hey there I'm Emma from M we're coming
up to that time of year again when there
are lots of events and celebrations that
means lots of mingling lots of chatting
to people that you don't know and making
small talk it happens at work at
gatherings with friends or friends or
friends and families of friends
neighbors even people that you bump into
in the left we've got to practice these
skills with small talk we can build a
rapport with our colleagues make new
friends and just generally feel more
positive about the interactions that we
have with other people so today I'm
gonna take you through 30 questions to
make it small talk to build to the
confidence to start conversations in
English but before I do I want to give a
quick shout out to Lyn Goethe who are
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course I'll put the link to that in the
description below small talk is an
incredibly important function of English
conversation it's about comfort it's
about helping two people you and the
other person that you're talking to to
feel comfortable with each other and the
intention is to try and find some common
interests something that you can share
together so I want you to think of
yourself as a detective you're searching
for some information and some clues to
help you connect with someone to find
some common ground and some shared
interest a good way to approach small
talk is to focus on a few broad
categories work life travel food and the
weather now I'm gonna go out on a limb
here and say that about 90% of all small
talk conversations focus on these topics
maybe even 95 but this is great because
it allows us to focus on some really
specific topics right and help you to
prepare for conversations that you're
very likely to actually experience
there's another thing that's useful to
keep in mind with small talk and that's
time with all of these topics we can ask
questions that relate to the current
situation now any experience in the past
or any future dreams or future plans
right so pay a close attention to the
examples that I'm gonna share because
I'll be using some different time
references in these questions so let's
get started with 30 questions to help
you master small talk conversations
starting with work now the most common
question here is what do you do so we're
talking about now what's their current
job imagine that the person that you're
talking to said they're a nurse but we
want to ask some more detail right we
find out how we can continue the
conversation so let's go back in time
what motivated you to become a nurse did
you always want to be in US what was
your first ever job did you like it we
can talk about the present as well what
does your typical work day look like
what do you love about your job and you
can get a little creative with some
future questions as well so is this your
dream job or are you working towards
something else you want to be careful
here that you don't say working towards
something bigger or something better
because it might be a little offensive
right your sort of thing but their job
that they currently have isn't good
enough if money wasn't an issue what job
would you want some people might say
that they don't want to work if they
didn't have any issues with money right
but you might have to rephrase that
question and say well what would you do
or how would you spend your time another
really great small talk topic is just
talking about life and there's a couple
of ways that you can do this you can pay
attention to local news headlines this
is a really good way of you know finding
things to talk about did you hear about
the accident on the freeway last night
it sounded awful I got stuck in traffic
for over two hours
albeit you might end up talking a lot
about all of the negative stuff that we
see in the news right but you can also
ask questions about what's happening in
a person's life
so remember that your intention is to
try and find some common interests right
some things that you share so that you
can keep talking about those things
together have you got much planned for
the weekend this is a great question
it's my go-to everyone loves talking
about their plans on the weekend what do
you like to do in your spare time
now if they share something that you
also like that's great because you can
keep talking about your shared interest
or if they share something that you
don't know anything
about ask them for more information oh
that's so interesting I've never met
anyone who keeps bees and makes their
own honey how much honey do you get each
week have you ever been bitten by a bee
is it easy to keep bees or do you have
to be an expert have you read any good
books lately have you seen any good
movies if you're a mum or you're a dad
you might even ask so do you have any
kids because this is a great way to
connect with someone you talk about your
kids ages interests maybe even their
naughty habits same thing with pets
actually have you noticed that I've been
using so quite a bit to introduce a new
idea to a conversation this is really
quite a natural way to introduce a new
question one that's unrelated to what
you've been talking about previously
it's a really helpful conversation tool
so are you from here this is a great
question to help explore someone's past
go back in time where did you live
before this is this city quite different
to that city where did you grow up
Travel is a great small talk topic it's
something that we love talking about and
we love sharing so we can talk about our
past experience or we can talk about
travel plans and dreams for the future
right if you're coming up to a holiday
season you're heading into summer then a
great conversation starter is so are you
planning on getting away for the
holidays are you taking time off over
Christmas or whatever holiday is coming
up but if it's not that time of year you
can easily start a conversation by
introducing some context right by
sharing your experience first and then
inviting their input so I've just got
back from a trip to Japan have you ever
been or maybe you might know something
about their experience
you went to Peru last year didn't you
I'm planning on taking my fiancee to
South America in June it's our first
time and I'm not really sure which
countries we're going to visit
do you have any recommendations do you
have any recommendations about which
country to visit in South America I am
thinking about a trip next year I love
traveling I hope to visit Kerala in the
south of India at some point soon what
places are on your bucket list
I'm actually really keen to hear your
answers to this question what places are
on your bucket list what places are you
dreaming about visiting make sure you
let me know in the comments just like
travel food is another great small talk
topic it's something that we all have in
common we do it at least three times a
day so there are plenty of opportunities
to start a conversation about food I'm
trying to decide where to go for lunch
do you know any good restaurants around
here I'm cooking lasagna for dinner
tonight what about you hey if you tried
that new Thai restaurant on Church
Street I've heard it's amazing do you
like Thai food now I just can't leave
whether off the list this is the
absolute number one small talk topic it
can be used as a simple passing comment
right it's a beautiful day today isn't
it can you believe all the rain we've
been having lately but you can also use
the weather as a way to spark a
conversation by using it to introduce
another topic or another activity it's
pouring out there it's a shame I rode my
bike today how did you get to work so
there you have it 30 different questions
30 ways to start a conversation with
small talk in English now I'm going to
set a little homework for you a little
challenge okay
because memorizing and practicing the
questions that I've shared with you
today is one thing that's great practice
but of course what you need is to be
ready to answer those questions as well
so that you can keep the conversation
going
so your homework is to think of your own
answers to these questions to once you
ask them and then you hear the answer
you want to be ready with your own
experiences and your own opinions to
share right to keep the small talk going
if you'd like me to make some
conversation workouts about each of
these topics just like this one then
make sure you tell me in the comments
that way we can practice asking
questions and responding to them out
loud together we're going to focus on
tone and pronunciation to help them come
out really naturally and don't forget to
check out lingo des the link is in the
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there