This is Elliot from E.

T.

J.

English.

How are you all doing today?

It's been a while.

I've been busy teaching a lot of Skype lessons, but anyway, today I wanted to record a quick video for you.

Andi.

I wanted to talk about two different things.

Really.

One of them is to avoid being what we call Blunt Now, First of all, let me talk about this.

What does it mean?

To be blunt is something we might call someone.

We might say that someone is a bit blunt.

If someone is blunt, that's usually when let's say we asked them, How are you?

They might reply and just say fine on.

That's it.

Now we don't really want that.

We don't want somebody to reply to us with one word.

We don't want somebody to seem boring, and this is the problem, because as an English learner, you might be quite afraid to use your English.

But really, what you're doing is causing two problems.

Not only are you know, giving yourself the chance to use your English and to speak mawr, but you're also kind of making the person who's speaking to you feel like you're not approachable.

You're unapproachable.

They might not want to ask you any other questions.

We really hate awkward situations in England.

In Western culture, we really don't like silence quite a lot.

So what we try and do is fill the gaps on if it gets silent and it gets too awkward.

We don't wanna have that conversation with that person anymore.

It's not us being rude.

It's just us feeling awkward.

So what we try and do is avoid being blunt at all times.

So one thing I want to talk to you about is a common question, which I've been asked ever since I did my common English expressions video on this was about the question we get asked when we say hello to people the common greeting in England.

Alright, How do we respond to that?

How do we reply to that question?

Simply you could just simply say all right back to them.

Okay, you can do that.

Or you could say hi.

How you doing?

You know, just respond with another question, or you could say, Yeah, I'm really good.

Thanks.

You all right?

Or you all right?

Or how you doing?

Eso to play with it, Play with the different ways of asking someone how they are.

And don't be afraid to open up.

Don't be scared to use your English Now if you want to.

If you really don't want to seem blunt and someone says, alright, then you could say Yeah, really good, Thanks.

Today I you know, I just got back from the gym and I'm seeing my girlfriend later, so it's a pretty good day today.

So when someone asks you how you are, don't be afraid to talk about your day.

How your day's being on, then respond with What about you?

What about you, or what about you?

Depends whether you want to drop the T or not with your British English, But that's really simple way of just getting a conversation going.

Okay, Don't be afraid to talk about what you've done today.

Think about the things you've done.

Think about what you have planned later on.

Talk about your nude a bit more why you're feeling that way Just like I'm sure you would in your own language.

We don't like silence us, British people.

We get really awkward.

Okay, I just want to talk about some other greetings that we might do in the U.

K.

As well as well as all right.

My other most common one is probably the most common one that I do to most friends or other people.

Even my parents, I might Let's say I knock on the door, they answer the door.

I could say Hi.

How you doing?

Hi.

How you doing?

Hi.

Yeah.

How you doing?

Hi.

How you doing?

That one is really good, Because how you doing?

Notice that we drop the R, It becomes.

How you doing?

How you doing?

The reason we do this is because I've told this before.

Native speakers.

A very lazy we drop a lot of words to make things easier.

And things become more natural when we do this.

So how you doing is just like saying, How is your day being or how are you feeling?

You know, it's just a bit more of a, I think, a less blunt way of asking someone how they are on.

I think it's really, really common in the UK, so it's worth doing.

How you doing?

You could say higher.

You can say hi.

You could say, Hey, hey, hi, Higher all these different ways of saying hello.

So listen to how other people do it.

Listen to how you do it.

See how you can improve.

Change it.

This is a really basic lesson, but I think it's something that everyone needs to know.

I get a lot of Skype students who are very advanced with their English, but they can't get in the brains off British people.

They can't understand what we're trying to say or what we're feeling or what we're thinking about them, because we tend to be quite polite, maybe too polite sometimes.

But really, what we're trying to do is really we want to find out more about you.

We wanna know how you've been, how your day's been.

How's your day been?

How's your week being Those air common questions also which you can ask to.

We're all about building relationships in England.

Sometimes it could be quite awkward in the beginning, but as long as you're not blunt and the other person isn't blunt on, you just have a friendly conversation.

Everything should be fine, Okay, so, like I said a very basic lesson today, but you needed to know this.

If you'd like to put a Skype lesson with me, become my student, learn with me on Skype, 1 to 1.

Private lessons just go in the description below and click on the link, which says Book a Skype lesson with me.

Thank you very much for watching guys.

It's been a pleasure, as always.

Cheers.

I'll see you all in the next video bite.