陈豪在北京的ABC美国公司工作。他今天有事去找美国同事Amy。

(Office ambience)

A:Hi, Chen Hao. How are you today?

C:还好,不过,我有点儿事想请教你。

A:How can I help you?

C:今天下班,我又要去参加公司的社交活动。

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

C:没错,就是要多认识点儿人,跟客户搞好关系。不过,我还是不太习惯这种活动。

A:What’s the problem?

C:自我介绍完,我就不知道该说什么了。

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

C:怎么准备啊?

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

C:然后呢?

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:可我根本不知道谁会去啊?

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

******

一个小时过后,陈豪和Amy又见面了。

C:Amy, 今天的活动是Jepson公司主办的。

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自己有飞机,还有执照?太好了,我也喜欢飞机。

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, 那是什么样的问题啊?

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:就是要问为什么,怎么样这类的问题, 是吗?

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

C:不要问什么时候,在哪儿,哎呀,太复杂了。我恐怕记不住。

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:做个好听众当然没问题。我难道就不需要说话吗?

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:他要是说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。我试试看。