How to make FANTASTIC small talk British English Conversation Practice

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hello everyone and welcome back

to english with lucy i’m here once again

in front of possibly the most beautiful

tree

in england i don’t know no offense to

other trees now today

we are going to be talking about small

talk

because i don’t want to jinx it but it

seems that the world

is or some places in the world are

slowly opening up again

here in the uk supposedly we have

freedom day on the 19th of july where

nightclubs bars and everything open up

again and

people have the choice to not wear masks

anymore

let me know what the situation is like

in your country

in the comments section down below and

when i heard about this

freedom day from the pandemic i suddenly

thought

oh my word i have not been in a big

room of people having to make

conversation

in a year and a half so i thought today

we could talk about small talk and i’m

actually going to give you

50 different small talk questions

that you can use in your next social

event because not only are you learning

english you are also probably

a little bit out of practice there’s

nothing worse than trying to make

conversation

in another language and just having

loads of

boring embarrassing silences so all of

these questions or nearly all of them

are open-ended so you can get really

good answers

from the other person as always i have

created a

free pdf that goes with this video if

you’d like to download it

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exploring your creativity right let’s

get started with

the small talk i have divided the 50

small talk questions

into five different categories the first

one being

travel which is something that most of

haven’t been able to do a lot of

recently but

hopefully things are getting back to

normal and we will be able to attend

conferences

and make small talk with people we don’t

know

yes the first question a really good one

if you’re in a new country and you’re

speaking to a local

do you know of any hidden gems around

here a hidden gem

is something really really great a

really great place

or restaurant that tourists don’t

generally know about

in fact not many people know about it

you kind of have to hear about it to go

there

when i travel i always ask around for

the hidden gems

you could also put it in more simple

terms is there anything i should know

about around here

are there any places i should know about

now

generally when it comes to small talk

it’s really good to ask

open questions questions that can’t be

answered with a yes

or a no because if they answer with no

then it really shuts down the

conversation

but i think this next one is an

exception have you got any trips planned

if they say no you can move on to

another topic of small talk

if you know the person you’re talking to

and you know they went on a trip

recently you can say

tell me about your trip to hawaii would

you recommend it

if there’s one thing i’ve learned people

love talking about their past holidays

another great topic to bring up is food

whilst traveling

you could say something like i love

trying new cuisines

have you been anywhere with really great

food

if you’re with a fellow foodie then you

know conversation’s going to flow

the next one is a great one for

international conferences where you know

that the majority of people

have come in from another location one

question i like to ask in those

situations is

have you got any tips for jet lag

i really really struggle with it so if

you do have any tips please do put them

in the comments section

now what about if you are in your

hometown but someone else has come in

to visit you could say let me know if

you need any recommendations

i know this area pretty well that’s a

great opportunity for them to follow up

with yeah actually i’m looking for

somewhere

for dinner tonight you know anywhere and

then you panic

because you’ve lived here for 10 years

and you’ve hardly gone out

that was like me in london as a student

i lived there for

three years but because i never had any

money i never went to any restaurants so

when people ask me oh where should i go

in london

i have no idea i just ate microwave

meals

another great question is asking what

sort of holiday or trip someone prefers

you could say do you prefer a fly and

flop holiday

or an adventure a fly and flop holiday

is what it says on the tin

you fly out to the destination you flop

on a sunbed and you remain there for one

to two weeks and then you fly home

another interesting question to do with

the pandemic is

has the pandemic affected your travel

plans at all and this will probably open

up a lot of

moaning from the other person it would

for me the pandemic ruined

a honeymoon and the last one number 10

so when are you heading back what do you

want to do before you go back

right let’s move on to the topic of work

maybe you’re trying to get to know your

new colleagues or

your existing colleagues that you’ve

hardly met before it’s really nice to

have a couple of small talk questions

up your sleeve to combat those awkward

silences

the first one so how did you get into

marketing how did you get into sales

it’s a really nice general one

and it invites the person to tell you a

little bit about their work history

two really interesting ones are what is

the best career advice you’ve ever

received

and then the next one what’s the worst

career advice you’ve ever received

i use this one a lot and i get some

really interesting

answers especially for the worst career

advice

the next one a nice theoretical one if

you were guaranteed to be successful

what job would you want that’s a really

interesting one

i don’t even know how i would answer

that you’ll get your partner

thinking there another really fun one is

what is the craziest thing

a boss has ever asked you to do i think

the craziest thing a boss has ever

made me do he didn’t ask me is i had to

knock on his door in the middle of the

night to beg

for him to pay me it was two months late

and i needed my money this next one is a

nice way of making someone feel part of

your conversation you could say

i was just talking to a colleague about

our first jobs what was yours

everyone who is currently working has a

first job

a really good and easy one is how long

have you been working at

company how long have you been working

at lucy international

my whole life darling

a topic that’s in the news quite a lot

recently what do you think

about this four day work week i’ve been

seeing that coming up a lot on my news

apps

and i think it sounds like a fantastic

idea if people can still maintain good

productivity

give the people an extra day off

work to live don’t live to work bringing

it back to the pandemic

have you had to work from home recently

how did you find working from home

that’s a really good topic because that

shook up

the lives of many people over here in

the uk and i’m sure all across the world

as well

and the last one have you got any plans

for the weekend

i remember friday and sometimes even

thursday afternoon when i did work in an

office

all we could talk about was the weekend

and i loved it i used to count down

those hours until it was five o’clock

on a friday evening oh yes all right

next topic

current events or current affairs now

obviously people are going to talk about

the pandemic

so one question you could ask is has the

pandemic affected you much

but remember that lots of people have

lost loved ones in this so they might

not want to focus too much on it

another one if this person is from

another country you could say

how are you all getting on back home

this invites them to open up about how

the pandemic has affected their country

if they want to talk about it another

variation is

how has the pandemic changed life for

you

some really great conversation starters

are the next three

i read in the paper that i saw on the

news that

or i heard on the radio that and then

obviously you can speak about what

you’ve seen heard

or read recently if you know that your

conversation partner is a sports fan

you could say did you catch the game

even if you don’t know which game

it was hopefully just by saying the game

they’ll know which game you were talking

about but make sure you have a game

up your sleeve for if they say what game

if there has been an interesting or

negative situation in another country

and you’ve been following it on the news

you could ask something like

have you been following what’s been

going on in for example

again if the person is from another town

or city or country you could say

so what’s the latest news where you’re

from and the last one a really

interesting question

that somebody asked me the other day is

which

news outlets do you prefer and then they

asked why and this can invite the person

to share

kind of indirectly a little bit of their

political leanings which is quite

interesting

right the next topic is social events i

haven’t been to a big social event

well i’ve said it before in a year and a

half and i’m nervous

i’m very very nervous so i can’t imagine

how nerve-wracking it will be

in a second language or a foreign

language

so here are some questions for you to

have up your sleeve to fill in those

silences

the first one what brings you here what

brings you here

and that invites them to say oh well i

work with or i know or

or i’m going out with for example

if you meet somebody and you have a

mutual friend you could ask

so how do you know tom for example

i always find a compliment goes a long

way as long as it’s a genuine one

so you could say wow your dress is so

unique where did you get it from

i’m in two minds about the next question

are you enjoying yourself

sometimes it can be a little bit

patronizing so you’ve got to say it in

the right tone

but if somebody says no that opens up a

bonding opportunity if you’re also not

enjoying yourself

you can say oh thank god me neither

i hate social occasions if you aren’t

enjoying a social situation

you could say something like i really

don’t normally like

crowded events like these how about you

and if the person says i love them

then you know you might not be friends

but if they say

god yes i hate them too friend for life

instantaneous if you see somebody who is

hovering around

on their own you could go up to them and

say do you know many people here

and if they say no well then you can

stand and chat with them instead

i absolutely love it when i’m on my own

at an event and somebody comes in to

save me

i really really like that right more

pandemic

a really good way of bonding with

someone else is to kind of

share a bit of vulnerability and one

thing you could say

is hello i’ve actually not been around

another human in a whole year so i’m

feeling really awkward right now

how are you feeling that’s a good

invitation for you to bond

over just feeling out of practice and

not knowing how to behave

in social situations anymore another one

i’m desperate

for everything to get back to normal

what have you missed most

or when is the last time that you were

able to go to a proper party like this

and you can both

bond over how much you’ve missed out on

and the last one i really like this one

it’s very

meta what is your best tip for figuring

out

small talk these days i love it because

they could instantly say something like

just don’t talk about the weather so

then you know not to talk to them

about the weather but that actually

brings me on to my next topic

the weather come on i’m british

of course i’m going to talk to you about

the weather i did save this one for last

because i know that it’s almost a cliche

to talk about the weather in britain

whilst participating

in small talk but our weather just

changes

so much when i started filming this

video it was sunny

and now it looks like it’s going to rain

look at me i’m talking about the weather

if it’s a beautiful day you can say

it’s such a beautiful day isn’t it and

then everyone else goes oh yes it is

lovely yes very nice you haven’t had one

like this in ages

or an alternative we couldn’t ask for a

nicer day could we and everyone else

goes no no we couldn’t it’s wonderful

just

lovely so nice fortunately we don’t have

many days like that in the uk so we

don’t get to be

oh yes yes it’s lovely too frequently

if it’s very sunny you could say did you

bring this sunshine with you

or did you order this sunshine ah lovely

and then you can have a little joke

about yes yes i brought it with me in my

suitcase from spain

so in the uk we have a love-hate

relationship with the meteorologist

with the weather person because

when they tell us it’s going to be sunny

we love them but when they tell us it’s

going to rain we just don’t believe them

and then we get caught out and about

with no umbrella one great topic to

bring up is

i saw on the weather this morning that

it’s going to rain it’s going to hail

it’s going to be sunny there’s going to

be snow

what do you think and then you can

follow up with what do you think do you

believe them

do you trust them another version is do

you trust

the weather forecast today because they

said it’s going to rain but it looks

lovely if it has been raining a lot you

can say

can you believe how wet it’s been or can

you believe

all this rain we’ve been having if

you’re in a foreign country you can say

is the weather normally like this

is it usually like this a really

interesting one is

what’s the worst weather you’ve ever

experienced

and that invites them to talk about

maybe a country they’ve visited

or just a prolonged period of terrible

weather

so i’ve got two more small talk

questions about the weather

that kind of take the mickey they joke

about small talk relating to the weather

the first one is why do we always end up

making small talk about the weather

and then that invites you to make some

small talk about the weather together

and the last one is is it okay if i try

to talk to you

by pretending that i’m really interested

in the weather

i think that’s a great one to use at a

situation like a conference where small

talk

can get a little bit much right that is

it for today’s lesson i hope you enjoyed

it and i hope you learned something

don’t forget to check out skillshare

remember that the first

1000 of my students to click on the link

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month

free trial of skillshare premium you can

also download the free pdf that goes

along with this lesson just click on the

link in the description box

enter your name and your email address

you sign up to my mailing list

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connect with me on all of my social

media

i’ve got my instagram and i’ve got my

website englishwithlucy.co.uk

where i’ve got a really cool if i do say

so myself

pronunciation tool where you can click

on different phonemes

and hear me pronounce those phonemes and

words containing those phonemes

e no air

if you’d like to practice your

vocabulary and your listening skills

even further

then i have got a vlogging channel where

i document my life here in the english

countryside and every single vlog

is fully subtitled i will see you soon

for another lesson

i’m so sorry i promise it’s not covered

and it can’t pass through

lenses i recently took a class called

what is it called right a fly and flop

what it says on the cards it says on the

cards

what it says on the label tin don’t

forget to connect with me on all of my

social media i’ve got my instagram

what else have i got i think what i was

trying to say is you have an ologist

but if they’re really muscly you have a

meteorologist

terrible

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you