New colleagues Language resource Greeting people

Degree of formality	Expression
Neutral	Morning, Karen. Nice to see you, Bill.
Informal	Hello, Paul. Hi there.
Formal	Good morning / afternoon / evening.

Introducing ourselves and responding to introductions

Degree of formality	Expression
Neutral	My name's Helen Kwok. I'm Anne Walker, by the way. I don't think we've been introduced. My name's Mike Perry. How do you do? Pleased / Nice to meet you, Anne.
Informal	Hi, I'm Mike Perry. Hi, Mike. Great to meet you, Mike.
Formal	Allow me to introduce myself, I'm Rupert Burke. I'm delighted to meet you, Mr Burke.

Introducing people

Degree of formality	Expression
Neutral	Paul, I'd like you to meet Alan Clinton. Have you met, Sarah Tong? This is Elizabeth Armstrong.
Informal	Paul, meet Alan Clinton.
Formal	Allow me to introduce our managing director, Regina Luk. May I introduce Mr Brown from our head office.

Making, accepting and declining invitations

Degree of formality	Expression
Neutral	Would you like to have lunch with me sometime this week? Thank you, that would be very nice. Thank you, but ...
Informal	We must have lunch sometime. Why don't we have lunch sometime? How about having lunch sometime? Yes, I'd love to! I'd love to, but ...
Formal	Would you care to have lunch with me sometime? I'd like that very much. Thank you. That's extremely kind of you, but I'm afraid ...

Situation

Person 1

Imagine that you have just started working for a major international company in Hong Kong. You are attending a social gathering designed to give new recruits (who are all recent college graduates) a chance to get to know each other. Go and introduce yourself to person 2. Get to know each other. Arrange to have lunch sometime this week. Discuss what kind of food you would like, suggest possible restaurants, times, etc. You are free today (Monday) and Thursday.

Person 2

Imagine that you have just started working for a major international company in Hong Kong. You are attending a social gathering designed to give new recruits (who are all recent college graduates) a chance to get to know each other. Go and introduce yourself to person 1. Get to know each other. Arrange to have lunch sometime this week. Discuss what kind of food you would like, suggest possible restaurants, times, etc. You are free on Tuesday and Thursday.

Roleplay

You may wish to roleplay the following meeting in pairs. You have to introduce yourself to a colleague and arrange a meeting with him/her. Use the language resource above to help you. Before planning your meeting, you may wish to watch an abbreviated example of the same situation on video.

Transcript FP: Hallo! NW: Hi. I don't think we've met. I'm Nicola. FP: I'm Fiona. Nice to meet you. I'm new here actually. NW: So am I. FP: Oh yes, everybody here is a new recruit aren't they? Alright then ... NW: I guess so. FP: So whereabouts are you? I mean which department are you? NW: I'm in the Sales department, on the fifteenth floor. FP: So how is it going? NW: It's going great. It's a little confusing with all the new people and you know, all the new things to catch up with, but it's still fine and everyone is so nice. (0'32") FP: Yes, that's my first impression as well; I haven't seen round that much; I'm in the Product Development department ... (NW: Oh really?) ... but the people that I'm working with seem really good and the factory's really modern, I've been up to China to see that (NW: Oh. That's good). So, were you working before then or have you just graduated? NW: I've just graduated. FP: Oh, congratulations, very nice. NW: How about you? FP: Oh no, I've been working for a long time, I was working with IKEA for a long time as a furniture designer before, so some time in Sweden then in Asia for the past 5 or 6 years and Hong Kong for the last 2. So then I fancied a change; you can only have so much of Swedish companies and this job I thought would be more interesting. (1'17") NW: So where are you from originally? FP: I'm from the U.K. NW: Oh really? I've lived in the U.K. FP: Oh have you? Whereabouts? NW: I was in London. FP: Were you? So was I. Whereabouts in London? NW: I was in Greenwich. (1'30") FP: Oh. I used to live down in Deptford, which is the kind of scruffy end of Greenwich really. NW: Oh yes, I know where that is. FP: Oh look, look at the time; we've only got 5 more minutes or so and there are some people over there that I haven't met, have you? NW: I haven't met hardly anyone. FP: Why don't we do lunch sometime this week. Are you free? Then we can talk about London. NW: Sure! I'm free on ... Thursday. FP: That should be OK. Um ... yep, we're going up to China from Monday through Wednesday so Thursday is good for me. (2'2") NW: Yeah? So shall we say er ... 1 o'clock? FP: Yeah. 1 o'clock's good. What do you like to eat? NW: I love Thai food (FP: do you?) and Vietnamese. FP: Well, Thai food sounds good to me, nicer than Chinese ... um ... do you know any restaurants near here? NW: I know a great Thai restaurant around the corner. FP: Oh do you? OK. NW: So let's meet at 1 o'clock on Thursday, at reception. FP: OK, OK, 1 o'clock Thursday at reception. What's your extension number in case it doesn't work out? NW: 7576. FP: 7576. I should be able to remember that and I'll write it down when I get back to the office anyway. Come on, let's go and meet these people. (2 min 40 seconds) Exercise

Choose the correct answer for each question

Your total score is:

Fill in the correct phrases to complete the following sentences.

1. When Fiona greets Nicola, Nicola says "hi Click here > How's it going? I don't think we've met I have no regrets throw them out! to catch up with to match up with Whereabouts? Where's the rowing? ."

   Answer:
   I don't think we've met

2. 2. When Fiona asks Nicola about her first few days in her new job, she says " Click here > How's it going? I don't think we've met I have no regrets throw them out! to catch up with to match up with Whereabouts? Where's the rowing? "

   Answer:
   How's it going?

3. Nicola replies that it is great but confusing, with "all the new things Click here > How's it going? I don't think we've met I have no regrets throw them out! to catch up with to match up with Whereabouts? Where's the rowing? ."

   Answer:
   to catch up with

4. When Nicola says she has lived in the U.K, Fiona asks "Oh have you? Click here > How's it going? I don't think we've met I have no regrets throw them out! to catch up with to match up with Whereabouts? Where's the rowing? "

   Answer:
   Whereabouts?

Your total score is: