This is an All Ears English podcast episode, how to meet and greet an All Ears English podcast host.
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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.
In this special episode, we show you three ways to ask why you should do a specific task.
Plus find out how to get a chance to meet and greet an All Ears English podcast host of your choice.
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Hello, Michelle.
How's everything going today?
We're on a bonus episode today.
So fun.
Bonus.
Everything's good.
How are you?
I'm feeling good.
I'm feeling great, but I have an important question to start off the day.
Ooh, okay.
Let's hear it.
All right.
So Michelle, have you ever done a meet and greet?
Meet and greet with a famous person?
I have.
I've done a couple of tell us who.
Well, I did meet John Mayer at a meet and greet once, because I was interning for his record company back in college, and so I got to go to a lot of great concerts that summer, and so they sent me to John Mayer and they also let me.
Well, actually I got to go twice.
And the first time I went, I really liked it.
So I bought a T-shirt.
And the second time I went, they got me a meet and greet pass.
And I was like, oh, my gosh, I'm going to wear my T-shirt to the meet and greet.
And when I met John Mayer... Yeah, when I met John Mayer... Yes!
I love that.
I love that.
Was he a nice guy?
He did.
I mean, we took a quick picture and he said...
I think he was like nice t-shirt or something.
I don't know.
He, he, he kind of teased me a little bit and we took a picture, which I have to find the picture.
But he was fine.
I haven't, you know, it's funny.
I know sometimes people have meet and greets where they're longer and they really get to spend time with the person.
But I've only ever been to the ones where it's kind of a quick picture, an autograph.
I've never really sat down with a celebrity and had a long chat, except for in my other job where I sometimes got to interview people.
Oh, so fun.
Yeah.
You've had some run-ins with celebrities, especially living in New York, working in New York.
They're everywhere, right?
But it's especially fun when there's an organized meet and greet, right?
Where you have that distinct amount of time where you can basically ask them anything and you can just meet them.
Right.
Yeah.
Am I famous person sometimes?
Yeah.
Yeah.
That I haven't thought.
Have you ever done one?
I've never done that before.
I have, you know, for example, I taught tennis to one famous actress's kid.
And so she came to pick up her kid.
I was like, oh, my God.
It's like I'm in the movies.
It's crazy.
I've had those kinds of run ins in New York, but I've never had an organized meet and greet.
Yeah.
Yeah, interesting okay.
Yeah, meet and greet yeah, why are we talking about them today?
These meet and greets wow, we might have something exciting uh to offer you guys.
Guys, we have a really good uh survey that we want to be, we want you to be a part of.
Yes, we want to hear from you, we want to hear what you guys are looking for.
Lindsay, talk about the survey a little bit.
Basically, we want to know about your hopes and dreams.
Right, what are you, why are you learning english And what do you want to work on when it comes to your English?
The survey is going to help us understand what to bring to the podcast.
You know what to bring to our new courses that we build for you guys.
And so we want to understand you better.
But there's a cool benefit, right, to this survey, Michelle, and it has to do with a meet and greet.
Yeah, that's right.
So should I reveal what it is?
Go for it.
Yeah.
What do we do?
What are we doing here, Michelle?
OK, so when you fill out the survey, you will be entered and we will be selecting three participants for a 15 minute meet and greet with the podcaster of your choice.
So it could be me.
It could be Lindsay, Aubrey, Jessica.
So you are going to choose who you want to meet.
And it's not going to be like my John Mayer meet and greet where it's one second.
It's 15 minutes.
So we can ask us questions.
We can talk.
Yeah, we can talk about non-English, whatever it is.
And just have a nice chat.
Exactly.
It's going to be fantastic.
The chance to talk with you guys.
We don't get that chance very often.
And so we want to be able to do it.
So go ahead right now before we continue with today's episode and open the survey in your browser.
So go over to allearsenglish.com slash meet.
So that is M-E.
So it's allearsenglish.com slash M-E-E-T.
You can actually fill it out now.
Hit pause on the episode.
Get that done.
Choose the podcaster you want to meet.
Enter your email at the end.
That done, and then come back to today's episode to learn something fun here today.
All right yes, so now we're moving into the piece where we're going to show our listeners some cool vocab right yes oh, this is fun.
Yes, what are we trying to teach our listeners today in this episode?
Well okay, so you know, if somebody wants you to do a survey or they want you to do something for them right, whatever it is yeah, sometimes you want to find out, okay.
Well, How is this going to help me?
Right.
And that's OK.
It's OK to also want to know, well, why should you do this?
Is there something special that comes out of this?
But, Lindsay, would you say to somebody, oh, well, what's in it for me?
I would avoid this.
Right.
And that with a little caveat that we're going to show you at the end.
But in general, if you say that in a serious tone directly to the person, it is totally rude.
OK, it's totally rude.
And so we want to be a little delicate about how we present this.
So we need to do a little wordsmithing, which I think is something our listeners love to do.
So we are all on board today for three things we could say, to find out why we should actually do that thing.
Like, why should we take this survey?
Right.
You know, it's a quick survey, guys.
It's a you know, it's a five to seven minute survey, maybe maybe max five, six minutes.
It's easy.
It's simple.
It's straightforward.
There are a lot of multiple choice questions.
Easy.
But it is going to take a few minutes of your time.
OK, so why?
Yeah.
All right.
So let's see.
What's the first thing you could say is, can you explain why I would want to do this?
Now, this is interesting for me.
Right.
So it's a little more formal.
And and I were using the wood here.
So can you explain why I would want to do this?
Does this feel more direct or more indirect?
Like what makes this polite?
I think the wood makes it a little bit more polite sounding.
It's bringing it back a little bit.
So what's in it for me is very direct.
This, can you explain why I would want to do this?
It's pulling it back just a little bit.
But I just want to...
Also, make sure you guys realize it's all in the tone of voice.
So if you say, can you explain why I would want to do this?
Right.
It doesn't matter what you're saying.
That's going to sound rude.
Right.
So it's this one.
You want to match the words.
Can you explain why I would want to do this?
Just in a nice way.
Curiosity.
100%.
And if we contrast that, I totally agree with you, Michelle.
Tone of voice is what it's all about.
You can say pretty much anything in a nice tone of voice and get away with it.
Like it will tell you a little bit. at the end, what that caveat was for what's in it for me.
But if we compare, can you explain why I would want to do this versus?
Can you explain why I should do this?
Which one would you say is even more polite?
Like the would or the should?
I think the would is more polite here.
It's a little less direct.
It's pulling it back.
That's just my opinion.
I think you're right.
So we'll do some episodes, especially if you guys indicate on the survey that you want more grammar, right?
We'll do some episodes on that, right?
We'll talk more in 2024 about using would to be ultra polite, levels of politeness.
We'll go into the nuances of English, all right?
Right, right.
Yeah, good.
Should we do the second one?
Yeah, let's do it, Michelle.
What is it?
The second one is, are there any perks of filling out the survey?
I love that.
What is a perk?
That's a bonus word for today in our bonus episode.
Yes, exactly.
So a perk is a benefit, something extra that's going to come out of it.
So I think we've even done episodes about this before, about this word.
A perk to a job.
Oh, you get free lunches on Friday or something like that.
Yeah.
Usually we see this word more used in the context of applying for jobs, getting a job, right?
My job is a lot of perks.
I get a free company car.
I get...
For the airline miles, things like that, right?
Oh, right.
Not here at All Ears England.
We don't give free company cars.
You're like, how do I get that?
Well, that would be a little weird if I had a company car because I don't go.
I mean, I'm painting yellow.
I mean, oh, that would be cool.
That would be cool.
And mine would say, I feel funny.
Just I feel funny.
It's just in my car.
Oh, we love that.
We love that.
So.
So, yeah.
So that's the second one, guys.
So write these down.
Right.
So are there any perks of filling out the survey?
I like how we're using that word perks, taking it out of its typical context.
But it totally works for this question.
OK.
Yeah, exactly.
Exactly.
Yes.
OK.
And so, Lindsay, now this is interesting.
We're teaching a third one, but we're teaching.
Why is this interesting?
We're teaching something we said not to say.
Exactly.
We're going to keep you guys guessing here in our episodes this year.
I told you earlier there's a little bit of a caveat when we said that it's rude to say what's in it for me.
What is the caveat?
And is there a moment in which this might actually be OK to say what's in it for me?
What do you think?
So, again, if you say it as a joke, right, you can say it, but you have to with your tone of voice.
With your facial expressions, you have to acknowledge or indicate that you know that this is a rude thing to say.
But you know, like Lindsay was saying, I mean you can say, I mean you can say anything and not a nice tone of voice.
But, like you know, there are certain things where, if you change the tone of voice, it becomes a joke.
It becomes, oh, I know this is this would sound super rude.
So I'm going to say it because, you know, I'm making a joke.
Exactly.
Exactly.
So you know what would that look like if I say to you Michelle hey Michelle, we're asking our listeners to fill out this survey.
Would you would you mind going ahead and filling out the survey?
You know, you have a chance to enter into a contest for a meet and greet.
Oh, well, what's in it for me?
Right.
So you're like that, or I was trying to think in my acting like how would I say it for me or what's, how else might I say it?
Okay, Michelle?
I mean I guess I could spare a few minutes, but what's in it for me, right?
So you're kind of, you're having fun, you're playing around, you're actually building connection because you're creating a rapport with the person.
You're teasing them a little bit, okay.
So for our listeners guys, just know that that is an option, especially as you get to those higher levels of fluency.
But just know we have to do some special things with our voice and our whole demeanor when we use a rude phrase, to say it in a joking way.
Super interesting.
That's very, that is interesting.
Yeah.
So guys, definitely we've taught you three today.
And yeah, well, we've told you already what's in it for you guys.
The chance to have a meet and greet with the podcaster of your choice.
And Lindsay, where can our listeners go to take this survey and get this opportunity?
Yes, you have one thing to do right now.
So go over to your web browser, type in allearsenglish.com forward slash meet, M-E-E-T.
And again, it should take you about five minutes.
It shouldn't take you much longer than that.
Give us some details.
Let us know what your goals are, your dreams.
We want to get to know you guys.
And then three lucky respondents will get that chance.
If you enter your email and you choose the podcaster you want to meet with, you will be entered into the contest to be randomly selected to have that meet and greet that we have been talking about.
So good stuff, Michelle.
I want to be chosen.
I want to meet someone.
So good.
I know, right?
You would love, we would all love to meet one of you guys.
So looking forward to it.
One more time, Michelle, where do we go to fill out that survey?
One more time.
Go to allearsenglish.com slash meet.
M-E-E-T.
You got it right.
You got it.
All right, Michelle, thank you for being on the mic today.
Very good stuff today.
All right.
Bye, Lindsay.
Bye.
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