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This is an All Ears English Podcast, Episode 160: “No Idea How to Network in English: 3 Phrases to Help You.”

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.

At a networking event, are you often nervous about what to say after, “Hi, how are you”? Today, get three phrases to fill that space and speak like a natural English speaker.

Hey, Gabby.

Hey, Lindsay, how are you?

Got a question for ya’ (you).

Okay, shoot.

So, do you go to networking events a lot?

I do, occasionally…

yeah.

Occasionally.

I really enjoy them.

Me too. I like them, but I don’t know sometimes I feel a little bit like it’s hard to get into groups, (you know), people stand in these tight groups and I don’t know what to do.

Yeah.

How ‘bout (about) you?

Yeah, I find it really difficult as well and I really have to push myself to approach new people, (uh), I have to get out of my comfort zone and I have to walk up to a complete stranger and just start talking, but sometimes I don’t know… Both: …what to say.

I mean), after you get past the, “Hi, how are you?”

Whaddya (what do you) do?

That’s pretty basic, right?

Ooh, that’s like the dead zone, right.

Yeah.

It’s like those few seconds where you’re like, “What am I gonna (going to) say next?”

Right. I think it’s common to say, “Hi, how are you?” And then at a networking event maybe, “Where do you work?” Or it depends if you’re at an open networking event or…

Right.

A networking event for your company, if you’re working at a big company.

Exactly.

So it kinda’ (kind of) depends, but then what?

Right.

Then what? I don’t know.

I guess if you know the right phrases to use you’re just fine, right?

Yeah, yeah.

You’ll be just fine.

Well, that’s why we created a guide for networking and we have five phrases in the guide. We’re going to share three of them with you today, in today’s episode, and you’ll be able to find all five phrases along with a cultural tip and three other parts of the Connecting with Americans series on our website at AllEarsEnglish.com/keys, k-e-y-s. So, there’s four hours of video content plus four in-depth guides which have about 30 pages each of, (uh), practical information.

Yeah.

So, (you know), that’s a lot of information and a lot of value and it’s too much to include in our ten minute…

Exactly.

Podcast episodes, but as I said you can find it on our website, (uh), at /keys…

Yeah.

k-e-y-s.

And it’s available for instant download, which is pretty cool because that means if you wanna (want to) get started right now you can.

Yeah.

But let’s get into it, let’s…

Cool.

Share three of ‘em (them).

Okay, so, Lindsay, what projects are you working on right now?

Actually, funny that you asked because I’m working on a super cool podcast right now.

Tell me about it.

Well, it’s legendary.

“I heard there’s a lot of really attractive and intelligent listeners.” Lindsay: “Yep, and, and there’s a lot of banter on the other end of the mic (microphone). We have a lot of great audience members, community members…”

Yeah.

And it’s fun.

Cool, cool.

What are you working on?

Well, I’m also working on a podcast…

Kidding.

Believe it or not. Sounds like your podcast is really similar.

We’re competitors.

Oh, no. We can work together.

Yeah.

Okay, great.

I love to collaborate.

Okay, good. So the phrase, guys, is, “What projects are you working on right now?” You could (ta-), take out the word ‘projects’ and just say, “What are you working on right now?”

Yeah. So, (uh), on the video series on the (cour-), in the, course, we talked about how this is a very trendy phrase right now especially in entrepreneurial circles.

Right, and it could work in a lot of different circles, but as Lindsay said it’s, it’s great.

Okay, so let’s move on to the second phrase. (Uh), I’ll let you do that Lindsay.

Yeah. “So fill me in on what’s going on in your career right now.” Gabby: “Well, right now I’m transitioning to work more and more on my online English teaching.”

Is that right?

That’s right. That’s through a podcast, that’s through video lessons and working on a couple of websites. I really enjoy being able to reach a worldwide audience.”

Ah, okay.

Even, even, more than the classroom. So I’m kinda’ (kind of) transitioning from being a classroom teacher to more online.”

(Um), so your career trajectory is going in a slightly different direction.”

Yeah.

Non-traditional direction.

Right, well, and I love technology, so that’s (kind of) where I’m focusing right now.

Nice.

How ‘bout (about), how ‘bout (about) you? Fill me in on what’s going on in your career right now.

Yeah, so I’m trying to also trying to learn skills to build a community…

Ooh.

Online.

Yeah.

And I’m trying to learn how to also manage a team. Build…”

Right.

A team of people, of great teachers and great, (you know), admin (administrative) people that can help us out and help us just, just, serve, (you know), our audience in a great way.”

Absolutely.

Yeah. Learning…

That’s great.

How to manage, it’s not easy.

Wow, it’s a lot of, a lot of, learning going on.

Wonderful. Okay, so that key phrase, again, was, “Fill me in on what’s going on in your career right now.” Let’s take a look at the third phase. “How did you end up in your current position?

What the heck does ‘end up’ mean?

End up’, well, how did you arrive or why are you in current position?” I would say, “How did you arrive?” or “What brought you to you current position?”

Yeah, this phrasal verb is good. The, and, and the slight difference between ‘arrive’ in my mind is that it has a bit of a more, (um), less intentional feel to it. ‘End up is like you just found yourself somewhere…

Right.

kind of less intentional, but that’s the phrasal verb, good phrasal verb to have and to use.

Yeah.

So how did you end up in current position?

Interesting. So about three or four years ago I started making video lessons online and when I got some good responses from viewers and a lot of views I realized, ‘Hey, there’s something to this teaching online and building a, a website,’ and you can just reach so many people and it’s very rewarding

Awesome.

Yeah. How ‘ bout (about) you Lindsay, how did you end up in your current position?

Yeah, so I started my teaching career in Japan, right?

And then I was in New York. I ended up teaching in New York because…”

Yeah.

That was the thing that made sense to pay the rent.”

“Yeah.”

And then I ended up starting my own company because…”

Nice.

Well, it was a great way to spend my time…” Gabby: “Right.”

Working for myself.”

Excellent. Okay so the phrase again is, “How did you end up in your current position?”

Okay.

Great. So that’s – those are the three phrases that we want to share with you guys today because of our time limit with the, the podcast episode, but again we encourage you to, (you know), delve deeper into more phrases and more examples with our, our full course, The Keys to Connecting with Americans parts one, two, three, and four which are all bundled together into an instant download so we encourage you to check that out or, (you know), keep listening to the free podcast episodes.

There you go.

All right.

Thanks for listening today, guys.

Thanks. See ya’ (you).

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.