You're learning with 925 English - business English for the workplace.
Hi Tim here with their first nine to five English lesson. Appropriately enough
we're kicking off with the lesson on how to say hello to colleagues and customers
in English. But before we get to the lesson, let me take a second to tell you
what 925 english is all about and how you can use it.
925 English lessons give you chunks of language and English expressions that
you can use in work in business. We get straight to the point with lots of
examples we give you phrases you can say in different situations and advice on
why and how we use them. Sound good?
All right let's get going! So it's pretty easy to greet someone in english isn't it?
We can say good morning or hello or just high and we might add something like my
name is Tim Smith or a question like how's it going. But what's the difference?
How do we choose which greeting to use? Well in business, like in life, it depends
That includes who we're talking to and where we're having the conversation. So
let's go through three situations and practice some appropriate ways of saying
hello. The first situation I want to practice is greeting someone you have
never met before. Maybe you're at a conference or on a flight or walking
into a meeting with the new customer. We need to be friendly but professional
right? So how do we do that? Well we need to start with something like "hello" "hi" or
"good morning" That's the actual hello part of the greeting but then we need to
add something more. You can either introduce yourself including your name
and maybe your job or company. Or you could get the conversation started with
a question. And because it's someone you just met we avoid informal expressions
that means saying something like "how are you"
instead of "how's it going." Alright let's give this a try and practice some
examples Listen carefully to each example then repeat the greeting
yourself. Ready? Let's get started!
Hi i'm Dave Hall from Delta Enterprises
Good afternoon Liz Howard. How are you today?
How do you do Frank Little VP regional sales.
Did you hear how we start with the greeting then we give our name or ask a question?
and sometimes we say who we weren't for or a job title. So that's how we say
hello to someone. Now how can we respond to someone we've just met when they've
said hello to us? Well you can begin by saying hello or something similar or
instead of hello you might say something like "nice to meet you." And it's always a
good idea to use the other person's name in your response, like "nice to meet you
Dave." After your initial greeting then you need to introduce yourself with my
name is or just "I'm" meaning I am. Let's practice this kind of greeting. We'll play
an example then you can repeat the greeting yourself. Ready let's get started.
Nice to meet you Tony. I'm Carolyn Samus
Good meeting you Paul. I'm Gene Dupont
Pleasure to meet you Frank. My name's Laura Chang.
Nice work. But how do these introductions sound in real life?
Well, let's listen to a short dialogue to find out. You'll hear Amber and Shelly,
two women at a company party. They've never met before and they want to start
a conversation. So they start with the greeting and a response to that greeting.
Hi there I don't think we've met before I'm Amber from marketing. Oh hi nice to
meet you Amber. Shelley Davis. Sales. Pleasure Shelly. Quite the setup here
isn't it? So did you hear how that worked the first person started by saying hi
then she introduced herself and the second person followed the same pattern.
Its friendly and professional and once they've done this they can start a
conversation. Now it's your turn to practice will repeat the dialogue but
this time we're going to beep out the response and you can play the role of
Shelley. You'll need to say hi nice to meet you and your name. If you want you
can add what department you work in. Here we go!
hi there I don't think we've met before
Pleasure Shelly quite the setup here isn't it?
great work! Now what if you already know the person?
For example if you want to greet a work colleague or friend?
Well this time we can be a bit more informal. That means instead of hello or
good morning, we might use hi or hey and because we're talking to someone we know
we don't need to say our name. Instead we ask a friendly little question that
means something like "how are you?"
Let's give it a try. We'll provide some examples. Listen carefully and repeat for
Hey there Bob. How's it going?
Ok just a note here on answering questions. If it's a how question like,
how's it going, we can say good or not too bad. But if someone uses what in a
question, we need to say something like not much or give them some actual
How about a little dialogue to show us how this more informal greeting
sound. We'll hear Kobe and Liz two co-workers making small talk before a
Oh hey Liz. How's things? Hi Kobe! Not too bad. And you? Hangin' in there.
So did you hear how that was more informal? The speakers used hey and hi
and short simple expressions. But what does hanging in there mean?
Well it's the same as not to bad and that's a good way to answer the
informal question "how's things?" Now it's your turn to practice. We'll repeat the
dialogue but this time we're going to be about the response and you can play the
role of Liz. You'll need to say hi answer the question how's things and ask Coby
a similar question. Here we go!
Great! That was attacked little lesson wasn't it? We've practiced different ways
introduce yourself and respond to introductions. We've also practiced
greeting friends and colleagues. We'll be back soon with another 925 English