Hello all my subscribers and just guests who are visiting my blog! Today's article is dedicated to a conversation skill. What do I mean by «conversation skill»? So a conversation skill is something that you use when you're talking to people. And as any another skill it can be good or not.
So today I'd like to express my opinion on this point. Who is a good talker and who is a bad one? What connections does a conversation skill have with these two definitions?
First of all let's speak about a conversation skill. When we start to learn English and can't speak at all, it's clear that our conversation skill is going to be very bad. And it's ok! There is nothing to worry about. We're just in the beginning, we don't know grammar and we don't have vocabulary. And it's normal that we can't keep a conversation.
When our level is better, we start trying to talk to people. We begin to discuss easy topics and can express our opinion about them. Our conversation skill gets better and better day by day. We practice our speaking and it's right. I told you that one of the most important things is practice. If we want to speak we must speak!
But despite our speaking skill is good and we can discuss simple topics, sometimes we can't understand people well. For some reason we don't understand what they're saying. Why?
I remember when I started learning I always blamed myself. I thought like «Oh my English is so bad, I can't understand this guy!». It made me sad and some times I really thought my learning was hopeless. But as time passed and I improved my English more and more and more and more talked to people I realized one very important thing — Some people are not good talkers!
Some people are not good talkers! Yes their conversation skill is good, yes they can speak English pretty fluently. But they're bad talkers. They don't care about your understanding, they don't care that your level is not so good as their one. They interrupt you, don't let you to complete your thought, use too difficult vocabulary, idioms, phrasal verbs, their pronunciation is bad. They just don't care about you! They can even use wrong grammar, make mistakes and just confuse you.
And of course you're getting confused, you're not following what your partner's saying. You can't keep the conversation. What should you do in this case? So there is two variants. You can ask him to speak more slowly or you can just stop talking to him and find another partner for you. Don't blame yourself, don't worry about your English! Just find a good conversation partner and keep talking to him. Keep in touch with him as long as you learn English. Make friends with him.
It's very important. I talked a lot of people, but I have just a few friends who I talk to constantly. I met so many people who had good level of English, but they were bad talkers. Some people had such a hard accent, that it was absolutely impossible to understand them. Some people speak quickly, but not properly. They make mistakes, use wrong grammar and don't correct themself at all.
So guys, I want you to try to avoid bad conversation partners. Don't waste your time and just find good talkers and make friends with them. And what's more important, try to be a good talker too from your side! If you're talking to someone whose level is not so good like yours:
1) Don't use difficult vocabulary. Or try to explain unknown words to your conversation partner.
2) Try to speak slowly and improve your general English.
3) Avoid phrasal verbs and idioms. Or if you use them, try to explain the meaning to your partner.
4) Don't interrupt people. Be able to listen to them.
It's very important.
Now let me tell you a story from my life experience. I already told you that I worked at foreign company. In common we speak Russian at work, but sometimes foreign people call me and I have to talk to them. Last week a guy called me and I was so surprised how good he was in conversation. He started speak slowly and asked:
— Hello. Do you speak English or German?
He understood very well that he was calling Russian department of our company, so it was very smart of him to speak slowly.
I answered that I spoke English and we had the awesome conversation. He spoke very understandable and simple English. He was a really good talker.
After the conversation I remembered all the foreign callers I talked at my work. Almost all of them always started to speak very quickly. And sometimes it might be difficult to understand them. You see, speaking by phone it's a little different. It's more difficult than a conversation face to face or at least by Skype. So I like people who are polite and try to speak understandable English when they're calling me.
So guys in conclusion I'd like to say, that people can have a good conversation skill. They can have a good level of English. But at the same time they can be bad talkers. Don't blame yourself because of the people like that. Always try to find a good conversation partner and keep talking to him. And try to be a good talker from your side. Take care about people who you're talking to. Try to help them to learn English and improve yours at the same time. It's very important and very powerful!
Keep learning English guys and take care!
Как вести себя в разговоре и почему иногда тяжело понимать людей?