025. Making Friends

When making new friends, there are usually three parts to your conversation with your new friend. The first is the greeting. In this part, you and your new friend will greet and tell each other your names.

The second part is the conversation. Sometimes the conversation is small talk and sometimes the conversation is about important matters, such as business.

“Small talk” is an American slang term. It means that the conversation is about matters that are not very important. When conversing with your new friend, it is customary to give information about your family, and your work, or you will talk about any matter that is important to you and your new friend.

The third part of the conversation is the leave-taking. In this part, you tell your new friend that you are happy to meet him and that you must end the conversation.

Observe the structure of the conversation below: 

I. Using phrases “Allow me to introduce myself.” and “Pleased to meet you.”
A: Hello. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Thinh.
B: Thinh, pleased to meet you. My name is Jim.
A: Good morning. Allow me to introduce myself. I’m Jim Peters.
B: Good to meet you, Jim. My name is Thinh.

II. Using the phrase “I’ve lived …”
A: Have you lived here long?
B: Oh, I’ve lived here about 3 years now.
A: How long have you lived here?
B: I’ve lived here for about a month.

III. Using the phrase “Where/What …”
A: Where do you work?
B: I teach mathematics at the community college.
A: What do you do?
B: I’m a nurse’s assistant at Whitfield Hospital.

IV. Saying “Good-bye”
A: Well, I’ve got to get going. It was good to meet you.
B: It was good to meet you, too.
A: Bye!
B: Good-bye, Jim!
A: It was good to meet you, Jim.
B: It was good to meet you, too, Lan.
A: See you later!
B: Bye, Lan!

‘¹Credit: Eslfast