The phrase of the day today is….
“Contrary to popular belief,….”
Introduce it to your students with some examples:
“Contrary to popular belief, you can’t catch a cold just from being cold.”
“Contrary to popular belief, gorillas are shy and gentle creatures.”
“Contrary to popular belief, British cuisine is actually quite good.”
The expression is used to introduce a fact or statement that is the opposite of what most ordinary people think
Challenge students to be stereotype/myth busters. They can either choose to disprove a stereotype about people from their country/region using the expression, or they can disprove a commonly held theory or “old wives’ tale”.
Please post some of their example sentences in the comments!