This post contains two conversations: first, conversation between a waiter and guests (or customers) in a restaurant; second, conversation between a crew member at a fast food joint (the person who takes your order) and a guest.

‘How are you’ and its variants such as ‘how are you doing’ (variants too are covered in the post) are so commonplace. You hear them multiple times daily.

How to respond to them?

You would want to make a good impression on your friends when you introduce yourself on the first day in school or college. Wouldn’t you?

In this post, I’ll cover what to include in your introduction, few do’s and don’ts, and two sample introductions in the end.

If you want to jump straight to downloading the conversation topics, you may scroll down to the end of the page. However, I would suggest you still read the first part of the post, which delves into how you can get the most out of your conversation practice.

Here are the best practices:

‘Despite years of trying, I’m not able to speak fluently in English.’

‘I can read and listen almost anything, but I’m average at speaking.’

‘I often get stuck while speaking, because the right words elude me.’

‘I first think in my native language, then translate into English, and then speak.’

‘I hesitate when pronouncing certain words, not sure what others will think of my mispronunciation.’

These, and other, thoughts may have crossed your mind while working on your English speaking skills.

In this post, I’ll cover how you can address these and other challenges that may be coming in your way to become better at spoken English.

I’m convinced about these methods because I’ve seen them work for teens from underprivileged backgrounds who built their spoken English almost from scratch (some of my observations are covered in the post). I’ve also experimented many of the methods on myself to tighten my English language skills (mine is already at a good level, and further progress isn’t easy to pull off).