This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 67 four ways to meet and greet in English for the office or college.
Welcome to the All Ears English podcast where you'll finally get real native English conversation and fluency for business and life.
We believe in connection, not perfection, when it comes to learning English.
Now here are your hosts Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer, and Michelle Kaplan, the New York radio girl, coming to you from Boston and New York City, USA.
In this episode, you'll find out which phrase is going the way of the dinosaur and how to be more relevant when you greet a native speaker in English, with four simple role plays.
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Hey, Aubrey, how's everything?
I'm all right.
How are you?
Why did I not say why did you not say I'm fine?
How are you?
Right.
That's such a sort of an outdated kind of formal thing to say.
How are you?
I'm fine.
How are you?
We just don't speak that way.
There's so many other options that are more fun.
It's so true.
And yesterday in episode 66, we did talk about this question.
Is this a greeting or is it a question?
So go over there to talk more about culture.
But when I think about the traditional things that our listeners probably learned growing up in classrooms,
They probably learned, how are you?
I'm fine.
How are you?
Right?
That dialogue, that back and forth.
Exactly.
I mean, I, yeah.
Go ahead.
I would say we see this in textbooks all the time.
It makes me crazy when I see that.
Why?
Why does it make you crazy?
Yeah, because that's not how we speak, right?
And especially when we're talking about business English, we'll see these outdated lessons that are still teaching that today, even though that's not how anyone speaks.
When it comes to greeting someone at work, we're still actually quite informal.
Quite informal, and we just don't stick to that script.
I mean it's so bad that I remember when I taught English in Japan in the mid-2000s.
I taught all ages.
I taught teenagers, adults, kids, three-year-olds, and we had songs we would use to start a class.
And I think I remember one of them was...
I'm fine.
How are you?
I'm fine.
How are you?
The kids were learning this from a young age, and it's wrong.
It's not wrong, but it's not good.
It's not going to help you connect.
Exactly right.
And I feel like I'm fine, especially, is really going the way of the dinosaur.
People just really don't say it much anymore.
I feel like if I asked someone how they are and they said I'm fine, I would almost feel like they want me to ask like oh, is everything okay?
It's a bad sign.
It's kind of a bad sign.
It doesn't mean things are good.
It would really imply to me that things might be tough, and maybe they want me to ask how they are really.
It's so true.
So if you guys are looking to learn modern English that is actually going to help you build real connections in the world, then you are in the right place.
So we're going to unlearn what we learned in school and we're going to learn the right things today.
Yes, exactly.
So let's first do a role play, just really simple, but at work, right?
How we might greet each other at work.
All right.
Here we go.
Hi, Lindsay.
How are you?
I'm doing well, thanks.
How are you?
I'm doing well, thanks.
Thank you for asking.
All right.
So that, I like that, especially that thank you for asking at the end.
Sounds very polite, doesn't it?
Yes.
And I do say that a lot, right?
It's just kind of.
It's almost a little bit of a throwaway, but sort of fun and playful to be like.
Oh, thanks for asking.
Yeah.
And you even I mean, you said thanks twice in here, which is great.
I mean, it's especially polite.
But even just cutting it off and saying I'm doing well, thanks.
Right.
Would have been fine, too.
Yes, definitely.
Right.
But it is nice to have that that thanks in there.
I feel like people might not even notice because immediately you're going to start into a conversation.
You might say, how was your weekend or what did you do last night?
They might not even consciously notice that thanks, but they feel it in the relationship.
They feel that you're a polite person.
Yeah, you need to find a way to convey that, whether it's through your words, through your smile.
We need to convey that politeness so they want to keep talking to you.
That's the goal.
Yes, exactly.
All right, let's do another one.
And this is funny because, okay, let's do the role play first and then I'll mention it.
Yeah.
I think I know what you're going to say.
Yes.
Okay.
Hi, how are you, Lindsay?
Good.
How are you?
I'm good.
Thank you.
All right.
Are we talking about grammar?
I can't help it.
So this is funny.
You guys probably know that the answer should be I'm well, right?
Because this is an adverb.
But we do this all the time.
It's so common that I want to make a note here that you should not correct someone's grammar.
If they say I'm good instead of I'm well, they might be offended.
They might just think it's silly, because it's so common that it's really accepted at work.
Anywhere you go to say I'm good.
So just don't worry about it.
Just let it go.
Yeah.
Yeah, completely.
I mean, there are a lot of grammar mistakes we should avoid, right?
And we'll tell you when those ones need to be avoided.
But this one, 100% fine.
Please make this mistake and make it happily.
And know that everyone else does and no one cares.
100%.
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All right, so that is the business world.
Now for our listeners, who might be doing their PhD or their master's on campus, or they're in college also.
These are gonna work in business too, guys.
They're just a little bit more casual.
Okay exactly, all right.
So here's our first real plan, all right so hey, i'll go ahead.
Um hey aubrey, how's it going?
Great, what's up, lindsay?
Hey, very casual, i like it.
It sounds a little younger, Don't you think?
Yes, I agree.
And depending on who you're talking to at work, this certainly would work, right?
If it's before a meeting or just chatting, right?
You can speak more informally like this and it is perfect for on campus with friends to say how's it going.
And then, great, what's up?
Yeah, I just think you might not say this to, if you're having a client meeting, right?
You're having a meeting maybe it's a sales meeting.
You're trying to close a sale with some clients or have a dinner with them.
You probably wouldn't say that casually, right?
That's the tricky thing about business.
The hardest thing is to know when to be informal and formal.
And often this is a pro tip, you guys, is to think about who you're talking to.
If it's a client you haven't met before that you're really trying to make a good impression on, or if it's a colleague that you see all the time, you're going to speak very differently.
Yeah, our listeners love those pro tips on business.
So good.
So good.
Okay.
All right.
So one last one, and we're still kind of on campus or in a maybe a more informal scenario.
So hey, Aubrey, how are you?
I'm okay.
How's it going with you?
Very good.
Thanks.
You can hear how fast I run that all together.
I'm okay.
How's it going with you?
The thing is, these are all kind of throwaways, but it's so interesting how, if you say it incorrectly right, if you say it either more formally or leave out words entirely, all of a sudden it's sort of glaring, because people hear these all the time, multiple times a day, because you have these greetings all the time, right.
So you do want to practice.
Yes.
Listen to these role plays mimic shadow our intonation and the word stress, because you're going to have a chance to use these.
Yeah, and also mix it up.
Don't just learn one of these and take it away.
Remember most of them, or as many as you can, because you don't want to be that person that's just repeating the same things every time.
Even if it's correct and accurate and natural, you're going to want to mix it up.
You know, have that variety, right?
Yeah, that's why we're making these role plays so short.
So it's just a couple of sentences really that you would need to commit to memory so you can learn all four of these.
Yeah, it's so good.
It's so good.
All right, guys, so make sure you follow Allers English.
Don't miss a single one.
Because we do tons of great stuff over here around connection, not perfection.
What does that mean, Aubrey?
Yes, it means not to focus so much on everything you're saying being perfect, but to just get out there to take those opportunities to connect with other speakers in English.
Practice and get that confidence up just because you see, I can do this.
I can connect with others in English.
You got it.
And guys, go listen to the next episode.
In the next one, we're going to be talking about exactly why Americans native speakers are not correcting your English.
This is something that's been coming up in the last couple of weeks in our episodes.
We don't need them to correct every time and they're not.
And there's a reason why they're not.
We're going to tell you why.
Okay.
Awesome.
I'm excited to dive into that with you.
All right, let's do it.
See you next.
See you in the next one.
Bye.
Thanks for listening to All Ears English and if you believe in connection, not perfection, follow our show wherever you listen to podcasts to make sure you don't miss anything.
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