I'm Aly. I also have an English Learning Channel
called Learn English with Papa Teach Me.
So, today we're talking about
starting a conversation, like just then.
Have you ever had that situation,
where you want to speak to someone, but you're like...
I don't know what to say.
I don't know what to do.
What are words?
Exactly!
How do I human?
Been there, done that!
Let's learn some useful expressions.
Okay, so let's suppose I'm at a meeting
with many important people, at a conference.
I don't know...
So what is a formal way to start a conversation?
So, the standard really formal way to start any conversation is:
Right, so they're individual words: how-do-you-do,
but we pronounce it like, how dja do?
Do you wanna try it?
So the answer is "how do you do" as well?
-Exactly, yes! -You don't say "I'm fine".
Yes! It's really weird.
We even write it as a question.
"How do you do", question mark.
But it's not a question.
I know.
It's really weird.
And then you shake hands.
Usually, you don't touch people here, right?
Like here in London or even in America.
This is something that Brazilians usually do,
we touch people, we kiss people.
On the cheek, alright?
It's not like kissing everyone on the streets.
Although that would be fun.
Everyone would be so friendly.
Yeah, it's much more chill in Brazil.
So at work, sometimes, we shake hands,
but if I'm meeting a woman,
even at work, I would kiss her on the cheek.
That's a big difference. So be careful guys!
Don't kiss anyone here.
Don't kiss anyone.
-Don't kiss anyone. -Ever!
Ever!
Even your wife. Just don't kiss them.
We're British. We don't...
How do you actually have kids, if you don't touch people?
We order them from Amazon.
Yeah, sure!
Alright, so this is very formal.
That's super formal.
And what is the less formal way of saying "hi"?
Right, so the most common way,
for example the way
I say "hello" to everyone is:
You sound very British.
I know, I'm "Britishizing" my English.
It's working.
But, again, Americans,
They think we're asking, "Is everything okay?"
"Are you sad?"
Because we always say...
But we're not asking,
"How's your emotional state?"
Because, again, we don't have emotions.
We're just asking, "Hi. How are you?"
Alright!
So maybe in the United States, they could just say,
"How's it going?" Or "How are you?"
But then we have "how are you",
how formal is this?
It's neutral, you can ask it to everyone.
But
the important thing is the answer.
It's always, "Yeah, good. You?"
Would you say, "I'm fine, thanks"?
If you're learning English in a school,
in another country,
you will learn...
We never say that.
Never.
In reality no. We never say that.
Okay, it's not wrong, okay?
You can say, "I'm fine, thanks", It's fine...
It's fine, thanks!
But then you could say,
"Good, you?"
The most common answer you always hear,
if someone's crying:
"Hey, are you okay?" "Yeah, I'm good, you?"
Always!
But then if you're crying...
And then somebody asks you: "Oh my God, what happened?"
And then you can say: "No, no, no. I'm fine. I'm fine!"
Meaning that you're okay.
"I'm alright!"
Yeah, "I'm alright".
So it's a different situation. It's not a greeting anymore.
I'm actually saying that I'm fine.
Isn't it?
So, then you greet the person and what else can you say?
Right so you don't want to just leave it as, "You're alright...
...okay, bye!"
You actually want to say something, start a conversation.
So how can we continue a conversation?
You can say a few things, for example,
Giving a nice compliment.
For example, "I like your shirt".
There you go! I was waiting for it, thank you!
-I like your shirt. -I like your hair.
Thank you!
So a compliment about something.
I mean a safe compliment.
People don't really know how to safe compliment.
Just compliment their shoes.
Everyone likes to be complimented on their shoes.
And what about my phone?
Can you say something about my phone?
Yeah, I mean, which IPhone is that? I have one and it's broken.
Its iPhone 20
because I come from the future.
Okay and then, what else?
So you could open with a question,
a general question.
Could be anything, really. I mean, maybe, for example,
if I heard you speaking
and I thought, oh she has an accent,
maybe she's from Brazil.
If I want to know something I'm thinking about,
the expression I'd use is:
Okay what does it mean?
I was thinking.
I was asking a question in my head.
For example,
Yes, I am.
But there's something really useful
we do in British English, not so much in American English.
But we can be super, super polite
with one expression.
And it's versatile, you can use it for everything.
For example, that one:
"Oh, I was wondering, are you from Brazil?"
Then I say, "Yeah, I am".
Perfect! Now I'm thinking,
by chance, maybe, are you from Sao Paulo?
I might ask:
No, I'm from the south of the country,
but I live in Sao Paulo.
Where are you from?
I'm from Rio Grande do Sul.
Where we drink "chimarrão".
Is that Grêmio?
Yeah! You know Grêmio?
I have a scarf.
Really? It's my team!
That's your team?
I'm a "gremista".
Am I a "gremisto"?
"Gremista."
It's the same.
The full sentence, "you wouldn't happen to blah blah blah,
would you?" Which is a tag question.
But the pronunciation gets really fun.
And we can try it in a fully British accent.
Okay, I'll try.
Okay, so, "you wouldn't"
becomes "you wouldn".
So that "nt" is glottal.
Perfect!
Did they practice with you?
You should be practicing.
Practice with us.
"You wouldn't" it's right here.
Exactly!
You don't need to make that noise.
And then, "happen to" becomes "happena".
When you're speaking quickly, that's good!
But, of course, when you're speaking slowly,
you'd probably pronounce it a bit more clearly.
I'd still glottalize that "t".
So, it's "happen to", I pronounce those properly.
However, the really quick way, it's a really super quick way,
of being very polite to someone.
Let's ask you a question.
Okay, but this is very British, right?
The American version, they're not as
super ridiculously polite as we are.
We are ridiculous with our politeness.
But the American way would just be a tag question.
In American accent, you can do the American accent.
It would be exaclty that.
South American accent.
And what else can you say to a person you've just met?
Or somebody you want to start talking to?
I don't know.
Right, so I mean, you could ask the real small talk questions.
Like, you want to know about their job, do they work?
Do they study? What do they do?
So the question is:
If you want to complete the sentence?
Yeah, but you don't have to, we just say:
Oh, what do you do?
I'm a teacher.
No way! I'm a teacher too.
-Oh my god, let's be friends! -Let's be best friends.
-Forever! -Forever and ever.
You know, in Brazi, when we don't know what to say,
sometimes, we talk about the weather.
Is it common in English as well?
To talk about the weather?
Always!
And you're never happy with the weather as well.
If it's warm, it's too warm.
If it's cold, it's too cold.
It's rainy, this rain never ends!
You're never happy with the weather here.
Okay, so it's also a nice way,
"a nice way" to start a conversation?
You start talking about the weather.
Totally! So, for example, if we're talking,
I'll mention the weather by pretty much always saying:
I'm not happy with the weather.
Would you ever say:
"Oh my God, it's a lovely day, isn't it?"
No, we're not happy in England.
I would say that in Brazil.
Because you are happy people.
We're happy people, right?
It's a lovely day, isn't it?
Or we would complain that it's too hot.
Like, "Oh my God! It's too hot today!"
"It's so warm!"
That must be nice.
No, it's not nice.
Of course, you could always just ask:
Should I talk about my day or just say
"it's a good day" or "it's good"? What do you expect?
Really good question.
There are many options, but
British people don't tend to be very talkative.
We would just be like,
"Yeah, good."
And then it's not a nice way to start a conversation
because you'll never keep a conversation.
Exactly! So we need to ask more questions.
Oh my god ! We have to have a list of questions
to keep a conversation with a British person.
Everyone likes to talk about what they enjoy doing.
So you could ask someone about their hobbies.
For example,
Carina in your free time,
I know you don't get much because you're super busy
and you're super cool
with your really popular YouTube channel.
And you're really famous...
That's a nice expression!
Definitely.
But when you do have free time,
I like going to parks
and also listening to music. That's what I do.
What kind of music?
Rock and roll!
What about you?
The same.
Because we're best friends, right?
Because we're best friends!
I don't have any free time.
Yeah, me neither.
It's YouTube, gym, sleep.
So what does "get up to" mean?
So, in this question I asked:
"What do you get up to?"
"Get up to"
literally replaces the word "doing".
So in this question I asked, "what do you get up to?"
"Get up to", in this question, literally replaces "do".
And is it a British expression?
No, Americans would use it to.
And what about a business context?
Where you want to network with a person.
You wouldn't ask this person about her hobbies,
or, I don't know, her day.
You would ask something related to the context of
working or something like that.
What would you ask?
Yeah, don't, definitely.
I mean, for example, a really common question is to ask:
So, the way we ask that,
there could be some confusion here.
So, I might ask you:
Slowly.
Quickly.
Which means are you busy today? Is it?
It's like, how busy are you?
How busy are you.
Have you got much?
The "on" refers to going on, happening.
And what would be a nice answer to that?
I got loads on today.
If you're very busy.
Or... "No, not much."
If you're quite free.
But there's, you could be confused with this.
If you ask someone "what do you have on?"
You're asking two things,
you're asking one:
The second thing:
So, if I'm asking you: "Have you got much on?"
No, just a dress.
Exactly! Exactly!
So it could be some confusion.
You will guess by the context, right?
Yeah, you should do.
So thank you very much Aly for helping us.
I hope you feel more confident to start a conversation now.
So we're talking about how to end a conversation, right?
Yeah, once the conversation gets boring,
you have to end it.
Yeah, in a nice way.