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English Bites! are practical, bite-sized tips to help you improve your English for work. Published twice a week, the articles include useful advice covering different aspects of business English including grammar, vocabulary, writing, speaking as well as fun topics. It'll take just a few minutes to read each tip. You can subscribe to English Bites! from the Newsletters link above. After that, you'll receive notifications of all new tips by email.
Topics for Conversations with Foreign Visitors |
15 Apr 2024
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The topics you could discuss when starting a conversation depends on your relationship with the visitors, how frequently you meet each other and whether they live in Hong Kong or are visiting from overseas. Here are some suggestions: Flight
Previous visits
Plans
Accommodation
Weather
Visitor's country
Note that when developing a conversation with a visitor of any type, it is important that you do not jump from one subject to another subject too suddenly. It is also important that you respond and show interest to what they have said. If you are silent, your visitor may think that you don’t understand or that you aren’t interested, or that your questions have been rehearsed and are not sincere. Topics to be avoided Topics of conversation that should be avoided include:
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Often the first few minutes of a conversation with foreign visitors can be rather difficult, particularly when people don't know each other well. A good way to get a conversation going is to ask questions. However, these questions must be of a general nature so that your visitors can answer them easily without embarrassment.Interrupting at Business Meetings: Useful Language
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Uses of the Present Simple Tense
Avoid Weak Sentence Starts
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English Around the World: Hong Kong
Phone Communication Problems: Useful Language for Clarifying the Message
Creating a Vertical List from a Paragraph Block
Useful Language for Handling Requests
Punctuation in Business Writing: The Colon (:)
Simplified English Jokes
Avoid Texting Language in Business Writing
Using Understandable Words in your Business Documents
Some or Any?
Business Email: Informing and Notifying
Welcoming Visitors Using Open and Closed Questions
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Language for Expressing Likes, Dislikes and Preferences
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