Day14 Greetings In English What To Say And What To Do

Hi, I’m Vanessa from speakenglishwithvanessa.com. And today, I have a very special guest, my husband Daniel. --Hello. Or do you want to go by Dan? --You can call me Dan. Alright, Dan. So today Dan and I are going to be talking about some greetings, and something you can do when you greet people. Let’s get started.

Dan, I have a question for you. When you greet someone, what do you usually do? --Well, that definitely depends on the situation and the person. OK. --So if I meet somebody new, usually it’s a hand shake, like this. Nice to meet you. --Nice to meet you. OK. --So that would be when I first meet somebody. Now if it’s a family member, like maybe my father, my mother, my brother, my sister, I’ll always hug them. Do we should demonstrate that? Sure. Hug. --Hi, nice to see you. Nice to see you too. --This kind of thing, right? So, but sometimes if there just, just not a great friend but pretty good friend or an acquaintance, like my co-workers. I’ll usually just say “hey, what’s up ?” or “Hello, and wave” Not always a wave, but usually just some kind of a introduction just like “hello, and then how are you ?” So, you are not always, you are never hug your co-works. --Yeah, I never hug my co-works. You never really shake hands with them after the first time you meet them. This possibility you could shake hands with people, or hug them, or wave and each situation is a little different. I know, for example, in a job interview in the US, most people recommend go into the interview and shaking the boss’s hand really assertively like you are the leader. “Hi, nice to meet, thank you for this job interview.” And I know in a lot of countries, especially in Asia counties, that seems as too aggressive, too assertive. But in the US, shaking hands is a sign of you are straight, you are ready, you are powerful. --You want to seem a little more assertive in America, I think. Sure. --Even to your boss. I think with hugging though sometimes it’s a little bit awkward.

I know one time we had a conversation with one of our friends. She shared some really valuable and personal information with us. She was having a hard day, and just talk to us about her day. And at the end of the conversation, we just said “OK, bye, see you later.” And we talked about it. --It’s a little awkward. Should we give her a hug? And it’s not always straight-forward. Should you give a hug? Should you not give a hug? But, I feel like, in that situation, maybe I should give her a hug. --That seem to be a little grey area with friends. you know, like especially when it’s a new friend, maybe you are becoming a better friend, When do you hug that person, how do you know? Sure. --It’s unspoken.

Thanks for watching this conversation video. In the second part of this video, I’m going to explain some of the expressions that we used in the video. So that you can use them and feel comfortable with natural English. I’ll see you in part two, goodbye.

Hi, welcome to the expression section of this video. Now, I’m going to describe two expressions that Dan and I used in our conversation about greetings. The first expression is the word “acquaintance”. acquaintance. And acquaintance is someone who you’ve only met once or twice, but you are not really close friends with yet. So, you could say “I have an acquaintance who is a pilot.” “I have an acquaintance who is a pilot.” You are not good friend with him, he’s just an acquaintance. Maybe you met him once or twice. Or you could say “Is he your friend? No, he’s just an acquaintance.” He’s not a really your close friend. He’s just an acquaintance. The second word is the word assertive. assertive. The word assertive means strong, bold, confident. You could say “to be the boss of the company, you have to be assertive.” Or “If you want to say your opinion at the meeting, or in a group of friends, you need to be assertive.” You need to be bold and strong, you need to say your opinion and be assertive.

If this dialog of conversation and expression videos are helpful to you, click on this link and join our course “30 days of English”. You can watch 12 conversations between Daniel and I, just like this one. You can learn over 25 new expressions, and you can answer over 32 speaking questions with personal (feedback). So, check out now and I’ll see you there. Goodbye.

definitely 一定地，肯定地

demonstrate 演示，说明

acquaintance 相识的人，熟人(只见过一两面的人)

assertively 坚定而自信地

awkward 尴尬的

bold 勇敢的，无畏的