Day 2 - How are you?

Introduction: Hello, hello. Hey sweet people. It is Foster from Inglês Nu E Cru and welcome to another day of the “First Impressions Challenge.” 

So today, and for the next few days, we are going to talk about questions. 

Why? Because questions are fundamental to any conversation. Someone asks you a question and you give them a response. That is the way that almost all conversations begin. 

And obviously, there are a lot of different questions that we can ask in English. So today, we are going to focus on a specific type of question: questions that begin with the question word “how.”  So, let’s get started. 

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Foster: ...And as always, I am here with the one, the only Alexia! Alexia, how are you doing? 

Alexia: I am doing great, thank you. 

Foster: Did you see that, Alexia? 

Alexia: What?

Foster: "How" are you doing? 

Alexia: Yes, I did. We are going to use the word “how” a lot today!

Foster: Yes, yes, we will. So, Alexia, do you understand what I mean when I say, “question words?”

Alexia: Yeah, I think so. Question words are the words at the beginning of a question, right? 

Foster: Yeah. Yeah, that’s pretty much right. So naturally, we can ask questions in a lot of different ways, using a lot of different words, but most questions in English begin with, “who, what, when, where, why, and how.” 

Alexia: Ok, that makes sense. 

Foster: Ok, cool. So we have five words that begin with the letter “W,” who, what, when, where, and why. And then we have the word “how.”

Alexia: Yes, the “how” is very lonely with all of the “W” words. 

Foster: I know, poor "how," but that's exactly why I thought that it would be a good idea to give “how” a little bit of extra attention today and start with that word. Does that sound good to you? 

Alexia: Yes. I think it deserves it. So let’s get started. 

Foster: Perfect, let's begin. So just to get started, let’s start with some listening and repeating so that we can be really comfortable. So what I was thinking is, I will say a question that begins with the word how, we will take a short moment of pause, so that our students can repeat, and then you can repeat, ok? 

Alexia: Ok, I think I got it. Let’s do it. 

Foster: Okay. So, let’s get started. I’ll say a question. Wait a few seconds, and then you will repeat, is that cool? 

Alexia: Ok.

Foster: Cool. So first, how are you? 

Alexia: How are you?

Foster: Perfect. So one more time, how are you?

Alexia: How are you?

Foster: How’s it going?

Alexia: How’s it going?

Foster: How are you doing?

Alexia: How are you doing?

Foster: Nice, I like how you're changing up the intonation a little bit, that's really important with questions. How have you been? 

Alexia: How have you been? 

Foster: How have you been? 

Alexia: How have you been? 

Foster: How you been? 

Alexia: How you been? 

Foster: What? How you been? 

Alexia: How you been? 

Foster: Yeah, a lot of times when we ask questions we kind of remove the verb. So instead of "what are you doing?" sometimes in normal conversations we'll say "what you doing?"

Alexia: Just like Joe. "How you doing?"

Foster: Exactly, exactly. How’s everything?

Alexia: How’s everything?

Foster: How are things with you?

Alexia: How are things with you?

Foster: How are things going?

Alexia: How are things going?

Foster: Excellent, excellent. Great job, Alexia! That was pretty easy, right?

Alexia: Yes, I liked that. Super easy, I'm ready for more. 

Foster: Ok, cool. So just a quick note, when people, in English, ask “How are you?” Normally, they are not usually, specifically referring to your emotions and health, and situation. 

Alexia: It's not like a therapy session.

Foster: Exactly. This is simply part of the process, it's part of the introduction and in general, they are looking for something like, “oh, I’m good, pretty good.” Just things like that. Okay?

Alexia: Yeah. It's pretty similar in Portuguese, so it makes sense.

Foster: Cool. Yeah, I think it's more or less the same. It's kind of a shame that we don’t really care too much about how people are doing, but that is a topic for another episode. 

Alexia: Haha yes, things can get really complicated. 

Foster: Yeah. Ok, so we have some really common questions that begin with “how.” So now, let’s think of some good responses to these questions. 

Alexia: Ok, let’s do it. 

Foster: Ok. So, same thing here Alexia, I will say a phrase, let’s just wait a moment so our students can repeat, and then you repeat. Does that sound good? 

Alexia: Sounds good. 

Foster: Cool, so the first response… Pretty good. 

Alexia: Pretty good. 

Foster: Yeah, I say this all of the time. 

Alexia: That's true. 

Foster: "How are you doing?" "Pretty good." "How is it going?" "Pretty good, pretty good."

Alexia: Pretty good.

Foster: I’m doing pretty well. 

Alexia: I’m doing pretty well. 

Foster: Everything is good. 

Alexia: Everything is good. 

Foster: Nice. Not too bad. 

Alexia: Not too bad. 

Foster: Not bad. 

Alexia: Not bad. 

Foster: I can’t complain. 

Alexia: I can’t complain. 

Foster: Can’t complain. 

Alexia: Can’t complain. 

Foster: Nice. That's another thing that we do a lot with questions, sometimes we'll take away the subject so what I'm really saying is "I can't complain, everything is good." But in more conversational English we will simply say "can't complain."

Alexia: Awesome. 

Foster: Cool. So, any questions about those questions? 

Alexia: No, I think everything is ok. 

Foster: Excellent. 

Alexia: I can't complain. 

Foster: Can't complain, no complaints. So, the last thing that I wanted to talk about today Alexia, are some common follow-up questions. Do you know what I'm talking about when I say, “follow-up questions”?

Alexia: I think so. It's like when you are following up… um… you are giving a response to the question? 

Foster: Yeah, yeah, precisely. So just one quick pronunciation note, in the word "response" in American English, the second sound is the /AH/, "response." 

Alexia: "Response."

Foster: Precisely. So you are responding to the question. Obviously, sometimes in English we have "yes or no" questions, where it's a very simple answer, you say "yes" or "no" and that is the end of the story. But most of the time, you want to continue the conversation, you want to keep things going with a follow-up, right? 

Alexia: Yes. That makes sense. It’s just like you are playing tennis, do you know what I mean? Like, you are hitting the ball and then I am hitting the ball and then you're hitting the ball and then I'm hitting the ball and this continues forever.

Foster: Yeah, yeah, that’s a really good analogy. So I am hitting the ball to you, and then you are returning it to me. 

Alexia: Or ping-pong. Yeah.

Foster: Tennis, ping-pong, whatever. That's how conversations work. So, do you want to try a few common follow-up responses? 

Alexia: Yeah. Let’s do it. 

Foster: Ok, here we go. 

Foster: What about you?

Alexia: What about you? What?

Foster: Yeah. It's not a… I'm not criticizing you, I'm just saying "oh, I'm good, what about you?"

Alexia: What about you? 

Foster: Nice. And you?

Alexia: And you?

Foster: How are you?

Alexia: How are you?

Foster: Yeah. So someone says "how are you?" "Oh, I'm good. How are you?" 

Alexia: Yeah. 

Foster: It's always nice to follow it up. What about you?

Alexia: What about you? I use these last two very very much. 

Foster: Yeah, these are both really important and we'll talk a lot more about them, but follow-ups are your friends. That was perfect. Really good job, Alexia! 

Alexia: Thank you very much. Your A+ student. 

Foster: As always. So, I think that is good start for today. Tomorrow, we will start putting this all together and so we can have our first real conversation and we can really start making progress towards making a great first impression. How does that sound, Alexia? 

Alexia: That sounds great. So, I'll see you tomorrow!

Foster: "How does that sound?" "How," "how" question.  

Alexia: Okay, I think everyone noticed. 

Foster: How are people going to deal with me every day making these stupid jokes? 

Alexia: I don't know how, but we will because we love you. 

Foster: Okay, we'll see you guys tomorrow. 

Alexia: Bye.