Hello, welcome to Business English. I'm Newnest Adakula
Today, we're going to learn about office conversations.
What do you know about office conversations? Also sometimes
known as small talk.
In today's lesson, we're going to learn how to recognise and
use questions in a conversation. By the end of the
lesson, we're going to be able to recognise and identify
questions in a conversation and learn how to use fillers
correctly in a conversation. In most English speaking
countries, it's important to be able to engage in office
conversations. This is a casual form of conversation that
breaks the ice or fills in awkward silences between
people. Often people use to try and find common interests so
they can start to build a relationship with colleagues at
work. Now, let's look at how two people have a casual chat
at work.
Good morning. Good morning. How are you doing? Yeah, good
thanks. I haven't seen you around before. I'm Sue. I just
started a new role. In fact, I just moved here. And so where
did you move from? I'm from Western Australia. Broome
actually. Have you been there before? It's a beach town in
the Kimberley region. That's in the northwest of Australia. Oh,
I see. No, I haven't been there before. What about you? Where
do you live?
Have you ever come across questions in a conversation
before or have you used any? What are some examples that
come to mind? Tell us in the comments.
We're going to look at some of the questions that people often
ask when engaging in office chats. The first one is, so
where did you move from? This is a question that is asking
about where you've lived before. In a casual
conversation, it's important to keep the conversation going.
Listen to these two answers. Which one do you think is
better? I'm from Western Australia. I'm from Western
Australia. Broome actually. Have you been there before?
It's a beach town in the Kimberley region. That's in the
northwest of Australia. Yes, the second answer. It gives a
lot more information and it allows the listener to keep the
conversation going. They can ask about the location, the
tourism, the buildings, while the first answer is also true.
It can seem a bit rude not to offer any more information in a
conversation. So remember to two to three extra bits of
information to keep the conversation going. Usually,
after a question like this, we would follow up and ask
something like, what about you? Where do you live?
Now it's your turn. Practice using these conversation
starters. Where did you move from?
Often people will ask about what you like to do outside of
work. This can be different in some cultures where work and
non-work life are kept very separate but in Australia,
people at work do talk about non-work life. What's it like
in your culture? Is asking about what you do outside of
work appropriate?
What do you like to do when you're not working? Well, I
love to play sports. Ah, right. Mainly footy but I'm learning
to play cricket. That's cool. I also love to cook and watch TV
shows about traveling. Ah, I see. What about you? I just
love watching TV shows. In the conversation we have just
watched, Raj asks Sue, what do you like to do when you're not
working? This is a question about hobbies and there are a
few different ways you might hear this question asked. For
example, What do you like to do in your free time? What do you
do outside of work? Or what do you do for fun? All of these
questions are asking about hobbies and interests. Practice
asking them now. Remember, this is small talk so we should try
to sound relaxed and interested.
So how can we answer this type of question? We don't need to
give a lot of detail about our hobbies but having a quick list
of things you like to do can be really useful for this type of
conversation. Let's listen to Sue and Raj. What do you like
to do when you're not working? Well, I love to play sports.
Ah, right. Mainly footy but I'm learning to play cricket.
That's cool. I also love to cook and watch TV shows about
travelling.
Did you see how Sue gave four topics in one short answer?
This is really effective as it allows the listener to follow
up easily. Practice answering this question about yourself.
Remember, we don't need too much detail.
Right.
That's cool.
Knowing how to keep a conversation moving is another
important part of small talk. We need to show the speaker
that we are interested and we want to keep talking to them.
How do you know someone's interested in chatting further
with you? We can ask questions to do this. But we also have
some other ways. Listen to what Raj is doing while Sue is
talking. What do you like to do when you're not working? Well,
I love to play sports. Ah, right. Mainly footy but I'm
learning to play cricket. That's cool. I love to cook and
watch TV shows about travelling. Ah, I see. What
about you? I just love watching TV shows. Did you hear the
words and sounds that Raj made? These are known as fillers and
they are an important part of having a conversation. Can you
remember some of the fillers that are used? Did you hear, ah
right, and that's cool. Here are some others. Whoa. Yeah, I
see. I Did you notice these example fillers show that we're
interested in the speaker? They're not new questions and
they're not stopping the speaker from talking and we
usually say this a bit more quietly than the speaker. There
are lots of fillers in English. We've listed some of them here.
We've already looked at the positive fillers. Let's go
through the neutral list. They are Oh, huh. And right. The
negative fillers are yeah, no, really? And right. Now it's
your turn. Practice using some of the fillers you've just
learnt.
Well I like to play sports. Mainly footy but I've been
learning to play cricket. I also love to cook and watch TV
shows about travelling.
Let's watch the conversation between Raj and Sue again. Good
morning. Good morning. How are you doing? Yeah, good thanks. I
haven't seen you around before. I'm Sue. I just started a new
role. In fact, I just moved here. And so where did you move
from? I'm from Western Australia. Broome actually.
Have you been there before? It's a beach town in the
Kimberley region. That's in the northwest of Australia. Oh, I
see. No, I haven't been there before. What about you? Where
do you live? What do you like to do when you're not working?
Well, I love to play sports. Ah, right. Mainly for but I'm
learning to play cricket. That's cool. I also love to
cook and watch TV shows about travelling. Ah I see. What
about you? I just love watching TV shows. So remember ask
general questions in a conversation. Make sure you
provide two to three pieces of information to keep the
conversation going. And finally use the appropriate fillers to
support the conversation to continue. Thank you for
watching the episode of Business English. If you like
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about Business English, this video is part of a series and
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in the next lesson.