This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 1612.
Context is king when you reintroduce yourself in English.
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With your American hosts Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer, and Michelle Kaplan, the New York radio girl, coming to you from Colorado and New York City, USA.
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When you run into someone that you've met before, maybe in a conference or even a party, how can you share the context of how you met to make them recognize you?
Find out how to do it for the best possible connection in English today.
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Hey, Michelle.
How's it going?
Hey, Lindsay.
How are you?
Hey, I'm happy to be on the mic today.
All good.
All good.
I can't believe we're in the middle of the summer.
It's so crazy.
I know.
It's flying by.
I know.
And, by the way, the web class is coming up this weekend, this Saturday and Monday Michelle, because today is July 21st.
Yes.
Yeah.
So what's going on the web class?
Oh my gosh, guys, we are so excited for this.
This is all about, you know, your phone skills in English.
Dealing with business, guys.
I mean, you might feel, you know, kind of nervous when you're getting on the phone.
I know that I do.
So Jessica and Aubrey are going to be there teaching you strategies to be confident on the phone.
Exactly.
So guys, go and sign up right now for the live web class.
You'll get a chance to participate in the chat box.
We've been doing more of that Michelle, in the live web classes, where we ask students to respond, to say something, to react, to participate with us in that chat box.
It's actually really cool.
There's always a lot of energy on those web classes.
And it's a great time to get better on the phone.
So, where can they go to sign up?
Folliersenglish.com slash phone.
P-H-O-N-E.
Yeah.
Awesome.
Can't wait to see you guys there.
Cool.
So, Michelle, what are we getting into today?
Is this kind of more of a social English episode?
Yeah.
This is a fun one.
I mean...
Have you ever run into someone that you remember from like a while ago or you know through a mutual friend in some other way?
Oh, my gosh.
Yeah.
So yeah, for sure.
And they look kind of familiar, but I'm not sure that kind of thing.
Well, maybe you're sure.
Like, we've done other episodes kind of on similar situations.
But like what if the person might not remember you, or you're not sure if they remember you, but you remember them?
Do you ever have that?
So embarrassing and sometimes offensive.
Am I that unmemorable?
No, because every once in a while, I'll remember something totally random about someone.
I mean this is a little bit different, but like I have a kind of a good memory for faces or like random
Just like completely random facts.
If somebody tells me something, one fact will stick with me and I'll just remember it.
Like I might even remember someone's birthday.
Something like this strange like that.
I wonder why that is.
Everyone's mind works so differently.
That's so weird.
I'm really bad at remembering details.
Well, I guess if it's an interesting fact, I'll remember it.
But I'm better at the big picture.
I really am terrible at details.
Interesting.
Yeah.
I mean.
So today we're going to be talking about when you kind of run into someone or you don't – you're not really sure if they remember you.
They might not remember you at first.
So you – in this situation, I mean you want to make sure that you're really clear in your introduction so that you don't end up feeling – funny, you know.
Yeah.
Especially you want to get this out there from the beginning.
This is the kind of thing you got to get on the table early, guys.
You know, if you've met before, that's important to establish.
Right, Michelle?
Right, right, right.
Exactly.
So guys, another episode to listen to is 1229.
Your ears are burning.
We're talking about you.
So you can get expressions there.
But, Lindsay, I mean, yeah, this can feel awkward.
You know this person or you think you know them.
Like, for example, I was, oh, yeah, I remember.
I was at the park with my son.
And this is funny.
Like, I recognized my friend's child and he was with a grandparent.
This is a little bit different.
I wanted to introduce myself and I didn't want it to be awkward.
Like, I know this child, you know, it's like a little funny when those kinds of things happen.
So those might be a little bit different.
But, you know, those things happen.
Especially in a place like New York.
You have to use the right words because you're going up to a complete stranger.
They might be a little defensive and kind of weird to be talking to someone.
They don't know you.
So what do we say?
It's so important that we say the right things.
Exactly, exactly.
So guys, what steps can you take in these situations?
So the first thing, Lindsay, is to give an introduction.
So you could say something like, excuse me, are you right?
Right.
And hi, any anything, right?
Oh, yeah.
What are we saying after argue?
Is that their name?
Yeah, their name.
Like, excuse me, are you Lindsay?
Right?
Yeah.
Okay.
Right.
And you might say it just with, yeah, just a little quieter.
Yeah.
I don't know.
A way to make it less like confrontational, kind of just naturally.
Say it naturally, guys.
Okay.
And then what would you say next?
Or another option?
What else could you say?
I mean, then you would introduce yourself.
I mean, say who you are.
So I'm Michelle or my name is Michelle, right?
Just have to introduce yourself.
And then this third step is the key.
Lindsay, what is this?
Okay.
And say how you know each other.
Okay.
So this is supposed to turn the light bulb on in their minds.
It still might not, but you're going to try to do it.
Right.
And so here we go.
So you could say something like if they're a mutual friend, aren't you a friend of X, right?
Aren't you a friend of Bobby?
So Michelle, why are we saying aren't you instead of are you?
That's interesting.
Because it makes it sound like you pretty sure.
Yeah.
Right.
If you say, right.
I mean, you could say, are you a friend?
Are you Bobby's friend?
Right.
You could.
Right.
But if saying, aren't you, it sounds a little bit more like you're pretty, you're pretty sure.
Right.
And I think this is true.
And you're kind of hedging because you want them to think you're pretty sure, in case they're like, oh yeah, we have met.
You don't want it to seem like you're clueless and you're, you know, it's like you're kind of showing that you think you're pretty sure you're familiar with that person. exactly or you could just say you know x right so you know bobby right now we're using bobby bobby who's bobby by the way i don't know you i like that name just came up i gotta like that name so bobby yeah and anyways um you can say how you met right so i remember meeting you at Whatever, right?
Like I remember meeting you at Rachel's party or I think we met at the grocery store with our friends.
Who meets at the grocery store?
Were you at that concert at Sarah's house?
I don't know.
Right, exactly.
And, you know, and then hopefully, I mean, you may just get a blank stare.
And that's just we have no information, no suggestions for you in that case, guys.
But assuming they respond and say, Oh, yeah, their their face lights up.
And yeah, I remember.
What would you say then, Michelle?
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Yeah, well, then you could just say, yes, it's good to see you again.
Yeah, so that's a great way.
These phrases are so natural of what you would do in this scenario exactly exactly so, all right so let's, let's play it out right, so some role plays um okay so, um.
The first one is you, are you recognize me?
We're at the grocery store and we have a mutual friend okay Okay, at the grocery.
Here we go.
So, excuse me, are you Michelle?
Yes.
I'm Lindsay.
You know Sarah, right?
I remember meeting you at her birthday party last year.
Oh, right.
Hey, nice to see you.
Yeah, it's good to see you again.
Yeah.
So it's interesting that you said, hey, instead of hi, too.
That's interesting.
Yeah, I guess, you know, it sounded extra happy.
Right.
Like, oh, I was being warm.
OK, cool.
I like it.
I like it.
So what did we use here, Michelle?
Should we go back through any?
Sure.
Yeah.
Well, you said, excuse me.
Are you Michelle?
Right.
Right.
And then I said, right, I said, you know, Sarah, right?
Mm hmm.
Yeah.
And then you said, oh, I remember meeting you at her birthday last year, right?
Yeah, give the context.
And then, of course, if you get that blank stare, you could give a little more context.
You can say, oh, remember, it was her 34th birthday.
We were in the city and...
At that restaurant.
Thai food.
Right, right, right.
And then, of course, you know, I said, oh, right.
Nice to see you.
And you said, yeah, it's good to see you again.
So there we go.
Yeah.
And then we have another scenario.
Should we do this one too, Michelle?
Let's do it.
All right.
So what's this one?
All right, here we're at a conference.
And Michelle, you are going to recognize me at a conference.
And then you remember having this conversation with me at last year's conference.
All right, so this happens to me sometimes.
Actually, this actually happened to me at a conference, I think two years ago.
Someone that I had met at the podcast conference the year before.
And I was like, you know, is that you?
I don't want to say her name, but is that you?
Right.
And it was kind of fun, a fun exchange.
So, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Awesome.
Okay.
All right.
Let's do it.
All right.
Go for it.
Okay.
Hi.
My name's Michelle Kaplan.
Hi, Michelle.
I think we met last year at the meet and greet before the conference.
We both know Sharon Hilder.
Oh, right.
How are you?
Great.
How have you been?
Good.
Okay, so that's good.
So you're sharing your mutual contact, who you both know, to give that context.
It's all about context, I think, Michelle.
Context is king.
So, yeah, here for my introduction, I just said hi, right?
You don't need to say excuse me.
Every time you can just say hi.
And then I gave my name.
My name is Michelle Kaplan, right?
And then you said, I think we met last year at the meet and greet before the conference.
And then you said our mutual contact.
We both know Sharon Hilder.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, and then you remembered me, or who knows, maybe you didn't actually.
Yeah, I mean, I guess this is the kind of thing you could fake too, right?
But you can usually see it in someone's eyes.
Yeah, you can tell, you know, you know.
And you said, how are you?
So I just said, great.
How have you been?
Right.
So you can whatever phrase you want to use.
Right.
But Lindsay, I mean, why is this an important connection skill?
Well, it's important because you don't want things to be awkward.
And you really shouldn't feel afraid to tell someone that you remember meeting them or you've met before.
It's common.
We're human.
We have a lot going on.
Our brains are busy.
We can forget people.
But you already have that base to work off of that foundation of connection.
So why not... say it.
And then you can start from there with smiles and a good connection, I think.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's a good point.
Yeah, it's important.
I mean, yeah, it can feel a little funny, you know, at first.
But you know guys, we gave you this framework to really navigate the situation, because the worst thing would be to like, not go up and not say anything at all.
Right,
That's such a waste.
We want to build those connections.
Yeah, especially in a business situation, when the point is getting your connections, building your network,
I mean, don't waste your time by not building off of what you already have.
By the way Michelle, before we finish, did we have a couple of other episodes that we covered, similar to this one?
Yeah, yeah.
So the first one is 1035.
Do I know you?
How to navigate this embarrassing situation in English.
So this one was more about if you don't know the person.
Ah, okay.
So we're getting it from both sides now.
How cool.
How cool.
Guys, we're giving you all the skills you need in English.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Then there was episode 1011, and that was surprise how we met before, what to say in this situation.
What's that one more about?
Yeah, well, that one is more about knowing who someone is when you're already talking.
Ah, okay.
Interesting.
I love how we're covering the nuances so much here.
Good.
So guys, if you're in the iOS or Android apps, you can search for those episodes right there in your episode main page.
Michelle, where should they go right now to sign up for the live web class allersenglishcom slash phone P-H-O-N-E.
All right.
And we'll see you guys there.
Can't wait to help you with your telephone English skills at the live web class.
Sign up right now, allersenglish.com slash phone.
All right.
Cool, Michelle.
I'll talk to you soon.
Have a good one.
Take care.
All right.
Bye.
Bye.
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