Learning English At The Restaurant

If you travel abroad and get hungry you may need this lesson...
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Practice makes Perfect!

Learning English At The Airport

This is an easy learning English lesson... Just enjoy watching the video!
Practice makes perfect

Office Phone Practice

Learn the most common phrases and expressions for making phone calls in English. You will learn how to answer the phone, how to ask to speak to someone, and how to take a message. If you ever need to make phone calls in English you will find that this lesson has all the most useful phrases you will need to be polite on the phone.

Business English Practice: How to end a phone call quickly and professionally

Don't you know how to end a phone call in English to get along well with a customer or international supplier?
Is it hard to end a phone call without being rough in English?
Sometimes a phone call in English arrives at the wrong moment but we cannot avoid answering it because it can be someone from the Head office, an international customer or supplier. The stress that this call causes us is our worst enemy.
I offer you four key phrases to complete the call and  get along well with your interlocutor.

1. – Pause– “Sorry Mr. Chen, I can’t talk now, as I have an important meeting right now. Can I call you on Wednesday at 4:00pm?”

2. – Pause – “I´m sorry Mr. Watson, I can’t talk now, because I have a client waiting for me. Can I call you on Thursday at 09:00am?”

3. – Pause – “Sorry Ms. Shah, I can’t take your call now, because I have an urgent matter to attend to. Can I call you on Tuesday at 10:00am or 11:00am?”

4. – Pause. – “I´m sorry Ms. Sousa, I can’t take your call now, as I have a client lunch. Can I call you tomorrow at 5:00pm?”

• First, stay calm and wait for the first pause to interrupt .
• Second, apologize. Use Sorry Mr. X or  I'm sorry Mr. X.
• Third, tell him you can not attend him now and explain why. Use I can’t take your call now, because… or I can’t talk now, as...
• Fourth, give him another schedule when you are going to call him back. Use Can I call you tomorrow at 5:00pm?” 

That's it!  Practice makes Perfect!

Business English practice: telephone tips....

Get a meeting

So you have just come back from an international trade fair / event and you want to set up some meetings. What do you say? Here is script to help you in 3 situations.

Situation 1

Receptionist: Hello Ms.Diwani´s office. This is Isha how can I help you?

You: Good morning Isha. I recently met Ms.Diwani at (event) and she asked me to give her a call. Is she there?

Receptionist: I´ll put you through.

You: Hello is that Ms.Diwani. Hi this is (your name). We met recently at (event). You suggested i call you to talk about (their main problem). Do you have a few minutes to talk now?

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Situation 2

Receptionist: Hello Ms.Diwani´s office. This is Isha how can I help you?

You: Good morning Isha. I recently met Ms.Diwani at (event) and she asked me to give her a call. Is she there?

Receptionist: No she´s in a meeting.

You: When would be the best time to speak to Ms.Diwani?

Receptionist: I´d suggest calling at 0930am tomorrow.

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Situation 3

Receptionist: Hello Ms.Diwani´s office. This is Isha how can I help you?

You: Good morning Isha. I recently met Ms.Diwani at (event) and she asked me to give her a call. Is she there?

Receptionist: I´m not sure. What is it referring to?

You: Ms.Diwani. told me about (their main problem) and we talked about how our we solved this problem for (important client). She suggested meeting to discuss (their main problem) in more detail. Does Ms.Diwani have a few minutes to quickly talk now?

Business English Reading: The art of good conversation

 

L'arte della buona conversazione

Nel mondo della diplomazia, si dice che l'arte della buona conversazione è la dinamica di diverse considerazioni che le persone fanno, invece di argomentare il contrario.
Per sviluppare la nostra capacità di conversazione in inglese suggerisco le seguenti linee guida:

Mostrare interesse, fare domande aperte, utilizzare l'ascolto attivo e partecipare alla conversazione.


Ma facciamo un po' di pratica in inglese... Reading

1) Show interest 
When we converse with somebody we want the other person to show interest in what we say and vice-versa. So how can we show interest in what the other person says?
We can nod our heads occasionally.
We can also encourage the speaker to continue with small verbal comments:
“Yes”, “uh huh”, “I see”, “That’s interesting”, “Really”.

2) Ask open questions.
If we only ask yes or no questions it’s difficult for conversation to flow naturally. Try to ask open questions about things you have in common with the other person (e.g work, the sector, topics, news, events).
Open questions usually start with (What, how, when, where, why)
“What do you think about….?”
“How do you feel about…?”
“Where is the best place to…?”

3) Two-way conversation 
Remember boring conversations we’ve had, it usually involves either the other person or ourselves doing all the talking. Remember don’t be afraid to change the conversation.
“What about….”
“Have you heard….”
“Did you see…..What did you think?” 

4)  Active listening
We all do it, we think we’re listening to somebody and then we start thinking about something completely different. The other person catches us doing it and thinks we are not interested. End of conversation.
A key part of good conversation is responding appropriately at the right time.
"I see what you mean"
"I know what you mean"
"That´s true"
"I can understand you’re point of view"

Top tips for international socialising

Experts say....

1. Be proactive – break the ice

Ask most non-native speakers of English how they feel about socialising and starting a conversation (breaking the ice) and the answer will be nervous and unconfident.

The only way we can overcome that is practice. The more we practice being proactive and breaking the ice (starting conversation) the more relaxed and confident we will feel. We suggest preparing simple questions you can ask.

How are you enjoying the event?

Is this your first time to…?

Do you work for…?

What did you think of…?

2. What to talk about – safe conversation topics

This is all about talking and asking questions about 5 safe conversation topics.

- weather (What´s the weather like where you come from?)

- jobs and responsibilities (So what do you do exactly?)

- travel ( How was your flight? )( Have you ever been to….?)

- business (How’s business at the moment?)

- interests (So what are you interested in?)

3. Focus on them – not you

Focus on the other person in social situations, even if this means talking for an hour about something which you personally find boring. It´s a good way to find things you have in common to talk about as well as their interests.

4. Active listening – give positive feedback

Show and tell people you´re listening, nod your head and say “ah-hum/ ok/ i agree/ i know what you mean”.Also use positive body language such as smiling, making eye contact and keeping your arms open and not crossed.  It may seem obvious but listening styles differ greatly across cultures and across personalities.

5. Inspire others

As a speaker we should try to ‘inspire’ people listening to us so that when they walked away they would be thinking positive thoughts like That was a really interesting conversation. / He’s a really nice guy. / That was fun. etc.  If we can achieve this people will remember us and the law of reciprocity means they might even want to help us because we gave them something.

6.  Enthusiasm

Enthusiasm in a conversation means being open and enthusiastic about what you say and what the other person says. For example you can practice this by changing your responses from ‘It was fine” to ‘It was excellent.‘, from ‘It was quite interesting.’ to ‘It was amazing.’

So, put them in practise now and have a good conversation !