商務禮節美語第112期:談話的藝術

The Art of Conversatione 談話的藝術

陳豪在北京的ABC美國公司工作。他今天有事去找美國同事Amy。

(Office ambience)

A：Hi, Chen Hao. How are you today?

C：還好，不過，我有點兒事想請教你。

A：How can I help you?

C：今天下班，我又要去參加公司的社交活動。

A：Where the point is to make business contacts and develop relationships with current or potential clients?

C：沒錯，就是要多認識點兒人，跟客戶搞好關係。不過，我還是不太習慣這種活動。

A：What's the problem?

C：自我介紹完，我就不知道該說什麼了。

A：Well, The first thing is to prepare your conversation starters ahead of time.

C：怎麼準備啊？

A：Find out who will be there so you will know whom you will be seeing.

C：然後呢？

A：Find out as much as you can about the guests. The more information you have about them and their business, the easier it will be to talk to them.

C：可我根本不知道誰會去啊？

A：I suggest you go ask your boss' assistant right now.

一個小時過後，陳豪和Amy又見面了。

C：Amy, 今天的活動是Jepson公司主辦的。

A：I happen to know that Mr. Jepson, the president of the company, loves airplanes. He is a licensed pilot and owns quite a number of small planes.

C：Mr. Jepson自己有飛機，還有執照？太好了，我也喜歡飛機。

A：Well, see, you have something in common so you shouldn't have any problems talking to him.

C：那其它人呢？

A：Be ready to ask people about themselves. Start your conversations with open-ended questions.

C：Open-ended questions, 那是什麼樣的問題啊？

A：Those are questions that begin with "how" and "why?" The kinds of questions that people almost have to answer with more than one word.

C：就是要問爲什麼，怎麼樣這類的問題， 是嗎？

A：Right. Stay away from "when," "where" and "what" since it's easy to give short answer to those questions.

C：不要問什麼時候，在哪兒，哎呀，太複雜了。我恐怕記不住。

A：Oh, yes, you can. People like to talk about themselves so long as you continue to listen and act interested, they will continue to talk.

C：做個好聽衆當然沒問題。我難道就不需要說話嗎？

A：All you really need to do is repeat or comment on something the other person has said. Like with Mr. Jepson, you could ask how many planes he has?

C：他要是說25架呢？

A：Then you respond, "So you have 25 of your own airplanes?" That's interesting. Tell me about them." And he'll continue to talk.

C：好主意。我試試看。