Conversation Basics
Practice introductions, small talk, and short workplace conversations.
Quick answer
Conversation Basics is a free B1 business English course for software teams and IT professionals. It uses 6 practical lessons to help learners introduce yourself and your role.
Why this course matters
Conversation Basics is built for the moments where a tech professional needs precise English under real workplace pressure: standups, product reviews, async updates, interviews, demos, customer calls, internal debates, and executive summaries.
Every lesson connects language to a concrete work situation. You will see how a short Slack message differs from a formal email and how technical vocabulary needs different levels of detail for each audience.
How to use the lessons
Start with the first lesson if the topic is new, or choose the work situation you need this week. Read the examples aloud, rewrite them for your role, then bring the phrase into Alex for practice.
Use the course as a reference before a meeting, pitch, sprint review, or interview. Open the matching lesson and select three phrases for the live situation.
What you should be able to say
By the end of the course, you should be able to explain the topic with the verbs, concepts, and amount of detail your colleague needs to act.
The practical test is simple: can you describe a problem, ask for help, propose a next step, and confirm ownership without making the listener guess? If the answer is yes, the English is doing its job. If not, use the lesson examples to tighten the subject, verb, object, deadline, and audience.
What you will learn
- Introduce yourself and your role
- Make small talk at work
- Handle simple phone and video calls
Small Talk for Introverts
10 min
The "Elevator Pitch" for Your Role
10 min
Handling Video Call Glitches
10 min
Active Listening: Verbal Cues
10 min
Interrupting Politely in Meetings
10 min
Closing a Conversation Naturally
10 min
Practice plan for this course
1. Notice the register
Identify whether the example sounds casual, professional, executive, or technical. Then ask what changed: verb choice, sentence length, directness, or level of detail.
2. Rewrite for your context
Replace the sample company, project, and audience with your own. This turns generic business English into phrases you can use at work.
3. Rehearse with Alex
Bring your rewritten version to the AI coach and ask for corrections, register options, and a sharper version for your audience.
Workplace practice prompts
Use the first prompt before a live work moment: write a three-sentence update about something you are building, fixing, learning, or deciding. Sentence one gives context, sentence two names the current blocker or decision, and sentence three asks for the next action.
Use the second prompt after a lesson: take one vocabulary term from the course and use it in three registers. Write a casual teammate version, a professional stakeholder version, and an executive summary version.
Use the third prompt with Alex: paste a message you might send and ask for a clearer version. Then ask Alex to explain each change.
A useful weekly rhythm is one lesson, one rewritten work message, and one spoken rehearsal. Measure progress by whether another person can understand and act on your next update, request, or explanation.
If you are learning with a team, rewrite the same update for engineering, sales, customer success, leadership, or investors. Compare the versions and identify the wording each audience needs.
Course questions
Conversation Basics FAQ
What will I learn in the Conversation Basics course?
You will introduce yourself and your role, make small talk at work, handle simple phone and video calls. The examples are built around real technology and international-work situations.
Is the Conversation Basics course free?
Yes. All 6 lessons in this B1 course are publicly available for self-paced study and practice.
Who is this Conversation Basics course for?
It is designed for software teams, IT professionals, remote professionals who need clearer English for international technology work.
How should I practice conversation basics?
Complete one lesson, rewrite its examples for a current work situation, say the result aloud, and rehearse it in the voice practice lab or with the AI coach.
Continue your business English practice
- AI business English coach
Type for a written rewrite, or press the mic to speak with Alex. Speech gets a spoken reply.
- Voice and pronunciation practice
Listen and repeat workplace phrases for meetings, calls, feedback, and job interviews.
- Tech Vocabulary Foundations course
Learn the nouns and verbs software teams use in sprints, tickets, code reviews, and releases.
- Daily standup English phrases
Practice the three-sentence update: done, next, blocked.
- Founder story case studies
Study how real founders explain decisions, defend trade-offs, and pitch in business English.
Keep the language fresh between practice sessions: join this week's Meeting House agenda, a guided live practice every Thursday in Bogotá.
See this week's Meeting House agendaCourse reviews
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