From Practised Sentences to Real Conversations

You have prepared everything.

You know how to say hello, introduce yourself and ask for information. You have practised your sentence aloud, and this time even your pronunciation sounds good.

You approach someone, ask your question and wait.

The person answers.

Their answer is friendly and probably useful, but completely different from the one you expected.

You smile.

Your English, however, takes a short break without asking your permission.

Why can we prepare a sentence, but sometimes find it difficult to keep a conversation going?

With this fourth article, we finish our October series about speaking. We started with our first words, learnt to use them and faced the fear of making mistakes.

Now we take another step: from the words we prepare to the words we find when we meet other people.

The other person has not read our script

When we study, we often meet neat little dialogues:

“Hello! How are you?”

“I’m fine, thank you. And you?”

Everything works. Nobody changes the subject, speaks too quickly or answers:

“A bit tired, actually. I missed my train.”

Now what?

We can continue with our “I’m fine, thank you”, but it will sound as if we are having two different conversations.

In real life, the other person does not know the answer we have studied.

They may add a detail, ask a question or tell us something unexpected.

This does not make textbook dialogues useless. It simply reminds us that they are a starting point.

Prepared sentences help us begin. To continue, we need to make room for the answer.

The second question matters too

Imagine this conversation:

“Where are you from?”

“I’m from Italy.”

“Ah, OK.”

Then comes the silence.

The question was correct. So was the answer. But the conversation has stopped.

Let’s add something:

“I’m from Italy, from Bari. Have you ever been there?”

Or, if we are the person listening:

“Which part of Italy?”

We do not need to find an amazing subject immediately. Often, we can simply notice a detail and ask about it.

A city can lead to a journey. A job can lead to a story about someone’s day. A dish can lead to a memory.

The conversation grows from what people say, one answer at a time.

Answer without closing the door

Sometimes our answers are so short that the other person does not know how to continue.

“Do you like cooking?”

“Yes.”

The answer is correct, but it gives the other person very little to work with.

We can add a detail:

“Yes, I like making pizza.”

Then ask:

“What about you?”

To practise, we can try this simple sequence:

Answer, detail, question.

For example:

“Yes, I like cooking. I often make pizza at the weekend. What do you like cooking?”

We do not need to do this every time. A conversation full of automatic questions can feel like an interview.

It is simply a way to practise giving a little more than “yes” or “no”.

Asking someone to repeat is part of speaking

Many students think a successful conversation is one in which they understand everything immediately.

So, when they miss a sentence, they nod.

Then they nod again.

In the end, they discover that they have accepted an invitation for Saturday when they thought they were asking where the toilet was.

Asking for an explanation can prevent some unexpected adventures.

We can say:

“Sorry, could you say that again?”

Or:

“Could you speak a little more slowly?”

If we understood almost everything, we can ask a more specific question:

“Did you say fifteen or fifty?”

We are still taking part in the conversation. We are helping it work.

A clear question can help more than “I don’t understand”

Sometimes we need to say “I don’t understand”. But when possible, we can explain which part we missed.

Imagine someone is telling us how to get to the station.

We understand that we need to turn left, but we do not know where.

We can ask:

“Left at the traffic lights?”

Or:

“Before or after the bridge?”

We do not need the whole explanation again if we are only missing one part.

Even a few words can help us check some information and continue.

Build the sentence together

A conversation does not always contain complete sentences spoken without a pause.

Sometimes it sounds like this:

“I went to the… how do you say… the place where you borrow books.”

“The library?”

“Yes, the library!”

The word arrived because two people worked together.

Of course, the other person does not have to become our teacher. But we can accept a suggestion, ask for a word or try describing something.

We do not need to build everything alone and only share perfect sentences.

We can also find a way to understand each other together.

You do not need to put everything into one sentence

In our own language, we can tell a story with details, jokes and explanations.

When we speak a language we know less well, we may try to say all of this at once.

The result is a very long sentence that starts well and then gets lost between a verb and three more ideas.

Let’s divide it.

Instead of trying to say:

“Yesterday, while I was going to work, I met a friend I hadn’t seen for years, and we decided to have a coffee together.”

We can start with:

“Yesterday I was going to work. I met an old friend. We had a coffee together.”

Three simple sentences. One clear message.

If the other person wants to know more, they can ask. And we will have time to add more details.

Simple language can give us space to continue.

What if there is a pause?

Not every silence is a problem we need to solve.

We may need time to think, find a word or understand whether the other person has finished.

A short pause does not mean we have lost the ability to speak.

We can give ourselves a moment with a sentence:

“Let me think…”

Or:

“How can I explain it?”

We do not need to fill every second with a sound. We can breathe, choose a few words and start again.

The aim is to share something, not to win a race.

A different kind of practice: prepare for different answers

Preparing for a conversation can help. But let’s try learning more than one fixed dialogue.

If we need information at an airport, we can prepare for different answers.

We might ask:

“Where is gate twelve?”

The person might give us directions, ask which flight we are taking or tell us to check the information board.

We can prepare a few useful sentences:

“This is my flight.”

“Do I need to go upstairs?”

“Could you show me?”

We do not know the whole conversation in advance. But we have some tools to help us take part.

The Cassano Academy challenge

This week, try a conversation with at least four turns: four times speaking, taking turns with another person.

It can be very simple:

“What do you like doing at the weekend?”

“I like walking.”

“Where do you usually go?”

“To the park near my house.”

Then, if the conversation continues, add something about yourself.

During the activity, try to:

• ask a question about a detail in the other person’s answer;

• add some personal information;

• ask for an explanation if you need one.

Afterwards, ask yourself:

Did I follow the person, or only the sentences I had prepared?

This is where our September and October journeys meet.

We have learnt to pay attention to other people’s words. Now we can use what we hear to choose our own.

A real conversation grows like this: someone says something, someone else listens and responds, and the conversation moves in a direction neither person had completely planned.

 

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