How To Have English Conversations With Confidence

hi there I'm Drew Badger the world's

number 1 English Fluency Guide and in

this video I'm going to share with you

my favorite tips for entering

conversations with confidence i receive

lots of males and comments from learners

talking about how they avoid

conversations or when they're in

conversations they often use only very

simple language and this is again

something that you have to develop even

watching videos like this i can share

tons of great information about how to

learn as well as lots of great word to

use but you have to practice you

actually have to go out and use it

because fluency is a skill you develop

its not knowledge that you gained over

time so you have to develop the skill

you have to use it and practice it the

same way that you maybe develop muscle

in the gym or improve as an athlete or

someone is playing an instrument but

what i can do is help you get more

excited to join conversations and try to

actually speak more so that you develop

that speaking confidence in

conversations I know I want you to have

a much more exciting time when you're

thinking about speaking English as

opposed to feeling shy because again i

know a lot of people do so let's get

started the first thing to understand is

that native English speakers are talking

about the same things you were talking

about in your native language people

talk about your family or their job or

their talking about the weather or

sports or anything else but it's all

typically the same kinds of things and

if you remember that you know native

speakers aren't talking about like

rocket science maybe some people are but

not unjust again in everyday

conversation sense people are talking

about everyday things and so if you

remember that in a conversation if you

learn a little bit about maybe a couple

of different things you can talk about

family or work or something

knowing how to explain a few things like

this about your own life will really

help you just improved conversations in

general because you can say maybe a few

things or you can answer at least a few

questions people ask about a few

different topics and again people will

maybe as a maybe recognizing that you

are not a native speaker they will

understand that quite quickly in the

conversation and they will maybe try not

to speak too quickly maybe some people

will but in general if they recognize

that you're not a native speaker though

maybe just try to keep things a little

bit more basic but you can also say that

maybe in a conversation if people are

maybe talking a bit too quickly you

could say all like my my english isn't

the best could you slow down a little

bit my english isn't the best so this is

a native way of explaining please help

me a little bit so when you're in a

conversation really the first thing you

should do is have kind of a few things

prepared just maybe a few things about

the weather or your life in general

often people know how to introduce

themselves quite well but they should

really practice a few other things like

what do you do

and then from there being able to

understand maybe some questions that you

can ask other people so we'll talk a

little bit about questions in a second

but again this main idea of

understanding that native speakers are

talking about the same kinds of things

you do in everyday conversation so when

you get into a conversation it's better

to keep your mind open to the broader

topic of the conversation even if you

don't understand a few individual word

so if you can follow the broader topic

then it's easier to maybe come back with

a particular question or understand what

people are asking you now when people do

ask you things or they're speaking with

you and about something that maybe you

don't understand you can say to them oh

I'm i'm sorry i'm not so familiar or I'm

not very familiar with that topic could

you tell me more about that thing

so this is an opportunity for you to get

more information or to actually learn

something a lot of people are scared

about getting into conversations because

they don't want to show that they don't

know something but if you can be the

kind of person that does get into the

conversation and you're willing to show

that well maybe I'm not perfect and i

have an opportunity to learn something

it's the same thing if as a native

speaker maybe you get into a

conversation with someone that's an

expert in economics or science or

something and they are explaining

something to you it's probably at a much

higher level than you understand but in

that situation you recognize that

opportunity to learn something

so if i go meet someone that's a like a

science professor and he's explaining to

me things about you know rockets or

space travel or anything else like that

i can say oh how does that actually work

I don't quite understand how it works so

i'm not familiar with that could you

explain more

I'm not familiar with that could you

explain more next as you understand the

whole picture of the conversation and

maybe you're asking a few questions I

want you to take this idea of course

shouldn't even further and have a few

questions prepared for people to control

the conversation now one of the things

that people worry about they get nervous

and conversations because made of

speakers begin talking and they're

speaking really quickly about a bunch of

different topics and then as a listener

you get lost

so if you can stop that and you can

control native speakers you can stop

them from moving too quickly you can

continue to ask questions and you can

focus on what you're interested in

now this works really well because most

people just want to talk about

themselves they want to actually have a

conversation or other people are

listening to them and enjoying their

ideas so let them speak now this is your

opportunity to learn a whole bunch at

the same time but the more interested

you can be in what other people are

saying the more interesting

you will become so when they're speaking

and you don't quite understand something

use those opportunities to say oh that's

really interesting

could you tell me more tell me more

about that or how did you get into that

line of work

so how did you get into that line of

work how are you starting matter what

your history in something like that so

people are always happy to have people

ask questions about themselves because

it gives them an opportunity to speak

now when you do this again it controls

the conversation and you can decide well

we're going to talk about this so i want

to learn a bit more specific vocabulary

about this thing but it also again gives

you time to think

so when we're talking about a

conversational situation and you want to

make sure that they're not running away

control the conversation with your

question and the final piece of advice

i'll give you is to use analogies or the

kind of language that you know even if

you don't know how to express something

exactly the way you want too often as a

non-native speaker you know the

vocabulary for some of the things you

want to say but maybe you don't quite

know how to express something else but

in those cases it's better to talk

around that thing or two try to explain

it using other language that you already

know and this is exactly why phrasal

verbs are so important when I teach

phrasal verbs to my personal students

are in programs like the visual guide to

phrasal verbs

I'm trying to help people build

vocabulary by taking lots of words that

they already know like basic verbs like

to go or to get or to stand and then

repairing these things

with prepositions like up or down or

over and so we can mix and match them to

explain things in different ways so if

you can't quite Express something or you

don't know the actual term for that

thing just use the language you know and

when you get into conversations with

people actually be looking forward to

the opportunities that you'll get to

learn something to look at every

conversation is a chance to practice and

improve but also to learn something as

well

well I hope you have enjoyed this quick

video if you have to click that like

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YouTube channel and finally if you'd

like to improve your speaking confidence

click on the link in this video to take

our free english fluency quiz if you

know a lot of vocabulary but you

struggle to speak we can explain exactly

why that happens to you and tell you

exactly what to do so you can stop doing

that and start enjoying conversations

without hesitation i look forward to

seeing you in English anyone dot-com and

i will see you very soon in the next

video bye bye