How to Have the Perfect Self Introduction in English | FREE TRAINING

What's your name?

My name is Andrea, hi I'm Ethan.

It's nice to meet you it's great to meet you as well.

Hey how's it going I'm Ethan your RealLife English fluency coach and I have a question

for you, do you ever feel scared when you have to start

a conversation in English?

Or maybe you have an important job interview, or event coming up where you're going to have

to perform in English, and you want to feel proud about your presentation?

Having the perfect introduction in English can help you to feel confident, and this might

seem like a basic topic, but let me tell you that even if you are an advanced learner,

it's definitely useful to continue working on this.

This is something that you're going to have to do all the time.

Whether you're just meeting someone for the first time, you're in a job interview, or

you're on stage at a big event — you're going to have to introduce yourself.

And, a lot of times, you have to do this without any warning.

So, it's really important that you're prepared, right?

And, furthermore, your introduction should be unique to you.

You shouldn't just say something because some teacher on YouTube told you that it's the

right thing to say if it's not actually true.

So, to help you get the preparation that you need to have your personal, perfect introduction,

in this lesson, we will cover:

The vocabulary that you need and the pronunciation of how you can say these like a native would

(or how you can expect natives to say them), so you'll understand them then we will cover

some tips for perfecting your intro, and understanding some of the differences between British and

American introductions, since there are some words that we might use differently and then

finally of course we'll give you some examples, so you can start using these introductions

right away.

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All right so we're going to start off with the most basic of course and this is different

greetings now greetings are different ways that you can say hello.

Now hello would be obviously the most basic you can't really go wrong with it but maybe

it's not what natives will usually use it's a little bit dry right so let's look first

at some different words that you could use if you're in a more formal situation.

So first off of course you can say hello but you could also depending on the time of day

you use a different greeting like good morning, good afternoon or good evening now it's probably

pretty obvious the time of day for some of these but maybe less clear for others I hear

some learners say for example good night because it's night time but actually we use this either

to say goodbye when it's at night so before we are leaving we'll say good night have a

good night or something like that and we might also say it if someone's about to go to sleep

we're about to go to bed so we'd say good night so if it's dark outside and you're wanting

to say it as a greeting then it should be a good evening and not good night and then

a note about good afternoon.

So I've heard a lot of learners also say good day now this is probably because this is a

direct translation from a lot of languages and it does actually exist in English now

they can use it sometimes in the UK.

However if you use this in the United States it's going to sound like a really old-fashioned

and it just sounds a little bit unnatural and of course you can shorten any of these

by removing good and I would say that's a little bit more informal but it's really okay

in any situation so you would say morning afternoon evening night okay and what about

if you're meeting someone for the first time in a more informal situation maybe you're

getting introduced to a friend of a friend or maybe you're in a group of people your

age or you're just kind of wanting to give more of a warm introduction what could you

say then so first off instead of saying hello we could say something like hey hi or we even

say hiya that's kind of a more modern way of saying it another really common one that

we use in the United States is yo so it'd be like yo how's it going yo what's up and

this I believe it comes from rapper culture actually but nowadays pretty much any young

person can use it i would use it a lot with my friends and next we would have what's up

as I said before now a lot of learners get confused with this because they think that

it means the same as how are you but really what's up is used much more as a greeting

and we might use it together with another one like hi, what's up or yo what's up but

it's not asking how are you so if someone asks you what's up you wouldn't say I'm good

and you you would actually say something like not much or you could explain what you're

doing because what's up is actually similar to saying what's happening or what are you

doing and in casual situations it's really common for natives to actually shorten this

so instead of saying what's up we would just say sup and that's because you might hear

some connected speech there of what's up so we actually just say that really fast and

it becomes what's up and we just take the end part sup so that's where that comes from

and some other ones are like what's crackin' or what's happening like I said before so

we can say what's happening but often we'll drop that G and we'll just say the n sound

at the end so it becomes what's cracking what's happening uh what's good what's new and I'd

say these are all very common in the united states i'm not sure if Andrea would use them

as well in the UK but another one that they probably would use in the UK is "what's going

on."

Now in the United states if we say this we would say it faster so we say what's going

on what's going on now I'm from the Western United States and maybe you've seen some western

films and if you have then you might have heard the greeting howdy now howdy is shortened

from how do you do which is an old expression that would be used to basically greet someone

or also to ask someone how they're doing but nowadays it's just used kind of the same as

hi now it might depend where you go in the United States that you would hear this I probably

wouldn't use it so much but maybe in kind of like a fun casual setting with friends

then I could say howdy.

Alright so you have said hello and now maybe you want to ask someone how they're doing

but what you probably learned in school is "hi how are you," "I'm fine" which is a little

bit boring right so maybe you want something to say instead of how are you now how are

you that's great if you're in kind of a formal situation and you're not so sure exactly what

to use you really won't go wrong with that so if you want to say something else that

would be fine in any situation you could say how are you doing or how are you feeling so

if you say how are you doing this is basically the same as how are you but it's just a different

way to say it of course how are you feeling that might mean more like you know how are

you actually feeling like what mood are you in so maybe if you see someone and they look

like maybe a little bit sick a little bit under the weather you might say that how are

you feeling like you're showing some concern for them but this would really be okay also

in any other situation and the person could say i'm feeling great or i'm not feeling so

great I'm not feeling so good I'm a little bit under the weather and then you could ask

more about that of course now if you want to make this a little bit more informal you

could actually take out the R so you could say how you doing or you could drop the G

there and say how you doing that's actually a really famous line that comes from joey

and friends and then you could add to the end of any of those today this evening this

afternoon so how are you feeling this evening how are you doing this afternoon and another

really great one in any situation is how have you been now this means basically since the

last time I saw you how have you found yourself so we would say this with connected speech

even in a formal situation so in the United States instead of saying how have you been

we would probably say have you been how have you been.

Now let's take a look at some more informal ones that you could use with some closer friends

now we already kind of looked at how you could change the how are you doing just by taking

out the R or maybe dropping the G but what are some other ones that we can use now one

really great one that we use all the time in the United States is how's it going but

usually we'd have some connected speech here as well and it would become how's it going

how's it going.

I use that one all the time with my friends another one that I really like using all the

time is how's life and this actually comes from a little bit longer phrase which is how

is life treating you so basically how are you encountering your life right now and basically

the person might answer everything's great I'm doing awesome or not so good I just lost

my job or maybe something else like that so you're inviting the other person to kind of

open up the conversation and we'll look a little bit more at that later another really

similar one you could use is how's everything and another one we use all the time in the

United States is all's good now this comes from is everything good but we kind of like

shorten it in this way all's good I don't think it's so grammatically correct but we

use it a lot in the United States so that's a really great casual one that you can use

with your friends now how should you respond if someone asks you all is good now you could

just say yes but something that you shouldn't do is answer it like how are you so you shouldn't

say I'm good and you you should actually probably answer it by explaining what's going on so

you might say yeah I'm really great I just came from going on a run so I have like an

endorphins high or you might say you know things aren't so good my my pet is a little

bit under the weather and I had to take it to the veterinarian now in the UK they have

another really great expression that they use all the time but they will have a different

meaning in the United States so let's have Andrea explain about this one.

In Britain lots of people would ask are you all right except it wouldn't sound like this

they would connect it to say [yoll roit].

Now in the United States if you ask this are you all right it means that there's something

wrong that you've perceived maybe that person looks sick maybe they look really sad and

it's kind of like you know you're wanting to show that you care for that person and

you're asking what's wrong so this is a great one to use in the UK as a greeting but if

you use it in the United States the answer is going to be very different and we have

two more really great lessons that will teach you kind of how to have these casual conversations

in English so in one I explained to you what are kind of the phrases that you learned in

school that we don't actually use so much in real life and then the other one is one

that Andrea did on 55 expressions for conversation so those who really complement what you're

learning in this lesson and I highly recommend that you check them out next.

All right so you're starting a conversation and the other person asks you how are you

or how's it going or any of those other alternatives that we just learned so how should you respond

we already looked a little bit at some but let's look at some other kind of things that

you could say if this happens in any situation so the first one obviously would be I'm good

but maybe if you want to sound a little bit more native-like we shorten this a bit so

we might just say I'm good, I'm good so we don't really say that full I sound we just

say the I'm good I'm good and of course it really benefits you to learn alternatives

to good so you could say I'm great, I'm fantastic, I'm amazing, I'm awesome now if you know any

of these then it's going to give you a lot more diversity in which to answer with and

it'll make you sound a bit more natural and of course they have kind of different varying

degrees of how good you feel or how bad you feel so it can kind of offer more subtlety

to what you're trying to say now recently on our other channel Learn English with TV

Series I did a lesson teaching you better words to say than good and you can check that

out also down in the description.

Now similarly how we can use all good as kind of an alternative to how are you we can also

answer that if someone asks you how are you you could say all's good, all's good now you

can say each individual word all is good or if you want to sound more natural then make

it the contraction all is good but maybe you're not feeling so great and so you want something

to kind of show that that you could use in any situation okay that's something that we'll

use all the time especially when it's kind of someone that we don't really think they

really care how we're feeling we just say I'm good or I'm okay, I'm all right and then

some other ones you could use maybe if you're not just kind of like average or you really

want to express to that person that maybe you need some consoling you need a good friend

then you could say I could be better could be better even we can drop the subject there

or we could say I've been better that means kind of like you know I've had other moments

in my life where I've felt better than I have right now and if you say either of these probably

the person's going to ask you know what's wrong or what's not so great now the connected

speech here we wouldn't probably say could be better all like that very stiff like a

robot we would say could be better could be better so we kind of dropped that d and could

and link it to the b could be better and then in better of course we have that American

T so it's not better it's better and another one that you could say similarly to this is

not so great I'm not so great and we would say this as not so great so that's a glottal

t and we kind of drop it all together so it kind of becomes not not so great but not so

great not so great we might also say for example I'm not feeling so hot that might mean that

you're kind of like feeling a little bit under the weather you're feeling a little bit sick

and of course in the UK they have some answers to this that might be a little bit different

than what you encounter in the United States so let's take a look in Britain we would respond

with very well thank you or can't complain and maybe a bit of a posh one would be splendid

if you're visiting ireland and you ask someone how they are they might even say to you that

they are grand which means that they are great all right and then you're just meeting someone

for the first time so what are they going to ask probably they're probably going to

ask you what's your name so if someone asks you what's your name how should you respond

so of course a classic way that you can respond you can't go wrong with this is just to say

your name so if someone asks me what's your name I might just say "Ethan and yours?" or

"Ethan, nice to meet you" but of course someone asks you what's your name you could also say

"my name is Ethan" but maybe that sounds a little bit unnatural than just saying your

name straight up but maybe you're starting the conversation and so you want to ask that

other person their name without necessarily just saying what's your name so I could say

for example hey my name's Ethan and you and of course another really common one instead

of saying my name is or just our name is to say I'm Ethan, Hi I'm ethan what's your name?

and then if you're on the phone it's actually completely different because we wouldn't say

my name is or iIm we would actually have to say this is so if someone calls me and i answer

my phone and I'm wanting to report to them you know who I am then I would say "hi this

is Ethan how can I help you?" or another way that you can say that to me sounds a little

bit more formal is using the word speaking so basically if someone calls me on the phone

and I'm wanting to announce who I am right away so they know who they've reached then

I could say "Ethan speaking" now of course if you do this it's because the person who's

calling you don't know them or it's an unknown number or something like that or maybe you

are using this at work for example so you wouldn't use that for example if you know

that it's a friend calling you and of course as I mentioned before once someone tells you

their name or you've both introduced yourself then the correct thing to say in that case

so that you sound polite is nice to me to you now you probably already know that but

a native will pretty much never say nice to meet you we'd say nice to meet you nice to

meet you and just a note here I think kind of depending on the culture that you're in

you might make this mistake now in the United States and I believe even in the UK if someone

asks you your name you shouldn't give your full name so you shouldn't say your first

and last name both together if someone's asking your name unless they have directly specified

what's your first and last name if they're just saying what's your name then the most

natural thing that you can do in our cultures is to just say it your first name so make

sure that you're doing that because otherwise it could sound a little bit unnatural maybe

it would even sound a little bit too formal or uncomfortable to the person moving on when

you meet someone for the first time or even if you're in a job interview of course it's

going to be really important to talk about your work people might ask you where you work

or what you do so let's look at some different ways that you could ask this if you're curious

about that for the other person or ways that you can expect people asking you so first

off you would of course just say the basic where do you work where do you work or if

we're saying this in more of a casual tone or with connected speech as a native would

then we could say where do you work where do you work that do you all the time in English

becomes a ju now if you want a little bit of a different way to ask this that I would

use all the time is what do you do for a living and again we can say what you do for a living

what do you do for a living now this basically means you know to be able to live to be able

to get money so that you can live what do you do what's your work that actually pays

you your salary.

All right so these are two really great questions to ask but if someone asks you these then

how should you answer now something kind of interesting in american culture at least is

that when we ask what do you do we're asking about work so really what we do in life is

very attached to how we make money that's just something I guess about our capitalist

culture and something that you can kind of expect because probably in your life you do

more than just work but if someone asks you that in the United States that's what they're

asking so if someone asks you what do you do then the simplest way to answer is by saying

I'm... and then the position that you work in so this of course would be the position

not the actual verb so I'm a manager at Google, I'm a chef at an Italian restaurant, I'm an

English teacher, I'm a construction worker so really you can kind of figure out how would

you call your position and use that in that case but you could kind of say something different

as well you could say I work in and then talk about the area that you work in so you could

say I work in environmental change, I work in education, I work in the culinary industry

or the hotel industry so in this case you have to think about what is the general area

called that you work in maybe you don't work for another person maybe you have your own

business so you could say I'm an entrepreneur or I have my own business but maybe you're

still studying or maybe you want to not just share your work experience but also your experience

studying so this usually would be attached more to University of course but first of

all you could say I study at if it's current or I study that and then say the University

so I would say I studied at the university of Colorado.

You could say I studied at Harvard, I studied at Cambridge or any sort of alternative to

this now maybe you want to not just share where you went but also what you studied there

so then you should say not I have a title in because that's incorrect and that's kind

of a translation from other languages but I have a degree in so I would say I have a

degree in International Affairs.

Now maybe I could say that altogether so i have a degree in International Affairs from

the University of Colorado so there we should use from not at so I studied at the University

of Colorado but I have a degree from the University of Colorado now if you say this it's probably

talking about an undergraduate or as we would say more colloquially an undergrad now this

means the kind of the base degree that you have to have in order to study anything else

after those first four years of college it's four years anyway in the United States so

then if you want to communicate that you've studied beyond that you might say I have a

Master's in so this is the case for me I have a Master's in Marketing maybe you have studied

even more than that and you have a Doctorate so you'd say I have a doctorate in or I have

a PhD. in now basically both those mean the same things so I have a PhD. in Electrical

Engineering or I have a doctorate in English literature okay so another thing that's very

common to come up is someone's going to want to know maybe where you came from especially

if you're an English learner I actually think it's really great if you have an accent because

it kind of generates conversation someone will notice that accent it's kind of exotic

so they might be like hey where are you from so if someone asks you where are you from

how should you answer now the most basic one you could say of course is I'm from and then

say the place so if someone asked me that here I might say I'm from Colorado I'm from

the United States maybe we want something a little bit more interesting so you could

say I was born and raised in Colorado now this basically means that both I was born

there and I grew up there now if you were born in a place that's different than where

you actually grew up then you could say for example I was born in India but I grew up

in France.

Now if you say this then that basically means you were born in that first place and then

in that second place is where you actually have spent most of your life and pay attention

to the connected speech there of course so born and raised kind of becomes born and raised

born and raised so that and hooks to the n from born and we kind of drop the d at the

end so nan born and raised born and raised.

So let's say that you're currently living in Canada you've been there for a while you

still have your accent so you're talking with someone and they ask hey where are you from

you could say well I'm originally from Japan or I'm originally from Germany and this is

a great way to say that you came from that country but now you currently live in this

place and then similarly maybe you want to continue the conversation here so if someone

asks you where you're from you say well I'm originally from Japan but I've been living

here in Canada for five years so that would be kind of the formula so for example for

me I'm originally from Colorado in the United States but I've been living in Barcelona for

three years.

Okay so we've talked about work, we've talked about where you come from now maybe you want

to have a little bit more of a fun conversation you don't want to talk about work but you

want to talk about things that you enjoy doing when you're not working so these would be

your hobbies so when you want to ask someone about this probably the most common thing

would be what do you like to do in your free time so if someone asks this of course you

can say "in my free time I like to play golf," "In my free time I really like playing video

games," "in my free time I like reading."

But if someone asks you what do you like doing in your free time you probably don't want

to answer that way right so let's look at some more interesting ways you could answer

first of all you could say I enjoy so I enjoy golf, I enjoy reading, I enjoy learning languages

another really great way that you can say this is I'm an avid or I'm a voracious so

this means that you are passionate about that thing so I could say for example I'm an avid

reader or I'm a voracious cooker like I really like spending time in the kitchen so really

American way you could say this is by saying I'm big on something so you could say I'm

big on surfing or I'm big on science fiction and in the UK they have some other interesting

ways you can say this so let's have Andrea show those to you.

We might say I'm keen on I'm into or I'm interested in all right so we're coming to the end of

the introduction here maybe you're at an event or maybe you have just met someone started

talking to someone but you aren't feeling so much like you want to continue talking

to that person this might happen for example just because you feel like you're not vibing

with that person like you aren't really hitting it off these all kind of mean the same thing

that there isn't chemistry there or maybe you're at an event like a networking event

and you're wanting to meet some other people so how can you politely tell that other person

that I've enjoyed meeting you but now I want to go talk to other people so of course in

the USA we are very polite so you should always use things like please thank you and sorry

so first off you could start off by saying sorry, sorry it's been really nice to meet

you but now I want to go talk to that person but my friend is waiting for me but I really

have to go because I have another commitment now if you want a really formal way to answer

this we could say I have a prior engagement now that's a really great expression that

you can use that means that you have some other plans that you made before so now you

have to leave so for example if you are finishing up the conversation you said I'm really sorry

I've enjoyed meeting you but I have a prior engagement and I really have to go now another

really great way to say this is I have to excuse myself now we wouldn't say have to

so much here we'd probably say hafta hafta so I have to excuse myself and then you can

kind of give the excuse or you can just leave it at that so you can say sorry I have to

excuse myself it was nice meeting you let's talk again sometime or please excuse me my

friend is waiting for me and I have to go a more casual way for example if you want

to talk about a prior engagement is you could say I'm running late I'm running late for

something so I'm running late to pick my kid up from school so I really have to go now

I'm running late for another event that I signed up for so I have to go and a more casual

way even to say this is I have to run that means that you're really busy or you have

something else that you have to get to and you have to go now and as I mentioned with

any of these you kind of want to do it in a polite way so you should always say of course

as i said sorry and it was great meeting you and maybe if it was a good connection then

you want to do something like ask for that person's phone number like can I send you

a whatsapp sometime can I get your LinkedIn can I get your card if you want to get their

business card or you could give them yours so any of these would be kind of appropriate

and it's a really kind of classy way a really great way that you can leave without being

rude and then just finally let's end this section by talking about some different contexts

and things that you might need to know in those contexts for doing a different type

of introduction or having to say some different kinds of phrases so first off you might bump

into someone you might casually see someone that you have not seen for a long time and

in this case we have some different sorts of greetings so first off we might say long

time no see that means it's been a really long time since you've seen that person and

then we might say what's new that means what has happened since I last talked to you we

might also say what have you been up to but we have some really great connected speech

here that we'd probably use or that if you hear a native say it they would say what have

you been up to what have you been up to another thing we saw before is how's life how's life

now this is always really great if you haven't seen someone in a long time now let's say

you're at the supermarket and you bump into someone so if this happens maybe you feel

a little bit awkward I usually feel pretty awkward in those situations and you're kind

of in the middle of your shopping and you're just wanting to continue without having to

talk too much so what should you do so you don't get tied up talking to that person for

a long time well we talked about already ways that you can kind of excuse yourself so you

should always say you know "Hi how's it going?" and kind of be polite but then you can kind

of use those things like saying I have to run I have another thing that I have to do

after this sorry I'm kind of in a hurry and something you might say is it was great to

see you or it is great to see you either in the present or in the past kind of like right

before you're leaving you could say it was really great to see you let's catch up some

other time now before we move on to those success tips which are really going to help

you to put everything that we've learned so far into practice and to feel really confident

using your introduction.

I want to tell you a little bit about our power learning week now this is a fantastic

way to continue learning the English that natives really use in our everyday conversations

plus it's going to help you to feel really confident with both your listening and your

speaking and of course the best part is it's 100% free so you can learn more about that

and sign up all you have to do is click up here or down the description below.

Alright so now we have our tips for success that are going to help you put everything

into practice so the first tip that I have for you is you should actually create a script

now you should actually write down what is your perfect introduction what is the introduction

that is unique to you that you really want to use when you meet someone new and maybe

you could actually have several of these they use depending if you're in a more formal situation

if you are going to have to talk about yourself in a job interview or one that you want to

use more if you are meeting new people that are your age if you're out at the bars or

if you're kind of meeting friends of friends so really whether you are more advanced or

at a more basic level something that can be really useful to do is to first write it in

your native language now usually i'm not a big fan of translating but in this case I

think it can be really valuable because you know exactly how you might want to say things

in a really specific way in your native language that might be hard for you to start out in

English now I've actually used this even when I'm learning a new language and it's the first

week that I'm learning it to already be able to start speaking I'll actually write out

my introduction by writing it in English first and then translating it and usually I keep

it pretty simple because I don't want to learn crazy vocabulary yet but this is really fantastic

because after seven days of learning the language I can already start a very basic conversation

with someone which when I'm starting out that's really important to build my confidence so

if you're more basic or if you want to learn another language I highly recommend that but

even if you're at more of an intermediate advanced level for what we've learned today

I think this is super important now one of the reasons that this is so crucial is because

when you give your introduction usually you won't have warning so you need to be able

to be spontaneous it needs to sound really natural so having that script and then practicing

it is going to help you to in any situation give that introduction in a really natural

casual way and then this way you can focus more on the connection with the other person

so what's really important here is to think about what are the questions that you're going

to be asked so of course if you're going into a job interview you should research a little

bit you should obviously know things about the company so that you can actually talk

about how you'll fit well with the company and we can do another lesson of course talking

more about English specifically for those job area views but what we've learned today

I think can already be really helpful and by doing the scripting exercise you'll feel

a lot more confident in that situation so if you're thinking also about more of a casual

conversation if you're going out to the bars if you're meeting up with some friends then

you're going to want to think about what is the more informal natural and native language

that you'll need to use so we've already looked at some of these today so people might ask

you like where are you from what do you do for a living what are your hobbies or what

you like to do in your free time and maybe you have a job interview or you meet new people

at work or you're going to an event or something like that and you need some more business

English so if that's the case then I highly recommend we just created on our other channel

a lesson teaching you business English with TV series, so it's really fun really practical

and I'll link that down in the description below now don't just write out the script

and then don't touch it at all you need to really practice you need to get this down

pat which means that you're getting it by heart and a really great way to do this so

that it comes out natural because maybe you have it memorized but you really have to think

about it is to actually record yourself and listen to yourself and by doing this over

and over again and maybe trying with different questions try mixing up the order then it's

going to start coming out much more natural and it's just going to feel like a part of

you so you won't have to even think about it it's just anytime someone asks you what

do you do for a living or what do you do outside of work what do you do in your free time you'll

know right away what you're supposed to answer and let's not just talk about this why don't

you actually pause the video write out a quick script it doesn't have to be very long right

now and share it down in the comments below to introduce yourself and myself and the community

that way can kind of help you out and give you some feedback.

All right so let's move on to the next tip so let's say that you're a bit like me and

you're introverted and you feel a little bit shy especially when you are in situations

where you're meeting a lot of new people in a short amount of time so in these cases it

can be really useful to not just depend on talking about yourself but actually ask the

other person more about themselves so center the conversation around that other person

that way you kind of get over your shyness because you're not having to do all this speaking

because of course if you just jump into reciting your script that you've practiced then maybe

the other person will get bored maybe it still doesn't sound very natural and you're just

talking about yourself something that is true of everyone is everyone loves talking about

themselves so use this to your advantage really practice those different questions and really

show a genuine interest in that other person now of course you can add to your script some

really interesting questions maybe you can kind of relate to some different things about

yourself so you could say hey I studied environmentalism what do you think about environmentalism,

what do you think about climate change or different things like that that are going

to kind of spark some different conversation that you're also going to be interested in

speaking about and something that can really save you in these situations is the question

how about you how about you so there's some connected speech there as well and you can

always ask that if the other person's asking you a lot of questions then you can kind of

keep turning the conversation back towards that other person and they're going to feel

a lot more comfortable speaking with you and of course if you are like me that you're introverted

I created a really in-depth lesson talking about this with a bunch of different tips

that will help you a lot in any situation like this so I highly recommend you check

out that later by clicking up here or down the description below the third tip is to

not stress out about whether you need to use formal or informal language now in british

and american culture nowadays there is a divide between formal and informal english but it's

getting smaller all the time so even when you're at work a lot of times people will

use informal language and just to give you an example of this i see a lot of english

learners that use sir a lot or madam now these words aren't actually so common in the united

states and it can even sound kind of weird it can make the other person feel uncomfortable

because it's just too formal so if you go into a job interview do not be saying Sir,

Sir, Sir to the person who's interviewing you you could use Mr. and say their last name

if you want to give a bit more formality but to be honest I almost never use this word

sir now the exception to this might be if you're in the service industry so for example

if you're working as a waiter or you're working as a clerk at some sort of store then you

might say can "I help you Sir?" and this kind of just adds a bit of politeness but in general

do not use this word very much do not be overusing it because it will make people feel uncomfortable

now how can you know whether to use informal or formal language so you're at a conference

or you are at your job and you're not sure is this a place where I should be using formal

language or informal language really the best way that you can figure this out is by listening

to other people what language are they using are they using more of the formal language

I gave you today or are they using more colloquial language and by kind of observing this and

observing the situations that they're in who they're talking to then you get a lot more

comfortable in these different situations with which words you should be choosing as

I said if you sound too formal you can make people feel uncomfortable but if you're in

doubt it's probably a bit safer to use that formal language because you also don't want

to come across as rude and I could talk a ton more about this so if you want us to make

a lesson on informal versus formal language and when you should use each then just give

this lesson a like to let me know and finally let's talk about some things that you should

not talk about some things to avoid of course depending on the culture you're in certain

questions are okay and certain questions are not okay so one thing for example in American

culture is that I'll see compared to other cultures we will not generally ask people

about their marriage unless it actually kind of comes up naturally now if someone says

blah blah my wife or blah blah my husband then of course you can say oh you're married

and you can ask questions about that but it should not just be kind of like a direct question

like you know what are you interested are you married because that other person might

kind of feel like you know that's none of your business so of course this is why it's

really important to know the culture and to know what is okay and what's not okay and

even like when you go to the United States for example if you are in certain areas there's

places where certain things might be more formal so for example if you go to the south

of the United States it's probably a little bit more formal and there's more of these

questions that you shouldn't ask and maybe if you go to the north of the United States

then really anything is okay so it's going to depend a lot even on the subculture of

the United States that you're in or the subculture of the UK or really anywhere else that you

go so again really try to observe this but let's look at some of those things that you

should not say or not ask about so first of all other than asking about marriage you should

not ask people their age especially women because this can be seen as offensive we would

probably see this as not so important or relevant anyway because you can kind of see more or

less what age someone is and maybe if the other person asks you for some reason or maybe

if it's because of something really surprising like if the person has a bunch of gray hair

but then they say "oh I'm studying university at blah blah" you might say how old are you

because maybe they're younger than you think they are but in general this is something

that's better to avoid unless the other person brings it up first and then once again marriage

is something that you probably should not ask about unless you already are pretty close

to that person or they bring it up but of course it's fine if you want to tell other

people that you're married or tell them about your wife or husband people won't really find

that at all weird or rude or offensive and then two other subjects that you should try

to avoid unless the other person brings it up but even in these cases I would usually

try to steer the conversation in a different direction would be politics and religion now

of course these people can have very different opinions and really it's probably when you're

just getting to know someone it's not where you're wanting to go you're not wanting to

go to a place that's really conflictual so I would highly recommend that you avoid those

topics unless you really like getting into heated debate.

All right so as promised just to wrap up this lesson I'm going to give you some examples

that will help you in writing your own script so first off let's put everything that we

looked at today together so my introduction might look like this so I would say that my

name is Ethan I'm from Durango, Colorado.

I currently live in Barcelona I studied at the University of Colorado I have a Masters

in Marketing I have my own company, I'm the CMO of RealLife English in my free time I

like running exercising meditating and singing I'm an avid reader traveler and language learner

now that probably sounds to you a little bit robotic right it doesn't sound so natural

and probably if I came up to you and I started speaking like that you'd be like okay I'm

gonna go talk to someone else but let's look at how we can kind of put that together in

a more natural flowing way so that first way that I gave you is really great for writing

out a script and for knowing how to answer different questions but if you have to give

it as a presentation for yourself then you're wanting to do it in more of a flowing way

right so let's try this.

Hey there, I'm Ethan I was born and raised in Colorado where I studied International

Affairs at the University of Colorado, I now currently live in Barcelona, I have a Master's

in Marketing and I have my own company called RealLife English where I'm the CMO.

In my free time I like exercising running meditating and singing and I'm also an avid

reader language learner and anytime I can I love to travel now that seems so much more

natural, right?

So I highly recommend that you try it that way write out your script and then kind of

see how you can put it in more of a flowing natural way in case you have to present yourself

now let's take a look at how Andrea would say this in a little bit more British way.

Hi everyone I'm Andrea and I'm a Legal graduate from London but I now live in Barcelona.

I've worked as a teacher for the last 10 years and I enjoy dancing and playing tennis.

And now finally let's see what this looks like when two people actually meet each other

so Andrea and I have done kind of a skit for you let's take a look.

Hey, how's it going?

Hi I'm great thanks, how are you I'm doing fantastic what's your name my name's Andrea,

hi I'm Ethan it's nice to meet you it's great to meet you as well so where are you from

Andrea so my family's actually from Cyprus but I was born and raised in London oh that's

so great I was born in Durango Colorado but I'm currently living here in Barcelona oh

cool and what are your hobbies well I really like in my free time whenever I can to do

exercise to go out running I like singing oh wow yeah and of course learning languages

oh great well I really love dancing and I enjoy singing but I'm not very good at it

and I also really like reading and going out to restaurants with friends and trying new

places because I love lots of different cultures foods.

I feel completely the same so what do you do for a living?

Well I'm actually a teacher I actually studied law at university but later on I decided to

have a career change because I wasn't enjoying it so much and I've been working as a teacher

for over 10 years now and I really love it it's so great that you found something you're

passionate about exactly because it's such an important part of your life and I didn't

see myself working as a lawyer all my life it just wasn't for me makes sense.

How about you?

I have my own company and I'm the CMO it's called RealLife English oh wow that sounds

so cool, yeah!

I actually I studied International Affairs at the University of Colorado but it had nothing

to do with that and more recently I got a Master's in Marketing oh cool that sounds

really interesting.

So what does your company do?

My company helps English learners to go beyond the classroom and to live English in their

life.

Oh wow that sounds really interesting I'll have to check it out!

Well it's been really great meeting you Andrea I'm actually going to go try and meet some

other people here there as well.

Okay well it was really nice meeting you as well and I hope to see you again.

All right so now you put it to practice because none of this is any good unless you actually

use it so write out your script and share it down in the description below so me and

the community can give you some feedback on that and now it's time to go beyond the classroom

and live your english aww yeah!

What is up guys I'm Ethan your RealLife English fluency coach and in today's lesson we are

going to talk about six things that you need to do every day in order to improve your english

communication skills.