hey there i'm emma from
english this video is perfect for
high-level english learners who want to
improve
their conversation skills i'm going to
be sharing the exact phrases and
expressions that you need to help you
when you get a little stuck in english
conversations
like when you feel a little nervous
and those times when the conversation is
a bit difficult to follow when someone
misunderstands you or
when someone asks you a question or is
talking about a topic that you want to
avoid
so
get your pen and your notebook ready
there are plenty of useful phrases for
you to write down to help you speak
confidently in english conversations
plus i've also made you a free workbook
that goes with this lesson you can
download it the link is right down there
in the description go grab it now and
then let's get into the lesson
[Music]
hey lady is an online community where
women from around the world meet to
practice speaking english together it's
the easiest way to find english-speaking
friends and to get regular practice the
practice that you need to speak english
confidently and fluently hey lady is a
safe and supportive space for women with
an intermediate to advanced level of
english come and visit us at heylady.io
and discover the english-speaking
version of you
today let's all agree that speaking in
front of people or meeting a group of
people for the first time
can make you feel a little nervous can't
it sometimes it's hard enough to think
of just the words to say let alone
the expressions that you need to get
yourself out of trouble have you ever
been in a situation like this where
you've just felt frozen
well memorizing some of the expressions
from this lesson today will definitely
help and my first piece of advice is to
just be honest
say
i'm a little nervous
you can say it with a little grin to
make a joke out of it
or you can say it sincerely just to let
the people know who you're talking to
that
maybe you need a little bit of extra
support there is nothing wrong with that
at all it happens much more often than
you think it's not just you it's all of
us
bear with me
if you're speaking in front of a group
of people and maybe you're feeling a
little anxious about it you can
definitely use this phrase to ask people
to be patient with you just to buy
yourself a little bit more time and
another similar expression is give me a
moment let me try that again it's a
really great one if you need to stop and
to think about your sentence for a
minute and maybe rephrase it
maybe your sentence came out a little
wrong or you just realized you're
speaking so fast
you need to take a breath
say this phrase smile and try it again
i'm not sure about that actually
but i can find out
it can be really nerve-wracking when
someone asks you a question
that you don't know the answer to
especially if it's in a professional
context you might just
freeze
and have no idea what to say
but there is an easy solution and that's
this phrase right here
it's on the tip of my tongue
this is a great phrase for when
you actually do know something but you
just can't remember it right in that
moment
had something i wanted to say but i've
lost it
hopefully it'll come back have you ever
been in a meeting or a conversation
where you're listening to other people
and then when it's your turn to speak
your mind goes completely blank you've
forgotten what you were going to
contribute
it happens to me
more than i care to admit and it can be
really frustrating
it can feel embarrassing if you're being
harsh to yourself
but you can
play it cool with this phrase right here
do you mind if i jump in
maybe the idea of interrupting someone
when you've got something to say also
makes you feel a little nervous or a
little awkward so a very cool
casual way of doing this
and very often used in professional
context as well
is to use the verb jump in
oh what if you're asking a question and
you're not sure if it's appropriate or
acceptable to ask that question
this can sometimes happen when you're
talking to someone from a different
culture
is it okay to talk about marriage is it
okay to ask their age
sometimes it can be a little tricky to
know
in english you can preface this question
with a phrase that helps to soften it i
hope you don't mind me asking but
then insert the question
i hope you don't mind me asking but how
old are you
oh gosh what about when you forget
something that you know you shouldn't
have forgotten
my apologies
i've completely forgotten your name
i'm so sorry i've completely forgotten
what we were talking about
all right so this is a different type of
nervous energy i hate this feeling it's
that feeling of
seeing someone walk towards you and
realizing that you can't remember their
name
you've met them so many times before oh
what is it
it's much better although a little
awkward it's much better to ask them
sooner rather than later and just get it
out of the way particularly so you can
say it repeat it a few times
and try to remember it
makes it easier to remember next time
apparently it's
three times
when you find out what their name is
three times you need to say their name
in order to remember it next time hi
john nice to see you again lovely to
have you john tell me about your kids
well john it was really love to see
lovely to see you all right bye now so
what about when the conversation is just
kind of hard for some reason
maybe it's hard to keep up or
hard to follow what's happening
or
if you're in a conversation with
a bunch of native english speakers or
advanced english users then they might
be speaking really quickly and those
words that you can't fully hear or words
you don't recognize and you just feel
like
you're in over your head
so in these situations you can politely
and confidently say that you don't
understand what they've said
i have to admit this is a little beyond
me
with this expression you're really
putting an end to the discussion you're
not asking for them to clarify you're
saying
it's too much this conversation for me i
can't follow along let's end it okay
which sounds kind of serious so that's
the extreme
let's end the conversation but come back
from there
and we can say
sorry i'm afraid i don't follow you
with i don't follow you you're
suggesting that you need them to
re-explain
or to explain it in a different way
could you please say that a little
slower i'm not entirely sure what you
mean
could you explain it again
sorry that went straight over my head
could you explain it in a different way
if someone asks for your opinion about a
topic and you don't actually feel able
to talk about it in english then you
could say
it's interesting listening to you talk
but to be honest i don't know much about
this topic
wow i've never really thought about this
much before but i'm enjoying listening
to you talk about it
i'm not well versed on this topic so i'd
rather hold off on saying anything until
i know a bit more
i didn't know enough about this topic to
fully contribute to this discussion it's
pretty hard to express my ideas about
this topic in english but i'll try my
best i love this one make sure you write
it down
you're being really honest but you're
also
taking a deep breath
and going for it you're taking the
opportunity to participate
even though you're doubting yourself
let's have a look at some phrases for
when there's been a misunderstanding
and these are really useful to help
provide clarity
those times when
you need to re-explain something or say
it in a different way
to clear up confusion
oh i think you may have misunderstood
what i said
easy oh i didn't mean to say that what i
meant was
and then explain it in a different way
oh i'm sorry for the confusion
what i actually meant was
i'm so sorry my message must have got
lost in translation
let me explain again
uh i think we've got our wires crossed
there were a couple of really great
idioms there did you catch them
really good ones for helping to clear up
misunderstandings now misunderstandings
are generally pretty harmless but what
if you've unintentionally upset someone
don't worry this happens more often than
you think but apologizing as soon as you
realize and then clarifying what you
actually meant will usually help
and
on the plus side i've got some really
useful phrases that you can use when you
want to apologize
and explain a misunderstanding
or you seem upset did i say something
wrong
that definitely didn't come out right
i'm so sorry
i can completely understand why you're
hurt and i'm deeply sorry for what i
said
i'm sorry for hurting your feelings i
didn't intend it to come across that way
i'm sorry that was insensitive
i appreciate you calling me out on what
i said all right let's talk about some
phrases for
sensitive issues or sensitive topics
because people and different cultures
have
different social rules or beliefs about
what is considered okay to talk about
and what isn't maybe you have a
colleague who
says things that are really
inappropriate or maybe you just feel
uncomfortable talking about a particular
topic whether someone realizes they're
being inappropriate or not
doesn't really matter you absolutely
have the right to let them know about it
if you think they're being inappropriate
but having the right language
the exact phrases to help you do this is
essential and that's what we're going to
talk about now
i'd rather not talk about this if that's
okay
this is straight to the point
but it's still polite and it's a really
good phrase to have up your sleeve when
someone asks you a question that you
don't really want to answer and it's got
that really nice english politeness to
it too
is it okay with you if it's okay with
you
can you stop being an idiot please
you'll notice that these polite little
starts or endings to a sentence or a
question are used quite a lot throughout
this section it can sound a little rude
or confronting to be really direct here
so we use them just to help soften the
request and make sure everyone feels
comfortable
in the conversation
to be honest i don't feel like talking
about this right now
this topic hits close to home it's tough
for me to talk about
so the next few phrases are
more direct they're quite blunt so i'd
only recommend using them if the person
that you're talking to is being really
persistent in their behavior i haven't
had to use these phrases much and i hope
that you don't have to either but there
are times
when i've wished that i've had these
really strong words come to mind in that
moment
and that i'd had the courage to use them
so i'm hoping that by sharing them with
you today
they'll come easier to you when you're
in need of them a recent example of this
for me is i had a conversation with a
potential investor in my business and
he was asking me if i was planning to
have children because
that would impact his interest in
investing in my company
i was so shocked in that moment i just
answered him but
i wish that i had have said
i don't mean to sound rude but that
isn't any of your business
that's a really personal question i'm
not comfortable answering that
i think you're overstepping boundaries
with that question i'd rather not answer
that
if you want to end the conversation
completely you're just not interested in
talking about this
then you could say
i didn't come here today to argue about
our different beliefs
if you're not willing to change the
topic
i'll leave
now i wanted to include a little section
for the ladies out there because let's
be honest it's mostly women who find
themselves in a situation where
they're being spoken to inappropriately
in a sexual way
let's just get completely comfortable
telling someone that it's not okay so
for example if you have a boss or a
colleague
and they place their hand on your leg
during a meeting
you look them straight in the eye
and you say
please take your hand off my leg
if you don't feel comfortable in that
moment then find them afterwards and say
i'm only going to tell you this once
keep your hands to yourself nobody
touches my body without my permission
i don't appreciate being taken advantage
of or made to feel uncomfortable in
front of my colleagues
please don't do that again
practice using the facial expression
that i was just sharing there because
honestly
it needs that direct and serious
eye contact i have had way too many
female students of mine go through
situations like this and honestly if you
have a situation that you don't
understand because of
cultural or language barriers please
reach out to me and ask don't feel
awkward or uncomfortable in a
professional context in a dating context
just because
you don't understand or because you're
not sure what to say
reach out to me and talk about it
lastly we've got politics religion
sexuality vaccinations family planning
these are all controversial topics
because people can have such vastly
different
polarizing opinions
and some people
feel the need to push their own opinions
and beliefs onto you come on we all have
a friend or a family member who's like
this right if you don't want to share
your opinion about a topic
that's okay
and i've got some phrases for you that
you can use to politely and confidently
explain this i'd rather not express my
opinion on this issue
to be honest this conversation is making
me really uncomfortable
you can make it super clear that you
want to move on in the conversation too
this isn't the time or the place to get
into this discussion
let's talk about something else please
we need to agree to disagree and move on
i understand that everyone is entitled
to their own opinion
which is why i prefer to stay clear of
these topics
i fundamentally disagree with you about
this
if you're feeling up to it you can try
to understand more about their opinion
by saying
it's clear we fundamentally disagree
about this
but i'm curious to learn more about your
views why are you so passionate about
this
things got a little heated there towards
the end right
anyone feeling a little hot under the
collar
and just like that you've learned a heck
of a lot of phrases that you can use in
different tricky situations and don't
forget that i've created that really
handy little workbook with all of the
phrases from this lesson including some
pronunciation tips you can download it
in the description box below the link is
just down under the video
and make sure you're following along
english on our social channels as well
if you want to reach out and say hi
do that in the comments come and say hi
on instagram or facebook i'd love to see
you answer your questions if you've got
any lesson requests
let me know and for now i'm gonna share
this video with you right here because i
think you're gonna love it see you in
there