well sneak up in English in this lesson we're going to talk about American
English idioms are you ready let's begin
break the ice the idiom is break the ice think about
it you have a lake a river a pond and ocean to see a body of water covered
with ice if you break the ice you get through the hard stuff you've got water
underneath something you're trying to get to maybe well in this idiom break
the ice we're talking about a conversation with someone to start a
conversation with someone it might be about a subject that's rather difficult
to talk about but once you can get into it once you break the ice it's easier to
get going and talk about it so you have to start the conversation you have to
talk to them you have to break the ice okay maybe you're a salesperson and you
want to talk to a potential customer well you have to start the conversation
many people want to start a conversation with a joke but you know if it's
multinational situation on multinational situation some cultures think one thing
is funny others think something else is funny be
careful if you use jokes with people also there are different senses of humor
now you might want to break the ice if you're going to let's see how about if
you want to buy something from someone and you go to a sale and the person is
selling many old items maybe antiques and you're not so sure they really want
to sell them right they want to sell them but yet they're sentimental they
want to keep them they've been collecting these things for years well
you're going to have to break the ice by smooth-talking them and complimenting
them on these great objects that they have for sale and then dhikr on the
price once you get them to sell one thing even if you take a small loss on
it you've broken the ice now you have that
and warmed up and they're probably going to sell other things to you in an easier
fashion it won't be so difficult for them and probably a better price for you
break the ice have you ever had to break the ice
hmm that's what it means break the I start that conversation even though it
may be on a difficult subject break the ice and that's the end of this video
lesson thank you for watching and I look forward to seeing you at our next lesson
good bye for now