Renting an Apartment (Intermediate)

Practice on Your Own

Imagine you are moving from your home country to a country where the language is spoken. You will live there for two years. You need to find a place to stay for this period of time.

• Practice introducing yourself to a person whose apartment you are interested in. You need to tell the person your name, a little about yourself, if you plan to live by yourself or with someone else, how long you plan to stay, what you will be doing for these two years, etc.
• Make a list of questions that you need to ask the owner, such as how many rooms the apartment has, how many people can live with you, if you can have guests, what kind of neighbors you will have, what facilities/appliances are provided in the apartment, if there is a telephone and/or internet connection, if someone comes to clean the apartment, etc.
• Think of some questions that the owner may ask you, such as where you work or which school you go to, if you are married or single, how much money you would like to pay, etc.

Practice in Conversation Session

• Imagine you are interested in an apartment and your conversation partner is the owner. Do a role play where you ask everything that you want to know about the apartment.
• Discuss relevant cultural aspects with your conversation partner. For example, there might be places where you cannot drink or smoke or party, cannot have friends over after certain hours or cannot have them at all, etc. Your conversation partner may tell you things that you had not thought about.
• Do a role play where you are the owner of an apartment and your conversation partner or classmate will play the role of a person who is looking for an apartment. Try to explain the rules that you want your tenants to follow.