Business English | How to Make Small Talk in English at Work [605]

职场英语 | 如何在职场中用英语进行闲聊 [605]

Speak Better English with Harry

2026-09-16

21 分钟
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🚨 Take the free Test Your Meeting English quiz and find out which meeting situations you need to practise ➡️ https://www.englishlessonviaskype.com/meetingquiz Learn how to make small talk in English with your boss, manager or clients. In this Business English lesson, Harry teaches you 12 practical phrases for starting a conversation, answering questions and making small talk before a meeting. What can you say when you join a call early or welcome a client to your office? You’ll hear familiar workplace situations, complete examples and clear explanations of when to use each phrase. In this episode, you’ll learn how to: • Start a conversation about someone’s week, weekend or journey. • Ask follow-up questions and respond to what someone tells you. • Give a short answer about yourself without sharing private details. • Talk about the weather and understand expressions such as “hump day”. • Finish small talk politely and begin the meeting. Harry also explains the difference between “How did it go?” and “What was it like?”, suitable small talk topics at work, and how cultural differences can affect conversations with your manager. This episode of Speak Better English with Harry is for intermediate and advanced learners who want to learn English for work, improve their English listening skills and practise everyday English conversation. Listen to the examples, repeat the phrases out loud and try them in your next workplace conversation. Share Your Thoughts Do you use English at work? In meetings, you may know exactly what you want to say but still need a few extra seconds to find the English. You may also hesitate because you’re not sure whether a phrase sounds natural, too direct or too weak. Take my free Meeting English Quiz and try 8 real meeting situations. You’ll see which answers work well in English and where you may need better phrases for meetings. Take the free Meeting English Quiz: https://www.englishlessonviaskype.com/meetingquiz If you’d rather work on your English with a teacher, book a free trial lesson. We’ll look at the situations you deal with at work and decide what you need to improve first. Book a free trial lesson: https://www.englishlessonviaskype.com/trial
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  • Hi there, this is Harry.

  • Welcome back to Advanced English Lessons with Harry.

  • We've recently been focusing on business English and today we're looking

  • at small talk with your boss, your manager or a client.

  • Now, perhaps you've prepared for a meeting in English.

  • You've read the agenda, you've checked your figures and you know what you need to discuss, but you...

  • Join the call a couple of minutes early and there's just you and your manager.

  • You say hello and then you wonder what to say until everyone else arrives.

  • Or a client comes to your office, you're taking them to the meeting room and you'd like to say something friendly.

  • But what can you ask someone you hardly know?

  • Many years ago, I was traveling back from New York, from JFK.

  • And as I was sitting in the business lounge,

  • out of the corner of my eye, I spotted my boss's boss, the big man.

  • Now, I hadn't met him many times and he was quite an intense, introverted sort of individual.

  • So you can imagine how I felt when I discovered

  • that we were going to be sitting in the same row on the aeroplane for a six hour flight.

  • English is my first language.

  • If you're doing this in another language, there's even more to think about.

  • Of course, people have different preferences, even within the same company.

  • Some people enjoy a chat.