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Break the Ice

Break the Ice English, baby! Video Lesson

Date: Feb 16 2010

Themes: Friend, How To, Sports

Grammar: Modal Verbs

Intro

1. Learn Vocabulary - Learn some new vocabulary before you start the lesson.

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2. Read and Prepare - Read the introduction and prepare to hear the audio.

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Close friendships make life more interesting, exciting and enjoyable. But making new friends isn’t always easy.

When you first meet someone new, there is usually a barrier that you have to get through before you can really know and be close to that person. Think of that barrier as a wall of ice. If you want to become friends with someone, you first have to break the ice.

There are a lot of different ways to break the ice. You can tell a joke, or ask basic questions, or try to find out what you have in common with the other person. Find out if Jason is able to break the ice and make some new friends at the Winter Olympics.

3. Watch - Watch the video without reading the dialog.

Dialog

1. Listen and Read - Listen to the audio and read the dialog at the same time.

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2. Study - Read the dialog again to see how the vocab words are used.

Jason

Jason

Black_jacket_guy

Black_jacket_guy

Baseball_hat_guy

Baseball_hat_guy

German_girl

German_girl

Beer_guy

Beer_guy

Beer-Guy

Pretzel_girl

Pretzel_girl

Hockey_fan

Hockey_fan

Hockey_fan_2

Hockey_fan_2

Jason:  Here we are at German Fan Fest. Ah, it looks like I’m gonna have to make some new friends here. But I’m probably going to have to break the ice. Let’s go inside and meet some people. So, what’s your deepest, most personal, religious belief?

Black_jacket_guy:  Well, you gotta break the ice, buddy.

Jason:  So, when was the first time you fell in love?

Baseball_hat_guy:  Why don’t you break the ice?

Jason:  What are your deepest religious beliefs?

German_girl:  Dude, you need to break the ice first.

Jason:  Oh. Could you explain, for everyone who doesn’t know, what does it mean to break the ice? What’s that concept?

Beer_guy:  Just getting to know someone.

Jason:  OK.

Beer-Guy:  Breaking down those barriers and being friends with them.

Jason:  When you break the ice, you find a comfortable, not awkward way to introduce yourself to a stranger and start a conversation. What’s a good way to break the ice?

German_girl:  At the beginning you should say, “How are you?”

Jason:  How do you break the ice?

Beer_guy:  I’d start with, “What’s your name?” That would be a good start.

Jason:  Have you made any new friends here tonight?

Pretzel_girl:  I have, actually.

Jason:  How did you break the ice when you met those new friends?

Pretzel_girl:  We were actually in the lineup to buy some pretzels.

Jason:  OK.

Pretzel_girl:  And we were comparing pretzel thoughts, and that’s just…You know, that’s the way it is here.

Jason:  Alright. We learned a little bit about breaking the ice just now. You can detect if you have a common interest with someone, and make a comment about that thing. Let’s try it. Hey, do you guys like hockey?

Hockey_fan:  Yeah! I love hockey!

Jason:  No way!

Hockey_fan_2:  I love it!

Jason:  I just succeeded in breaking the ice! It wasn’t awkward at all! English, baby! Yeah!

New friends: English, baby!

 

Grammar Point

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Quizzes

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Lesson MP3

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Discussion

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Jason is excited to meet new people at the Winter Olympics. He should have no trouble making lots of international friends, since so many people have come from around the world to see the games.

But Jason does not know how to break the ice. He tries to talk to people about deep, personal subjects before he has even asked them for their names!

A few different people give Jason advice about how to break the ice. He can ask them basic questions like “how are you?” Or he might try to find something that he has in common with them, and then talk about that. After he’s had a couple lessons on breaking the ice, Jason gives it a try. This time, he succeeds and makes new friends.

Do you like making new friends? What do you do to break the ice with strangers?

 

Comments

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friendly7

Oman

HI…
I want to learnning english
If any one wanna to healp me this my e-mail :

11:32 PM Mar 10 2010 |

usama Nasr

Egypt

it's very useful lesson . breaking th ice is to start saying hello! how do you do? what's your name? and etc… thanks

 

09:19 PM Mar 08 2010 |

klaudita1203

Poland

at the beginning it's hard to breaking the ice,it seems to be awkward, so I think is good to meet someone interesting, it's a great experience

09:58 PM Mar 06 2010 |

timatimka

timatimka

Russian Federation

Breaking the ice is't awkward and difficult, but find real closer friends is't easy. We are saying that don't have one hundred rubles (money), bat have one hundred friends.

01:41 PM Mar 06 2010 |

rosendo

rosendo

Mexico

i dont know but people from continents like europe , asia are shy , i dont know why , but they have to break the ice , here in latin-america the people are more cool , PEOPLE FROM THERE PLS , BREAK THE ICE.

saludos.

09:55 PM Mar 03 2010 |

SolutioN_Of_ProbleM

United Arab Emirates

It is true that the uphill battle that you recognize the friends are good, but good luck I am to get to know new friends but I hope I got all accept as Friend

06:05 AM Mar 03 2010 |

chus conde

chus conde

Spain

I think the best way to break the ice is introducing yourself, saying your name, where are you from, etc.

04:45 PM Mar 02 2010 |

kpl

kpl

Taiwan

OMG,my ice is melting in the super hot weather, can you somebody who helps me break it before getting a pice of water !!

03:47 PM Feb 28 2010 |

gitzuL

gitzuL

Indonesia

breaking the ice is not a piece of cake if the person we have deal with is a gloomy anti-smile one.the first convesation could be begun by smiling right?

 bbbrrrr….what's up with smiling anyway??its not hard to move ur muscle to make a big smile????

imagining world without a smile,,would be so horrible.. 

02:56 AM Feb 28 2010 |

dhshore

Palestinian Territory, Occupied

hi all 

i think at the first you should be ask afriend about him self as how are you? 

09:44 AM Feb 27 2010 |

Jogral

Jogral

Brazil

In Brazil, my country, people don´t have great dificulties to break the ice. Perhaps, here is a hot, tropical place, people feel more confident to begin a conversation. It hapensin buses, trains, waiting rooms, lifts, and so on. I use to talk to many people I meet in anywhere. I´m 60, so, i have a lot of subjects to maintain a conversation. With men, the soccer is a good point to satrt. In Brazil, almost all men is adicted to a team, many times different of mine. With women, the weather is a point to be discussed. And, after you begin, the stopping is difficult!

That´s Brazil and Brazilians, specially the Cariocas (those from Rio de Janeiro) as me.

09:24 PM Feb 23 2010 |

Jogral

Jogral

Brazil

I live very much to make friends. I get friends in internet, through talking by skype. Every day I can do new relationshipsand it´s very good. I know people from several countries as Cazakistan, India, Canada, USA, Rumania, Taiwan, China, Libia, Iran, Iraq, etc. It´s basic, to break the ice, is ask them about their name, country, age, family, city, sports and the conversations itself find new ways to continue the talking.

If anyone wants  to talk to me by skype, i´d love it. My skype name is jorge.gracas and I´m from Brazil. see the time, please.

09:03 PM Feb 23 2010 |

luckyvito

Peru

There are many ways to break the ice .I think is different in each country . In my country is easy to make friends I invite you to visit it.

08:35 PM Feb 23 2010 |

Alex (Fr)

Alex (Fr)

France

^^

08:26 PM Feb 23 2010 |

sima z

sima z

Egypt

i can't break the ice usually,when i talk to strange someone  i don't know what i say so when i was in the school i used to wait for others to start talking to me ,i cant contact with people physically despite i like making friends that's all because Kissi'm a shy  girlKiss....i hate that

that's a good lesson,it helped me actually ,,,,thanks Ebaby  Smile 

07:08 PM Feb 23 2010 |

ahmedtaha24

Egypt

Smile

04:13 PM Feb 23 2010 |

ahmedtaha24

Egypt

Smile

04:13 PM Feb 23 2010 |

Dreamer-screamer

Kazakhstan

I like making new friends. It's interesting for me to conversate with international people because they have their own mentality that differ from mine. I think that just one word can break the ice -  "Hi!!!" And you should smile of courseSmile!!! Then in our country people usually ask your name. Be my friends!!!!!!)))))))))

03:56 PM Feb 23 2010 |

~MemoTheHun~

Germany

It is a problem of humanity. We should all break the ice but it doesnt work sometimes.

03:35 PM Feb 23 2010 |

Cameo Chen

Cameo Chen

China

Close friendships make life more interesting, exciting and enjoyable。Hope to make friends with people all over the world.

03:22 PM Feb 23 2010 |

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