Learn English Small Talk to use at Work and with Friends, Family and Strangers

656,421 views ・ 2019-04-30

Learn English with Bob the Canadian


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

00:00
Hi Bob the Canadian here.
0
229
1881
00:02
As you learn English you'll want to get really good at something that we call small talk.
1
2110
5749
00:07
Small talk is a kind of conversation where the topic is very light, where it's very simple
2
7859
8520
00:16
to have a conversation with someone.
3
16379
1890
00:18
So in this video I'm going to help you learn a little bit about small talk that you can
4
18269
5291
00:23
use with people you don't know, small talk that you can use with people at work, and
5
23560
5440
00:29
small talk that you can use with friends and family.
6
29000
8309
00:37
Hey Bob the Canadian here and we're going to talk about small talk today but before
7
37309
4721
00:42
we get started if this is your first time here don't forget to click the subscribe button
8
42030
4119
00:46
below and give me a thumbs up at some point during this video if it is helping you learn
9
46149
5570
00:51
English.
10
51719
1050
00:52
So small talk.
11
52769
1461
00:54
Really small, simple conversations that you can have with either people you don't know,
12
54230
4910
00:59
people you work with, or friends and family.
13
59140
3250
01:02
Let's start with people you don't know.
14
62390
3040
01:05
I'm going to imagine that all of you have spent time in a line, like at the grocery
15
65430
5590
01:11
store, or in a waiting room, like at the doctor's office, where you are either standing with,
16
71020
6930
01:17
or sitting with people that you don't really know.
17
77950
3320
01:21
And it's nice to have a little bit of a conversation with them.
18
81270
4200
01:25
There's really two things that you can talk about if you are at the grocery store or in
19
85470
5300
01:30
the doctor's office.
20
90770
1540
01:32
The first form of small talk would be talking about the weather.
21
92310
5190
01:37
Isn't it gorgeous out today? or Wow, it's really coming down out there!
22
97500
6090
01:43
- If it was raining for instance.
23
103590
1690
01:45
So the weather is number one topic to, to engage in small talk with people who you don't
24
105280
7290
01:52
know.
25
112570
1000
01:53
The second is just to talk about the situation.
26
113570
2900
01:56
So you could say in the doctor's office, "Have you been waiting here long?" and someone might
27
116470
5690
02:02
reply and say, "No.
28
122160
1890
02:04
I've only been here for a few minutes."
29
124050
1730
02:05
Or in the grocery store you might just start by commenting on how long the line is.
30
125780
5849
02:11
So you could say something like, "Wow!
31
131629
2521
02:14
This line is really long today!"
32
134150
1990
02:16
So that’s the first kind of small talk.
33
136140
2599
02:18
Small talk that you would have with people who you really don't know.
34
138739
4791
02:23
It's a good way to open up a conversation or to start a conversation.
35
143530
5400
02:28
The second situation you might be in where you want to use small talk is at work.
36
148930
5550
02:34
So sometimes you work with people and you don't know them that well, but you do see
37
154480
4870
02:39
them every day, and I have five topics, five things that you could talk to people at work
38
159350
7060
02:46
about in order to engage in a small conversation or to have small talk.
39
166410
6370
02:52
The first is sports.
40
172780
2050
02:54
So if you are living in Canada for instance, and you are working with people, you can always
41
174830
6049
03:00
ask about the game of hockey.
42
180879
2291
03:03
I'm sure if you're living in another country there is another sport that everyone has as
43
183170
5399
03:08
their favourite sport, but the number one thing at work that you can talk to people
44
188569
4971
03:13
about is a recent sports game.
45
193540
2740
03:16
So you could say, "Did you see that game last night?"
46
196280
2860
03:19
That would be an excellent way to start a little bit of small talk about sports.
47
199140
5830
03:24
The second thing that you could talk to people at work about is the news.
48
204970
3870
03:28
So maybe you have watched the news the evening before or maybe you have read the morning
49
208840
4979
03:33
paper and you see a recent news item.
50
213819
3291
03:37
You could say to someone at work, “Did you hear about the accident downtown yesterday?”
51
217110
5590
03:42
So recent news, second most common thing that you can talk about at work as small talk.
52
222700
7340
03:50
The third thing that you can talk about with colleagues, those are people you work with,
53
230040
5279
03:55
is the weekend.
54
235319
2051
03:57
Especially at my workplace, we like to talk about the weekend.
55
237370
3989
04:01
We either talk about the weekend that just happened or we talk about the weekend that’s
56
241359
5600
04:06
going to happen.
57
246959
1491
04:08
If you were going to ask someone about their past weekend you could say, “How was your
58
248450
3969
04:12
weekend?”
59
252419
1000
04:13
And if you want to talk about the weekend coming up you could say, “Do you have any
60
253419
4111
04:17
plans for this coming weekend?”
61
257530
2429
04:19
So that’s the third thing you can talk about at work, the weekend.
62
259959
3461
04:23
The fourth thing that you can talk about with someone at work to have a little bit of small
63
263420
4270
04:27
talk is something to do with entertainment.
64
267690
3190
04:30
So you could ask someone, “Have you seen the latest Avengers movie?”
65
270880
4980
04:35
You all know that a new Avengers movie just came out, so that would be an excellent topic
66
275860
4690
04:40
at work if you were to have some small talk.
67
280550
2170
04:42
Have you seen the latest Avengers movie?
68
282720
2210
04:44
Or, “Are you going to see the latest Avengers movie?”
69
284930
3490
04:48
So that would the fourth thing that you could ask someone at work.
70
288420
2750
04:51
And the fifth thing that you can always talk to people about, especially at work is food.
71
291170
5570
04:56
So you might ask someone, “Have you been to the new restaurant downtown?”
72
296740
4620
05:01
“How is the food?”
73
301360
2240
05:03
So those are five things, five small talk topics that you can use at work.
74
303600
4700
05:08
Let’s move on to small talk topics that you can use with friends and family.
75
308300
5400
05:13
So obviously when you’re talking to friends and family the small talk conversations can
76
313700
4940
05:18
go a little deeper.
77
318640
2040
05:20
You can still talk about the weather and you can talk about movies and you can talk about
78
320680
4490
05:25
sports, but you also may want to talk about family.
79
325170
4090
05:29
So you might wanna ask questions like, “How are your mom and dad doing?” or you might
80
329260
4970
05:34
want to say, “How are the kids?”, if you know someone has small children in your family.
81
334230
5400
05:39
These are topics that you wouldn’t necessarily talk to with someone at work, you might, and
82
339630
5731
05:45
you definitely wouldn’t ask someone in the doctor’s office or in the line at the grocery
83
345361
4909
05:50
store.
84
350270
1110
05:51
But if you are talking with friends and family you might ask about their family.
85
351380
4960
05:56
The other thing that you might talk to friends and family about is travel.
86
356340
4680
06:01
Maybe you know that they are going to go on a trip in the future or you know that they
87
361020
5110
06:06
have gone on a trip.
88
366130
2230
06:08
And so it would be pretty normal if you’re having some small talk with a friend or someone
89
368360
4380
06:12
in your family to say, “Are you looking forward to your trip to Paris?”, or, if
90
372740
5780
06:18
they’ve already gone to Paris you could say, “How was your trip to Paris?”
91
378520
4400
06:22
The third thing you can talk to someone about when having a small conversation if it’s
92
382920
4790
06:27
someone you know well is things that you already know they like.
93
387710
4170
06:31
So maybe you have a friend who really likes to read, or for instance I know my mom really
94
391880
5850
06:37
likes to read so I could ask her if she has read any good books lately.
95
397730
5110
06:42
So you can ask about hobbies or interests that you know they have.
96
402840
5650
06:48
Maybe you have a friend who really enjoys going running.
97
408490
3380
06:51
You could say, “Are you still running daily?
98
411870
2720
06:54
Are you still going for a run?
99
414590
1910
06:56
Are you still going to those yoga classes?”
100
416500
3280
06:59
Those would be all great questions because they’re people you know a little bit better
101
419780
4580
07:04
than the people at work and obviously a lot better than people you don’t know so it’s
102
424360
4600
07:08
polite and nice to inquire about things that you know they’re interested in.
103
428960
5670
07:14
If you know that a friend or family member is taking a class or studying something it
104
434630
5000
07:19
would be very common to ask about that as well.
105
439630
2670
07:22
So, if I was to ask you, “How is your English learning coming along?”
106
442300
4910
07:27
That would be a great question to ask someone that you know well.
107
447210
3830
07:31
Maybe you have a friend or a family member who plays sports.
108
451040
4520
07:35
You could say, “Are you still playing in that football league?”
109
455560
4040
07:39
And those would all be great topics.
110
459600
1970
07:41
You can see how we went from really simple topics like the weather to really common topics
111
461570
7770
07:49
like movies and those sorts of things and sports for people we work with and then finally
112
469340
5460
07:54
some more familiar topics that you would ask a good friend or a family member.
113
474800
6520
08:01
So, hopefully that helps you a little bit.
114
481320
2560
08:03
Small talk is very common in all languages and that was just three situations and some
115
483880
7101
08:10
ideas for the things that you could talk about with people.
116
490981
3129
08:14
I think that’s almost the end of the video.
117
494110
2830
08:16
I’m Bob the Canadian.
118
496940
1280
08:18
Don’t forget to click the subscribe button below.
119
498220
3250
08:21
It’s actually on that side.
120
501470
1920
08:23
Give me a thumbs up.
121
503390
1000
08:24
Don’t forget to leave a comment below.
122
504390
2370
08:26
I love comments, and share this video with a friend, and I hope that you have a great
123
506760
2760
08:29
week!
124
509520
19
About this website

This site will introduce you to YouTube videos that are useful for learning English. You will see English lessons taught by top-notch teachers from around the world. Double-click on the English subtitles displayed on each video page to play the video from there. The subtitles scroll in sync with the video playback. If you have any comments or requests, please contact us using this contact form.

https://forms.gle/WvT1wiN1qDtmnspy7