Do you wish you were more fluent in English?
Small talk is one of the things I am asked to help people with on a regular basis. Be it for business, personal reasons or simply to improve English skills, the fact is the more often you push yourself to practice small talk the more fluent you will become in a language.
Simple questions like:
What’s the weather like today?
or
How are you today?
or
Are you doing anything nice this weekend?
These can all be great ice-breakers. Small talk is a great way to get to know somebody. It can also be really good fun as you get to ask a lot of questions that you perhaps wouldn’t normally ask.
Making conversation is another way to describe small talk and it is an essential part of learning a new language.
There is a great skill to be learnt in practicing small talk as the answer in the English language is always in the question.
e.g.
“What’s the weather like today?”
“The weather is going to be great, the sun is coming out this afternoon and it is going to be warm all day.”
You can learn questions and answers off by heart when you are just getting started. This helps you to improve your fluency while practicing. Once you feel comfortable you can change your answers slightly, this way you build up a handful of answers to one question.
e.g.
“The weather is going to be awful, it is going to be windy and cold all afternoon and this evening it is going to rain.”
“The weather is going to be ok, it might rain later but the weather forecast is good for this evening.”
“The weather is going to be…….”
In essence that is actually how we all perform small talk in our own native languages. We have a range of answers pre-programmed. It is really that easy!
So if you want to improve your fluency in English make sure you practice your small talk and always be ready to ask:
What’s the weather going to be like today?”