Hello English learners（学习者）. Welcome back（在后） to another lesson here with us at EnglishPod. My name is Marco. And I'm Erica. And today we are going to have a very casual（随便的）, normal（正常的） conversation. That's right.

  We're going to listen in on some small talk（ 谈话） between a taxi driver and the passenger（乘客）. Small talk. So that's basically（基本上） small, short conversations you have with someone that you don't know very well. Okay（好）. So typical（典型的） questions like how old are you, where you're from, etc. That's right.

  And this can be really hard for English learners because they often don't know what the right thing to say（比如说[用于举例]） or the right thing to talk about. So we're going to give you a lot of phrases in this lesson that you can use in small talk. Okay. So we don't have anything to preview（ 预演） today. So let's listen to the dialogue for the first time and then we'll come back. Where to, miss?

  Hi. Crenshaw and Hawthorne at the holiday inn（小旅店） that is on that corner（角）. Sure thing. So where are you flying in from? From China（瓷器）. Really?

  You don't look very Chinese to me if you don't mind（介意） me saying（比如说[用于举例]） so. It's fine. I am actually（实际上） from Mexico. I was in China on a business trip visiting some local companies that manufacture（制造） bathroom products. Wow（哇）. Sounds interesting.

  Excuse（原谅） me if I'm being a bit（一点） nosy, but how old are you? Don't you know it's rude（ 无礼的） to ask the lady（女士） her age? Don't get me wrong. It's just that you seem（ 似乎） so young and already（早已） doing business overseas（海外）. Well, thank you. In that case（情况）, I am 26 years old.

  And what about yourself? I'm 40 years old and was born（承担） and raised（举起） here in the good old U S of a, although（尽管） I have some Colombian heritage（遗产）. Really? That's great. Do you speak Spanish? Uh, yeah, of course.

  All（ 全部） right. So I don't think this guy（家伙） spoke much Spanish. Do you know, even though（ 虽然） he has Colombian heritage（遗产）, I think he doesn't speak much, but maybe he's just a little bit rusty（生锈的）. Maybe. But what he does speak is English. And since（因为） this is English pod, why don't we look at some of the phrases that they used for small talk and fluency（流利） builder（建筑者） fluency（流利） builder（建筑者）.

  All right. So today on fluency builder, we're going to take a look（看） at phrases that both the passenger（乘客） and the taxi driver use to make small talk（ 谈话）. So why don't we start with the first one? All right. So the taxi driver tells the passenger that she doesn't look very Chinese. If you don't mind me saying so.

  Right. So he said, you don't look very Chinese to me. If you don't mind me saying so, if you don't mind me saying so. So what does he mean by this last part of his（他的） sentence? Well, this is a phrase that we use, um, to soften（使温和） a sort（种类） of a statement that might（可以〔用于礼貌地提出建议〕） be a little bit（一点） rude（ 无礼的）. She could be Chinese.

  Yeah. Right. So it may（可能） be a little bit（一点） rude（ 无礼的） to say（比如说[用于举例]） that, but he kind（种类） of apologizes（道歉）. That's right. Right. By saying, if you don't mind me saying so.

  Okay. So for example, I could say, Hey, Marco, you look a little tired today if you don't mind me saying so. Okay. So does it always go at the end? You could use it at the beginning. If you don't mind me saying so, I just don't think this is a good idea.

  Okay. Very good. So you can use this phrase in the beginning or at the end of a sentence. Right. And it makes your statement a little bit less（更少地） rude（ 无礼的）. If you don't mind me saying so.

  Now again, he also apologizes a little bit when he says, excuse me if I am being a bit nosy, but excuse me if I'm being a bit nosy, but excuse me if I'm being a bit nosy, but okay. So let's take a look at this nosy. What's this? Okay. When somebody is nosy, it means they're very curious（好奇的）. They are asking too many questions.

  Yeah. Asking more questions than they should ask. Right. So he apologized and said, well, excuse me if I'm asking too many questions. And then he asks her another question. He asked her how old she is.

  Right. So again, it's a polite（有礼貌的） way of maybe asking a question that might（可以〔用于礼貌地提出建议〕） be a little bit（一点） sensitive. Yeah. Or a little bit impolite（无礼的）. Okay. So of course, asking a woman her age, maybe it's a little bit implied（暗示）, right?

  Yes. Typically women don't like that too much. But our next phrase, we heard the taxi driver say, don't get me wrong. Don't get me wrong.