This is an All Ears English podcast episode 2090.
We just clicked.
First time meeting stories in English.
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How did you meet your partner, your best friend or an important co worker?
Today, get the insider vocabulary in English on how to explain the way that you met someone important in your life.
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Lizzie, how are you?
Hey, Michelle, I'm doing great.
How are you?
How's it going?
Yeah, I'm good.
Lizzie, how long have we known each other?
Oh my gosh, it's been a while.
I think it's been almost 10 years, probably nine years.
Yeah, I think almost nine years.
I mean, we work remotely, so we don't get to be together physically very much.
But do you remember the first time we actually met?
Well, when you ask that, do you mean met in person or met I actually mean in person.
Okay.
In person.
And on a video call.
Do you remember on a video call?
Sure.
And a video call was early on when we started working together back in 2014, Michelle.
Right?
I remember that.
But yeah, you get the full essence of a person when you're actually in person.
So that was at our urban adventure in Boston, the very first one.
You're wrong.
No.
You're wrong.
Oh, no, no.
We did a video shoot in New York.
In Brooklyn.
Oh my gosh.
That was super fun, by the way.
Yes.
At that woman's apartment.
Yes.
Our photographer.
That was really fun.
I think it was a rainy night.
I don't even like.
It was.
I don't know.
It's kind of all a blur, but I think it was raining and it was night.
It was super cold.
It was like January and it was freezing.
And we had just started working together.
So we didn't really know each other.
And all of a sudden we're in front of the lights and our business suits taking photos and in a random apartment in Brooklyn.
It was so random and funny, but fun.
Kind of fun.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, so we we go way back.
That's an expression I go is a lot we go we go way back.
Yeah, we really do.
So we're going to talk more about meeting people and how you met someone important in your life today.
Because we have a really great listener question.
So but before we get into it, Lindsay, what do we want to tell our listeners?
Well guys, you know there is a way to go deeper with All Ears English, and that is by consuming the show in our iOS or Android app.
Because when you become a premium member, you obviously get to listen to all the episodes for free.
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And so they move with the show.
As we speak, you see our words.
And then there are words you can tap on and save to learn later.
All right.
It's a very cool little app, a really great way to actually deepen your learning.
Take one extra step with the show every day.
All right.
So Michelle, where can they go to get that?
Where can they go?
Go to allearsenglish.com slash app.
I love it.
I'm excited for this question today, by the way.
This should be good.
Me too.
This is fun.
This is fun.
Lindsay, could you read it for us?
All right.
So Mauro says, what's shaking?
That is one of my signature greetings.
So I'm getting it back from Mauro.
I love that.
Yes.
Is there an episode on how you met Michelle Aubrey and Jess?
I've always been curious about it.
Thanks.
All right.
Very good for Mauro.
Thank you.
Good question.
Thank you for that question.
Yeah.
Today we're going to talk about how do you share this, your story of how you met someone, maybe a friend um, whoever it may be.
And we're gonna give three ways to do this to tell how you met someone, because this is a huge, huge way to connect with others.
Yeah and, depending on what we covered today, maybe we'll do another one.
While we talk about your partner, the biggest place this comes up is when you get questions about your partner how you met your partner.
I think, in my experience michelle, your romantic partner.
Yeah exactly yep yep, yep.
Still, even with friends like that i've been friends with for a little while, i'll say oh, how did you meet your you know, partner?
Um, so it's always a fun way to learn about someone.
So now you can be prepared to talk about this super important and it's really important the way we answer this, because you don't want to bore people um, and you kind of need to pull them in and, right away, signal that there's something interesting about how you met, because you find your relationship interesting and exciting and you want to communicate that right.
So let's get into it, Michelle.
Let's do it.
Before we do that, we want to remind you, we had a great episode.
2086 was hear us out.
One way to invite new ideas into your world.
So listen to that.
Yes.
Good stuff.
Okay.
What do we need to know?
Where do we start here?
Okay.
So, um, we're going to talk about the important people in our lives.
So let's go, uh, let's start with partner.
Okay.
So this is an expression.
Um, we could say we originally met or we first met at blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Okay.
So I'm going to talk about my situation.
Um, and Lindsay, if you'd like to share, um, so for my, for my husband, we originally met online.
He sent me a message and we wrote back and forth a few times before deciding to meet.
So what's funny is Lindsay, how you, just how you were saying, oh that it's an interesting story and exciting.
I always I always say, like when I introduce my story, I'm like, oh, we just met online.
You know, it's not because so many people meet online nowadays, that it's not.
It's not that interesting.
But since a lot of people do meet online, they don't you know, they might say Oh, me too.
Which side?
And blah blah, blah.
So yeah, it's super common to meet online nowadays, right?
It's kind of one of the number one ways that people meet.
So yeah, that's true.
That's true.
Sometimes.
So maybe there's something else interesting that you get into after, right?
When you know, as the conversation continues and the person asked more, maybe there's some funny story or something that you go into.
Right, right, right, right.
Exactly.
So there can be more to share there, but I'm always excited when people do have interesting stories.
Like I just met someone, a woman that I've become friends with recently.
She was telling me that she just met her husband on the train. you know, the train to New York.
She just met him there.
And like, that to me is a great story.
So I do like when someone has a really interesting story.
So what about you, Lindsay?
Oh my gosh.
I met my partner because I was looking for a ride.
I was hitching a ride to a camping weekend through a camping club that I was a part of in Boston.
And my partner was offering rides.
And so I said, hey, I, you know, the name was on the spreadsheet.
And I reached out and I said, can I can I can I hitch a ride up to New Hampshire and then the rest is history michelle so wow that see that's a good story that's a story it's not like hilarious or anything but it's an interesting story um for sure it's interesting yeah well it's better than mine yeah yeah yeah yeah for sure i mean so there's a lot we could do here so it's you know it's it's important the way you answer this but if the story you don't feel is that interesting could share something else you know we met online and i thought he was you know funny the first time i met him you know funny story he tried to impress me that first date you can extend it in ways that would maybe make people laugh you know what i mean like i remember i remember we met at a restaurant in new york and at the time um i was working somewhere where um i didn't leave the office until like 7 30 at night and so my dates were kind of late and so i remember we um I was running late as well.
And when I got there, I remember seeing him staring at the menu display on the outside.
Turns out he was just doing that, you know, to like be doing something.
That's funny.
Rather than standing there looking around.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Right, right, right.
And he said I think he said he was a little annoyed that I was late, but then I was like so friendly and gave a hug right away.
And then he forgot about it.
See, there's a cute little story.
So now I shared more.
There's something there.
There's something there right, I love it.
There's something.
There's something, um.
So yeah, that's definitely a really fun thing to talk about how you met your partner or just like this, beginning stages of your relationship and things like that.
But what about so that construction is we originally met or we first met?
Yeah, you can use either one, and a lot of people will say we first met in college.
Right, we first met in graduate school, like being at school.
I mean, when you're in the United States, you go to college, you live on campus.
It's a huge part of your life.
A lot of people do meet in college, right?
My brother met his wife in college.
Yeah.
A lot of people do meet in college, which is so funny, because now I think of like I guess you know cause I'm not in college and I'm way past that.
I, you know, I think of college students as being such babies, but Yeah, I know, it's weird.
But they're not like, you know.
Yeah, it's true.
It's so true.
It's so true.
So you might hear that.
So the construction again, guys, we originally met or we first met at or in.
So put the right preposition in there and let's move on to a close friend, okay?
Okay, so a close friend.
So, okay.
So one you can say is we connected at, okay?
So I might say something like, We can.
Oh, yeah, I'm talking.
I have a very good friend here named Liz.
I love Liz.
She.
Yeah.
Hey, Liz.
We connected at a kid's art class.
We just clicked.
We slowly started hanging out first at the art class, then more and more.
And now it's been a few years and we're very close friends.
Oh, I think that's so native and natural what you just said.
We just clicked.
Super natural, native and natural.
I want our listeners to write that down.
Guys, write that down.
We just clicked.
What do you mean by that?
It's like yeah, you say that when you just have like a certain chemistry with someone, you we just clicked, we just felt like we, we connected, we we had yeah yeah, I love it.
That's how I feel about my friend Guy.
Now he's moved um back to Vietnam, but he's a really such a good friend of mine and we realized we had two things in common.
We met, we connected, at our meditation center uh, so we had meditation and buddhist practice in common.
But then he is also an entrepreneur and so we realized wow, what a special combination of two things we have in common entrepreneurship and buddhism.
And seemingly they don't go together, but they do.
And so we've always connected over that.
So he and I really keep in touch.
Oh, yeah, we keep in touch now for sure.
But it's hard Vietnam to the US.
Yeah, yeah, definitely.
Yeah.
It's funny how you meet someone and then you don't, because I remember with this, with my friend, I remember you know we just met at this class.
And it's funny how a friendship develops.
And in the midst of that, I think we met before COVID.
And so it's funny how like something can, or maybe towards like, maybe like in the middle of it, like outside in an art class, and probably I was still nervous then.
But it's funny how you look back on your close friendships and you're like how did that even come to be?
I think especially as an adult, because I have friends who, from you know basically that I was born into the friendship because our families were friends but then the friends you make as an adult it's so interesting to look back and think I don't even remember how it happened I remember I really liked this girl and we were you know and now all of a sudden like a couple years later it's like oh she's like one of my best friends in the area and so it's funny how it just happens right yeah you have to be intentional for sure It happens, but you also do have to be intentional.
Like I'm sure there were steps that you took, Michelle, to get in touch with her, invite her out.
Especially as an adult, we have to be intentional.
But this is some real native natural vocabulary today, right?
We just clicked.
Everything synced up.
We realized we were meant to be friends our whole lives.
It's cool when you do meet that person, you know?
Right.
Yeah.
And I think we could do a follow-up actually, sorry to interrupt you, but I got excited.
I think we could do a follow-up on things like I mean, something that I find is very awkward in my world is sometimes I'll meet, like I'll be on the playground with my kids and I'll start talking to another mother and I'm like oh, like you know, how do we take the next step?
Or do you ask for somebody's phone number?
And that first step of making friends as an adult, it could be because of your kids.
I know a lot of people make friends over their pets.
So like, as an adult, maybe we've done stuff on this before.
But like, how do you make that first step?
And when do you know?
Yeah.
Oh, my gosh.
Yes.
Because we get all self-conscious as adults.
I think, where kids you know younger kids, I don't think get as self-conscious as I do.
I get self-conscious about, oh, you want to get a coffee sometime.
It's pretty funny.
Yeah, yeah.
It's pretty funny.
Right, right, right.
Okay.
Do we have time, Michelle, for an important work relationship really quick?
What do you think? or I think we have time.
Okay.
Yeah.
I think we definitely have time.
Okay.
Okay.
So imagine it's an important work relationship.
So you might say our paths crossed and you can.
You can use these for you know, you can interchange them.
It's okay.
But I just am using them as examples.
You could say our paths crossed or our paths first crossed.
Yeah.
And so that's just coming back to the first time that you met.
Right.
And what would be an example of you and your friend at the radio company?
Okay.
So I could say our paths first crossed at the radio company.
We would always have fun.
And he was my work brother, which I've talked about on the business English podcast.
Love that.
Okay.
Michelle, this is really good stuff.
Should we do a role play to show our listeners how to bring this all into overall conversation?
Yeah, let's do it.
All right.
So we are at a party and we realize we know the same person.
Oh my gosh.
All right.
Great.
Here we go.
Wow.
You know, Chloe too.
Yes.
How do you know her?
Well, we originally met at our friend's party.
We immediately clicked.
What about you?
We first connected at work.
Actually, we worked at the firm together.
How interesting.
Yeah.
When our paths first crossed, she mentioned she used to work in law.
That's really fun when that happens, right?
When you realize you have a mutual friend and then it all of a sudden feels very connected.
You know,
Yeah.
Yep.
Exactly.
All right.
So let's go through it.
So you said, how do you know her?
And I said, well, we originally met at our friend's party.
Yes.
And then you said you said we immediately clicked.
And again, we explain that expression to you guys.
And that is really native and natural.
So write that down.
If you have the app, tap on it.
OK, that'll be in the app as a vocabulary word for sure.
And then I said we first connected at work.
So just another way of saying the same thing.
Good to mix it up.
Yep.
And then I said, when our paths first crossed, she mentioned she used to work in law.
So I'm not saying how we met with this, but I'm using that expression to talk about early on.
I learned this about her.
I love it.
So what's the takeaway for our listeners today, Michelle?
This is a great episode.
It's so important.
This is fun.
This is fun.
Well, guys, we've shared a lot of our personal stories today.
We've also taught you some key expressions to talk about first meeting someone.
This is such a good question that Mauro asked because it's This is all about connection.
You can share so many things about yourself, get into so many different topics over this one area.
So I highly recommend you know asking people how they met someone or sharing how you met someone and using these expressions
Well, it's kind of the natural question, right?
Especially when you realize there's a mutual friend.
If there's three people, someone's not at the party.
Oh, you know that person too.
I do too.
How did you first meet?
It's kind of the first natural question.
So we want to be ready with the right English when the conversation goes to the natural steps where we know it's probably going to go.
All right.
So good stuff, Michelle.
Guys, go over and get our app at allersenglish.com slash A-P-P.
All right.
All right.
Bye, guys.
Michelle, you have a good day.
Bye.
You too.
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