Conversations in Class A2_book1

Sounding Natural

GOLDEN RULE 2 VARY YOUR QUESTIONS

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In Japanese, English or indeed any language, there are ba sically two types of questions; open questions and closed questions.

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Open questions are questions that have many possible answers.

Common Japanese conversation structure

Sarah was hoping to speak about the topic of part-time jobs, but the short answer she receives makes it difficult for her to continue the conversation. She wanted Ken to tell her a little more about his job. Golden Rule 1 states that you should try to add some extra information to your answers to be a more active communicator. This is what Ken should have done in this case. But this is not easy for students like Ken, who grew up in Japanese culture. One way you can practice giving longer answers is to try and think of implicit questions. These are the other questions that are related to the basic question, but “hidden” inside it. The question "Do you have a part-time job?" contains implicit questions such as:

For example:

Where are you from?

Tokyo Sendai Fukuoka etc.

In English, they are usually asked with a slightly falling intonation.

Where are you from?

If you do have a part-time job (“Yes”): • :hat is it" • How Puch Go you work" • 'o you like it"

Closed questions are questions that have only two pos sible answers, basically "Yes" or "No."

For example:

If you don’t have one (“No”): • :hy not" • :oulG you like to work"

Are you from Kyoto?

Yes

No

A friendly answer would be for example: “Yes, I work in a restaurant twice a week ”, or “No, I don’t have time. I live far from the university ”.

In English, they are usually asked with a rising intonation.

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Are you from Kyoto?

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When having a conversation in English, it is a good idea to vary the style of your questions. That means you should use a mix of open questions and closed questions. If you use too many open questions in a row, it sounds like you are interrogating your conversation partner. But asking all closed questions is also rather strange and annoying. A mix of the types of questions will help your conversation sound much more natural and proficient.

Common English conversation structure

This will make your conversation partner feel comfortable, and help them to find more conversation topics. The conversation will start to flow more smoothly.

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The Golden Rules