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English A Basic Guideline to Daily Conversation
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A Basic Guideline to Daily Conversation
Dana Arif Lukmana
Ummi Salamah Tianotak
A Basic Guideline to Daily Conversation
Copyright © Dana Arif Lukmana & Ummi Salamah Tianotak, 2021
Hak cipta dilindungi undang-undang
All right reserved
Layouter: Muhamad Safi’i
Desain cover: Dicky M. Fauzi
Penyelaras akhir: Saiful Mustofa
viii + 137 hlm: 14 x 21cm
Cetakan: Pertama, Juni 2021
ISBN: 978-623-6364-08-6
Anggota IKAPI
Hak cipta dilindungi undang-undang. Dilarang memplagiasi atau
memperbanyak seluruh isi buku ini tanpa izin
tertulis dari penerbit.
Diterbitkan oleh:
Akademia Pustaka
Perum. BMW Madani Kavling 16, Tulungagung
Telp: 081216178398
Email: redaksi.akademia.pustaka@gmail.com
Website: www.akademiapustaka.com
ii
PREFACE
W
e thank God the Almighty who has bestowed us with
guidance, health, and patience to us so we can complete
the writing of this book, English A Basic Guideline to Daily
Conversation.
This book is prepared with the aim of providing teaching
materials for English subjects for IAIN Ternate Students with
reference to the Standard of Indonesian National Qualifications
Framework. These teaching materials are designed for internal
use and therefore lecturers throughout IAIN Ternate can use
them directly in the classroom or by doing adaptation as
necessary. Learning materials and assignments are developed
with the principles of the Communicative Approach to develop
students' competence in Speaking. This book comprises
twenty units which cover tips and topics concerning speaking.
This book is really appropriate with the needs of students
because it covers daily topics and discussions that fit
contextually with the everyday communication.
With the completion of the writing of this book, we would
like to thank various parties who have provided support
during the preparation of writing this book. We realize that this
book still has some shortcomings. We hope for input from
various parties, especially lecturers and students who use
these teaching materials for improvement. Hopefully this
teaching material will be useful for learning English in IAIN
Ternate.
Regards,
Writers
iii
iv
TABLE OF CONTENS
PREFACE .................................................................................................. iii
TABLE OF CONTENS ................................................................................ v
UNIT 1
FORMAL AND INFORMAL ENGLISH ............................................................... 1
Three levels of language ............................................................................... 1
When to use formal, neutral or informal language.......................... 2
Sentence structure in formal and informal English ........................ 3
Formal and informal English vocabulary ............................................. 4
Directness in formal and informal English .......................................... 6
Formal and informal written English ..................................................... 7
UNIT 2
HOW TO SPEAK MORE FLUENTLY IN ENGLISH...................................... 9
What is Fluency? .............................................................................................. 9
Get Out There and SPEAK!........................................................................... 9
Get Used to Pressure ....................................................................................10
Speed Reading .................................................................................................11
Learn Language in Chunks ........................................................................12
UNIT 3
HOW TO SOUND MORE CONFIDENT IN ENGLISH ...............................15
The First Steps Towards Confidence ....................................................15
Control Your Speaking.................................................................................16
Stop Apologizing For Your English! ......................................................17
Set Yourself Challenges ...............................................................................18
Keep a Journal .................................................................................................19
UNIT 4
HOW TO ASK AND RESPOND TO “HOW ARE YOU?” ..........................21
Ways to answer ‘ How are you? ..............................................................22
Ways to ask ‘How are you?’.......................................................................22
Informal ways to ask and answer ‘How are you?’ ..........................23
How to continue the conversation ........................................................24
v
UNIT 5
TALKING ABOUT YOUR FREE TIME AND HOBBIES .......................... 29
Free time and hobbies vocabulary ....................................................... 29
What do you like doing? ............................................................................ 30
Adding details to your ideas .................................................................... 30
Saying why you like or dislike something ......................................... 32
UNIT 6
HOW TO TALK ABOUT YOUR FAMILY ...................................................... 35
Introducing your family ............................................................................. 35
Talking about brothers and sisters ...................................................... 36
Talking about your immediate/extended family........................... 36
Talking about your relationship with your family ........................ 37
Making a longer answer............................................................................. 37
UNIT 7
TALKING ABOUT YOUR HOMETOWN ....................................................... 39
Introducing your hometown ................................................................... 39
Adding Background and Details............................................................. 40
Saying What You like About Your Hometown ................................ 41
Saying What You Dislike About Your Hometown .......................... 42
Describing how your hometown has changed over time .......... 43
UNIT 8
TALKING ABOUT YOUR HOME ...................................................................... 45
Introducing Where You Live.................................................................... 45
Describing the Inside of Your Home .................................................... 47
Saying what you like or dislike about your home ......................... 47
Saying Who You Live With ....................................................................... 49
Talking About Your Neighborhood ...................................................... 49
Review and Practice..................................................................................... 50
UNIT 9
HOW TO TALK ABOUT YOUR JOB................................................................ 51
Introducing your job.................................................................................... 51
Describing your company ......................................................................... 52
How to describe your job in more detail ........................................... 53
Saying how you feel about your job ..................................................... 54
How to make a longer answer ................................................................ 55
vi
UNIT 10
HOW TO TALK ABOUT YOUR VACATION ................................................57
How to give basic information about your vacation .....................57
How to describe what you did on vacation .......................................58
How to describe where you went on vacation ................................59
How to Describe What You Liked or Disliked ..................................61
Making a longer answer .............................................................................62
UNIT 11
HOW TO TALK ABOUT THE WEATHER IN ENGLISH .........................65
Talking about cold weather ......................................................................65
Talking about rain: ........................................................................................66
Talking about bad weather .......................................................................67
Talking about wintry weather .................................................................68
UNIT 12
HOW TO DESCRIBE A PERSON .......................................................................69
Describing appearance ................................................................................69
Describing positive characteristics .......................................................70
Describing Negative Characteristics. ....................................................72
Talking about your relationship .............................................................73
UNIT 13
TALK ABOUT NATURE AND LANDSCAPE ................................................77
Using Adjectives .............................................................................................77
UNIT 14
TALKING ABOUT CRIME AND COURT ........................................................81
Conversation ....................................................................................................81
Talking About street Crime .......................................................................83
Talking About Traffic Offenses ................................................................85
Going to Court..................................................................................................87
UNIT 15
HOW TO DESCRIBE A PICTURE......................................................................91
How to summarize what you see ...........................................................91
How to describe where things are .........................................................93
Adding detail to four description ...........................................................95
Speculating about the picture ..................................................................96
Speculating about the context of the picture ....................................98
Making a Longer Answer ........................................................................ 100
vii
UNIT 16
MAKING SUGGESTIONS ....................................................................................103
How to Make and Accept Suggestions ..............................................103
How to Reject Suggestions Politely ....................................................105
How to Add Reasons to your Rejection ............................................106
Intonation in Suggestions .......................................................................108
UNIT 17
HOW TO SHOP FOR CLOTHES ......................................................................109
Dialogue ...........................................................................................................109
UNIT 18
TALKING ON THE PHONE ...............................................................................113
How to Make informal Phone Calls ....................................................113
How to Make Formal Phone Calls .......................................................114
Common Problems .....................................................................................115
Leaving a Message ......................................................................................116
UNIT 19
HOW TO ANSWER JOB INTERVIEW QUESTIONS IN ENGLISH ..119
Make Your Answers More concise ......................................................119
Use Signposting Language. .....................................................................121
How To add Structure To Answers ....................................................123
‘STAR’ Method ..............................................................................................124
Mirror Key Words .......................................................................................125
UNIT 20
PHRASAL VERBS FOR BUSINESS ................................................................129
Setting Up a New Business .....................................................................129
Managing a Department ..........................................................................132
REFERENCES........................................................................................ 137
AUTHORS’ BIOGRAPHY .................................................................... 139
viii
UNIT 1
FORMAL AND INFORMAL ENGLISH
I
n this lesson, you can learn about formal and informal
English. You’ll learn how to recognize and use formal and
informal styles in your spoken and written English broken
down into six parts.
Part 1: Three levels of language
Look at three sentences:
• Could I disturb you for a minute?
(Formal)
• Can I ask you something?
(Neutral)
• You got a sec?
(informal)
All of these sentences have the same basic meaning as “I
want to talk to you and ask you about something”. However,
the tone is different. These three sentences show three levels
of formality. The first sentence is formal. It shows politeness,
respect and distance. The second sentence is neutral; it does
not have a formal or an informal tone. And the third sentences
is informal; it shows that you and the person you are speaking
to are familiar with each other, and you don’t need to make an
effort to be polite or respectful.
Actually, there are more than three levels of formality. For
example:
• May I ask you something?
1
• May I take a moment of your time?
• Could I disturb you for a minute?
The sentences are all formal. The first is extremely formal.
It’s probably too formal to use in most situations. The other
two are both formal; the second is probably more formal than
the third. Why ‘probably?’ because formality isn’t absolute, and
it also depends on context and intonation, so it’s not just about
the words you use.
So there are many levels of formality. However, when you
speak or write in English, it’s useful to think about three levels:
1. Formal,
2. Neutral, and
3. Informal
Part 2: When to use formal, neutral or informal language
Many English students use language which is too formal.
This is because students think formal language is more polite.
Polite language is better, Right?. No, not always! Language
which is too polite puts distance between you and the person
you’re talking at. This will sound awkward and unnatural. At
worst, you can sound cold and unfriendly if you use language
which is too formal. Knowing when to use formal language
depends mostly on the context. Maybe you would say that
formal language is used in job interviews, in business meetings
or negotiations, when talking to older people, when writing
business emails, and so on. The fact is, it’s not possible to say
you should always use formal language in these situations. It
always depends. For example, take job interviews. Some
companies have a very corporate culture, with a strict
hierarchy and lots of rules and procedures. Other companies
are more relaxed, and pay less attention to rules and job titles.
Obviously, if you’re going for a job interview at the first kind of
company, you’ll want to dress, act and speak formally, to fit in
with the company culture.
2
On the other hand, if you go for an interview at the second
kind of company, where things are more relaxed, it would not
be appropriate to speak very formally. So, always think about
the actual situation in front of you. If you’re not sure, try to
listen to other people around you. If other people around you
are speaking informally to each other, you probably shouldn’t
try to sound very formal. Also, if you don’t know, then use
neutral language. Neutral language is safe. You can use it in any
situation. Informal language is very important in spoken
English, but you need to be careful. Using informal language at
the wrong time could sound disrespectful or rude. Next, let’s
consider some of the main differences between formal, neutral,
and informal English.
Part 3: Sentence structure in formal and informal English
Formal English tends to use longer, more complicated
sentence structures. Informal and neutral English tend to use
shorter simpler sentence structures.
For example:
a. I was wondering if you could make yourself available on
Wednesday to provide more detailed on these matters.
(Formal).
b. Do you have time on Wednesday to help us with these
problem? (Neutral).
c. You got some free time on Wednesday to talk about this?
(More informal).
You can see that sentence (a) is quite long, with a complex
structure, and sentence (b) and (c) are much shorter and
simpler.
Let’s do one more example. Can you spot which one is
formal, which is neutral, and which is informal?
a. We should have a word with him first.
b. It may well be necessary to contact him before we make a
decision.
3
c. We need to talk to him before we decide.
Again, you can see that the formal sentence is longer and
more complex. Another point is that we sometimes leave out
words in informal English, especially in questions. For
example, in the question (are) you sure? It is possible to leave
out the word are and just say “You sure?” In fact, you could
even leave out the word you and just ask a question with one
word: “sure?”
Let’s see some more examples of this:
a. Will you be joining us? (formal-full form)
b. Are you coming? (Neutral-full form)
c. You coming? (Informal-short form)
d. Do you have any suggestions? (Formal-full form)
e. Have you got any ideas? (Neutral-full form)
f. Any ideas? (informal-short form)
Do you notice any other differences between the formal,
neutral and informal sentences you’ve seen in this section? You
might notice that we use different words informal, neutral and
informal English. Vocabulary is another important difference
between formal and informal language. Let’s look!
Part 4: Formal and informal English vocabulary
Formal English tends to use more literary rare or oldfashioned vocabulary. Generally, if you want to be formal, you
need to be precise with your use of vocabulary. Neutral English
tends to use simpler, more common words. Informal English,
like neutral English, uses simple and common vocabulary.
However, informal English also includes slang, phrasal verbs
and colloquial language which are not features of neutral
English. Informal English is also generally looser. It uses more
general words, and the meaning is understood from the
context. Let’s look at in some more detail:
4
a. Formal: We need verify the data before we proceed.
b. Neutral: We need to check the data before we continue.
c. Informal: We need to check everything before we carry
on.
You can see that the formal sentences uses more literary
vocabulary: verify instead of check, and proceed instead of
continue. The neutral sentence uses simple, common words.
The informal sentences is less precise: instead of saying the
data, you could say everything. It also uses a phrasal verb: carry
on instead of proceed or continue. In informal English, it’s
common to use vocabulary in a less precise way. For example,
you might use words like stuff or things to refer to specific
things. You would not do this if you were speaking formally.
For example:
a. Formal: you are required to collect your belongings and
vacate the premises.
b. Neutral: you need to take your personal possessions and
leave the building.
c. Informal: you need to get your stuff together and get out.
Again, you can see more literary vocabulary in the formal
sentence (required, collect, belongings, vacate, premises). On
the other hand, the informal sentence uses more basic
vocabulary, including multi-part verbs like get, together or get
out.
The informal sentence is also much less precise. It simply
refers to stuff, instead of belongings or possessions. It also says
get out, without specifying the place (the premises or the
building). The neutral sentences is somewhere in between. In
neutral language, you generally choose the simplest word you
can. So, you would say take instead of collect, leave instead of
vacate, and so on. You can also see that the informal sentence
is much more direct than the other two. This is an important
part of formality in English.
5
Part 5: Directness in formal and informal English
Formal language tends to be much more indirect. Formal
language often sounds quite impersonal, because it uses fewer
personal pronouns like I, you, he, she, etc. Informal language
tends to be more direct and personal. Informal language can be
so direct that it can sound aggressive or rude if you use it in the
wrong situations. Neutral language is in the situations you’ve
seen. For example:
a. Formal: Lessons needs to be learnt from the mistakes
which were made.
b. Neutral: I hope you can learnt from where you went
wrong.
c. Informal: you made a mess of this and you need to do
better next time.
You can see that the formal sentence is impersonal. How
does it achieve this? First, the formal sentences uses the
passive. This makes it possible to avoid personal pronouns.
The other two sentences include the word you, but the formal
sentence doesn’t. this makes it possible to express the idea
without mentioning or blaming a specific person, which can be
useful in certain situations. The neutral sentences is personal,
because it uses you to refer to the listener. However, it’s not
very direct, and wouldn’t generally be considered rude, even in
a professional setting. The informal sentence is very direct. If
you say this someone, you’re not hiding what you think! This
can be useful if you need to make yourself clear, but it could
also sound rude or aggressive. It’s not appropriate in all
situations. Let’s do one more example. Look at three sentences.
Can you tell which is formal, which is neutral, and which is
informal?
• We won’t be able to do anything until we deal with these
issues. (neutral)
• We won’t be able to get anywhere until you sort this out.
(informal)
6
• It may be difficult to make progress until these matters are
resolved. (formal)
You can see that the formal sentence uses an impersonal
structure (with it), rather than a personal pronoun (we or you).
Again, this is useful if you want to be respectful and indirect,
because it isn’t clearly directed at one person. The neutral
sentences is more personal. The neutral sentences uses we in
both parts, while the informal sentences is more direct.
Part 6: Formal and informal written English
In writing, informal language uses contractions like “he’ll”,
“it’d” or “we’re”. In informal written English, you can also use
abbreviations, like BTW for By The Way, TTYL for “talk to you
later”, etc. Informal writing, you generally would not use
contractions or abbreviations. In neutral writing, you can use
contractions and some abbreviations. However, some
abbreviations, like pls for “please”, are informal and shouldn’t
be used if you want to sound neutral. There are also some
abbreviations which are possible in formal English. For
example, HR for Human Resources would be okay in formal
language. If you want to write something in formal English, and
you aren’t sure whether an abbreviation is appropriate or not,
then it’s best to write the full form. Let’s see some examples:
• Just for your information, we would like to schedule
another meeting in October. (formal - there are no
contractions or abbreviations)
• Just for your information, we’d like to arrange another
meeting in October. (neutral - uses contractions, but no
informal abbreviations).
• Just FYI, we’d like to fix up a meeting in Oct. (informal with contractions and abbreviations)
Written language is often held to a higher standard than
spoken language, so it’s important to get the tone right. In
particular, don’t use language which is too informal. If you’re
not sure, aim for a neutral tone. Let’s look at one more example:
7
• Thank you for all the hard work you have done. (formal there are no contractions or abbreviations).
• Thank you for the hard work you’ve done. (neutral - uses
contractions, but no informal abbreviations).
• Thanks for everything you’ve done. (informal - with
contractions and abbreviations)
Hopefully, now you have a good understanding of formality
in English, and how to use formal, neutral and informal English.
8
UNIT 2
HOW TO SPEAK MORE FLUENTLY IN ENGLISH
I
n this lesson, you can learn how to speak more fluently in
English. How long have you been studying English? Do you
find that sometimes that even though you study hard, you can’t
speak fluently? Do you learn lots of grammar and vocabulary,
but you find it difficult to make sentences when you speak. In
this lesson, we’re going to talk about fluency and what can do
to change this situation and improve your English fluency.
What is Fluency?
Sometimes, when people talk about fluency, they just mean
speaking a language well. For some people, speaking English
fluently just means having a good general level of English.
However, fluency is more specific than that. Fluency means you
can speak smoothly, without stopping or hesitating. There are
two sides to fluency. One side is physical: your mouth needs to
produce and connect English sounds and words in a fast,
smooth way. The other side of fluency is mental: your brain
needs to find the right words and build English sentences
quickly and smoothly. To improve your fluency, you need to
work on both sides: physical and mental. But first, you need to
keep in mind the rules below:
1. Get Out There and SPEAK!
There are many things you can do to improve your English
fluency. However, if you want to become more fluent, there’s
really one thing you have to do. Get out there and speak
9
English. Talk to people and have conversations regularly.
Nothing else you can do is as important as this. Reading English
will improve your reading. Practicing listening will improve
your listening. But what about speaking? Nothing will help
your speaking except speaking. Speaking English is a practical
skill. It’s not an academic subject; it’s not something you can
learn from a book. It’s more like doing a sport or playing a
musical instrument: you need to practice regularly to make any
progress. How regularly? As often as you can! You need to
spend at least 2-3 hours a week speaking English if you want to
improve. So, how can you do this?
• Go to English classes
• Talk to expats/foreigners in your city
• Join groups/activities with English speakers
• Find a conversation partner online
• Do language exchange
2. Get Used to Pressure
Speaking a foreign language is hard. Situations which would
be easy in your language can feel difficult in another language.
Situations which would feel difficult in your language can feel
almost impossible when you have to do them in a foreign
language. That’s how it is. It’s easy to imagine when you start
learning another language that you will reach a point where
everything is easy and comfortable. But unless you live in a
foreign country and live completely inside that culture, that
won’t happen. Why are we talking about this? We are trying to
motivate you to go out and speak more, practice more. To do
that, you have to accept that it will feel difficult, uncomfortable
and intimidating a lot of the time. That’s how it is. Don’t let it
stop you! You can still practice, you can still communicate, and
you can still improve.
10
3. Speed Reading
a. Find a text.
Find the text in English. It can be something from a
textbook, from a newspaper, from a blog, or anywhere. The
text should be fairly easy for you. Don’t choose something
with a lot of new words or something which is way above
your current English level. Sit down with a timer.
1) Read the text aloud and Time yourself.
2) Read it again (aloud) and try to beat your time.
3) Repeat (3) and try to get the fastest time you can!
Keep going like this. See how fast you can read the text.
What’s this for? Remember that part of fluency is physical.
Your mouth needs to produce English sounds and English
words fast and smoothly. Speed reading like this is a good
way to practice that side of fluency. This way of practicing is
really useful because you can do it almost anywhere and you
can also do as much or as little as you have time for. You can
do five minutes practice or fifteen minutes, or half an hour.
It’s all helpful! Let’s see another good technique like this.
b. Using Songs
1) Find a song in English which you like; Choose
something which you like.
2) Find the lyrics online; if you don’t know where to
look, just put the song title and the word lyrics into
Google. You’ll find them.
3) Sing the song with the lyrics; play the song, read the
lyrics. Sing! Like with speed reading, this is a good
technique to practice the physical side of fluency.
When you sing a song, you have to go at the speed of
the song.
4) Find a faster song and repeat 1-3; start with slower
songs, then choose faster ones. Try to choose
11
something that’s possible but challenging, so you can
sing the song, but it’s difficult to go fast enough.
Again, this will really help with your physical fluency. It’s
also easy to do; you can do one song a day, and you will feel
a difference quite quickly. Speed reading and singing songs
are good for physical fluency, but what about the mental
side of fluency? Let’s see what you can do to improve that.
4. Learn Language in Chunks
Here’s a question: how do you learn vocabulary? When
students learn vocabulary, it often looks like this:
Already (telah)
Head (kepala)
Big (besar)
Word (kata)
Life (kehidupan)
Door (pintu)
People write down the English word, the translation in their
own language, and then they try to memorize it. Okay, but what
does that have to do with fluency? Think about it: if you learn
language like this, you’re making your brain do things in a very
unnatural and complicated way.
First of all, you’re learning each word individually. But,
when you speak a language, you don’t need individual words,
you need phrases and sentences. Secondly, if you do this, you’re
learning English through your own language. You’re not
learning to speak English, you’re trying to learn to translate
your language into English in your head. So, does this sound
familiar? You have a sentence in your head in your own
language. You move through the sentence, translating each
word into English.
If you don’t know the translation of a word, you get stuck,
you feel bad about your English, and stop speaking. You need
to break this habit if you want to speak fluently. First of all, this
way of thinking and speaking is always slow. It will always be
slow, because you are trying to do too many things at once. You
are trying to think and remember things in two languages, it’s
too difficult for anybody. So what can you do?
12
We said before that you need phrases and sentences when
you speak. So, learn language in phrases and sentences. For
example, imagine that some asks you:
1. What are you doing this weekend?
Look at three answers:
• I am going to see some old friends.
• I am thinking of going for a bike ride.
• I am might do some odd jobs around the house.
Now, make your own sentences:
• I am going to …..
• I am thinking of …..
• I might …..
Try to make two or three sentences for each one, so that you
use different endings. Now think: if someone asks you this
question: what are you doing this weekend? If you remember
language in big pieces, you only have to remember two thing:
• I am going to + see some old friends.
• I am going to + have a dinner with my family.
• I am going to + have a dinner with my family.
• I am going to + watch some old movies.
That makes it easy to respond to questions like this fluently.
On the other hand, if you make a sentence in your head in err…
your language in your head, and then translate each word into
English, it’s much more complicated. You don’t just have to
remember two things; you have to remember many things. So,
try to learn vocabulary in this way. Take a sentence like:
• I went for a walk yesterday
Keep the basic sentence from, but change part of it: “I …
yesterday”. Now, make 2 to 3 different sentences:
13
• I took an exam yesterday.
• I was lazy all day yesterday.
• I cooked a spicy curry yesterday.
Now, practice and remember the sentences and phrases.
This is a much more natural way to learn vocabulary. If you
learn vocabulary like this, it will be much easier to respond
fluently, because you won’t need to think in your own language
and translate. You will remember the whole phrases and
sentences that you need.
14
UNIT 3
HOW TO SOUND MORE CONFIDENT IN
ENGLISH
I
n this lesson you can learn how to sound more confident
when you speak English. When we ask students, “Why do
you want to learn English?” often people don’t talk about their
language skills. They talk about their feelings. They say things
like: “I don’t feel confident when I’m speaking English”. “I’m
afraid my English sound bad”. “I want to feel better about my
English”. Does this sound like you?
In this lesson, you can learn some simple, effective tips to
sound more confident speaking English. We will show ideas
that anyone can use.
1. The First Steps Towards Confidence
There is a saying in English: “Fake it till you make it”. Have
you ever heard it? If never, can you guess what it means?
It means that confidence starts on the outside. You need to
act confident and sound confident, even if you don’t feel
confident. So, if you lack confidence when you speak English,
you have to ‘fake it’. You have to act confident. This is important
to understand: there isn’t some sort of magical switch you can
flip and suddenly feel confident. Feeling more confident is a
journey which will take time and work. Remember: to improve
your English confidence, you need to accept that you might not
feel confident right away. That’s okay! The first steps towards
15
confidence in your spoken English are not outside. So, what can
you actually do?
2. Control Your Speaking
When you’re not confident in your English, you’ll probably
do three things:
1. You’ll speak too quietly.
2. You’ll try to speak too fast.
3. You’ll speak in fragments, using single words and phrases
instead of full sentences.
For example:
Ayu : Dwi, did you have a good weekend?
Dwi : Not bad. Just stayed at home.
Did that sound, or look, confident? Not really! Let’s try again.
Ayu : Hey Dwi, did you have a good weekend?
Dwi : it was kind of boring, actually! I didn’t go anywhere or
do anything. What about you?
See the difference? Even though I still had a boring weekend
and didn’t have anything interesting to say, I was still able to
sound confident and comfortable.
There are three things you can do here, but before start, I’d
like you to do something: Record yourself talking in English for
one minute, introduce yourself and talk a little about your life.
Next, let’s get back to what you can do to sound more
confident in English.
1. Control the volume of your voice. Confident people
speak at a high, clear volume. You don’t have to shout, but
your voice should be loud enough that anyone in the same
room could understand you clearly.
2. Control the speed of your voice. When you’re nervous,
it’s normal to try to speak faster. If you try to speak too
fast, you’ll sound less confident, and also make more
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mistakes. Slowing down will help you in many ways. You’ll
sound more confident, you’ll be easier to understand
when you speak English, and you’ll make fewer mistakes.
3. Speak in full sentences. If you’re not confident in your
spoken English, you’ll try to say as little as possible. To
sound confident, you should show that you’re not scared
of speaking English. So, use full sentences.
Now, it’s time to make another recording. Even better, make
three recordings. Each should be around one minute. Talk
about yourself and your life, like you did before. The first time,
focus on the volume of your voice. Try to speak loudly and
clearly. The second time, focus on speed. Try to slow down and
speak at a clear, controlled pace. The third time, focus on
speaking in full sentences. Listen to the recordings. Compare
them to the first recording you made. Do they sound better?
Next, try to use these points when you talk English in real
life. Remember, you might not feel confident, but you will
sound more confident. If you sound more confident, people will
respond to you differently. Try it-you might be surprised how
much difference these simple points make! When you see how
people respond to you, you’ll feel more confident in your
English.
3. Stop Apologizing For Your English!
Do you ever say things like this? “Sorry about my English.
”Sorry I know my English is really bad”. Here’s a question: why?
What’s the point? When you say things like this, you get two
results: 1) You reinforce your negative feelings by expressing
them. 2) You show the person you’re believe in yourself. If you
don’t believe in yourself, why should anyone else? Neither of
these is a good result. So, what’s the solution?
Very simple: stop apologizing for your English! It’s a waste
of time. First of all, if you’re talking to people, and your English
is really bad, they can see that already. People don’t need you
to tell them. More importantly, most people won’t judge you for
your English. Most people in the world aren’t interested in your
17
English at all. If someone’s talking to you, they’re talking to you
to be friendly, or because they want something from you, or
because they’re interested in your ideas. They’re not talking to
you to see how good your English is.
And even if the person you’re talking to is judging your
English, what can you do about it at that moment? Nothing at
all. So, why apologize? Why feel bad? It doesn’t help. Maybe you
can’t help feeling bad, though you shouldn’t. But, you can
control what you say. So, never apologize for your English.
4. Set Yourself Challenges
Before we start talking about this point, please down three
situations where you would fell nervous about speaking
English. Have you got three situations? What are they? Maybe
you write something like this: talking to a native speaker,
making a speech in front of my class, making a presentation at
work. Now, for each of your three situations, please create
three different levels: easy, medium, and hard. What do we
mean here?
Let’s take the example of talking to a native speaker. Many
English learners say that they feel nervous talking to native
English speakers. So, we need three different levels of this
situation: easy medium, and hard.
Here’s a suggestion:
• Easy challenge: say ‘hello’ to a native speaker.
• Medium challenge: introduce yourself to a native
speaker and ask 1-2 questions.
• Hard challenge: have a 5- minute conversation with a
native speaker.
Okay, so what now? Go out and do them, of course! Start
with the easy challenge. Repeat it several times, if you want.
Then, go to the medium challenge. Again, you can do it more
than once. Finally, try the hard challenge.
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Of course, this isn’t something you can just do. This might
take you days or weeks. Also, the exact challenges you set
yourself will depend on your English level and your situation.
The key points are:
• The easy challenge should be really easy; something that’s
not a challenge for you at all.
• The medium challenge should make you think, “That’s
difficult, but I can do it.”
• The hard challenge should make you think, “Can I really do
this?”
Let’s do another example. Let’s take the idea of making a
presentation at work. We need three challenges:
- Easy challenge: ask a question or make a point in a
meeting.
- Medium challenge: make a short presentation to a small
group.
- Hard challenge: volunteer to make a longer presentation
to a big group.
Again, these are just examples. You should think carefully
about your challenges, because they should be personal to you.
5. Keep a Journal
Let’s look at one more practical tip. Writing about your
thoughts and feelings in a diary or journal can be very helpful.
First, imagine a situation: you have a group of English-speaking
colleagues. They are all friends with each other. You never talk
to them. You just talk to your other colleagues in your language.
You want to talk to your English-speaking colleagues, but you
don’t feel confident enough. At this point, take out your journal
and write down all the worst things that could happen.
Take your biggest fears about the situation and put them
into a list. For example:
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My fears:
• They’ll laugh at me.
• They won’t be interested in what I have to say.
• I won’t be able to say one word in English when I speak to
them.
• I’ll feel stupid and useless.
What next?
Go and talk to them, of course! If you want, you can make a
challenge ladder, like we did in part four. Set yourself easy,
medium and hard Challenges, and work through them. After
you talk to them, next to your list of fears, write down what
actually happened when you spoke to them. For example:
What really happened:
• They talked to me and asked me questions.
• They were friendly and polite.
• I could have a basic conversation.
• I felt a little uncomfortable, but also good about doing
something I was scared of.
Of course, it’s not certain that everything will go well. Maybe
sometimes your fears will come true. But, you’ll find that most
of the time, the things you’re afraid of don’t happen. By writing
things down like this, you’ll be able to see how your fears are
just in your head. You’ll see that reality is often a lot more
optimistic than you are!
Writing down your feelings like this will help you
understand that other people aren’t judging you and your
English. This way, you can feel more free and confident when
you speak English!
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UNIT 4
HOW TO ASK AND RESPOND TO “HOW ARE
YOU?”
W
hen you started learning English, “I’m fine” is probably
one of the first thing you learnt. It’s a simple way of
answering the question. How are you? Fine is, well, fine! But if
you use it all the time, it can get very repetitive, and a little
boring. Does this look familiar to anyone?
Monday
Wednesday
Ayu : hi, how are you?
Ayu : Hi, how are you?
Dwi : I’m fine thank you,
Dwi : I’m fine thank you,
and you?
and you?
Tuesday
Thursday
Ayu : Hi, how are you?
Ayu : Hi, how are you?
Dwi : I’m fine thank you,
Dwi : I’m fine thank you,
and you?
and you?
I think you get the idea. Even with very simple language, it
is better if your language is varied. So, how can you make this
more interesting? Here are a few ideas.
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Part 1: Ways to answer ‘ How are you?
1. Ayu : Hi, how are you?
4. Ayu : Hi, how are you?
Dwi : I’m good, thanks, you?
2. Ayu : Hi, how are you?
Dwi : Not bad, thanks.
5. Ayu : Hi, how are you?
Dwi : I’m pretty good
Dwi : I’m very well
3. Ayu : Hi, how are you?
6. Ayu : Hi, how are you?
Dwi : I’m OK
Dwi : I’m great
Remember that it’s polite to also ask the other person how
they are, too. You can do this by simply adding you? Or, and
you? For example:
- I’m very well, and you?
- I’m great, you?
Notice that the intonation rises at the end to show that
you’re asking a question. Now, you’ve learned some ways to
answer the question “how are you”, but what about the
question itself?
Part 2: Ways to ask ‘How are you?’
Like “I’m fine”, there are many ways to ask “how are you”,
and you should try to add variety to English when you speak.
By the way, you probably wouldn’t ask a person you see
regularly ‘how are you?’. If you see them often it might sound
strange because nothing has changed since the last time you
saw them.
Here are a few alternatives you can use. These are more
informal, but they’re very common in everyday situations.
• How’s it going?
• How’re you doing?
• How’re things?
• How’s life?
In informal spoken English, you should use contractions and
link words to sound natural. So make sure you say “How’s it
going”, with a contraction of is. You can’t use the full form-how
is it going-unless you want to sound like a robot.
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Similarly, “how’re you doing” needs to be pronounced with
a contraction of are: how’re you doing? You can even leave out
the word are and just say how you doing? Next, let’s see how
you can put these greetings together in a real situation.
Ayu : Hi, how’s it going?
Dwi : Hi, Alivier, how’re
Dwi : pretty good
things?
thanks, you?
Ayu : Good thanks, and
Ayu : Yeah, not bad.
you?
Dwi : I’m good
Next, let’s look at some even more informal ways of asking or
answering the question “How are you?”
Part 3: Informal ways to ask and answer ‘How are you?’
Here are three very informal questions you can use to ask
“how are you?”:
• How’s tricks?
• What’s up?
• What’s new?
• Alright?
Remember that these are very informal. That doesn’t mean
they’re rude or that you shouldn’t use them, but you can’t use
them in more formal situations. “How’s tricks” is
grammatically incorrect, but that’s the phrase which people
use.
These are common between friends and people who know
each other well. Remember what you learned about linking
words earlier? It’s also important here. You don’t say, “What is
up?” You say, “What’s up?” And “You don’t say”, “What is new?
You say, “What’s new?”. These different questions can also
have different responses. Let’s look!
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Ayu : Alright?
Ayu : What’s new?
Dwi : Yeah, you?
Dwi : Not a lot! You?
Ayu
Ayu : Nothing much.
: Yeah, not bad
It might sound negative to you to just say “nothing”, but it’s
a very common expression to say that you’re well. Because
these are very informal ways to ask “how are you”, sometimes
they’re used as greetings. This means that sometimes these
questions don’t need an answer. When using these phrases,
you can simply answer with an informal greeting, like this:
Ayu : What’s up?
Dwi : Hey, what’s up?
Ayu : Alright?
Dwi : Hey!
Part 4: How to continue the conversation
Even if you’re a master of greeting phrases in English, that
won’t help you if this happens:
Ayu : Hi, how are you?
Dwi : I’m fine thank you, and you?
Ayu : Fine, thanks.
So, what can you say after the initial greeting? You have
many choices! Basically, you can make a statement, or ask a
question. For example, you could tell the other person
something about yourself and your life, like this:
• Actually, work was pretty stressful, but now I’m looking
forward to…
• I had a really good day today, because…
• I’ve just been to…..
Or there’s always the weather!
• It’s really hot today, isn’t it?
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• It’s been so wet the last few days. Hopefully it’ll be brighter
this weekend!
British people love to talk about the weather, if you hadn’t
realized yet! You can also ask another question, such as:
• How was your day?
• How’s your day going?
• How was your weekend?
If you’re even more confident, or you know more about the
person you’re talking to, you can go into more detail and ask
them more specific questions. For example:
• How was your trip to Madrid last weekend?
• Did you watch the football last night?
• Is your brother visiting you next week, or is it the week
after?
Now, you should know how to greet people, how to ask and
answer how are you in different ways, and how to continue the
conversation. Let’s see how you can put everything together.
Review: putting everything together
Gina : Hey, how are things?
Alivier : I’m good thanks, but a little tired today: busy at
work. How about you?
Gina
: I’m well, but I’ve got a lot at work too. How was
your trip to Madrid last weekend?
Alivier : Fantastic! It’s a really great city. What did you do
last weekend?
Gina
: Nothing much, just relaxed on the beach!
Alivier : Very nice!
Alivier : Hi, what’s new?
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Gina
: Not much, you?
Alivier : Yeah alright.
Gina
: You look a bit tired.
Alivier : Yeah, I didn’t sleep well last sight.
Gina
: Oh no, why not?
Alivier : My neighbors had a big party and it was really
loud.
Gina
: I hate it when people do that.
Alivier : Yeah, me too. Anyway, how’s your day going?
Now, it’s your turn to practice! Imagine somebody asks how
are you? Can you write down five possible things you could
say? Pas the video and write down your answers now. Ready!
Let’s look. Of course, there are more than five possible answers.
These are just suggestions:
• I’m good.
• I’m pretty good.
• Not bad
• A little bit tired
• Great, thanks!
And what about different ways to ask how are you? What
can you say? Write down five different ways to ask this
question.
Ok? Again, these are just suggestions. There are many
possibilities!
• How’s it going?
• How’re you doing?
• What’s up?
• How’s life?
26
• How’re things?
And what do you do next? Do you stop talking? No; keep
going! Ask a question or make a statement to continue the
conversation.
27
28
UNIT 5
TALKING ABOUT YOUR FREE TIME AND
HOBBIES
I
n this lesson, you can learn about how to talk about your free
time and hobbies in English. What do you like doing in your
free time? Do you have any interesting hobbies? Talking about
your free time is a great way to start a conversation in English,
or to find things in common when you’re speaking to
somebody. By the end of this lesson, you’ll be able to speak
clearly and naturally about your free time and your hobbies in
English.
Part 1: Free time and hobbies vocabulary
What words do you know for free time activities in English?
Some people prefer things you can do at home, like watching
TV, reading, or cooking. Other people like sports, like playing
football, playing basketball, playing tennis, going swimming,
going jogging, or going climbing, or maybe doing boxing, doing
judo, or doing yoga. Of course, many people prefer more social
activities, for example, hanging out with your friends, relaxing
with your family, or going shopping. Or maybe you like to do
something more creative, like taking photos, painting, or
writing stories or writing a blog. What about you? What kind of
free time activities do you prefer? Let’s look at how you can talk
about free time activities and hobbies which you like.
29
Part 2: What do you like doing?
In my free time, I like… what could you say here?
• “in my free time, I like playing basketball” ,
• “in my free time, I like relaxing with my family”,
• “in my free time, I like reading books”,
Can you see a pattern here? In every sentence, after ‘like’,
we use a verb plus -ing. Can you make a sentence? What do you
like doing in your free time? But just using ‘like’ can be
repetitive and boring. So what other verbs can you use? Well,
you could use verbs like ‘love’, ‘enjoy’, or ‘hate’.
For example:
• “I love going swimming”.
• “I enjoy watching TV”.
• “I hate going shopping“.
Can you see the same pattern? After all of these verbs, you
need to use a verb with –ing. You can also add words like
‘really’, ‘sometimes’, or ‘absolutely’, to make your meaning
stronger or weaker.
For example:
• “ I really like taking photos”,
• “ Sometimes, I enjoy going jogging”,
• “ I absolutely hate playing football”,
Now it’s your turn. What can you say? Can you make your
own sentences? Ok, so now you can say something about what
you like or don’t like doing.
Part 3: Adding details to your ideas
Let’s look at how you can add more details to your ideas.
First, let’s say how often you do your free time activity. For
example:
30
• “I like playing sport. I play football every Tuesday
evening”.
• “I absolutely hate going shopping. I only go shopping one
or twice a year”.
• “I really like taking photos, but I don’t get the chance to do
it often”.
What about you? How often do your hobbies? You can use
these phrases to help you talk.
‘Every … ‘for example: ‘every weekend’, ‘every Saturday
afternoon’, ‘every day’.
‘Once or twice a…’, for example: ‘once a week’, twice a month’,
three times a year’, and so on.
Can you make some sentences like this about your free time
and hobbies? How often do you do your hobbies? Next, let’s add
some details about where you do your hobby or free time
activity.
For example:
• “I like playing sport. I play football every Tuesday evening
at the park near my house”,
• “I enjoy having coffee with my friends. We go to a café in
the city center once or twice a week”.
• “I really like taking wildlife photos in the forest, but I
don’t get the chance to do it often”.
You can see that our answers are getting more detailed.
When you speak, you should always try to add some details to
your ideas, like this. It will make your English sound more
interesting and more natural. What about you? Can you add
some details like these to your sentences? Pause the video.
Practice. Try to make some sentences. Say them out loud.
Practice a little bit. Next, let’s look at giving back ground
information, especially if you have an interesting or an unusual
hobby. You can talk about when and why you started doing it.
31
For example:
• “I started playing tennis when I was 10”.
• “I’ve been learning to paint for six months now”.
• “I decided to do yoga because I wanted to be healthy.”
• “My French friend got me into climbing”.
In the last sentence, the phrase, “My friend got me into
something, “means that your friend introduced this activity to
you, and now you like it. What can you say about your hobby?
Can you use some of these phrases to talk about yourself?
For example:
• I started climbing when I was living in Russia.
• I’ve been climbing for about eight years.
• I also recently decided to do yoga because I wanted to be
more flexible.
• When I was younger, my dad got me into photography.
What about you? What are your examples?
Part 4: Saying why you like or dislike something
Finally, let’s look at how you can add some descriptive
words to say why you do or don’t enjoy something.
For example:
• “I like climbing because it’s really exciting”
• “I love doing yoga because it’s so relaxing”.
• “I really like writing stories because it’s creative, and I like
using my imagination”.
You can also use negative adjectives to talk about things you
don’t like.
For example:
• “I don’t like going jogging because it’s tiring”.
32
• “I hate watching TV because I find it boring”
• “I’ve been trying to learn to paint, but it’s too hard”.
Why do you like hobbies? What are some activities you
don’t like doing? Can you say you don’t like them? Try to make
some sentences and practice using this language. Now, it’s your
turn to speak. Let’s try everything we’ve looked at to make a
longer answer.
For example:
• What do you like doing? I really like playing tennis.
• How often and where? I play every weekend at the park
near my house.
• Add details/background, Sometimes I play with my
brother, or sometimes with a friend. My brother got me
into it, because he loves sports and he needed someone to
play with.
• What do you like/dislike about it? I didn’t like it at first,
because it was hard and I lost all the time, but now I enjoy
it, especially when I beat my brother!”
Ok, let’s do one more sample answer.
• What do you like doing? I love taking photos
• How often/where? Once or twice a month, I go to different
areas of the city and look for interesting pictures to take.
• Add details/background. I’ve been interested in
photography since I was young, when my dad got me
camera for my birthday.
• What do you like/dislike about it? I like it because it’s
creative, and I can express myself through my picture.
Anyone can use a camera, but you need to use your
imagination to find good pictures”.
Now, can you talk about your free time? What do you like
doing? Where do you go, and how often? When did you start
33
doing this hobby, and why? And why do you like or, perhaps,
dislike this activity? Try to talk for at least 30 seconds. Give lots
of details. Add details to make your answer more interesting.
34
UNIT 6
HOW TO TALK ABOUT YOUR FAMILY
I
n this lesson, you can learn how to talk about your family in
English. Do you have a big family? What do you like doing
when you spend time with your family? Talking about family
can be a good way to start a conversation in English, so it’s
useful if you know to say and if you have some questions to ask.
Let’s start with something simple.
Part 1: Introducing your family
Let’s start with a simple sentence:
• “There are ( …. )People in my family”.
• “There are five people in my family”
• “There are ten people in my family”
• “There are thirty people in my family”
That’s not too hard, but it’s not so interesting, either! You
should say who these people are.
• “There are ten people in my family: I have two sisters, one
brother, my uncle and aunt, two grandparents and my
parents of course”.
• “There are four people in my family: my wife, my two sons
and myself.”
35
Part 2: Talking about brothers and sisters
How many brothers and sisters do you have? You could say:
- “I have two brothers and one sister”
- “I just have one sister”
- “I’m an only child ”
Let’s make it more interesting by adding more information.
Are your brothers and sisters older or younger? Where are you
in the family?
• “I have two older brothers and one older sister. I’m the
youngest in the family.”
• “I just have one sister, who’s five years older than me”.
• “I’m the middle child: my brother is two years older, and
I have a younger sister who’s finishing university this
year”.
Part 3: Talking about your immediate/extended family
In English, we sometimes draw a line between your
immediate families. That means: you, your husband/wife, your
children, parents, and brothers and sisters.
Extended family, that means: Aunts, uncles, cousins, nephews,
nieces, grandparents, grandchildren, and so on.
Now, you can give more details about the people in your
family, like this:
• “My immediate family is quite small, because I’m an only
child. My mum is one of five children, so I have a lot of
cousins, who are kind of like my brothers and sisters”
• “There are six people in my immediate family: my parents,
my brother and his wife, my sister and me. I have a lot of
other relatives, but they live in Canada so we don’t see
them often”.
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Part 4: Talking about your relationship with your family
Finally, let’s add some information about how often you see
your family, and what you like to do together.
For Example:
• “I’m very close to my family. We have lunch together every
weekend.”
• “I see my older brother once a week; we play tennis or
basketball together”.
• “I try to spend as much time as possible with my kids.”
What now? You should know the answer: add more details!
Let’s look:
“I’m very to my family. We have lunch together every
weekend at my grandmother’s house. She always cooks
something delicious! “
• “I see my older brother once a week; we play tennis or
basketball together. I don’t see my other brother so often,
because he lives overseas, although we talk on Skype
every so often.”
• “I try to spend as much time as possible with my kids. We
play cards, watch films, or go to the park if the weather’s
nice”.
Part 5: Making a longer answer
Now you should be able to make a longer answer talking
about your family. You should be able to talk about your
relatives, your brothers and sisters, your children if you have
any, and your relationship with your family. Let’s look at a
sample answer:
“There are five people in my immediate family, although my
extended family is quite large. I have two sisters, both
younger, so I’m the oldest child. I don’t have kids yet but I’d
like to have a big family one day. I see my parents and my
37
sisters quite often, because we all live near each other,
although I don’t see my other relatives that much.”
Could you make an answer like this? Let’s look at one more
sample answer first:
“I come from a big family: I’m the fifth child, and I have three
brothers and one sister. They’re all close to each other in
age, but there’s a big gap between them and me. I don’t have
children, but I have lots of nieces and nephews! I don’t see
my family often because I live in a different country, but I
speak to them regularly and we all get together once or
twice a year, which is always very noisy but lots of fun”.
What about you? Try to make a longer answer talking about
your family. Use the vocabulary and ideas from the lesson to
help you.
38
UNIT 7
TALKING ABOUT YOUR HOMETOWN
W
here do you live? Do you live in small town, a big city or
a remote village? What is it like? In this lesson, you can
learn how to describe your hometown in English. Let’s start
with some basic English vocabularies you can use about your
hometown.
Part 1: Introducing your hometown
Let’s start with a simple sentence.
• I live in a …….
What could you say? You could say something like: I live in
a city; I live in a town; I live in a village. That is good start, but
it is very basic. Let’s add a bit more detail. What’s it called?
How big is it?
• I live in Jakarta. It’s the capital city.
• I live in Surabaya. It’s a huge city.
• I live in a small town. It’s called Ternate.
• I live in Maitara, which is a tiny village by the sea.
Better! You should always try to add more details when you
speak. What about you? Where do you live? Can you make one
or two sentences like this?
39
Part 2: Adding Background and Details
Think about these questions:
• What is your hometown famous for?
• Can you think of some words you could use to describe
your hometown?
• How long have you lived there?
Add these ideas to your answer to make it longer and more
detailed. For example:
• I live in Jakarta, the capital city. It’s famous for its landmark
such as the National Monument (Monas), Taman Mini,
Cathedral, and Great Mosque of Istiqlal. it’s also well-known
for its food, of course!
• I live in Surabaya. It’s a huge, bustling, international city.
People from all over the world live and work there.
• I live in a small town called Ternate. I have been living there
for about 20 years, since I finished university. It’s a pretty
sleepy place, to be honest.
Let’s look at some useful vocabulary from these examples:
which you can use when you speak. We said:
• Jakarta is famous for its landmark such as the National
Monument. Landmark are famous places or buildings, like
the Eiffel tower in Paris, the Sydney opera house or Christ
the redeemer in Rio.
Does your hometown have any famous landmarks? What
are they called in English? Next we said:
• Surabaya is a bustling city.
Do you know what this means? It means there’s a lot of
activity. There are lots of people, lots of traffic, lots of life and
energy. Is your city bustling or sleepy? If a town is sleepy
there’s not much activity and things are quiet. What about your
hometown. Look at our questions again:
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• What’s your hometown famous for?
• Can you think of same words you could use to describe
your hometown?
• How long have you lived there?
What could you say about your hometown? Try to make 23 sentences. Okay, let’s look at our next point.
Part 3: Saying What You like About Your Hometown
What’s good about your hometown? What do you like most
about it? Different people like different things in a city or town.
Let’s look at some example sentences which express positive
feelings:
• I love living in Jakarta. It’s such a rich culture and there is
always something interesting going on.
• Surabaya is a great place to live. It’s a real 24-hour city and
you can meet people from all over the world.
• Living in Ternate suits me. It’s quiet place and it’s small
enough that you can get to know your neighbors and have a
sense of community.
What is important for you? Do you want to live somewhere
with a rich culture and a sense of history, or do you prefer more
modern, international cities? Would you rather live
somewhere larger and more energetic, or somewhere smaller
and more peaceful? Think about these ideas. You will need
them in a minute! Let’s look at some useful language from our
examples:
1. I love living in …….
2. ……’s a great place to live.
3. Living in …… suits me.
Of course, you can change these to say what you want to:
1. I love living in ………
2. I quite like in ………
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3. I really like living in …….
4. I suppose I don’t mind living in …..
Part 4: Saying What You Dislike About Your Hometown
Let’s look at some examples which express negative
feelings:
• Jakarta is great, but the cost of living is really high. That
can be quite stressful because you’re always thinking
about money
• Surabaya is an exciting place, but it is really crowded and
it can be exhausting to live there. Air quality can be an
issue.
• Ternate is nice, but sometimes I find it a bit boring.
There is not much nightlife and sometimes it feels a bit cut
off from the wider world.
You can use adjectives like, stressful, crowded, boring. You
can make your answer more interesting by using phrases:
• Jakarta is great, but the cost of living is really high. That
can be quite stressful because you’re always thinking how
to make ends meet.
• Surabaya is an exciting place, but it is really crowded and
it can be exhausting to live there. Air quality can be an
issue
• Ternate is nice, but sometimes I find it a bit boring. There
is not much nightlife and sometimes it feels a bit cut off
from the wider world.
Meaning: you feel like you are far away from people, culture
and activity. Could you use any phrases to describe your
hometown?
1. The cost of living is really high.
2. You are always thinking about how to make money.
3. It can be exhausting to live there.
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4. Air quality can be an issue.
5. There is not much nightlife.
6. It feels a bit cut off from the wider world.
Remember that you can also change the phrases to fit your
ideas. For example:
• Traffic can be an issue.
• There is not much for you people to do.
• It can be very successful to live there.
Okay, what about you? Try to make 3-4 sentences. Say what
you like and dislike about your hometown. Use the key words
and phrases from part 3 and part 4. Go on!!!
Part 5: Describing how your hometown has changed over
time
What was your hometown like ten, twenty or fifty years
ago? How has it changed? How has it changed over time? Some
places change very fast, other place never seem to change at
all!!! Talking about changes can add interesting and useful
information to your description. Let’s look!
Jakarta has changed a lot in the last twenty years. It is much
more international and much more expensive than it used to
be. However, the soul of the city is still there. Jakarta will
always be Jakarta.
Surabaya is almost unrecognizable compared to twenty or
thirty years ago. The city has expanded so much, both
physically and economically. It is amazing when you see old
photos of the city; things are so different now!
Ternate has not changed much as a place in the last twenty
years, but the mix of people is a bit different nowadays. The
population used to be older and mostly indigenous, but now
there people from other parts of Indonesia.
Again, this examples contain a lot of useful language you can
use to talk about your hometown. For example:
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1. …………….. has changed a lot in the last 20 years.
2. ……………. Is almost unrecognizable compared 20 years
ago.
3. ……………… has not changed much as a place in the last
twenty years.
Which of these sentences is true for your hometown? Can
you add details to explain why? For example:
1. It is much more ………… than it used to be.
2. The city has …………… so much.
3. The…………….. is a bit different nowadays.
Now, you have seen a lot of useful language you can use to
talk about your hometown. Let is put everything together and
practice making a longer answer.
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UNIT 8
TALKING ABOUT YOUR HOME
I
n this lesson, you can learn about how to talk about your
home in English. Where do live? What is your home like?
What about your neighborhood? Talking about where you live
is a common conversation topic in English. So it’s good to have
some things to say.
Part 1: Introducing Where You Live
“I live in a ………” what could you put there? You can say, I
live in a house, I live in an apartment. In Britain, people
sometimes say, flat. Flat and apartment have the same
meaning. Next, let’s add a bit more detail. What kind of house
or apartment is it? For example:
“I live in a small, two-story house in the suburbs”.
When we say how many floors a building has, we usually use
the word “story”, so you can say a two-story house, a four-story
apartment building and so on.
Story = floor
“I live in an apartment on the third floor of a four-story
building”.
There are many different kinds of house and apartment. For
example, do you live in a terraced house, a semi-detached
house, or a detached house?
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1. Terraced house have other houses on both sides, terraced
houses are usually smaller and cheaper.
2. A semi-detached house has another house just on one
side, and
3. A detached house stands by itself. Detached houses are
usually larger and more expensive.
What kinds of houses are more common in your country?
What about apartment? Many apartments are in apartment
buildings. Easy enough, right? If you live in a very tall
apartment building with many floors, you can say you live in a
high-rise in American English or a tower block in British
English. Sometimes a house is divided into apartments, these
are called converted apartments.
Converted apartments = when a house is divided into
apartments.
Apartments come in many different sizes, if an apartment
just has one room which is a bedroom and living room
together, it’s called a studio. Of course, you can also have bigger
apartments, a two-bedroom apartment, and a three-bedroom
apartment and so on.
Studio apartment = a one-room apartment, with the
bedroom and living room together.
Large apartments might be duplex apartments, this means
the apartment has more than one floor. What about you?
Where do you live? Do you live in a house orang apartment?
Duplex apartment = an apartment with more than one
floor.
Can you make a sentences using vocabulary from this
section? For example:
- I live in a two-story terraced house.
- I live in an apartment on the 28th floor of high-rise
building.
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- I live in a converted studio apartment.
Next, let’s see how you can describe the inside of your home in
more detail.
Part 2: Describing the Inside of Your Home
If you want to describe your home, what can you talk about?
Well, you can start by saying what rooms it has. For example:
“My house has two bedrooms, a kitchen, a living room, and a
garden”.
It’s always better to add adjectives or details to make your
speaking more interesting. Let’s try:
“My house has two small bedrooms, a kitchen with a dining
table, a living room with a big windows, and a small garden”.
What other rooms might you have in your home? You could
have a dining room for people to eat together. Maybe you have
an office or a study where you can work, if you live in a warmer
country, you might have a balcony or a terrace where you can
sit outside in warmer weather. What about your home? What
does it have? Does your home have a garden, a balcony, or
another outdoor area? Try to make a sentence describing your
home. For example:
“I live in a two-bedroom apartment. The bedrooms are quite
small, but there’s a big living room with a dining area, a modern
kitchen and also small balcony where we can sit outside in the
summer”.
What can you say about your home?
Part 3: Saying what you like or dislike about your home
So now you can hopefully describe your home a little
bit, but what about your opinion? What do you like about your
home, and what would you change if you could? Positive words
for your home:
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• Spacious
= large, with lots of room
• Cozy
= comfortable in a warm, welcoming way
• Light
= describes a home which gets lots of natural
light
• Warm/cool = comfortable in winter/ summer
• Convenient = close to other places you need to go
regularly + for. For example, it’s
convenient for the subway, or it’s
convenient for my office.
Could you use any of these words to describe your home?
Okay, but what if you don’t like your home? Well. Here are
some words you could use. Negative words for your home:
• Cramped = small, with not enough room
• Dark
= doesn’t get much natural light
• Drafty
= lets in cold air in the winter
• Stuffy
= uncomfortable and airless in the summer
• Noisy
= for example, if you live near a main road, your
home might be noisy even at night.
Can you make a sentence about your home using some of
these words? For example:
- My home is light and spacious, but it can get very drafty
in the winter.
- I like my apartment because it’s cozy, although it can be
noisy, because there’s a restaurant just downstairs.
Okay, so now you can talk about your home and what you
think of it. What else can you say on this topic?
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Part 4: Saying Who You Live With
Who do you live with? Do live with your parents, your
husband or wife, with your family? Do you live by yourself or
do you live with flat mates (People who you share a rented flat
with)? Maybe with your friends. Let’s look at examples of what
you could say here.
• I live with my parents.
• I live in a shared house. I have four flat mates.
• I live by myself.
Part 5: Talking About Your Neighborhood
First, be careful with the word ‘neighborhood’. A
neighborhood is not a person, it’s the area near your home. So,
where is your home? Is it in the city center, the suburbs or
outside the city?
My home is ………………
……….. in the suburbs
……….. in the city center
……….. outside the city
If you live outside the city, do you live on the outskirts of the
city, in a village, or in the middle of nowhere?
How could you describe your neighborhood? Is it quiet or
lively? Trendy or boring? Are there many shops, cafes, bars,
restaurants? Are the parks or sports facilities? For example,
you could say,
I live in a very lively area just south of the city center. There
are lots of cafes, shops, and places to go. Or I live in quiet
neighborhood in the suburbs, in the north of the city. It’s a new
area, and it’s nice but also quiet boring. There isn’t really
anything to do.
What about you? Can you say something about your
neighborhood?
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Part 6: Review and Practice
If you can use everything we’ve looked at in this lesson, you
should be able to speak very clearly and with lots details about
your home and where you live. For example:
I live in a two-story terraced house. It has two bedrooms, a
living room, a small kitchen and a garden. It’s cozy and
convenient for getting to work, but it’s a bit cramped, especially
when we have guests. I live with my wife and daughter. Our house
is near the city center, in a quiet neighborhood. There isn’t much
to do, but there are some small shops and park where we go if
the weather’s nice.
Here’s one more sample answer:
I live by myself in a studio apartment. It just has one main
room, with a tiny kitchen. It’s very warm in winter, but it can get
a bit stuffy in summer. I live in the city center, very close to
everything. It’s very lively, with lots of bars and restaurants. It’s
a good place for young people to live, but not many families
choose to live here.
What about you? Can you make an answer like this talking
about where you live? Try to use as much language from the
lesson as you can.
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UNIT 9
HOW TO TALK ABOUT YOUR JOB
I
n this lesson, you can learn how to talk about your job in
English. Where do you work? What do you have to do in your
job? What kind of company do you work for? In this class, you
can learn how to answer question like this in clear, detailed
English. Ready? Let’s start!
Part 1: Introducing your job
- “I’m a ……….”
- “I work in ……..”
- “ I work for ………”
How would you complete these sentences? You could say
something like:
- I’m a writer
- I work in online education
- I work for a publishing company
‘I work in…’ is used with a field, meaning a type of work. So you
can say things like:
I Work in + field
- “I work in finance.”
- “I work in digital marketing”
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You can also use ‘work in’ with a place or a department of a
company. For example:
I work in + place/department
- “I work in the HR department of a financial firm.”
- “I work in a school, teaching modern languages.”
Confused? You can see that if you use ‘work in’ to talk about
the type of work you do, you don’t use an article like ‘a’ or ‘the’.
If you use an article ‘a’ or ‘the’ after ‘work in’, means you’re
talking about the place or department where you work.
‘I work for…’ is used with a company. So, you could say: “I’m a
salesman. I work for a mobile phone company.”
I work for + company
• I’m a salesman. I work for a mobile phone company.
• I work for a law firm based in Frankfurt. Or even:
• I run my own business, so I work for myself.
• What can you say?
• I’m a ……….
• I work in ……
• I work for ………..
Can you make sentences like this to say something about your
job?
Part 2: Describing your company
I work for a ………. Company which ………. ,
Look at this sentence. We need one adjective, at the end of
the sentence after ‘which’. Any ideas? For adjectives, think
about these ideas: is your company big or small? Local or
multinational? For the part after ‘which’ ask yourself: what
does your company do? Does it make things, sell things,
organize things? Does it provide products, services, or both?
So, you could say:
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• I work for an international electronics company which
makes tablet computers.
• I work for a German company which does market research
for other companies.
What if you don’t work for a company? Here are some things
you could say:
• I’m a freelancer. Meaning: I work independently, for
different people and companies.
• I’m self-employed. Meaning: I work for myself, either
freelance or I have my own business.
• I’m a business owner
If you don’t work, and people ask you what you do, what can
you say? Here are some useful phrases:
• I’m between jobs at the moment. Meaning: I’ve left one job,
and haven’t found another yet. This sounds nicer than
saying, “I’m unemployed.”
• I’m taking some time out to…. (Travel/spend time with my
kids/write a book/recover from an illness or, etc.).
Meaning: I’m not working at the moment because I want
to focus on something else.
• I’m retired.
What about you? Do you work for a company? What can you
say about it? If you don’t work for a company, how would you
describe your work situation?
Part 3: How to describe your job in more detail
So what do you actually do all day? Let’s see how you can
describe your job in more detail. Look at these sentences:
- I have to……..;
- I’m responsible for……….
- Most of my time is spent………..
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Let’s do some examples together. We’ll start with a simple
example.
- I’m a nurse. I have to look after patients, give them
medicine and make sure they’re comfortable. I’m
responsible for about 20-30 patients. Most of my time is
spent talking to patients and checking that everything is
okay.
Next, let’s do a more detailed example.
- I have to design websites to the client’s specifications. I’m
responsible for the whole design process, so I have to take
the client’s ideas and turn them into a finished product.
Most of my time is spent experimenting with different
designs and ideas and seeing what looks good, because
attention to details is important in this kind of work.
Can you say something like this about your job and what do?
Try to add details if you can.
Part 4: Saying how you feel about your job
Now, you can hopefully say something about your job and
where you work. But here’s another question: do you like your
job? Why or why not? Hopefully, you enjoy job! How could you
describe a job which you like? Of course, you could use general
adjectives like ‘good’ or ‘interesting’, but here are some specific
adjectives you could use:
Positive adjectives
• Stimulating: something which is stimulating is exciting
and gives you energy.
• Satisfying: means that your job gives you a sense of
achievement.
• Creative: you can use your imagination when you work.
• Rewarding: this means your job gives you very positive
feelings. It’s often used to talk about jobs in which you help
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other people. For example, teacher or nurses might
describe their jobs as rewarding.
• Challenging: challenging can be positive or negative, but if
you use it to talk about your job, it would have a positive
meaning. It means that your job is difficult, but in an
interesting way which makes you think and learn.
What if you don’t like your job? Again, you can use general
words like ‘boring’ or ‘difficult’, which are fine but very basic. If
you want to be more creative with your vocabulary, here are
some thing you could say:
Negative adjectives
• Exhausting: describes work which makes you feel very
tired, either physically or mentally.
• Thankless: if your work is thankless, no one notices or
appreciates what you do.
• Mind-numbing: extremely boring.
• Dead-end: describes a job which has no prospects for the
future. If you have a dead-end job, you will never get
promoted and the job will always be the same.
• Soul-destroying: describes a job which is extremely
unpleasant and boring, and which you really, really hate.
Part 5: How to make a longer answer
At this point, you should be able to introduce your work, say
where you work, give details about what you do and say how
feel about your work. Let’s make some longer sample answers
together.
First one:
• I’m a pharmacist. I started my own small pharmacy, so I’m
also a business owner. I have to work as a pharmacist, of
course, giving advice to patients and making sure they
have the right medicine. However, I’m also responsible for
the pharmacy, so I have to manage my staff, do the
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accounts, and so on. It’s stimulating work because I have
to do many different things every day, so I never get bored.
Clear? Could you make an answer like this? Let’s do one more:
- I’m a writer. I work in online education. I work for a big
publishing company, which produces different
educational materials that are used all around the world. I
have to write lesson plans and materials for teachers to
use in the classroom. I spend most of my time thinking
about how I can make different things fit together into a
lesson. It’s very challenging work and it can be exhausting,
but it’s also very creative and satisfying, because I know
people all around the world are using lesson which I
wrote.
Okay, now it’s your turn! Try to make a longer answer like
this talking about your job. Use the vocabulary and structure
from this lesson to help you.
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UNIT 10
HOW TO TALK ABOUT YOUR VACATION
I
n this lesson, you can learn how to talk about your vacation
in English. Where did you go for your last holiday? What did
you do there? Did you have a good time? In this lesson, you will
learn how to answer these questions and more in clear, natural
English. Let’s start with some simple language you can use to
start your answer.
Part 1: How to give basic information about your vacation
Begin your answer by saying where you went, who with and
how long for.
• Where
• Who with
• How long for?
For example:
• I went to the countryside with my family for couple of
weeks.
• I went to Bali with a group of friends for ten days.
• My friend and I went to Maitara for a long weekend.
A long weekend means you go for three or four days, usually
Friday-Monday or Saturday-Monday, maybe because there’s a
public holiday on the Monday. What about you? Where did you
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go for your last vacation? Who did you go with, and how long
for?
Next, let’s see how you can talk about what you did on your
holiday.
Part 2: How to describe what you did on vacation
What do you like doing on holiday? Do you prefer a more
active holiday? Maybe with lots of adventure sports and
activities, or would you rather do something more cultural? Or
maybe you just like relaxing on the beach. Whatever you
prefer, it’s good if you can say something about how you spent
your time on holiday. Let’s look at some examples and some
good vocabulary for you to use:
I went to the countryside with my family for a couple of weeks.
Mostly, we went hiking in the hills and mountains nearby. We
also just hung out in the village, playing cards and eating.
Do you like hiking? Hiking means going for longer walks,
often in the hills or mountains. If you hang out, you spend time
without having any particular goal. If you say we just hung out
in the village, you mean that you spent time there in a relaxed
way.
Let’s look at our second example:
- I went to Thailand with a group of friends for ten days. We
did some sightseeing in Bangkok: the grand place, Wat Pho
and so on. Then we hit the beaches in Krabi for some sun,
swimming and cocktails!
Sightseeing means visiting the famous places in a city. You
can go sightseeing or do sightseeing. For example, if you go
sightseeing in Paris, you’d probably visit the Eiffel Tower, the
Louvre, Notre Dame and so on. Saying we hit the beaches is a
very informal way of saying we went to the beaches. You could
also say we hit the bars or we hit the clubs.
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Let’s do one more example together:
- My boyfriend and I went to Rome for a long weekend. We
went on a walking tour of the center and the Vatican.
Mostly, we went to restaurants and cafes as much of the
local cuisine as we could fit in our stomachs!
If you go on a tour, for example a walking tour, you pay for
a guide. Often, tours are in big groups. Do you prefer to go on a
tour with a guide, or do you like to explore by yourself?
What did you do on your last holiday? Did you go hiking in
the mountains, go sightseeing, or sample lots of delicious food?
Try make two or three sentences. Use the language from this
section if you can.
Next, let’s see how you can describe the place you visited in
more detail.
Part 3: How to describe where you went on vacation
Can you think of three adjectives to describe where you
went for your last vacation? Here, try to avoid general
adjectives like nice or good. Try to find specific adjectives. Your
answer will be more interesting! Let’s look at an example:
I went to the countryside with my family for a couple of weeks.
We stayed in a very nice village surrounded by nice mountain
scenery.
Do you see what we mean? Saying nice doesn’t say much.
This isn’t a very good example. How could you make it better?
Here’s one way to improve it:
I went to the countryside with my family for a couple of weeks.
We stayed in a very picturesque, sleepy village surrounded
by dramatic mountain scenery.
What do you think dramatic scenery means? It means the
mountains were very impressive and beautiful. Picturesque is
another way to say ‘beautiful’. If something is picturesque, it’s
beautiful like a painting. So you can use picturesque to talk
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about scenery and places. Sleepy means that the village was
very quiet and peaceful. You can see that using more specific
adjectives like picturesque, sleepy or dramatic makes your
answer more interesting and expressive.
Of course, you’ll need different language to talk about
different places. Let’s look at another example:
I went to Thailand with a group of friends for ten days.
Bangkok is a very cosmopolitan place but it could be a little
overwhelming because there was so much going on! Then we
went to Krabi, which has some stunning beaches.
Do you know the meaning of the key words in this answer?
Cosmopolitan describes a city which has many different
people and cultures mixed together. Overwhelming describe
something which is very intense. For example, a city can be
overwhelming if there are lots people, noises, sights and smells
all around you. There’s so much to take in that you don’t know
where to look! Stunning means very beautiful.
Let’s do one more example together:
My girlfriend and I went to Rome for a long weekend. It’s a
fascinating place but it’s quite touristy, too. The best thing
was the food, which was out of this world.
Here, we used the adjectives fascinating, touristy and out of
this world. Could you explain what these mean? Fascinating
means very interesting. Touristy describe a place where
tourism has grown too much. Often, if you describe a place as
touristy, you mean that it’s lots of its original atmosphere.
Finally, if you describe something as out of this world, you
mean it’s really good and you enjoyed it very much. Now, it’s
your turn. Can you describe the place you visited on your last
vacation? You can use the adjectives and language from this
section, or you can find your own words and phrases. Try to
use at least three interesting adjectives in your answer.
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Part 4: How to Describe What You Liked or Disliked
What the best vacation you’ve ever had? What about the
worst vacation you’ve ever been on? What made these holidays
so good or so bad? Let’s see how you can talk about the
positives and negatives of your holiday. Here’s our first
example:
I went to the countryside with my family for a couple of weeks.
It was relaxing but by the end I was getting quiet bored.
This is good, but it’s always better to add a reason if you can.
I went to the countryside with my family for a couple of weeks.
It was relaxing but by the end I was getting quiet bored.
Because each day was pretty similar.
What does that mean, each day was pretty similar? Do you
know? It means that you did the same kind of things each day,
so there wasn’t much variety from one day to the next. Let’s
look at our next example:
I went to Thailand with a group of friends for ten days. I loved
Krabi, because I was like nowhere I’d ever been before. I was
so keen on Bangkok. It’s a cool place but it’s a bit big and noisy
for my tastes.
Saying it was like nowhere I’d ever been before means that
the place you went to was really unique. You can use “I wasn’t
so keen on….” To talk about something you didn’t like very
much in the past. For example:
• I wasn’t so keen on the food in the hotel.
• I wasn’t so keen on the museums. I didn’t think they were
very interesting.
Adding for my testes after give your opinion shows that this
is just your perspective. You’d use it after you give a negative
opinion, to soften your idea slightly. For example:
It’s a nice area, but it’s too developed and touristy for my
testes.
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Adding for my testes makes this sound slightly softer and
less direct. Okay, let’s do one more example together:
My friend and I went to Maitara for a long weekend. I think I
liked the general atmosphere most of all. Walking around the
little streets in the center felt like being in an old film.
Here, you can use the phase I liked…. Most of all to talk about
your favorite thing from your vacation. Use I wish plus the past
prefect (had done) to talk about something in the past which
you would change if you could. For example:
• I wish we’d had more time to explore the city.
• I wish we hadn’t stayed in the awful hotel.
Okay, your turn again! What did you like and dislike about
your last holiday? Make at least two or three sentences, and say
then out loud. Remember to give reason to support your ideas.
Now, you should be ready to put everything together into a
longer answer.
Part 5: Making a longer answer
To make a longer answer, you need to:
• Say where you went, who with, and for how long.
• Say what you did.
• Describe the place.
• Talk about what you liked and disliked.
Let’s do an example using language from the lesson:
“I went to Thailand with a group of friends for ten days. We
did some sightseeing in Bangkok. The grand place, Wat Pho
and so on. Then we hit the beaches in Krabi for some sun,
swimming and cocktails! Bangkok is a very cosmopolitan
place but it could be a little overwhelming because there was
so much going on! Krabi has some stunning beaches, and I
loved it there, because it was like nowhere I’d ever been
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before. On the other hand, I wasn’t so keen on Bangkok. It’s a
cool place but it’s a bit big and noisy for my testes”.
Do you see how using simple phrases and ideas, you can
build a full, clear, detailed answer? We’ve added some linking
words, but otherwise this is only using language you’ve seen in
this lesson. Let’s do one more example. This time, we’ll use
original ideas:
“I went to Siberia by myself for three weeks. I travelled
around, did some hiking and camping, and explored the
countryside. I was near Lake Baikal, which is a huge lake with
mountains and village dotted around the sides. It was
beautiful on a wild way, and the emptiness gave me a real
feeling of isolation and sAlitude. I like the people I met
everyone was so open and welcoming. On the other hand, even
though it was summer, the nights were so cold! I wish I’d
taken a warmer sleeping bag”.
Here, the sentence uses different ideas and some different
language, but I’m still following the same structure. Now, can
you make a longer answer like these? Try it.
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UNIT 11
HOW TO TALK ABOUT THE WEATHER IN
ENGLISH
I
n this lesson, you’ll learn how to talk about the weather in
English. Do you know what it means if someone says ‘it’s
chucking it down today’? If someone says “it’s baking today”, do
you know what they are talking about? In this class, you’ll learn
words, phrases and idioms that you can use to describe
different kinds of weather.
Part 1: Talking about cold weather
• It’s a bit chilly
• It’s freezing.
• You can see your breath
• You’ll need to bundle up
On freezing mornings, it can be very, very difficult to get out
of bed. But let’s imagine that we get up because we have to go
to work. So we leave the house and it’s drizzling at the moment.
Drizzling means that it is raining lightly it’s not heavy. Drizzle
is so light that it can look like mist. We can also say that it is
only spitting. Spitting is even lighter than drizzling. It means
that a few raindrops are falling, but it isn’t really raining. Before
it rains, it might start spitting and then get heavier. Then,
suddenly the heavens open. Then, suddenly the heavens open.
This means that it starts raining heavily. How else could I
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describe it if it is raining a lot? I could say that it is chucking it
down. This means that it is raining a lot. It is really heavy. It is
the type of rain that people find it difficult to drive in or walk
in. As I am walking to work my clothes are getting soaked. This
means that my clothes are very wet because of the rain. Luckily
I bought my umbrella today. So we get to work, only a little
damp from the rain thanks to the umbrella. Damp means that
something is slightly wet. My clothes are a little wet because of
the rain.
Part 2: Talking about rain:
• It’s drizzling at the moment
• It is only spitting
• Suddenly, the heavens open
• It’s chucking it down
• My clothes are getting soaked
And from my window I can see that it’s very overcast and
dark overhead. To say that it is overcast means that the clouds
are covering the sky. You cannot see the sun. When it is dark
overhead you are saying that the clouds are very black. Most
likely this is because it is raining or going to rain soon. So it is
dark overhead and overcast. You think there’s going to be a
storm. You could say that there is a storm brewing. This
means that you think a storm will start very soon. You’re sure
there’s going to be a storm; you can see it in the sky. And then
you see lightning. Lighting is a large electric flash of light. And
after the lightning you hear thunder. Thunder is the noise that
you hear caused by lightning. Usually you will hear thunder
after you see lightning. We call these storms thunderstorms.
You walk outside and there isn’t a cloud in the sky and it is
baking hot. This means that it is very hot. It is baking hot in the
Sahara Desert. It’s completely still. That means there’s no wind
at all. We can also say that it is a scorcher today. This also
means that it is extremely hot. In Australia, Most days in the
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summer could be described as scorchers. Another way to say
this is to say that it is boiling. So if the temperature is very hot
we can say that it is baking hot, a scorcher or boiling. The
walk home from work is a lot better than your walk to work
this morning in the rain. So you get home and watch the
weather forecast. The weather forecast is the prediction for the
next day or week of what the weather will be like. The weather
forecast tells you that tomorrow it will begin with a bit of frost
on the ground and it will be sleeting. In the afternoon there will
be flurry of snow but then it will turn into a blizzard by the
evening. The snow on the floor will turn into slush. It will be
below freezing for most of the day.
Part 3: Talking about bad weather
• It’s very overcast and dark overhead
• There’s a storm brewing.
• I can see lightning.
• I can hear thunder.
• The wind picks up. It’s almost a gale.
• it is baking hot
• It’s completely still.
• It’s a scorcher today
• It’s boiling
• Tomorrow will begin with a bit of frost on the ground.
• It will be sleeting
In the afternoon there will be a flurry of snow. A flurry of
snow means that there will be light snow for a short time. It
won’t be heavy and it usually doesn’t stay on the ground. But it
will turn into a blizzard by the evening. A blizzard is a storm
with lots of snow and wind. Usually planes can’t take off or land
when there is a heavy blizzard. The snow on the floor will turn
into slush. Slush is snow or ice that has partly melted. Usually
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snow will turn into slush when the weather gets warmer.
Walking in slush is very unpleasant, because cold water will get
into your shoes! It will be below freezing for most of the day.
When we say it is below freezing we are saying that the
temperature is below 0°𝐶. This means that it’s freezing.
Part 4: Talking about wintry weather
• there will be a flurry of snow
• it will turn into a blizzard
• The snow will turn into slush.
• It will be below freezing for most of the day.
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UNIT 12
HOW TO DESCRIBE A PERSON
I
n this lesson, you can learn how to describe a person who
you know English. Think about someone you know well. It
could be someone in your family, a close friend, someone you
work with, or someone else. How would you describe this
person? What does this person look like? What kind of
personality does this person have?
Part 1: Describing Appearance
First question: What does he or she look like? What can you
say when describing a person’s appearance? You can talk about
the person’s height and build:
Describing height and build
• “My brother is tall and well-built.”
• “My friend Lia is medium height and slim.”
• “Rina, who I work with, is short and overweight.”
Do you know what “well-built means? Someone who is wellbuilt is broad and strong with big muscles. You can also add
adverbs to make your sentences more precise:
Add adverbs
• “My brother is quite tall and well-built”
• “My friend Lia is medium height and really slim.”
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• “Rina, who I work with, is short and a little overweight.”
Describing hair
• “He has short, brown hair, but he’s going bald fast.”
• “She has long, dark blonde hair.”
• “He has curly, fair hair.”
What does „fair‟ mean here? It’s the opposite of „dark‟ and
you can use it to describe someone’s hair or skin. Finally, what
else can you say about the person’s appearance? Imagine
you’re describing the person to me, and you want me to be able
to recognize this person from your description. What could you
say? There are many possibilities, of course, but here are a few
suggestions:
Adding details
• “He looks a bit like a younger version of Vin Diesel.”
• “She’s really beautiful, with very striking features.”
• “He has a long scar on his right elbow.”
”Do you know „striking feature‟ means? In this context,
„features‟ refers to someone’s face. Striking‟ means that you
can’t help noticing something. So if someone has „striking
features‟, it means he or she has a very unusual and attractive
face. What about scar? Scars are left over when you get a deep
cut or have an operation. Okay, so now you should be able to
make three sentences about the person you’re describing, like
this:
“My brother is quite tall and well-built. He has short, brown
hair, but he’s going bald fast. He looks a bit like a younger
version of Vin Diesel.”
Part 2: Describing positive characteristics
Another question: what’s this person like? Do you know
what this question means? It means I want you to tell me about
the person’s personality.
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Positive adjectives:
- Kind
- Fun
- Reliable
- Positive
- Funny
- Warm
- Cheerful
- Straightforward
- Considerate
- Entertaining
- Honest
- Optimistic
Can you use any of these adjectives to talk about the person
you’re describing?
Add example and reason
When you use these adjectives, always try to add an
example or a reason. For example, don’t just say:
• “My brother is really funny.”
• “My friend Lia is a very cheerful person.”
Add some details or examples to make your answer more
interesting, like this: • “My brother’s really funny. He likes making weird jokes,
generally at the most inappropriate moment.”
• “My friend Lia is a very cheerful person. Even early in the
morning, she’s always smiling and in a good mood. I don’t
know how she does it!.”
If possible, you could even add a story to really illustrate the
person’s character.
Add a story
“Rio, who I work with, is such an honest guy. I remember one
time he found a wallet with $500 in a pub. It would have been
easy to keep the money-there was nothing in the wallet to say
whose it was, but he said it wouldn’t be right to keep it, and
he insisted on going straight to the police, right that minute.”
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Using positive adjective
Adding stories like this can really bring a description to life.
You‟ve also seen some good ways to use these adjectives:
• “ My brother is really (……….).”
• “ My friend Lia is a very (………) person.”
• “ Rio is such a (……..) guy.”
Of course, you can change these and use them in your answer.
• “(……..) is really (……….).”
• “ My friend (…….) is a very (………) person.”
• “ (….) is such a (……..) guy.”
What about you? Try to use some of these adjectives about
the person you’re describing. Don’t forget to add details and
examples to your description, or you can even add a story if
possible!
Part 3 Describing Negative Characteristics.
No one’s perfect, right? We all have our flaws, so let’s look
at how to describe the bad side of someone’s personality.
Negative adjectives
Many of the words you saw in part two have direct
opposites which you can use. For example:
- Kind ≠ unkind
- Considerate ≠ inconsiderate
- Honest ≠ dishonest
- Reliable ≠ unreliable
Of course, there are other words you can use, too. Some
people can be selfish or self-centered. They think about
themselves too much, and don’t think about the needs of
others. These two words have a similar meaning. Even more
extreme, you can describe someone as self-obsessed. A self72
obsessed person only think about themselves, and doesn’t
seem to realize that other people exist at all!
Using negative adjective
• “My brother can be a little unreliable sometimes. He often
forgets to do things he promised he would.”
• “Lia is great, but sometimes I feel she’s a bit insincere. She
says all these nice things, but I’m not sure she really means
them.”
• “My colleague Rio is so moody. He’ll be fine one minute, then
suddenly he starts acting like he hates everyone. It makes
him quite difficult to be around.”
Part 4: Talking about your relationship
Finally, let’s add some details about how you know this
person and your relationship. Look at three sentences:
- “We’ve know each other………”
- “We met…….”
- “We get on……, because…….”
Do you know what get on means here? By itself, it means to
have a good relationship with someone. You can add adverbs
after get on to give it different meanings. For example:
• “We get on very well, because……..”
• “We get on well sometimes……….”.
Or you can make it negative:
• “We don’t get on very well.”
How could you complete them? You could say:
• “We’ve known each other for about ten years.”
• “We met at university.”
• “We get on really well, because we have a similar sense of
humor.”
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Of course, there are many possibilities:
• “We’ve know each other almost our whole lives.”
• “We met when we were babies, before we could even walk!”
• “We get on well most of the time, although we argue
sometimes, too.”
Part 5: Making a longer answer
In this lesson, you’ve learned how to describe a person by:
• Talk about their appearance;
• Talk about the positive and negative sides of their
personality (+/-) ;
• Talk about your relationship and how you know each
other.
Now, let’s put everything we’ve done together into a longer
answer. Here’s one:
My brother is quite tall and well-built. He has short, brown
hair, but he’s going bald fast. He looks a bit like a younger
version of Vin Diesel. He’s really funny. He likes making weird
jokes, generally at the most inappropriate moment. However,
he can be a little unreliable sometimes. He often „forgets‟ to
do things he promised he would. I don’t see him often, though
we talk a couple of times a month. When we meet up, we like
watching films or playing cards.
This answer uses examples you’ve already seen. Let’s do
one more longer answer with original example:
I’m going to tell you about a friend of mine, Sarah. She’s quite
short and very slim, with light brown hair. She’s very pretty
and she has a really nice smile. Sarah’s cheerful and fun to be
around, and she’s also very comfortable around her. I’ve
known her for about twelve years now, since university. We
get on well because we have a similar attitude to life and we
always have lots to talk about.
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Okay, now it’s your turn! Make a longer answer to describe
someone you know. Use the examples and language from this
lesson to help you.
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UNIT 13
TALK ABOUT NATURE AND LANDSCAPE
I
n this lesson, you can learn how to describe landscapes,
countryside nature in English. What does the countryside
look like near your home? What kind of landscapes does your
country have?
Using Adjectives
‘Wintry’ is adjective from ‘winter’. You heard ‘wintry
landscape’; another common collection is ‘wintry weather’.
‘Bleak’, means cold. It has a negative meaning. Bleak landscape
are not necessarily ugly, but they’re often depressing.
• wintry ( adj. )
• winter ( n. )
• → wintry landscape
• → wintry weather
• bleak ( adj. )
A ‘plain’ is a large, flat area of land without trees. You can
also use the word ‘grassland’ for a flat area which is covered
with grass.
• Plain
• Grassland
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Have you ever heard the word ‘badlands’? It describes a
specific type of landscape which is made of soft rock which has
been shaped by erosion. Badlands are generally quite bare –
without many plants or trees – and often have steep-sided hills.
Before, I used the word ‘barren’. Do you know what that
means? If something is barren, there are few plants or trees.
You could also use the word ‘bare’, which has a similar
meaning here.
• Badlands
• Barren
• Bare
You can use the phrase ‘rock formation’ to refer to an
interesting or unusual rock structure. One example is a mesa,
which is a flat-topped rock formation with stepped sides.
• Rock formation
• Mesa
You can use different words for land which is covered with
trees. You heard ‘forest’ and ‘woodland’. If you’re talking
about a tropical forest, you can say ‘rainforest’ or ‘jungle’. You
might also hear ‘wood’, as in ‘There’s a small wood next the
river’. Technically, a forest is bigger than a wood, but English
speakers sometimes use the words interchangeably.
• Forest
• Woodland
• Rainforest
• Jungle
• Wood
You can use the word ‘towering’ to describe natural
features which are tall and impressive. ‘Towering’ is usually a
positive adjective. You can have ‘Towering mountains’,
towering cliffs’, or ‘towering trees’.
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• Towering
→ Towering mountains
→ Towering cliffs
→ Towering trees
Here’s the question: what’s the difference between ‘bank’,
‘shore’ and ‘coast’? They all mean a place where the land
meets the water, but they’re not exactly the same. Do you know
the difference? Generally, you use bank for the sides of rivers.
Shore is mostly for lakes; coast is for where the land meet the
sea or the ocean, although ‘shore’ is possible in some contexts.
Another useful word you heard here is ‘greenery’. ‘Greenery’
means plants in general. It could mean grass, flowers, trees,
bushes, or a mix.
• Bank = edge of river
• Shore = edge of a lake
• Coast = edge of a sea/ocean
• Greenery
If you want to describe mountainous terrain which is very
steep and rocky, you can use the word ‘rugged’. You can also
say ‘rugged coastline’. If you describe landscape as
‘dramatic’, you mean that it’s impressive and beautiful. It’s
often used for wilder, more remote landscape, like high
mountains.
‘Turquoise’ is a color between blue and green. It’s not that
common in everyday conversation, but if you use it to describe
water or the sea, you usually mean that the water look
beautiful.
What about you? If you live in a city, what’s the surrounding
countryside like? Are there forests, fields, or mountains? Do
you live near the coast? If you live in the countryside, describe
it! Look out of your window; what does the landscape look like?
Think about your answer.
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UNIT 14
TALKING ABOUT CRIME AND COURT
I
n this lesson, you can learn to talk about crime in English.
You’ll learn vocabulary you can use to talk about crime,
criminals and the justice system in English. Let’s start with part
one, where you’ll hear a conversation about being a victim of a
crime.
Part one: Conversation
Being Victim of a Crime
Gina : how was your trip?
Lian : my trip was good… but my house was burgled while I
was gone.
Gina : oh no!
Lian : yeah… I came back to find the back window broken,
and everything was messed up inside.
Gina : I’m so sorry to hear that. Do you know when it
happened?
Lian : no, exactly. Apparently there have been several breakins in the area recently, though.
Gina : did they take much stuff?
Lian : some electronics, a laptop, a few other small things.
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It’s all replaceable, but it’s still not a good feeling.
Gina : I’m sure. Sill, maybe the police will catch them and
you’ll get it back.
Lian : maybe, but I doubt it. They came and dusted for prints,
but they said that there was almost no chance of
recovering my things.
Gian : really?
Lian : they say that stolen goods tend to be moved out of the
city and sold somewhere else, so they are very difficult
to trace. The detective told me that there’s a whole
network of fences around the country, and the move
stolen items between them.
Gina : sounds like big business.
Look at a sentence you heard at the start of the dialogue. My
house was _____ while I was gone. Do you remember the missing
word? The word was burgled, from the verb to burgle. With
crime vocabulary, you often need to learn words in threes.
Burgle ( verb )
Burg… ( noun ) – person
Burg… ( noun ) – activity
Do you know the noun forms?
Burgle ( verb )
Burglar ( noun ) – person
Burglary( noun ) – activity
Here they are. You need to know one noun for the person,
one noun for the activity, and the verb. Sometimes, some of the
forms might be the same. For example:
• Murder (verb)
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• Murderer (noun) → person
• Murder (noun) → activity
Sometimes, one of the forms might be a completely different
word, like this:
• Steal (verb)
• Thief (noun)→ person
• Stealing (noun)→ activity
Keep this in mind when learning crime vocabulary. Let’s
look at some other useful vocabulary from the dialogue.
1. There have been several break-ins in the area recently.
2. They came and dusted for prints.
3. Stolen goods tend to be moved out of the city and sold
somewhere else.
4. There’s a whole network of fences around the country.
a. Items taken from someone illegally
b. When a house is burgled
c. Someone who buys and sells stolen items
d. To spread fine powder everywhere in order to find
fingerprints
Part Two: Talking About street Crime
Mul : That was fun!
Dwi : yes, we should do it again sometime.
Mul : by the way, how are you getting home?
Dwi : I’ll walk through the park, and then get the bus, I think.
Mul : maybe get a taxi instead? My colleague was mugged
near here last week.
Dwi : really? I didn’t think there was much street crime here.
Mul : No, me neither, but it’s better to be careful. She was
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robbed at knifepoint. She is fine but it was scary.
Dwi : I bet. I know there’s a lot of pickpocketing on public
transport here, but I didn’t think there was much
violent crime.
Mul : well, maybe it was just bad luck, but better to be safe, I
think.
Dwi : yeah, I’ll get a taxi.
Let’s see if you can remember the key vocabulary you heard.
Look at some sentences.
• My colleague was ….. near here last week.
• I didn’t think there was much ….. crime here.
• She was …... at knifepoint.
• There’s a lot of ….. on public transport.
Can you remember the missing words? If you want, go back and
read to the dialogue again, and find them! Let’s look.
• My colleague was mugged near here last week.
• I didn’t think there was much street crime here.
• She was robbed at knifepoint.
• There’s a lot of pickpocketing on public transport.
Did you get them right? Next, can you explain what they mean?
• Mugging is a kind of robbery. In general, robbery means
stealing by using violence or the threat of violence.
Mugging is robbery which takes place on the street, or in
another public place.
• Street crime includes crimes like mugging, pickpocketing,
and graffiti and so on. In general, it refers to crimes which
are committed in public.
• She was robbed at knifepoint means that someone
threatened her with a knife. You can also use the word
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gunpoint. For example, the gang held the bank staff at
gunpoint during the robbery.
• Pickpocketing means stealing from someone from
someone’s bag or wallet, usually in a crowded public place.
Here is an important point: in English, there are many
different words for different types of stealing. You have heard
some of them already: burglary, robbery, mugging and
pickpocketing. There’s also shoplifting which means stealing
from shops. It’s more common to use these specific words
when possible, instead of using general words like stealing.
Don’t forget also to learn the three words for each crime. For
example: mug, mugger, mugging.
• Mug (noun)
• Mugger (noun) → person
• Mugging (noun) → activity
Is there much street crime or pickpocketing where you live?
How can you protect yourself from this? Think about what you
could say on this topic.
Part Three: Talking About Traffic Offenses
Dwi : Where is Edi? He’s twenty minutes late!
Mul : he probably underestimated how long it would take to
get here on the bus.
Dwi : why is he taking the bus?
Mul : oh, you didn’t hear? He was done for DUI.
Dwi : no way!
Mul : yeah. He got a twelve month driving ban. And he has to
do some community service, too.
Dwi : Wow! He is such a car nut, too. That mush really hurt
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him.
Mul : I am sure. I think it is worse because he got a couple of
speeding tickets last year, so he already had some
points on his license.
Dwi : well, he can’t really complain.
Let’s see three sentences from the dialogue. What do these
phases mean? Could you explain them to someone? Try it now.
• Done for DUI means that …..
• A driving ban is …..
• Community service is …..
• If you have points on your license, you …..
Try to complete these sentences. Say your answers out loud, or
write them down or both. Could you do it? Let’s check!
• He was done for DUI.
Done is British slang. It means convicted meaning that you
are found guilty in court. DUI (driving under the influence),
which means driving while drunk or on drugs. If you
wanted to say this in a more formal way, you could say he
was convicted of DUI. If you want to say this in a neutral
style, you could say he was arrested for DUI. Arrested and
convicted aren’t the same. Arrested means the police first
find you and take you to the police station. Convicted is
when you are found guilty in court. However, in everyday
conversation, people might not use these words so
precisely. People might say arrested when the real
meaning is convicted in court.
• He got a twelve month driving ban.
A driving ban means that you are forbidden from driving
for a period of time.
• he has to do some community service
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Community service is a punishment, usually for less
serious crimes. It means you have to spend a certain
number of hours working for free. For example, you might
have to pick up litter on the street.
• He already had some points on his license.
If you have points on your license, you have been caught
breaking the law while driving before. Many countries use
a points system. If you, for example: break the speed limit
and the police catch you, you get points on your license. If
you get too many points, you might lose your driver’s
license, or you might be banned from driving for some
time.
Clear? To practices, try answering some questions. Think about
your answers to these questions.
1. Are traffic laws strict in your country? Give examples.
2. Is community service used as a punishment in your
country? If so, for what kind of crimes?
3. Does your country have a points system for traffic laws?
What would someone have to do to get a driving ban?
Part Four: Going to Court
Edi
: could I ask a favour? Could I take half a day off on
Wednesday?
Bambang : should be OK. Can I ask what it is for?
Edi
: Well…. I have a friend who was arrested for
shoplifting. She says she did not do it, and for
what it’s worth I believe her, but anyway,
Wednesday is her court date and said I’d go along
to support her.
Bambang : sure, no problem. How long is the trial?
Edi
: It’s at the magistrate’s court, so as I understand it
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it’s pretty quick. It’s not a full trial with a jury and
so on.
Bambang : do you think she will get off?
Edi
: I don’t know. Even if not, she has a clean record
so I don’t think she’ll get more than a slap on the
wrist, figuratively speaking.
Bambang : yes, I mean, I don’t think people go to prison for
shoplifting, right?
Edi
: I don’t think so. At least not for a first offense.
Anyway, that is not really concern. I am just going
to support her, and whatever happens, happens.
Could you do it? Let’s see the answers.
1. Not to be punished (informal) = get off
Get off is a slang. More formally, you could say be found
innocent. In formal English, you would say do you think
she will be found innocent?
2. A very light punishment = a slap on the wrist
A slap on the wrist is an idiom. Often it’s used to refer to
a punishment which is less serious than it should have
been. So, if someone commits a serious crime, but only
receives a light punishment, you could say they got away
with a slap on the wrist.
3. A kind of court ( in the UK ) which deals with less serious
crimes = magistrates court
Different countries have different justice systems. In the
UK, there are two levels of court: magistrate’s court and
crown court. Magistrate’s court deal with things like theft,
traffic offenses, minor assault, and so on. More serious
crimes go to crown court, where trials are held with a jury
of twelve citizens.
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There is much more useful language relating to crime and
punishment in the dialogue, so we recommend reviewing them
a least once, and writing down words or phrases you want to
remember.
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UNIT 15
HOW TO DESCRIBE A PICTURE
I
n this lesson, you can learn how to describe a picture in
English. Describing a picture is useful in many English
exams; you need to describe a picture in English for exams like
FCE, TOEIC, or PTE. It also a good way to practice your general
English skills. Taken an interesting picture, and try to describe
it in English. You can practice your speaking and learn some
new English vocabulary!
Part 1: How to summarize what you see
Start with a summary, giving a general description of what’s
in the picture and what you can see. Think: what does the other
person need to know? What do you need to say so that other
people can understand what’s in the picture? Let’s do an
example.
You want to summarize what you see in one or two simple
sentences. How could you do that? You could say:
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• There are several small boats next to a beach.
• The picture shows a beach, with many small boats in the
water nearby.
Simple summaries like this make it easy to understand the
general contents of the picture. Let’s do one more:
What could you say here?
Here are some possible answers:
• There are three people cooking in a kitchen.
• The picture shows three young friends cooking together.
Okay, now it’s your turn. Here another picture:
you need to make a summary of what you see. You can use
these phrases:
- There is …..
- There are …..
- The picture shows …..
Okay, after your summary, you can start giving more detail
about what you see in the picture.
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Part 2: How to describe where things are
To start giving detail, you can talk about where things are in
the picture. Here some useful language to help you do this:
• In the top left
• At the top
• In the top right
• On the left
• In the center/middle
• On the right
• In the bottom left
• At the bottom
• In the bottom right
Let’s do an example.
You can say:
• on the left, there’s a girl with dark, curly hair. She is
holding half a cauliflower.
• In the middle, there’s a man who’s chopping vegetables.
• At the bottom, we can see a counter with many different
vegetables on it.
When talking about photos, you might also need the phrases:
• In the background….
• In the foreground….
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For example:
• In the foreground, there’s a
sandy beach with three metal
anchors on it.
• In the middle, there are several
small boats, which are close to
the beach.
• In the background, we can see the blue sea stretching to
the horizon.
Let’s put all of this language together in another example:
Think fast: what could you say about this picture? Okay, look at
what you could say:
• On the left, there’s a cat sitting on a table
• On the right, there’s a man standing, though we can’t see
his face.
• In the background, we can see blue sky and snowy
mountains.
Here is a picture: make your answer!
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Part 3: Adding detail to four description
Now, the person you’re talking to should have a good
general idea about what’s in the picture you’re describing, and
where things are. Next, you should start describing your
picture in more detail. Look at picture you’ve seen before:
When detail, don’t try to
describe adding everything in
the picture. It’s not necessary
or useful. You should add
details to the most important
parts of the picture. So, for
this picture, what do you
think the most important parts are? Probably, the person who
took it because of the people. So, you should focus your
description on the two people. Think: what do they look like,
and what are they doing? You could say:
• The two people both look unhappy or irritated.
• They’re sitting at the kitchen table together, but they
aren’t talking to each other.
• The man is staring down at the table, while the woman is
stirring her tea with a spoon.
That’s just three sentences, but they add a lot of detail to
your description. Let’s try one more:
In this picture, what do you think you should focus in in your
description? Fairly obviously, you should talk about the horses.
Let’s try:
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• The horses are sunning through the grass.
• Two of them are back, but the one in the middle is white
and grey.
• They don’t have saddles or anything, so they could be wild
horses.
Again, you can see that you can do a lot with just a few
sentences. Alright, now it’s your turn! Let’s take a picture
you’ve already seen:
If you want more practice,
you can do the same exercise
with other pictures from this
lesson, or you could use your
own pictures! At this point,
you’ve described the picture
in detail. So, what else can you
do?
Part 4: Speculating about the picture
Speculating….. What does that mean? Speculating means
talking about possibilities. For example, look at this picture:
Think about some questions: why are the umbrellas there?
Who put them there?
By trying to answer questions like this, you are speculating;
you’re talking about possibilities. And giving your opinion
about the picture. Speculating can help you to make a longer,
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more detailed answer when talking about a picture. Let’s do an
example:
• I suppose it might be some kind of art project.
• Maybe one person put an umbrella up there as a joke, and
then other people started doing it, too.
Let’s look at one picture:
Think, if you wanted to speculate
about this picture, what could you
say? Another way to think about it:
what questions could you ask
yourself about this picture?
Possible ideas are: who made the
footprints, and why? Where were
they going? Where is the person
who made the footprints now?
There are other possibilities, of
course, so feel free to use your own
ideas, too! Okay, so what could you
say to speculate about this picture?
Here are some examples:
• The footprints mush have been made by a climber or a
mountaineer.
• The person who made the footprints might be standing on
top of the mountain now.
In the examples above, you’ve seen some useful languages
which you can use to speculate about a picture. Do you
remember? You can use language like:
- I suppose….
- (it) must….
- Maybe…..
- (he) might…...
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Let’s practice using these once more with another picture:
• Could you make four sentences,
using the useful language we just
saw? Let’s do an example together:
• I suppose the guy is a climber, or
he’s on an adventure hAliday.
• Maybe he climbed something, and
now he’s on the way down.
• He must have a lot of experience, because his body
language is quite relaxed.
• He might be focusing on what he’s doing, but he might just
be enjoying the view!
Can you make four sentences to speculate about this
picture, using the language you’ve learned in this section?
Now, you have one more thing to do.
Part 5: Speculating about the context of the picture
When you speculate, you can speculate about what you can
see in the picture. However, you can and you should speculate
about what you can’t see, too. Well, think about this picture:
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You can think about
questions like: where and
when was the picture taken?
Who took the picture? What
was the photographer doing
there? For example:
• I think this could be in the USA, or maybe Russia.
• It’s a good photo, so perhaps it was taken by a professional
nature photographer.
Let’s do one more example:
What could you say about this picture? Let’s do this one
together. You could say:
• This must be somewhere tropical, like the Caribbean or
the Maldives.
• Perhaps it was taken by a tourist who came to the beach
on one of those boats.
Okay, this time, you have to do it yourself! Here’s your picture:
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Make at least two sentences to speculate about the context
of the picture. Think about where and when it was taken, who
took it, and what the photographer was doing there.
Part 6: Making a Longer Answer
• Give a summary of what you see.
• Talk about where things are in the picture.
• Add detail.
• Speculate about what’s in the picture.
• Speculate about the context of the picture
Let’s make a longer answer together. Well start a picture we
have used already:
In the picture, there are two
people sitting at a table,
looking unhappy. There’s a
woman on the left and a man on
the right. In the middle of the
picture, we can see some things
on the table, like cups of tea,
biscuits, milk and so on. The two people look sad or irritated, and
they aren’t speaking to each other. They’re both looking down at
the table. I suppose they had a fight and now they aren’t talking
to each other, or they might just be bored and not have anything
to talk about. I guess it’s a stock photo because otherwise, why
would the photographer be in the kitchen with them?
Do you think you could make an answer like this?
Remember, all the language you need is in this lesson. You just
need to take the things you practiced in each part, and then put
them together.
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Let’s do one more example together:
The picture shows umbrellas hanging in the air, in the
foreground, we can see a streetlight, and the umbrellas fill the
picture from left to right. The umbrellas are of many different
colors like pink, yellow or green. They’re hanging from wires. I
can see at least four lines of umbrellas hanging down in this way,
but there could be even more. Maybe this is some sort of art
project. It might also be a festival or traditional, that people
decorate the street with colorful umbrellas like this. I suppose the
picture was taken in a city or town. Though I can’t tell where
exactly. Perhaps the photographer was a tourist and was just
walking around the city when he saw this amazing and strange
scene.
Now, look at the picture below and try to make a longer
answer.
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UNIT 16
MAKING SUGGESTIONS
I
n this lesson you can learn how to make and accept
suggestions, using the right phrases and vocabulary. You’ll
also see how to reject someone else’s suggestion politely.
Making suggestions is useful for your everyday English
conversation. In social situations, being able to make, accept
and reject suggestions politely is important! Let’s start by
seeing different ways to make and accept suggestions in
English.
Part 1: How to Make and Accept Suggestions
Let’s listen to two friends talking together. As you listen,
think about two questions.
1. What language is used to make suggestions?
2. What language is used to accept suggestions?
Ready? Let’s read to the dialogue.
Mila : it’s a lovely day. Why don’t we go out somewhere?
Nia
: sure. Why not?
Mila : how about going for a walk? Maybe along the river?
Nia
: sounds great.
Mila : shall we stop somewhere for some lunch?
Nia
: that’s good idea.
Mila : let’s try the new restaurant by the park.
Nia
: great. I’m in!
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Could you see all the different ways to make and accept
suggestions? Let’s look together.
1. Why don’t we go out somewhere?
2. How about going for a walk?
3. Shall we stop somewhere for some lunch?
4. Let’s try new restaurant by the park.
One of these phrases has a different structure to the other
three. Do you know which one? How about is different,
because you use it with a verb plus-ing. The other three are all
followed by infinitive verbs, without to.
1. Why don’t we go out somewhere?
2. How about going for a walk?
3. → how about + verb-ing
4. Shall we stop somewhere for some lunch?
5. Let’s try new restaurant by the park.
Let’s practice. Complete these suggestions with your own
ideas. Pay attention to the verb from.
1. It’s a beautiful day. Let’s …
2. I am hungry. How about …
3. I am free this morning. Why don’t we …
4. There’s a movie on channel 4. Shall we …
What suggestions did you make? Of course, there are many
possible answers! Here are some examples.
1. It’s a beautiful day. Let’s go to the beach.
2. I am hungry. How about going out for a pizza?
3. I am free this morning. Why don’t we go to the market?
4. There’s a movie on channel. Shall we watch it?
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Were your suggestions the same as mine? Now, let’s see
phrases you can use to accept a suggestion. In the dialogue, you
read:
• Sure. Why not?
• Sound great.
• That’s a good idea.
• Great. I’m in!
There are many other phrases you could use. You could just
say something simple like ‘yeah’ or ‘yeah, ‘why not?’. If you
want to sound a little less casual, you could say something like
‘I would like that’ or ‘that sounds like a good idea’. But,
what if you don’t want to do what the other person is
suggesting? Let’s look.
Part 2: How to Reject Suggestions Politely
Sometimes, even though it’s a bit difficult, you’ve got reject
a suggestion have to say ‘No’ to people. In this case, it’s
important to be polite, even if you are talking to a friend. Let’s
see a dialogue which shows you ‘Not’ to do this. Read and try
to find the problems.
Mila : it’s a beautiful day. Shall we go out somewhere?
Nia
: No, I don’t want to.
Mila : Oh, come on! Why don’t we go for a walk along the
river?
Nia
: What an awful idea.
Mila : Well, let’s go somewhere for some lunch.
Nia
: No, let’s not.
Mila : Well, how about watching a movie together?
Nia
: Count me out.
What do you think? You could use phrases like this to reject
someone else’s suggestion… but it doesn’t sound polite. So,
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how could we improve them? Read again and see the
difference.
Mila : it’s a beautiful day. Shall we go out somewhere?
Nia
: I’d rather not, if you don’t mind.
Mila : Oh, come on! Why don’t we go for a walk along
the river?
Nia
: I don’t really feel like it, I’m afraid.
Mila : Well, let’s go somewhere for some lunch.
Nia
: maybe another time.
Did you read the four polite phrases you can use to say ‘no’
to a suggestion? Let’s look together. These are polite ways to
reject a suggestion. The phrase – ‘can I take a rain check?’
means that you want to do something, but not right now. You’ll
do it another time.
Part 3: How to Add Reasons to your Rejection
Mila : it’s a lovely day. Why don’t we go shopping?
Nia
: maybe another time. I’ve got a lot to do today.
Mila : how about going for a walk? Maybe along the river?
Nia
: I don’t really feel like it, I’m afraid. I am a bit tired.
Mila : Well, let’s go somewhere for some lunch.
Nia
: I’d rather not, if you didn’t mind. I am not very hungry
right now.
Mila : then how about going to the park?
Nia
: can I take a rain check? I am a bit busy at the moment.
When you say ‘no’ someone suggestion, you can sound
more polite by adding a reason. Can you remember the reason
you heard in the dialogue? You heard these.
• I’ve got a lot to do today.
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• I am a bit tired.
• I am not very hungry right now.
• I am a bit busy at the moment.
Now it’s over to you. Like we did before, I’m going to make
someone suggestions. After you hear each suggestion, reject
the suggestion politely, and add a reason. Ready to start?
1. It’s a lovely day. Let’s go for a picnic.
2. I’m thirsty. How about a cup of tea?
3. I’m free this afternoon. Why don’t we go to the cinema?
4. There’s a new restaurant in Queen Street. Shall we go there
this evening?
How did you do? Here are some possible reasons you could use.
1. It’s a lovely day. Let’s go for a picnic.
✓ I’d rather not, if you don’t mind. I don’t really like picnics
that much.
2. I’m thirsty. How about a cup of tea?
✓ I don’t really feel like it, I’m afraid. I’m still quite full up
from dinner.
3. I’m free this afternoon. Why don’t we go to the cinema?
✓ Maybe another time. I’m a little busy today.
4. There’s a new restaurant in Queen Street. Shall we go there
this evening?
✓ Can I take a rain check? I really need to finish my project.
There are many possible answers here. Now, you should
know different ways to make, accept and reject suggestions
politely in English. Are we done? Not yet! There’s one more
important point.
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Part 4: Intonation in Suggestions
When you accepting a suggestion, intonation is critical. Even
if you use correct, polite language, you can still sound
unfriendly if your intonation is not right. Compare two
answers.
Shall we go shopping?
✓ That’s a good idea.
✓ That’s a good idea!
Can you say it? The same words can have a completely
different meaning if you change the intonation. When you’re
accepting rejecting a suggestion, try to sound a little apologetic.
Now, I’m going to reject a suggestion twice, using different
intonation. Listen; which answer has the correct, apologetic
intonation?
✓ I can’t, I’m afraid. I have got some work to do.
✓ I can’t, I’m afraid. I’ve got some work to do.
How did you get on? Did you manage to sound enthusiastic
or apologetic? It’s not always easy to judge your own
intonation, so you might want to ask someone else if you sound
natural. Although polite intonation is important, you don’t
want to overdo it. It will sound weird. That everything. Thank
you!
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UNIT 17
HOW TO SHOP FOR CLOTHES
I
n this lesson you can learn about how to shop for clothing.
Dialogue
Customer
: Hello, can I help you?
Shop Assistant : No, thanks. I’m just browsing.
Customer
: Ok, Let me know if you need any help.
Shop Assistant : Actually, do you have any dresses in stock?
Customer
: Yes, let me show you.
Shop Assistant : Hmmm, I like this one. Do you have it in
another color?
Customer
: Yes, This dress also comes in red, blue, black
and green
Shop Assistant : I’d like to try the blue one, please.
Customer
: Sure, the changing rooms are over there.
Shop Assistant : Can I try this in a smaller size?
Customer
: Sorry, we don’t have any in stock left in that
color. Would you like to try another color?
Shop Assistant : Hmmm… I really like the blue one.
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Customer
: We have a special offer, buy one get one free.
Shop Assistant : Really? That’s a bargain!
Customer
: Yes, we have a lot of special deals on our
clothing.
Shop Assistant : In that case, I’ll take the red one and the black
one.
Customer
: Would you like anything else?
Shop Assistant : No, thanks. I’ll just get this. Can I pay by card?
Customer
: Of course, please enter your PIN.
Shop Assistant : Hmmm.. What is my PIN number? Oh, yes.
Customer
: Please wait one moment… sign here.
Shop Assistant : Can I get a receipt?
Customer
: Of course, here you go!
Shop Assistant : Thank you. Have a nice day!
Customer
: Thanks for shopping with us!
Now, let’s look at some of the words you’ll need when going
clothing shopping. When you first enter the clothing store, the
shop assistant might greet you and ask if you need any help. If
you are just looking around, you can say that you are browsing.
A: Hello, can I help you?
B: No thanks, I’m just browsing.
Browsing mean looking at many things in a shop to see if
there is something you want to buy. If you’re looking for
something in particular, you can ask,
• Do you sell (jeans)?
• I’m looking for (jeans).
• Do you have (jeans)?
• Do you have (jeans) in
stock?
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If the shop has the clothing you’re looking for, you will want
to try it on before you buy it. You can try on the clothing in the
changing room, a room for trying on clothing.
• Can I try this on, please?
• Where are the changing rooms?
After you’ve tried on the clothing, you might want to change the
size or color. You can ask
• Do you have this is another size?
• Do you have this in a size X (size 8, size 10, size 12, etc.)
• Do you have this in another color?
• Do you have this in (green)?
You’ve tried on the clothing, it’s the right size and the right
color, now you want to know how much it costs.
• How much is this?
• How much are these?
• That’s really expensive!
• That’s really cheap, ‘or’
• That’s a bargain!
• I’ll take them or
• I’ll take it.
Once you’ve finished shopping and are getting ready to pay, the
shop assistant might ask you,
• Will there be anything else?
• Can I help with anything else?
They will ask if you want to pay with cash or by card. Usually
they’ll just say “Cash or card?”. You can answer “I’ll pay by card
or I’ll pay by cash”.
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UNIT 18
TALKING ON THE PHONE
I
n this lesson, you can learn how to deal with common
situations and problems when you’re talking on the phone in
English. You’ll see four dialogues, and then we’ll explain the
vocabulary and phrases that we use. This way, you’ll learn
everything you need to make phone calls in English!
Part 1: How to Make informal Phone Calls
Let’s start by showing you how to make an informal phone
call, for example to a friend or a colleague you know well.
Ali
: Hello?
Maria : Ali, hi!
Ali
: sorry, who’s this?
Maria : it’s Maria!
Ali
: Oh, hi! Sorry, didn’t have your number saved.
Maria : no worries. Listen: some of us are going rafting this
weekend. Do you want to come?
Ali
: Wow… that sounds great! Yeah, sure.
Maria : Brilliant! I’ll text you the details.
Ali
: okay, cheers for the invite, see you then I guess.
Maria : Bye!
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Let’s look at the whole dialogue. What do you notice? First,
I answered with a simple hello. This is common if you’re
answering the phone informally and you don’t know who’s
calling. I also used an informal way to ask who was calling. (Ali)
And I used an informal way to give my name. If you’re calling
your friend, don’t say, I’m Maria. Instead, say it’s Maria. (Maria)
Next, you can see that Maria tells me what she’s calling in a
very simple way. Also, look at the whole dialogue. It’s quite
short, right? This is common informal phone calls. We don’t ask
“how are you” or anything like that. It’s not bad to ask “how are
you”, of course! But, it’s not necessary in an informal phone call
if you know each other well. You can also see many examples
of informal language that we both used, for example wow,
yeah, cheers, I guess, or using invite as a noun instead of
invitation.
Finally, we ended the conversation quickly and simply. We
used simple, informal goodbye words: see you and bye.
Next, let’s look at how you can make a formal phone call, so you
can see the difference.
Part 2: How to Make Formal Phone Calls
Maria : Good afternoon, English Learning Center, how can I
help?
Ali
: Hello, could I speak to Michael Hart, please?
Maria : Who’s calling, please?
Ali
: My name is Ali Redman and I’m calling concerning a
proposal which Mr. Hart sent to me.
Maria : one moment, please…. I’m afraid he’s not available
right now. Would it be alright for him to call you back
in about 30 minutes?
Ali
: yes, that would be fine.
Maria : And does he have your number?
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Ali
: yes, he called me last week, so he must have it.
Maria : that’s fine. He’ll call you in half an hour or so. Is there
anything else I can do for you?
Ali
: No, that’s all. Thank you for your help.
Maria : You’re welcome. Thanks for calling, and have a nice
day!
Ali
: and to you. Goodbye!
Part 3: Common Problems
Maria : Hello?
Ali
: Maria, hi it’s Ali.
Maria : Hi Ali.
Ali
: so, we were thinking of going to the cinema tonight.
Do you guys want to come?
Maria : Sorry, say that again.
Ali
: I said, we’re thinking of going to the cinema.
Maria : The sound’s very quiet. Can you speak up a bit? Hello?
Sorry, I really can’t hear.
Ali
: how about now?
Maria : Ah, yes, that’s better!
Ali
: sorry, I’m in the subway, and the signal’s not so good.
Maria : So, what were you saying?
Ali
: I wanted to say…Hold on, my battery’s about to die.
Can I call you back later?
Maria : Sure, I’ll be free till……
First, a question for you: was this dialogue formal or
informal? It was informal. Here, you can see some common
problems you might have talking on the phone in English. At
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the beginning, I couldn’t hear Ali’s question. So, Maria said:
sorry, say that again. You could use many different phrases
here like: what was that? Or what did you say? In a formal
conversation, you could say something like: I’m sorry, could
you repeat that? Or Could you say that again, please?
Part 4: Leaving a Message
Ali : Hello, ELT productions, can I help?
Maria: Hello, this is Maria Kamila. I’m calling Peter
Okahan. Is he available?
Ali
: Unfortunately he’s busy at the moment. Would
you like to leave a message, or should I get him to
call you back later?
Maria: Umm…. Can I leave him a message? It’s quite
important.
Ali
: Of course.
Maria: could you ask him to double check the hotel
reservations for the Italy conference? He’ll know
what I mean.
Ali
: Very well. Anything else?
Maria: No, that’s everything, but do please make sure he
gets it as soon as possible.
Ali
: I’ll pass your message on as soon as he’s free.
Maria: Thank you.
Ali
: Would you also like him to call you back?
Maria: Yes, Please. If you could get him to call me at my
office, that would be wonderful.
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Ali
: No problem at all.
Maria: Thanks so much.
Ali
: You’re welcome, bye-bye now!
Maria: Bye!
Let’s start with the same question: was this dialogue more
formal, or more informal? It was more formal this time. In this
dialogue, Maria wanted to speak to someone, but he wasn’t
there. Ali took a message for Maria. Do you remember the
question he asked? He said: would you like to leave a message?
You could also say: “can I take a message?” or “Should I give
him a message?”
What can you say to answer this question? You could say
something like:
- Can I leave him a message?
- Could you pass on a message for me?
Then, give your message:
- Can you ask him to …?
- Could you tell her that?
- Just let him know that…
Here’s a full example:
Could you tell her that I’ll be arriving at five o’clock, instead
of half seven?
You might also say how important your message is,
particularly if it is very important! For example:
• Please make sure he gets it as soon as possible; it’s really
important.
• It’s urgent, so please tell her as soon as you can.
If it’s not so important, you could say something like:
• It’s not urgent, so just let him know when he’s free.
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UNIT 19
HOW TO ANSWER JOB INTERVIEW
QUESTIONS IN ENGLISH
I
n this lesson, you will learn how to answer job interview
question in English. Have you ever had a job interview in
English? If English is not your first language, answering job
interview questions in English can add stress to the experience.
However, there are some simple, effective tips you can use to
give better answer to job interview questions in clear, natural
English. You’ll learn about these tips and tricks during this
lesson! Let’s start with our eight common job interview
questions.
Part 1: Make Your Answers More concise
What does concise mean? It means that you don’t waste
words. If you speak concisely, you get right to the point and
don’t add anything unnecessary to your answer. Let’s look at
two questions in this section:
- Tell me a little about yourself.
- Where do you see yourself five years from now?
These are very common job interview questions and they’re
also very open questions. Open questions can be dangerous. Do
you know why? It’s because you might ramble. Ramble means
to talk a lot without saying much. This won’t give the
interviewer a good impression!
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Let’s start by looking at a sample answer to the question tell
me a little about yourself.
Well, I was born in a small town in northern Italy, where I also
went to school. I studied engineering at university and the…
So, after I graduated… I mean, I did a master’s degree first,
but then I worked for a small firm in my hometown for a few
years, which was great fun. After that…
Do you think this is a good answer? Why or why not? It’s not
a very good answer. Why not? There are three things the
candidate does which you should try to avoid:
• The candidate includes lots of unnecessary details.
• He doesn’t speak in full sentences.
• He doesn’t have any clear direction.
If you do these things, your answer to this answer will be
long and unfocused. What’s the solution? You need to be more
concise. But how? 1) First, avoid unnecessary details. Don’t
give your entire work history; the interviewers can get that
from your CV if they want it. 2) Secondly, speak in full
sentences with a clear beginning and end. This means you need
to be thinking ahead while you speak. 3) Thirdly, think about
what you want to highlight in your answer, and put it at the
beginning. This will give your answer a clear direction.
Let’s look at some examples of this:
Tell me a little about yourself.
I’ve always loved designing and building things, so I suppose
it’s natural that I became an engineer. I’ve worked in a variety
of roles and companies, which I’ve learned a lot from, but now
I’m ready for a new challenge.
What do you think? Better? It’s much better. Let’s look at the
start.
Immediately, the candidate identifies a key feature (he loves
designing and building things), and links it to his engineering
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career. The candidate’s answer is very concise: there are no
unnecessary details, and it also has a clear end.
What about our second question?
Where do you see yourself five years from now? Here’s one
possible answer:
There are many things I could be doing. I’d like to have, you
know, some sort of progress… what I mean is that I don’t just
want to be doing the same things I’m doing now. I like to be
moving forward I’m my career, for example…. Err…. I
definitely see myself in a better position than I am now.
Good answer, bad answer? Okay, it’s not terrible, but it
cloud be much better. The candidate is rambling. She doesn’t
make her point clear, she doesn’t speak in full sentences, and
she wastes words on unclear and unnecessary ideas. Here’s a
better answer:
I don’t know exactly, but the most important thing is that I
continue to learn and grow in my career. I’m the kind of
person who needs new challenges to stay focused. I might
even start my own business, because that’s something I’ve
always wanted to do at some point in my life.
This is much more concise. The candidate’s answer has a
clear beginning and end, and doesn’t waste words. So, what can
do to make your answers more concise? The best way to
practice is to record yourself speaking. You could record
yourself answering these two questions. Then, listen to
yourself. Try to find sentences which you don’t finish or words
which don’t add anything to your meaning. Then, try again.
Keep practicing until your answer is clean and focused.
Part 2: Use Signposting Language.
Next, let’s look at another point which will make your
answers clearer and more structured:
Signposting language. Signposting language means words
and phrases which show your listener where you’re going.
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For example, the words ‘for example’ are signposting
language. When I say for example, you know I’m about to
give you an example. Simple, right? Yes, but it’s also very
important. Without signposting language, longer answers
can lose focus and be hard to follow.
You’ll see answer to two questions in this section:
1. What are your strengths and weaknesses?
2. What is your leadership style?
Let’s look at a sample answer.
1. I’m very good at working with other people. In my last job,
I always tried to encourage my colleagues and create a
good atmosphere. I suppose I can be a little bit careless
sometimes. I’m not the kind of person who focuses on
details. I’m very calm, and I can keep a cool head in very
stressful situations.
2. I’m quite a hands-off manager. If one of my team has a
project, I’ll keep an eye on things, but I don’t need to be
involved in every detail. I’m very approachable. I make
sure my team know they can come to me with problems or
questions at any time. I like to lead from the front. If
everyone’s working late to meet a deadline, I make sure
I’m there with them.
What do you think? It’s not bad, but it could be hard to
follow. In the first sample answer (1), the candidate jumps
around a lot. Adding signposting language can make a big
difference. Let’s see how. Now that the contact is exactly the
same. We haven’t changed the candidate’s basic ideas at all.
However, the answer is now much clearer and easier to follow.
Using signposting language like this can make a big difference!
Now, look at some signposting language you could use in this
answer. Now, you have job to do! I want you
• Finally
• That means that
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• Also
• First of all
• In that
• For instance
Now, you have job to do! I want you to put these signposting
phrases into the answer you just saw. Ready? Let’s look at the
answers:
First of all, I’m quite a hands-off manager. For instance, if
one of my team has a project, I’ll keep an eye on things, but I
don’t need to be involved in every detail. I’m also very
approachable. In that I make sure my team know they can
come to me with problems or questions at any time. Finally, I
like to lead from the front. That means that if everyone’s
working late to meet a deadline, I make sure I’m there with
them.
How did you do? Were you able to use the signposting
language? Remember, signposting language might seem very
simple, but don’t forget about it. Using signposting language
well make your answer much clearer and easier to follow.
Part 3: How To add Structure To Answers
Now, let’s look at another way to make your answers more
structures, clearer and more focused. You’ll see answers to
these two questions in this section.
- Can you tell me about a time when you demonstrated…..?
- Tell me about a time you dealt with a challenging situation
at work.
These questions are likely to need longer answers. With
loner answers, it’s really important that your answers have a
clear structure. Otherwise, your meaning might get lost!
There’s a method you can use here; it’s called the STAR method.
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‘STAR’ Method
Start means Situation, Task, Action, Result. So, you start
answer by giving the context: What was the situation, and what
did you have to do? Then, you talk about what you actually did,
and what the end result was.
Let’s do an example together. Can you tell me about a time
when you demonstrated excellent customer service? Let’s use
the STAR method.
There was one time when a costumer’s order hadn’t arrived,
and we didn’t know what had happened to it. The customer
was very unhappy, and I had to try to solve the problem for
him. I arranged for a replacement to be sent, thinking we
could find out what happened to the previous order later. In
the end, the customer was happy that I could solve his
problem quickly and simply.
You see how following this method lets you build clear,
structured answers? Situation, task, action, result. Let’s do
another example. Think about our second question.
Tell me about a time you dealt with a challenging situation
at work. This time, you’re going to try! Make an answer to this
question. Your answer should be four sentences long. Follow
the STAE method, one sentence for each part. How was that?
Did you find it easy to make your own answer? Let’s look at one
way you could answer this question.
- Once, we realized three days before a project deadline that
two of our teams were using incompatible software tools.
As the project manager, I had to find a way to deal with this
without causing any delays. I talked to both team leaders
and we made a plan for one team to convert their work
into a different format, with help from some staff from
other departments. It was very close but we managed to
get everything done on time.
Again you can see the STAR method in action: situation, task,
action, result.
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If you combine this STAR method with the signposting
language you learned about in part two, you’ll be able to
express yourself clearly in English, even in longer and more
complex answers. Finally, let’s look at another tip you can use
to impress your interviewer and increase your chances of
getting that job offer!
Part 4: Mirror Key Words
You’re going to learn about mirroring and how it can help
you. What does mirroring mean? It means using some of the
same words and expressions as the person you’re talking to.
For example, if the interviewer asks you: “How do you think
your values fit our company culture?” You could start your
answer by saying:
“I think my values are a good fit for your company culture for
two reasons. “
One…mirroring has several benefits. First, it keeps your
answers focused. By using the same words and phrases, your
answer will be relevant. More importantly, it shows the
interviewer that you’re listening and that you care about the
questions and the company. Mirroring is powerful. We
unconsciously mirror people when we like or respect them.
Using mirroring consciously will help you to make a better
impression.
You should start by researching the company you’re
applying to. How do they describe themselves? What adjectives
do they use on their website or in their advertising? Also, read
the job advertisement carefully. Pay attention to the words
they to describe the candidate they’re looking for. Use these
words in your answers. Let’s think about this question:
Why do you want this job? Imagine you’re applying to a
company which describes itself as ‘innovative’ and ‘forwardlooking’. In the job advertisement, they say they want someone
who is creative and flexible.
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Here’s good sample answer:
Creativity is very important to me, and I’ve always wanted to
work in an environment where I can innovate and find my own
solutions to challenges. I also feel that your company will
continue to evolve in the future, and I like the idea of
contributing to that development.
The candidate doesn’t use all four words, but she does
reference all four ideas. For example, instead of ‘forwardlooking’, she talks about the company evolving in the future. In
this way, she shows that she’s in tune with the company’s
values. Let’s do one more example. Imagine you’re applying to
a company which describes itself as ‘commanding respect’ and
which talks with pride about its long history. In the job
advertisement, they say they want someone who has ‘great
communication skills’ and ‘passion for helping others’. During
the interview, they ask: “why should we hire you? Here’s a good
sample answer, using mirroring.”
I believe that great customer service starts with good
communication, which is a strength of mine. I also think that
in customer service starts with good communication, which is
a strength of mine. I also think that in customer service, you
need to care about what you’re doing. I care about helping
others and as such I believe you would find me to be a
respectful and effective team member who can fit with the
established traditions of your company.
Again, the candidate doesn’t necessarily use the words
directly, but he does reference all four of the ideas. Be careful if
you use mirroring; you don’t want to sound like a robot! This
is why you sometimes need to change words and phrases
slightly, instead of repeating them again and again. Now, you’ve
seen four effective techniques you can use to give better
answers to job interview questions in English.
Remember: be concise, use signposting language, use the
STAR method to structure longer answers, and mirrors key
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words and phrases. We hope it was use full. Good luck if you
have a job interview coming up soon!
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UNIT 20
PHRASAL VERBS FOR BUSINESS
I
n this lesson you will learn several business English phrasal
verbs. Although you'll see these phrasal verbs in a business
context, you can also use many of them in everyday life. You'll
learn two dialogues each containing twelve phrasal verbs.
After each dialogue you'll see the meaning of the phrasal verbs.
At the end of each section, there is a short quiz to test your
understanding. Now let's look at the first part of your lesson.
Part 1: Setting Up a New Business
Read the dialogue, where two people are talking about
setting up a new business. Try to find the twelve phrasal verbs!
Abdul
: I hear that you're setting up your own business.
How exciting!
Kenny
: That's right! I'm taking over the antique shop on
the high street.
Abdul
: So, you are opening an antique shop? I didn't know
you dealt in antiques.
Kenny
: Not exactly. The owners wanted to sell up as they
are moving on, so I'm going to turn it into a zero
waste shop.
Abdul
: Wow! So, what exactly are you going to sell?
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Kenny
: Well, I think that lots of people are trying to cut
down on plastic packaging, so the idea is that they
bring their own containers and fill them up with
anything from pasta to washing up liquid.
Abdul
: What a great idea! It must be difficult to find
suppliers though.
Kenny
: No, not at all. In fact, I am hoping to buy all my stock
locally. I'm in the process of firming up
arrangements with some local suppliers today. If it
all goes to plan, I should be able to launch next
month.
Abdul
: That quickly?
Kenny
: Yes, I've already stocked up on bathroom items
such as unpackaged soap and bamboo
toothbrushes, but I still need to kit out shop floor
with some more shelving to display everything.
Abdul
: Well, good luck with everything!
Kenny
: Thank you. Hey, you should come to the launch!
Abdul
: Great! I'll look forward to it!
So, did you get all twelve phrasal verbs? Here's a challenge for
you. Look at the definitions of four verbs you read.
• Start/create something
• Gain control of something
• Buy and sell something
• Buy a large amount of something
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Can you match the definitions to the phrasal verbs in the
dialogue? Otherwise, you'll see the answer in a few seconds.
Here is the answers.
• Start/create something = set up
• Gain control of something = take over
• Buy and sell something = deal in
• Buy a large amount of something = stock up
In the dialogue, you heard them in these sentences.
• I hear that you're setting up your own business.
• I'm taking over the antique shop on the high street.
• I didn't know you deal in antiques.
• I have already stocked up on bathroom items.
In this case, 'take over' suggests buying a business from
someone else. 'stock up' has the idea of buying a large amount
in order to prepare for something. For example, if you run a
shop, and you know that your busiest season in coming soon,
you might stock up on supplies so that you're ready for an
increase in costumer numbers. Next, look at another sentence
you heard.
The owners wanted to sell their business as they're leaving
to start something new, so, I'm going to change the antique
shop to a zero waste shop. Here, we've replaced three phrasal
verbs with different verb phrases. Can you remember the
original phrasal verbs? Here is the original text, with the
phrasal verbs. The owners wanted to sell up as they're moving
on, so I'm going turn it into a zero waste shop.
'Sell up' is similar to 'sell', but not exactly the same. 'Sell
up' means to complete a large, important transaction, like
selling a house or a business. 'Sell up' can't be used with an
object. Similarly, 'move on' is similar to 'move', but not exactly
the same. 'Move on' has the idea of starting something new, so
it has a more specific meaning than ' move'.
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Finally, here are five more phrasal verbs and definitions used
in the dialogue.
• cut down on
= use less of something
• fill up
= put things in a container until is full
• firm up
= make more definite
• kit out
= provide necessary equipment
• look forward to
= be excited about something in the
future
Part 2: Managing a Department
In our dialogue, one person has just started a new job and
the other has been promoted. Just like the first dialogue. You’ll
hear twelve phrasal verbs. Two of them were already
introduced in the first dialogue. Can you spot all twelve? Let’s
read!
Kenny
: How are things? You look a little tired.
Abdul
: Oh… I am OK. I guess I am a bit tired. Work is quite
stressful as I’ve just been taken on by Ascendant.
You know, the new insurance company that just
opened an office?
Kenny
: Oh really? What are you doing?
Abdul
: Well, I’m heading up the insurance fraud
department, which is a really exciting opportunity
for me, but I’m basically setting up department
from scratch, so I have to draw up loads of new
procedures and it’s taking ages… Anyway, how’s
everything in the legal world?
Kenny
: Good thanks. In fact, I’ve been promoted! We’ve
had a full restructure and the litigation Department
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where I work has been hived off, and I’m now
looking after some of our biggest clients.
Abdul
: That’s great news!
Kenny
: Thanks. It was all a bit sudden, so it’s been really
busy as we have had to move premises, rebrand
and change our name. We brought in a consultancy
agency to help and that side of things is all sorted
out now.
Abdul
: So, where have you moved to?
Kenny
: we’ve taken over the old library building in the
center of town. The previous tenants needed to
move out pretty quickly, so we were able to move
in the last week. In Fact, we’ve pretty much settled
in now.
Abdul
: Great! Well good luck with everything.
Kenny
: Thanks. You too!
So, how did you get on? Did you get them all? First question:
which two phrasal verbs in this dialogue did you already hear
in part one? You heard ‘set up’ – meaning to start or create
something – and ‘take over’ – meaning to take control of a
business. What about the other ten? Let’s look together.
Here are the definitions of four new phrasal verbs you read.
1. Hire a new employee ( take on )
2. Be in charge of something ( head up )
3. Involve new people in a project ( bring in )
4. Prepare an official document ( draw up )
Here, ‘head up’ has slightly more specific meaning than ‘be
in charge of’ or ‘be responsible for’. If you head something up,
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then you’re the leader. ‘bring in’ can be used in many different
ways. In the dialogue, you heard ‘we brought in a consultancy
agency’. If you head up a team, and you don’t have enough
people to do your work, you will need to bring in new workers,
maybe from other departments or maybe from outside the
company. ‘Draw up’ is commonly used with contracts,
proposals and similar documents which you might need during
a negotiation. Let’s look at two more phrasal verbs from the
dialogue. Look at a sentence.
We’ve had a full restructure and the litigation department
where I work has been separated into a new independent
company, and I’m now responsible for some of our biggest
clients. You read something similar in the dialogue, but here
we’ve replaced the phrasal verbs with different words. Can you
remember the phrasal verbs? Here is the answer:
‘Hive off’ has a very specific meaning. You use it when part
of a larger company is separated into a smaller, independent
organization. ‘Hive off’ suggests that part of a large company is
made into a legally separate business. Instead of 'Sell up', you
could also say ‘take care of’; both have the same meaning, and
in fact both are phrasal verbs!
Finally, let’s look at the four remaining phrasal verbs.
• Sort out
• Move in/move out
• Settle in
We put two together – ‘move in’ and ‘move out’ – because
they are two sides of the same idea. So, what’s your job now?
Imagine you’re an English teacher. You want to explain what
these words mean to someone who doesn’t know them. You
need to be a good teacher and make your explanations as clear
as possible! Think about your explanations now. Say them out
laud.
Could you do it? There’s more than one right answer, but here
are some examples.
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‘sort out’ means to find a solution to something. If you sort
something out, maybe you solve a problem, or maybe you find
a way to deal with a complex situation.
• Sort out ( find a solution to something )
‘move in’ or ‘move out’ mean to change physical location.
You can use it with houses or apartments, but companies can
also move in or move out, for example when they move to a
different shop, or a different office.
• Move in/move out ( change physical location )
‘Settle in’ means to get used to a new environment. If your
company moves to a new location, you might need some time
to adjust to the new location and learn where everything is –
you need to settle in.
• Settle in ( get used to a new environment )
OK, now you’ve seen explanations for all the phrasal verbs in
the second dialogue. Ready for a short quiz? Let’s look!
I moved to Jakarta last year. It look me a while to ____ but now
I really enjoy living here. Did you know that the new law firm
in town is ____ 10 paralegals this month? My boss is away this
week do I’m ____ her top client! I’m so excited! I’m going to be
___ our international office in Jakarta!
Remember that the missing words are all phrasal verbs, so
you need to put two words in each gap. Also, don’t forget to put
the verb in the correct form! Could you do it? Let’s see the
answer. That’s all for this lesson.
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REFERENCES
Gray, J. 1981. Starting English. London: Chassell Ltd.
Wilson, W. & Barnard, R. 1992. Fifty-fifty: A Basic Course in
Communicative English. Englewood Cliffs, NJ:
Regents/Prentice-Hall.
Chase, B. Tarver. 2018. World English 1. USA: National
Geographic Learning.
Richard, Jack. C. & Bohlke, David. 2015. Speak Now 1. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Xiao, K. 2017. Talk English: The Secret to Speak English like a
Native Speaker in 6 Months for Busy People. Shanghai.
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138
AUTHORS’ BIOGRAPHY
Dana Arif Lukmana is an educator at
the Faculty of Education and Teacher
Training at IAIN Ternate. This book is
his
second
book
after
the
Mathematics
Text
Book
for
Secondary School Grade VIII in 2014
(Curriculum 2013). He loves teaching
math and English. This book is part of
his efforts to learn and teach English
continuously and will be used internally by IAIN Ternate
students. Speaking Skill is the focus of this book. The author
tries to raise the context in everyday life as a means to build
English Speaking Skills. The implied message that the author
wants to convey is that English Fluency must begin from the
context of daily life. This book will be made in series but with a
different focus.
Ummi Salamah Tianotak was born in
Pune November 13, 1991. She
graduated from her undergraduate in
2013 and completed her master in
2017. Ummi has started her teaching
career since 2010. She started her
teaching at English courses and
expanded her experiences at the
university level. She has been
teaching various levels of students,
starting from kids to adults, since then. In 2018 up to 2020, she
taught at English Access Microscholarship Program, a global
scholarship program from RELO, US Embassy Jakarta
collaborated with Indonesian International Education
Foundation (IIEF). Now, she works as an English educator at
IAIN Ternate. This is her very first published book. After this
139
book, she intends to write books of English for Specific
Purposes as she is now focusing on teaching English for Non
English major students.
140
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