hey aubrey how's it going i'm great how are you i am loving this new series i think this is so
helpful to get more information about who to talk to at work what you can talk about reading those
social cues if you guys missed the first video definitely go and check it out yes guys so aubrey
and i are here today uh doing this second part of our series tips for talking to co-workers in
english of course and in the last one in part one of the series we we talked about um how to know
who to be friendly with when should you try to be friendly with someone and we also had a great
role play where i decided that i wanted to try and be friends with you aubry and i started that
conversation to develop that connection so guys go back and watch part one so you could see that role
play it's awesome it's definitely a conversation that you could have at your own workplace guys but
today um we're going to dive in a little deeper uh into this into some strategy some vocab and ideas
for starting the conversation so you guys can have a variety of topics um that you can choose from
right what feels good to you what do you want to talk about so you always have something to say to
co-workers yes exactly right we don't want you to be concerned about your language level or that you
won't have something to say we want you to have that confidence at work to be able to approach
someone and know what you're going to say so that the conversation isn't awkward it flows
really easily and the people you work with want to talk to you so these are excellent strategies
to make sure that it can be a great conversation a great connection every time exactly so guys
remember we have a free business english quiz for you go to allyearsenglish.com
work quiz just takes a few minutes guys get your business english fluency level and free resources
so go to alliersenglish.com work quiz okay guys so what can you talk about with colleagues
and i would say a lot of these ideas you can also use with um clients and customers as well
especially if these are people you you see quite often right um so first of all guys to start
that conversation just start with a work related question right like open it up in a natural way
something related to work so you could say today is flying by how's your day so far
right and i would say that to like co-workers customers like anybody you could say that
i know right the barista at the coffee shop this is really appropriate for a lot of people right
or if it feels like a long day you could say time is crawling today is it slow for you too
totally um so notice guys that we're making a statement and asking a question right remember
guys you've got to ask questions to get the other person involved in the conversation right
you can't just be like oh today is slow i mean you can the other person might pick up on that
and continue the conversation or they might just be like hmm yup walk away ask a question right
um and then you can continue the conversation by asking about something before and after work like
how was this person's commute what did they how did they get to work that morning what are they
going to do after work for example right so this is the perfect way to take the next step
in the conversation so what are a couple phrases we could use yeah you could say did you get caught
in the rain this morning i got soaked or you could say even though i don't feel like it i'm gonna
hit the gym after work wish me luck or you could say what about you what are you doing after work
yeah totally um i like this phrase hit the gym instead of like i am going to exercise um
hit the gym is just slang for like i'm gonna go to the gym um i'm gonna hit the showers i'm gonna
hit hit up my friend to hit up your friend would be like to call someone um there's a lot of
phrasal verbs with it all right and then of course guys if um the weekend is coming up right you
could be excited and ask about plans you could be like whoa it's friday up to anything interesting
this weekend um or if it's a monday or tuesday talk about the weekend that just happened be like
what'd you get up to over the weekend very short but it's a perfect invitation for the other person
to share something about themselves and really pay attention to that vocab guys instead of saying
what did you do last weekend right it's so native and natural to say what'd you get up to exactly
and guys you can see these phrases click on the description below the video and you can see these
phrases and the role play we're gonna do in just a second um and you can also talk about current
events if you want to i know a lot of people don't because it could be difficult to work in uh like
positive news you know it's hard to find sometimes but there's um there's always stories about
interesting things that aren't necessarily like current events you know what i mean like
wars and plagues and stuff like that there's other news you could talk about so for example
i could say something like i was listening to npr this morning and there was a really cool story
about this local guy who um is trying to grow the bee population yes right there's lots of positive
stuff a podcast you listen to a news report where there are focus you know a focus about someone
local doing something interesting maybe a kid who did a cool service project there'll be something
like that that has more of a positive twist or you can ask about sports right
did you see the timbers game last night you know whether you saw it or not if you know
there was a pretty big sports event you could always ask him about that and even if they say
no i hate sports talk about that then you're learning about that exactly um so the timbers are
our in portland our professional soccer team and you know not everybody likes soccer but that shows
you that i like soccer and then you can be like i don't in fact just yesterday i had a conversation
with someone who doesn't like soccer and we talked about that you know what i mean right i could see
their answer being like what are the timbers i've never heard of that totally talk about that and
then you talk about that and then this other guy started talking about how he prefers baseball
and why he likes baseball i mean guys it's this is just a way to start the conversation exactly
you know um all right so we want to highlight some vocab before the role play the first is
make the first move um this is an idiom to make a move right and this just means to be the person
who talks first or does the first action to like get the ball rolling get the situation going so
again guys we are teaching you today how to make the first move because we want you to one choose
friendly co-workers and to start that conversation and then we talked about hit the gym just means go
to the gym and we also taught you the phrase fly by which means time is passing quickly
so let's get into this role play um what are we showing in this conversation aubrey so jessica
and i had a great first conversation in part one and now we've built that initial connection and
jessica is competent to start another conversation to try and develop this possible friendship
jessica okay awesome um remember guys this is a continuation of the role play we had in part one
all right so go back and watch that if you haven't and remember the transcript for this role play is
in the description below the video all right um today is flying by aubry how's your day so far
oh it's the same i have a gazillion things to do at least it's friday up to anything interesting
this weekend yeah actually we're going to see the big football game at oregon state my husband went
there and he's still an intense fan are you a fan too or just him to be honest i don't really
care that much about football but the game is fun you know hot dogs beard super pumped fans it's a
great way to spend the day for sure that's like music too right even if the band isn't very good
seeing them live is always fun totally i feel the same hey by the way i love your earrings where did
you get them at the saturday market downtown they're made out of recycled skateboards oh
i love it i'll have to get some they make cool gifts too definitely i love that roleplay
i love that too of complimenting something i do this a lot i'll compliment what someone's
wearing or their jewelry or how they did their hair anything a decoration on their desk
that's this kind makes someone feel good and it's a great starter to a conversation
because they probably have something to say about it yeah totally guys if you are ever
anxious worried uncomfortable about starting that conversation giving someone a compliment
is a great way for you to get out of your head about it like it relaxes everyone it relaxes
you it makes you feel good it makes that person feel good so you can never go wrong
with giving compliments guys speaking of jessica i really love your earrings today thank you i got
these in mexico last year very cool we could have a little conversation about that because
then i could talk about my trip to mexico last year sky's the compliments okay awesome aubrey
this is so fun i love these series um remember to go to alliersenglish.com work quiz guys and
take our free business english quiz aubry i'll see you in the next video yes see you there bye
you