Learn how to greet someone in the office when you haven't seen them for a long time
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Eric: Hi everyone, and welcome back to ItalianPod101.com. This is Business Italian for Beginners Season 1 Lesson 9 - Catching Up with an Italian Coworker. Eric Here. |
| Ofelia: Ciao, I'm Ofelia. |
| Eric: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to greet someone in the office when you haven’t seen them in a long time. The conversation takes place at an office reception. |
| Ofelia: It's between Paolo and Linda. |
| Eric: The speakers are acquaintances, so they will use informal Italian. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Paolo: Linda? |
| Linda: Paolo! Che sorpresa! |
| Paolo: Quanto tempo che non ci vediamo! |
| Linda: Come stai? |
| Paolo: Io sto bene. E tu? Tutto a posto? |
| Eric: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Paolo: Linda? |
| Linda: Paolo! Che sorpresa! |
| Paolo: Quanto tempo che non ci vediamo! |
| Linda: Come stai? |
| Paolo: Io sto bene. E tu? Tutto a posto? |
| Eric: Listen to the conversation with the English translation |
| Paolo: Linda? |
| Linda: Paolo! What a surprise! |
| Paolo: Long time no see! |
| Linda: How are you? |
| Paolo: I'm fine. And you? Is everything fine? |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Eric: Ofelia, are office transfers common in Italy? |
| Ofelia: No, transfers to other offices or branches don't happen often in an average Italian company. |
| Eric: I guess that’s because Italian companies are quite small and in most cases they don't have sub-branches, apart from the headquarters. |
| Ofelia: Right. Nevertheless, position or section changes inside the same office happen often, especially if a person covers a managment position and gets a promotion, or promozione. |
| 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: che sorpresa! [natural native speed] |
| Eric: what a surprise! |
| Ofelia: che sorpresa![slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ofelia: che sorpresa! [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Ofelia: tempo [natural native speed] |
| Eric: time, weather, tense |
| Ofelia: tempo[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ofelia: tempo [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Ofelia: vedersi [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to see each other, meet |
| Ofelia: vedersi[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ofelia: vedersi [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Ofelia: stare [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to be, to stand, to lie, to be located, to be situated |
| Ofelia: stare[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ofelia: stare [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Ofelia: bene [natural native speed] |
| Eric: good, well |
| Ofelia: bene[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ofelia: bene [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Ofelia: tutto [natural native speed] |
| Eric: everything, all |
| Ofelia: tutto[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ofelia: tutto [natural native speed] |
| Eric: And last |
| Ofelia: a posto [natural native speed] |
| Eric: well, fine, in order |
| Ofelia: a posto[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ofelia: a posto [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: che sorpresa! |
| Eric: meaning "what a surprise!" |
| Ofelia: This is an interjection, made up of the demonstrative che, which translates to English as "what a," and the noun sorpresa, meaning "surprise." |
| Eric: You can use it when you meet someone you didn't expect to see. Can you give us an example using this phrase? |
| Ofelia: Sure. For example, you can say.. Ciao Mario! Che sorpresa! |
| Eric: ..which means "Hi Mario! What a surprise!" |
| Ofelia: If you want to highlight that you are positively surprised, please say che bella sorpresa! |
| Eric: meaning "what a beautiful surprise!" You can use a similar pattern with different nouns to express different things. |
| Ofelia: Right, for example, che bellezza! |
| Eric: meaning “awesome!” or literally "what a beauty!" |
| Eric: Okay, what's the next phrase? |
| Ofelia: tutto a posto |
| Eric: meaning "everything is OK,” or “everything is fine" |
| Ofelia: This expression is made up of two elements, tutto meaning "everything," and the phrase a posto, |
| Eric: which literally means "at its place." It’s a colloquial expression and you can use it in any situation when you want to make clear that everything is under control. |
| Ofelia: You can use it, as in the dialogue, to ask if everything is ok and to see if the other person needs a hand. |
| Eric: Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Ofelia: Sure. For example, you can say.. Il ragazzo ha detto che è tutto a posto. |
| Eric: .. which means "The boy said that everything is OK.” Alright, now let’s move on to the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Eric: In this lesson, you'll learn how to greet someone in the office when you haven’t seen them in a long time. |
| Ofelia: To greet a co-worker you have not seen in a long time, you can say Quanto tempo che non ci vediamo! |
| Eric: which means "Long time no see!" The conversation usually continues with someone asking “How are you?” Let’s see the two expressions, one by one. |
| Ofelia: Quanto tempo che non ci vediamo! is the informal way to tell someone that it’s been a long time since you last met each other. |
| Eric: What do we say if we are in a formal setting or if we are maybe not that intimate with the other person? |
| Ofelia: When you need to express the same thing in a formal way, just say, Quanto tempo!, |
| Eric: literally meaning “How long!” |
| Ofelia: To make the expression complete, you could add Sono contento di vederla. |
| Eric: Which is “I’m happy to see you,” if you are a man |
| Ofelia: Or, if you are a woman Sono contenta di vederla. Verderla doesn’t change because it stands for vedere Lei, |
| Eric: which means “to see you” in the polite form. |
| Ofelia: You can use Quanto tempo che non… also in a different context. |
| Eric: It means “It’s been a long time since…” Let’s give some examples. |
| Ofelia: Sure thing. For example, Quanto tempo che non cucino! |
| Eric: “It’s been a long time since I last cooked!” |
| Ofelia: Quanto tempo che non andiamo al cinema! |
| Eric: “It’s been a long time since we last went to the cinema!” Notice that the Italian expression, when literally translated, means “It’s been a long time during which someone is not doing something.” Ok, now let’s move to the question “How are you?”, and review it. |
| Ofelia: If you are near the other person, you can use the informal Come stai? |
| Eric: When you want to use formal speech, you just have to switch the subject from the second singular person, to the third singular person, thus creating distance between the speakers. |
| Ofelia: So, tu stai changes into Lei sta. In the polite form it becomes Come sta? When answering this question, remember to keep the verb as stare and don’t change it into essere, or “to be”. |
| Eric: So the answer should be... |
| Ofelia: Sto bene. |
| Eric: It’s easy to get confused, because both verbs mean “to be” in English. |
| Ofelia: That’s true. A good tip is to remember that essere is hardly ever followed by an adverb such as bene. |
| Eric: It is also good to learn by heart that “How are you?” is... |
| Ofelia: Come stai? or Come sta? Remembering to use it correctly will allow you to understand the difference between the two verbs stare and essere little by little. |
| Eric: Ok, let’s wrap up with a couple of sample sentences. |
| Ofelia: Quanto tempo! Come sta? |
| Eric: "How long! How are you?" That was a polite sentence. |
| Ofelia: And Quanto tempo che non ti vedo! |
| Eric: Meaning "It's been a long time since I saw you last!", and is an informal sentence. |
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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