Given  previous experiences, a “Mystery Skype”-style icebreaker is a fun and effective way to help students practise communication in English, critical thinking, and cultural awareness while trying to guess each other’s locations.

Here’s the ready-to-use activity with 20 questions divided into two parts:

• Guess our location (questions that help identify the other school’s country, city, or region)

• Get to know us (personal and cultural questions to build friendship afterward)

 Part 1: “Where in the world are you?”

(Students can only answer “yes,” “no,” or “I can’t tell you yet!”)

• Are you located in Europe?

• Are you near the sea or ocean?

• Do you share a border with another country?

• Is your country’s official language one of the Romance languages (like French, Spanish, Italian…)?

• Is your capital city larger than one million inhabitants?

• Is the climate in your region mostly warm?

• Are there famous mountains or lakes nearby?

• Do people in your area usually get snow in winter?

• Is your country a member of the European Union?

• Is your city known for any special food or festival?

(Once the class guesses the location, move to part 2!)

 Part 2: “Let’s get to know each other!”

(Students can give short, open-ended answers — good for practicing English and sharing culture.)

• What are your school hours like?

• What subjects do you enjoy most?

• What’s a typical school lunch or snack in your country?

• What kind of music do students your age usually listen to?

• What games or sports are most popular at your school?

• Do you celebrate any special holidays this month?

• What’s one thing that makes your city or region unique?

• What’s your favorite thing to do after school?

• If we visited your town, what should we absolutely see or try?

• How do you usually spend your weekends?

 Optional Add-ons

• Divide the class into teams (Detectives, Geography Experts, Culture Transmitters, etc.) to do the activity.
• We can make it more interactive by having students show clues (a flag, a food photo, an object, or a sound) when doing the icebreaker activity online.
• Or we can decide to let them do it beforehand by exchanging files online and then meet to compare answers. However, I think the live session would work best, we would just have to plan a time that suits all time zones. 

So maybe  a meeting or online discussion in the Twinspace to decide? Let me know.

 Our final task for this activity could be with a “We found you!” celebration, where each group presents a short slideshow or fun fact about what they learned.

Suggestions/edits welcome!

Voilà!

Michelle Hatchi

November 2025