Shadowing Practice: English Phrases for Daily Conversation (Practice Small Talk!) - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Hello, I'm Emma from mmmEnglish.

This video is perfect for intermediate to advanced English learners who want to improve their conversation skills.

I'm going to share the exact phrases and expressions

that are used during small talk and if you're wondering what is small talk again?

It's polite conversation about unimportant everyday topics

but it really helps you to connect with other people and to get them to trust you and to like you.

Knowing how to do small talk is essential in social situations

but it's also incredibly important in professional situations as well when you're getting to know your colleagues,

when you are building rapport with your customers and your clients,

when you're meeting new people at networking events or at conferences, it's so useful.

So I'm going to share the exact questions and phrases

that you need to keep your small talk and your English conversations going.

Small talk is such a big part of the English language and of English culture generally.

We really like to ease into conversations with a little bit

of small talk first rather than dive straight into something deeper and meaningful.

I know that for some of you, native speakers and non -native speakers alike,

this situation, small talk, can create a little bit of anxiety.

What am I going to say?

What am I going to talk about?

How am I going to finish the conversation and leave?

It's nerve -wracking but don't worry, we're going to get lots of practice today.

I just want to take a few seconds here to give

a little shout out to the members of Hey Lady who are watching today.

Hey ladies!

It's great to see you here!

If you haven't heard yet, Hey Lady is our online community helping women to succeed in English.

We make it easy and safe to meet new speaking partners and give you interesting topics to talk about together.

We have an amazing team of expert English coaches who'll encourage and support you at every step.

It's the perfect place to practise because you can make mistakes without feeling judged

and make real progress even if you don't have a lot of time to spare.

As long as your English level is intermediate or above then your English is good enough to join the community.

And if you sign up today, you can experience everything we offer free for ten days.

I've put the link down in the description below.

Make sure you check it out and I hope to see you inside.

The first thing we need to do is start the conversation.

We need to create the opportunity for small talk

and did you know that there are some better ways to ask how are you

and this is going to blow your mind,

good and fine are not the only ways to respond to that question so when someone asks you how are you,

you can try responding with I've been keeping busy.

It's a really good, really neutral answer.

It indicates that you've had a lot of things going on in life

but you don't need to go into all the detail about it.

It's just kind of like I've been busy

but you could also say not bad thanks

and of course then we need to pass the conversation back but instead of just asking how are you,

try how's it going with you?

This is very informal, very relaxed and casual or what have you been up to lately?

So this question is asking for a little bit more detail so it's a bit more genuine.

You can ask it if you really want to find out what have you been doing lately?

What's been going on?

And if someone asks you this question all you need to do is listen for the grammar

that they used and reflect it back in your answer

so you would respond using the present perfect or the present perfect continuous.

I've been busy training the new marketing manager or

if you want to avoid this question altogether and just move the conversation on to something else, you can say nothing special, how about you?

You might want to ask something a little more specific especially if you're talking to someone that you know.

You can ask them something about their life using how is So you can say how's work going?

How's your family?

How's uni?

How's university?

And this is really great because you're showing an interest in them.

You could ask them about something you know that they've done recently by asking with how was?

How was your trip to Portugal?

How was the exam?

All you have to do is switch out the noun at the end to complete the question.

Really easy, right?

So another really common setting for small talk is in the office.

So what are some of these advanced useful phrases for making conversation in English at work?

A really great strategy for small talk generally but especially at work is to look for common ground.

When you find something in common with the person that you're talking to, you'll see that making conversation becomes easier because you have this shared interest,

it's something that you both want to talk about but the tricky part is finding that common ground in the first place.

So first try talking about work with your colleagues.

I can't believe how busy we are today, can you?

And their response could be, I know we're really under the pump.

That is an Australian phrase that describes when you're feeling a lot of pressure and it's quite a difficult situation

like when you're at work, being busy at work, you're under the pump.

You could also say I know I've been flat out all week

but if the opposite is true and it's actually been quite quiet, you could say yeah it's been dead hasn't it?

So dead in this expression means quiet, not busy, There's nothing to do.

And of course at work, you can always start somewhere simple and just say, how's your day been?

Or how's your week been?

And to respond, you'd say, it's been long, it's been busy,

it's been hectic or it's flown by which means it's gone quickly or simply say,

my week's been great so far, thanks.

Now when you're answering a question like this, don't forget to follow up with how about you?

This is going to keep the conversation going and you can just tack

that question onto the end of almost any sentence just to keep that back and forth happening for a little longer,

keep things going, pass the conversation back.

If you work at a bigger company, you might find yourself in the staff room at lunchtime heating up your lunch in the microwave

and there's a colleague there that you don't know, you've never met them before?

What could you ask?

How long have you worked here?

I don't think I've seen you around.

If you find out they're new, you can follow up with what did you do before this?

Or if they've been at the company for a while, you could say what are you working on at the moment?

Probably the most iconic small talk topic is the weather.

People love talking about the weather, whether it's bad, whether it's good,

it's an easy and surefire way to start a conversation to get it going.

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You could start just by saying it's a beautiful day isn't it?

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Can you believe all the rain we've been having?

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It's awful.

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You can talk about current or future weather as well.

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Oh it looks like it's going to snow.

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The weather's not looking great this weekend.

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Do you have any plans?

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this is a great way to transition your conversation from the weather to the weekend.

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If you're talking with someone in a zoom meeting

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or over the phone you could say how's the weather where you are

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or you could even add a little comment like is it cold?

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I've heard it's been really chilly and

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if there's been some unusual weather like a heat wave or a cold snap or some wild storms that's even better.

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You could say something like, How's this weather?

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It's been wild, I've never seen anything like it before.

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Asking about free time and hobbies is another really great strategy so you could start by asking about the weekend.

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Have you got much planned for the weekend?

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So here when I say the weekend, I'm asking about the weekend coming up, the closest one in the future, the next weekend.

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But you can ask about the one that's just finished by saying what did you get up to over the weekend?

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To ask about someone's interests or their hobbies, you could say so what do you usually do in your spare time?

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But you need to make sure that you're listening and that you follow up to show your interest as well.

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You know you could say oh I don't know anything about archery, where do you do that?

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Or really tell me more about it.

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Another idea is to ask about a recent experience And to do that,

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of course, we need to use a good old -fashioned question in the present perfect tense.

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So start with have you and then add on just about any activity that you can think of.

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Have you read any good books lately?

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So have you seen any good movies lately?

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Have you tried that new restaurant down by the beach?

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Awesome work!

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You have just learned more than 30 great phrases and expressions that are useful in small talk conversations in English.

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So what's the best way to practise and remember them?

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Of course it's to practise using them in English conversations.

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If you have a speaking partner or maybe a study group like lots of members inside the Hey Lady community do,

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it is the perfect way to practice small talk conversations.

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It's casual, informal chit -chat.

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So make sure you grab the PDF that I created for you.

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It includes all of the phrases and the expressions

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that you learned today and start by marking off all the ones that you already know.

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Sweet, you've got those, right?

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But then go back through and pick out a few

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that are useful and relevant for you and by

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that I mean ones that you can see yourself using in a particular situation in your life

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so focus on those ones don't try

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and learn all of them at once choose five to eight that's perfect

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but if you don't have a speaking partner or maybe you don't feel

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so comfortable speaking in English and having small talk conversations yet you can still practise by writing your dialogues,

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writing down the conversation between you and someone else.

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That is also practise.

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You can practise thinking about the phrases you're going to use and then rehearse it out loud, speaking to yourself in the mirror or wherever else you want to practise

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and then take every opportunity after that to start stepping out of your comfort zone

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and practising in actual conversations wherever you are in life in an online class, in your local corner shop,

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maybe with your colleagues at work, in the elevator at your apartment, wherever you get to bump into someone,

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practise these little useful phrases and I promise you with time it will become easier and you'll start to really enjoy it.

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Thank you for joining me today.

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If you like this lesson, make sure you give it a like.

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I've got new English lessons coming out for you every week

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so make sure you subscribe and I will see you in the next one.

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Let's go check it out.

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Wat je leert

Deze video helpt je om twee cruciale vaardigheden te ontwikkelen: het opbouwen van small talk (lichte conversatie) en het natuurlijker reageren op dagelijkse vragen. Je leert specifieke frasen om gesprekken te starten, zoals "How's it going with you?" of "What have you been up to lately?", en hoe je deze kunt aanpassen aan formele en informele situaties. Daarnaast leer je om antwoorden te geven die meer details bevatten dan alleen "Good" of "Fine", zoals "I've been keeping busy" of "Not bad, thanks", waardoor je gesprekken soepeler verlopen.

Luister naar deze klanken

In de video hoor je veel verbonden spraak, vooral bij korte vragen en antwoorden. Let op de reducties, zoals "How's it goin'" in plaats van "How's it going" of "What've you been up to" (in plaats van "What have you been up to"). Ook het koppelen van woorden is belangrijk: "I've been" wordt vaak uitgesproken als "I'vebin" en "Not bad" klinkt bijna als "Nobad". Deze subtiele klankveranderingen helpen je om te leren hoe native speakers echt praten, en zijn essentieel voor het verbeteren van je begrip en uitspraak.

Spreek het zoals een native

Om de ritme en accenten van de spreker na te bootsen, gebruik schaduwspreekt (shadowing). Herhaal de zinnen direct na de speaker, zo snel en nauwkeurig mogelijk. Let op de stress in woorden: in "What have you been up to lately?" wordt de nadruk op "been" en "lately" gelegd. Ook de intonatie is belangrijk: vragen eindigen vaak met een stijgende toon, terwijl antwoorden vaker dalen. Gebruik een shadowing app of shadowing site om deze oefening te verbeteren—het helpt je om de natuurlijke flow van het Engels te leren. Vergeet niet dat het doel is om te oefenen, niet om perfect te zijn: fouten zijn een normaal onderdeel van het leren. Door regelmatig te oefenen met video's (zoals deze) kun je je Engels snel verbeteren en zelfverzekerder worden in conversaties.

Leer Engels met video's en maak gebruik van technieken zoals schaduwspreken om je spreekvaardigheden te verbeteren. Deze tips zijn beproefd en helpen je om niet alleen te begrijpen, maar ook te communiceren zoals een native speaker.

Grammatica in deze video

De structuren die de spreker het meest gebruikt, met de exacte woorden uit de video:

Structuur	In de video
Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — iets dat eerder begon en nog bezig is	I've been keeping · have you been doing · What's been going
Present perfect have/has + voltooid deelwoord — iets uit het verleden dat nu nog telt	haven't heard · I've put · you've had

Wat is de Shadowing-techniek?

Shadowing is een wetenschappelijk onderbouwde taalleermethode die oorspronkelijk is ontwikkeld voor professionele tolkentraining en gepopulariseerd door polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. De methode is eenvoudig maar krachtig: je luistert naar native Engelse audio en herhaalt het onmiddellijk hardop — als een schaduw die de spreker volgt met slechts 1–2 seconden vertraging. In tegenstelling tot passief luisteren of grammaticadrills, dwingt shadowing je hersenen en mondspieren om echte spraakpatronen tegelijkertijd te verwerken en te reproduceren. Onderzoek toont aan dat het de uitspraaknauwkeurigheid, intonatie, ritme, verbonden spraak, luisterbegrip en spreekvaardigheid aanzienlijk verbetert — waardoor het een van de meest effectieve methoden is voor IELTS Speaking-voorbereiding en echte Engelse communicatie.

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Wat je leert

Luister naar deze klanken

Spreek het zoals een native

Grammatica in deze video

Wat is de Shadowing-techniek?