally speaking, each and every person is different in their taste and preference, because of their lifestyles, values, beliefs, social and economic conditions and upbringings, and therefore, it is only natural that different people would like different colours. But, if we are speaking in the language of “science”, it is actually our DNA construction, helping us to process our knowledge, environment, experience, our physical and emotional state, and a hundred other factors, that makes us inclined towards a certain colour. Finally, on a lighter note, if we were all the same, there wouldn’t be any competition of ideas, which would also mean that our progress as a human species would be much, much slower.
Q. 3. What colours are commonly used for the decoration of people's homes in your country?
Answer: This is such an interesting question as well as a difficult one also at the same time because, to answer this question with some sort of authority, I would need to know about the decoration colours of at least a few percentages of homes of my country, which I really don’t. But, from observing the buildings and homes around me, I would say that most people usually like to use bright colours, like red, dark maroon, dark blue, dark yellow, green and purple colours, among others, to decorate their homes because they are more visible. However, some people in my country also prefer light colours, like violet and grey, to decorate their homes in order to minimize “colour pollution”. However, when it comes to any festival, people tend to use a bright colour like red, yellow and green.
Q. 4. Can colours have any influence on people and their mood? How?
Answer: Well, according to the study of colour psychology, researchers suggest that colours can have a significant influence on people and their moods as it has been found that colour in the red area of the colour spectrum, including red, orange and yellow, are known to be as warm colours. And, these warm colours may evoke emotions, ranging from feelings of warmth and comfort to feelings of anger and hostility. Some researchers have also shown that colours can affect the way people respond to others. In addition to that, researchers, like Keith Jacobs and Frank Hustmyer, “discovered” in 1974 that colours can actually change our heart rate, blood pressure and respiration, which I personally find very intriguing.
Q. 5. It is often claimed that our choices of colours reveal a great deal about us. Do you agree? Why?/Why not?
Answer: No, I don’t really agree with the argument that the choices of our colours reveal a “great deal about us. (Please understand here that “the great deal” is the operative words here). In fact, I would like to argue that we are the products of our environments, as well as the teachings and upbringings we receive from our families, and therefore, colours have very little or almost nothing to do with defining our personalities, taste and preferences. Of course, I can always like a certain colour for a certain product or thing at a certain time or occasion, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that I behave in the same way always just because I like that certain colour, hence the argument that colours reveal a great deal about us is flawed, in my opinion.
Q. 6. How our choice of colours are influenced by the advertisements we see?
Answer: No doubt that the advertisers have studied the colour psychology of us very thoroughly in order to influence our choices of colours. In other words, the advertisers seem to know perfectly well about what types of colours they should associate with certain products in order to present them in a very visually appealing manner to their prospective customers. For example, the colour blue can convey a feeling of cleanliness and serenity, according to the colour experts. Therefore, when an advertiser wants to promote a product, which emphasizes clarity and purity, prospective clients easily identify themselves with that colour when buying a product like bottled spring water or water filtration system. Advertisers often use bright and attractive colours, even they go as far as editing the original colour of the products, to make them more appealing and desirable to the viewers. The colours they associate with certain products often create an impression on viewers' mind and this impact often influence them to pick a certain colour when buying a product.
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