You see them at parties, at work, they might even be your friends, you recognise them immediately. They’re conversationalists, and you wish you could be one too.

Some people are just born with the “gift of the gab”, they walk into a party and within minutes they’re deep in conversation.

Some lucky ones can even do it in a foreign language.

How do they do it? More importantly, how can you do it?

The art of conversation may seem like an innate ability but it isn’t, it’s just skill, and like any skill it can be learned.

Why are good conversation skills important?

Conversation skills alone won’t get you far, but a lack of them will stop you getting ahead. Qualifications and business acumen are important, but to get noticed you need to communicate. That’s right, also in English when the occasion arises J

So how can you improve your conversation skills?

Shut up (and listen)

One of the most important rules of conversation may seem counterintuitive: shut up and listen. Conversation is a two-way street, it’s not all about you speaking. Being quiet and listening to the other person helps you learn new vocabulary and sentence structure and allows you to ask questions to keep the conversation flowing naturally.

Speak up

Don’t’ go too far being quiet. Communication is a two-way street, we said. Give your opinion and speak up, remember the other person wants to listen to you as well, they don’t mind if your grammar is a mess, and the only way to correct it is to put it into practice.

Be interesting

It may sound obvious but make sure you’ve got something interesting to talk about. Local news, global events, new technologies, keep up to date and keep your conversation varied, you need to have some business and work but also light-hearted material in there as well in order to develop your confidence in different arenas.

Just do it

Just throw yourself in and start talking, studies show that when you start talking early on, you’re more likely to carry on talking throughout the day or event without feeling embarrassed. They also show that people who launch into speaking a foreign language without hesitating improve faster.

Practice

Like any language skill, you can learn conversation as well. There are even professional English conversation courses you can find out there to help you maintain and improve your communication skills.

maka language consulting
www.makaitalia.com