Learn how to greet your boss in a business situation
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Eric: Hi everyone, and welcome back to ItalianPod101.com. This is Business Italian for Beginners Season 1, Lesson 4 - Greeting Your Italian Boss in the Morning. I’m Eric. |
| Ofelia: Ciao, I'm Ofelia. |
| Eric: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to politely greet your supervisor. The conversation takes place at an office. |
| Ofelia: It's between Linda and Torri. |
| Eric: The speakers are boss and employee, so they will use both formal and informal Italian. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Linda: Buongiorno. |
| Torri: Linda, buongiorno. Oggi c'è una giornata splendida. |
| Linda: È vero! La temperatura è perfetta. |
| Torri: È un peccato dover stare in ufficio a lavorare! |
| Eric: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Linda: Buongiorno. |
| Torri: Linda, buongiorno. Oggi c'è una giornata splendida. |
| Linda: È vero! La temperatura è perfetta. |
| Torri: È un peccato dover stare in ufficio a lavorare! |
| Eric: Listen to the conversation with the English translation |
| Linda: Good morning. |
| Torri: Linda, good morning. Today the weather is wonderful. |
| Linda: Right! The temperature is perfect. |
| Torri: It's a shame having to work at the office! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Eric: Ofelia, as we discussed in the previous lessons, in Italy the level of formality depends on the people, so what shall we call our Italian boss? |
| Ofelia: You may meet bosses who like keeping a certain distance and to be addressed politely, and bosses who don't care about formality and tend to be friendly. In any case, checking what your peers do and imitating them is the best answer. |
| Eric: In case our boss wants to be addressed politely, what should we call him or her? |
| Ofelia: One of the most used titles is Dottore, which means “graduate,” followed by the family name. On the other hand, titles referring to the position, such as responsabile or direttore, which both mean “manager”, and so on are not frequently used when directly addressing the person. When you are not sure, use Signor or Signora meaning "Mr." or "Mrs." followed by the family name. |
| Eric: What could be a typical greeting? |
| Ofelia: Buon giorno Dottor Rossi. |
| Eric: "Good morning Doctor Rossi.” |
| Ofelia: or also Buon giorno Signor Rossi. |
| Eric: “Good morning Mr. Rossi." |
| 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: c'è [natural native speed] |
| Eric: there is |
| Ofelia: c'è [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ofelia: c'è [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Ofelia: giornata [natural native speed] |
| Eric: day |
| Ofelia: giornata [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ofelia: giornata [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Ofelia: splendido [natural native speed] |
| Eric: splendid |
| Ofelia: splendido [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ofelia: splendido [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Ofelia: vero [natural native speed] |
| Eric: true |
| Ofelia: vero [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ofelia: vero [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Ofelia: temperatura [natural native speed] |
| Eric: temperature |
| Ofelia: temperatura [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ofelia: temperatura [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Ofelia: dovere [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to have to, must |
| Ofelia: dovere [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ofelia: dovere [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Ofelia: ufficio [natural native speed] |
| Eric: office |
| Ofelia: ufficio [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ofelia: ufficio [natural native speed] |
| Eric: And last.. |
| Ofelia: lavorare [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to work |
| Ofelia: lavorare [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ofelia: lavorare [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 phrase is.. |
| Ofelia: È vero! |
| Eric: Meaning "that's true!" |
| Ofelia: This phrase, made of the verb è meaning "it is" and the adjective vero meaning "true," is very useful when you want to show interest in what someone said. |
| Eric: It doesn't have any nuance, so you can use it in any circumstance. Can you give us an example using this phrase? |
| Ofelia: Sure. For example, you can say.. È vero, quest'anno fa meno freddo del solito. |
| Eric: ..which means "That's true, this year it's less cold than usual." Okay, what's the next phrase? |
| Ofelia: È un peccato... |
| Eric: Meaning "It's a shame..." |
| Ofelia: This phrase is made up of the verb è, meaning "it is," and the phrase un peccato, meaning "a shame" or "a pity." |
| Eric: Next comes the infinitive of a verb. You can use this expression to express your disappointment. In many cases, the infinitive verb is in its negative form, because you can use this expression when you have a strong feeling of losing the chance to do something. |
| Ofelia: Be careful not to use it with a person who you should show respect to, because it's pretty colloquial. |
| Eric: In the dialogue, it was Linda's boss who used it, not vice-versa. Can you give us an example using this expression? |
| Ofelia: Sure. For example, you can say.. È un peccato non mangiare la pizza, mentre sei in Italia. |
| Eric: .. which means "It's a shame to not eat pizza, while you are in Italy.” Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Eric: In this lesson, you'll learn how to politely greet your supervisor. |
| Ofelia: If it’s the morning, you can greet your boss simply by saying Buon giorno, meaning “Good morning” or “Good day.” |
| Eric: Sometimes after a greeting, people continue with a brief chat about the weather and we’ll look at that. First, let’s start with the greetings. |
| Ofelia: In general, please keep in mind that exchanging greetings in Italy is an important part of social relations and many people may evaluate you by how you do it, or if you don’t do it at all. And it’s not only while doing business, but also in different situations, like greeting the clerk when entering a shop. |
| Eric: Ok, what are the main greetings? |
| Ofelia: In the morning, or whenever the sun is still rising, you can say Buon giorno! |
| Eric: Which means "Good morning!" or “Good day!” You can use it also when leaving. |
| Ofelia: In the afternoon, though not so common, you can say Buon pomeriggio! |
| Eric: Meaning “Good afternoon!” |
| Ofelia: In the late afternoon and in the evening, or when the sun has started going down, you can say Buona sera! |
| Eric: Which means “Good evening!” You can also use it when leaving. Ok, let’s see how to make small talk about the weather. You can say what you think about today’s weather with a sentence like “Today the weather is wonderful,” which in Italian is.. |
| Ofelia: Oggi c'è una giornata splendida. |
| Eric: Let’s see how this sentence is formed. |
| Ofelia: First comes Oggi c'è, literally meaning “today there is,” and after that una giornata splendida, meaning “a wonderful day.” You can change the indication of time to an indication of place, such as Fuori, meaning “outside.” |
| Eric: Can we talk about different weather conditions using the same expression? |
| Ofelia: Yes, the verbal expression c'è is often used when talking about the weather. You can start the sentence using Oggi c'è or Fuori c'è and add the expression you want. |
| Eric: Let’s give some examples. |
| Ofelia: For example, Oggi c'è bel tempo. |
| Eric: “Today the weather is beautiful,” |
| Ofelia: Or Fuori c'è un sole splendido. |
| Eric: “Today the sun is bright,” |
| Ofelia: Instead of c'è, in some cases fa can be used. For example Oggi fa bel tempo. |
| Eric: The English translation doesn’t change, “Today the weather is beautiful.” As an answer to that, you may say or hear a comment about the temperature. |
| Ofelia: For example, you can say La temperatura è perfetta. |
| Eric: Which means “The temperature is perfect.” |
| Ofelia: Or, La temperatura è insopportabile. |
| Eric: “The temperature is unbearable.” |
| Ofelia: In these sentences, the verb è is followed by a copula, but often the temperature can be described through verbs, for example, La temperatura si è alzata all’improvviso. |
| Eric: “The temperature has risen suddenly.” |
| Ofelia: Here’s another example - La temperatura si è abbassata all’improvviso. |
| Eric: “The temperature dropped suddenly.” |
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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