Name: How to START a Conversation in English with Anyone
Uploaded: 2019-05-24T01:19:14.000Z
Duration: 11 min 45 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.

The imperative

Let's talk about starting a conversation.

Vanessa: To improve your speaking skills in
English, you need to speak, right?

Practice the skills that you want to improve.

This has probably happened to you in your
native language, so it makes sense that in

English, it can be tough to start a conversation,
too.

But, never fear, Vanessa's tips are here!

Vanessa: In life, there are two kinds of people;
people you know and people you don't know.

So, it makes sense to have two different types
of conversation starters.

Of course, there's some overlap, but it's
helpful to separate them.

Vanessa: Let's start with people you know.

Imagine that you are in the grocery store,
you're pushing your cart, looking for some

spinach, and you see a co-worker, and you
want to say, hi.

Well, here are four great questions that you
can ask in that situation, or that they might

ask you, so you need to understand them and
how to respond.

Vanessa: The first two questions are about
the past.

Vanessa: What've(have) you been up to lately?

Vanessa: What were you up to this weekend?

Vanessa: These questions asked about sometime
in the past.

You can change the words to say, "lately",
"today", "last weekend", for “a recent holiday".

You can switch that up depending on the situation,
but it's great to ask about the past.

Vanessa: The next questions are going to ask
about the present.

Vanessa: What do you have going on today?

Just going to a friend's house this evening.

Vanessa: What've (have) you got going on
today?

Vanessa: These questions asked about the present.

Did you notice the beautiful, casual verbs
that were used here?

That's another way to say it, but we often
say, "What have you got going on today?",

and it's really casual, informal, it's great
for these just, passing by, situations when

Vanessa: Let's go on to the next questions,
which talk about the future.

Vanessa: Do you have anything fun going on
this weekend?

Vanessa: Do you have any plans for Easter?

Vanessa: For these questions that ask about
the future, I want you to be a little bit

careful, because if you say this with a certain
type of intonation, the other person, especially

if you're a guy talking to a girl, it could
feel like you're trying to ask them on a date,

or maybe they'll feel a little bit uncomfortable.

So, make sure that when you say, "Oh, do you
have anything fun going on this weekend?"

Make sure you say it with a smile, very casually.

You don't need to look them into the eye and
say it seriously from the bottom of your heart.

Of course, unless you do want to ask them
for a date.

And then, you can say it a little more seriously.

But if you just want to casually say something
to your co-worker, you need to have a light

Don't worry about using this, just make sure
you have a light tone, and you say it with

"Oh, do you have anything fun going on this
weekend?"

Like you saw on those sample conversation,
Dan could have just said, "Not much."

If you're lucky, the person you're talking
to might ask, "Not much, what about you?"

Okay, at least they're asking a question,
and you can share some information about what

you're doing, or what you did over the weekend.

So, here, not everyone is going to give a
lot of information, but they might give you

something, and if they don't, don't worry
about it, it's not your fault, you tried your

Subtitles ListPlay Video

How to START a Conversation in English with Anyone

pretend

present

situation

practice