How To Start a Conversation in English

hello and welcome to another episode of conversation gurus on this episode we will look at how to start conversation with stranger someone who you don't know in English hopefully by the end of this video you will be able to start a conversation in English with anyone anytime let's get started first let's break a conversation down into three parts one starting the conversation to the conversation and three ending a conversation first starting the conversation you'll need to go up to a stranger and start talking to start a conversation when you go up to a stranger you don't want to make them feel uncomfortable so remember to smile not like you're crazy but just a nice friendly smile and say hi or excuse me or pardon me if you are talking to a person in a group of people remember to address to grieve to say hello to the whole group of people make eye contact with the whole group of people or at least as many of them are paying attention to you looking at you if you only talked to one member of the group it might seem rude or make everyone feel uncomfortable also be aware of your body language you might want to show with your body language that you are not trying to permanently join their group you just want to chat you might want to lean back and show that you are going somewhere or about to leave you could even say I can only stay a minute or I have to get back with my friends to put them at ease to make them feel comfortable that you are not trying to join them for the rest of the night or for a long time that might feel uncomfortable because they don't know you yet if the conversation goes well and they are smiling laughing interested in what you have to say or otherwise happy to have you join them you can change your body language to show that you don't need to go or have a seat or something like that now let's look at the second part the conversation so you've approached a stranger or a group of strangers so now what do you talk about that has a lot to do with the situation where you are what you are doing who the people are that you're talking to look around and find something to talk about if you are at a club you can talk about the music if you're on a bus ride talk about what he or she is reading or where there he or she is going if you are in a restaurant then talk about the food tell them where you're from and if they seem interested in your homeland you can offer to teach them a little of your first language let's look at a few broad situations of where you might try to start a conversation in English first if you are in your home country and you see some tourists you could ask them if they need any help you could ask them if they need any directions or for you to translate something for them there are lots of possibilities to help tourists in your home country another situation is that you're travelling as a tourist in a foreign country and you see some other tourists you could ask them if they know where someplace is maybe a tourist attraction do you know where the Grand Palace is you could ask them have you been there what did you think about it would you recommend it could you recommend a good local restaurant do you know where I can exchange some money but instead of asking for advice or help try offering assistance instead you could tell them about a nice place you think they should go you could say have you been to the Grand Palace you should really go it was great there is a really great place to eat just over there on this street it's called Tom's Thai food if you want some Thai food you should give it a try try to be helpful and offer good ideas or assistance if you are visiting an english-speaking country you will have every chance to practice speaking English even though it might seem like a good idea try not to spend too much time around speakers of your first language in a foreign country for example if you are Chinese and you are visiting New York don't spend too much time in Chinatown or you will miss out on opportunities to practice speaking English and finally ending the conversation it's important to be aware of how engaged how interested the person you are talking to is in the conversation are they really happy to be chatting with you or would they rather get back to talking with their friends or have some other place to go or just being polite but really are done with the conversation and are now uncomfortable if they look away give short answers and don't ask you anything or just look uncomfortable and just thank them for chatting and leave them alone if they are smiling asking you questions want more information or ask you to join them or their group then you might have made a new friend they might ask to exchange phone numbers or to friend each other on social media you know Facebook etc or maybe not if you suggest to exchange phone numbers or whatever and they don't want to then don't push it don't ask more than once okay let's go over some basic principles to think about the first one is don't just try to take offer value don't just try to use the conversation as a way to practice English for your benefit without thinking about how the person you are talking to would enjoy or get something from the conversation offer them a positive attitude fun information teach them a few words of your language make them glad to have talk with you really listen to them and what they are saying not just planning what you will say next actually listening to someone is a great gift you bring the fun and the positive attitude do not try to improve your day by talking to them try to improve their day by talking with them come from a place of abundance you have all that you need don't give off needy please let me take some of your fun positivity I have nothing please I need need need try to offer rather than take next be honest be yourself don't invent fake reasons why you want to talk to them don't make up fake stories about where you have been in what you've done to try to be interesting and impress them it's ok to say hello you seem interesting and I just wanted to know if I can chat for a minute with you and practice my English I have had many people approach me in the exact same way every time I have taken at least a few minutes to chat with them if you go up to someone at least you can offer them honesty honesty is actually pretty rare if you are nervous try to get yourself in a positive fun state of mind if you cannot then accept that you are nervous you can even say I'm nervous because my English isn't so good and the last point that we want to talk about is accept rejection some people are not very nice don't take it personally it most likely doesn't have anything to do with you if they are mean and not nice then you wouldn't have wanted to talk with them anyway many people are just in a hurry and don't have time to talk or maybe they are in a group of friends and don't want to take time away from their friends don't take it personal not everyone is ready to chat with a stranger okay so I hope that you now feel more confident in speaking with strangers go out and practice your English and hopefully make some new friends well that's it and I hope you've enjoyed this episode of conversation gurus if you liked this episode go ahead and click the like button don't forget to subscribe and if you would like to support our channel check out our patreon page to help us make more videos as always go ahead and leave any questions questions or comments in the description box below and thank you for watching [Music]

Channel: Grammar Gurus

Views: 2,575

Rating: 4.878788 out of 5

Keywords: start a conversation, English, Conversation

Id: _8NTaaXLO60

Length: 10min 1sec (601 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 07 2018