6 Proven Tips for Speaking English Confidently: Start a conversation with anyone!

Do you wish that you had more opportunities to

practice speaking English?

Or maybe you have opportunities

but you're too shy to start a conversation.

In today's lesson, you'll get my top eight favorite fun

and proven tips for starting conversations

with anyone in all kinds of situations.

And some of them may surprise you.

Let's go.

Hi, I'm your business English coach Christina

and welcome to Business English with Christina

where you become better at English and better at business.

And before we get into today's lesson, did you know

that I have a very exciting five day challenge

starting very soon, it's going to be five live videos

you and me with my favorite five smart

and surprisingly simple tips to help you boost your English.

Now it's totally free, so don't miss it.

And you can sign up

for the challenge in the link down below the video.

Do you live in a place where tourists come to visit?

You'll probably see tourists looking at maps

or looking at their smartphone to look

at Google Maps speaking in a different language

searching for a street or a monument or whatever.

Anyway, if you see the tourist, there is

your chance to practice informal conversational English

with no pressure whatsoever.

You can just say, hi, can I help you find something?

Or, hi, are you looking

for something or do you need directions?

You'll get a chance to practice a little bit

of English with these tourists

and they will be grateful for a warm welcome to your city.

And what if you are the one who is doing the one traveling?

This is also a great opportunity to

practice your conversation skills in English.

If you're visiting a country where they don't speak English

as a native language, that's okay too

because I would say for, for better or for worse

English tends to be sort of the language

of tourism and international communication.

So you'll get to the chance to practice speaking

with people who have, you know, a variety of accents.

And that is extremely important

for your confidence in English also.

So how do you start a conversation

with a random person in the street?

Maybe try something like this.

Excuse me, do you speak English?

I'm not from around here.

Do you happen to know a good restaurant in this area?

So here you go.

You get to practice your English

and find a great place to eat

which I don't know if I'm traveling

that's probably one of the things that I am most concerned

about finding is a good place to eat.

Okay, so you have found a great restaurant

and now it's time to practice speaking English there too.

You know, maybe you're lucky enough to be having lunch

with some locals, or maybe you're just waiting to be seated

or talking to the server.

That's fine.

Take any opportunity you have

and you can simply say, what do you recommend?

That's good.

People love sharing local foods, local dishes

sharing their favorite dishes with you.

And if you're talking to your server, of course

they are going to have some great suggestions for you.

Okay? Now what about if you are at work?

This is a different situation, but making great connections

at work by practicing your small talk

in English is a great way to get to know your colleagues

to build up relationships with them, and to create

I would say, a more friendly working environment.

And one of the best known

and best loved conversation starters at work is this

do you have any plans this weekend?

Now that is just a great universal conversation starter

but maybe you're looking

for something a little more original

something that is sure to get your colleagues talking.

Here's a little technique that you can do.

Think back to a conversation that you had

with your coworker in the past.

Can be about anything.

It can be about them, it can be

about their vacation, like whatever, it does not matter.

But ask them about that conversation again.

And it looks like this.

You just say, wait, remind me, where are you from again?

Or remind me, where did you go on vacation last year again?

Or remind me, what was your last company again?

So you get, you get the picture.

The idea is, remind me question again.

And there you go.

You can get that conversation started.

Maybe there's someone new who's arriving at your office

and that means that this is another opportunity to strike

up or to start a conversation in English.

And a great way to begin a conversation

with someone that you don't know.

Very simple.

Approach them and simply say, I don't think we've met yet.

And then you can introduce yourself.

I'm Christina, it's nice to meet you.

So what do you do here?

And you'll learn a little bit about this new person.

They will feel welcome in the company.

And you never know what great, you know

business or work opportunities might come.

You never know when your cat will come

into your video, but you know, if you never try

if you never approach someone, and

if you never maybe try to create those opportunities

for yourself, well then you're not, you can't

get an opportunity that you don't create, I would say.

And the more you do it, the easier it becomes

the more comfortable you'll feel doing it

the better you'll do it.

And then it becomes fun.

And like I said

can really create some new opportunities for you.

So just try it now.

Learning to start conversations in English so

that you can practice speaking a lot is a great habit

that you will learn in my five day challenge.

There may or may not be my cat there.

I don't know.

You'll have to come and see

if she photo bombs that live five day challenge.

But more importantly

you're going to get lots of surprising tips, techniques

and strategies to really boost your English.

And I would say connect with other people who are

have that objective just like you.

And maybe connect with the cat here.

I don't know, right?

So if you want to sign up for that five day challenge

it's totally free, but you'll need to get your invitation.

So the link to sign

up is down below this video in the notes, as I always say

if you don't use it, you lose it.

So here's how you can use what you've learned today

in the comments down below.

Tell us about a great, doesn't have to be great.

Tell us

about any short conversation that you started in English.

What did you talk about?

Who was it with?

How did it go?

You know, I think that we can

we'll see down in the comments that yes, this is possible.

Anybody can do it.

And it might give you some ideas

of how to go and start conversations with other people

because you can see lots of, lots of different stories.

So come back with me for that five day challenge.

The link to sign up

and get your invitation is down below this video.

And otherwise, I just wanna say thank you so much

for improving your English and improving your business

with business English with Christina

and I'll see you next time.