Learn how to introduce yourself formally in a business situation
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Eric: Hi everyone, and welcome to ItalianPod101.com. This is Business Italian for Beginners, Season 1, Lesson 1 - Introducing Yourself in an Italian Business Meeting. Eric Here. |
| Ofelia: Ciao, I'm Ofelia. |
| Eric: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to break the ice and actively introduce yourself in a business meeting. The conversation takes place in an office hallway. |
| Ofelia: It's between Linda and Paolo Grassi. |
| Eric: The speakers are strangers, so they will use formal Italian. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Linda: Buongiorno. |
| Linda: Mi presento, sono Linda Baker della ABC. |
| Paolo Grassi: Salve, piacere, sono Paolo Grassi. |
| Paolo Grassi: Sono direttore alla Gatti S.p.A. |
| Eric: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Linda: Buongiorno. |
| Linda: Mi presento, sono Linda Baker della ABC. |
| Paolo Grassi: Salve, piacere, sono Paolo Grassi. |
| Paolo Grassi: Sono direttore alla Gatti S.p.A. |
| Eric: Listen to the conversation again with the English translation |
| Linda: Good day. |
| Linda: I'll introduce myself. I’m Linda Baker from ABC. |
| Paolo Grassi: Hi, pleased to meet you, I’m Paolo Grassi. |
| Paolo Grassi: I'm manager at Gatti Ltd. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Eric: Ofelia, do Italians use business cards when they first meet a potential business partner? |
| Ofelia: Business cards are important in Italy, as in any other place in the world, and if you want your business partners to remember you and have all the necessary information to get in touch with you, it's always good to carry them. |
| Eric: Is there any specific etiquette about exchanging business cards in Italy? |
| Ofelia: No, there isn’t any, but keep in mind that it is good to write your graduate degree, if you have one, on your business cards and be ready to recognize the most important titles, such as Dott. which stands for dottore |
| Eric: That generally means “graduate” |
| Ofelia: One more thing is to avoid using business cards when you’re in an informal situation. For example, making friends with somebody. In that case just becoming Facebook friends should be enough. |
| Eric: What’s the Italian word for "business card" |
| Ofelia: Biglietto da visita |
| Eric: Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Eric: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Ofelia: buon giorno [natural native speed] |
| Eric: good morning, good day, good afternoon |
| Ofelia: buon giorno[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ofelia: buon giorno [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Ofelia: presentarsi [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to introduce oneself |
| Ofelia: presentarsi[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ofelia: presentarsi [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Ofelia: sono [natural native speed] |
| Eric: I am (conjugated form of essere) |
| Ofelia: sono[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ofelia: sono [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Ofelia: piacere [natural native speed] |
| Eric: it’s a pleasure |
| Ofelia: piacere[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ofelia: piacere [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Ofelia: direttore [natural native speed] |
| Eric: manager |
| Ofelia: direttore[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ofelia: direttore [natural native speed] |
| Eric: And last.. |
| Ofelia: S.p.A. [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Ltd. |
| Ofelia: S.p.A.[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ofelia: S.p.A. [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Eric: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Ofelia: Presentarsi |
| Eric: Meaning "to introduce oneself" |
| Ofelia: This is a reflexive verb and it is made up of two parts, the verb presentare, "to introduce," and the personal pronoun si, "oneself". |
| Eric: When conjugating it, remember to put the pronoun in front of the verb and to change the pronoun according to the person. |
| Ofelia: Right. For example, "I introduce myself" is MI presento, "you introduce yourself” is TI presenti |
| Eric: Can you give us an example using this verb? |
| Ofelia: Sure. For example, you can say.. Si sono presentati come i Signori Rossi. |
| Eric: ..which means "They introduced themselves as the Rossis." Okay, what's the next word? |
| Ofelia: S.p.A. |
| Eric: Meaning "Ltd." |
| Ofelia: This abbreviation stands for Società per Azioni and indicates a firm that is listed on the Stock Exchange. |
| Eric: You can see this abbreviation next to the name of the main Italian companies. The abbreviation is part of the official names of the companies. Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Ofelia: Sure. For example, you can say.. La Ferrari S.p.A. è una delle ditte italiane più conosciute nel mondo. |
| Eric: ...which means "Ferrari S.p.A. is one of the most well-known Italian companies in the world." |
| Ofelia: Other abbreviations that you may see next to Italian company names are S.r.l. |
| Eric: Which is also translated as "limited," but in Italian it indicates that it is not listed. |
| Ofelia: And S.n.c., |
| Eric: Which is "general partnership." Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Eric: In this lesson, you'll learn how to break the ice and actively introduce yourself in a business meeting. |
| Ofelia: When you introduce yourself in a business meeting, you should give your name first and then add your company name as well. |
| Eric: Let’s first see the difference between a general self-introduction in Italian and a self-introduction in a business setting. |
| Ofelia: A general self-introduction could be Sono Linda. Piacere. |
| Eric: Which means “I’m Linda. Nice to meet you.” |
| Ofelia: The pattern is Sono followed by your first name and then Piacere. |
| Eric: Okay, now let’s see a self-introduction in a business setting, |
| Ofelia: Sono Linda Baker della ABC. Piacere. |
| Eric: Which means“I’m Linda Baker from ABC. Pleased to meet you.” |
| Ofelia: The pattern is Sono, which means “I am”, followed by your full name, then della which means “from”, followed by the company name, and at the end, Piacere. |
| Eric: Should we pay attention to anything here? |
| Ofelia: Della, which is a compound preposition made up of di plus the feminine article la, never changes because all company names are feminine. This is because the italian word ditta (“firm”), which is implied, is a feminine noun. |
| Eric: Ofelia, none of these examples has the verb “to introduce”. Why is that? |
| Ofelia: Well, the verb presentare will be useful in case you can’t find the right timing. In that case, just be straightforward and before actually introducing yourself, say that you are going to introduce yourself like in the dialogue, where we had Mi presento, sono Linda Baker della ABC. Piacere. |
| Eric: Meaning “I’ll introduce myself. I’m Linda Baker from ABC. Nice to meet you.” |
| Ofelia: The pattern is the same as the one we already introduced, but you just have to add Mi presento at the beginning. |
| Eric: You can use this when, for example, business talk has casually started and you haven’t had the opportunity to say your name. You could also use a different combination, which is... |
| Ofelia: Non mi sono ancora presentato, sono Marco Rossi della ABC. Piacere. |
| Eric: “I haven’t introduced myself yet. I’m Marco Rossi from ABC. Nice to meet you.” |
| Ofelia: Instead of Mi presento we used Non mi sono ancora presentato |
| Eric: But listeners, be careful, because if you are a woman, that would be |
| Ofelia: Non mi sono ancora presentata |
| Eric: What do you say if it’s the other person who introduces him or herself first? |
| Ofelia: In that case, you can simply reply, by introducing yourself. For example Piacere, Linda Baker. Sono la delegata della ABC. The sentence here starts with Piacere and is followed by the full name and the explanation about your position. |
| Eric: In the dialogue this was... |
| Ofelia: Salve, piacere, sono Paolo Grassi. Sono direttore alla Gatti S.p.A. |
| Eric: Which means, “Hi, pleased to meet you, I’m Paolo Grassi. I'm the manager at Gatti Ltd.” Ok, let’s wrap up this lesson with a couple more sample sentences |
| Ofelia: Mi presento, sono Mauro Bianchi. |
| Eric: "I'll introduce myself, I'm Mauro Bianchi." |
| Ofelia: Non mi sono ancora presentata, sono Rosa Sciti, delegata della Ferrari. Piacere. |
| Eric: "I haven't introduced myself yet, I’m Rosa Sciti, the representative of Ferrari . It's a pleasure." |
Outro |
| Eric: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! |
| Ofelia: A presto! |
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