Why small talk matters

0:00

Hi there. This is teacher Harry and

0:01

welcome back to English lessons with

0:03

Harry where I try to help you to get a

0:05

better understanding of the English

0:06

language. What are we going to talk to

0:07

you about today? Well, today we're going

0:10

to talk about small talk and small talk

0:12

is a really important part of the

0:14

English language and in particular we're

0:16

going to talk to you about small talk

0:19

questions about food. So, small talk

0:22

questions to do with food. As I said,

0:25

small talk is a really important part of

0:27

the English language. Some people

0:29

dismiss it a little bit as chitchat, but

0:32

remember when you use small talk, it

0:34

helps you to get involved in

0:36

conversations. It's the easiest way for

0:38

you to get involved. So, not only will

0:40

it help you and ease you into the

0:42

conversation, it will avoid those

0:44

awkward silences that you might have in

0:47

an elevator if you got stuck there, for

0:49

example, or at the beginning of a

0:51

meeting when you're waiting for somebody

0:52

to arrive or one of your your colleagues

0:54

hasn't arrived. So there'll be generally

0:56

a lot of small talk in those situations.

0:59

It'll help you and present you as a

1:02

little bit friendlier. It will come be

1:05

make you a little bit more acceptable to

1:08

your colleagues, particularly new

1:09

colleagues if you've moved jobs. So you