Hey, it's Annmarie was Speak Confident English.
This is exactly where you want to be to get the confidence you want for your
life and your work in English and your English conversations as well.
Especially right now it's December and where I live in the United States,
that means it's the holiday season.
The holiday season is that period of time.
That starts with Thanksgiving at the end of November and it goes all the way
through the beginning of January with the new year.
That also means it's the season of holiday parties with friends,
neighbors, family and coworkers,
so if you're dreading your next holiday party because it means that you'll need
to do some English conversation. I want to make that easier for you.
In this lesson,
I have eight questions you can use to start conversations in English with
anyone.
No matter how shy or nervous you feel and we'll talk about who do you use those
questions with. For example,
what kinds of questions can you use if you're chatting with your boss at a
holiday party or what questions would be better for a sit down dinner?
I also want to share with you one secret tip I have for how to make
conversations in English easier.
Then at the end I want to share with you my new favorite conversation question.
If you've been following me for awhile,
then you probably know my old favorite question for starting conversations,
but I recently heard a new one that I absolutely love and I'm excited to share
it with you.
Whether you have an after work cocktail party,
a neighborhood holiday party or a night out with friends and colleagues.
Today's lesson is going to give you eight questions that are perfect to use at
this time of year,
but if you want to go more in depth on how to be interesting in English
conversations.
I have a whole lesson on that topic and I'll share a link to it just below this
video,
but let's talk specifically about eight questions that are fantastic for
starting conversations at holiday parties.
We're going to start with the most difficult situation of all and that is when
you want to start a conversation with your boss or senior level management at a
work holiday party.
This is always a delicate situation because you know you should go talk to your
boss at a holiday party but you might not be sure what to talk about.
And there are some things we definitely avoid. For example,
you don't want to talk too much about work at a party and you definitely don't
want to share too many personal details or personal drama when you're chatting
with your boss.
So here are three great questions you can use to start a conversation.
Number one.
So how did you become the ___ and then include the job title for example,
how did you become the creative director here at the agency?
Number two,
how did you get started in ____ and then include the profession or industry?
For example,
how did you get started in accounting or how did you get started in advertising?
A similar one is what got you interested in architecture.
And number three, what's the best career advice you've ever received?
Now let's step back for a moment because the truth is you would not walk over to
your boss at a party and immediately ask one of those questions.
Instead,
we would start with a little bit of chit chat or small talk and then transition
into one of those more meaningful questions. Instead,
you might start with something like, Hey, how's it going?
Do you have any plans for the holidays or are you ready for the holidays?
And then after a little bit of small talk,
you can transition into that more meaningful conversation.
You might use something like, so I've always wanted to ask,
how did you get into marketing? In that example,
I used the word so to help me transition from one topic to the next.
If you want to learn more about this tiny little word that we use a lot in
English, I have a whole lesson on the word,
so it's a great word to know how to use well,
especially when you're using it to transition in a conversation.
Now that you've got some great questions for your boss or senior level
management, let's move into more casual conversations that are perfect.
When you want to get to know your colleagues better chat with neighbors at a
holiday party or when you're at a night out with friends.
The first one is what podcasts are you into these days?
If you've been following me for awhile, you know I often use this expression,
what are you into these days?
It's a very popular expression right now and it means what do you enjoy or what
do you like? What do you spend your time doing?
A very common question right now is what podcasts are you into these days?
Everyone wants to find a new favorite podcast.
A similar question is what are you binge watching these days or what shows are
you watching on Netflix?
The second question you can ask for casual conversations is what do you love
about the holiday season or what do you hate about the holiday season?
If you're talking to native speakers,
you might also hear them say something like,
what do you love about this time of year?
And when they say this time of year,
what they mean is this holiday period or holiday season.
And question number three is what is the best or most interesting thing that has
happened to you this year?
What I love about all three of those questions is that they are perfect for
anyone and you're not talking about work.
You're definitely getting into topics that are much more interesting. Now,
all of those are great if you're at a cocktail party or a casual holiday party,
but what if you're invited to someone's home for dinner or to a restaurant for
dinner? In those situations,
the conversations are much more intimate and usually everyone is involved.
A great question you can ask to get everyone talking is what do you think is the
best invention in the last 100 years?
Or you could do the opposite and say,
what do you think is the most destructive invention of the last 100 years?
Those two questions will definitely get everybody talking and here's a bonus
one. This is one of my favorites.
What is the best life advice you've ever received? Again,
you can definitely get some interesting conversations going around the dinner
table with that question. Okay.
We have just one more question that is great for holiday parties in English.
And it's my new favorite question. But before I share that with you,
I want to talk about how to make English conversations easier for you.
A successful conversation doesn't mean that you only started,
it means that you participate in that conversation.
And I know that that can be really challenging when you feel nervous or unsure
about what to say. So here's my number one tip. First,
prepare two or three questions that you would like to ask people before you go
to the party. Be ready to ask them,
even practicing them out loud so that you won't forget them in the moment.
And second,
always prepare your own answer to those questions. And here's why.
If you ask someone a question like what's the best life advice you've ever
received, they will give you an answer and then they will probably say,
and what about you? They are going to return that question to you.
So if you have two or three questions prepared and you already know how you
would answer them,
you are ready to be more successful in your conversations in English.
Now let's talk about my new favorite question.
If you've been following me for awhile,
you definitely know that one of my favorite questions is what is the most
interesting thing you've seen or heard recently?
It always creates great conversation and I still love that question,
but recently I heard this.
What do you wish you were doing more of in your life?
I love, love, love that question.
It is perfect for anyone.
It's casual and meaningful at the same time.
It's a positive question to ask and no matter who you're talking to there will
definitely be an answer.
This is definitely the question I will be asking it all the holiday parties I go
to this year and maybe next year as well. It's,
it's also the challenge question I have for you today.
We're getting close to the end of 2019 and I know all of us are thinking about
our 2020 plans.
It's the end of a year and the end of a decade. So I'm curious,
as you prepare to go into 2020 what do you wish you were doing more of in your
life? I would love to know your answer, that question. As always,
you can share with me in the comment section just below this video.
If you found this lesson useful to you, please be sure to let me know.
And you can do that in three simple ways. Number one,
give this video a thumbs up and subscribe to this channel on YouTube so you
never miss one of my Confident English lessons. Number two,
share it with friends and family on Facebook. And number three,
you can email it directly to anyone you know who could use some help at their
next holiday party in English. With that, thank you so much for joining me.
Have a fantastic week and I'll see you next time for your Confident English
lesson.