商务英语 - how to greet people in English

课程内容

Hi, Tim here with our first 925English lesson!

Appropriately enough, we’re kicking off with a lesson on how to say hello to colleagues and customers in English.

Before we get into the lesson, let me take a second to tell you what 925English is all about and how you can use it.

925English lessons give you chunks of language and English expressions that you can use in work and business.

We get straight to the point with lots of examples. We give you phrases you can use in different situations and advice on why and how we use them.

Sounds 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 ‘hi’. And we might add something like ‘my name is Tim Smith’, or a question like ‘how’s it going?’

But what is the difference? How do we choose which greeting to use? Well, in business, like in life, it depends on the situation. That includes who we’re talking to and where we’re having the conversation.

So let’s go through these 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 a 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 actually the 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’ve just met, we avoid informal expressions.

That means saying something like ‘how are you’ instead of ‘how’s it going’.

All right, 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.

A: Hello there. I’m Paul Fulton.

B: Good morning! My name is Shelly.

C: Hi. I’m Dave Hall from Delta Enterprises.

D: Good afternoon. Liz Howard. How are you today?

E: How do you do? Frank Little, VP regional sales.

Great!
Did you hear how we start with a greeting, then we give our name or ask a question. And sometimes we say who we work for or our 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 just repeat the greeting yourself.
Ready? Let’s get started:

A: Nice to meet you, Tony. I’m Carolyn Summers.

B: Hi Peg. My name is Kurt Lang.

C: Good meeting you, Paul. I’m Gene Dupont.

D: Pleasure to meet you, Frank. My name is 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 a greeting and a response to that greeting. Let’s have a listen!

A: Hi there. I don’t think we’ve met before. I’m Amber from marketing.

S: Oh, Hi. Nice to meet you, Amber. Shelly Davis. Sales.

A: A pleasure, Shelly. Quite the set-up in 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. It’s friendly and professional. And once they’ve done this, they can start a conversation.

Now it’s your turn to practice. We’ll repeat the dialogue, but this time we’re going to beep out the response, and you can play the role of Shelly.

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.

Great work!

Now what if you already know the person? For example, if you want to greet a work colleague or a 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 give some examples. Listen carefully and repeat for yourself.
Ready? Let’s begin.

A: Hey there, Bob, how’s it going?

B: Good to see you, June.

C: Morning, Lana. What’s up?

D: Oh, hi Chuck. What’s new?

Okay, 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 information. All right?

How about a little dialogue to show us how this more informal greeting sounds?
We’ll hear Coby and Liz, two co-workers making small talk before a meeting. Ready?

C: Oh hey, Liz. How’s things?

L: Hi Coby. Not too bad, and you?

C: Hanging in there.

So, did you hear how that was more informal? The speakers used hi or hey and short simple expressions.
But what does ‘hanging in there’ mean? Well, it’s the same as ‘not too bad’. And there’s a good way to answer informal questions like ‘how’s things?’

Now it’s your turn to practice. We’ll repeat the dialogue, but this time we’ll beep out the response, and you can play the role of Liz.

You’ll need to say hi and answer the question ‘how’s things’, and ask Coby a similar question. Here we go.

Great! That was a packed little lesson, wasn’t it? We’ve practiced different ways to greet new people, introduce yourself, and respond to introductions. We’ve also practiced greeting friends and colleagues.

We’ll be back soon with another 925English lesson. Until then, so long and happy learning!

总结：

这篇笔记是925English课程的第一节，主要讲述了如何在商务场合用英语与同事和客户打招呼。课程强调了情境的重要性和如何根据不同的情况选择合适的问候语。包含以下关键点：

• 向你不认识的人打招呼时要既友好又专业，先用"hello"，"hi"或"good morning"作为开场，然后可以通过自我介绍或提问来延续对话。
• 当其他人向你打招呼时如何回应，可以用"hello"作为开始，或者说"nice to meet you"并在回答中提及对方的名字。
• 已经认识的朋友或同事时可以更随意，使用"hi"或"hey"并提出简短的亲切询问，例如询问对方近况。
• 教程还详细提供了操练的例句以及如何回答不同类型问题（使用"how"或"what"开头的问题）的指导，结尾提供了一个对话练习，以展示实际情况下的问候方式。