Words, talk, conversation

When it comes to speaking, or talking, or having a conversation or a chat, or just saying something to someone, in English we have a lot of different ways of doing it.

We can talk to someone, or we can talk with someone.

To talk to someone = you are speaking and they are listening

To talk with someone = a conversation, you are both taking turns speaking and listening

We can make small talk and have deep conversations.

Small talk is the words that people say when they don't really know each other and they are being polite.

For example, in Western countries people might talk about the weather or ask about someone's job. In Myanmar, you might ask if someone has finished lunch, and what they ate.

Making small talk is a skill. Some people are very good at it, while others, like myself, don't like it and feel uncomfortable doing it.

Typically introverts find making small talk difficult and can even have difficulty understanding why people do it.

Deep conversations on the other hand, are not small talk. Deep conversation (sometimes called 'deep and meaningful conversation) is conversation about topics that are important to the people involved. Deep conversations give information about who a person is, what they believe, and the things that are important to them.

Usually, introverts prefer deep conversations to small talk.

Finally, we have a saying 'talk is cheap'. This means that it often easy to talk about doing something but much more difficult to DO it.

For example, if your friend, who is very lazy, says 'I'm going to go to the gym and do exercise every Friday', you could say to her 'talk is cheap', which means you are saying to her -''It is easy for you to say that but you need to be motivated to actually go to the gym every Friday''.

If you want to do a quick vocabulary test about words we use for speaking / talking / saying / chatting / having a conversation, then CLICK HERE or on the button and answer the 10 questions