Lesson Two
更多了解
(Effective Question and Answer Techniques)
Greetings
Good morning/afternoon/evening.
How are you doing?
How’s everything going?
How have you been?
What have you been up to lately?
What’s new/cooking/grilling/going on?
Hi/Hey/What’s up!
Responses
I’m doing very well. Thank you. How about yourself?
Okay/Not bad/All right. How are you?
Great! Thanks. What about you?
Couldn’t be better! You?
Same ol’.
Awful. /Couldn’t be worse.
Jobs
What do you do?
I’m a teacher/lawyer/nurse. (profession)
I work in finance/waste management/show business. (field of business)
I’m in marketing/human resource/executive administration. (function)
I work for the ABC Corporation. (employer)
I work for myself at the moment. (self-employed)
I look after the children. /I’m a homemaker.
I’m between jobs right now. (unemployed)
How long have you been with them?
How do you like it (your job)?
How’s business?
Family
Are you married?
What does your husband/wife do?
Do you have any kids?
How old are they?
Are they at school/at college/working?
Do they still live at home?
Spare time
What do you do in the evenings/on weekends?
Where do you spend your holidays?
What do you do in you spare time?
Do you like movies/gardening/sport/cooking?
Origins
Where do you come from?
Where did your family come from?
Where were you brought up?
How young were you when you moved to New York?
Which part of China were you born in?
Sample Dialogue
A: What do you do? (question)
B: I’m self-employed. (answer)
A: That’s great! I always want to do that. (comment)
B: Well. It’s a very hard job too. (added information)
Lesson One
自我介绍
(Self-Introduction)
Welcoming
On behalf of …, I’m very glad to welcome you…
It’s a pleasure to see you here.
Welcome to…
Thank you for coming all this way.
Self Introduction
Please let me introduce myself. I’m…
How do you do? My name is…
May I introduce myself? I’m…
It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance. My name is…
Third-party Introduction
It’s my pleasure to introduce you to …
I’d like to introduce you to …
A, let me introduce you to …
A, I’d like you to meet …
A, I don’t believe you’ve ever met …
This is … He’s in charge of…
He looks after…
He’s our … Director/Manager.
Offering
Let me get you a coffee.
Would you like a coffee?
Let me take your coat.
Small talk topics
Travel
How’s your flight?
How do you like our city?
Is this your first visit to…?
Did you have a good trip?
Was it easy to find here?
Weather
It’s a beautiful day, isn’t it?
I heard it’s going to rain this afternoon.
My flight was cancelled because of the heavy snow.
There will be a storm tomorrow.
Finally we’ve gotten a beautiful day.
I hate the summers here. There’s too much rain and it’s usually very hot.
I’m a spring/summer/autumn/winter person.
Cold, isn’t it? I’m freezing.
It’s lovely/sunny/warm.
It was dismal/cloudy/cold/damp/wet/stormy/windy.
Accommodation
How’s your hotel?
It’s very comfortable/convenient/luxurious.
The service is excellent.
It’s rather noisy/dirty.
The service is rather slow.
The rooms are a bit cramped.
Sample Dialogue
A: Welcome to ABC. I’m John Smith. I look after the accounting department here.
B: Nice to meet you. My name is Susan Wong.
A: Nice to meet you, Susan. How was your trip?
B: Slow. It was caught in awful traffic.
A: Sorry to hear that. Anyway, have you checked in?
B: Yes.
A: Everything OK?
B: Fine.
A: So how do you find our weather?
B: It’s hot. When I left home, it was only ten degrees.