Josh teaches three practical phrases to start conversations with native English speakers at parties or meetups. He shows how to open naturally without awkwardness and gives examples for each approach.
In this video, I'm going to teach you three English phrases that you can use to start a conversation with a native speaker. Check it out. Sometimes you get a chance to talk to a native English speaker. Maybe there is a new co worker in your office. Maybe you are at a birthday party, or maybe you are at a language exchange meetup. In any situations, it's really important that you know what to say so that you can initiate an English conversation with a native speaker. And oftentimes people get confused. Oh, should I say, how are you? Nice to meet you. Do you like kimchi? What question should I ask to start a conversation with a native speaker? And it can be very paralyzing. So I'm gonna teach you these three phrases and you can't go wrong with them. You're gonna have a lot of fun and you can carry on with the conversation for a long time. But before I teach you these three phrases, I want to show you some of the things you or your friends might be doing when you are at a big event or when you are at a party. You look around and there is a group over there. It seems like they're having a lot of fun, but you know, it's kind of awkward to go and join them, right? So what do you do? You take out your phone so that you look like you're busy. Just, oh. If joining a group of people is a little bit awkward to you, or if you don't feel uncomfortable, go one on one. Go talk to someone. People love to be talked to. Everybody is waiting to be talked to, right? So why don't you be that cool person? Just go up and talk to someone. So here are the phrases you could use to initiate a conversation. Phrase number one. Hi, I don't think we met. My name is Josh. This is a great phrase because we usually don't feel comfortable talking to a stranger when there is no pretext. But now you just made a reason to talk to this person, so it is a great phrase. Now watch the intonation. You won't always be upbeat and energetic. Hi, I don't think we met. My name is Josh. What's your name? You don't want to do that. Don't be that weird person. Phrase number two. So how do you know Josh? So how do you know Josh? If you are at a party or at an event, it's always good to talk about the host of that party because you at least have one common ground. And if someone asks you that question, hey, how do you know Josh? Don't just say we know each other from college. Provide a little more information so that they have something to talk about. So you could say something like, oh, we know each other from college. Let me tell you this one crazy story. He was such a different person back in the day. Great. Now you have a lot more to talk about. Or you could say something like, our mutual friend Michelle told us about Josh. She told me that he is a great video editor. So I had this project and I was looking for somebody to help me with my videos. So Michelle introduced us to Josh. Then the other person will say, oh, that's very interesting. What kind of project, what video project are you working on? And your conversation can go to a different direction. So the phrase number two was, how do you know Josh? Talk about the host of the event or the party. Phrase number three, have you been following the X? For example, have you been following the Olympics? I heard that a Kim Yona got a silver medal. I think she deserved more than that. Or have you been following the news about that guy who escaped from prison and he's on the run? When you meet someone for the first time, it's not always appropriate to ask personal questions. In fact, it could be very intimidating. Hi. Where you from? What do you do? What was your major in college? What's your hobby? How many siblings do you have? So instead of asking these personal questions, talk about global or local issues, celebrities, things that are around you. So you could talk about the news, you could talk about celebrities, you could talk about the place where you are right now, the restaurant or the office or the networking conference space. That is one way to start a conversation with a native English speaker. Some people are okay with personal questions, but other people might not be okay with the personal questions, especially in the beginning. So it is always a good idea to have these questions formulated in your mind before you go up and talk to someone. Okay. So the third phrase was, have you been following the Olympics? Have you been following the news about X, Y and Z? That is a great phrase to use. So to wrap it up, we learned three phrases today. Phrase number one. Hi, I don't think we met. I'm Josh. Phrase number two. So how do you know Josh? Phrase number three, have you been following the news about the Olympics? These three phrases will help you start a conversation with a native speaker. And you can go in many different directions and talk about different topics. And at the same time, you will not come across as awkward. If you would like to get more tips on English conversation skills, you could do two things. You could subscribe to my YouTube channel. Or you could go to my blog@splashenglish.com and get more videos and tips just like this one. Thanks for watching and I'll see you next time. Hi. What's your name? Where are you from? Who's your daddy?
