Queen of Critique | King of Conversation

Learn to join work conversations confidently by mastering critique and small talk, using strategies to jump in, keep up, and reframe discussions.

Learn to talk about your weekend with American small talk topics like the weather, weekend plans, sports, and hobbies while avoiding sensitive subjects such as religion, politics, and family.

Take a chance by joining conversations, embracing the American Dream of hard work and risk, and learning from immigrants and Steve Jobs to start small.

Develop a plan for small talk mishaps by choosing friendly partners, reframing misunderstandings, and staying honest with light humor to keep conversations moving.

Use the critique sandwich: start and end with positive feedback, with suggestions in between. This helps designers feel heard and receptive to improvements.

Think about what you want to say in advance and learn about the project. Practice with a friend or record yourself to improve your speaking style for the critique.

Think of a quick line to say if you make a mistake during critique to release tension and keep your audience relaxed, applying reframing tips from section 2.

Learn sentence starters to express ideas confidently and with correct grammar in critique, adapted from visual arts to performing arts, with workbook examples to jumpstart your practice.

Discover how to use syllable stress and intonation, recognize the schwa, and emphasize nouns and verbs to improve natural English pronunciation.

Improve your pronunciation by using reductions to shorten sentences and speak faster, with examples like 'going to' becoming 'gonna'.

Learn to give positive and negative feedback through concrete agree and disagree responses, using I statements, naming others, and choosing tone and examples like good point and I disagree.

Explore weekends, holidays, and vacations as common small talk topics, including three-day weekends and big holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Independence Day, plus staycations and sports vocabulary.

Learn to navigate noncontroversial news for small talk by avoiding politics and religion, focusing on local events, celebrity gossip, and new things in your area, plus hobby topics.

Use pets and travel as entry for small talk, identifying dog people and cat people, and asking about pets with follow-ups. Learn travel prompts and follow-ups to keep conversations going.

Master polite small talk about clothes, jewelry, hair, and arts and entertainment using safe adjectives and practical phrases for compliments and questions.

Build a connection through small talk with coworkers, customers, or bosses, then transition to the main topic using practical scripts for meetings and project check-ins.

Practice giving constructive critiques of a photography portfolio, focusing on lighting, cropping, inspiration, and reductions and intonation in spoken delivery, using Rashid as the subject, then record yourself to improve.

Practice small talk with Aiko through guided prompts, role-play, and self-recorded speech with a coworker to improve reductions, intonation, and conversational confidence.

Apply the critique and small talk strategies from queen of critique and king of conversation, and join Artglish's studio community to practice critique, interviews, and vocabulary across mediums.