Easy English Conversation: Talk about food!

Hello, my name is Emma, and in today's lesson, we're going to talk about something very important.

We're going to talk about conversation topics that are really great for when you're on break.

Whether you're working or at school or taking some kind of course.

A lot of the times, students ask me, you know, "I don't know what to say to my coworkers.

I don't know what to say to my classmates."

This video is going to talk about a great thing you can talk about to your coworkers

or classmates or pretty much anyone.

So, what we're going to talk about today is, on break, what to say.

According to research, food is one of the most common topics people talk about while

on break.

So, this is a great thing to know, because if you know what's the most common topic,

then you can think about things you can say in English about this topic and it's easier

to communicate with a lot of people about these types of things.

So, food is one of the most common topics during break, which makes it a great way to

have great conversations.

So, talking about food is a great idea.

So, why is talking about food such a great idea?

Well, one of the reasons is thinking about food and talking about food - people like

food.

So, it often makes people feel happy.

Thinking about food, thinking about dessert or main dishes.

People usually have good associations with food, so this is a good topic.

Food can bring people together.

This is a wonderful thing.

In many cultures, food brings people together.

Even at work.

At work, you often have barbeques or potlucks or different events that have food.

And it's a way to show people that you have things in common.

There are things you like that are the same.

Anyone can talk about food.

It's an easier topic than, for example, astrophysics, okay.

So, food is easy for people to talk about.

And it's a chance to share your culture, okay?

You know a lot about your culture and food.

This is a great way to share your culture with other people.

Also, by talking about food, you may get more invites to go to restaurants or to go to people's

houses for dinner or even to go out for lunch with somebody.

When people know the kind of food you like and you're talking a lot about food, a lot

of the times, you know, it becomes natural to invite somebody out to try different food,

okay?

So, it's good if you want to make plans with people.

Talking about food is a great way to do that.

So, now let's learn more about some great phrases to use when we're talking about food,

and some great topics about food specifically.

Okay, so I think one of the - one thing that's really difficult for a lot of people learning

English is how to start a conversation, okay?

So, when you're talking about food and, you know, you're either in class or maybe at work

or somewhere and you're on break.

If somebody is eating, this is a great opportunity.

What you can do to begin a conversation is just say something simple.

Mmm, that looks good.

Okay?

This is a wonderful thing, because then the other person will talk about what they're

eating.

That looks good, what is that?

That looks delicious.

That looks good.

It's a great starter for a conversation.

You can also ask the person, "Oh, what did you bring today?"

What food did you bring today?

And then they can talk to you about what they brought and then you can think of more questions

to ask them about the food.

You can ask somebody, "What's that you're eating?"

Okay?

So, maybe it looks - you don't know what it is.

Maybe they're eating a sandwich but you don't know what kind of sandwich or something.

You can say, "What's that you're eating?"

So, these are great ways to start a conversation about food when someone is already eating.

There are a lot of different topics you can talk about with food.

You can talk about restaurants.

So, for example, you can talk about - maybe you could say to your coworkers, "Do you have

many recommendations on where to get food around here?" or "What's a good place to get

food?"

What's a good place to get dinner?

What's a good place to get lunch?

People love giving recommendations.

They love giving suggestions, so just asking them, "What's a good place around here for

food?", that can really start a conversation about, "Oh, I know a good restaurant, this

is a great restaurant!"

Okay?

So, it's a good way.

You can also talk about - so, you can talk about food place recommendations.

You can also talk about your own experience.

Maybe you went to a great restaurant recently.

"I want to a great restaurant yesterday.

They had the best tacos."

They had the best, you know, whatever you ate.

So, you can talk about your own experiences.

People love talking about good restaurant.

You can also ask somebody, "What do you cook at home?"

Because a lot of the times, people at work, they're very busy.

Or even at school, so they want suggestions.

It's good to know what other people cook, because maybe you can share different ideas

on what to make for food at home, or what to bring for lunch.

So, "What do you cook at home?" is another great question.

We're also going to talk a little bit about the topic of healthy eating.

This is very popular right now in offices and at schools.

So, people often talk about suggestions or recommendations about healthy eating.

So, I'm going to talk a little bit more about this.

And also, another topic I'm going to talk more about is we often talk about food fads,

or food trends.

So, I'll say a little bit more on this in a moment.

Okay, so one of the really popular conversations or conversation topics we have right now is

on healthy eating.

People in schools, in universities, you know, at work, they really like to talk about healthy

eating.

So, it's good to have some things you can say about eating healthy.

What are some things you can say?

Well, people love talking about what they're doing that's healthy when it comes to eating.

So, you can think about maybe something you've started doing to be healthier and talk about

it.

"I've started eating dark chocolate."

I've started eating kale.

I've started eating yogurt, okay?

So, if you're talking about eating, you can just insert the healthy food or maybe it's

a vitamin or maybe it's, you know, whatever it is.

You can put it in here.

Or, if you're talking about drinking.

A lot of people are now drinking healthier things or, you know, a lot of people are trying

to be careful with what they drink.

So, they might say "I've started drinking green tea."

I've started drinking matcha shakes.

Whatever it is.

You can really think about healthy food, or healthy drinks.

I've started drinking wine.

And you can put it here, okay?

And then what you can do is you can talk about - that it's good for you.

"I've heard it's really good for you."

I've heard kale is really good for you.

I've heard turmeric is really good for you.

I've heard green tea is really good for you.

Okay?

And if you don't know what foods are healthy right now, that's okay.

A quick internet search can probably help you find one thing that's really healthy that's

really popular - that people are really eating or drinking.

So, you talk about what you've started eating or drinking.

Then you say that you've heard it's really good.

And then you can talk about why it's good.

Usually when we're talking about healthy food, we either talk about that it's high in something,

maybe vitamins or protein or carbohydrates.

Or it's low in something.

It's low in fat, it's low in sugar, it's low in this, it's low in that.

So, these are great expressions to use when you're talking about healthy eating.

You can also ask people for suggestions.

You know, a lot of people love giving suggestions or recommendations.

So, you can ask them, "I'm trying to eat better.

What can I do?

Do you have any suggestions?

Do you have any recommendations?"

Okay?

Asking people for advice on healthy eating is a great conversation topic, because people

like to feel like they're an expert on something and they love to give advice.

So, it's a great thing to talk about while you're on break.

We have a great video, actually, on healthy eating and talking about nutrition.

So, there's a teacher, Adam, who is amazing.

And he has a video on this.

So, I invite you to check this you're interested on building your vocabulary about healthy

eating.

Now, another thing we like to do is sometimes we like to talk about unhealthy eating, okay?

So, we talked a lot about healthy eating.

Sometimes, we like to say the opposite.

So, for example, maybe you're eating a cookie at work.

You can say, "I have such a sweet tooth."

It means I really like desserts.

If you have a sweet tooth, a sweet tooth, it means you like chocolate, candy, cakes.

All of that junk food.

So, you can also talk about that too.

You can talk about healthy eating or maybe things that you eat that you shouldn't eat.

Okay?

So now, let's talk a little bit about food fads and how we can talk about that during

break.

So, I don't know about other cities, but I know in Toronto, one of the things we really

like to talk about are food fads, or food trends.

We like to talk about something that is new and popular in the city that people are eating.

So, for example, right now in Toronto, charcoal ice cream is really popular.

Also, rainbow bagels.

So, these are really interesting foods, and they're fads because probably in 20 years,

people are not going to be eating rainbow bagels.

I don't know, maybe they will.

But we call it a fad when we don't think it's going to become - we're going to keep doing

it.

It's a short-term thing that we're doing.

So, we have a lot of food fads in Toronto.

Maybe there's a lot of food fads in your city.

So, talking about what's popular when it comes to food right now is a great way to have a

conversation.

So, what you can say?

Well, "Have you heard of _____?" and then you talk about the food fad.

"Have you heard of rainbow bagels?"

Have you heard of spaghetti bagels?

Have you heard of, you know, insect ice cream?

Whatever it is.

You can talk about the current food fad.

Or, you can say, "I heard _______ is becoming popular."

I heard ice cream burritos are becoming popular.

I heard, you know, sushi tacos are becoming popular.

Whatever is becoming popular in terms of food, you can talk about.

And people will be very interested.

So, this is a great topic, too.

Another thing you can talk about is food from your culture.

This is so great that - it's such a great topic, because people are very interested

in talking about food from other cultures, you know.

So, this is a great way to share your culture with somebody else.

What you can say is, "In my city", or "In my country" or "In my culture, we eat __________."

In my city, we eat a lot of pasta.

In my city, we eat a lot of fish.

In my city, we use a lot of spices.

Okay?

So, you can think about something that you do a lot in your cooking in your culture and

talk about it.

People will probably have a lot of questions.

They might even ask you for a recipe, which would be great!

Another thing I wanted to talk about is work and school culture.

I have a lot of students ask me about this word "potluck".

What's a potluck?

We talk a lot about potlucks in English, and it's important if you're working at an English-speaking

company or if you are going to university or college or high school in another country

where English is the language.

You might come across this word.

A potluck is when - it's an event when a lot of people come together and each person brings

one dish.

So, for example, if my company is having potluck, maybe I will bring the salad.

And maybe my coworker, Fred, will bring the main dish.

And maybe Alison will bring dessert.

And so, each person brings one dish.

These are really popular in North America and in other countries as well.

And we call them potlucks.

So, during break, you might talk about a potluck.

We should have a potluck, guys.

Or, there's a potluck on Friday.

What are you going to bring?

So again, potlucks are very common, and they're a great thing to talk about while you're on

break.

So, let's talk about - the last thing we're going to talk about today, which is how to

talk about our feelings about food.

Okay, so one thing we often do in conversations about food is we talk about how we're feeling

at that moment.

So, we might tell somebody if we're very hungry, we might say something like, "I'm starving."

It means you're very hungry.

Or, you might say, "I'm hungry", I'm famished.

These all mean that you're very hungry, okay?

We use this a lot in conversation before we eat.

Another thing we might say is - and this is actually one of my favorite words in English

- "hangry".

So, it looks like "hungry", but there's an a here.

Hangry.

It's a new word in English that means when you're hungry and, because you're hungry,

you're angry.

So, we've put the two words hungry and angry together to make "hangry".

So, if you ever get into a fight with somebody, like an argument and you realize, "Oh, the

reason I'm in such a bad mood is because I'm hangry", you can use this word.

I'm very hangry right now.

We also have the word stuffed.

When we've eaten a lot, so after we eat, you can say, "I'm full" or "I'm stuffed".

It means you've eaten a lot and you're now full.

So, these are some things we talk about when we're talking about how we feel after or before

we've eaten.

The next thing I wanted to talk about is about culture.

If you come to North America or to other countries, you'll notice there's a lot of differences

in what people eat.

And that's okay.

You know, one of the great things is differences and learning about these differences.

So, when you are in another culture, it's very good to never say the word "eww" when

you're talking about somebody else's foods, okay?

So, maybe you don't like eating something and you see another person eating it.

It's good not to say "eww", because that's a little bit rude.

So, try to avoid doing that, even if, you know, it's something that you've never seen

in your culture before.

You know, sometimes that's our first reaction, but it's good to think about, you know, that

there are these differences and that's okay.

It's good to be respectful of what other people eat, and open-minded, okay?

It's good to - by open-minded, I mean when somebody does something different, instead

of thinking, "Oh, that's weird, why are they doing it that way?", there's a lot of differences

in cultures, so it's good to be open minded and accept that.

So, you'll notice in North America a lot, and probably in England and many other countries,

we have a lot of people who have different ways of eating.

You have people who are vegans, where they don't eat milk products or eggs or anything

that comes from an animal.

So, you know, you might meet somebody like this when you're at school or you're on break

at work.

So, somebody might be vegan.

And you know, you can talk to them about it, but the key here is be respectful, be open

minded.

You might meet somebody who is a vegetarian.

That's somebody who doesn't eat any meat.

So, again, this might be very different from what you see in your country, or maybe your

country is filled with vegetarians.

But again, it's important to be open-minded when you meet people who have a different

- who eat differently than you.

You might meet people who eat gluten-free.

This is really common right now in North America.

This means that they don't eat anything with gluten in it.

Gluten is kind of like - it's something that's in bread or in cakes and in a lot of products.

Some people can't eat this, so they will eat things gluten-free.

You might have somebody who can't - who has allergies.

Maybe they're allergic to nuts.

They can't eat nuts; they can't eat peanuts or they can't eat something.

Maybe you'll have people who, for religious reasons, don't eat certain things.

So, there's a lot of different things people don't eat, or they do eat.

And again, key tip here: be respectful and open-minded!

Especially in workplaces and school places, this is a great - you know, it's great to

talk about these things in a very respectful way.

So, I want to thank you for watching this video.

I hope you've learned a lot, and I hope you feel more confident about what you can say

to people when you're on break.

I invite you to come check out our website at www.engvid.com and there, you can actually

take my quiz and it's going to cover a lot of what you've just learned here.

So, it's a great way to practice everything you've learned.

I also invite you to subscribe to my channel.

I have a lot of other English resources there that, you know, on all sorts of different

topics, so I highly recommend it.

Thank you for watching, and until next time, take care.