چگونگی شاه یا ملکه شدن در صحنه های اجتماعی در انگلیسی

This is an All Ears English Podcast, Episode 168: “How to be the King or Queen of the Social Scene in English” Welcome to the All Ears English Podcast, where you’ll finally get real, native English conversation with your hosts, Lindsay McMahon, the ‘English Adventurer’ and Gabby Wallace, the ‘Language Angel’, from Boston, USA.

Hey, Gabby. Are you busy these days?

(Ugh), I’m always busy. And I think our listeners are always busy too. That’s the kind of world we live in.

Yeah, that’s right. So if our listeners are busy, it would make sense for them to actually focus just on the key phrases that they need to know to speak with natives, right?

Yeah, absolutely. That’s why we made an e-book with the 100 most common phrases in English, so that you can get the most out of your time studying English. You can find that at AllEarsEnglish.com/100. That’s the number 1-0-0.

In today’s episode, you’ll get three phrases that will help you be a smooth communicator in English at your next social event.

Hey, Lindsay.

Hey, Gabby.

How’s it going?

Really good today.

Great, great. Hey, I was wondering, have you been to any social events like casual parties or get-togethers lately?

Yeah, so, let’s see, a few weeks ago, I went to a barbecue, , for my meditation group and that was nice.

Nice.

Yeah.

And, , I’m gonna (going to) go to a dinner with my students and some of my colleagues tonight, actually.

Ooh, sounds fun.

Yeah, yeah. So we often use these kind of situations like barbecues, (you know), going to a party or a meal – it’s a great way to socialize.

Absolutely.

I’m looking forward to getting to know my students better.

Yeah and there’s a whole.

My colleagues.

Your colleagues. And there’s a whole different set of languages or phrases that we would use when we compare this with, for example, a networking event, right?

.

Right. It’s quite different.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean there can be some overlap, but what we did is we thought, specifically, about a social event that’s not formal, kind of casual, but it could be with your colleagues or it could be with your friends. We thought about what are the common phrases that you would hear over and over in that kind of situation as Lindsay said, a barbecue or a party, , maybe a picnic?

Yeah, a picnic.

.

Exactly

Yeah.

are popular.

Great. So we’re gonna (going to) share three phrases in today’s episode and then direct you to our full program to learn more. It’s a, it’s a full instantly downloadable program with four hours of video teaching and four, (uh), I think 30 page, about 30 pages each. So four times 30 – I dunno (don’t know), you guys do the math. We’re English teachers. But you can find that at AllEarEnglish.com/keys. That’s k-e-y-s and that’s the name of the page because the title of this course is the “Keys to Connecting with Americans”, which is what you’ll be able to do after you view these materials.

That’s right. So today, we’re gonna (going to) give you a sneak peak… .

…with three of the phrases that we actually share in the course.

.

And then you can decide if you want to keep going with your learning.

Great.

So let’s go right into it, Gabby. What’s the first phrase you can use at a barbecue or a social event?

So, “Are you planning any trips this summer?” Everyone likes to talk about traveling.

Yeah…

Right.

and the summer is really a popular time to travel, but (i-) – when appropriate you can substitute the season. You could say, “Are you planning any trips this fall… or this spring… or this winter? So, (you know), change it as needed. but right now, (you know), we’re recording August here. So, “Are you planning any trips this summer? Or looking ahead you could ask this fall. Yeah.

Yeah. .

Great. So, I’m planning a trip to the West Coast.

I’m actually planning a trip out to Portland, Oregon. I’ll be stopping briefly in Seattle, very briefly, like a couple of hours.

Are you gonna (going to) pick up surfing while you’re out there on the West Coast?

Well, I probably won’t have time, but I would love to try. We’ll see because I-I’m going to Vancouver but then I’ll also stop in Los Angeles. I’m doing a little tour to visit some friends, and attend some events, , and, (you know), some, some business contacts are out there as well. So I’m really looking forward to that.

That should be awesome. I like the West Coast. It has a different vibe.

It does. Each region in the U.S. is quite distinct.

Right.

We can talk more about that in other episodes and we have already… And we have.

…actually.

(Uh-hm).

(Uh), we talked about the Northwest Pacific region in… … …a recent episode.

Was that 148?

I think – sounds right.

Sounds right.

Yeah.

It was Lisa, right?

Yeah. You can search for Seattle… (Uh-hm).

…in our search bar. , we also had a guest talk about Appalachia.

(Uh-huh).

That’s another region.

Andrea.

Both: Yeah.

Perfect. And then you know as we keep meeting interesting people, we’ll invite them on All Ears English to share about their regions with you all.

That’s it.

Yeah.

Great. So what’s the next phrase that our listeners can use at a social event, Gabby?

All right. So the phrase is “How do you know the host,” or “How do you know the hostess?” (Hm)? So a common response to this could be “Oh, we met in college”.

(Uh-huh).

Right?

Or “We met through work.” (Uh-huh).

“Or we met through friends.” Or we could say “We go way back.” Oh, that’s a good phrase.

That’s a good one.

“We go way back.” That means you’ve known this person for a long time.

Yeah. It (kind of), it signifies a sense of familiarity.

(Uh-hm).

You’re very familiar with a person.

Right.

Maybe you grew up with them.

Right.

Maybe you were kids together.

Absolutely. Yeah. , great, so just host for a-a male, a-a-a person who’s, (you know), putting on the, the event or the party or organizing things or hostess for a female.

But sometimes ‘host’ could actually be used if it’s a female, right. Sometimes I say that.

That’s true.

Yeah.

I think there’s a, somewhat of a trend to keep our language more gender-neutral.

.

, I know that in the past we had more specific terms like, , I think, (like), ‘steward’ and ‘stewardess’ for airlines, (you know), the, the person… Oh.

…who helps you. And now we have ‘flight attendant’.

Oh. Okay. Interesting.

So our language is changing. Flight attendant, of course, is for a man or a woman. So our language is changing to reflect that more equality that I guess we’re, we’re going towards here.

Yeah. (I mean), languages are dynamic, right.

.

That’s another topic we could talk about… Yeah.

…how English has changed and how it will continue to change.

Right.

And that’s why we encourage you guys to seek connection, and not perfection.

Oh yeah.

And go for talking with people and not memorizing dictionaries.

Right, because things do change. All right, the third phrase that we wanna (want to) share in this episode is: “So how do you keep yourself busy?” “Lindsay, how do you keep yourself busy?” “I work a lot.” No, you shouldn’t say that.

What about outside of work?

Okay. So I like to take walks around the city with friends.

Nice.

I like to attend martial arts classes sometimes.

Yeah, that’s great.

Yeah, I like to go hiking on the weekends.

Nice. Okay. So these sound like hobbies to me.

(Uh-huh).

But we don’t usually ask people, “What’s your hobby?” Right, that’s very text book.

Yeah. I’ve heard that a lot from people who are just saying what they read in their text book and that’s not really how people naturally talk. It’s not a common question to ask, “What’s your hobby?” If you say that to a native speaker at a barbecue or a party, they might look at you a little bit weird.

Yeah.

What?

Yeah, they’d understand you… Yeah.

…but… Yeah. It’s (kind of) strange.

Seems a little weird.

Yeah. So, it’s better to say, “How do you keep yourself busy?” or “What do you do in your free time?” There it is.

A couple of different options there. Now, in our guides that are 30 pages long each, we offer a lot of different alternative phrases, ways to say these questions and also, how to respond and how to keep the conversation going. So those guides are really practical and full of a plethora of phrases, a lot of phrases.

Yeah. Different ways to say things so that you guys can be confident when you finally meet people to speak with.

Yeah. So I hope that you like these phrases and you use these phrases. Again, just to review real quick, “So are you planning any trips this summer?” “How do you know the host?” and “So how do you keep yourself busy?” Right and one other thing that we always like to talk about here at All Ears English when we go into the language is we need to go into the culture, right?

(Mm).

Always.

Yeah.

So there’s one cultural mistake that you might be making at these social gatherings… Ooh.

…that we’re gonna (going to) share… Yeah.

Ooh, Yeah.

…that we’re gonna (going to) share with you in this course that you can download.

Right. We don’t want you to be afraid or scared to interact in these kind of situations, so we wanna (want to) fill in any gaps that you might feel in your knowledge about American culture or with the phrases that are common and appropriate to use. So we’re really here to give you that support and we just wanna (want to) help you be a confident communicator in English and build those connections with people.

Thanks for listening guys. Have a great day.

Thanks guys.

If you wanna (want to) put your ears into English more often, be sure to subscribe to our podcast in iTunes on your computer or on your smartphone. Thanks so much for listening and see you next time.