Four key elements for successful non-business conversations in business

What is small talk in business?

Small talk (socializing language) is an important part of business relations, though its length may vary depending on the business culture or country.

Meetings or negotiations 📈 are direct business language situations.

Small talk is all that light conversation which is not direct business dealings.

Yet, small talk is a part of business communication that needs to be trained just as well.

The professional part, such as business meetings, presentations and other technical communication is usually easier to handle for most people.

However, when we receive a visitor at the company, we don’t usually talk about business all the time.

☕ What do we do before the meetings? Or in the coffee break? Or on the way back from the airport in the taxi, when we can’t be only talking about business?

That is where “small talk” comes into play.

1-Minute Tip ⏳

How good are you at small talking? And how can you become a better small talker?

Here are some main points to be trained for small talk:

✔️ Small Talker’s mindset

✔️ Topics to talk about

✔️ Functional expressions

✔️ Skills development

The mindset is about understanding the importance and role of small talk with business contacts.

In general we prefer light conversational topics for small talk as opposed to controversial ones.

The most common obstacle students identify is the lack of expressions in their active vocabulary that they could readily use in small talk.

While this is one of the main ingredients, the point is not memorising a list of expressions and hope they’ll work like magic, but rather learning how to apply those expressions and bring them up to a level of a skilled user.

Each part is important and needs to be developed at a skill-level so we can socialize in English in a more comfortable and engaging way.


👋 Hi, I’m Gábor.

I have helped professionals in the past 20 years learn English in dozens of companies across a range of sectors.

  • Are you an experienced Spanish speaking small business owner?
  • Do you need confident English fluency for your international business deals?
  • Do you have limited time to achieve that?
  • Are you not sure if you need mentoring or you should study on your own?

💬 If you are this person, send mea message and let’s have a chat. I’ll be happy to listen and give you my best advice on a practical roadmap that can help you advance your English for your specific business.

I don’t use AI to think or write for me. The content I share with you is based on my 20+ years of teaching experience.

Talk to you next time. 🙂

Gábor 🙂

Connect | Gábor Légrádi | MA, RSA/CTEFLA

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