Hi this is Ceema and today's topic deals with how to have long conversations in order to
improve your English. Now a lot of students are encouraged to speak in English in order
to improve it but do you know that a lot of students cannot really hold on a long conversation?
They really can't talk for a great length of time. They need help to have a long conversation.
So how can I improve my English if I can't seem to have a long conversation? Well today's
topic is going to teach you how to do exactly that.
So the first tip in order to have a long conversation is to ask WH questions. So if you want to
strike a conversation and keep a conversation going because you've got to make it very long
you've got to always ask WH questions. Now what are WH questions? Questions like a what,
that begin with a what or a when or a which or a where or probably a how, these are WH
questions. Now why do you ask a WH question? Because questions that begin with these words
always will give you more information that you can build upon. I'll give you an example,
so say for example if you ask someone where did you go for the weekend? Now the person
might say I went to say McDonald's for example and you can say well I went there last Sunday
too and then you can talk about the food and you can talk about what you like at McDonald's.
So basically questions that begin with WH or WH questions always gets more information
about the person you are speaking with and that helps you build on, build on a conversation.
On the other hand if you ask a very general question like did you have fun over the weekend?
The person might say yes and that's the end of the conversation and then you've got to
start a new topic all over again, right? That gets a little bit difficult. Therefore in
order to hold on a conversation always start by asking WH questions.
Okay, the number two tip in order to improve your English by having a long conversation
is to give one or more details. So if you were doing the answering you know, if a question
has been asked to you and you were doing the answering you might want to give more details
about what you are talking about. So say if you are talking about a topic relating to
sports or say cricket okay so cricket is a very common sport in many countries okay.
So if you're talking about cricket, you might want to give one or two details that will
help get the conversation going. So you can talk about the fact that you are a good batsman
or you could talk about the fact that you've been playing cricket for five years or 10
years or ever since you were a child or you could talk about the fact that you are an
all-rounder or you could talk about the famous cricketers that you know. So you might always
want to give one or more details relating to the topic that you are discussing because
that will help you talk more and improve your English right? Okay so that is your second
tip in order to have a long conversation.
The third tip in order to keep a conversation going is only talk or indulge in topics which
will ensure that the conversation goes long. It basically means that you've got to be smart
enough to only talk about certain topics like sports, you know famous cultures. You might
want to talk about food. You might want to talk about travel or you might want to talk
about personal experiences. Your experience and the person who you are talking to, their
experiences as well. Okay so you might want to talk about experiences. It basically means
that you are going to only discuss topics which will ensure that you will have enough
to talk about because these topics always give you a lot of information, give you a
lot of things to discuss about. On the other hand what should you not discuss. So you're
going to avoid topics relating to health issues, personal finance or money problems. You don't
want to talk about that. You don't want to talk about religion, that's a very sensitive
topic. You don't want to talk about you know sexual or you know sexuality or sexual preferences.
Okay so these are certain topics that you want to, you know kind of steer away from
because you want to have a long conversation. You don't want to make it awkward so you're
gonna have to avoid these topics and kind of stick with topics that will give you more
to discuss about.
Okay the fourth tip in order to have a long conversation is that you should never be afraid.
A lot of students think that they might end up speaking bad English. They might end up
fumbling with some words and therefore they might avoid a long conversation. That's what
they think but I would say that don't be afraid. In fact if you want to ensure that you are
confident, always prepare. So if you are or if you know that you are going to strike a
conversation with someone, prepare yourself. So say for example if today I'm gonna go out
and talk to someone about food, I will do some research about only vocabulary relating
to food. So I can get related words like cuisine. It's a new word when I learn a new word I
feel more confident when I talk about it, right? So always prepare yourself before you
strike a conversation. So whatever topic you've got or you think you're going to talk about
try to find related words around it and try to put that in a sentence. Practice what you're
gonna say and that way you are not going to be afraid because when you know new words,
you get more confident .Okay so keep practicing and don't be afraid to use words in a long
conversation.
Okay and the next tip in order to keep a conversation going is to listen. Now a lot of people think
that conversations only comprise of people talking but that's not a conversation because
listening is as important a component of a conversation as talking is. Okay so you've
got to listen. Now especially if you are going to have a conversation with a native speaker,
listen carefully to the words he uses. In fact a lot of native speakers may use certain
slangs. You know popular slangs that you may never have heard about. So when you hear new
words, when you listen to new slangs, you can actually make a mental note of it and
use it in your future conversations with other people okay. So every time you listen carefully
to someone who speaks good English, there is always something to pick up from what they're
saying. It could be a new word, it could be a new slang, it could also be a new style
of speaking okay and that if you make a mental note of it you can use that in your conversations
and always improve your English okay.
And when you're kind of about to finish the conversation the last tip tells you that you
should never abruptly end your conversation. Okay so when you are in a long conversation
and when you're kind of you know getting over it you've got to end it by being very polite
and being very courteous of course. You can use good you know words like thank you or
I'll talk to you some other time. I'll see you around. So do not end the conversation
abruptly, don't just walk away okay because once you've had a long conversation, you not
only get to speak good English, you not only get to improve your English but you also get
to make friends right? So that's a very good thing and I think if you apply all these tips,
you're always going to learn to have long conversations and you're gonna continually
improve your English. Well that's it from me on this lesson. I'll be back with some
more lessons until then this is me saying goodbye.