156. Showing Interest

Marco: Hello, everyone! And welcome to EnglishPod. My name is Marco.

Catherine: My name is Catherine. And today we're talking about a very very important part of conversations in English.

Marco: That's right. Today we are introducing a new series all about small talk.

Catherine: Okay, what is small talk, Marco?

Marco: Small talk is just everyday conversation about maybe the weather, about how you are, what's new in your life, etc. It's just plain conversation.

Catherine: So, something very simple and usually pretty quick. It's what you say to people when you bump into them or when you see them at a party. So, let's take a listen to today's dialogue and find out just what kind of small talk we have.

Tina: Hey, Michelle, this is my friend James. He's visiting Shanghai from New York.

Michelle: Oh, hi, James. Nice to meet you. So, uh, are you visiting for business or pleasure?

James: Well, actually a little of both. I'm meeting some business contacts but I'm also taking some Mandarin classes too.

Michelle: That's cool! How's it going?

James: Well, I'm finding the classes pretty tough actually, but I'm having a greattime in Shanghai. It's really an amazing city.

Michelle:It sure is. Are you staying for long?

James: Only two weeks unfortunately. I wish I could stay longer but... 

Michelle: Well, listen, if you need someone to show you the sights, then just call me. I'm having a little get-together at my new apartment next week, so if you want todrop by then...

James: That sounds great! I'd love to! Let me take down your number, Michelle.

Marco: All right, we're back now. Let's take a look at a lot of great phrases that we've picked out for you this time on 'fluency builder'.

Fluency builder

Catherine: All right, so, I've got two fluency builders today, so we're gonna be exploring a lot of different phrases. They've got three now. The first one is very very common. You hear this phrase 'nice to meet you'.

Marco: Right. So, obviously, if you meet someone new,you're introduced by your friend or something, you can just say "Hi, nice to meet you!"

Catherine: All right, so, nice to meet you, nice to meet you too. That's what we say afterwards, because it sounds very funny if you say it two times, so...

Marco: Right.

Catherine: Hi, it's nice to meet you! Oh, it's nice to meet you too!

Marco: Right. Exactly. So, she went on this girl Michelle to ask if he is visiting shanghai for business or pleasure.

Catherine: This is an important, different... something that we often talk about in small talk. You can travel for business. That means business trips. We can travel to see different sights and have fun. That's called pleasure. And so we often hear this phrase 'business or pleasure'.

Marco: Right. So, if someone comes to your country, you say "Oh, so are you here for business or pleasure?"

Catherine: I'm here on business or I'm here to see the sights. 

Marco: Okay, very good. And so, James is actually in shanghai doing both things. He's on a business trip, but he's also taking Mandarin classes. And so, Michelle went on to say "That's great.How's it going?"

Catherine: All right, you're gonna hear this all the time in English. We say "how is it going" to our friends and family. I wouldn't say it in a formal occasion with my boss or with my teacher, but it's very casual, very informal. And it's a way to ask how things are.

Marco: Right.

Catherine: So, you're taking classes. How is it going?

Marco: Exactly. So, this basically means how are the class is going? How is everything?

Catherine: Right. Or you could say "Marco,I haven't seen you in a while. How is it going?"

Marco: And that's another way of saying 'hi' to someone or saying 'how are you'.

Catherine: How are you?How have you been recently?

Marco: So, there are two differences in that phrase there. In this case,Michelle is asking how the Mandarin classes are going. How is it? Is it good? Is it bad? Is it difficult? Is it easy...etc. But if you say to someone "Hi,I haven't seen you for such a long time. How's it going?" That's more of a "how are you" type thing. 

Catherine: That's like how's your life going?

Marco: Exactly.

Catherine: So, just think about what you're talking about. Are you talking about general situations like your person, a person's life, or are you talking about maybe lessons or class or job?

Marco: That's right. So, we're gonna take a break here. Let's listen to the dialogue again and we'll be back in a little bit with more phrases.

Tina: Hey, Michelle, this is my friend James. He's visiting Shanghai from New York.

Michelle: Oh, hi, James. Nice to meet you. So, uh,are you visiting for business orpleasure?

James: Well, actually a little of both. I'm meeting some business contacts but I'malso taking some Mandarin classes too.

Michelle: That's cool! How's it going?

James: Well, I'm finding the classes pretty tough actually, but I'm having a greattime in Shanghai. It's really an amazing city.

Michelle:It sure is. Are you staying for long?

James: Only two weeks unfortunately. I wish I could stay longer but... 

Michelle: Well, listen, if you need someone to show you the sights, then just call me. I'm having a little get-together at my new apartment next week, so if you want todrop by then...

James: That sounds great! I'd love to! Let me take down your number, Michelle.

Marco: All right, we're back. Now let's take a look at 'fluency builder' part two.

Catherine: So, Michelle at the end of today's dialogue says if you need someone to show you the sights, then just call me. All right, so, to show someone the sights, we talked about this a little bit earlier with that word pleasure, what does it mean to show someone the sights, Marco?

Marco: So, basically the sights, we're talking about the different attractions of a city or a place. So, the museums, maybe different buildings or different attractions... In general, what is there to sight-see?

Catherine: So, we are in Paris, Marco, and I say "Hey, I'd love to show you the sights.What do you expect to see?"

Marco: So, maybe we would go to the Eiffel Tower. Maybe we would go to...

Catherine: Notre-Dame Cathedral.

Marco: Exactly. So, we would go see all these different sights and to show... And that would mean that you are showing me the sights. You are taking me to see all these sights. And she is also having a little get-together at her apartment, at her new apartment. So, what is a little get-together? This is a noun.

Catherine: This is a get-together. So, think about this two different words actually "get together", but it's a noun, it's a thing. It's like a party, butit's a small party.

Marco: Right. A little get-together.

Catherine: So, I like to think of a get-together as something very casual, something very small, sometimes intimate, where you just have three or four or five friends. And it's not as big as a party where everyone's dancing and...

Marco: Okay, so a little get-together is just a small group of people. You invite them over to your house, very relaxed, very casual. It's not really a party,it's more of a reunion of friends.

Catherine: And like we said, it's a noun, you say "I'm having a get-together, you should come."

Marco: Okay. And she actually asks him to come, but she says it in a different way. She says "If you want to drop by."

Catherine: Okay, this is something people often say in small talk, because you don't wanna say you should come stay for a while, because that's, I don't know... They just met...

Marco: It's not an order.

Catherine: So, you should drop by means you should come and see and decide if you wanna stay.

Marco: So, basically, it's also kind of a relaxed way of saying you can come whenever you want during our party or our get-together.

Catherine: So, if the get-together is 9:00 pm to midnight, you can drop by whenever, 10 o'clock, 11 o'clock... So, to drop by is to come for a short period.

Marco: So, if we're talking on the phone and I say I'll drop by your house later on today. That means I'm going to go to your house very quickly at an unexpected time.

Catherine: Yeah, or you could use it in a question. You know, Marco, I really wanted to borrow that DVD,when can I drop by to pick it up?

Marco: Very good. Now let's take a look at our last phrase. Michelle and James decided that they wanna keep in touch. And so he said "Let me take down your number."

Catherine: So, we're not talking about...

Marco: Talking it anywhere...

Catherine: Taking a number anywhere and going somewhere. We're talking about writing something down. So, in this case, your number is your phone number. Let me take down your number means let me write down your telephone number.

Marco: So, it's another way of saying let me write down your telephone number.Take down my phone number, call me later.

Catherine: That's right. So, can I take down your number? So I can call you later. That's another way of asking this question.

Marco: Very good. All right, so, that concludes fluency builder, let's listen to our dialogue one last time and we'll be back in a bit.

Tina: Hey, Michelle, this is my friend James. He's visiting Shanghai from New York.

Michelle: Oh, hi, James. Nice to meet you. So, uh,are you visiting for business orpleasure?

James: Well, actually a little of both. I'm meeting some business contacts but I'malso taking some Mandarin classes too.

Michelle: That's cool! How's it going?

James: Well, I'm finding the classes pretty tough actually, but I'm having a greattime in Shanghai. It's really an amazing city.

Michelle:It sure is. Are you staying for long?

James: Only two weeks unfortunately. I wish I could stay longer but... 

Michelle: Well, listen, if you need someone to show you the sights, then just call me. I'm having a little get-together at my new apartment next week, so if you want todrop by then...

James: That sounds great! I'd love to! Let me take down your number, Michelle.

Marco: Okay. So, this is part one of our small talk series. We're gonna have 10 episodes. In each episode,we're gonna be faced with a little different situation or circumstance where we will be forced to have a very quick chat with someone.

Catherine: That's right. And so you're often going to find yourself in these situations if you're traveling to an English speaking country or you're living or working in America, for example. So, it's really important because I think oftentimes you don't learn this in class. This is something that you have to really learn when you're in the country or learn with us here at EnglishPod.

Marco: That's right.It's a little bit of social skills for these awkward or maybe new situations.

Catherine: Exactly.

Marco: All right, so if you guys have any other questions or doubts, you can find us at englishpod.com and we'll see everyone there.

Catherine: Bye, guys!

Marco: Bye!