hi my name is Emma and today we are
going to talk about conversation
expressions we're going to talk about
three very important conversation
expressions that will help you to
organize your conversation as well as
help people listening to what you're
saying know where you are going to go
with what you are saying so these are
very good conversation devices that are
everyday expressions we use you will
hear them a lot and the other thing to
know about these expressions is they
never change you memorize them as a
chunk so you memorize each of these
words and you use it always together
okay so let's get started the first
expression we are going to learn today
is if you ask me if you ask me now I
quite like this expression because I
have a lot of opinions and when you say
if you ask me what you are saying is
this is my opinion so for example I love
comic books
I love reading about superheroes I like
Batman Superman but if you ask me
Wolverine is the greatest superhero of
all time now some of you watching may be
in complete disagreement with me maybe
you think spider-man's cooler or Batman
is way better and so what you could
respond is if you ask me Wolverine isn't
the greatest superhero of all time
Batman is and I would have to disagree
with you if you ask me if you ask me
Toronto is a great city to live in if
you ask me the government should spend
more money on health care so this is a
very useful expression because anytime
you're giving your opinion you can use
it and remember even though it says ask
me you don't need to be asked your
opinion to use this even if somebody
doesn't want to know your opinion you
can still use this in a conversation
if you ask me alright number two
speaking of speaking of is very
important because in English we really
like to link things we like conversation
to flow very smoothly we like to know
where somebody is going in the
conversation so speaking of what it does
is it links a new topic to an old topic
so I'll give you an example we were just
talking about Wolverine as a superhero I
said if you ask me I think Wolverine is
the greatest superhero of all time now
maybe I want to talk about something
else about Wolverine I have a new topic
I want to talk about I can use speaking
of to link Wolverine as the greatest
superhero to a new topic so here's an
example speaking or if you ask me
Wolverine is the greatest superhero of
all time
speaking of Wolverine did you know he's
Canadian interesting back isn't it so
speaking of Link's the old topic with
the new another example is maybe I'm at
a party and somebody is talking about a
hockey game they just saw the other
night maybe I could say speaking of
hockey did you read about Wayne
Gretzky's daughter in the newspaper some
interesting news has just happened with
her
so speaking of what it does is it links
again a new topic to an old topic our
third example this one is very useful as
well as I was saying as I was saying
what this does is it helps you to go
back to an earlier point in the
conversation sometimes maybe you're
having a great conversation you're
talking about movies for example and
then suddenly there's an interruption
maybe somebody knocks at the door maybe
your phone goes off and you have to
answer it and then your friends are
talking and when you come back you want
to continue talking about what you were
talking before so what you can say is as
I was saying so if I'm talking about
movies but there's a knock at the door I
leave when I come back I can say as I
was saying about movies I really want to
see J Edgar Hoover a new a new movie
that's just come out another example
it's not just for interruptions we use
it often for interruptions in order to
keep the conversation flowing smoothly
but people during presentations use this
a lot as well maybe I'm giving a
presentation on government and I'm
talking first about the environment and
then I move on my second point might be
economics and then maybe a third point
might be education so I talk a lot about
education but now I want to go back I
want to go back to environment I can use
as I was saying as I was saying or as I
was saying earlier the environment is
very important to Canada so again this
is to go back to an earlier point in the
conversation I forgot to mention one
thing about speaking of this is actually
quite an important point so as I was
saying earlier about speaking of that um
some people they don't really get the
art of conversation so well and so what
they tend to do is they'll be talking
about something like for example UFOs
the conversation is talking about aliens
and UFOs and suddenly somebody wants to
talk about shoes now these two things
don't really link up well in a
conversation so when you use speaking of
you want to use something that kind of
links to two the initial thing you were
talking about so don't don't say if
you're talking about
aliens oh speaking of aliens I want to
go shoe shopping this weekend because it
won't make sense
you really want to link some aspect of
what you were talking about originally
to the new topic so a better example
would be speaking of aliens I want to I
want to read a book it's it's all about
aliens or I want to see the x-files it's
a show about aliens so it's good to have
a link to keep the the topic consistent
okay so if you ask me everyday
expressions such as these are very
useful as I was saying earlier we use
these expressions often and it will
really help you in terms of both your
speaking and your listening speaking of
speaking and listening if you want to
become a better conversationalist I
highly recommend checking out our
website at wwlp.com take care thanks
you