Hi, everybody.
My name is Shauna, and this is the American English Podcast.
My goal here is to teach you the English spoken in the United States through common expressions, pronunciation tips,
and interesting cultural snippets or stories.
I hope to keep this fun, useful, and interesting.
Let's do it.
Welcome back.
Today, we're talking about the art of small talk, how to start conversations,
how to keep them going, and how to know whether the other person actually wants to keep talking.
We'll talk about small talk in U.S.
Culture, what to say when your mind goes blank,
and some simple tricks that can make conversations feel much more natural,
which is useful, especially when you're speaking English as a second language.
I'd like to start off by admitting something.
Small talk has a bit of a bad reputation.
Even its name suggests that it's small and gives the impression that it's unimportant.
The weather, what you did over the weekend, maybe what you're watching on Netflix.
And if you're speaking English as a second language, these conversations can feel especially stressful.
You might think you need to be funny and quick to respond, or maybe interesting.
In preparation for this episode, I watched hours of content by experts