This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK.
Ryan Seacrest here.
When you have a busy schedule, it's important to maximize your downtime.
One of the best ways to do that is by going to ChumbaCasino .com.
Chumba Casino has all your favorite social casino games like Spin Slots, Bingo, and Solitaire that you can play for free for a chance to redeem some serious prizes.
So hop on to ChumbaCasino .com now and live the Chumba life.
Sponsored by Chumba Casino.
No purchase necessary.
VGW. Group void. We're prohibited by law.
21 plus. Terms and conditions apply.
Thanks for listening to the Learning English for Work podcast from BBC Learning English.
We're working on a new series of our business podcast, Office English.
For now, here's an episode from last year which teaches you language you can use in everyday situations at work.
We hope you enjoy it.
Is every conversation at work important for your career?
some people think so i think you have to be able to be very confident and be able to show off a little bit like this is what i do this is why i'm good at it and this is why we should work together small talk is great in the way that it breaks the eyes before you can find something interesting to talk
about with the other person In this episode of Office English, we're finding out how to be professional at work events and master the art of small talk, which is what we call talking about unimportant things.
Welcome to Office English from BBC Learning English, your podcast guide to the language of the workplace.
I'm Phil. And I'm Pippa.
In this podcast, we talk about the words and phrases that can help you through even the most stressful situations at work.
And today, we're talking about work events.
Maybe it's a festive work party, maybe you're at a conference or award ceremony, or maybe you just need something to talk about with your colleagues over lunch.
Yes, there are lots of times when we might need to speak in English at work when we're not even doing work at all.
And when we use these opportunities to improve our professional relationships.
This is called networking.
Are you any good at networking, Pippa?
I'm not sure, really.
I think I'm probably quite bad at networking when I don't know somebody because I get really nervous.
I'm maybe a bit better once I start to know someone better.
So with colleagues at work, I think I'm a little bit better at developing good relationships.
What about you, Phil?
I think it depends on the situation because there are some situations where it's like everyone's there to network so because it's kind of accepted that you're going to be doing networking I can make myself do it but where I'm not so good at it isn't when I'm in a much more social situation where perhaps
there isn't that expectation and I'm not the sort of person who's going to jump up and get out my business card and give people a long speech on what I do and how I could make them loads of money.
Yeah, that feels a bit uncomfortable to me.
In this episode, we'll guide you through these informal work settings from small talk to networking so that you can make the most of your conversations at work.
So let's start with how to open a conversation.
Imagine you're at a work event, maybe a conference, and you want to talk to somebody important.
How can we start the conversation, Pippa?
Well, if we know who the person is, but we don't know them, we could engage them with a compliment.
So if we were at a conference and we'd seen them speak, we could say, I was really impressed by your talk.
Or we could say, I heard about your company and I really like the work you do.
or we could say something like i read your report about um this thing and i'd really like to speak about it so people always love a compliment i find yes and also as well as these being good compliments they're kind of getting to the point of why you're interested in them why you're interested in that company
and that kind of leads on to what you might have to offer because you're probably looking for opportunities to work together at some point in the future so yeah i think that's a really good way to to break the ice to start a conversation yeah some people prefer to talk about non -work things at the beginning
and we'll talk a bit more later in the episode about how to do that but I find it easier to kind of go in almost straight straight in and just talk about something that they've done that's impressive because that's usually a good way to talk about work.
We don't know them we can just introduce ourselves and that's a good way to start a conversation and then you want to kind of open up the conversation.
So ask quite an open question something like how are you finding the conference or you could say something like what line of work are you in.
That's a great expression that what line of work are you in and yeah it just means what do you do what's your job.
Yeah so you're opening up the conversation you always want to keep the conversation moving like that.
So what next? How can we move things on to work if we didn't start on work or or maybe just keep the conversation going?
Okay so maybe asking interesting questions could be key so things like what do you think is next for the industry?
How did you become interested in a particular subject?
What do you think about any industry news or the event that you're at or maybe another event that's really important in your industry it's all nice open questions so it's not just a yes or no and you kind of get to know what the person thinks about these subjects as well which i think can be important
yeah there's two really great things about that the first is if you ask a yes or no question so something like are you having a good time somebody might just say yes or even worse no and then what do you say to that that makes it really difficult to keep the conversation going And another thing about asking
questions like what do you think is next for the industry is hopefully that person will then talk for a long time and you don't have to do all the work in the conversation and you can kind of listen to what they're saying and respond to what they're saying rather than having to kind of keep things moving
and say your opinions all the time.
Anything else you'd do, Phil?
Well, maybe you want to prepare some opinions or have some talking points depending on what's important in your industry so you might say I'm fascinated by how artificial intelligence will change our industry it means we can do work much faster or maybe you want to talk about the problems with it I
don't know yeah so this is really good if you're nervous to speak you could have a think about some opinions or some questions or some interesting things to talk about with people and you might be confident just to have a natural conversation but if you're not so confident.
Preparing a couple of thoughts is always useful.
Okay so if we've got this far we're doing well but how do we get on to networking?
What phrases can we use Pippa?
Yeah so networking is kind of where we use this relationship that we've started and we use it for our career.
So we could start by saying something like I'd really love to talk more about my ideas for modernizing the industry so you can offer them something you could say can we grab a coffee sometime or can I get your contact details and so you show that you want to continue this really interesting conversation that hopefully
you've just had and with them and you're giving them something you just you don't just want something from them yes this idea of sitting down for a coffee it's great it's a it's kind of a great way of saying yeah I want to talk about the work you do the work I do and find the ways that we can work together
but it's getting a coffee and it kind of particularly in these kind of networking contexts it's like everyone knows what that means.
Yeah and maybe you might be at a virtual event so saying can I get your email is a good way to be able to follow up with contact somebody later and then you can you can ask them more questions and because yeah we don't always meet in person these days you might not be able to go for a real coffee but you
might be able to go for a virtual coffee another thing you could say is I would be interested to work with you on a project or I would love to show you around my office or I'd love to show you around my company this will depend on on whether you can show them around your office and you might not feel that the first
time you meet someone you could say this it's really a judgment but you might want to think about you know a potential future professional relationship with this person.
Yeah think about the things that you want to get out of it.
What are the things that are important for you from a work point of view?
And we can often be really embarrassed about the fact that we kind of want something from someone in a networking context but actually sometimes it's easier just to ask you know rather than being nice to someone just because you want an opportunity.
If you're clear that you'd really like to work with them, then that's good.
And they might respond well to that.
And remember, they're probably at this thing because they're looking for people to work with as well.
So they're probably interested to hear what you've got to say.
Remember, networking can be difficult for native speakers too.
Let's hear again from our BBC learning English colleagues.
I think you have to be able to be very confident and be able to show off a little bit like this is what I do, this is why I'm good at it and this is why we should work together.
Small talk is great in the way that it breaks the ice before you can find something interesting to talk about with the other person.
So Jiaying talked about using small talk to break the ice to get the conversation moving so small talk is um what we call chatting about unimportant things talking about small things um and that's a good way to kind of get a conversation going before we talk about the work that we want to talk about yes
and certainly in the uk most work conversations contain some small talk really common one is talking about the weather it's a really easy one of course in the uk the weather changes so often there's always something worth talking about even if it's just a complaint also you could talk about recent events
or observations so if you're at a conference or a party you could make some observation about what's going on it can feel really strange and really silly to talk about what we might think are boring things as a way to start a conversation but it just can sometimes just loosen somebody up which means
just relax them so they're ready to talk?
I think with small talk often we're trying to find things that we have in common with people aren't we so it might be at an event you're often asking about things related to the event so it might not be the weather it might be how you got there there might be something that happened there might have been
a really interesting talk that everyone's talking about and so that might be the thing that you ask or you're trying to find out what someone thinks and then what's really what will really help you build a relationship is if you're showing genuine interest in the other person that really helps build
that relationship so then you can take it to other places afterwards and you can start asking the more networking questions.
And lots of networking is about developing relationships as we've said and so working on your conversational English is really important and you can find loads of programmes and courses to help with this on our website.
That's bbclearningenglish .com.
And that's it for this episode of Office English.
Next time, we'll be talking about the phrases used to give bad news at work.
Join us then. Bye. Bye.
How to have fun. Anytime, anywhere.
Step one. Go to chumbacasino .com.
Chumbacasino .com. Got it.
Step two. Collect your welcome bonus.
Come to Papa, welcome bonus.
Step three. Play hundreds of casino -style games for free.
That's a lot of games.
All for free? Step four.
Unleash your excitement.
Woo -hoo! Chumba Casino has been delivering thrills for over a decade.
So claim your free welcome bonus now and live the Chumba life.
Visit chumbacasino .com.
No purchase necessary.
VGW group void where prohibited by law.
21 plus terms and conditions apply.
