How can you have fantastic, meaningful conversations that
flow naturally in English? The key to that is effective, easy to use conversation
starters that allow you to have conversations with anyone. I'm
Annemarie with Speak Confident English. This is exactly where you want to be
every week to get the confidence you want for your life and work in English.
In today's Confident English lesson. I want to share my 10
favorite conversation starters
with you so that you have several questions that you can use
anytime you want to have a conversation with anyone, whether you're chatting with colleagues
online before a meeting or meeting someone face-to-face.
With each question today, I'll tell you exactly why it's an
effective conversation starter. And I'll tell you exactly how
you can use it. Plus at the end, I'm going to share two
bonus questions with you. One of which my students think
is so strange when English speakers ask this question, but it really is a great way
to get the conversation going. The first few conversation starters on
today's list are perfect for getting to know someone for the first
time or chatting with someone
you haven't seen for a long time. And the first one
might sound familiar to you. If you've ever done a job interview
in English, the first one is, tell me about yourself. I love this
conversation starter for several reasons. Number one, it's an easy one
to remember number two, again, you can use it with someone you're
meeting for the very first time or someone you haven't seen for
awhile. And number three, it allows the person you're speaking
to to decide what he or she wants to share. Whether it's talking about their
job in a project happening at work, maybe their personal and family life or
what they enjoy doing on the weekends. You are giving them control over
what to share. Now, as I mentioned, this might sound familiar because tell
me about yourself is also a common job interview opener, but the way that we answer those in
a personal conversation versus a job interview are not quite the same. If you want to learn more about how to
answer that question for job interviews, I have a whole other lesson for you,
and I'll leave a link to that below. So how can you use this one as a
conversation starter if you've just met someone for the first time and you've
finished your introductions immediately after finding out who a person
is, you might say, so I'm curious, tell me about you or tell me
about yourself. Similarly, if you haven't seen a friend, a coworker
or an acquaintance for a long time, you could also say it's so good
to see you! Tell me about you! In other words, you're
wanting to get an update, but you're giving them the opportunity
to decide what to share with you. Question number two is quite similar, but it's really only used in casual
conversations when you've just met someone for the first
time. And this one is, so what's your story just like
using, tell me about yourself. This one is a hundred
percent open-ended and again, you're giving the other person
control over what to share. The key to making this question work is
listening carefully to the answer and be ready to ask effective
follow-up questions. I've got a great example that you can
use coming up in this list in just a moment. Now, before I move on to
question three, just as a reminder, this particular question. So what's your story is perfect at
the end of an introduction in casual conversations conversation starter, number three is have you been working
on anything interesting or exciting lately? If you've studied with me
in any of my courses, you know, that a common smalltalk question that
English speakers use particularly Americans is what do you do people
want to know about your profession? But that question is used so
often that it has become a little boring. So this is a great alternative. Are you working on anything exciting or
interesting instead of just asking about someone's profession, you get to focus on something positive
happening in their professional life conversation. Number four is what
are your plans for the weekend? This one might seem obvious, but
that's one of the reasons I love it. It's an easy question to ask and get
a conversation going. It's perfect, no matter who you're speaking to. And because it focuses on the weekend
that time when we're usually not working, you'll get to know someone's interests, their hobbies and how they spend their
free time. Of course, with that question, what are your plans for the weekend? I'm asking about the
future or next weekend, if it's Monday and I want to ask
about the weekend that just finished, how would I change that question? How could I alter it to make it
past focused? We have two options. How was your weekend, or what
did you do this past weekend? Conversation starters, five and six on the list today are
questions I love to ask coworkers, acquaintances and friends, particularly when I want to talk
about something other than work. And I want to find out what
they're doing in their free time. And I want to go beyond
what they do on the weekend. The first one is what was the
highlight of your day, week or weekend? The reason it's so effective is it
immediately puts the focus on something positive, interesting, or even unusual that may have
happened that particular day, week or weekend. And the truth is you never know how
someone is going to answer that question. There's no common answer. So it's
always a surprise and interesting. It's definitely a great one to use when
you're having lunch with coworkers or just getting coffee with a friend.
Number six is quite similar. What's the most interesting
thing you've done recently. Just like with our previous question,
the answers to this are endless. Now that might seem scary because
you don't know what's coming. You don't know what someone
might share with you, but the good news is all
you need to do is sit, listen carefully and be ready to
ask a great follow-up question. My favorite way to do that
is question number seven. Tell me more about that's really
interesting. Tell me more about your trip. That sounds really cool. Tell me
more about the classes you're taking. That sounds like an amazing
adventure. Tell me more about it. Those four simple words.
Tell me more about, are a fantastic way to keep conversations
going and flowing. Naturally, question number eight is
where you from originally. This is a question I ask almost everyone. I meet even people in the city
where I live, because truthfully, most of the people here
are from somewhere else. I love finding out where people are from, because then I can find out
more about that particular city, that part of the country
or that part of the world. This is a question that easily leads
into a conversation about their city, their local culture, or traditions or
customs, their cuisine, and much more, not only is it a great conversation
starter when you're getting to know a new colleague or meeting someone at a
conference or networking function, but it's also great when you're
traveling as well. If you love traveling, like I do another great question to get
a conversation going on that topic is what is the most interesting
place you've ever been to, or what's the coolest
place you've been to. Nearly everyone loves
to talk about travel, going on vacation and
sharing recommendations of
things that they enjoyed. This is a great conversation starter to
share stories and memories and get some fantastic recommendations. I particularly love this conversation
starter when I'm traveling and getting to know others in that location. And now question number 10 on our list
for fantastic conversation starters that you can use with anyone is how
did you get into, for example, how did you get into your profession?
Or how did you get into that industry? If someone works for a company
where everyone wants to work, how did you get into that company? Or if you know that someone has a
fascinating or interesting hobby, you could ask them how they got into
it. How did you get into sculpting? How did you get into snowboarding?
This question is perfect. When you're getting to know someone
after an initial introduction, once you've learned a little bit about
their profession or that particular hobby they're interested in, and with that, you have 10 fantastic conversation
starters that you can use with anyone. And as I promised, I also
have two bonus questions. You, one is a question that my
students actually think is
a bit unusual when English speakers ask it. And the second one is my all-time
favorite conversation starter. When I'm chatting with
friends or acquaintances, let's start with the first one that
my students think is a bit strange. Have you ever heard an English
speaker say that's a great sweater. Where'd you get it? I love your
shoes. Where'd you buy them? Cool glasses. Where'd you
get them over the years? I've had many students tell me how strange
it is that someone wants to find out where to buy the same sweater or
pair of shoes, but truthfully, most of the time, that isn't really why
they're asking the question. Instead, what they're doing is
complimenting something that
you're wearing and trying to start a conversation about it. I certainly can't speak for English
speakers all over the world, but I can tell you, this is a very
common thing that Americans do. We love to compliment
something that we see, and we want to start a
conversation about it. And now bonus question
number two, my all time. Favorite conversation
starter. Now, truthfully, this
question is more personal, so it's probably not appropriate when
you're just getting to know someone for the very first time, but it is a great question when you're
chatting with friends or a coworker that you know really well. And the question is, what do you wish you had more of
in your life as I'm sure you can immediately notice what that question.
It definitely leads to a meaningful, thoughtful conversation. Now that you have a total
of 12 conversation starters
that you can use with anyone. I have two questions for you. What are your favorites from today's list? Are there two or three questions that
you've never thought about asking in English before? What are they
and why do you like them? You can share your favorites
with me in the comments below. And question number two. Do you have a different question that I
didn't share today that you love to ask when you're having
conversations in English? If you do definitely share it below. It's a great way to share
with others in our community, and you might have a conversation starter
that will be perfect for someone else to ask with that. Thank
you so much for joining me. If you found today's lesson helpful to
you, I would love to know as always, you can tell me by giving
this a thumbs up on YouTube, sharing your answers to my questions
in the comments below and sharing this lesson with friends or
coworkers on Facebook or
LinkedIn, have a wonderful week. And I look forward to seeing you next
time for your Confident English lesson.
