Thursday, January 3, 2008

Small Talk ESL Link


Hello. The topic of lesson one in our SLE book is about the first impressions that we make with people. I don't know about Korean culture and introductions that well, but in English we have a general pattern that people follow when talking to someone that they don't know well.

One common way to "break the ice" and start communicating with people is using "small talk." Small talk is simply talking about something casual in order to start contact. Small talk, greetings, and good byes are often akward during the conversations that I have with Koreans. Our languages and cultures simply are different enough to make these components of conversation uncomfortable.

Here are some links to some resources to help you learn more about communicating with people that you don't know well using small talk.

http://www.englishclub.com/speaking/small-talk.htm
- This is an ESL website with lots of practical information and tips about speaking english. This link is to the page with suggestions on using small talk.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGITVZkKE7A - This is a student-made video presentation training for using small talk, introductions, and good-byes. Although rather amateur (and a little creepy), the suggestions in this video are actually quite practical and useful. If you look at the "Related Videos" widows on the right, there are some other videos that may be useful and interesting for you.

http://www.ehow.com/how_10812_make-small-talk.html
- Another information sight suggesting how to make conversation.

Talk to you tonight. Let me know if this was helpful for you at all.

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