Shadowing-Übung: Small talk in the USA - Real Life English Conversation - Intermediate Level - Englisch Sprechen Lernen mit Video

Hello, welcome back to our channel, we're trying  to get cozy and warm, cheers, with our tea because we're freezing. It's colder inside of our house  than outside today. Yeah it's true. But you guys we have a fun video for you today. We are going  to be talking about small talk. So small talk is, what is small talk? Small talk is something  you engage in, that is what we would say is surface level conversation, yeah so you're not  really asking deep questions. You might not even see yourself as a friend with this person yet and  yeah you just want to keep it light, but you don't know what to talk about. Yes so the reason small  talk is important is because in the US everybody does small talk. You'll be in line at the grocery  store and the person behind you will start start talking, they'll say something random and you're  like what, but actually I'm not like what because I'm used to it and so then I engage in small  talk, but if you are a foreigner you might be like why are you talking to me? We're in line at  the supermarket, or even out on the street, in the park, people do small talk a lot in the US. It's  true, I don't like small talk but it is kind of a cultural thing in our country, yeah and there's  certain questions, that are almost always involved in small talk, yeah so what are some questions if  somebody like starts talking to you, what are the first things they say? We always talk about the  weather. The weather is like a crazy fascination.

Yeah so whatever type of day you're having,  you could just be like oh wow it's so rainy today or so beautiful. Yeah oh can you believe  the weather we're having lately? Yes exactly, we always talk about the weather. We talk about  the weather with our neighbor, we talk about the weather in line at the grocery store, we talk  about the weather just everywhere. So whatever kind of weather you're having just have that line  up your sleeve. Yes it's true and what is another question right away that gets asked? Yeah I  don't know guys just the weather, no sports, people talk about sports as well, did you see the  game last night? Yeah that's true and it depends obviously on the kind of circle of people you're  around whether they're sports enthus enthusiasts or not yeah, um but yeah sports is a common thing  and there are definitely a big sort of fan base in you know American football, baseball, the NBA  basketball, um sorry soccer not so much but it's growing. Yeah well what is something you would say  in regards to sports besides did you see the game?

Yeah I mean a lot of times it's just sharing your  opinions, like oh man LeBron he should be traded or you know that's those sort of comments. Yeah if  you don't want to talk about sports, people also talk about current events. I wouldn't recommend  really strongly sharing your opinion, but you could be like oh man like those elections are just  crazy, or I can't believe what happened in that country, or did you hear about that? That's a very  common small talk thing as well in America. Yeah that's true, I think um yeah how if we were if we  were just meeting, how do you think it would go down? Be like oh hey I'm Calvin nice to meet you.  Hey I'm Camille, nice to meet you too. uh where are you from? Yes that's a good one. Where are you  from? And then the next question maybe would be you know oh what kind of work do you do? What kind  of work do you do, or what's your job? yeah what's your job? This is true, like say you were going  to school or you were signing up for a course, or yeah you had the potential to be with people,  it would be a little more formal like that and you would talk more about those more surfacy questions  still, but they're still considered small talk, maybe you're at a party, so yeah what's your name?  Where are you from? What do you do? meaning what's your job, what do you do yeah. And then you know  you hope as you make a friendship you can move into the deeper questions and deeper things so  but small talk is kind of the uh entry way into a deeper conversation usually to get kind of get  the conversation warmed up. Yeah right totally.

Another really common way to just approach  somebody especially if you know them say they're your neighbor, but you don't talk to them often,  so it's just the small talk you could be like hey how's your family doing? How's your child? But you  should* hopefully know their name, if you don't that's fine, but yeah how's little Sammy doing? Or  it maybe you saw him fall on his bike last week, oh how's your son? Is he better? You know that  sort of thing is considered small talk. mhm so so a lot of times also when you haven't seen  somebody, maybe they're your friend uh and then you're seeing them again, there's certain  things that we say like oh hey Camille it's been a while. Yeah it's been so long, what have you  been up to? Yeah those sort of things to kind of forever! Yeah to kind of like re-initiate the  conversation. mhm yeah and just asking people how they're doing as well, how are you? A little thing  with small talk, especially people we don't know, we say how are you, but we respond I'm fine, we  don't go into details, we don't actually say like I'm not doing well, I had the worst day, this  happened, no that's not what we do. yeah We're always fantastic, yeah I mean that's what you'll  find in America too, we are more on the positive side, um and yeah we'll use uh we'll use more kind  of positive words, I'm fine I'm great you know but you know we might be horrible. Yeah really  so but that's just a part of yeah the sort of culture in America. mhm yeah another great thing  for small talk and this can be with somebody you know or you don't know is to compliment them on an  article of clothing they're wearing. So oh I love your hat. I love your shirt it's so nice. Thank  you. Just something really short. Not really new, but yeah that's an old one I don't love it.  No just kidding! I don't like this small talk.

Actually guys. I'm not fine actually, we're going  to go into a deep convo right now. Oh my gosh, he hates small talk. No we usually I wouldn't say we  lie, but we do sort of like lie a little bit, like as far as like how does this look on me? Unless I  really knew them well, I'd be like it looks great, even if I thought it looked horrible, like we're  not the direct culture like Dutch where they just tell you how it is and then you're crying cuz  they were so mean, no, or we'd say oh yeah it looks good but you know it would look better. yeah  you know so you're not actually saying that it actually doesn't look good you're just saying oh  this would look better and you are kind of lying.

Or what about this one? Or you look so great with  blue, if they think they look great with pink or whatever. I don't know are we getting out of line  with small talk? Is that small talk tip? I don't know. Maybe it's cultural more but. No I bring  it up because I've had um this conversation with some of my foreign friends, and they're so direct  and I'm like you're hurting my feelings. We don't like intentionally, I mean they're probably not  intentionally doing it either, but we're usually over the top nice and kind. Yeah I think that's  the point, is that yeah we're indirect and we're overly nice, overly polite. um yeah yeah so those  are a few things with small talk. So we're going to transition a little bit into small talk in the  workplace. So you probably know your colleagues a little bit better, so the small talk could be  a lot of that same stuff we already covered, but what is something else you could do in the  workplace Calvin? Obviously you can talk about your work you know because uh yeah that's that's  kind of the task at hand, it's where you are, and so you know you talk about your projects or  things like that, which could be boring, but hey that's kind of small talk, like I said I'm not  not a big fan of it but. Like how are you doing with the latest uh project? How are you doing with  your latest project? So you could also along those lines compliment them on something that they're  doing well like hey you led that meeting like so good yesterday great job, your leadership skills  are amazing, or just some sort of comment like that is small talk affirmation, and it's always  nice to be affirmed in your job as well. I think we need more encouragement in the workplace.  That's true yeah and you could also comment on future company events, like maybe there's a  company picnic that's happening. Oh are you going to the company picnic on Saturday? Those sort of  things are good small talk, talk yeah small talk topics, there we go. Yeah or you could ask them if  they need help, hey do you need any help with that project? Like offer to help them as a small talk  thing as well. mhm yeah that's true that would be a nice move. Those are really positive small talk  things. Yeah you guys your office work space is going to just be getting better and better. You're  going to get that raise, you're going to get that promotion. All from small talk yes okay and lastly  this could be in the workplace, or it could also be when you're out on the street or things is  that you can ask for recommendations. People love to share their opinions, so maybe you're just  passing by in the city, hey could you recommend a good restaurant nearby? mhm yeah there's a good  Applebees around the corner. Perfect I'm going.

yeah yeah just recommending a good coffee place or  even like a movie, have you seen any good movies recently? That sort of thing, so asking people for  recommendations is a great small talk thing. Yeah so what do you recommend that they watch after  this video? uh another one of our videos. Yes get right to it! Or Dune 2 I heard is good so watch  that in the theaters. Oh I haven't heard about it, Dune nice little small talk. yeah yeah that's good  yeah how's the weather? It's uh beautiful. I don't like small talk. So awkward. So let us know in the  comments, how are you doing? And you can respond with I'm fine, or if you want to engage with a  deeper conversation, you can tell us how you're really doing. Yes, we hope this video was useful  for you guys, and we hope that you're prepared for when you speak with Americans, you have some  phrases that you can use, and that small talk won't be so awkward, but it'll just be a natural  thing that you learn how to do. Let us know also in the comments, do you do small talk in your  country? We love to hear from you. Thanks for watching. Thanks see you bye. Like and subscribe!  Cheers, how are you? Not doing so great. Oh no!