3 Easy Conversation Starters for Right Now [Advanced Conversation Skills]

52,110 views ・ 2019-09-04

Speak Confident English


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

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Hey, it's Annemarie with Speak Confident English.
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It's the first Wednesday of September.
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The month just started and two days ago,
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everyone in the United States celebrated Labor Day.
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Although Labor Day has nothing to do with the summer,
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it's a holiday that many people associate with the end of summer.
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What it means is that kids are back in school,
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you and all your colleagues are back at work.
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Usually there's a lot of excitement and energy in the air.
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People at work love to talk about what they did during the summer and what's
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going on now,
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but all of that excitement immediately goes away.
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If you're nervous or trying to avoid talking to your colleagues in English
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because you don't know what to talk about,
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maybe you're not sure what questions to ask to start a conversation or you're
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not sure what people are talking about right now and today I want to help take
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away or remove those worries.
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I'm going to give you three really easy conversation starters for right now,
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three topics that English speakers are talking about.
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I'll also share with you the language that you need.
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So you sound natural in those conversations and some questions you can ask to
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get those conversations going. And at the end,
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I'm going to share with you though one thing that Americans are obsessed with
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right now, so be sure to find out what that is.
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Let's get started right away with the first topic that everyone's talking about,
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which is back to school.
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That back to school feeling that we all get,
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even though we're not kids,
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a lot of us like me still get that feeling, that excitement,
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that energy, that sense of newness and opportunity.
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Of course when you go to the stores,
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there are school supplies on sale everywhere and a lot of parents talk about
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buying school supplies for their kids and it's kind of fun.
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There's all these new notebooks and new pencils and new pens.
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It's full of opportunity and the chance to create new ideas or new goals.
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Again, even those of us who don't go to school anymore,
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still get really excited about it and we talk about it with that expression,
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the back to school feeling. In addition to school supplies.
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A lot of parents also talk about shopping for the next size up clothing.
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Next size up means you have to get clothes that fit your kids.
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They grow really fast and the clothes you bought them last year don't fit.
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They're too small now, so you need to buy the size up.
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And usually at the beginning of the school year,
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a lot of kids get new clothes and new shoes.
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Something else to talk about with parents where your children go to school,
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neighbors and friends.
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So if you wanted to start some conversations on this topic,
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you could use questions like,
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are you all caught up on your school supply shopping? Where did you go?
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Did you find any good deals? What about clothes shopping?
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What are all the kids into these days?
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I've talked about this expression before to be into something,
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but as a quick reminder, if you're into something it means you like it.
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It's what everybody likes right now. It's a trend.
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So what are all the kids into these days?
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Is there a specific brand of shoes or a clothing style that everybody wants?
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If you're at work and want to start a conversation with your colleagues,
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you might ask, do you get that back to school feeling too?
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It's so weird and funny how even as adults we still have that feeling.
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I wonder why that is and then it gives someone else the opportunity to talk
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about how they also have that feeling and all the different things that are
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associated with it. So I'm curious,
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do you still get that back to school feeling every September like I do?
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If you do share a note about it in the comments below.
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Now the second conversation starter is all about getting on top of your work.
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When you go on vacation for a long time or if you take a digital detox like I
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recently did,
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which means you completely eliminate technology and everything digital for some
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period of time. If you do that, what happens when you go back to work?
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You have a pile of work and emails and things to do,
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things to find out, things to get updated on,
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to get on top of your work means to get a clear picture of what's going on.
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What do you need to do and get refocused?
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This is definitely a topic of conversation. During the beginning of September,
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you might hear colleagues or neighbors talk about feeling overwhelmed,
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getting on top of their work.
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They might sigh and feel regretful that summer is over,
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vacations are finished,
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and now they're no longer digitally detoxing.
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They're back in their email and they might need to tackle their email or get on
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top of one's email again.
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When they say that they're talking about getting into the email,
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answering everything that they need, getting up to date and all of those things,
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which can take a lot of time if you've been on vacation.
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In addition to all of that, you might hear people say things like,
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I've got to reconnect with my team. I need to reach out to my partners,
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or I need to take stock of what's happening at work,
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which basically means I need to get up today.
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I need to have a clear picture of what's going on and then get to work.
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So I'm curious, is this something that's on your mind right now?
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It definitely is. For me. I've come back from vacation. I took a digital detox,
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which meant I completely ignored technology. I didn't take my computer.
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So now I'm getting back on top of my email.
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I'm diving back into work. And one more expression for you.
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I'm buckling down to work,
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to buckle down to work means to get refocused and to give your attention,
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your energy, your commitment to work without any distractions.
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So if you want to start some conversations on this topic,
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here are some great questions you can use.
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Are you ready to get back to work and buckle down?
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How long do you think it'll take for you to get on top of your email after the
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summer vacation? What projects do you need to get on top of right now?
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Did you get to digitally detox while you were on summer vacation? How was it?
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Those are all great questions for your colleagues when you get back to work at
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the end of summer. And finally, topic number three.
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It's September.
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This is the month for those of us in the northern hemisphere when we transition
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from summer to autumn.
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So a lot of us are talking about all of those things,
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those feelings and words that we associate with autumn.
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We might talk about all the new fall TV shows.
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Do you have a favorite TV series that's coming out with their next season this
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month? If you do, tell me what your favorite series is in the comments below.
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We also talk about how we're spending the end of summer and there are a lot of
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wonderful end of summer evenings.
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These are the nights when it's still warm enough to be outside.
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You have a beautiful sunset and as the sun goes down there's just a little bit
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of chill in the air.
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You can feel the autumn coming and you can even smell it.
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You can smell the changing of the leaves. In fact,
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we often describe this period of time as sweater, weather,
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sweater,
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weather are those cool nights and mornings as we transitioned between seasons
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and of course you can see this concept of sweater weather reflected in all of
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the clothing stores.
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Everyone's got sweaters available now and you start to see what colors are
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popular for the new season.
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Now before I share with you the one thing that all Americans or almost all
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Americans are obsessed with in September,
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I want to go back to talking about those cool nights or mornings that happen as
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we transition from summer to fall. There's that change in the air.
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You need a sweater and it's a little bit chilly or cold, not too much.
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You don't need a coat,
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but the best way to describe that air is crisp,
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the crisp fall air. Some people love it.
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They love putting on a sweater in the morning and walking out. When you breathe,
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you see a little bit of that air. Honestly, I like the opposite.
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I love it when I walk outside and I'm immediately hit by the hot sun.
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That is my favorite,
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but now let's get to the thing that everybody's talking about eating and or
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smelling, and that is pumpkin spice. Everything.
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If you live in the United States or if you live near a Starbucks somewhere,
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you probably are noticing pumpkin spice lattes and coffees.
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If you go to the grocery store, there might be pumpkin spiced cereal,
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cakes, muffins, cookies, and I don't even know what else.
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There are also pumpkin scented candles,
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pumpkin scented cleaning supplies, you name it.
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It probably exists with pumpkin spice.
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So what exactly is it and why do Americans go crazy for it?
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Well,
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if you are familiar with the American holiday of Thanksgiving,
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which we celebrate in November,
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we have a dessert called Pumpkin Pie.
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And in that dessert of course you have pumpkin.
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And it's a mix of spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger,
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clove, and all spice.
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I don't love eating Pumpkin Pie, but I have to admit it does smell really,
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really good.
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And there's something about the combination of those spices that makes us think
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of the fall.
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It's the perfect smell when the leaves start changing and when you feel that
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crisp fall air. And I don't know why,
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but at some point in the past,
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people started going crazy for this taste and smell.
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And instead of waiting until November to eat dessert on thanksgiving,
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they started thinking about it much, much earlier.
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And now in September we see pumpkin spice stuff everywhere.
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So that is something that Americans are definitely talking about.
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And here is a great question you can use with neighbors and friends if you want
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to talk about it. Are you into that pumpkin spice craze that I see everywhere?
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And if they answer yes you might ask them what they love about it.
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Is it coffee or cake or just the smell that they like?
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It's a great conversation starter.
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Other things that you can ask about this transition time is what do you love
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most about the fall and do you have any last end of summer plans with that?
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You've got three easy conversation starters that you can use right now and these
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are things that native English speakers are definitely thinking about and
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talking about and you've got some language to help you do it.
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Now before we finish, as always, I want you to practice,
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use some of the language that you've learned today.
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So here are two challenge questions for you. Number 1,
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what do you love about the fall season? Do you like the crisp fall air?
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Do you like the smell of leaves and the sound that they make when you walk on
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them? What do you love about it? Tell me in the comments below. And number 2,
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we talked about how a lot of people now are getting refocused on work.
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They're re-energized.
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It's time to really think about the goals that you set this year.
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There are just a few months left before we celebrate the end of the year.
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So I'm curious, are you getting refocused on some of your goals?
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They might be personal goals or work-related. If you are,
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tell me what you're doing to meet the goals that you've got for 2019 how are you
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getting refocused and what are you doing to make sure that you get them done?
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Again, you can share with me in the comments below. If you love this lesson,
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I've got a similar one on five small talk questions you can ask related to
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travel and these are perfect when everyone is coming back from summer vacation
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and you want to hear about it. So I'll leave a link to that lesson.
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And if you loved this one, be sure to give it a thumbs up here on YouTube.
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Subscribe to this channel so you never miss a future lesson and share it with
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friends or colleagues on Facebook. With that, thank you so much for joining me.
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Have a great week and I'll see you next time for your Confident English lesson.
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