研究生英语,听说课程 Michael的讲座台词

Can We Make Fiends?Today we‟ll learn how to make a proper introduction. I found that many students know how to speak , many students are very fluent in their English after the conversation starts, but many of them don‟t know how to actually start the conversation. So we‟re g oing to talk about how to give a proper introduction. And there are two kinds of introductions .One is how to introduce two other people to each other and the other is how to introduce yourself to a person. There are actually two ways, the way to introduce yourself. Sometimes it‟s a natural situation. For examples, in a business meeting, a church, a class or even at someone‟s home, it‟s very natural to introduce yourself. But a lot of students especially in China they want to practice English with foreigners. And when they go out, they are not in a natural starting for a conversation and they really want to know if I see a foreigner and I don‟t know that person, how can I introduce myself to that person. So we‟re going to talk about that today. Most importan t thing is it‟s done naturally. You have to learn how to approach somebody and you learn to kown how to begin a conversation without scaring them away. Sometimes that happens. I have a lot of Chinese people come up open to wanna talk to me. And frankly it did scare me away. In some cases and some where we‟re very good, so we‟ll talk about that. Most students, maybe most people in China know how to say hello. In fact, everywhere I go, I hear people say hello, hello, hello. Ifyou have a chance to walk with me on the street of China, you would hear that in the background. People say hello and it‟s very strange. You don‟t start with that. So what we need to know is when should we say hello, and what situations should we say hello and when should we use otherth ings. When you see somebody and you wanna talk to them, don‟t just shout hello. That makes some feel very uncomfortble. Don‟t just walk up to stranger and grab them and say …Can we make friends?‟and that actually happened to me before in China. And it does n‟t make you feel like you wanna make friends. So when you see somebody, you wanna have a conversation with them. One of the first things you need to do is look at them and see if they appear busy, like he‟s walking really fast or something like that. Don‟t make them stop. If you wanna introduce yourself to a complete stranger. It‟s much better there‟s a natural situation or they don‟t have anything else to do. For example, standing a line in Mcdonald‟s, sitting on a subway or on the public bus, they don‟t have anything else to do. And that‟s a really good opportunity to talk to somebody. But against, they look busy, they‟re carrying their briefcase, they‟re in a hurry, they look they‟re late. Don‟t stop them. Don‟t even bother them. Now, one of the things you will encounter in China is some of the foreigners come here have to come to study Chinese. And they prefer talking to you in Chinese. So when you see them, you say …hi‟, they may say“你好”. And they may continue the conversation in Chinese.If that happen s, don‟t bother them with English. Don‟t force them to do that, OK？When you speak to them in Chinese, you‟re helping them, and they will join that, who knows. That could develop into a friendship and later you maybe practice English with them. I acturally had that happened to me when I first came to China and I was working in a small school. I remember many many times, I want to study, I want to read my Chinese textbooks, and in my school, in that school, I was the only foreign teacher, so you can imagine, everybody wanna practice English with me. So the only way that I could practice Chinese was to take my textbook, get on a bus and go into the city, but almost everytime that happened, I would sit on the bus studying my Chinese book and someone would sit besides me and say …Excuse me, can I practice English with you?‟ And it is not a good way to start a friendship. So if they want to practice Chinese with you, you can let them do that, OK? It‟s good to start with a natural reason for the conversation. When y ou speak to someone in Chinese, you don‟t just walk up to every stranger and start talking unless there‟s a good reason. You may scare them away if you just suddenly frown their face. So the best way is to have a reason. If they look like they need help, you see some people, they‟re looking at a map or they‟re looking around, they are looking like they are lost. The really good opportunity to go up and simply say …Is there anything I can help you?‟or‟Can I help you find something?‟ And even more natural sit uation is when you need help. Ifind Chinese people who are not from Beijing or I live now come over to me and ask me …How do you get to the subway station? How do you get to the zoo?‟ sometimes using Chinese, sometimes using English. Maybe you can ask them a question. So that would be OK,too. But just make sure that‟s natural situation that works much better. Don‟t start, and I heard Chinese people do this, it‟s really not good to start we simply say …May I have your name?‟ That would scare them away. They would probably think it‟s none of your business. You can start with this‟ Where are you from?‟ A lot of Chinese students ask me, they say …Michael, when you meet somebody, what you say first besides hello or hi?‟ It‟s best to start with eye contact, look at them and if they don‟t look back, they‟re probably too busy to talk. So begin with eye contact and smile, if they look back at you, they have eye contact with you, I contact and they smile, the door is open and you can continue, if not, don‟t continue. But what the first thing you can ask about , let me start with something I prefer you don‟t start with, that is‟Why did you come to China?‟ I have had complete stranger simply walk up to me and say …Hello!‟ If I say hello back, they would say …Why did you come to China?‟ That makes us feel like we should not be in China. So don‟t start with asking them why living in China. Now when you get to the name part, the best part thing is to give your name first. You can say …Hi, my name is Michael, my name is John, my name is Mary.‟ And then if they offer to give their name back,then something has started, if they don‟t, just drop it. Don‟t try to continue one of them the first questions I ask people, because even though I‟m a foreigner, when I see foreigners in Ch ina, I like to know, you know, where are they from and things like that. So my first question is just simply …Where are you from?‟After of course hello, the smile and the eye contact. But I like to say where are you from. It‟s a natural question, it‟s a normal question , it doesn‟t make them feel uncomfortble and what I like about this question is it can lead into a longer conversation. For example, if I say where are you from and someone says ‟I‟m fiom Germany.‟ I can say …Oh, I heard that‟s a beatiful cou ntry. Can you tell me about Germany?‟ or someone says …I‟m from Chicago.‟ You can say …Oh, are you a fan of Chicago Bulls?‟or …The Chicago Bull is doing well this season.‟ a lot of things like that. So if you plan to meet people from other countries, it would really be good for you to study a little bit geography or something or you have something in common. I find that I can start conversations very easily with people if I can think of something we have in common or something I know about them or their pla ce. So the moment that I say to the Chicago person‟Are you a Chicago?‟ ‟Chicago Bulls‟ fan?‟ They are open for a conversatin, they can‟t wait to tell me about Chicago Bulls. So sometimes conversations start with that. I‟ve actually srarted a conversation j ust by seeing something. For example, a T-shirt and has a name of university andmaybe I know someone who attends there or I know a professor there and I can say …Oh, do you know proffessor so and so.‟ Or OK, that university is in a very warm place so you must be very cold for you being here in Beijing or something like that. So look for opportunities and they‟re there right friends of you. After you give your name and the other person give you their name, you can simply say …Nice to meet you.‟ or something like that. Now we‟re going to talk about introducing two people to each other. They don‟t know each other.--…Hello, Michael.‟--…Hi, Bill, this is my friend, Crystal.‟--…Crystal, this is Bill.‟--…Nice to meet you!‟--…Nice to meet you, too!‟So when we introduce two people, there are many different things we can say depending on our relationship to them. For example, you can say …John, this is my friend, Mary.‟‟Mary, this is my coworker, John.‟ If one of the friends is coworker, sometimes you may be intruducing a foreign friend, for example you may say …Hi, Bill, these are my classmates Lily, Susan and Grace. This is my friend from Austrilia, Bill.‟or‟ my Austrilian friend Bill.‟ Whatever you do if you‟re intruducing a foreign friend.Don‟t say this is m y foreign friend. It sounds a little rude in our cultures , better if we just say …He‟s my friend.‟ or …He‟s my friend from Austrilia.‟ or …Where he happens to be?‟ Whenever you make an introduction of yourself or of two other people. The most important thing is just be natural and be yourself. And who knows, after that, a real friendship may develop. In our next lecture we‟ll talk about chatting with friends.。