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Business English Power, Episode 67. Hello

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and welcome to Business English Power,

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the show for ambitious English students

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who want to level up their

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business English skills, become global communicators and

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international business leaders. My name

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is Al, also known as Al Sensei. During

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my 18 years spent in Japan, you

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might have seen me if you were there. I

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might have been your English teacher, I

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might have been your college instructor or

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corporate trainer, whichever the case may be.

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Thank you for tuning in today. You might

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just be a listener of the podcast, which

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is great as well. Thank you so much.

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I appreciate each and every one of you

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for being here and checking out Business English

0:44

Power. It really means a lot to

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me that you have taken a little bit out of your busy

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schedule and you entrusted

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me with at least

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this part of your English learning, in

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particular your business English

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learning. Thank you so much. Before

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we get into today's Power Pack

1:01

episode, please subscribe to

1:03

Business English Power in Apple Podcasts.

1:05

Just hit the subscribe button or

1:08

if you're in Spotify or any other app,

1:10

just hit the follow button and that would

1:13

be greatly appreciated so that you

1:15

don't miss a single episode on your side, but

1:17

also it helps people like

1:20

yourselves who need help with business

1:22

English find the show

1:24

as well. So

1:26

thank you for that. Now let's get into today's

1:28

episode. We're going to talk about socializing

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as we talk about the different business

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skills all the time, but

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these are five open-ended questions

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that you can ask just about

1:40

everyone. The

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reason we're going to talk about these five

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questions today is one of

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the comments that

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I heard a lot, one of the struggles that I heard

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a lot with my students is

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that they don't really know how to

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sustain a conversation. again

2:00

is really what we're talking about when

2:02

we talk about socializing. Now

2:04

why is this important at all? Yeah,

2:07

so really when

2:11

we're doing business, okay, of

2:13

course there's going to be the business talk. There's going to

2:15

be talk about your company, talk

2:17

about the industry, talk about what's going on,

2:19

talk about the business deal, projects,

2:21

the presentations, all of that business

2:23

stuff, right? But this is

2:26

stuff that happens outside of

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that realm. So when

2:30

you go out for a coffee,

2:32

when you go out for lunch, when you

2:34

might take a client to a

2:36

sporting event or go golfing, or

2:39

maybe you're driving them to the

2:41

airport, or maybe you're picking them up

2:43

at the airport. I mean

2:45

there's all these little times when

2:47

you have free, maybe you're

2:49

at a business conference and you're meeting people.

2:52

Okay, so these are just questions that you can

2:54

ask mostly anyone in this

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kind of situation. And again,

2:59

the purpose is not to be like an

3:01

interrogation work, you just rattle off all these

3:03

questions, but it's for you to

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have in, as we

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say, in your toolbox that

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you can pull out and use when you need

3:11

them so that you don't freeze

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up and get flustered when you're

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in the real situation. And

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as I always talk about here, study, practice,

3:20

perform, you want to study, which is

3:22

what we're doing here, you're learning the phrases, the

3:24

questions, and then you're going

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to practice speaking them in your free time so

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that when you're in the real situation, you can

3:31

perform. And that's the strategy,

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that is the formula that we use

3:36

here on Business English Power, study,

3:38

practice, perform. Alright,

3:40

so today, let's get into

3:42

these five questions. Most

3:44

of them are open-ended that you can ask

3:46

just about anyone. The first

3:49

question, we're going to start off easy. Okay, so we

3:51

want to start off easy, stress-free, so

3:53

that you can build up to get to the

3:55

more challenging ones later. Start

3:58

easy if you're having trouble. trouble. Now

4:01

the first question is, where

4:03

are you from? Okay,

4:06

and you can practice that with me. Where

4:08

are you from? Okay,

4:11

for both of you, that's not challenging at all. It's

4:13

a pretty standard question, but

4:15

it does spark a conversation. Now

4:18

again, probably, you know, they're going to

4:20

answer something, you know, like a city

4:23

or a country, which is fine. And

4:25

then that'll lead to natural follow-up questions.

4:27

Okay, because when you are talking to

4:30

someone and you're building rapport, building

4:32

a relationship, you know, again, it

4:35

may not seem that way at first, but that's what

4:37

we're doing here is we're building this relationship little

4:40

by little. You want to

4:42

make sure that the conversation is

4:44

flowing smoothly like a river. That's the

4:46

goal. So you want the other person

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to feel like this is a fun

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interaction. And so if you ask them

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first, where are they from? And then you, just

4:55

quickly divert, you know, you quickly change the subject

4:57

to something else. So let's just kind of play

4:59

it out. Just so you say, Hey, where are

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you from? And they say, Oh, I'm from Chicago.

5:03

Oh, what's your

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favorite food? Oh, I

5:08

like pizza. Oh,

5:10

and then you just switch to another

5:12

question. So that could be a little

5:15

bit intimidating. And it might

5:17

put off some of the people that you're talking to,

5:19

right? So we don't want to do that. We want

5:22

to follow up on the

5:24

question. So if you ask, Hey, where are you from? And

5:26

they say, Oh, I'm from Chicago. Oh,

5:28

Chicago. I've heard a lot

5:30

about it. What's

5:32

your favorite place in Chicago? Or what is there to

5:34

do in Chicago? Or what do you like to eat

5:37

in Chicago? Or what is it like in

5:40

Chicago? Even a very open question.

5:42

Oh, I've never been to Chicago.

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Tell me about it. Okay, so

5:47

any of these kind of follow up questions, and

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normally people will be happy to

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talk about their hometown or talk

5:54

about themselves. Okay, so we start easy. Where

5:56

are you from? Now, one variation of this that I

5:58

like is, Because if

6:00

again somebody is visiting your hometown,

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then you can ask them, oh, where are

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you visiting from? Okay,

6:09

so that's a question I use a lot because I

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meet a lot of visitors to Hawaii here. So

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I love to ask them, where are you visiting from? And

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they will tell me, they love to share where they're from.

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Okay, so that's a good one to start things off.

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Number two, let's move on to the second question. So

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this question is, what

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do you like to do for fun? Okay,

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so good question. Please repeat after me.

6:41

What do you like to do for fun? Okay,

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good. Now when you practice, make sure you

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have the intonation as well. And

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again, if you can't say it as fast as me,

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don't worry, just work slowly and build up so

6:54

that the pace will become natural. Again,

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the more important thing is to get intonation and

6:59

then your pace will naturally increase after

7:01

you practice a bit more. So

7:04

what do you like to do for fun is a

7:06

good question because it's a very natural question. Now

7:09

a lot of you probably know the question, for example,

7:11

what are your hobbies? Or

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something like that, right? Now

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in English, actually that's very unnatural to

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ask, what are your hobbies? It's

7:20

very direct, which is good, but

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it's just not something that

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native speakers will ask each other. It's

7:28

not natural. And so

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a question that we will ask is, what do you like to do

7:33

for fun or what do you like to do in your free time?

7:36

Okay, those are natural questions. I

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was actually in my original planning for this episode, I was thinking,

7:41

what do you like to do in your free time, which is

7:43

fine. But then I was thinking, more

7:45

and even more natural, more engaging is what do

7:48

you like to do for fun? And

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then the people like to share, then they'll naturally

7:53

answer with their hobbies or things that they like

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to do. And so

7:57

I'll say, oh, I love to go off or I love

7:59

to go. surfing or,

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well, I like to sit down and watch TV or

8:03

whatever they like to do for

8:05

fun. Or I like to go with my kids to

8:07

the beach or I like to

8:09

take my daughter to the mall or

8:13

whatever the case is. So they'll share

8:15

with you what that is. Again, always

8:17

follow up with at least one

8:20

or two follow up questions. That

8:23

is number two. What do you like to do for fun? Number

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three. Let's move on. How

8:28

do you like blank? How

8:31

do you like blank? The blank

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could be a place. That's what

8:35

I was thinking. It could be something

8:37

else too, but let's start easy. Maybe

8:40

again, the person is visiting or

8:43

maybe you are at a conference and you're both

8:45

in a new city. So

8:48

you can ask, oh, how do you like London if

8:50

that's where you are? Let's

8:53

try that again. Please repeat. Do you like

8:55

London? Okay, great. And

9:00

again, very simple, very short. The

9:03

purpose is it's an open-ended question

9:05

that the listener will want

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to answer in their own words. Okay,

9:10

and that'll create a lot of conversation

9:13

because they feel like you're

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curious about them and they want

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to share their opinions in most

9:19

cases. Okay, so they're going to

9:21

tell you, oh, yeah, London's great.

9:24

I love the sights here.

9:26

I love Big Ben. I love the London

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Eye. The architecture

9:30

is so beautiful. I

9:32

love this or I love that. Or maybe they'll say

9:34

something that's not so positive. Maybe they'll say, oh, it's

9:36

kind of cloudy and weary and rainy. I

9:38

don't really like it that much, kind of cold. Maybe

9:41

they'll say that. It doesn't matter. It doesn't

9:43

matter what they say in terms of positive or

9:45

negative. What matters is that

9:48

you're connecting with them. Okay,

9:50

so, oh, I see. I

9:53

understand what they're saying. And then follow up. Always

9:55

follow up. Okay, so even if they say, oh,

9:58

it's kind of cloudy and rainy. Oh, it's cloudy. Is

10:00

it like that where you're from? Or

10:02

oh, I kind of like it. It's

10:05

a bit hot where I'm from, so I kind of like the

10:07

cool air. How cold is

10:09

it where you're from? Or something like that,

10:11

right? It's going to follow up with

10:13

them, whatever they say. Now

10:16

if you use it for a place, that's pretty, you know,

10:18

that's one of the more simpler ways.

10:22

Or maybe, again, if you're there for a conference, you could say,

10:24

oh, how do you like the conference so far? Or

10:27

anything that you know that

10:29

they've experienced. How do you like the food

10:31

here? Whatever

10:35

the case is, fill in that blank.

10:37

But how do you like? Blank is

10:40

a really good natural question to ask.

10:44

All right, let's move on to number

10:46

four. Number

10:50

four is, what are your

10:52

plans for the weekend? Please

10:57

repeat. So what are your plans for the weekend?

11:02

Okay, good. Now most people

11:05

have the weekend off on

11:07

most cases, right? Now

11:10

if they don't, you can just rearrange that to, so

11:12

what are your plans for your days off or something

11:14

like that, yeah? But again,

11:16

most people understand, you know, people have plans

11:18

for the weekend. And so that's a really

11:20

common question. Or again,

11:23

if they're visiting your hometown or where you

11:25

are, you can ask, oh, what are your

11:27

plans during your stay? Okay,

11:31

and that's a pretty natural question to ask someone if you've

11:33

been chatting with them for a little bit. Again,

11:35

if this is a complete stranger and you're just meeting them

11:37

for the first time, again, you have to

11:39

feel it out a little bit. Maybe just get to know them

11:42

a little bit. You don't want to ask this as your first

11:44

question. But again, if it's somebody,

11:46

a business contact, or even somebody

11:48

you just met, if

11:50

you kind of understand that, you know, they

11:53

were there for work or they're there for business, maybe

11:55

they do have a couple of days off, oh,

11:57

what are your plans for your days off? What are your plans for the weekend?

12:00

Again, they'd be usually

12:02

happy to share, oh well, yeah, I'm going to

12:05

check out the sites. I'm going

12:07

to see the museum for whatever

12:09

the case is for them. But

12:12

it's a good question because it gets them to talk

12:14

about themselves, which is always a plus

12:17

when we're building a relationship because

12:20

when you ask questions that people

12:22

can share about themselves, that

12:25

means you are

12:27

showing interest in them. And

12:30

how that comes off to them is that

12:32

you are a good person, you're a good

12:34

listener. And that is something that's

12:36

kind of hard to find these days. When

12:39

you build that rapport, you build a

12:41

relationship, that means you're

12:44

doing something well. It means you know, it may end

12:46

up in a business relationship, maybe

12:48

not. But again, that's not what

12:50

we're talking about this for. Hopefully it

12:52

does if that's your goal.

12:54

But the more important thing is just to

12:57

have these connections. Alright,

12:59

and it's going to be fulfilling either way. Alright,

13:02

so we're going to go on to our fifth

13:04

question today. And this is the most, we'll

13:07

call it challenging one, but if you can get up

13:09

to this, I'd highly recommend

13:11

it. And

13:16

this one, you're going to have to make

13:19

a judgment call on whether it's

13:21

appropriate or not. But it's a

13:23

really good question if you've developed a little bit of rapport

13:26

first with this person, but

13:28

a really solid good question. And

13:32

number five is, what

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are you the most excited about right now? Okay,

13:43

one more time. What are you the

13:45

most excited about right now? Okay,

13:56

and there's a couple of variations of this. You need to ask

13:58

something like, oh, what's the most... most exciting

14:00

thing in your life right now. What

14:04

are you the most excited about right now? So

14:07

that is a question

14:10

where most people

14:12

ask, so what do you do for your

14:15

job? Which is

14:17

a very standard normal question in that

14:19

circumstance. But the

14:21

reason that we're asking, so what are you the most excited

14:23

about right now, is to

14:27

have them share what they're passionate about or

14:29

what they're enthusiastic about at the

14:31

moment because it gets people to

14:33

share something that they really usually want

14:35

to share with someone but nobody will

14:37

ever ask them. When

14:40

is the last time someone asked you, what are you

14:42

the most excited about right now? I

14:45

don't remember anybody asking me that recently. And

14:48

so it gets people to share their

14:51

enthusiasms, their passions with you. Or

14:53

something that may just be coming up that's exciting for them.

14:57

And if you can ask this question at

14:59

the right time after you've built up a

15:01

little bit of rapport, people

15:03

will be really excited to

15:06

share about themselves and share what

15:08

they really really love to do or

15:10

something some event that's coming up. And

15:13

maybe they'll unlock certain ideas and

15:15

thoughts and feelings that they really

15:17

haven't shared with many people.

15:21

And so it's a really good question

15:23

to ask. Again, not the first question

15:25

by any means, but after you've started

15:27

building a little bit of rapport with

15:29

people, I think

15:32

it's a good question to ask. And again,

15:34

it's an open-ended question to get people to

15:36

talk and share. And

15:39

again, you can always ask follow-ups to

15:41

these questions. And when you ask follow-ups,

15:44

that means you're interested. And

15:46

when you're interested, that means people tend to

15:48

like you more. And

15:50

again, you have to just fight the temptation a

15:52

little bit in any kind of socializing situation to

15:55

always share about yourself because that's usually the

15:58

temptation for most of us is to want

16:00

to share ourselves, which

16:02

is good, however, to be

16:04

a next level

16:07

communicator, which

16:10

I think is what we're trying to do here,

16:12

you're going to put yourself in

16:16

back first. You're going

16:18

to prioritize the other person and

16:21

naturally they're going to reciprocate again,

16:24

they're going to want to do what

16:26

you did for them and

16:28

ask, they'll ask you questions as well. Then

16:31

you get to share yourself. But

16:34

if you show interest in that person first,

16:37

they're going to really think you are

16:39

special because not many people will

16:41

do that in today's world. All

16:44

right, so that went a little

16:46

bit long in the explanations today, but

16:48

five questions you can ask. Get a

16:50

powerful episode, guys, share this episode if

16:53

you found this valuable. Share it with

16:55

a friend, a family, a colleague, classmate.

16:59

This is really good stuff, guys. Only

17:01

here on Business English Power. I don't know where

17:03

else you can find this kind of content

17:06

in this genre. All

17:09

right, guys, I appreciate you listening today and

17:11

I will talk to you again very soon

17:13

in the next episode. But until

17:15

then, as we always say, you always want to

17:17

be leveling up your learning because

17:19

you will level up your life.