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English café at Lider: Small talk in a business environment

Small talk
Small talk / Image by: foto

Now that you have mastered small talk with acquaintances, in May we bring you four workshops after which you will confidently engage in small talk with business associates!

Small talk: Meeting a business acquaintance 1

Getting to know or small talk with business associates is an essential part of business life for most of us. However, when we need to use a foreign language for this, the introduction can become very stressful. Learn these expressions and getting to know and small talk will become a piece of cake for you!

Since this is a business environment, introductions may also include mentioning the company we work for, so after introducing ourselves we can say I’m from… / I’m with… / I work for… (company), and to explain what we do in more detail, we can say I’m in sales. I’m in charge of… I’m responsible for… I work with…

The expressions to be in charge of and to be responsible for refer to what we are responsible for in our job, for example, I am in charge of the department.

Literature: Intermediate Market Leader, David Cotton, David Falvey, Simon Kent, Pearson Education Limited, 2015.

When meeting business associates, in addition to introductions, it is useful to use expressions like How are you? How’s everything going? or, if we already know those associates, Great to see you again. We can respond with Fine, thanks. Not too bad, thanks or with Pleased to meet you.

Join us next week when we bring you expressions that will help you introduce your company!

ANSWERS FROM LAST WEEK’S QUIZ

1. c) The phrase used when meeting an acquaintance is fancy bumping into you here.

2. c) We can use how is….? to ask about someone (How is Mary?) but we do not use it to ask about someone’s life.

3. b) I’ve been completely snowed under is the correct answer. We use present perfect to say what has happened up to now.

4. c) Well is the correct answer. We use I am getting on well with someone to express that we have a good relationship with someone, for example, I am getting on well with my sister.

5. a) We use how is she getting on to ask how is someone, what is new in their lives.

6. c) We do not use Okay, bye now without also including I’m sorry but I have to rush or It was really nice to see you because it would appear rude.

Boutique Lingua

is a highly individualized foreign language school that fully follows the needs and affinities of students in order to achieve the best conversational results.

Visit the website and Facebook page of Boutique Lingua school, and you can get all additional information via email at [email protected].