5 Easy Small Talk Questions for Conversations about Travel in English

Hi, I'm Annemarie with Speak Confident English and welcome to your Confident

English Wednesday lesson. So it is September and I'm so excited to be here

sharing a new Confident English lesson with you today. If you've been part of my

community for more than three weeks then you know I've been on a little bit of a

summer break. Like many people where I live, I went away for part of the month

of August. In Europe (where I live), most people take a summer vacation in August

and then they come back to work in September with new energy. They feel

relaxed, they had time to enjoy the sun, maybe go to the beach or go to the

mountains and enjoy hiking. So, I'm back after a three-week vacation and I'm so

excited for today's new Confident English lesson.

I'm curious, when you go on vacation when you take a break in the summer or

the winter or maybe during a special holiday in your country, what is the very

first thing that you talk about with your colleagues when you go back to work?

Or with your neighbors when you return home from a vacation? Yes! You talk about

your vacation. You ask each other questions to find out what did they do,

where did they go, how did they spend their time. But if you have to do this in

English? If you need to talk to English-speaking colleagues when you

come back from vacation or your English-speaking friends and neighbors,

do you know what questions to ask? Do you feel comfortable asking them about their

vacation, their time off? If not, then today's lesson is perfect for you

because we're going to talk about five common questions that native speakers

use for small talk and just chatting when they come back from a vacation or a

long holiday. These are the same questions that I use with my friends, my

family and people that I know professionally when I haven't seen them

for a long time. So if you often feel nervous starting a conversation, asking

questions in English, participating in small talk but you really want to know

about someone's holiday or the vacation, then let's take a look at these five

questions. Now very quickly, if this is something that always makes you feel

nervous, you are always stressed when you have to start a conversation in English,

I do have a another lesson for you that I want you

to watch after you finish this. Last year I shared a lesson on how to start a

conversation with anyone in English and I shared three strategies to help you be

more prepared and feel confident, ready to start that conversation. So if this

always makes you feel nervous, I will leave a link to that other lesson just

below this video so that you can visit it as well and know exactly how to feel

more confident the next time you want to ask a question and get a conversation

going in English. So our first question for today's topic, one of the most common

ways to ask someone about their vacation when they come back is, "How was your

summer break?" How was your winter break? How was your holiday break? In that

question, I'm using the word break and in English we use that when we want to say

that we had a time where we paused going to work. Maybe we went away, we traveled

somewhere or we just took time to be at home, to be relaxed but we stopped

working for a long weekend, maybe a week, or two weeks. Maybe even a whole month if

you're lucky. But we often use the word break. A summer break. A winter break. A

holiday break. Or a long weekend break. Now the second common question that we

might ask is, "Did you get away for the summer vacation?" Did you get away for the

holiday? Did you get away over the winter break? In those questions, I'm using the

phrasal verb to get away and in English that phrasal verb means to escape or to

leave a place. Sometimes we really want to escape work. Maybe it's just so

stressful. We have a massive deadline. We're exhausted. So we

get away for the weekend. Maybe we go to the countryside to relax. Many people

during their summer or winter vacations get away to go to the beach or the

mountains to go skiing. So when you have the opportunity to take a vacation, do you

get away? Now our third question for asking about a vacation or time off is

focused on where they went, where did they go for their vacation? So you could

say something like, "Did you travel for the summer holiday or did you stay close

to home?" Did you travel for the winter break or did you stay close to home? So

the difference between asking someone if they traveled or if they stayed close to

home is how far did they go. Did they get on a plane to go to another region,

another part of the country, or a different country? Or did they just go to

a city, a town, or the countryside nearby? Somewhere that's easy to get to by car

or by train. Now those first three questions are all great questions to

start a conversation with someone in English about their vacation, about their

holiday. The next two questions are perfect questions to keep the

conversation going, to follow up. So if someone has traveled to another place

for their vacation or they stayed close to home - but again they went to the

countryside or they went to a nearby lake or a river - then you could ask, "Have

you been there before or was this your first time?"

Have you been there before or was this your first time? And this question is

really just a way to get more information, maybe hear some interesting

stories about their time away. And just getting to know them. Find out what they

did, how did they spend their time, why did they choose that place. And our last

question is my most favorite question from today. It's a question I always ask

when someone comes back from a vacation or from some time away. I always ask, "What

was the best part of your trip?" Or what was the best part of your vacation?

Everyone loves to talk about the things that they enjoy, so this is a super easy

question to ask. And almost everyone will be happy to answer it. And with that you

have 5 really easy questions that are polite to ask when you want to start a

conversation with an English-speaking colleague or someone that you live close

to and you want to find out more about: where did they go,

what did they do, and what did they like about their last vacation? So now I want

to hear from you. I want to know where was your last vacation? What was your

most recent time away? Where did you go? And yes, what was the best part about

your trip? You can share your answers with me in the comments section just

below the video. That is the best place to get practice and feedback from me

every week. As always, thank you so much for joining me. I love having you here

every Wednesday. I look forward to hearing from you in the comments and

I'll see you next week for your Confident English

Wednesday lesson.