ところで: BTW

Introduction

"Hey, by the way, do you wanna hang out later? Maybe we can go to the quarry and throw things down there!"

Coming up: we'll be learning how to go from one topic to another by using 「ところで」, the Japanese equivalent of "By the way..."!

ところで: BTW

構成こうせい

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  ところで(rest of sentence)
  Example:
  → ところで、社会しゃかいの窓まどが開あいてるよ。
  "By the way, your fly is open.”

In a nutshell, ところで is used to change topics. Often, it's used because the previous topic of discussion made the speaker think of something else, like if a discussion about Hawaii suddenly made you want to ask if everyone's okay with pizza for dinner (again).