hello i'm emma i
am from english in this lesson
you will be taught how to improve your
conversation skills
wait wait wait let me try that again hey
there i'm
emma from english in this video i'm
going to help you to have
better english conversations by giving
you a few tips
to help you improve your speaking skills
now you can use these tips to have
really
interesting fun conversations and if
you're someone who likes getting to know
people
and if you want to improve your english
by having
longer more meaningful conversations
then this lesson is for you
i've also put together a really fun
challenge and i'm going to tell you all
about it
at the end of this video so make sure
you keep watching
oh and remember to like the video hit
that subscribe button
let's get into it
[Music]
before we talk about how to be more
interesting in conversations i want to
take just a minute to talk about how you
can make
more progress with your speaking skills
and your fluency too
for any of you who don't really have a
lot of time
but you still need to make real progress
quickly
well you'll be interested to hear that
our friends at lingoda have shared a
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this is a generous offer from lingoda
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drop the link
and the code down in the description
below so that you can go and check it
out for yourself
have you ever been part of a
conversation with someone where it feels
like they just
can't wait to leave you know they're
looking around like they want to run
away or
what's happening outside the window is
way more interesting than what you're
saying
maybe there's a lot of
sighing oh my goodness
it is so uncomfortable but whose fault
is this do you remember at the beginning
of this video
let's recap hello
i'm emma i am from
english that was all my fault
it was pretty dull did you notice that i
used
more formal language when i spoke i said
hello instead of my usual
hey and i added some unnecessary pauses
instead of just
allowing the sentence to flow i used the
passive voice
instead of the active voice my tone was
flat and monotonous and i had little
facial expression
but when i changed the greeting to
something more relaxed and
conversational
the mood completely changed didn't it it
went from being stiff and
formal to being relaxed and fun
when i changed from a passive voice to
an active voice
it helped you to feel more involved like
we were going to be doing this
working on this together and we are all
of these are really
small subtle changes but they can make a
big difference when you're speaking
so i'm going to show you a few common
phrases
maybe a little dull phrases and
responses
and then give you a few tips on how you
can
improve them how you can make your
conversations more engaging
fun and help people to really love
speaking with you
so a really common question one that you
have to answer
all the time is how are you but if you
respond with
i'm fine well you're not really making
anyone want to hang around and talk with
you right
so a better way to respond might be i'm
great thanks
i went to the spa today and had a lovely
time
how about you but why is the second
response
so much better i'll tell you
it is so hard to have a good
conversation with someone
if you are responding with just two
words
and these two words are said so often
there is nothing interesting or
inspiring
about the conversation and no desire to
continue right
but remember our goal is to have great
english conversations you want to invite
that person to keep speaking with you
i also added some extra details and
asked a follow-on question which gives
them a chance to respond to you i also
used a really easy going
friendly tone i had a smile on my face
it
gets the conversation off to a great
start
all right what about those times when
someone
tells you about something that they've
done something really fun
and you do think that it's great so you
probably know
you've got heaps of responses up your
sleeve you could say
that's cool well that's nice but then
they look at you and the conversation
sort of dies down a little
you didn't really say anything wrong but
maybe they were hoping you were more
enthusiastic and don't forget you really
did
think their story was great so perhaps a
better thing to say
might be ah that's wonderful
when did you start doing that so why
shouldn't you say
that's cool or that's nice or that's
good but they're just
words that are used way too often they
can
be used for almost anything people get a
little bit bored of hearing them
so in this case because you were so
impressed or you were so
interested or excited about what they
had to say
we've got to level up our language to
help show that enthusiasm
you want to use more interesting
adjectives like
incredible wonderful or
my favorite that i use all the time is
epic
now epic is a little more casual than
the other options but
it really does help to show your
enthusiasm
now with all of these responses we want
to make sure you've got a positive
enthusiastic tone you're excited right
so get ready to practice after me wow
that's
incredible when did you start doing that
nicely said okay so imagine this
you're sitting down with your colleague
at lunch and you can't wait to tell them
about this crazy dream that you've had
you start talking about the dungeons and
the dragons and the frogs with wings and
fairies that barked but then you notice
they're actually
staring off into the distance and
they're not really
interested at all i mean you've been
talking about this in a
great amount of detail for maybe five
minutes now but they're not
really paying any attention all right so
if you want to have a great conversation
with someone
telling them a long story about your
crazy wild dream
is probably not gonna help you get there
it's better to keep your story
short and to involve them in some way
ask for their opinion about it get them
in on the discussion
i dreamt about barking fairies last
night it was a little strange
what do you think it means easy right i
mean they probably won't know what it
means but
at least you're not having a one-sided
conversation you're inviting them in
and that is one of the keys to
incredible conversations
imagine your flatmate has just told you
about the long
day that they've had they seem really
down perhaps a little tired
so you say don't worry just be positive
now i know that you have good intentions
with this but it
is a phrase that is used so often so
often it can kind of seem a little
insensitive
so instead you could say something like
oh that sounds like an exhausting day is
there anything that i can do to help
so the first part of the response
expresses empathy it lets them know that
you
understand how they're feeling and of
course
showing empathy can get someone to open
up more
it lets them know that you care when you
want to ask about someone's day
you might simply say how are you or
how's it going
but you could also try mixing it up a
little bit
did you have a good day i mean people
are so accustomed to hearing
how are you that they respond without
thinking how are you
i'm fine good thanks how are you but
remember our goal here
is great conversations and making sure
our conversation keeps going so even if
we just change the words
a little bit and we add something a bit
more inquisitive
and upbeat tone then they'll probably
change
the way that they respond to you as well
hey emma how you going i'm fine thanks
and you i'm fine too hey emma have you
had a good day so far
yeah i had a great day i went to the
beach for a swim
and then i've just finished meeting with
the english design
team about our new website how about you
all right now i've got a little
challenge for you you're going to hear
three different contexts or different
examples of things that people might say
to you
and i want you to think about the best
way to respond
in order to keep the conversation going
try to think of
fun interesting and engaging ways to
continue the conversation ready so your
friend
asks you about a movie that you saw last
night
it was a movie that you absolutely loved
and you really enjoyed the acting what
kind of thing could you say
so i might say it was fantastic i
really loved the actors so when someone
asks you a question like this
try to change up the words that you use
give a little bit more detail
to keep things interesting now imagine
your friend
tried skydiving for the first time what
would you
say to them when they told you about
what they did over the weekend
i'd say that's epic what was it like
now the word epic is way cooler than
cool
it's not said as often so it's more fun
and
engaging and meaningful and
asking that follow-on question helps to
keep the conversation going doesn't it
okay how about this scenario your friend
has just told you that they received a
low score on their ielts test what would
you say
i'd say ielts exams are
so tough i'm sure many people feel the
same way
what can i do to help you feel better
when a friend is feeling down or they've
had some bad luck showing
empathy and offering to help shows them
that you're listening
it also invites the conversation to keep
going right
definitely don't show up telling them
what they should have done or how they
could have done it better that's not
very helpful at all
so that's five boring dull
expressions out the window and five new
phrases and tips to keep your
conversations
going to keep them interesting i hope
that this video
helps you to have longer more meaningful
more interesting conversations in
english and if you want to keep building
your vocabulary to have
these great conversations then these
videos right here will help you to do
exactly that
make sure you hit subscribe and i will
see you in the next lesson
bye for now