What's your name? My name is Andrea, hi I'm Ethan. It's nice to meet you it's great to meet you
as well. Hey how's it going I'm Ethan your RealLife
English fluency coach and I have a question for you,
do you ever feel scared when you have to start a conversation in English? Or maybe you have an important job interview,
or event coming up where you're going to have to perform in English, and you want to feel
proud about your presentation? Having the perfect introduction in English
can help you to feel confident, and this might seem like a basic topic, but let me tell you
that even if you are an advanced learner, it's definitely useful to continue working
on this. This is something that you're going to have
to do all the time. Whether you're just meeting someone for the
first time, you're in a job interview, or you're on stage at a big event — you're
going to have to introduce yourself. And, a lot of times, you have to do this without
any warning. So, it's really important that you're prepared,
right? And, furthermore, your introduction should
be unique to you. You shouldn't just say something because some
teacher on YouTube told you that it's the right thing to say if it's not actually true. So, to help you get the preparation that you
need to have your personal, perfect introduction, in this lesson, we will cover: The vocabulary that you need and the pronunciation
of how you can say these like a native would (or how you can expect natives to say them),
so you'll understand them then we will cover some tips for perfecting your intro, and understanding
some of the differences between British and American introductions, since there are some
words that we might use differently and then finally of course we'll give you some examples,
so you can start using these introductions right away. And by the way if you are new here every single
week we guide you beyond the classroom so that you can understand fast speaking natives,
you can be understood by anyone and you can connect to the world just like our fan Marcelo
who says that he has tried many different courses online but that our videos are the
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to join our community too it's really simple just hit that subscribe button and the bell
below and you won't miss a single one of our new lessons. Hey by the way, we have prepared a special
FREE PDF study guide and podcast audio lesson that you can download to help you remember
and practice everything you learned in this training. Anytime, anywhere, and take your English fluency
to the next level! Click the link in the description below to
get instant access. All right so we're going to start off with
the most basic of course and this is different greetings now greetings are different ways
that you can say hello. Now hello would be obviously the most basic
you can't really go wrong with it but maybe it's not what natives will usually use it's
a little bit dry right so let's look first at some different words that you could use
if you're in a more formal situation. So first off of course you can say hello but
you could also depending on the time of day you use a different greeting like good morning,
good afternoon or good evening now it's probably pretty obvious the time of day for some of
these but maybe less clear for others I hear some learners say for example good night because
it's night time but actually we use this either to say goodbye when it's at night so before
we are leaving we'll say good night have a good night or something like that and we might
also say it if someone's about to go to sleep we're about to go to bed so we'd say good
night so if it's dark outside and you're wanting to say it as a greeting then it should be
a good evening and not good night and then a note about good afternoon. So I've heard a lot of learners also say good
day now this is probably because this is a direct translation from a lot of languages
and it does actually exist in English now they can use it sometimes in the UK. However if you use this in the United States
it's going to sound like a really old-fashioned and it just sounds a little bit unnatural
and of course you can shorten any of these by removing good and I would say that's a
little bit more informal but it's really okay in any situation so you would say morning
afternoon evening night okay and what about if you're meeting someone for the first time
in a more informal situation maybe you're getting introduced to a friend of a friend
or maybe you're in a group of people your age or you're just kind of wanting to give
more of a warm introduction what could you say then so first off instead of saying hello
we could say something like hey hi or we even say hiya that's kind of a more modern way
of saying it another really common one that we use in the United States is yo so it'd
be like yo how's it going yo what's up and this I believe it comes from rapper culture
actually but nowadays pretty much any young person can use it i would use it a lot with
my friends and next we would have what's up as I said before now a lot of learners get
confused with this because they think that it means the same as how are you but really
what's up is used much more as a greeting and we might use it together with another
one like hi, what's up or yo what's up but it's not asking how are you so if someone
asks you what's up you wouldn't say I'm good and you you would actually say something like
not much or you could explain what you're doing because what's up is actually similar
to saying what's happening or what are you doing and in casual situations it's really
common for natives to actually shorten this so instead of saying what's up we would just
say sup and that's because you might hear some connected speech there of what's up so
we actually just say that really fast and it becomes what's up and we just take the
end part sup so that's where that comes from and some other ones are like what's crackin'
or what's happening like I said before so we can say what's happening but often we'll
drop that G and we'll just say the n sound at the end so it becomes what's cracking what's
happening uh what's good what's new and I'd say these are all very common in the united
states i'm not sure if Andrea would use them as well in the UK but another one that they
probably would use in the UK is "what's going on." Now in the United states if we say this we
would say it faster so we say what's going on what's going on now I'm from the Western
United States and maybe you've seen some western films and if you have then you might have
heard the greeting howdy now howdy is shortened from how do you do which is an old expression
that would be used to basically greet someone or also to ask someone how they're doing but
nowadays it's just used kind of the same as hi now it might depend where you go in the
United States that you would hear this I probably wouldn't use it so much but maybe in kind
of like a fun casual setting with friends then I could say howdy. Alright so you have said hello and now maybe
you want to ask someone how they're doing but what you probably learned in school is
"hi how are you," "I'm fine" which is a little bit boring right so maybe you want something
to say instead of how are you now how are you that's great if you're in kind of a formal
situation and you're not so sure exactly what to use you really won't go wrong with that
so if you want to say something else that would be fine in any situation you could say
how are you doing or how are you feeling so if you say how are you doing this is basically
the same as how are you but it's just a different way to say it of course how are you feeling
that might mean more like you know how are you actually feeling like what mood are you
in so maybe if you see someone and they look like maybe a little bit sick a little bit
under the weather you might say that how are you feeling like you're showing some concern
for them but this would really be okay also in any other situation and the person could
say i'm feeling great or i'm not feeling so great I'm not feeling so good I'm a little
bit under the weather and then you could ask more about that of course now if you want
to make this a little bit more informal you could actually take out the R so you could
say how you doing or you could drop the G there and say how you doing that's actually
a really famous line that comes from joey and friends and then you could add to the
end of any of those today this evening this afternoon so how are you feeling this evening
how are you doing this afternoon and another really great one in any situation is how have
you been now this means basically since the last time I saw you how have you found yourself
so we would say this with connected speech even in a formal situation so in the United
States instead of saying how have you been we would probably say have you been how have
you been. Now let's take a look at some more informal
ones that you could use with some closer friends now we already kind of looked at how you could
change the how are you doing just by taking out the R or maybe dropping the G but what
are some other ones that we can use now one really great one that we use all the time
in the United States is how's it going but usually we'd have some connected speech here
as well and it would become how's it going how's it going. I use that one all the time with my friends
another one that I really like using all the time is how's life and this actually comes
from a little bit longer phrase which is how is life treating you so basically how are
you encountering your life right now and basically the person might answer everything's great
I'm doing awesome or not so good I just lost my job or maybe something else like that so
you're inviting the other person to kind of open up the conversation and we'll look a
little bit more at that later another really similar one you could use is how's everything
and another one we use all the time in the United States is all's good now this comes
from is everything good but we kind of like shorten it in this way all's good I don't
think it's so grammatically correct but we use it a lot in the United States so that's
a really great casual one that you can use with your friends now how should you respond
if someone asks you all is good now you could just say yes but something that you shouldn't
do is answer it like how are you so you shouldn't say I'm good and you you should actually probably
answer it by explaining what's going on so you might say yeah I'm really great I just
came from going on a run so I have like an endorphins high or you might say you know
things aren't so good my my pet is a little bit under the weather and I had to take it
to the veterinarian now in the UK they have another really great expression that they
use all the time but they will have a different meaning in the United States so let's have
Andrea explain about this one. In Britain lots of people would ask are you
all right except it wouldn't sound like this they would connect it to say [yoll roit]. Now in the United States if you ask this are
you all right it means that there's something wrong that you've perceived maybe that person
looks sick maybe they look really sad and it's kind of like you know you're wanting
to show that you care for that person and you're asking what's wrong so this is a great
one to use in the UK as a greeting but if you use it in the United States the answer
is going to be very different and we have two more really great lessons that will teach
you kind of how to have these casual conversations in English so in one I explained to you what
are kind of the phrases that you learned in school that we don't actually use so much
in real life and then the other one is one that Andrea did on 55 expressions for conversation
so those who really complement what you're learning in this lesson and I highly recommend
that you check them out next. All right so you're starting a conversation
and the other person asks you how are you or how's it going or any of those other alternatives
that we just learned so how should you respond we already looked a little bit at some but
let's look at some other kind of things that you could say if this happens in any situation
so the first one obviously would be I'm good but maybe if you want to sound a little bit
more native-like we shorten this a bit so we might just say I'm good, I'm good so we
don't really say that full I sound we just say the I'm good I'm good and of course it
really benefits you to learn alternatives to good so you could say I'm great, I'm fantastic,
I'm amazing, I'm awesome now if you know any of these then it's going to give you a lot
more diversity in which to answer with and it'll make you sound a bit more natural and
of course they have kind of different varying degrees of how good you feel or how bad you
feel so it can kind of offer more subtlety to what you're trying to say now recently
on our other channel Learn English with TV Series I did a lesson teaching you better
words to say than good and you can check that out also down in the description. Now similarly how we can use all good as kind
of an alternative to how are you we can also answer that if someone asks you how are you
you could say all's good, all's good now you can say each individual word all is good or
if you want to sound more natural then make it the contraction all is good but maybe you're
not feeling so great and so you want something to kind of show that that you could use in
any situation okay that's something that we'll use all the time especially when it's kind
of someone that we don't really think they really care how we're feeling we just say
I'm good or I'm okay, I'm all right and then some other ones you could use maybe if you're
not just kind of like average or you really want to express to that person that maybe
you need some consoling you need a good friend then you could say I could be better could
be better even we can drop the subject there or we could say I've been better that means
kind of like you know I've had other moments in my life where I've felt better than I have
right now and if you say either of these probably the person's going to ask you know what's
wrong or what's not so great now the connected speech here we wouldn't probably say could
be better all like that very stiff like a robot we would say could be better could be
better so we kind of dropped that d and could and link it to the b could be better and then
in better of course we have that American T so it's not better it's better and another
one that you could say similarly to this is not so great I'm not so great and we would
say this as not so great so that's a glottal t and we kind of drop it all together so it
kind of becomes not not so great but not so great not so great we might also say for example
I'm not feeling so hot that might mean that you're kind of like feeling a little bit under
the weather you're feeling a little bit sick and of course in the UK they have some answers
to this that might be a little bit different than what you encounter in the United States
so let's take a look in Britain we would respond with very well thank you or can't complain
and maybe a bit of a posh one would be splendid if you're visiting ireland and you ask someone
how they are they might even say to you that they are grand which means that they are great
all right and then you're just meeting someone for the first time so what are they going
to ask probably they're probably going to ask you what's your name so if someone asks
you what's your name how should you respond so of course a classic way that you can respond
you can't go wrong with this is just to say your name so if someone asks me what's your
name I might just say "Ethan and yours?" or "Ethan, nice to meet you" but of course someone
asks you what's your name you could also say "my name is Ethan" but maybe that sounds a
little bit unnatural than just saying your name straight up but maybe you're starting
the conversation and so you want to ask that other person their name without necessarily
just saying what's your name so I could say for example hey my name's Ethan and you and
of course another really common one instead of saying my name is or just our name is to
say I'm Ethan, Hi I'm ethan what's your name? and then if you're on the phone it's actually
completely different because we wouldn't say my name is or iIm we would actually have to
say this is so if someone calls me and i answer my phone and I'm wanting to report to them
you know who I am then I would say "hi this is Ethan how can I help you?" or another way
that you can say that to me sounds a little bit more formal is using the word speaking
so basically if someone calls me on the phone and I'm wanting to announce who I am right
away so they know who they've reached then I could say "Ethan speaking" now of course
if you do this it's because the person who's calling you don't know them or it's an unknown
number or something like that or maybe you are using this at work for example so you
wouldn't use that for example if you know that it's a friend calling you and of course
as I mentioned before once someone tells you their name or you've both introduced yourself
then the correct thing to say in that case so that you sound polite is nice to me to
you now you probably already know that but a native will pretty much never say nice to
meet you we'd say nice to meet you nice to meet you and just a note here I think kind
of depending on the culture that you're in you might make this mistake now in the United
States and I believe even in the UK if someone asks you your name you shouldn't give your
full name so you shouldn't say your first and last name both together if someone's asking
your name unless they have directly specified what's your first and last name if they're
just saying what's your name then the most natural thing that you can do in our cultures
is to just say it your first name so make sure that you're doing that because otherwise
it could sound a little bit unnatural maybe it would even sound a little bit too formal
or uncomfortable to the person moving on when you meet someone for the first time or even
if you're in a job interview of course it's going to be really important to talk about
your work people might ask you where you work or what you do so let's look at some different
ways that you could ask this if you're curious about that for the other person or ways that
you can expect people asking you so first off you would of course just say the basic
where do you work where do you work or if we're saying this in more of a casual tone
or with connected speech as a native would then we could say where do you work where
do you work that do you all the time in English becomes a ju now if you want a little bit
of a different way to ask this that I would use all the time is what do you do for a living
and again we can say what you do for a living what do you do for a living now this basically
means you know to be able to live to be able to get money so that you can live what do
you do what's your work that actually pays you your salary. All right so these are two really great questions
to ask but if someone asks you these then how should you answer now something kind of
interesting in american culture at least is that when we ask what do you do we're asking
about work so really what we do in life is very attached to how we make money that's
just something I guess about our capitalist culture and something that you can kind of
expect because probably in your life you do more than just work but if someone asks you
that in the United States that's what they're asking so if someone asks you what do you
do then the simplest way to answer is by saying I'm... and then the position that you work
in so this of course would be the position not the actual verb so I'm a manager at Google,
I'm a chef at an Italian restaurant, I'm an English teacher, I'm a construction worker
so really you can kind of figure out how would you call your position and use that in that
case but you could kind of say something different as well you could say I work in and then talk
about the area that you work in so you could say I work in environmental change, I work
in education, I work in the culinary industry or the hotel industry so in this case you
have to think about what is the general area called that you work in maybe you don't work
for another person maybe you have your own business so you could say I'm an entrepreneur
or I have my own business but maybe you're still studying or maybe you want to not just
share your work experience but also your experience studying so this usually would be attached
more to University of course but first of all you could say I study at if it's current
or I study that and then say the University so I would say I studied at the university
of Colorado. You could say I studied at Harvard, I studied
at Cambridge or any sort of alternative to this now maybe you want to not just share
where you went but also what you studied there so then you should say not I have a title
in because that's incorrect and that's kind of a translation from other languages but
I have a degree in so I would say I have a degree in International Affairs. Now maybe I could say that altogether so i
have a degree in International Affairs from the University of Colorado so there we should
use from not at so I studied at the University of Colorado but I have a degree from the University
of Colorado now if you say this it's probably talking about an undergraduate or as we would
say more colloquially an undergrad now this means the kind of the base degree that you
have to have in order to study anything else after those first four years of college it's
four years anyway in the United States so then if you want to communicate that you've
studied beyond that you might say I have a Master's in so this is the case for me I have
a Master's in Marketing maybe you have studied even more than that and you have a Doctorate
so you'd say I have a doctorate in or I have a PhD. in now basically both those mean the
same things so I have a PhD. in Electrical Engineering or I have a doctorate in English
literature okay so another thing that's very common to come up is someone's going to want
to know maybe where you came from especially if you're an English learner I actually think
it's really great if you have an accent because it kind of generates conversation someone
will notice that accent it's kind of exotic so they might be like hey where are you from
so if someone asks you where are you from how should you answer now the most basic one
you could say of course is I'm from and then say the place so if someone asked me that
here I might say I'm from Colorado I'm from the United States maybe we want something
a little bit more interesting so you could say I was born and raised in Colorado now
this basically means that both I was born there and I grew up there now if you were
born in a place that's different than where you actually grew up then you could say for
example I was born in India but I grew up in France. Now if you say this then that basically means
you were born in that first place and then in that second place is where you actually
have spent most of your life and pay attention to the connected speech there of course so
born and raised kind of becomes born and raised born and raised so that and hooks to the n
from born and we kind of drop the d at the end so nan born and raised born and raised. So let's say that you're currently living
in Canada you've been there for a while you still have your accent so you're talking with
someone and they ask hey where are you from you could say well I'm originally from Japan
or I'm originally from Germany and this is a great way to say that you came from that
country but now you currently live in this place and then similarly maybe you want to
continue the conversation here so if someone asks you where you're from you say well I'm
originally from Japan but I've been living here in Canada for five years so that would
be kind of the formula so for example for me I'm originally from Colorado in the United
States but I've been living in Barcelona for three years. Okay so we've talked about work, we've talked
about where you come from now maybe you want to have a little bit more of a fun conversation
you don't want to talk about work but you want to talk about things that you enjoy doing
when you're not working so these would be your hobbies so when you want to ask someone
about this probably the most common thing would be what do you like to do in your free
time so if someone asks this of course you can say "in my free time I like to play golf,"
"In my free time I really like playing video games," "in my free time I like reading." But if someone asks you what do you like doing
in your free time you probably don't want to answer that way right so let's look at
some more interesting ways you could answer first of all you could say I enjoy so I enjoy
golf, I enjoy reading, I enjoy learning languages another really great way that you can say
this is I'm an avid or I'm a voracious so this means that you are passionate about that
thing so I could say for example I'm an avid reader or I'm a voracious cooker like I really
like spending time in the kitchen so really American way you could say this is by saying
I'm big on something so you could say I'm big on surfing or I'm big on science fiction
and in the UK they have some other interesting ways you can say this so let's have Andrea
show those to you. We might say I'm keen on I'm into or I'm interested
in all right so we're coming to the end of the introduction here maybe you're at an event
or maybe you have just met someone started talking to someone but you aren't feeling
so much like you want to continue talking to that person this might happen for example
just because you feel like you're not vibing with that person like you aren't really hitting
it off these all kind of mean the same thing that there isn't chemistry there or maybe
you're at an event like a networking event and you're wanting to meet some other people
so how can you politely tell that other person that I've enjoyed meeting you but now I want
to go talk to other people so of course in the USA we are very polite so you should always
use things like please thank you and sorry so first off you could start off by saying
sorry, sorry it's been really nice to meet you but now I want to go talk to that person
but my friend is waiting for me but I really have to go because I have another commitment
now if you want a really formal way to answer this we could say I have a prior engagement
now that's a really great expression that you can use that means that you have some
other plans that you made before so now you have to leave so for example if you are finishing
up the conversation you said I'm really sorry I've enjoyed meeting you but I have a prior
engagement and I really have to go now another really great way to say this is I have to
excuse myself now we wouldn't say have to so much here we'd probably say hafta hafta
so I have to excuse myself and then you can kind of give the excuse or you can just leave
it at that so you can say sorry I have to excuse myself it was nice meeting you let's
talk again sometime or please excuse me my friend is waiting for me and I have to go
a more casual way for example if you want to talk about a prior engagement is you could
say I'm running late I'm running late for something so I'm running late to pick my kid
up from school so I really have to go now I'm running late for another event that I
signed up for so I have to go and a more casual way even to say this is I have to run that
means that you're really busy or you have something else that you have to get to and
you have to go now and as I mentioned with any of these you kind of want to do it in
a polite way so you should always say of course as i said sorry and it was great meeting you
and maybe if it was a good connection then you want to do something like ask for that
person's phone number like can I send you a whatsapp sometime can I get your LinkedIn
can I get your card if you want to get their business card or you could give them yours
so any of these would be kind of appropriate and it's a really kind of classy way a really
great way that you can leave without being rude and then just finally let's end this
section by talking about some different contexts and things that you might need to know in
those contexts for doing a different type of introduction or having to say some different
kinds of phrases so first off you might bump into someone you might casually see someone
that you have not seen for a long time and in this case we have some different sorts
of greetings so first off we might say long time no see that means it's been a really
long time since you've seen that person and then we might say what's new that means what
has happened since I last talked to you we might also say what have you been up to but
we have some really great connected speech here that we'd probably use or that if you
hear a native say it they would say what have you been up to what have you been up to another
thing we saw before is how's life how's life now this is always really great if you haven't
seen someone in a long time now let's say you're at the supermarket and you bump into
someone so if this happens maybe you feel a little bit awkward I usually feel pretty
awkward in those situations and you're kind of in the middle of your shopping and you're
just wanting to continue without having to talk too much so what should you do so you
don't get tied up talking to that person for a long time well we talked about already ways
that you can kind of excuse yourself so you should always say you know "Hi how's it going?"
and kind of be polite but then you can kind of use those things like saying I have to
run I have another thing that I have to do after this sorry I'm kind of in a hurry and
something you might say is it was great to see you or it is great to see you either in
the present or in the past kind of like right before you're leaving you could say it was
really great to see you let's catch up some other time now before we move on to those
success tips which are really going to help you to put everything that we've learned so
far into practice and to feel really confident using your introduction. I want to tell you a little bit about our
power learning week now this is a fantastic way to continue learning the English that
natives really use in our everyday conversations plus it's going to help you to feel really
confident with both your listening and your speaking and of course the best part is it's
100% free so you can learn more about that and sign up all you have to do is click up
here or down the description below. Alright so now we have our tips for success
that are going to help you put everything into practice so the first tip that I have
for you is you should actually create a script now you should actually write down what is
your perfect introduction what is the introduction that is unique to you that you really want
to use when you meet someone new and maybe you could actually have several of these they
use depending if you're in a more formal situation if you are going to have to talk about yourself
in a job interview or one that you want to use more if you are meeting new people that
are your age if you're out at the bars or if you're kind of meeting friends of friends
so really whether you are more advanced or at a more basic level something that can be
really useful to do is to first write it in your native language now usually i'm not a
big fan of translating but in this case I think it can be really valuable because you
know exactly how you might want to say things in a really specific way in your native language
that might be hard for you to start out in English now I've actually used this even when
I'm learning a new language and it's the first week that I'm learning it to already be able
to start speaking I'll actually write out my introduction by writing it in English first
and then translating it and usually I keep it pretty simple because I don't want to learn
crazy vocabulary yet but this is really fantastic because after seven days of learning the language
I can already start a very basic conversation with someone which when I'm starting out that's
really important to build my confidence so if you're more basic or if you want to learn
another language I highly recommend that but even if you're at more of an intermediate
advanced level for what we've learned today I think this is super important now one of
the reasons that this is so crucial is because when you give your introduction usually you
won't have warning so you need to be able to be spontaneous it needs to sound really
natural so having that script and then practicing it is going to help you to in any situation
give that introduction in a really natural casual way and then this way you can focus
more on the connection with the other person so what's really important here is to think
about what are the questions that you're going to be asked so of course if you're going into
a job interview you should research a little bit you should obviously know things about
the company so that you can actually talk about how you'll fit well with the company
and we can do another lesson of course talking more about English specifically for those
job area views but what we've learned today I think can already be really helpful and
by doing the scripting exercise you'll feel a lot more confident in that situation so
if you're thinking also about more of a casual conversation if you're going out to the bars
if you're meeting up with some friends then you're going to want to think about what is
the more informal natural and native language that you'll need to use so we've already looked
at some of these today so people might ask you like where are you from what do you do
for a living what are your hobbies or what you like to do in your free time and maybe
you have a job interview or you meet new people at work or you're going to an event or something
like that and you need some more business English so if that's the case then I highly
recommend we just created on our other channel a lesson teaching you business English with
TV series, so it's really fun really practical and I'll link that down in the description
below now don't just write out the script and then don't touch it at all you need to
really practice you need to get this down pat which means that you're getting it by
heart and a really great way to do this so that it comes out natural because maybe you
have it memorized but you really have to think about it is to actually record yourself and
listen to yourself and by doing this over and over again and maybe trying with different
questions try mixing up the order then it's going to start coming out much more natural
and it's just going to feel like a part of you so you won't have to even think about
it it's just anytime someone asks you what do you do for a living or what do you do outside
of work what do you do in your free time you'll know right away what you're supposed to answer
and let's not just talk about this why don't you actually pause the video write out a quick
script it doesn't have to be very long right now and share it down in the comments below
to introduce yourself and myself and the community that way can kind of help you out and give
you some feedback. All right so let's move on to the next tip
so let's say that you're a bit like me and you're introverted and you feel a little bit
shy especially when you are in situations where you're meeting a lot of new people in
a short amount of time so in these cases it can be really useful to not just depend on
talking about yourself but actually ask the other person more about themselves so center
the conversation around that other person that way you kind of get over your shyness
because you're not having to do all this speaking because of course if you just jump into reciting
your script that you've practiced then maybe the other person will get bored maybe it still
doesn't sound very natural and you're just talking about yourself something that is true
of everyone is everyone loves talking about themselves so use this to your advantage really
practice those different questions and really show a genuine interest in that other person
now of course you can add to your script some really interesting questions maybe you can
kind of relate to some different things about yourself so you could say hey I studied environmentalism
what do you think about environmentalism, what do you think about climate change or
different things like that that are going to kind of spark some different conversation
that you're also going to be interested in speaking about and something that can really
save you in these situations is the question how about you how about you so there's some
connected speech there as well and you can always ask that if the other person's asking
you a lot of questions then you can kind of keep turning the conversation back towards
that other person and they're going to feel a lot more comfortable speaking with you and
of course if you are like me that you're introverted I created a really in-depth lesson talking
about this with a bunch of different tips that will help you a lot in any situation
like this so I highly recommend you check out that later by clicking up here or down
the description below the third tip is to not stress out about whether you need to use
formal or informal language now in british and american culture nowadays there is a divide
between formal and informal english but it's getting smaller all the time so even when
you're at work a lot of times people will use informal language and just to give you
an example of this i see a lot of english learners that use sir a lot or madam now these
words aren't actually so common in the united states and it can even sound kind of weird
it can make the other person feel uncomfortable because it's just too formal so if you go
into a job interview do not be saying Sir, Sir, Sir to the person who's interviewing
you you could use Mr. and say their last name if you want to give a bit more formality but
to be honest I almost never use this word sir now the exception to this might be if
you're in the service industry so for example if you're working as a waiter or you're working
as a clerk at some sort of store then you might say can "I help you Sir?" and this kind
of just adds a bit of politeness but in general do not use this word very much do not be overusing
it because it will make people feel uncomfortable now how can you know whether to use informal
or formal language so you're at a conference or you are at your job and you're not sure
is this a place where I should be using formal language or informal language really the best
way that you can figure this out is by listening to other people what language are they using
are they using more of the formal language I gave you today or are they using more colloquial
language and by kind of observing this and observing the situations that they're in who
they're talking to then you get a lot more comfortable in these different situations
with which words you should be choosing as I said if you sound too formal you can make
people feel uncomfortable but if you're in doubt it's probably a bit safer to use that
formal language because you also don't want to come across as rude and I could talk a
ton more about this so if you want us to make a lesson on informal versus formal language
and when you should use each then just give this lesson a like to let me know and finally
let's talk about some things that you should not talk about some things to avoid of course
depending on the culture you're in certain questions are okay and certain questions are
not okay so one thing for example in American culture is that I'll see compared to other
cultures we will not generally ask people about their marriage unless it actually kind
of comes up naturally now if someone says blah blah my wife or blah blah my husband
then of course you can say oh you're married and you can ask questions about that but it
should not just be kind of like a direct question like you know what are you interested are
you married because that other person might kind of feel like you know that's none of
your business so of course this is why it's really important to know the culture and to
know what is okay and what's not okay and even like when you go to the United States
for example if you are in certain areas there's places where certain things might be more
formal so for example if you go to the south of the United States it's probably a little
bit more formal and there's more of these questions that you shouldn't ask and maybe
if you go to the north of the United States then really anything is okay so it's going
to depend a lot even on the subculture of the United States that you're in or the subculture
of the UK or really anywhere else that you go so again really try to observe this but
let's look at some of those things that you should not say or not ask about so first of
all other than asking about marriage you should not ask people their age especially women
because this can be seen as offensive we would probably see this as not so important or relevant
anyway because you can kind of see more or less what age someone is and maybe if the
other person asks you for some reason or maybe if it's because of something really surprising
like if the person has a bunch of gray hair but then they say "oh I'm studying university
at blah blah" you might say how old are you because maybe they're younger than you think
they are but in general this is something that's better to avoid unless the other person
brings it up first and then once again marriage is something that you probably should not
ask about unless you already are pretty close to that person or they bring it up but of
course it's fine if you want to tell other people that you're married or tell them about
your wife or husband people won't really find that at all weird or rude or offensive and
then two other subjects that you should try to avoid unless the other person brings it
up but even in these cases I would usually try to steer the conversation in a different
direction would be politics and religion now of course these people can have very different
opinions and really it's probably when you're just getting to know someone it's not where
you're wanting to go you're not wanting to go to a place that's really conflictual so
I would highly recommend that you avoid those topics unless you really like getting into
heated debate. All right so as promised just to wrap up this
lesson I'm going to give you some examples that will help you in writing your own script
so first off let's put everything that we looked at today together so my introduction
might look like this so I would say that my name is Ethan I'm from Durango, Colorado. I currently live in Barcelona I studied at
the University of Colorado I have a Masters in Marketing I have my own company, I'm the
CMO of RealLife English in my free time I like running exercising meditating and singing
I'm an avid reader traveler and language learner now that probably sounds to you a little bit
robotic right it doesn't sound so natural and probably if I came up to you and I started
speaking like that you'd be like okay I'm gonna go talk to someone else but let's look
at how we can kind of put that together in a more natural flowing way so that first way
that I gave you is really great for writing out a script and for knowing how to answer
different questions but if you have to give it as a presentation for yourself then you're
wanting to do it in more of a flowing way right so let's try this. Hey there, I'm Ethan I was born and raised
in Colorado where I studied International Affairs at the University of Colorado, I now
currently live in Barcelona, I have a Master's in Marketing and I have my own company called
RealLife English where I'm the CMO. In my free time I like exercising running
meditating and singing and I'm also an avid reader language learner and anytime I can
I love to travel now that seems so much more natural, right? So I highly recommend that you try it that
way write out your script and then kind of see how you can put it in more of a flowing
natural way in case you have to present yourself now let's take a look at how Andrea would
say this in a little bit more British way. Hi everyone I'm Andrea and I'm a Legal graduate
from London but I now live in Barcelona. I've worked as a teacher for the last 10 years
and I enjoy dancing and playing tennis. And now finally let's see what this looks
like when two people actually meet each other so Andrea and I have done kind of a skit for
you let's take a look. Hey, how's it going? Hi I'm great thanks, how are you I'm doing
fantastic what's your name my name's Andrea, hi I'm Ethan it's nice to meet you it's great
to meet you as well so where are you from Andrea so my family's actually from Cyprus
but I was born and raised in London oh that's so great I was born in Durango Colorado but
I'm currently living here in Barcelona oh cool and what are your hobbies well I really
like in my free time whenever I can to do exercise to go out running I like singing
oh wow yeah and of course learning languages oh great well I really love dancing and I
enjoy singing but I'm not very good at it and I also really like reading and going out
to restaurants with friends and trying new places because I love lots of different cultures
foods. I feel completely the same so what do you
do for a living? Well I'm actually a teacher I actually studied
law at university but later on I decided to have a career change because I wasn't enjoying
it so much and I've been working as a teacher for over 10 years now and I really love it
it's so great that you found something you're passionate about exactly because it's such
an important part of your life and I didn't see myself working as a lawyer all my life
it just wasn't for me makes sense. How about you? I have my own company and I'm the CMO it's
called RealLife English oh wow that sounds so cool, yeah! I actually I studied International Affairs
at the University of Colorado but it had nothing to do with that and more recently I got a
Master's in Marketing oh cool that sounds really interesting. So what does your company do? My company helps English learners to go beyond
the classroom and to live English in their life. Oh wow that sounds really interesting I'll
have to check it out! Well it's been really great meeting you Andrea
I'm actually going to go try and meet some other people here there as well. Okay well it was really nice meeting you as
well and I hope to see you again. All right so now you put it to practice because
none of this is any good unless you actually use it so write out your script and share
it down in the description below so me and the community can give you some feedback on
that and now it's time to go beyond the classroom and live your english aww yeah! What is up guys I'm Ethan your RealLife English
fluency coach and in today's lesson we are going to talk about six things that you need
to do every day in order to improve your english communication skills.
