A Good Way To Open A Conversation

I know that some of you have trouble making what Americans call "small talk"--the talk that Americans make in social situations that helps move a situation along--talk to our co-workers, the people we do business with, and so on.

A good way to open a basic conversation in America is to make a remark about the weather. This may seem obvious, but culturally it's a good way to breach conversation with someone you don't know very well or don't know at all. It's considered a "safe" topic, and if you need to progress further you can.

Remarking on the weather will not make you an excellent conversationalist, but it'll get you started--it also depends on how you do it. "It's very hot outside." is a pedestrian thing to say, but if you walk into work and say, "Hoooooooweeee, it's hot. My goodness." in a loud voice, someone will take up the thread of conversation.

Americans tend to be very loud and expressive of emotion. We aren't reserved at all; we are informal speakers and we have no problem showing others how we feel--we are not subtle or delicate about our emotions, we express them everywhere and anywhere, with anyone.

This can be a hard thing to learn if you are not a native speaker of American English or if your culture is not as openly expressive of emotion. Some people perceive Americans as aggressive because we are so loud. That's one way to look at it. Another way is that Americans feel things very primally and very deeply.

Americans, by the way, tend to express their emotions in their speech via the use of intonation--the up, the down, the stretching of vowels, the stressing of and emphasis on certain words and syllables in speech, the changes in musical pitch when we speak, so on and so forth. If you are interested in learning how that works, I give accent reduction lessons and lessons in American speech. Give me a call at (732) 618-4135 to get your free phone consultation and remember that I offer a free no-obligation trial lesson. Call me today!