Spoken English

1

Greeting - Basic

There are many ways to greet someone. We'll learn about the most common way to greet someone in this lesson. I'll give a variety of example sentences.

Greeting someone you never met:
"Hi, my name is Steve. It's nice to meet you."
You can respond to this by saying,
"It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Jack."

Another common question to ask is

"What do you do for a living?"

You can respond to this by saying,

"I work at a restaurant."
"I work at a bank."
"I work in a software company."
"I'm a dentist."

Usually, you will not need to ask for a name. It is implied that each person should say their name. But in case they don't, you can ask,

"What is your name?"

Many times, I don't hear the name. If you would like for them to repeat their name, you can say,

"What was that again?"
"Excuse me?
"Pardon me?"


2
Greeting - Interactive Practice

1 | Person A | Person B
A: "Hi, how are you doing?"
B: "I'm doing great. How about you?
A: "Not too bad."
B: "Do you come to this restaurant often?"
A: "I've been here a couple of times, but I don't come on a regular basis. What have you been up to?"
B: "I'm pretty busy at work these days, but otherwise, everything is great."
A: "Well, have a good evening."
B: "You too."

2 | Person A | Person B
A: "It's nice to meet you. My name is Jack."
B: "I'm Steve. It's a pleasure to meet you."
A: "What was your name again?"
B: "Steve."
A: "So Steve, What do you do for a living?"
B: "I work at the public library. How about you?
A: "I'm a University student."
B: "That's great. It was nice meeting you."
A: "Yeah. It was a pleasure meeting you."


3 Listen All | Person A | Person B
A: "Hey Jack, it's good to see you."
B: "Wow. How long has it been? It seems like more than a year. I'm doing pretty well. How about you?
A: "Not too bad."
B: "What movie did you come to see?"
A: "I came here to see Matrix Revolution. How about you?
B: "I'm going to watch Finding Nemo.


3
Bored - General Phrases

Being bored means having nothing to do. When someone is bored, they often call people and try to entertain themselves or try to find something to do with a friend. So being bored is a good starting point for conversational English.

There are a couple of situations you can express to someone that you are bored. Most commonly, you will call a friend and tell them that you are bored or ask them to do something together. The other time is when someone asks you how you are doing. We will cover both situations in this session.

General Phrases

"I'm dying from boredom."
"I hate being bored."
"I don't have anything to do."
"My life is so boring."
"Life is so boring."
"I'm just watching TV until I find something to do."
"I was bored all weekend."
"I am so bored today."

"I get bored very easily."
"I get bored all the time."

A common place to get bored is when you have to visit family members.

"It's always boring whenever we go to our relatives."
"It's nice to visit my grandmother, but it gets boring after a couple of hours."
"My cousins are so boring. All they do is watch tv.

"There's nothing to do in the country side. I'm always bored there."

If you think you are a boring person, here is a way to say that you are boring.

4

"I think I'm a little boring."
"I'm a boring person."

Boring can be used to describe someone.

"He is a boring person."
"His personality is very boring."
"It's boring whenever she's around."

Using bored to answer a question is very common. Here are some general questions that someone might ask.

"How was your trip?"
"How was your vacation?"
"How was your weekend?"
"How was the lecture?"
"How was the class?"
"How was the game?"

Any of these types of questions can be answered with a simple answer.

"It was pretty boring."
"It was boring. I didn't do much."
"It wasn't as fun as I thought. It was a little boring."
"I was bored most of the time."
"Because it was disorganized, we had too much extra time. I was bored during our free time."



5

Bored - Calling Someone

The conversation when you call someone might sound something like this.

"Hello"
"Hi Jane, this is Jill. Do you have time to talk?"
"Hi Jill, sure, I was just watching TV."
"What are you watching?"
"I was just watching a re-run of friends. How about you? What are you doing?"
"Nothing much. I really wanted to start studying for the Psychology test coming up, but I can't seem to motivate myself."

As you can see, Even though Jill is very bored, she didn't say that she was bored. To sensitive people, they can misinterpret the situation. If I am bored and I call you, then that could mean that I am only calling you because I have nothing better to do. So if you are not very close friends, it is better to say something like, 'nothing much' instead of 'I am bored.'

If you are very close friends with someone, then the conversation can be more direct and honest.

"What are you doing?"
"I'm doing the laundry."
"I'm so bored. I have nothing to do."
"Why don't you come over and help me with the laundry?"
"I'd rather do my own house chores. Hey, you wanna take a break from your house work and have coffee at Starbucks with me?"
"Sure, that sounds great. I'll meet you there in thirty minutes."







6
Bored - Boring Work

A different situation you can tell someone you are bored is when you are simply talking with a friend concerning a part of your life that is boring. For example, if you have a boring job, you can explain to your friend how boring it is.

"How is your work these days?"
"Work is so boring that I'm going crazy."
"I ran out of things to do and management is too busy to give me more work. I tried to find things to do with no luck. I'm basically sitting in my chair pretending to work."
"That sounds so boring."
"Tell me about it. Time goes so slow when you're bored. I'd rather be busy. Then at least the day would go by faster."

Similar type of boring work is when doing something that is routine. Some sentences expressing boring work are:

"I'm doing the same thing over and over again."
"My work is so repetitious that I am getting bored of it."
"My work does not interest me."
"I'm only working to pay the bills."
"I wish I had your job."

Because some people are so busy, they envy people who have nothing to do at work.

"I'm so bored. I have nothing to do at work. I just surf the Internet all day long."
"Dang! I'm so busy at work, it's driving me crazy. I really wish I had your job."



7
Bored - Interactive Practice

Click on Listen All and follow along. After becoming comfortable with the entire conversation, become Person A by clicking on the Person A button. You will hear only Person B through the audio file. There will be a silence for you to repeat the sentences of Person A. Do the same for Person B. The speed of the conversation is native speed. Use the pause button if the pause between each sentence is too fast for you. After practicing several times, you will be able to speak as fast as a native.

1
Listen All | Person A | Person B
A: "Hey there. What have you been up to?"
B: "Nothing really."
A: "How about your work?"
B: "It's so boring there. I really wish I had a different job."
A: "Is it really that bad?"
B: "Yeah. Most of the time, I have nothing to do. But whenever I have something to do, it's boring work because it is the same old thing."
A: "Why don't you find a different job then?"
B: "Maybe I should."

2
Listen All | Person A | Person B
A: "Hi Steve, what's your plan for tonight?"
B: "I don't have any plans. Are you doing anything special?"
A: "Well, if you're bored, let's plan on meeting up tonight."
B: "That sounds like a good idea. Should we invite Bob?"
A: "He's a little boring."
B: "What do you mean?"
A: "Well, he doesn't drink, play video games, pool, or really anything. The only thing he talks about is history."
B: "You do have a point. We'll leave him out tonight."
A: "Aright. Let's meet at 8:30 in front of the university bookstore."
B: "Perfect. I'll see you later tonight."




8
3
Listen All | Person A | Person B
A: "Hello"
B: "Hi Jane"
A: "Oh, hi Jill."
B: "What are you doing?"
A: "I'm doing the laundry."
B: "I'm so bored. I have nothing to do."
A: "Why don't you come over and help me with the laundry?"
B: "I'd rather do my own house chores. Hey, you wanna take a break from your house work and have coffee at Starbucks with me?"
A: "Sure, that sounds great. I'll meet you there in thirty minutes."