📕 Part 1: Talking to others

Do you like to talk to others?

Well, I'm a teacher, so I suppose that must be the case. I'm not sure I could do this job if I didn't like doing it.

Do you like to talk a lot to others?

Well, assuming it's appropriate for the situation, yes. I mean, no one wants to be talked at for a solid hour if you're just making small talk, do they?

Did you like to talk with others when you were a child?

Ha-ha, yes. My primary one teacher used to write talk, talk, talk, wouldn't take a telling in my reports because I was such a chatterbox. And you would think that would be a bad sign, but now here I am making my living from doing exactly that.

Have the topics of conversation changed since you were a child?

Well, I certainly hope so, though I suppose things can regress to a childish level when I'm being immature with my friends, but we also talk more about the future and more grown-up things like finances these days.

And do you prefer talking to people face-to-face or online?

Well, it depends on what the situation is. I mean, if it's social chit-chat, then I would much rather sit down and talk face-to-face with people. However, if it's just answering sort of like factual or questions about factual information from potential clients, then it's easier to do that when I can sit down and type things out.

Will you talk more to other people in the future?

I imagine so... I mean, the population is increasing, so like I usually say in absolute terms, yeah. But also, my businesses are doing rather well, so I would assume that as more customers come, or more students come, then I will be talking to more people.

Thank you, Rory!

So dear listener, talking to others. So what synonyms do we have? We talk to other people. We speak to other people.

We have a chat with other people. We make small talk. Have a conversation or hold a conversation. We have a blather in my country.

Oh no, it's very specific to Scott Scotland.

We chew the fat.

No, no, no. Slang. Yeah, dear listener, you just stick to neutral words. Yeah, chit-chat.

Where is the learning? Oh, there is no such thing as a neutral word. Language is political.

Yeah, but Rory, come on. Blather. What's this word, blather? What was it?

It just means blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Blather?

Yeah.

I've never heard this word to be used anywhere, blather.

Well, just because you haven't heard of something doesn't mean it's not real.

Well, true, true.

Do you have more linguistic imperialism you would like to share with the group?

British English is the only English. Everything else is a mistake.

I mean, I want to say that's not true. But...

So, dear listener, the questions are about talking to others. Others? We mean other people. Here we don't use an article. So you say I prefer talking to others, or I prefer talking to other people, or I enjoy talking to other people. I enjoy talking to people. Okay? So careful about others. Talk to others? Like talking to others? Talk to other people.

Or talk to another person. That's a mistake I hear quite a lot, actually. And really, it's important to practice this. The difference between when to use others and another. It happens all the time, and I totally get why, but that is something that people will notice in an exam, so please be careful with this.

Yeah, we don't say talk to another. You can say talk to another person. But in general, you say talk to people, talk to others. And the questions are quite strange. Like do you like talking to people? You know? No, I hate it. I never talk to anybody. And then you look at the examiner like I'm talking to you, but I hate it. It's very strange. Well, what do we say? Yes, I like talking to others.

I love a good natter.

No, what's natter? I love a good chat. Or you can say, I don't like talking to others, but I have to do it. Or I don't chat to other people much. Not every day. Natter, for example, is UK, it's British English, informal.

It's the best English.

To talk continuously for a long time. Like this. Like you are nattering away. You are chatting away. You can say that sometimes I talk a lot with others, or I don't talk much with other people, or I have to talk to people because of my job. Make small talk. Make small talk means when you meet a person, for example, in a lift, at work, during a coffee break, and then you kind of discuss the weather. Like, oh, like, do you like the weather? Like, how are you? Just like make small talk.

Do you like the weather? No, I hate the weather. I wish there was no weather ever.

Yeah. And I hate talking to people too. Don't talk to me.

Don't talk... That's why I'm taking a language exam, because I just hate talking to people so much.

When I was a child, I used to talk to everybody, but not now, for example. Or when I was a child, I was a chatterbox. A chatterbox...

Am I allowed to use that.

Chatterbox? Yeah. Chatterbox is okay.

Maria, a lady of all English. The Empress of English has decreed that chatterbox is acceptable

Exactly. Because it's American English. It's British English. So everyone uses a chatterbox. So a person, especially a child who talks a lot. So you can say, I used to be a chatterbox at school, but now I'm not at school, and now I'm not a chatterbox. Even if you were not a chatterbox at school, just use this sentence, dear listener. I used to be such a chatterbox at school. And Rory, we don't understand what your teacher told you. What's this like talk, talk, talk, wouldn't take a telling. What is take a telling?

Take a telling just means wouldn't listen to what they are told.

Still we don't understand this.

Like, if you, if you, well, if you take a telling, then that means that you do what you are told to do, but if you don't take a telling, then you do not do what you are told to do, like if the teacher in your primary one class tells you to shut up, even though you are hyper-social at this age. Ah, Mrs. Chalmers...

Is it the same as take a telling-off?

It could be, actually, I suppose, because if you're, if you're being given a telling then it just means that you're being told to do something. And usually that happens when you're doing something you should not be doing.

Because we have a verb, tell off. Tell somebody off. Usually, a parent or a teacher tells you off, like they speak angrily to you, like, oh, why are you late, where have you been, what have you done? You're bad.

Why are you talking in class, even though human beings are social animals.

Yeah. So they tell you off. The topics of your conversations with your friends change over time, right? So, and we say the topics. Like what you discuss, topics of your conversations. They have changed, or they haven't changed. Or usually they change as you are getting older.

Well, you hope so. If you're still talking about the same things that you talked about in primary school, then something has gone wrong.

Yeah.

Or you have just preserved the child within you.

You kind of saved your inner child. And you can say that sometimes we discuss childish topics. Unicorns, soldiers, lego. Yeah. And sometimes I feel a bit immature with my friends. Immature? Like not an adult.

With my friends, in my workplace.

Everywhere. Yeah. So we have mature, when you feel like an adult. Mature, behaving in a calm, wise, adult way. Actually, immature is C-2 level.

Seriously?

Yeah.

My word... Look at me. I'm just coming out with all of this stuff.

For example, like she is 40 years old, and you can say she is rather immature for her age. So she acts like a child.

Thank heavens no one would level that accusation against me, because I am not 40.

I'm super, super mature.

No, no. It's just the age.

And you can say that now my friends and I talk about the future, we discuss more grown-up things like finances, marriage, children. So we discuss more grown-up topics, grown-up things. You can say, we chit-chat about more grown-up things, more mature things. And we can also talk about online chatting and face-to-face. So I prefer to talk to people online or face to face.

And we talk about growing up topics, which is to do with being mature. What other grown-up topics can there be? What kinds of English are acceptable to use in a podcast?

Depression.

Oh, my God. Okay, maybe not.

What do you call these pills? Antidepressants. How to not get fat and miserable.

Well, I mean, that's not difficult.

Why... Why do we live our life?

We could talk about elections. When this episode goes out, who will have won the United States election?

Yeah, maybe you discuss politics with your friends.

You can, but we would never do that on this show. Absolutely not.

Thank you very much for listening! And we'll get back to you in our next episode speaking part two!

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