Transcription
In today's lesson, I'm going to teach you everything you need to know to start conversations with strangers, to meet new friends, and to introduce yourself to new people in English. It doesn't matter if you're a beginner, intermediate, or advanced student; there will be something for you in this lesson, so make sure to watch until the end.
Now, first of all, the first words you probably learned at school were "hi" or "hello," and I'm not going to talk about those words today. Instead, I want to give you some very common alternatives that native speakers use in everyday conversation.
Firstly, instead of saying "hi," you could say "hey," "okay," "what's up," "how are you doing," or "how's it going?" And if you want to be even more informal, you could say "yo." That's common amongst Americans. Or you could say "sup," which is obviously short for "what's up." Again, those are very, very informal, so I wouldn't recommend using them at work or with a professor.
On the more formal side of things, we have phrases like "good morning," "good afternoon," or "good evening." Okay, those are standard phrases. Native speakers don't always use them in everyday casual conversation, especially "good evening" or "good afternoon." Those are a bit more formal, but they're totally fine to use in any situation. So, those are the basic greetings we have in English.
Now, obviously, if you meet somebody, you want to ask them what their name is. And be very careful: in English, we don't say "how are you called?" "How are you called?" That's completely wrong. I know in a lot of languages, that's how you would create this sentence, is how you would structure it. But in English, we say "what is your name?" "What is your name?" Or if we're putting it together when we speak quickly, we would say "what's your name?" "What's your name?" The only correct response would be "my name is," or again, if we shorten it, "my name's." For example, "my name is Michael. What's your name?"
Now, if you have a nickname, a nickname is another name that is not your official name, but it's what you like to be called. You can say, "my name's Michael, but I go by Mike." For example, "I go by Mike." Or you could say, "my name's Michael, but I prefer to be called Mike." "I prefer to be called Mike."
So, you've introduced yourself, you've asked the other person what their name is. You can also say "pleasure to meet you," "pleasure to meet you," "nice to meet you," "great to meet you." And if you want to be really formal, you could say "it's an honor to meet you." I can't really think of too many situations when you would use this. Maybe if you met the president or somebody influential, you could say "it's an honor or a privilege to meet you." And if you want to be really, really polite, if somebody says this to you, they say "it's a pleasure to meet you," you could say "the pleasure is mine." Again, that's really formal, it's not super common, but it's very diplomatic, as we would say.
Of course, you can ask the question, "where are you from?" or "where are you originally from?" To which the answer is obviously, "I'm from this city or this country." "I'm originally from this this city or this country." But you could also answer in a bit more detail. You could say, "I was born in," or "I'm from. I'm originally from such and such city, but I grew up in a different place," or "I lived for several years in another place." And, and I have been living here for three months, six months, one year, whatever.
Now, "I have been living here" is the present perfect continuous. "I have been living here." It means you moved in the past, but you are still living here now. "I have been living here for three years," or "since 2021." We use "for" for duration and "since" for the starting point, 2021.
Of course, if you want to ask somebody why they're here in this specific place, maybe that's a city, a country, or just the meeting, the event, or the party, you could say, "what brings you here?" "What brings you here?" And to answer that question, you could say, "I'm here because I know the host," "because I'm studying," "because I'm working," etc., etc., etc.
We have this phenomenon in English. I'm sure it exists in other languages too. It's called small talk, small talk. Now, a lot of native speakers hate small talk. I don't like it too much either, but we just accept it because it's so important to to meet new people. You have to be good at small talk. Small talk is just casual conversation. It's not too deep, it's not too heavy. It's quite basic. It's maybe talking about the weather, talking about what's happening around you in the situation. We use small talk to break the ice, to break the ice. That means to get into a deeper conversation or to get to know somebody a bit better.
Now, a classic small talk example would be talking about the weather. For example, you could comment on what's happening outside. You could say, "it's a lovely day today, isn't it?" or "it's a miserable day today, isn't it?" That's a very natural way of talking about the weather. You could say, "we've had great weather lately," or "we've not had great weather lately."
Now, you can talk about the weather if you want, but as I said, maybe you want to be a bit more personal. So, you can ask some questions about the other person's life. Now, one common question that a lot of people like to ask is, "what do you do for work?" or "what do you do for a living?" Be careful, we don't say "what's your job?" Doesn't sound natural. We say "what do you do for work?" or "what do you do for a living?" I say you have to be careful with this question because in some places and in some communities, it's considered rude. It's considered a bit too invasive. Personally, I don't see any problem with it, but just so you know, you might want to be a bit cautious with this question. And definitely do not ask anybody how much money they make. That's a big no-no.
You can ask somebody what they do for work, but if they ask you what you do for work, you could say, "I work as a," and then your occupation. "I have been working as a blank for X amount of years," or "X amount of months." Or you could say, "currently, I'm looking for a job." "Currently, I'm studying." "Currently, I am retired." Okay, there are lots of different things you could say.
Apart from work, you can also talk about somebody's interests. Maybe you're at a party, maybe you're at a social event. You might want to connect with somebody on a bit of a deeper level. Now, obviously, you can say, "what do you do in your free time?" or "what are your hobbies?" That's totally okay. But you can also say, "what are you passionate about?" "What are you interested in at the moment?" or "how do you like to spend your free time?" So, these are all alternatives that sound a bit more complex, they sound a bit more elegant, perhaps. But of course, there's nothing wrong with "what do you do in your free time?" or "what do you like to do as a hobby?"
Now, if somebody asks you this question, you could say, "I'm passionate about XYZ." "I like to surf." "I like to ski." "I like to read books." Okay. "I'm interested in something." "I'm interested in something." Careful, it's always "in." It's never "on" or "at" or "into." It's always "interested in something." For example, "I'm interested in art." "I'm interested in playing piano." Those are also great alternatives.
And lastly, if you are a guest at somebody's house, or you're a guest, you've been invited to a meeting, to a conference, and you're talking to somebody who invited you or who is hosting you, then you should say, "thank you so much for having me." "Thank you so much for having me." Of course, you could also say, "thank you for the invitation," "thank you for inviting me," but it sounds very natural to say, "thank you for having me."
We've learned some phrases you can use to introduce yourself, to ask a few basic questions about other people, and of course, to share a bit more about yourself. But at the end of the day, probably the most important thing is confidence. When you're meeting somebody new, especially in American culture, in British culture too, as well. Uh, but I'm sure you're aware that confidence is a big thing in the United States. It's important to smile. It's important to be open. It's important to have open body language. So, don't cross your arms, keep them open like this. Even if you don't feel confident inside, even if you feel shy, even if you feel anxious socially, it's really, really important to at least try to fake it, to try to make an effort to be sociable, even if you don't feel fully confident with your English.
Now, I want you to memorize the phrases we learned today. There are other things you can say. If you have any ideas or you have any things you would like to add, then feel free to leave them in the comments below. I'm looking forward to reading them. If you want to improve your English with me this year, then make sure to subscribe to English at the Ready here on YouTube and click the link down in the description below to learn more about how I can help you improve your English. If you like, like the lesson, if you found it useful, make sure to leave a like, and I'll see you in the next video. Bye for now.