- Small talk.
Many business professionals feel uncomfortable
making small talk in English,
but it's a really important skill
if you want to grow your business, build connections,
and get those opportunities.
You know, in English we say it's not what you know,
it's who you know, and small talk plays a big part of that.
So today, you're gonna increase
your small talk skills in English
by learning how to talk about a fun, light,
and popular topic of small talk, your favorite TV show.
Let's go.
Hi, I'm your English coach, Christina,
and welcome to Business English with Christina.
Where you become better at business
while becoming better at English.
Did you know that a lot of advanced English speakers
and native English speakers actually sometimes
have quite a difficult time making small talk?
Yes, even we native speakers,
we need to work on our small talk skills also.
And that's especially important if you are an entrepreneur,
a business owner, or anyone who has to do
any kind of networking to grow your business.
Today we're gonna focus on just one
great business communication small talk skills strategy
to help you improve your confidence
when you're making small talk.
So what is this one strategy?
Asking more questions than you answer.
It'll help you build great connections.
I promise.
Your goal is to ask questions
about your conversation partner,
but without getting too personal.
And so a favorite TV show is a great topic.
You know, a lot of people watch TV,
or they have their favorite shows, or maybe even movies.
They can share something personal,
but not something that's too personal or private.
Now remember in small talk,
your goal is to find common ground
or things that you have in common, and to create rapport
to strengthen your business relationship.
And you do this by showing interest in the other person
by asking questions and making small talk.
You know, some people might recommend like a basic question.
Like, yeah, and so that's what our company does.
Oh, okay. Interesting.
And have you seen any good TV series lately?
Yeah, "Stranger Things."
But I mean, that just sounds kind of random
if you're not already talking about the subject of TV.
We can do better.
You know, most people enjoy it
when we listen to their advice, when we ask them for advice,
and we put them in like a position of authority.
Okay, we're just talking about TV.
It's not like geopolitical strategy or anything,
but still, it's always nice
when someone asks us for our advice.
For example.
You know, I just finished a really great series,
and I'm looking for a new one.
Any recommendations?
A lot of times if you're working
in an international context,
you'll meet people from other countries and other cultures,
and one way that you can build a connection with them
making small talk about an easy topic like TV
is to ask them about TV shows from their country.
For example.
Wow, I've always wanted to visit Brazil.
Do you know any good TV series
that take place there that I could watch?
You know, I'm a narrow language coach,
and so I know how important it is for you
to practice little by little,
but over a regular period of time.
And one of the best ways to do that
is in our Faster Fluency Conversation Club,
where you can talk about the topics
from these video lessons with people all over the world
so that you can practice your small talk skills,
become more confident, have more vocabulary,
and get to know people from lots of other cultures.
The link to learn more
about the Faster Fluency Conversation Club
is down below the video, and I hope to see you there.
Now, when you're making small talk,
you don't wanna just ask one question
and then that's the end of the conversation
because that kills the conversation,
and you don't wanna do that.
So you want to ask follow-up questions
to continue to develop the conversation,
to make more connections with the person,
to find those things that you have in common.
And here are some ways that you can ask follow up questions.
If the person that you're talking to
tells you about a science fiction show that they like,
you can ask something like.
That sounds really interesting.
Are you a big fan of science fiction?
You can also ask the person to share
what they really like about the series.
You know, I've never seen "Downtown Abbey,"
but everybody tells me I should watch it.
What do you like about it?
And, you know, when you're asking for advice
on shows to watch or they're telling you
about shows that they like,
if you have already seen that show,
then it's like high five yourself because that's a score.
You have something in common with the person,
and you can build on that for your small talk conversation,
and I got way too excited about that.
Sorry.
Anyway, here's some questions that you can ask.
Oh yeah, that is a great one.
Who's your favorite character?
Or.
Oh, I love that show too.
What's your favorite episode?
- And, you know, these questions,
they might take the other person by surprise.
They might be like, oh, I don't know.
That's okay, because it means that you've asked a question
that is not like the typical, you know,
small talk questions that everybody expects.
So it's okay if they're a little surprised,
and they take a minute to think about it
because it means you're getting into
the more interesting conversations and small talk.
Now, maybe one of the reasons
that you are a little nervous about making small talk
in business situations is, well,
not because you don't know what to say,
although that might be part of it,
but it might also be that you're afraid
that you're not going to understand
what the other person responds to you.
And it's true that listening and understanding
is a really, really, really important part of small talk
in making connections.
Okay, so here's a challenge for you.
Let's say that we're at a networking event,
and you just asked me about what else,
my favorite TV series,
because that's the topic of today's lesson.
And I'm gonna give you an answer, like a typical answer.
The way I would answer it
like, if my friends or family asked me this same question.
So very, very normal native speaker like,
and listen and try to see if you can catch
four or five expressions for talking about TV shows.
Are you ready?
Here we go.
Yeah, actually, I'm watching this series right now.
I think it's called "The Roman Empire,"
and it's like part documentary, part TV series.
Like, you've got the action, you've got the conspiracies,
you've got the betrayals and all of that.
And like, it's really like as good as any
fiction political thriller, like honestly.
There's another series that I really like.
It's called "Inventing Anna," and it's about this woman,
this Russian woman who pretends to be
like this rich German Aris.
And she ends up tricking like all of
like New York high society.
She borrow tons of money from banks
that of course she can never repay.
And then in the end, she goes to jail for it
and it's her story basically.
And it's like, it's based on a true story.
So did you catch some useful expressions
for talking about TV shows,
and did you catch the titles
of the two TV shows that I talked about?
Maybe you've heard of them or maybe you've watched them,
but you can tell me in the comments on the blog
because then we'll see that we've got something in common.
And, you know, while you're over there on the blog,
you'll be able to see the script, the transcript,
of exactly what I said there so that you can see,
you know, you can check your comprehension skills.
See how much you actually understood,
and maybe see if there were a few words
that you didn't understand.
Well, you can check them.
So go over to the blog post and check that out,
and tell me if you've seen those series also.
So there you go.
Today you learned one strategy
for making better small talk,
asking more questions than you answer,
and talking about the topic of your favorite TV show,
your favorite TV series, whatever you wanna call it.
What's your favorite TV series?
Tell me down in the comments below the video
because like, yeah, honestly,
I am looking for some interesting TV shows to watch
because I am now going back
and re-watching episodes of "The Crown,"
which honestly is one of the best series I've seen ever.
If you don't know it, go and check it out.
But you can also share your favorite TV series
with me in the comments.
Now, if this lesson was helpful for you,
I would love to know, and there are three ways
that you can tell me.
Give this video a thumbs up and subscribe to my channel
so that I can continue sending you
some business English lessons every week.
You can, number two, go over to the blog post
that goes with this video, and you'll find a short quiz
so that you can test yourself.
And number three, you can watch this next video,
which is going to give you some more vocabulary
for talking about movies.
Now it's kind of an older episode,
but hey, it's the vocabulary hasn't changed in two years.
I promise.
Thank you so much for improving your English,
and your business with Business English with Christina.
And I'll see you next time.