BEP 44 – Socializing: Striking Up a Conversation

Today’s Business English Pod lesson is the first in a two-part series on the basics of social English: starting a conversation, keeping it going, and finishing it appropriately. Successful conversation is an important part of networking – the skill of building up a network of contacts and relationships.

In this lesson, you’ll be learning skills and language for starting and finishing a conversation appropriately. In the next, you’ll practice how to keep a conversation going.

The conversations take place at the Asia-Pacific HR conference for Multi-Fresh, a major global producer of health beverages. A beverage is a drink.

You’ll hear two dialogues. In the first, Penny, an HR officer from Malaysia, strikes up a conversation with George, the Asia-Pacific learning and development manager. “To strike up a conversation” means to start a conversation, usually with someone you don’t know too well.

In the second dialogue, Pat, an HR officer from Australia, then tries his best to strike up a conversation with George.

Listening Questions:

1) What office is Penny from?
2) What does Penny think about the speech?
3) Have Pat and George already met?
4) Does George have time to talk to Pat?

PDF Transcript

Download: Podcast MP3

10 thoughts on “BEP 44 – Socializing: Striking Up a Conversation”

  1. Pingback: BEP 45 INT - Socializing: Keeping a Conversation Going | Business English Pod :: The Business English Podcast for Professionals

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  3. Pingback: Socializing: Striking Up a Conversation | Baker Street

  4. In the US we don’t say that someone’s name slipped my tongue. We say his name “slipped my mind”, meaning we can’t recall someone’s name. We also say, when we just can’t recall what someone’s name is, “His name was on the tip of my tongue.” Meaning we were very close to remembering but just couldn’t say the name.
    When we refer to a ‘slip of the tongue’ we mean to say something that we didn’t intend to say. Such as, “When she was arguing with her boss, it slipped off her tongue that she was thinking of leaving the company.” She didn’t intend to say that, but she did.

  5. What is your opinion of the resource?
    I like how it has “listening questions” for each video – it encourages listener’s attentiveness to the topic being discussed

    • Would you use it with your learners? Why? Why not?
    I certainly will use it with my learners as it is visually stimulating and not complicated to understand

    • What kind of learners do you think it would be appropriate for?
    It will be appropriate for visual learners who are growing their careers

    • How would you use the resource?
    I will use the resource to help build social skills in a business environment

    • What difficulties might you have using the resource and how would you overcome them?
    I may have…

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