(Informal, but nice) Great job! You are already having a conversation! Making Small Talk After you have exchanged names and greeted each other, you may go on to make some “small talk.”, especially in the United States, Canada and England. It is considered polite to add small talk to the beginning of the conversation before talking about the subject of the conversation, whether it is personal or professional. The most widespread (common) question is “How are you?” In fact, it is so common, that it becomes automatic for people to say, even when they hardly know the person!
“How are you” is often even considered part of the greeting (i.e. “Hi, how are you?”). That is how necessary it has become! There are several ways to ask someone how they are doing: • How are you? / How are you doing? (Neutral) • How’s it going? (More informal) • How are things?
(Informal) • What’s up? (Very informal).