Unit 11 :
Monday small talk
Pre-advanced
Vocabulary
Repeat these sentences with your teacher first.
1. drop off (phr.)
If the amount, number, or quality of something drops off, it becomes less
2. met up (v.)
to meet another person in order to do something together
3. stayed in (phr.)
to stay in your home
4. me time (n.)
time when you can do what you want to do
5. get back (v.)
to return to a place after you have been somewhere else
Dialogue
Read the dialogue aloud with your teacher.
Alex
Kayla
Morning, Kayla! Did you just get here?
Yeah. I had a drop off my daughter at school, so I’m a little late.
I see! Well, did you have a good weekend?
Yeah! I met up with some old friends, so that was nice. How was yours?
Mine was good! But, I mostly stayed in and just relaxed.
Well, sometime you need some me time, right?
For sure. But anyways, I should get back to work.
Right! I’ll talk to you later, then!
Article
Read the article with your teacher.
5 Conversation Starters To Get You Talking At Work
1.Offer to help
Even while you’re still in the learning process, you can offer to assist your teammates with their work during your downtime. Should someone accept, you can begin talking about the project at hand, but if they decline, you can still ask about the project to get a feel for what others are working on around the office.
Ask about the weekend
2.On Mondays or Fridays, ask about the weekend. This is a simple and common enough question that can help you get to know your new colleagues on a more personal level.
3.Discuss popular culture
Movies, sports, and television are conversation starters, and if you find common ground, they’ll provide opportunities for future conversations. Just be sure to keep conversations appropriate for work.
4.Bring up current events
Likewise, talk about appropriate current events. If you have a newspaper with you from your commute in to work, ask if anyone’s heard about a recent story and pass it around to anybody who might be interested.
5.Keep your pulse on industry news
Industry news is another, more focused source of conversation. Stay up-to-date on topics relevant to your industry and your department. Inevitably, you should find something that will initiate a great conversation with one or more of your coworkers, and could learn something in the process.
Source: https://blog.execu-search.com/10-conversation-starters-to-get-you-talking-at-work/
Discussion:
Answer the following questions to your teacher.
1.Do you find it easy to start conversations with strangers? Why? Why not?
2.Have you ever attended a business/academic conference? If so, what was it like? If not, would you like to?
Let’s practice
Choose the correct answer.
1. Can you ____ her off at the airport?
A. drop
B. push
C. put
D. guess
2. Let’s ____ up with some ____ friends from high school this weekend.
little / meet / old / gather
3. His bag is too heavy. ____ is heavy, too.
A. Mine
B. Me
C. My
D. I