Hello and welcome to the English with Neil podcast, where you will build your vocabulary and improve your listening skills through American English.
My name is Neil Humphrey and in today's episode we will talk about how to respond faster in conversations.
So this question was asked by Danny Vu, in my english with neil facebook community.
So danny, thank you for this question and i'm gonna try my best.
Danny, this question was actually very difficult for me to answer, so i had to do a little bit of research online, mixed in with my own experience.
So I'm going to teach you three tips today about how to become faster in conversations.
Two of the tips I got from some other teachers.
One tip is my own that I'm going to teach you That is tip number three.
So please stay tuned until the end of the video.
So without further ado, let's get into tip number one.
So the question again is how to respond faster in English conversation.
So tip one, make sure you fully understand the topic of discussion.
And if necessary, ask for clarification.
This is a huge one.
So, in English or in any language, when we're trying to give quick responses, we need to first know exactly what is being talked about.
Is someone asking you a question?
Is someone asking you your opinion?
What exactly are they asking?
So number one is to make sure you fully understand the topic of the discussion.
OK, tip number two.
Tip number two, I like I got this tip. actually from a writer.
And in the writing world there's this phrase that they use or saying, and it says write what you know.
Write what you know means write from personal experience, write about things that you know about.
Write about things that are relevant to your life.
Don't try to go outside of the box too much when writing or even when speaking, if you're not knowledgeable about what is being talked about.
So I'll give you a perfect example.
A few days ago, I went to my friend's house and there are three of us.
Two of my friends were talking about football.
Now, I know nothing about football, so I didn't want to chime in.
Chime in means I didn't want to join.
I didn't want to chime in to the conversation because I know nothing about football.
I'm more of a basketball person.
So when they were talking about football and then they came around to ask me a question, I simply said I'm sorry, I don't know much about football, and that was it, and then the conversation kept going.
So that is a much better answer than saying well, you know yeah football, you know.
When you use words like that, those are called filler words.
So filler words are basically words that you use to try to make more time for yourself while you're thinking.
So instead of using filler words, just speak about what you know.
And if you don't know about a particular topic, just be honest and say hey, you know, I don't really know much about that.
I'm sorry.
I can't give you an answer.
Okay.
So number two, tip number two is speak what you know.
Okay.
And tip number three.
So this is my tip.
Tip number three is to do quick thinking exercises.
Now I'm going to read from my list here.
But this is something that I do a lot in my school.
And I think it's really going to help you with your speed in English, especially your thinking speed.
So here it is do quick thinking exercises.
So what you want to do is you want to make a list of 10 random words, for example, bus chair happy, pin shoes, okay.
And then you want to time yourself while you look at each word.
So you're going to look at this word and you're going to say the first thing that comes to mind.
You're not going to think about it at all.
You're going to.
You're going to look at this word and you're going to say the first thing that comes to mind.
All 10 words.
I'll give you an example.
I have four words here.
So we had bus.
Chair, happy, pen.
So I would say bus, big.
Chair, sit.
Happy, Disneyland.
Pen, paper.
And you see what I did?
When I'm reading those words, I'm automatically associating those words with other relevant words.
Other related words.
And you're gonna keep doing that.
And what you wanna do is you wanna time yourself, so you make sure that you're getting faster and faster every time.
So the next time you're in a real conversation, When someone asks you something, you'll be able to automatically make an association in your brain and give a quick answer.
So go ahead and give that a try.
That is do quick thinking exercises.
Okay, everyone.
So I'm going to go ahead and wrap up today.
But I just want to do a recap of what Danny asked in my three tips.
So Danny asked, how can I respond faster in conversation?
So tip number one is to make sure you fully understand the topic of the discussion.
OK, tip number two is to speak about what you know, just speak what you know.
And tip number three is to do quick thinking exercises.
All right, everyone, that is it for today's episode.
Thank you for listening to English with Neil.
I look forward to seeing you and talking to you in the next video.
Okay, guys, thank you very much and talk to you soon.
Peace.
