Lesson 13: Having casual chats with your colleagues
Having casual chats with your colleagues - Casual conversations at work
Vocabulary
Comment s’est passé ton week-end ?
How was your weekend?
Tu as prévu beaucoup de choses ce week-end ?
Have you got much planned for the weekend?
Je voulais te parler de ...
I wanted to talk to you about ...
Qu’est-ce que j’ai manqué ?
What have I missed?
se mettre à jour
to catch up
Retrouvons nous un peu avant la réunion pour se mettre à jour.
Let's meet before the meeting to catch up.
Tu veux prendre un café ?
Do you want to have a coffee?
On va déjeuner ?
Shall we grab lunch?
Que fais-tu pour le déjeuner ?
What are you doing for lunch?
Here's a tip
Greeting your colleagues en se serrant la main (by shaking hands) is an important daily step to ensure good relationships at work and make sure you don’t forget anyone! Heading straight to your desk without having done the expected office round can be seen as rude regardless of how much work you have ahead of you. However, you don’t need to do more than shake hands. Small talk isn’t common in France and you shouldn’t feel the need to fill any silences.
In France, faire la bise (to give a kiss on each cheek) is part of everyday life. We greet family and friends in this way. However, at work, we must shake hands when we meet someone for the first time. We might greet our colleagues by kissing them on the cheeks when we have a closer relationship. We never kiss our manager on the cheeks though!
While it's obviously essential to know how to talk about work, it's also very important to be able to join in with casual conversations with your colleagues. Allons prendre un café pour qu'on se mette à jour. (Let's grab a coffee and catch up.) Comment s’est passé ton week-end ? (How was your weekend?) On va déjeuner ? (Shall we grab lunch?)
Let's quickly recap all the expressions we've learned. Comment s’est passé ton week-end ? (How was your weekend?) Tu as prévu beaucoup de choses ce week-end ? (Have you got much planned for the weekend?) Je voulais te parler de ... (I wanted to talk to you about ...) Qu’est-ce que j’ai manqué ? (What have I missed?) On va déjeuner ? (Shall we grab lunch?) Que fais-tu pour le déjeuner ? (What are you doing for lunch?) Tu veux prendre un café ? (Do you want to have a coffee?)
Dialogue
David: Comme s’est passé ton week-end Susy ?
David: How was your weekend, Susy?
Susy: Plutôt bien, merci. Et le tien ?
Susy: Pretty good, thanks. How about yours?
David: Pas mal, merci. En fait, je voulais te parler de quelque chose.
David: Not too bad, thanks. Actually, I wanted to talk to you about something.
Susy: Oui, bien sûr. Qu’est-ce que j’ai manqué ?
Susy: Yeah, sure. What have I missed?
David: Oh ne t’inquiète pas, rien de sérieux. Veux-tu prendre un café plus tard ?
David: Oh, don't worry, nothing serious. Do you want to have a coffee later?
Susy: Pourquoi pas un déjeuner ? On pourrait prendre des plats chinois et aller au parc ?
Susy: How about lunch? Shall we grab some Chinese food and go to the park, maybe?
David: Bien sûr. Bonne idée ! On se voit à l’heure du déjeuner ?
David: Sure. Great idea! See you at lunchtime?
Susy: Oui. À plus tard.
Susy: Yep! Catch up later.
