Shadowing Practice: Small Talk | Useful Phrases & Questions for Everyday Conversation - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Well hey there, I'm Emma from mmmEnglish.
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If you want to improve your English conversation skills, this lesson is definitely for you.
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It's actually part two in a series that I've made about small talk
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so I'm sharing all of the essential phrases and expressions
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that you need to know to be successful with your small talk conversations in English.
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In part one, I shared some really useful everyday questions and phrases to talk about work, the weather,
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hobbies and your free time and I'm definitely going to link to
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that video at the end but in this one I'm going to dive a little deeper
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and I'm going to share some useful questions
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or ideas to help you spark some small talk conversations about news and current affairs.
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I'm also going to be talking about how to start a conversation at a social event
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or a networking event when you don't really know anyone there.
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Awkward.
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And most importantly, I'm going to talk about how to end
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that conversation in a relaxed and friendly way so
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that you've got the opportunity to do it all again sometime in the future.
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So let's dive in!
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Discussing news or current affairs can be a really great icebreaker.
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You just need to make sure you keep it light, okay?
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So avoiding topics that might cause offence or prompt an argument or a disagreement of some kind.
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Politics, religion, any sort of strong opinion about something it's best to avoid.
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Small talk is not the place for that.
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Start with something simple and the question
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did you hear about is a really useful one in this situation
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because you can pick anything relevant that you read in the paper that morning or you heard on the radio, something that is on the news at that moment.
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Did you hear about the train strike in Melbourne last week?
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You can also introduce the topic by saying, I read, I read that Point Cook is the most multicultural suburb in Australia,
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I had no idea or I heard, I heard on the radio that the Queen's visiting next month.
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In order to really get your conversation flowing though, you need to make sure that you follow up with a question
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or something that invites their opinion or their thought on whatever you shared.
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Conversation is two ways, right?
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So you could always follow up with a question like so what do you think about that?
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What are your thoughts?
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How do you feel about that?
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Hey ladies, do you want to practice English in real conversations with really lovely speaking partners?
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We'll help you to meet new speaking partners and practise real conversations in English.
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that you can experience everything on offer in a full membership and it's free for 10 days.
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I've put the link down in the description below so that you can start your free trial today.
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Okay so now I'm going to share a couple of really useful phrases to help you at social or networking events.
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Sometimes these can be really awkward or uncomfortable places
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when you're standing with someone that you don't really know and you don't have anything really to talk about.
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Well if you have a friend or a colleague in common
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that you both know you can start with that
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so how do you know Ed otherwise you can try
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and work out how you might know them
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or how you're connected have we met before you look familiar you can always try giving a compliment
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that works really well I love
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that dress can I ask where you got it from now
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sometimes you actually meet people who you know quite well over
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the phone you maybe deal with them a lot via email
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but you've never actually met in person so a good thing to say at
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that point is Ah it's great to finally put a face to the name
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and when you get introduced to someone that you've heard about
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but you've never met before you can say I've heard so much about you.
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The best response to this is all good I hope
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and this just means I hope that everything you've heard about me was good
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and not bad which sounds a bit funny but it's really common
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and it definitely helps to relax the conversation with a little bit of humour which is always nice.
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I hope that everything you've heard about me is good.
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Now of course a lesson about small talk would not be complete without some phrases to help you end the conversation.
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This is...
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Crucial, sometimes it can be the most difficult part.
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Once you've started and you're thinking yeah okay, this is good, I'm asking you some questions and then okay, I'm running out of things to say now.
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Abort!
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Get out!
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So how do you politely end your conversation and just get back to doing what you were doing?
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I mean you can't just say okay, bye.
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That is really awkward and uncomfortable for everyone isn't it?
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Oh okay bye.
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If you're at work you can say something like well I'd better get back to work or
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I'd better get back to it, I'll see you around.
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At a social event you could say I'd better keep moving it was nice chatting
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or you can kind of make up an excuse that you need to leave and say something like I'm looking for Jennifer, you haven't seen her around anywhere, have you?
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I was just looking for the bathroom, do you know where it is?
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Well I'm gonna go grab a drink, I'll see you in a bit.
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These last three are a little less direct.
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I'm not saying okay, I'm done with this conversation now, I don't want to talk with you anymore.
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I'm just politely moving away to do something else, right?
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So it doesn't cause offence to the other person that you're talking to, you're just moving along and then you end the conversation comfortably
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and it makes it easy to come back and start a new conversation with that person at some other time.
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Well done!
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A huge high five to you if you got all the way through part one
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and part two of this series about small talk.
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If you did, you've learned over 50 phrases and questions
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and potential answers that will help you to make small talk in English.
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So all you need to do now is to make sure that you put it into practice.
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Make sure you do that.
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Just studying them and learning them and trying to remember them is not going to help.
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You need to try this out.
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Do that wherever you speak English, alright?
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every week so you definitely want to be here when I bring out the next one.
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For now, let's check out this one together.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
The speaker keeps coming back to these words: conversation, heard, English, phrases, lesson. This video has 71 sentences and 1215 words to shadow. The speech runs for 7:24. The speaker talks at a natural 164 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 88% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow. 17 of its 71 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 |
|---|---|---|
| lesson noun | /ˈlɛs.ən/ | A section of learning or teaching into which a wider learning content is divided. |
| phrase noun | /ˈfɹeɪ̯z/ | A short written or spoken expression. |
| awkward adjective | /ˈɔk.wɚd/ | Lacking dexterity in the use of the hands, or of instruments. |
| topic noun | /ˈtɑpɪk/ | A subject; a theme; a category or general area of interest. |
| introduce verb | /ˌɪntɹəˈdus/ | To cause (someone) to be acquainted (with someone else). |
| affair noun | /əˈfɛɹ/ | Something which is done or is to be done; business of any kind, commercial, professional, or public. |
| relax verb | /ɹɪˈlæks/ | To make something loose. |
| uncomfortable adjective | /ʌnˈkʌm.fɚ.tə.bl̩/ | Not comfortable; causing discomfort. |
| dive verb | /daɪv/ | To swim under water. |
| offence noun | UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada standard spelling of offense. | |
| everyday adjective | /ˈɛvɹiˌdeɪ/ | Appropriate for ordinary use, rather than for special occasions. |
| membership noun | The state of being a member of a group or organization. | |
| 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. |
| connect verb | /kəˈnɛkt/ | To join (to another object): to attach, or to be intended to attach or capable of attaching, to another object. |
| invite verb | /ɪnˈvaɪt/ | To ask for the presence or participation of someone or something. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| get back to verb | Return to (an activity) | |
| bring out verb | To elicit, evoke, or emphasize (a particular quality). | |
| check out verb | To record the departure or withdrawal of someone or something (such as guests, employees, books, etc.). | |
| come back verb | To return to a place. | |
| get out verb | To leave or escape. | |
| make up verb | /ˌmeɪk ˈʌp/ | To constitute, to compose. |
| move along verb | To continue without being distracted; to keep going. | |
| work out verb | /ˌwɝk ˈaʊt/ | To calculate. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- What are your thoughts?
- How do you feel about that?
- Can I ask where you got it from?
- You haven't seen her around anywhere, have you?
- Do you know where it is?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | I've made · I've put · you've never actually met |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | people who you · humour which is |
| Superlatives the -est / the most … — the top or bottom of a group | the most multicultural · The best · the most difficult |
| Past continuous was/were + -ing — an action in progress at a moment in the past | were doing · was just looking |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 51 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, you've, you're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- Long words — get the stress right: uncomfortable /ʌnˈkʌm.fɚ.tə.bl̩/, importantly /ɪmˈpɔɹ.tənt.li/, disagreement /dɪsəˈɡɹiːmənt/, multicultural /ˌmʌltiˈkʌlt͡ʃəɹəl/
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 lesson, phrase, awkward.
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.