Regular English Lessons

Greeting and General Things II

1. Small Talk
2. Small Talk - Two Example Dialogs
3. Small Talk - Interactive Practice
4. Movies - Asking Friend AQUÍ VOY
5. Movies - Example Conversation
6. Movies - Interactive Practice
7. Movies Types - Action and Drama
8. Movie Types - Comedy and Horror
9. Movie Types - Other Types
10. Movie Types - Interactive Practice
11. Movie Discussion - General Statements
12. Movie Discussion - Describing a Movie
13. Movie Discussion - Example Dialog
14. Favorite - What's your Favorite
15. Favorite - Answering Questions
16. Favorite - Interactive Practice
17. Hobby - Questions and Answers
18. Hobby - Various Q&A
19. Hobby - Interactive Practice
20. Exercise - Questions
21. Exercise - Walking Jogging and More
22. Exercise - US Culture
23. Exercise - Interactive Practice
24. Exercise Gym - Lifting Weights
25. Exercise Gym - Questions and Answers
26. Exercise Gym - Other Methods
27. Exercise Gym - Interactive Practice
28. Intro and General Things Review
29. Intro and General Things Review - Interactive Practice
Small Talk
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Many people believe small talk is very boring and not personable. Although that is
true, there are many places where small talk is very important. In the western
culture, strangers talk to other strangers frequently. On the other hand, small talk
is not so common in the eastern culture. Because strangers are friendly to one
another in the western culture, small talk is very important to master in regards to
learning English. One other place small talk is important is in an interview. That is
why this session will be important to learn.

The best way to learn small talk is to provide many examples. So this lesson will
be taught using an example format.

Small talk involves many different topics. We will have several sessions on small
talk once we have covered other subjects such as sports, jobs, school, etc. But for
now, we will go through the basics of small talk conversation. To initiate small talk,
we can use what we have learned from our previous several sessions:

One: "Hi Bill, how are you doing?"

Two: "I'm doing great. How are you doing?"
One: "I'm doing well myself."

Wasn't that simple? If you studied the material in prior sessions, this should be
real easy for you. Now that we have initiated the small talk, it's your responsibility
to keep the conversation going. In order to do so, you can talk about anything that
is not too personal. Let's first ask what the other person has been doing lately.

One: "What have you been up to lately?"

Two: "Well, I just started to work at the bank so I'm pretty busy learning
everything."

You can elaborate on what you have learned to keep the conversation alive. In this
example, you are going to ask more questions about school and work.

One: "Does that mean you already finished school? I thought you had 1 more
semester left."
Two: "I took summer courses, so I finished one semester early."
One: "It's great that you got a job. I'm really happy for you."
Two: "Thanks."

As you can now tell, the conversation is getting old. You have a choice of ending
the conversation, or changing the topic. Let's practice ending the conversation.

One: "We should get together for lunch sometime."

Two: "Yeah, that would be great."
One: "I'll call you sometime."
Two: "Ok. I'll see you later."
One: "Alright. See ya."

Small Talk - Two Example Dialogs

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In this conversation, we initiated the conversation and talked about the other
person. However, sometimes you will not have anything to talk about. In order to
keep the conversation alive, you should think about topics such as the weather.

One: "Hi Mary."

Two: "Oh, hi."
One: "How are you doing?"
Two: "I'm doing alright. How about you?"
One: "Not too bad. The weather is great isn't it?"
Two: "Yes. It's absolutely beautiful today."
One: "I wish it was like this more frequently."
Two: "Me too."
One: "So where are you going now?"
Two: "I'm going to meet a friend of mine at the department store."
One: "Going to do a little shopping?"
Two: "Yeah, I have to buy some presents for my parents."
One: "What's the occasion?"
Two: "It's their anniversary."
One: "That's great. Well, you better get going. You don't want to be late."
Two: "I'll see you next time."
One: "Sure. Bye."

This example is when you run into someone. This is an easy type of small talk
because when you run out of things to say, you can always say bye. There are
times when you don't have that option. Let's practice a situation where you cannot
leave, such as an interview. I go into depth about interview communication in a
different section. For now, I am going to emphasize the small talk portion of an
interview. There are times when you will not have an opportunity for small talk,
but in other cases, you might have to talk about general things.

Them: "Hi. My name is Josh. It's a pleasure to meet you."

You: "Hi Josh. I'm glad to be here."
Them: "Did you have any problems finding this place."
You: "I didn't have any problems. I found directions on the internet so it was
pretty easy to find. However, the traffic was not that great."
Them: "Traffic is never good around here."
You: "I agree. It would be great if there was a train or a subway line that went
through here."
Them: "That would be so great. I would definitely take the train if they had it."
You: "Trains are great because you can read a book or get a little rest instead of
having to fight the traffic."
Them: "Very true. Well, let me begin by telling you about our company..."

This is a good example of small talk. It shows that you are easy to speak with, and
most importantly, you found a small connection even though it was about a small
topic such as the traffic problem. In this type of situation, don't feel that you have
to constantly talk. If it is not relevant to the topic, it might be better not to say
anything. But if you can add on to the topic, it's a good thing. The person who is
giving the interview has the control, and that person will direct the small talk to
the interview when the time is right. In my example above, I made a small
transition from the traffic and started the interview process. If you are interested
about interview, please go to the Interview Section. You may now move on to the
practice session.

Small Talk - Interactive Practice

Click on Listen All and follow along. After becoming comfortable with the entire
conversation, become Person A by clicking on the Person A button. You will hear
only Person B through the audio file. There will be a silence for you to repeat the
sentences of Person A. Do the same for Person B. The speed of the conversation is
native speed. Use the pause button if the pause between each sentence is too fast
for you. After practicing several times, you will be able to speak as fast as a
native.

Listen All | Person A | Person B

A: "Hey Paul. What are you doing here?"

B: "How's it going? I'm meeting up with a friend here."
A: "How have you been man?"
B: "Not too bad. I'm still in school and having a little fun."
A: "How are you enjoying Mr. Lee's history class?"
B: "It's so boring."
A: "Tell me about it. If it wasn't a requirement, I wouldn't have taken it."
B: "How about you? What have you been up to?"
A: "I finished school last spring. I'm searching for a job now, but I'm slacking off."
B: "I heard the job market is not that hot right now."
A: "I could always take a low end job, but I'm not that desperate yet."
B: "Well, good luck to you."
A: "Thanks. It was good seeing you again."
B: "Yeah. I'll catch you later."
A: "Have a good night."
2
Listen All | Person A | Person B

A: "You're John right?"

B: "Yes. Oh, you're in my English class right?"
A: "Yeah. I'm Martha."
B: "Well it's good to finally meet you."
A: "How are you enjoying the class?"
B: "I'm not sure. Some days it seems ok, but other days I am totally bored in class."
A: "I know what you mean. Do you know what is wrong with the weather these days? I haven't
seen the sun in 2 weeks."
B: "The weather has been pretty terrible recently."
A: "I'm really hoping the weather gets better."
B: "Do you have something coming up?"
A: "To tell you the truth, it's just depressing seeing so much rain."
B: "I don't blame you. It has been pretty gloomy for some time now."
A: "This is my stop. I'll see you later."
B: "I'll see you in class. Bye."

Movies - Asking Friend

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In this section we will work on the planning aspect of watching a movie. In other
Movie sections, we will cover discussing a movie, types of movies, etc.

Since this is the first Movie section, let me take a quick minute to explain how to
find out movie times and how to pay for tickets in America. It's very similar and
simple.

First, you need to find out what time a show is playing. In most cases, this is done
by checking the internet. Usually, you type in the zip code and all the theaters in
that area will display all the movies and movie times for that week. After you have
chosen the movie to see, you need to buy the ticket. There are some places you
can buy on-line, but it isn't that popular yet. You can go to the theater before the
movie starts and buy it at the theater. The only thing you need to know how to say
is the movie name and the movie time. Here is a quick example. Let's say you are
watching the Titanic at 3:00. You walk up to the counter and say, 'Titanic. Three
o'clock.' Wasn't that easy? Finally, big block buster movies usually sell out of
tickets very quickly. So if you want to see it on opening day, it is wise to go to the
theater right when it opens and buy the tickets in advance.

Before you watch a movie, you need to plan ahead with friends. Either you are
asking a friend to watch a movie, or you are answering. In either case, we will
cover it here.
The following questions and statements are used when asking a friend to watch a
movie.

"Hey John, do you want to (wanna) go see a movie tonight?"

"I'm going to watch Terminator 2. Do you wanna join?"
"Let's go see The Matrix tomorrow."
"What time should we meet at the theater?"
"Let's watch a movie after dinner."
"The Titanic is coming out this Friday. Let's go see it."

If there are not enough details, a response can be in a question form. Here are a
couple of examples.

"Who is all going?"

"Who are you watching it with?"
"Where are you watching it?"
"What time are you watching the movie?"

Normal answers:

"That sounds great."

"I always wanted to see that. Let's go."
"Let's meet at the theater at four o'clock."
"Sure. Do you wanna eat lunch together before the movie?"

"I've already seen that movie. What else is playing?"

"I can't. I have to work that night."
"That movie sounds scary. I don't like horror movies."
"I really don't like the actors. I'm going to pass."