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is that with extra cream of marshmallows

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or is that with just plain

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and is it with oat milk or is it with

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soy milk or is it normal hot cold it's

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too hot too calm too wet too dry i find

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that british people are very

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they don't take compliments very well oh

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my god that jacket that's really cool

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nice um where did you get that where can

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i get it oh it looks really good on you

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hiya welcome to easy english so this

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week i wanted to approach the subject of

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small talk i want to know what the

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people of britain talk about the most

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while they're waiting in the queue at

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the shops or for a bus i wanted to know

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what is appropriate and inappropriate

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small talk before we get started if

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you're a fan of easy english then please

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don't forget to like and subscribe to us

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here we go what in your opinion is good

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or appropriate maybe let's say small

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talk

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something that interests you something

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that's your passion okay so you might be

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somebody at the bus stop

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and have a chin wag about gardens or you

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might talk about the weather

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but my passion personally is gardens

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what what in your opinion is good small

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talk

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uh the weather is probably a really safe

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thing to talk about in the uk

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yeah because it's always horrible which

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is always something to complain about

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yeah um or it's a nice day which is

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really exciting and so everyone goes oh

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my god the sun is out the the clouds are

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gone oh my god

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and that excites people a lot since the

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weather is awful a lot of the time let's

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say that i don't know you and we're

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sending a bus stop like oh hi how's it

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going and then you say late yeah not bad

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thanks how are you and then then when it

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comes a bit like stale and a bit awkward

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the first thing you go to is the weather

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you think uh i'd say probably the

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weather yeah say oh isn't it like a nice

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day today or what a strange you know day

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is uh you know because it might have

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been raining it might have been sunny i

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might just yell might have had a

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thunderstorm so probably go straight to

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the weather and then i'd also if we were

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waiting for a bus i'd probably say thank

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goodness that the bus is here in three

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minutes

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uh we can all you know get to where we

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want to be that's clever so you'd apply

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some sort of small talk in the sort of

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common ground they're like yeah in where

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i say like yeah say for a bus stop we'll

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say if we're on a uh i don't know

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waiting for a queue and like costa for

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example i'd say oh so

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i'm here for a coffee are you here for a

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coffee yeah oh brilliant and a hot

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chocolate oh okay right yeah yeah is

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that with extra cream and marshmallows

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or is that with just plain

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and is it with oat milk or is it with

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soy milk or is it with normal milk

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that's fantastic

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appropriate small talk would be

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obviously the weather it's the brits

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obsessed by the weather

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hot cold too hot too cold too wet too

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dry general small talk especially during

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now is are you going on holiday

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have you been away especially with the

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lockdown everyone's definitely desperate

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to get away no then we like to talk

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about um politics quite a lot oh really

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yeah find out about you know who someone

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are you you you know pro pro johnson

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auntie johnson what's going on with

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brexit is also a good oh well not good

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that's what we like to talk about so

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anything that's kind of like current and

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that we don't have control over

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i would have thought that politics they

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would say like i never mentioned

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politics oh right okay but maybe you can

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go into a bit more because i'd like to

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know then what is sort of unacceptable

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small talk maybe you should go into well

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who did you vote for yes yeah yeah yeah

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yeah what would you classes what things

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would you never sort of use a small talk

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that's a good question because i think

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if you're if i'm having a conversation

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with somebody about um

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politics and

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then it goes into brexit

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and then people start saying are you

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pro-brexit or anti-brexit and then it's

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like oh

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and then you know i've been in

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conversations with people before when

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it's gone into brexit and then people

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start talking very inappropriately about

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immigrants and and then you're just like

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oh okay people think that you're

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with them you're like opening up your

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arms but too much people well people

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just think that you're with them if

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they're like pro brexit and they start

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talking about how we should be you know

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inappropriately talking about stopping

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immigrants from coming in and then

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suddenly you're like well that's really

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not yeah my jam yeah it sort of

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oversteps the line but where is that

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line is it sort of going into your own

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personal

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feelings or yeah yeah i think it is well

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i think it's about in the same way that

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it would be like well who did you vote

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for and then if somebody you're talking

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to is against your beliefs then suddenly

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it goes from small talk into like a

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debate and then it just gets a bit what

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kind of small talk uh do you do when you

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approach someone if i was to approach

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someone i would ask them how their day

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was i would ask them how um what the

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weather's been like and you know things

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like that i'd say like you know what's

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the weather what do you think about the

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weather today

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um i'll just ask them yeah how their day

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was if they've had a nice day

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if they've been up to anything nice

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recently if i was an extra in a bus stop

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and i sort of we sort of made eye

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contact i said oh hello how how are you

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what would you firstly go uh what would

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you say how'd it go our conversation oh

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yeah i'd say yeah i'm very well thanks

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and how are you and uh very good thanks

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very good and if you're from another

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country i'd ask them what where they're

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from oh yeah

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first visit to brighton

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ah that's a good one we used to host uh

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students so um

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from other countries so it's nice to

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know where they're from how long they're

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going to be here say i bump into a bus

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stop

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after we've sort of said hello to each

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other every sort of like catch up as eye

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contact do you first like go to

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something like oh nice day in it

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um usually to start off with

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in general i usually just like try

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complimenting people so i go oh my god

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that jacket that's really cool nice um

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where did you get that where can i get

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it oh it looks really good on you um

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like that kind of thing or like

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complimenting people's hair or like

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glasses or

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something it's interesting that you say

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that because my next question was going

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to be around kind of

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what is appropriate because

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i also would say that i don't mind if

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people give me a compliment but then

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what is like too much what is like when

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you shouldn't because you're saying

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about kind of personal character traits

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right which is kind of on the edge of

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maybe where the line is

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where would you think the line is i'd

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generally say if it's something the

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person is clearly personalized for

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themselves so not something that they

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can't change such as body type or skin

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color

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or maybe even eye color but if you say

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those glasses they're really nice that's

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a very different compliment from oh you

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have beautiful eyes right um or i really

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love the way you've done your hair

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um that can be a bit

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um

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but yeah i'd say generally something

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that someone has clearly personalized

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about themselves and they've made a

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conscious effort for

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what is too far like what would you

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never sort of bring up a small talk i'll

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probably i'm sorry go on sorry i

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probably wouldn't ask too much i'll

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probably um

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just keep it like to the minimum i

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wouldn't i would say maybe things like

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you don't know what's going on with

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people's past i probably wouldn't ask

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anything about family in case of

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relatives recently died or like maybe

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they don't even have family and so i'll

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probably just keep it to like basic you

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know conversation something along the

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lines of like yeah the weather maybe the

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situation but have a little bit of you

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know maybe a little bit of banter but

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not too much because it might offend

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someone you obviously don't know what's

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going on in their life so you keep it

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outside of the realm of personality or

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character yes or say if like they've got

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pink hair i might say like you've got

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very cool pink hair okay so or like a

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nice denim jacket might ask where

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they've got the denim jacket from and

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that's probably about it

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because i don't want to offend anyone

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say like i wanted to give you a

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compliment about your hair or about how

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in terms of like physical in terms of

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like the character traits or

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yeah character traits let's say yeah

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where where could you draw where would

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the line be what's exactly

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is that okay i think definitely i think

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compliments personally i think

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compliments are always good okay you'll

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find uh i find that british people are

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very

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uh they don't take compliments very well

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so for example if you said yeah i like

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your hair i would go oh it's a mess it's

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a mess oh no it's oh i need it it needs

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cutting or it's dry or it's this are

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there any subjects you just can't

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approach when it comes to small talk

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well you wouldn't get too personal would

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you in what way

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well about your life too much about your

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life what goes on in your life you

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wouldn't ask someone about what like

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their parents or about there and if i

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knew them yeah not small talk with

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someone at a bus stop no no just okay

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how are you doing and

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off you go what you up to today

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basically is a good one yeah that's nice

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keep it

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simple and then how far is too far in

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terms of small talk you think well

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obviously two farms say oh you look sexy

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in that or

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you know

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you look hot in that if it's a girl and

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a bloke so yeah you look a bit odd in

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that

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that would be so inappropriate not very

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uh yeah hopefully that's obvious to

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people yeah

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so maybe clothing-wise say they're

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wearing a nice jacket yeah

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for women it can be a little bit harder

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because there are a lot of very creepy

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people

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um so

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say if you're complimenting a top

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i'd say the top has to be worth giving

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compliments to rather than just saying

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you have a really nice top and staring

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at it

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whereas if you're wearing i don't know a

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spongebob top you go oh that's a really

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cool spongebob top yeah i swear it's

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something kind of

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worth complimenting sorcerer from the

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person has clearly put some thought and

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effort into it a little bit

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thanks for watching this week's episode

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please write in the comments below any

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advice you have for good small talk

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subjects and we'll see you next week

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you