I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com.

Let's talk together.

Today you're gonna have a chance to speak with me, kind of.

A couple of weeks ago, I had some friends over to my house to carve pumpkins for Halloween,

and I hadn't seen those friends in a couple of weeks, so we caught up.

This phrasal verb caught up or catch up means to talk about things that happened since the

last time that you saw those other people.

Today I want to pretend that you and I are catching up.

If you want to have a friend who is an English speaker, this is a necessary skill.

First, I'm going to ask you some questions, and I want you to speak out loud in the blank,

then after that quick conversation is finished, we're gonna go back and look at some possible

responses so that if you didn't know what to say, now you have some ideas.

Let's get started.

Imagine that you knock on my front door, and I open it and say hey, thanks for coming.

This is the blank.

I want you to respond in that blank.

I'm going to be saying a couple of other sentences, so I want you to try to respond in whatever

way you feel is best just for a couple of seconds.

All right, let's start one more time.

Hey!

Thanks for coming.

How's your day been going?

Let me take your coat.

Can I get you something to drink?

We have water, crisp, excellent, straight from the tap.

We have some pumpkin beer and some mulled wine that I made for the party.

Alrighty.

Here you go.

How was your day at work today?

Oh, me?

Oh, just making some new videos for YouTube and trying to stay warm.

I know, and it's only November.

I'm so glad that we don't live in Canada.

Okay, how did you do?

I know there are a lot of different ways to answer that conversation, so what I want to

do is show you a quick sample with my husband, Dan, for some ideas about how you could have

responded in that conversation, and then we'll go back to the original conversation so that

you can have a chance again to fill in the blank and try to respond and speak with me.

Hey!

Thanks for coming.

Dan: No problem, of course.

How's your day been going?

Dan: Pretty good.

Let me take your coat.

Can I get you something to drink?

Dan: What do you have?

We have water, fresh, crisp, right from the tap.

We have pumpkin beer and some mulled wine that I made just for the party.

Dan: I'll have some pumpkin beer.

That sounds good.

All right.

Here you go.

How was your day at work today?

Dan: Kind of busy, not too bad.

What have you been up to lately?

Oh, me.

Oh, you know, just making some new videos for YouTube and trying to stay warm.

Dan: Yeah, it's been really cold.

I know, and it's only November.

I'm so glad we don't live in Canada.

Dan: For sure.

I heard they got snow a month ago.

I hope that that sample conversation with Dan was useful to you.

Now I want to give you a second chance, so let's imagine again that you're knocking on

my front door.

You have your pumpkin.

You have your carving tools.

You're ready to go to my pumpkin carving party for Halloween, and I open the door.

Let's try this one more time.

Hey!

Thanks for coming.

How's your day been going?

Let me take your coat.

Can I get you something to drink?

We have water, crisp, excellent, straight from the tap.

We have some pumpkin beer and some mulled wine that I made for the party.

Alrighty.

Here you go.

How was your day at work today?

Oh, me?

Oh, just making some new videos for YouTube and trying to stay warm.

I know, and it's only November.

I'm so glad that we don't live in Canada.

How did you do that second time?

You used greetings, you got a drink, you chatted about the weather.

Congratulations.

These are all key elements to just having a natural conversation catching up with a

friend.

If you enjoyed this type of organized speaking conversation practice, we do something like

this every month in The Fearless Fluency Club.

I made a sample of this type of lesson for YouTube, so you can check out the free sample

up here.

I hope that you'll be able to practice speaking and then feel confident when it comes time

to have a real conversation.

And now I have a question for you.

If you came over to my house for this Halloween pumpkin carving party, what would you drink.

Water, pumpkin beer, or mulled wine that I made myself?

Let me know in the comments below, and thank you so much for learning English with me.

I'll see you again next Friday for a new lesson here on my YouTube channel.

The next step is to download my free ebook, Five Steps to Becoming a Confident English

Speaker.

You'll learn what you need to do to speak confidently and fluently.

Don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel for more free lessons.

Thanks so much.

Bye.