What to say in uncomfortable situations

Hey, there. It's Ronnie coming at you. Helping

you speak English. And believe me, I know

that it can be embarrassing and uncomfortable.

You feel like maybe you've forgotten something

in situations, or there's just... I don't know,

something's just really, really uncomfortable.

What do you do in these situations? But you

are not alone, because even I, someone who's

a native speaker of English, feel uncomfortable

sometimes. One example is speaking to strangers.

Yeah. What do you say to people? I don't know.

Do you have an elevator or a lift if you live

in the UK, in your building? You're lucky. You

don't have to take the stairs, or you're lazy.

Yeah, I'm lazy. Okay. So, in my building, I

have an elevator, and I never know if someone's

going to get on the elevator with me. Yeah.

I pray that nobody ever gets on the elevator

with me. I'm like, "Please, please, please."

Oh, shit, there's a person. Okay. Hello. So,

what do you say to people on an elevator?

Elevator talk, it's called. Breno, this one's

for you. In English, we have something called

"small talk". Small talk is basically you

talk about unimportant things for a short period of time, and then leave. Examples of

small talk, probably the most popular topic of small talk is the weather. So, oh, hey,

it's a beautiful day today. Yeah. Uh-oh, press

the button, look at the thing. Come on. Oh,

it's raining today. Yeah, thank you. That's

great. So, if you don't want to be the weather

man or the weather woman in the elevator, there's other things you can talk about. If

the person has a pet, maybe a dog, pet hamster,

cat, taking their pet hamster for a walk,

you can ask some questions about the dog.

"Oh, hey. What's your dog's name? What's your

cat's name? What kind of hamster is that?" Anything that you can say about something

else will help you. Look around the elevator,

like, oh, there isn't much... much to look

at on an elevator. You can talk to them about

their kids, if there's a kid on the elevator

or a baby. People love to talk about their baby and their kids.

Another technique is to compliment someone on

something. So, just make sure it's genuine,

which means real. For example, you wouldn't say to me, like, "Oh, hey, Ronnie. I love

that shirt you have on today." Huh? So, make

sure that what you're complimenting people

on is actually genuine and real. You can say to

me, like, "Oh, Ronnie, you're wearing glasses.

I love your new glasses." Like, "Oh, you know

what? Thank you. I just picked them up. My...

Just as I get older..." This is a very important

thing. If the person on the elevator wants

to talk to you, they will respond and give

you more information. So, if you said to me,

for example, "Ronnie, I like your glasses."

And I go, "Thanks." And I don't say anything,

this means I don't want to talk to you. It doesn't mean that your English is bad. It

doesn't mean that you cannot speak English. Maybe I'm having a bad day, or the person

on the elevator just doesn't want to talk to

you. Don't take it seriously. It's just...

It's just an elevator ride. Don't ever think

that your English is bad because the person

does not respond to you. Okay? Always try.

Try your best. If people don't respond, it's

okay. So you can compliment people. "Oh, I

like those shoes. Those are some cool shoes.

Where did you get those?" "Oh, cool. Okay." Hopefully, the elevator ride is not long.

I know nowadays we have super-fast elevators.

So, basically, anything that you want to talk

about is okay. Try not to get too personal, like, "Oh, what happened to your leg?" You

don't want to kind of dive into personal topics

right away on an elevator. So, strangers,

what do you say to them? Maybe you're waiting

at the bus, waiting for the subway or the

train, and there's a person you see every day at the train station, and you want to

practice your English. Go for it. Just try. A

really great thing to say is just to introduce

yourself. That's okay. You can walk up to someone and say, "Hi. My name's Ronnie. How

are you?" If the people want to talk to you,

they'll say, "Oh, hi. My name's Joe. Nice

to meet you." "Oh, yeah. You, too." And then

you can bust in with a small talk, like, "Oh,

I see you at this station every day. I hope

you have a good ride to work." Anything that

you can think of to continue the conversation

is going to be good. And remember, the other

person also has the opportunity to ask you a question. So, maybe if I introduce myself

and I say, "Oh, hi. I'm Ronnie. Nice to meet

you." The person doesn't say anything. Maybe

they say, "Oh. Oh, hey. Yeah, Ronnie. I see

you here. Do you work near here?" I say, "Oh,

yeah. Mm-hmm. My work's down the street. You

know, I'm a mechanical engineer." You can

tell them about your job. Little topics you can talk about, there's no danger in that.

Don't worry about that. Just don't get too personal right away. Save that for, like,

Fridays. On Friday, you're like, "Oh, my god. It's Friday. Thank goodness."

Maybe you have problems at work talking to

co-workers. Maybe you feel a little uncomfortable

speaking to your boss. It's okay. It's normal.

A lot of people have this fear of speaking

to people in authority, but remember, they're

just humans, too. So, try. Just say hi to

them, compliment them on something. People love compliments. I don't know why. If you

compliment me, I get a little embarrassed.

I'm like... Thank you. But most people really

enjoy compliments. So, if you're in an elevator,

if you're talking to co-workers, or your boss,

or someone that's a stranger that you don't know them, it's okay. Practice your English

with them. Give it a shot. And remember, your

English is awesome. If they don't want to

talk to you, that's their loss. So, getting out of uncomfortable situations, it's done.

I'm Ronnie, and follow me for more wonderful

tips on how to speak English. Toodles.