Shadowing Practice: How to make small talk so fun, people want to keep talking to you - Learn English Speaking with Video
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210 sentences
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If you're stuck having the same boring conversations
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How's your work going?
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What are you doing on the weekend?
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Anything nice?
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So where are you from?
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And you have absolutely no idea how to turn them into conversations you actually want to have?
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Then first you need to understand number one the small talk rule.
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So what have you been up to recently?
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Not too much really.
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Weather's been nice though.
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Yeah.
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Now everyone seems to hate small talk, but here's the thing.
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You actually need the small talk.
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Because imagine meeting somebody for the first time and going, I really like fishing, I've got three brothers,
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four sisters, big family and a lovely looking dad.
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Ummm, okay.
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You can't immediately start conversations by having some incredibly deep, interesting thing to talk about with someone you've never met before.
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You need somewhere small to start.
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And that's exactly what Smalltalk's for.
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So what do you do for work?
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I'm an accountant.
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Oh, nice.
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Whereabouts do you work?
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I work in the centre of London pretty much every day.
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So now we've found two things.
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They're an accountant and they work in London.
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But this is where most people go wrong.
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Instead of actually exploring either of those things, they'll just jump to another topic.
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So what do you do on the weekend then?
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Not much, really.
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And that is why your conversations stay so surface level.
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Instead, let's go back.
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So what do you do for work then?
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I'm an accountant.
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Oh, nice.
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Have you always wanted to be an accountant?
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Yeah, I've always wanted to since a kid, studied at uni and here we are seven years later.
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You see what's just happened here?
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We're not just learning about accountancy, we're now starting to learn about them.
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what they wanted to do when they were growing up, what they were like when they were younger
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and how they ended up where they are now so I could just stay there.
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So I'm guessing you were pretty smart at school then?
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Actually no, I was a nightmare at school.
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Really?
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No, I don't believe that.
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Yep, I was always getting in trouble.
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And there we go again.
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We started with what do you do
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and now we're talking about what they're like growing up and that's the whole point of the small talk rule.
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Small talk gives you the entry, your job is to notice it and go deeper.
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And this leads nicely onto number two, wide versus deep conversations.
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I want you to think about conversations in two different ways,
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you can have a wide conversation and you can have a deep conversation and most conversations people have are incredibly wide.
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An example of a wide conversation would be, so where are you from?
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I'm from Manchester.
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Oh nice, what do you do for work?
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Well I work in marketing.
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Cool, what do you do outside of work?
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I play football.
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Nice, do you have any holidays coming up?
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Yeah, I'm going to Spain in a couple weeks.
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Now look at what's happened here.
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Within the space of about a minute we've talked about four completely different topics Manchester,
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marketing, football and Spain but But we've learned nothing about each other because every conversation we started has been one question deep.
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And eventually you're gonna run out of topics to talk about and you're gonna be in mid -conversation thinking
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What do I say next to them?
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So instead of just bouncing from topic to topic in a wide conversation, I want you to start learning how to have deeper conversations.
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So let's restart with the exact same question.
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So where are you from?
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Manchester.
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So now we've got the topic of Manchester.
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Instead of abandoning that and asking them what they do for work, we're going to stay with Manchester and go a little bit deeper.
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Have you always wanted to live in Manchester?
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No, I actually moved away when I was 18 years old.
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Oh really?
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What made you leave?
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Honestly, I just couldn't wait to get out.
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How come?
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Was it just like staying in your hometown or...
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Yeah, I just never really fitted in my hometown when I was growing up, to be honest with you.
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Now look where we are.
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We started with just a simple where are you from and now we're actually learning about the person and that's the difference.
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Wide conversations are always looking for new topics
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but deeper conversations are always finding new layers inside the topic that you have already got.
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Number three, adding one more sentence is probably the easiest way to make your conversations more interesting
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and I want you to do this in two different ways.
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First, when somebody asks you a question
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So what did you get up to on the weekend?
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And you say
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Not much really
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Okay, so how am I supposed to respond to that?
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They have basically given me absolutely nothing to work with So instead, when you're answering somebody's question, just tell yourself
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Just add one more sentence
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So what did you get up to on the weekend?
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Ah, not too much really.
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I spent most of my time on the sofa on the weekend re -watching
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Breaking Bad over and over again.
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That's it.
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It doesn't seem like much, but now you've given them
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Breaking Bad and spending most of the weekend on the sofa as a way to start a new, fun conversation.
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Oh mate, I love Breaking Bad.
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I love watching it.
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Whereabouts are you up to?
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What episode?
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Or, see I've never actually watched Breaking Bad.
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Is it worth it?
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See, now we have a conversation.
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And this is what I really want you to understand.
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So what do you do for a living?
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Don't just say, I'm a lawyer.
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Maybe instead, I'm a lawyer.
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I mainly work with just smaller businesses, so every day it's completely different.
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More of the smaller cases.
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Now, the second way that I want you to use this rule is when you're the one asking the questions.
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Now don't just rapid fire ask them like, Did you know that
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Tom's trying to reach 100 ,000 subscribers by the end of the year?
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No, I didn't.
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Well can you go ahead and subscribe to him?
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Alright, yeah.
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I'll subscribe, no problem.
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Thanks.
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Because that is just simply question, answer, question, answer.
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You did subscribe though, right?
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So again, before asking another question, try adding one more sentence.
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My social skills suck.
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Oh well, I know
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Tom has just released the waitlist to his brand new social skills course
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that he's doing as everybody else has been requesting it.
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Would this be something that would help you? yeah no
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that would be exactly what I wanted where can I sign up
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so I can know
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when the course drops just put your email in on the waitlist website it's really simple
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but it's going to help you go from starting conversations to
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having deeper conversations to making friends leaving conversations having better relationships
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and connections just press the link in the description no seriously press the link in the description waitlist is live
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now number four react to what they meant not just what they said.
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Now this one is slightly different
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because let's say somebody says to you I've been working till 8pm every night this week and you respond Oh really?
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What time do you normally finish?
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Now there's nothing technically wrong with this question
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but you're kind of missing the point as to what they were telling you in the first place.
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Because they're probably not telling you their working hours because they think you're really interested in their shifts.
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So try and find the meaning underneath what you think they're trying to communicate to you.
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Damn you must be absolutely exhausted.
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I am absolutely exhausted.
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What's been going on at work?
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Or another example of this somebody might say well my best
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friends just literally moved to Australia for the rest of her life now so yeah.
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And you say oh nice wow whereabouts in Australia?
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Again perfectly reasonable response from them
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but just have a little think a minute as to what
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that sentence meant to me and why I might have said it.
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What was the meaning behind it?
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I'm pretty sad.
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I'm pretty upset.
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You know, it's a pretty tough, I want to talk to somebody about it.
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Oh mate, that must be pretty tough on you.
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How have you been dealing with him being away?
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You see now how we've moved from talking about just Australia to talking about them
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and that's what I want you to start practicing.
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So don't just listen to the information that people were always giving you.
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Instead, sometimes ask yourself, why are they telling me this?
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What's the deeper meaning behind this?
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Number five, stop exchanging facts and instead ask for opinions.
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Let's take probably the most stereotypically boring conversation ever, the weather.
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God, it's freezing today.
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Yeah, it's horrible.
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Apparently it's even colder tomorrow.
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Oh no, really?
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Now where do we go from here?
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We're basically right now just exchanging weather reports.
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But let's now have the exact same conversation again, but this time we add an opinion.
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God, it's freezing today.
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To be honest, summer's been so hot, I quite like a little bit of the cooler weather, you know?
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Really?
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I do get you, but I've always been more of a sunny person, to be honest with you.
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You see how different that feels?
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And you can do this with pretty much any boring topic.
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So what do you do?
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I'm a banker.
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Versus.
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I'm a banker, which to be honest, it sounds really boring, but it's really not as boring as it sounds.
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You see how much more they've given me to respond to? Or.
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How did you get here this morning?
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Oh, I got here on the train, but honestly, I think it's one of the worst ways to travel around London in the mornings.
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And again, here you've given them something.
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Because facts will just tell you what's happened, but opinions, they'll tell you what people actually think about what has happened.
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And you can also do this by flipping this around and asking for their opinion.
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Instead of, So how long have you been a banker then?
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You could ask, What's your favourite thing about being a banker?
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Instead of, How often do you get the train into London?
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You could ask, Do you actually like the commute into London? Because...
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I really don't.
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Because now you're actually starting to find what they actually like.
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And finally, after everything I've just taught you, I want you to remember this.
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Number six, stop trying to make every conversation deep.
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If you ask somebody, How's your work going?
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And they say, Yeah, good, thank you.
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You might try going a little bit deeper.
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What are you working on at the moment?
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And they say, Nah, nothing really particularly exciting, to be honest with you it's okay to leave the conversation topic how it is
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and move on to the next one because maybe five minutes later you mentioned
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that you've just got a dog
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and suddenly they're going oh mate
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I've got a golden retriever as well oh he's an absolute nightmare yesterday he there we go
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that is exactly where you stay in the conversation
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and go a little bit deeper thank you
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so much for watching I'm trying to hit 100 ,000 subscribers please subscribe
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if you did enjoy and join the waitlist in the description.
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Take care.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “How to make small talk so fun, people want to keep talking to you”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: conversation, topic, instead, deeper. This video has 210 sentences and 1942 words to shadow. The speech runs for 10:51. The speaker talks at a natural 179 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 89% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow. 57 of its 210 sentences are questions, so it is good practice for question intonation and short answers.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| topic noun | /ˈtɑpɪk/ | A subject; a theme; a category or general area of interest. |
| bore verb | /boɹ/ | To inspire boredom in somebody. |
| subscribe verb | /səbˈskɹaɪb/ | To write (one’s name) at the bottom of a document; to sign (one's name). |
| banker noun | /ˈbæŋkəː/ | One who conducts the business of banking; one who, individually, or as a member of a company, keeps an establishment for the deposit or loan of money, or for… |
| accountant noun | /əˈkaʊn.tənt/ | One who renders account; one accountable. |
| whereabouts noun | /ˌ(h)wɛəɹəˈbaʊts/ | A location; where something is situated. |
| skill noun | /skɪl/ | A capacity to do something well; a technique, an ability, usually acquired or learned, as opposed to abilities that are regarded as innate. |
| incredibly adverb | /ɪŋˈkɹɛdɪbli/ | In an incredible manner; not to be believed. |
| versus | /ˈvɝsəs/ | Against; in opposition to. |
| nightmare noun | /ˈnaɪt.mɛɚ/ | A very unpleasant or frightening dream. |
| freeze verb | /ˈfɹiːz/ | Especially of a liquid, to become solid due to low temperature. |
| hometown noun | /ˈhoʊmˌtaʊn/ | An individual’s place of birth, childhood home, or place of main residence. |
| exhaust verb | /ɪɡˈzɔst/ | To draw or let out wholly; to drain completely. |
| sofa noun | /ˈsoʊ̯fə/ | An upholstered seat with a raised back and one or two raised ends, long enough to comfortably accommodate two or more people. |
| subscriber noun | /səbˈskɹaɪbɚ/ | A person who subscribes to a publication or a service. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| get up to verb | To do something, especially something that is forbidden or improper. | |
| grow up verb | To mature and become an adult. | |
| come up verb | To emerge or become known, especially unexpectedly. | |
| end up verb | To bring to a conclusion. | |
| get out verb | To leave or escape. | |
| go ahead verb | /ˌɡoʊ əˈhɛd/ | To proceed with; to begin. |
| go back verb | To return to a place or state after having been there at a previous time. | |
| move away verb | To go away from a place, especially when permanently changing one's residence. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- How's your work going?
- What are you doing on the weekend?
- Have you always wanted to be an accountant?
- You see what's just happened here?
- Cool, what do you do outside of work?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on | has been requesting · I've been working · What's been going |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have you been · Weather's been · you've never met |
| Verb + -ing enjoy, keep, stop… + -ing — verbs that are followed by the -ing form | start learning · love Breaking · love watching |
| Past continuous was/were + -ing — an action in progress at a moment in the past | were growing · was always getting · was growing |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 62 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, you're, I've. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- Long words — get the stress right: incredibly /ɪŋˈkɹɛdɪbli/, communicate /kəˈmjuːnɪkeɪt/, technically /ˈtɛk.nɪˌkəl.i/, accountancy /əˈkaʊnt.ən.si/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like topic, bore, subscribe.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.