Here’s a sample video from Creativa’s Mastering Business Video Calls in English course, which has tips for expressing yourself effectively: Creativa is a new product from the FluentU team. Creativa provides entertaining videos, useful but unexpected tips, and goes beyond just English to teach you body language, intonation and specific pronunciation tips.
In this situations, it is essential that you know how to talk to these acquaintances at work properly.īy the way, a resource that we recommend for that is Creativa.Ĭreativa provides premium, highly produced videos for learning English and business communication skills.
You will often encounter acquaintances in your everyday life, but also in your professional life at work. If you both know each other but don’t say anything to the other person, it’s somewhat rude (bad manners). When you see an acquaintance somewhere, it’s polite to greet them. This could be someone you’ve met just once or twice, perhaps a friend of a friend, an old classmate that you were never really friends with or a man who works at the local grocery store. Who are acquaintances and strangers?Īcquaintances are people that you know, but don’t know very well. Of course, you can use these with anyone you speak to, even family and close friends. This first section will give you some formal (more polite) answers to “How are you?” You will use these when you’re talking to acquaintances and strangers. Try FluentU for FREE! Formal Answers to “How Are You?”
First we’ll look at what to say when people you don’t know or people you don’t know very well ask how you are. Your answer to the question “How are you?” depends on who asked you the question. (Download) What Your ESL Teacher Didn’t Tell You About “How Are You?”
Really?! What’s wrong with “fine”? And what if you are really hungry, why would people be surprised to hear it? Keep on reading to see all the possible answers and reactions to “How are you?”-things you never learned in ESL class or during your self-study.ĭownload: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that youĬan take anywhere.
Some friends might ask you “What’s wrong?” if you say that you’re fine. People would be surprised to hear you say that you’re hungry or angry. If these answers were said by native English speakers in everyday situations, there might be some interesting reactions. Once, I had a boy tell me he was “perfect!” Sometimes students say they’re “ happy,” “hungry” or “angry.” Sounds easy, right? Don’t you just tell people how you feel?Įvery day in my elementary ESL class, I greet (say hello to) my students with a cheerful (happy) “Good morning! How are you today?” Then it’s time to make sure you know how to react when someone asks “How are you?” Want to avoid awkward conversations with native English speakers? By Rebecca Thering How Are You Doing? How to Introduce Yourself in English