English Book Club: Phrases to Share Your Opinion, Agree & Disagree & More!

Hey there I'm Emma from mmmEnglish

and today I'm gonna teach you to use some simple and very useful

phrases to share your opinion

to agree and disagree and to ask questions.

All of these things are pretty useful generally but they are perfect

if you are part of an English book club.

Joining or even starting your own book club is an excellent way

to practise your English and there are so many reasons why.

You might be able to practise reading out loud together.

You could have fun discussing characters and storylines

or even study and learn new words and expressions

together as a group.

So I'm really excited about today's video.

I hope that you are too. Let's get into it.

So I was inspired to make this video by some of the members

inside the Hey Lady! community

who've started their own book club and they're really enjoying

the opportunity to meet regularly,

to discuss the books that they're reading.

Hey Lady! is an online community for women learning English.

It's a wonderful place to learn and to improve your English

speaking skills but it's also

a really great place to start or to join a book club.

I hope that by the end of this video you're going to know

what to expect and also what to say at a book club

so that you can get out there and join one.

Hey I haven't even asked you yet.

Have you ever been part of a book club?

What types of books did you read together?

And how regularly did you meet?

Now all book clubs are different but perhaps your book club

might meet to discuss each chapter of a book as you go,

maybe they meet more regularly.

Or a little further apart once everyone's finished the book,

then they meet to discuss the book as a whole.

Either way, it is a really good idea to be taking notes

and writing things down as you go.

And the things that you might want to take note about include

some of the moments in the story that you felt

were really significant or moments that you enjoyed.

Perhaps you came across an interesting quote or reflection

in the book. You might take note of the character that you respect

or admire the most and why you think so.

It's also really common to think about and to talk about

the theme that runs through a story so that might be

a common theme about the importance of community or

the undying love of family.

So when a theme is like an idea

that remains present throughout the whole story so it keeps

coming up in different ways throughout the book.

Now the whole point of going to a book club is to share

your opinion about the book right, about the storyline

or about the characters so let's practise some of the phrases

that will help you to share your opinion in a really clear

and concise way.

You might say

I think.

I consider.

I believe.

These are all really, really great verbs to share an opinion.

You could say: In my opinion

or as far as I'm concerned.

So when it's your turn to share your thoughts at the book club,

you get to combine your notes that you've been taking

as you've been reading with some of these simple expressions

to share your opinions.

I have to jump in with a spoiler alert. I'm going to use the book

Where'd You Go Bernadette? By Maria Stemple.

I'll try not to give too much away in case you haven't

but I will be giving some examples using the characters

and the plot as well.

I really enjoyed the mother-daughter relationship

between the two main characters, Bernadette and Bee.

I believe that Bee feels like she can do anything because

her mother will always be there to have her back.

Well in my opinion, Bernadette is really quite a rude and

mean woman. She doesn't really get along with any of the other

school mothers and she's always saying

offensive things about people.

As far as I'm concerned, Bernadette's a great mum.

It's a tough job to have and she does the best that she can

considering some of her mental health issues.

"As far as I'm concerned" is a really great way of

sharing your opinion if the idea that you're sharing is different

to the other people who are there so it's a really great way to

introduce the fact that you're quite strong in your opinion

and that it might be opposing the other person's.

Okay now let's talk about the language that you need to agree

and disagree because of course, being part of a book club is about

listening to someone's opinion and their point of view

even if you don't agree with them.

So if someone does say something that you just

completely disagree with, you've got to hear them out

but then you get to continue the discussion by sharing your own

different opinion.

So you could say:

Really? I have a different view.

And then give your reason.

Or you might try and find out a little bit more about why they think

so differently to you, what part of the book helped them to form

that opinion.

I see what you're saying

but why do you think that they did that?

Or why do you think that happened?

You can also agree with someone in a really simple way by saying:

I agree with you

but it's a good idea to back up what you're saying with an example

or something else from the book.

I think that Bernadette is an awful, selfish character.

She broke a promise to her daughter and walked out on her family.

I have a different view entirely. I think that Bernadette is a

fun-loving character. She's got a great relationship

with her daughter. She struggles with a mental illness that

she hasn't properly dealt with yet.

I agree with you there, even though she doesn't like leaving

the house or being around lots of other people,

she still makes plans to go to Antarctica

with her family.

Once you're feeling a little more comfortable, you might even

want to ask the group some questions of your own

and start leading the discussion or the conversation.

So let's talk about

asking questions and I've got a few go-to questions

that you can use. Feel free to take them, to use them at your

book club if you would like.

In your opinion, what was the strongest

theme that came through the book?

If you could talk to the author,

what questions would you ask them?

Were there any quotes or passages that really stood out to you?

Can you personally relate to the experiences of

a character in the story?

Before you bring these questions to the group

definitely try and answer them yourself.

That way when someone answers the question

you can also weigh in with your thoughts or your experiences

of the book as well.

I really loved reading this book. It's funny, it's quirky.

It's told through the eyes of many different characters and

in different formats but it also deals with mental health issues

so it creates a lot of really great opportunities to discuss

mental health and

you know the challenges of family in lots of different contexts.

You can also find it on Audible as well which is where I listen

to the book, the link to audible is down in the description

and if you're not a member yet, you can even download this book

for free and get started.

Make sure you let me know what you think about the book if you

read it. Share your thoughts using some of the language

that you learned today in this video.

Share an opinion about your favourite character,

maybe you agree or disagree with some of my opinions

about the characters so you can use the language that you learned

in this video.

Do it down in the comments or you can jump over to the

mmmEnglish blog where you might even want to pose

some questions to the others who are there chatting about

the book in the comments below my blog post.

All the links to the blog, to Audible, to the book,

to my Facebook, to Instagram, they're all down

in the description below. That is where you can find me

and continue the conversation.

I really hope this video has inspired you to think about or to join

an English book club and has helped you to feel a bit more

comfortable sharing your opinions and your thoughts

about books.

Now last time we all did something together, we ran the

mmmEnglish community speaking challenge,

the lockdown challenge which I've linked to right here.

It was amazing. I absolutely loved it so I'm looking forward

to taking part in this reading challenge with you right now

so happy reading friends

and I will see you next week.