How to learn English Conversation: Reconnecting

Reconnecting, continuing the conversation in English. You've already learned what to do and say when meeting someone for the first time. That's called connecting. But what do you do and say the second, third, or fourth time you come together? That's called reconnecting. And this video will show you some different ways to do reconnecting in English. For example, let's say you met someone last week for the first time. Now it's a week later and there's been a gap, a break between the time you saw each other before last week until now. So today is the second meeting. You're coming back together. What do you say? How do you fill in the gap? We'll show you some conversation strategies to handle situations like this. Basically, it involves five steps. Greetings, updating, topic expansion, directing or redirecting the conversation, closing, and outreach. Let's say the second meeting is unplanned. It's a chance encounter. For example, you meet someone again on the street and you recognize them. How do you have a short conversation with them? Well, the first thing you need to do is just greet them with a simple hi or hello. Then you say how are you doing or informally how you doing? You can also say something like how's it going? That does not mean where are you going. That just means how are you doing? And the response to that is okay good. And then you turn it to the other person yourself. How about you? If you have time for a longer conversation, you might say something like, "What's up?" That means what are you doing now? For example, I'm headed or I'm heading to class. Or you can talk about your current activities. Just work, just working. Now, if you don't have much to say, you can say, "Nothing much. How about you?" Notice how you turn the conversation back to the other person. It's kind of like a tennis match. A says something, then B says something, then A says something, then B says something. You go back and forth in the conversation. Now, if the second meeting is planned, that means you've scheduled or you've made an appointment to see them for an activity, for example, for dinner, for sports, maybe to see a movie or something like that. You have an activity that brings you back together. So you know you're going to see each other again at that time. Now when you first see them, your words and your body language help you reconnect. For example, you might say something like good to see you or it's good to see you again. Do not say good to meet you. You only say that the first time. Now you can communicate the idea good to see you again with your body language or the unspoken things that you say. For example, with a smile, eye contact, sometimes a light friendly touch or maybe even a handshake will communicate that idea. It's good to see you again. The next step is updating. This means, "What have you been doing since our last meeting?" We're trying to fill in the gap again to reconnect. So, a good phrase for doing that is what's new. Do not say what's news. That's incorrect. If someone says to you what's new, you have three options. You can tell them good news, bad news, or no news. So, it goes something like this. What's new? Good news. I got a new job. That's great. That's wonderful. That's fantastic. Bad news, I sprained my ankle. Oh, that's too bad. Sorry to hear that. What if you have no news? Nothing much. How about you? Notice how you're turning the conversation back to the other person. Another phrase for updating is what have you been up to? That's like what's up, but more what have you been doing recently? A common answer might be something like this. I've been busy writing a new book. Now sometimes you have something that you yourself would like to share with the other person. So you can start a conversation with something like this. Guess what the other person says? What? I just got a new car. Then you continue the conversation from then on. You can also use what I call how's your statements. Example, how's your job? How's your family? How's your schoolwork? How's your project coming along? Sometimes you might need to change the grammar a little bit here. How are your classes going? Because you have more than one class. How was your weekend? Past tense. Then you go to topic expansion. You don't just want to say what's new and then bye-bye. You want to continue the conversation. So, ask them some questions. What's new? I just got a new job. Oh, really? That's interesting. Then you ask some followup questions. Usually, these are called wh questions. Who? When? Where? What? What kind of job? Where are you working? When did you get the new job? Again, you go back and forth. Try to find things you're both interested in so you can talk about those topics. Then you continue the conversation by getting to know each other. Sometimes you might might want to generate new topics. Think of something different to talk about. A good connecting word for this is so. So, do you like your new job? How long have you been working there? Have you ever been to this place before? What do you like to do in your free time? What kind of food do you like? The idea here is to try to connect even more and get to know the other person better. You can't just talk on and on with what we called small talk, which is just getting to know each other. You do want to focus at some point on the activity that brought you together. So after you've talked for a short while, you can change the topic to what we're doing here now. Why are we here? So, for example, you can focus on the activity by saying, "Are you ready to ski?" If you're at the movie theater, you might say something like, "Well, let's go inside." You might say, "Is this your first time visiting this museum? Have you been to this place before?" Maybe you're at a restaurant. What do you recommend? If you're at the gym, where should we go first? Where should we start? So, you change the topic to the activity that brings you together. Then you enjoy the activity and talk and get to know each other for a few minutes or however long you'd like to stay together. Finally, at the end of the activity, we have what's called closing and outreach. Outreach is you'd like to see them again. So, a very good phrase for this would be something like, "It's been great talking with you." You could also say, "It's been great hanging out with you or spending time with you." It's been great playing basketball. Then you can say something like this. See you around. Now, be careful with this one because if you say, "See you around," it means there's probably no further contact. It's very vague and maybe I'll see you, maybe I won't. But if you want to be a little bit more specific, you can say, "Let's do it again sometime." Or, "Let's do it again next week." Or if you'd like to do a different activity, would you like to try swimming next time? And then you can be very positive by saying something like, "Hope to see you again." Or, "Hope to see you again soon. Hope we can get together again in a couple of weeks." Now notice if you want to make a connection with them again in the future, you can be specific or you can let them know that there will be some kind of a communication to make an appointment for next time. For example, text me or I'll text you and then we'll get together again. finally saying goodbye. You can make reference to the activity that you did together. For example, that was a great movie or great dinner, thanks for coming or thanks for inviting us. I really enjoyed it. Then the final goodbye. In America, we usually just say one by adult. Bye. When we say bye-bye, it's generally for children or for kids. Now, around the world, bye-bye is a lot more common for everybody. You can say something more informal such as catch you later or see you. These are ways to say goodbye when you leave the situation. Okay, that's all for today. Hope you learned some good ideas. Thanks for watching. For more videos like these, check out the following links. youtube.com/englishfree4 or eslgold.com/ H U M I X.