Pocket money and snack shops near school: should kids spend their own allowance on sweets?
Every hagwon has a snack shop next door, and every class has an opinion on allowance. This lesson gets high schoolers debating whether kids should manage their own spending money or let parents handle it.
Park English2026-10-133 min read
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Walk past any Korean middle or high school around 3pm and you will see it: a line of students at the snack shop, coins and cards out, deciding between a bag of tteokbokki chips and a bubble tea. It is one of the few moments in a student's day where they, not a parent or a teacher, make the call. That makes it a surprisingly good topic for a B1 discussion class.
The question is simple to state and genuinely split in most rooms: should kids get a set allowance and spend it however they want, or should parents just pay for what the kid needs, snack by snack, item by item?
Why this works as a discussion topic
Every student has a position already. Some get a weekly or monthly allowance. Some ask a parent each time. Some get money only for grades or chores. None of that requires explaining an adult system first, so you can get straight to opinions and reasons, which is what a discussion class is for.
The two sides, laid out
| Allowance (kids control it) | Parents pay as needed | |
|---|---|---|
| Freedom | Kid picks what to buy | Parent approves each time |
| Mistakes | Kid can run out of money early | Parent can say no to junk food |
| Learning | Kid learns to plan and wait | Kid doesn't need to plan |
| Arguments | Fewer daily arguments | More "can I have money for..." moments |
Neither column is the "right" one. That is the point. Use the table to get students generating their own row before you show it, if you have the board space.
Running the class (40 to 50 minutes)
- Warm-up (5 min). Ask: "Do you get an allowance? How much, how often?" No right answer, just get talking.
- Vocabulary (5 min). Go through the word bank below as a class. Have students guess the meaning before you confirm it.
- Pair reading and marking (5 min). Students read the handout's short pros and cons list and check the ones they agree with.
- Discussion in small groups (15 min). Three or four students per group. Give each group one question from the handout. They must agree on an answer and pick one speaker.
- Report back (10 min). Each group gives their answer using a sentence frame. Push for the "because."
- Wrap-up vote (5 min). Simple show of hands: allowance or parent pays. Ask one student from each side to defend the vote in one sentence.
A note on keeping it light
Keep the class away from exact won amounts or what a classmate's family can or cannot afford. The topic is spending habits and decision-making, not household income. If a student brings up a number, redirect to "is that a good amount for a student your age" rather than whose family has more or less.
What usually comes up
In our experience running this with middle and high school groups, most classes split close to even, which makes the vote at the end genuinely suspenseful rather than a formality. The allowance side usually argues independence and budgeting practice. The parent-pays side usually argues health (less junk food) and avoiding running out of money for something important like a bus fare home.