SLOW ENGLISH PODCAST. YOUR ENGLISH TOOLBOX

https://yourenglishtoolbox.com/episodes/132-people-like-you-more-than-you-think/

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Julia came home from a barbecue certain that all thirty guests disliked her. Martin has a different theory, and the research is on his side: after almost every conversation, people believe they were liked less than they really were. Psychologists call it the liking gap — and if you speak English as a second language, you probably live inside it every day.

In Part 2 of How to Live a Good Life, Martin and Julia turn that finding into something you can use tomorrow morning. You'll meet Lena, a fictional healthcare assistant from Bratislava who has forty conversations a day in a Dublin hospital and not one person who knows her mother's name. You'll hear what an experiment with Chicago-area commuters discovered when people were asked to talk to a stranger. And you'll watch Julia dismantle Martin's four reasons for never speaking to anyone at a bus stop, until only one is left — and that one gets fixed with three sentences.

What you will learn today:

• Why you are a terrible judge of your own conversations in English — and what the other person actually remembers.
• The difference between alone, isolated and lonely, and why belonging comes from repetition, not talent: the idea of the third place, and how to become a regular.
• Three natural small talk sentences that turn "good, you?" into a real conversation — practised with pauses, including the one that closes the liking gap from both sides.

Vocabulary in context: the liking gap, to underestimate, to come across as, awkward, alone / isolated / lonely, a sense of belonging, small talk, to strike up a conversation, a third place, a regular, to bump into someone, an opener.

Sentence of the day: People like you more than you think. Give them the chance to show it.

Each part in this series stands on its own. Part 1: They Studied Happiness for 80 Years. Part 3: How to Keep the People You Love.

Keywords: small talk in english, how to talk to strangers in english, liking gap, loneliness in a new country, how to make friends in a new country, english for immigrants, english for expats, sense of belonging, third place, slow english podcast, english listening practice, learn english, english podcast for intermediate learners, english conversation practice, english vocabulary in context, personal development podcast, your english toolbox, english transcripts, intermediate english, IELTS speaking practice, Cambridge B2 First, C1 Advanced

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