hey how you doing how was your weekend? did you get up too much? I know the
weather's been so great hasn't it? Been really really enjoying it! Ufff the
weekend went by so quickly was it the same for you? The traffic was so busy this
morning - it was really crowded! So can you guess what these phrases are guys? These
are all conversation starters or conversation openers and in this lesson
today we are going to learn all about how to have a conversation with anyone
in English
hi everybody and welcome back to love English with Leila and Sabrah
I'm Sabrah I'm a British University English teacher you can check out our
web site www.loveenglish.co,uk and follow us on our social media
Now today guys it is going to be a simple lesson but one which I hope will inspire you
to get out there and start speaking in English more.
We really want you to grow in confidence and don't be shy
and make sure you are practising your English as much as possible
So this lesson is all about encouraging you to do that.
Now before we get started do make sure that you subscribe I know we say it every time
But you will miss our lessons if you don't click that red button
and as i said before you can follow us on our social media as well
So speaking to people in English particularly native
speakers can be quite a scary experience you can feel shy and worried that your
English isn't good enough but it is so important to make sure that you grab
those opportunities to speak to native speakers or people who speak English as
a second language but it's important to try to be speaking with people who have
better English than you do so that you can learn and grabbing or taking
those opportunities is really really important so my first point about how to
have a conversation with anyone in English is that you need to find
opportunities to speak in English with people so if you're in an
english-speaking country now it is easier to find these opportunities but
if you're not but you regularly meet people who speak English you can also
create these opportunities as well now what I mean by this is that you find
these opportunities so whether it's talking to a bus driver having a chat
with a waiter who you realise has really good English going to a conversation
class, talking to your teacher for a bit longer at the end of the class
whatever it is it's finding a way to move what can be a very simple
interaction for example with a bus driver or in a shop or in a restaurant
or with your teacher or with your classmates moving that a very simple
interaction into a conversation which can really help you learn now I know a
lot of learners are too shy to do this so today's lesson is all
about how you can make that interaction a proper conversation so the first tip
is to ask open-ended questions a lot of students make the mistake of starting
with a question which can be a yes or no answer so for example if you ask a bus
driver does this bus go to London for example he'll say yes or no if you ask
your colleague if they have a good weekend
they might say yes I did and then maybe a little bit more or it was okay yeah we
went here but they won't tell you that much you have to ask more open questions
so not closed not yes or no answers for example things like how was your? how
does this? how do you feel about ?what do you think about? so for example to your
colleague you can say how was your weekend ?-to a bus driver you can say can
you recommend to me the best way to get to London I'm not sure if this is the
best way perhaps you can give me some advice? and this could lead to more of a
conversation
usually asking people for that advice and opinions is a good idea it makes
them feel important and that you're interested in what they have to say so
that's a very good idea some examples could be what do you think are the best
things to do at the weekend here would you mind recommending to me some
good places to eat drink dance? whatever you want to ask about. What do you think
about the food in this town where are the best places to eat do you think? how
do you feel about the English weather tip number three is to use small talk in
the UK it's very common to use small talk at the beginning of conversations
this means general questions which aren't usually too personal it's also
very common to use small talk if you don't know the person very well let's
watch Leila and I now starting a conversation with small talk so what
have you been up to? Well let me think I've been working quite a lot but have been
exploring a new part of the country I'm living near Liverpool at the moment so
I've been exploring
and what have you been working on Leila? What have you been up? Well I have
been teaching media at the University so I haven't been teaching as much
language and still have a language class um but I have been teaching media and
that's been pretty cool -bit different And how's your Nana is she okay she's
not too bad yeah I've seen her well I haven't seen her recently I need I need
to pop over and see her soon right guys that was my brief guide on how to
have a conversation with anyone in English
I do hope those tips helped you and I hope they helped you to start having
longer conversations in English and I also hope that they help you to start
conversations with strangers or people that you don't know very well as it's
such a good opportunity to practice your English remember practice makes perfect
if you don't speak in English your speaking will not be good so make sure
you get out there and start having conversations thanks very much for
watching guys we'll see you soon on love English bye bye