Business English:
Greetings
Almost
every English course,
Business English or
otherwise, starts with
introductions - and quite
properly so, as often no one
in the classroom knows each
other, or at least the
students often won't know
the teacher - and it is a
good way to warm up the
class and get everyone to
relax a bit. And it
is just good starting point for each
course.
While
in a typical conversation
class the we might focus
more on hobbies and
interests, in a Business
English class our target
language following our names
should move toward
explaining our job functions
and our company.
Unless
your work setting is quite
casual, the best option on
the charts below is to use
the FORMAL option. It
is better to be more formal
than to be too casual.
Most non-Western cultures
can be quite formal on
initial meeting and being
too informal can damage the
potential of the meeting.
Remember the Korea adage:
First impressions are
everything.
First
Meeting:
|
Identification |
Company
Information |
|
Formal: |
|
|
Good morning**,
I'm . . . |
I'm from . . . |
|
Hello, my name
is . . . |
I work for . . . |
| |
I'm with . . . |
| |
I'm in charge of
. . . |
| |
I'm responsible
for . . . |
|
Informal: |
|
|
Hi, I'm . . . |
from . . . |
|
**
morning/afternoon/evening |
Response to Introduction:
|
Initial Greeting |
|
Formal: |
|
|
How do you do? |
I'm pleased to
[finally*] meet
you. |
| |
It's nice to
[finally*] meet
you. |
|
Informal: |
|
|
Hi, |
Nice/good to
meet you. |
|
Hello, |
Pleased to meet
you. |
|
Response to the
Greeting |
|
Formal: |
|
How do you do? |
It's nice to
meet you too. |
| |
I'm pleased to
meet you too. |
| |
|
|
Informal: |
|
|
How do you do? |
Nice/Good to
meet you too. |
|
Hello, |
Pleased to meet
you too. |
|
Hi, (very
informal) |
|
* finally
makes the
greeting more
cordial and
friendly |
Follow up with the initial
response from the host might
include:
|
Formal: |
|
Please have a
seat. |
Please join us
at the table. |
|
Please take a
seat. |
Can I get you a
drink?* |
|
Informal: |
|
Have seat. |
Sit over here. |
|
Take a seat. |
Would you like a
drink?* |
|
Please sit. |
|
|
* It is polite
in many
countries to
offer tea or
coffee to even
an unscheduled
guest.
Later in the
day, in certain
countries or in
a less informal
setting, alcohol
might be
offered. |
Situation: Ms. Anderson
arrives at the Bangkok Post
to meet the circulation
director, Khun Suwat.
Formal Dialog:
Anderson: Good morning,
I'm Janet Anderson from
Jiffy Transport Company.
Suwat: How do you do?
I'm pleased to finally meet
you. Please have a
seat.
Informal Dialog:
Anderson: Hi, I'm Janet
Anderson from Jiffy
Transport.
Suwat:
Welcome, come have a seat.
Dialog 2:
NOTE:
You can easily see that less
formal dialogs tend to be
shorter and use ellipsis
(leave out parts of the
sentence). Look at the
differences in the formal
and informal dialogs above
to note how one is different
from the other.
As the conversation
continues . . .
Suwat:
What do you do at Jiffy
Transport Ms. Anderson?
Ms.
Anderson: I'm the Business
Manager in charge of
new accounts, Khun Suwat,
and your responsibilities
here?
K.
Suwat: I'm the Circulation
Manager, I make sure our
newspapers get where they
need to go.
Go to
the
Greetings Activity |
