Introduce Yourself in English in 30 Minutes

wanna speak real English from your first lesson sign up for your free lifetime account at English class 101.com hi everybody my name is Alisha and welcome back to top words today's topic is ten lines you need for introducing yourself so let's go hello it's nice to meet you hello it's nice to meet you you can only use this the first time that you meet someone if you say this to somebody after you have met them already you're going to see them either a like you've completely forgotten meeting them or be like you are a very strange person for saying it's nice to meet you again so when you use this the first time you can shake hands with someone and say hello it's nice to meet you my name is the next phrase is my name is blah blah blah in my case my name is Alicia you can use this again when you're introducing yourself or if you need to reintroduce yourself you can use this pattern when you meet somebody at a party for example you can say my name is blah blah blah my name is Barbara my name is Stevens you can shorten this you can say my names my name is blah blah blah I'm from after you've said your name after you've shaken hands you can say I'm from the US I'm from Japan I'm from Turkey I am from your mom's house I'm from I'm from a cave in southern Europe I'm from your country or I'm from your city I'm from the future I live in I live in blah blah blah you can use your city you can use your country you can use even maybe if you live near a certain station you can use the name of the station where you live so for example I live in America it's fine I live in Los Angeles it's fine I live in New York it's fine so your neighborhood is fine if someone says where do you live and you say I live in an apartment it's like what so please use your the region or the location where you live not the type of place where you live i'muh if you hear the question what do you do it it's asking about your job in people don't say what is your job that's not the question that we ask instead the question is what do you do and the correct response to that is I'm a or I'm n bla bla bla followed by your job title so if someone says what do you do you can say I'm a teacher what do you do I'm an engineer what do you do I'm donut shop tester I'm years old when someone asks how old are you you can say I'm bla bla bla years old don't forget the S at the end of this if you like you can shorten this phrase to just I'm plus your age so I'm 65 I'm 13 whatever I'm this many sometimes children will say that how old are you they'll say I'm this many it's kind of cute first time you meet someone you might not ask how old are you if it's in a friendly case like a party after you've spoken to the person a little bit it's okay but just try to be sensitive to the context try to be sensitive to the people around you and if you sense that maybe there's a very large age gap between you it might be better just not to ask the question at all I enjoy many of my students say what is your hobby but that's not something that native speakers will say no native speakers say what is your hobby instead we ask what do you like to do or what do you do in your free time this is a much more natural question than what's your hobby the answer to this then is I enjoy or I like plus a noun phrase so for example what do you like to do I like listening to music or I enjoy listening to music what are you do in your free time I like watching movies what are you do in your free time I like baking cakes what do you do in your free time I enjoy tap dancing what do you do in your free time I enjoy making new friends oh one of my hobbies is one of my hobbies is blah blah blah with this one it's probably better to use a short easily or easy to understand hobby if you're explaining a hobby people are gonna expect that it's gonna be something that they know about like photography or cooking or dancing or swimming or whatever so try to pick something that will allow you to continue the conversation that's why movies are cooking or books or you know sports are a good thing to share one of my hobbies is snowboarding I've been learning English for if you are learning English if you're studying English you can use this expression if someone asks you how long have you been studying English you can say I've been studying English for amount of time or I've been learning English or I've been practicing English or I've been speaking English for a certain amount of time I've been studying English since elementary school is also okay to use I've been studying English since I was in college just be careful for is used for a length of time and since is used for a specific point in time at which you started something so you can try and mix it up and use a few different expressions there so I've been learning English for a long time I'm still learning English you should do that okay I'm learning English at English class 101.com this probably could be used in response to where did you learn English or where are you studying English or how are you studying English you can respond with I'm learning English at English class 101.com or I'm learning English at my school I'm learning English at my private teachers house for example so a little bit of grammar in this sentence why do we use the progressive tense I'm learning English if you say I'm learning it sounds like you're still continuing your studies if you say I learned English in English class 101.com it sounds like you're finished like you you're finished studying there's nothing else for you to study so you're done so it's it's much much more natural to actually use the progressive I'm learning or I'm studying when you're talking about your studies when you're talking about your hobbies than it is to say I learned or I studied and and and and so those are ten lines that you need to introduce yourself and to help give the other person a little bit of information and carry the conversation forward so please try them please go crazy with them make them your own thanks very much for joining us for this episode of top words and we'll see you again soon I'm from your neighbor's doghouse fish glub glub oh yes I'd like to go spelunking in North Africa every summer welcome to English class 101 coms English in three minutes the fastest easiest and most fun way to learn English hey everyone I'm Alisha in this series we're going to learn some easy ways to ask and answer common questions in English it's really useful and it only takes three minutes in this lesson you're going to learn how to ask a really basic question in a polite but natural way how old are you in your English textbook one of the first lessons may have been how to ask someone's age by saying just how old are you however in many English language cultures asking in adults age directly particularly a woman's age is not polite if you suddenly ask how old are you to someone you've just met they'll understand you but they might not be too happy about answering such a blunt and direct question so how do you find out someone's age without offending them you just add a magic phrase to the beginning of the question this phrase is do you mind me asking this is an incredibly useful phrase that you should definitely memorize it comes in handy whenever you want to ask a question that may be a little personal or come across as a little too direct native speakers of English use it all the time so the full question would be do you mind me asking how old you are be sure to pay attention to the word order of this sentence rather than do you mind me asking how old are you it's do you mind me asking how old you are the answer to this can be simple I'm 25 years old or just I'm 25 or it can be a little more detailed if you've just had a birthday you can say I've just turned 25 or if you're about to have a birthday you can say I'll turn 25 this month or I'll turn 25 in July it's more natural here not to give your exact birthday like July the 9th but just the month so again to turn this question back on the asker and find out his or her age all you have to do is use that other magic phrase we introduced in previous lessons how about you here it's okay not to worry about being polite since the other person asked you the question first now it's time for Alicia's advice we mentioned that asking someone's age might not be polite but if you do decide to ask this question here's another tip some people like to reply with another question how old do you think I am be careful if you say an age that's older than the person's true age they might be very offended so it's always safer to say a number lower than what you actually think so if you think the person looks 40 say 35 and see how happy they look see you next time want to speak real English from your first lesson sign up for your free lifetime account at English class 101.com hi everybody welcome back to English topics my name is Alicia and I'm joined by baby hi Davey so today our topic is going to be how to start a conversation in English so both of us have tried to prepare a few tips that might help you as you try to start conversations in your English language studies so let's begin north start first again okay we're giving tips on how to start a conversation and I will start today my first tip very important I trying to follow myself right now don't be shy very important tip this isn't really so much a language learning tip well it doesn't seem like a language learning tip but I think it really is because whenever you communicate in a second language or a foreign language it can be really nerve-wracking can make you very nervous very anxious to try and do that especially if you're talking to someone for the first time and so the first thing is just to remind yourself that it's not a big deal and to not be shy and be confident and if you can maintain that attitude as you begin to talk to talk to someone it will be much easier I think I agree I agree or even like you say even if you are shy just pretend that you're not shy that's a good tip you know it's like you and if you could just pretend just for a few minutes just to start the conversation or to continue a conversation a little bit it can be good even if you feel shy I agree and you might find too oftentimes people who would say that they are shy when they talk to someone in another language they can have a different personality it's a chance to have a different personality in a different language so if you tell yourself that too when you speak English when you speak into the language you're more confident than you are when you speak your own language yeah I've heard that before actually people who say that they feel like they're more outgoing when they speak English if that's the case maybe that's good for you also just in general another point about maybe not only starting conversations but continuing them we're comfortable English language speakers are with interruptions to some point like you shouldn't always interrupt the other they aren't very comfortable with us see he just did it so we're kind of we're very comfortable with it so you don't need to wait for an invitation to speak in a conversation you can just join in or maybe agree with the person who's speaking or disagree with the person who's speaking as a way to join a conversation that's already in progress yeah nice one that's a good one okay I will share a tip mine are a little bit I don't know they're very dependent on maybe who you're talking to maybe what your relationship is so let's say for this one you are in a place where like I don't know a restaurant or a bar or something and you don't know the person you'd like to speak to but maybe I don't know there's someone attractive you'd like to speak to or maybe you want to speak with the bartender or something so maybe okay maybe this is better if you're trying to speak to a fellow customer so I have it's sort of small make a simple comment about something happening in the surroundings so this should be one simple comment at two something that the other person can clearly see and three something that you can agree on easily so for example if somebody has just walked by the restaurant wearing like a crazy hat I don't know you could say like oh did you see that guy something like that something that it's easy to agree on to initiate the conversation or maybe I don't know there's a TV in the bar like whoa did you see that play or something that maybe you can identify that you maybe shared with the other person during the time you've been in that space together so this should be a very simple comment don't make a weird comment here make it make it very very relaxed and create a relaxed environment that the other person feels they can join in easily mmm that's a very good tip I don't know I'm trying to think of maybe a time that I used this or maybe I wanted to make a comment like and there was another person that happened to be there and we had a moment where we agreed on something right but then the conversation didn't really continue yes so it's kind of a good way to test and see if that other person wants to speak to you too yes yeah mmm that's a good point and it makes me think this isn't one of my tips this is an extra tip you're getting a free freebie tip now is I think they're ever the flying around to be be patient wait for your opening too because you might want to talk to this person next to you but if you just butt in with a question out of nowhere it might seem very strange but if you wait and have have a moment wait for that guy with the funny hat to walk yeah and then you have your opening then you have a natural point that you can enter the conversation with someone yeah and I would be patient totally and going back to your point about not being shy like do don't be so focused on waiting for that moment that you just pick something really strange like if I like walked up to you I don't know inna Barnes like did you hear that noise yes I think that's a really strange question maybe he did hear that noise but that's a really strange question to introduce yourself yeah that's true actually this this kind of relates to to my my second tip that's very similar to to you to your tip about making a kind of comment was ask an indirect question and I noticed a lot of the comments your your tip was to make a comment but a lot of your comments the examples you gave her questions and importantly I think that those questions should be kind of indirect questions for example if I'm standing at the bus stop and I want to start a conversation with someone else standing at the bus stop let's say it's very very hot but if I turn to that person and say do you think it's hot that's very strange but if I say something like oh it's pretty hot today right you know that's a little bit more casual a little bit more informal yeah you don't want to scare people with these very direct questions that's true that's true and even even a question that's a great example do you think it's hot is a really weird question but but again keeping or giving people that opportunity to agree with you yeah you're throwing a little opinion out there it's hot right oh yeah it's hot it's true that's a really really good one I totally agree or and I but I think for that exact same reason I've had some people come up to me and they try to begin a conversation with how are you yeah that's that's a--that's a--that's-- an introduction that you use for people that you already know yes so don't try to start a conversation with how are you it sounds too familiar and it's a little confusing too strangers don't always want to tell you how they are that's true what if I'm bad I don't want to tell you what if I feel bad that day yeah so don't use how are you to introduce yourself nice one okay Oh DMX um actually okay maybe this is somewhat related to the one you just mentioned okay I've got okay this is maybe in a like a party or a social events that you I have energetically introduce yourself and ask a question about where you are so this might be a little specific but if you go to a social event where you're there to meet people and to speak to people if you go up to someone and you just introduce yourself with a big smile and say hi my name is Alicia have you ever been to one of these events before something like that can get the conversation started but again this is I feel like it's a tip that's good in a place where maybe everyone is there for a similar purpose if you do that like on to use your example at the bus station it's a little bit weird or if you're if you're just in public you pass someone on the street it's a little strange to just walk up and introduce someone energetically but if you're in a location where you have this chance there are a couple of nice little introductory questions you could use for events like I don't that's one that I would I've used like hi is this your first time here or who do you know at this party yeah how did you find out about this event that sort of similar kind of question in those situations is asking someone for help or for information because it lets that other person know that you're not a a scary or threatening person in that situation either if you're asking for help you know can you can you tell me where the kitchen is I need to put this in the refrigerator something like that and then that shows the other person that you're not you're not an expert on this you're asking for their help and that kind of gives people an easy thing to engage you to talk about yeah absolutely for help can be a nice widget yeah that's a good point I think asking for help it also kind of puts you in a slightly vulnerable position it makes you seem a little bit like I need help so you know please take care of me it's a little bit interesting so that's a good tip too I think okay I think we're on to number three g-free you are my last one is a very important one this comes at the end though is uh don't take it personally if the person doesn't want to talk a lot of times if you try and start a conversation with a stranger they don't always want to talk to you people try and talk the stranger tries to talk to me I might be very busy I might have had bad day I may not want to talk to them that doesn't mean that they're a bad person or they can't speak English or anything like that so if you have that experience you know my first tip was don't be shot you might be very nervous about starting a conversation with someone and then you work up the courage you go and you ask them a question and they don't want to talk to you that's okay don't take it personally I has nothing to do with you you know you can find someone else to talk to mm-hmm that's true that's true and I think that's especially important because especially depending on the culture that you're from you might have heard like Oh English speakers particularly Americans they're so friendly or so outgoing then but you know if a stranger tries to speak to me or to you maybe we're gonna ignore you on the street because we don't know who that person is or you know maybe like you say we've had a bad day or whatever it is there are so many reasons not to want to talk to a person that you don't know so don't be offended don't be sad don't be discouraged don't don't think that all my my English is so bad this person didn't want to talk to me don't think that that it could be any any other reason why someone doesn't want to talk to you mm-hmm that's true that's true nice tip that's really important okay then we will move on maybe to our last one okay so for my last one this is maybe among people that you have some acquaintance with so maybe you're not super close to them but you've seen them before or maybe it's coworkers you're not super close to but anyway you'd like to make your relationship with those people deeper you can share a story about something you did recently something interesting a small short story don't tell a long ten-minute story about I don't know going shopping for milk on the weekend that's moring but something interesting that you did relatively recently that maybe they can find something of interest or something of value in so maybe you found a new restaurant that was good maybe you went to a concert and that was exciting maybe you met someone interesting so if there's something that you can share about yourself that the other person might find valuable that's a good way to initiate conversation on that point if I can add another another free tip oh my gosh on that note it made me think you spoke earlier about being vulnerable asking asking for help can show that you're vulnerable tell an embarrassing story that's good too don't don't brag don't talk about this great new car that you bought no one wants to hear that talk about how you you lost your car keys immediately after you bought your new car tell an embarrassing story tell something that will make the person laugh and will make you be vulnerable and and look like a normal person that's true that's true like telling actually that's a good strategy it's called self deprecation so making it means to make yourself look bad or to put yourself in a lower status a lower position and it can be very effective for making friends and like making people laugh I totally do this it's it's actually a lot of fun when you think about it like a story about something bad happening is often times more interesting than a story about something good happening it's true so all the best comedies are about terrible things happening yeah so if you have something like a little yeah like you lost your car keys or you had some kind of funny episode where maybe you don't look like the hero of the story that's a really good one to share have you had anything happened to you recently oh my gosh I probably have I lost my bag I just came back from traveling in Europe and my bag got lost between Dubai Airport and Tokyo Airport and so my bag didn't arrive so I had to go two days without any of my clothes or anything and then when I finally got my bag I was like yeah I got it from the I got it from the delivery guy I was so happy I opened it up like my sunscreen and exploded inside my bag I was like at least I have my objects okay I have my clothes and thing and they don't get sunburned exactly now I won't sunburn any of my clothes so yeah so I mean it's like a small relatable small relatable story that maybe someone else can identify like oh that happened to me one time and then the conversation rolls from there so nice tip nice - okay are you out of are you out of free tips are those all your free tips that's all for today a conversation started good today we can't continue this conversation that's a different subject alright well we'll finish there for today thanks very much for joining us for this episode of English topics AV thanks very much for joining us you for having me if you liked this video please make sure to hit the like button and subscribe to our channel as well also if you want to find more content like this please make sure to check us out at English class 101.com if you have any ideas for how to start a conversation that you use please make sure to leave it in a comment too so we can check it out thanks very much for watching this episode and we'll see you again soon bye bye hi everybody my name is Alisha and today we're gonna be talking about the top 25 English phrases so let's get started the first phrase is hello hello of course is used as a greeting you can greet your friends you can greet your co-workers your family with this phrase just by saying hello hey hi what's up hello sup yo pretty much any time of day you can use hello hello the next phrase is good morning good morning is used as a greeting in the morning you can kind of feel when morning ends for you good morning is nice and polite or even just morning with your close friends or close co-workers the next phrase is good night good night is fine we don't use this to greet other people we use it when we're saying goodbye to other people at night family members particularly mothers and fathers to say good night to their children before they put them to bed you can say it to your friend and a text message or in an email if you've been talking for a while good night so the next word to talk about is goodbye use it when you say goodbye to your friends when you leave your friends good bye bye of course take care have a nice day peace out that's another way to say goodbye okay the next phrase is I'm plus your name of course this is a way to introduce yourself you can use I'm in my case Alicia I'm Alicia - introduce yourself in any situation new friend I'm Alicia okay the next phrase is what's your name what's is used to ask someone else what their name is so what is your name sounds a bit try to use what's your name if you forget someone's name you can say sorry what's your name or sorry what's your name again next phrase is nice to meet you nice to meet you anytime you meet someone new nice to meet you is fine good to meet you is a little more casual great to meet you sounds very excited pleasure to meet you sounds like maybe a formal situation or a business context okay the next phrase is how are you how are you is an it's just a friendly way to check in with the other person you can use it with friends your family your co-workers maybe even your boss to a certain degree how are you how you doing the next phrase is I'm fine thanks and you if you saw English in three minutes we talked a lot about this phrase instead of I'm fine thank you and you say I'm good thanks how are you just shorten it make it a little bit more natural how are you good how are you great how are you not so good how are you okay and so on so when someone says how are you offer I usually say I'm good this week I pop a blog give some information about what you've been up to maybe a hobby something that you did recently an event something interesting you saw whatever people want to make that connection with you and it's a good chance for you to continue speaking the next word is please please as a polite phrase used when you want something from someone else you can use this as a response when someone offers you something like in a restaurant for example would you like more water would you like something to drink oh please the next phrase is thank you thank you is used to express your appreciation you can use thank you with everybody the next phrase is you're welcome you're welcome when someone says thank you you can say you're welcome no biggie I use no biggie as in no biggie is short for a no big problem an X where it is yes yes of course yes means is any positive expression someone asks you a question and the answer is a positive answer you say yes yep uh-huh yeah we know next I'm guessing I knew it yep the next word is no no is a negative response to something when you have to give a negative answer so as you can probably guess the long form of no is negative I like to use nope it's very very casual not gonna happen my parents would use that with me to soften that a little bit if you want to show a negative response to something like let's go for dinner tonight what do you want to do like do you want to go out not really hmm no I don't think so hmm to soften it the next word is okay okay this word comes from copy editors okay when they had to check a manuscript they had to label the manuscript all clear AC but because they were copy editors and they have a very very sick sense of humor they thought they would mark it okay for all clear to make a joke because o and K do not start all and clear but it caught on among everybody in the world anyway okay is used to agree with somebody else well it can be used actually to express a positive or kind of a slight negative I feel transitioning in your conversation you can say okay now we're going to talk about blah blah okay the next phrase is excuse me excuse me it's used to get someone's attention in English when you don't know the other person for example in a store a supermarket maybe a stranger on the street you need to ask directions you can use excuse me you can use excuse me in the supermarket excuse me can you tell me where the hot sauce is if you've done something rude in public you can use excuse me I personally do not do drew things in public ever I'm sorry is the next word we're gonna talk about I'm sorry is used to apologize when you have made a mistake or someone you know it's made a mistake and you're connected to it or you just feel bad you can use I'm sorry you made a mistake at work I'm sorry you forgot to feed your cat I'm sorry sorry about that you bump someone next to you oh sorry what time is it is the next phrase when you need to check what time it is what time is it when you ask someone else what time it is maybe you say this to yourself to check your watch check your phone check a clock pretty straightforward phrase there aren't really any short version so that's an easy one where is that plus a location so you can use this for a building or a store we don't we're not going to use this where is the for a place a city name or a state name or a country name too that you would need to remove the but where is the bank where is the post office you can use this to ask directions to ask for help in your house or at work where is the copy machine where is the file I need where is the bla bla bla where is the bathroom is perhaps a very important question to know the next one is may I use the restroom may I use the restroom is a polite and soft expression that you can use if you need to use the toilet you need to use the washroom and when you're at someone's house for the very first time when you're in a place that your that is new to you you can ask may I use the restroom more casually can I go to the bathroom to be very polite you could say may I go to the bathroom the next phrase is I would like to order something you can use this at a restaurant probably or in any situation where you need to place an order I'd like a pizza I like beer can I get the check please this will be used at a restaurant when you've finished your meal and it's time to go can I get the check please in a very very casual situation you can just say check please that's fine the next phrase is see you soon see you soon is used with friends and family members perhaps when you expect to see them again soon after saying goodbye to them this is used at the end of the conversation you're going separate directions you see you soon seeya is also good or just see you to make it a little more formal you can say I'll see you again soon make a full sentence out of it that way the next phrases see you later see you later is very similar to see you soon but the point is would see you later is that you're probably going to meet that person again later on in the same day the last phrase is really really is a very useful word because you can use it to show you are interested in a conversation with upward intonation really really tell me more or to show that you're not so interested in the conversation with downward intonation really so there are many other words that you can use similar to really in this way like seriously or oh oh and so on so it's a really good practice for your intonation so those are 25 very common words and phrases in English if you liked this video if you like this topic please subscribe I'm sure there'll be a button here somewhere a button here or wherever but please be sure to subscribe to our channel because we're gonna be doing more videos like this and we already have more videos like this so please be sure to check now thanks very much for watching and we'll see you again soon really Oh interesting uh-huh okay I see great fantastic unbelievable gratitude subjects what do we having for dinner tonight pizza affirmative riff on that I am Chris Hardwick [Music]

Channel: Learn English with EnglishClass101.com

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Id: 5Vf57_dehFo

Length: 33min 9sec (1989 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 01 2019