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英语真的是外星语吗？你还在为广交会上的“蹩脚”英语而烦恼吗？你还在为广交会上的外交口语而脸红吗？不用怕！阿连小编经历过近百场广交会，从一个“哑巴英语”到口若悬河的口语交流，现在就让我为各位外贸朋友分享一下相关的外贸英语。 1.老外很讨厌一种业务员，平时说什么都说ok，都说yes，都说没问题，结果这个做不到，那个做不到，客人一肚子火。这样的人，口语中称为Yes-man，就是应声虫。当客人要求你改产品，但你表示没法做，就可以直接说明原因，再来一句: I’m a professional guy, not a Yes-man. 2.英语口语中有一个地道的表达，white elephant，但千万不要认为是白象，而要根据上下文判断。假设在拉杆箱工厂，业务员跟客户谈判，是否要在每个铆钉上打logo？客户问，那要加多少钱？业务员答，一共要增加3美元；客人来一句，No, that’s the white elephant. 这里，就表示昂贵而无用。 3.广交会，当客户拜访过摊位后，表示很高兴跟你见面啊，感谢你们招待这类的客套话时，业务员也可以来一句：We enjoyed having you.这句表达在美国很常见。 4.形容某人脸红，不要用turn to red这个词，老外会很诧异，脸怎么会变红呢？他们没法理解。可能是热，可能是尴尬，又或者是什么原因，形容脸红，英语中有一个专门的词blush，可做不及物动词，也可做名词。如：She blushed. 就是她脸红了。千万别说Her face turned to red，就闹笑话了。 5.做外贸时间长了，久而久之会有职业病。比如做服装的业务员某天去专柜买衣服，可能会摸一下面料，看一下做工，脑子里会不自觉推算面料成本和人工费用，这种本能反应就属于职业病了，大家多少都有点。平时跟老外说笑，别用career disease这样的中式英语，正确表达是occupational hazard。 6. indoor这个词大家都知道，indoor furniture，室内家具；indoor decor，室内装饰品，工作中经常会碰到。但是indoor这个形容词一旦变化成副词，就很少有人知道，是在后面加s，变成indoors。如：Come indoors and give me a helping hand. 快进来，帮我个忙。 7. different这个词很常见，表示“不同的”，那加个前缀，变成indifferent呢？别傻眼，也别想当然认为是否定的否定，变成“相同的”，那就错了。这个词其实就是I don’t care. 表示“不在乎”。当同事说，你不降价，客人就下单给别人了。你来一句I’m indifferent. 就表示无所谓，随他去吧。 8. lust这个词千万别乱用！打开邮箱就看到一封刚收进来的开发信，千篇一律，介绍我们是做什么什么的，质量好，价格有竞争力……。最搞笑的是，她写了句I’m confident to increase your purchasing lust. 差点让我咖啡都喷出来。我知道她要表达的是什么。但是lust这个词，更多指“性欲”。 9. 英语中，常常需要表达“一时兴起”、“一时冲动”。比如老美问你，怎么买了件这么丑的衬衫？你回答：“唉，别提了，一时冲动啊。”英文就可以讲：Come on! Just a spur of the moment. 当然，消费可以一时冲动，客户下订单，往往也会一时冲动，关键是，你能不能给对方一个nice的印象。 10. stop by这个短语，可以用来表示“顺路拜访”、“顺道拜访”。给老美说：Be sure to stop by our booth in the coming Canton Fair. 就是“广交会一定要来拜访我们摊位啊”。可以在邮件和口语中使用。 11. 请求对方谅解，欧美业务员经常会用intentional这个词，表示“故意的”、“有意的”，但很少看到国内业务员使用。如：We’re really sorry for the poor logo painting. Please realize it was not intentional. 12. 口语中，表示饥饿，除了常用的hungry外，还可以用feel empty。如：”I feel empty.” 就是“我有点饿了”，跟”I’m hungry.”同义。千万别理解成我感到很空虚，那就错了。但如果反过来，I have an empty feeling. 这里的empty feeling，就是“空虚的感觉”。 13. 库存不多，英文可以用low stock表达。比如跟客人解释，因为原材料库存不多，我们需要把交期延长到45天后，就可以说：Due to the low stock of raw material, we have to postpone the delivery date to 45 days later. 此外，没有库存，是out of stock；库存充足，是sufficient stock。 14. 中文有“说曹操，曹操就到”，表示正说某人，他就来了。在英文里，同样有类似表达，是Speak of the devil! 比如你跟老外在讨论你某某同事的趣事，正好这个同事这时候过来，你就可以说：Wow, speak of the devil! 其实这是一句省略过的用法，全句是Speak of the devil and he appears. 15. 薯条这个词，英国叫chips，美国叫French fries。至于跟French有什么关系？有两个来源。来源一，French在这里指的是“法式深油炸”，是一种烹饪方式；来源二，薯条最早出现在19世纪末的巴黎。平时在美国点餐，可以简单说fries，服务员就知道你要薯条。另外，土豆泥是mashed potatoes。 16. ship做动词，并非单纯指海运，也可用于指代空运。举个例子，When could you ship the samples? 根据语境，就是“请问您什么时候可以寄出样品呢？”很显然，这里的寄样，不可能是海运，一定是快递空运了。又比如We will ship the goods by air next week. 这里的ship，就等同于deliver。 17.“一次性付款”，英文可以用lump sum来表示。比如客人下了一个很小的试单，只有500美金，这时候如果根据常规收30%定金，剩下70%见提单复印件，就太麻烦了，两笔款项的银行费用也很贵，就可以给客人邮件：Could you help to pay in one lump sum for this trial order? Thanks. 18. 有时碰到客户来公司拜访，老板往往会滔滔不绝介绍公司，介绍产品，介绍未来发展等等，长篇大论，生怕别人不知道。很多老外碍于颜面，只好耐着性子听着，偶尔还要附和两句吹捧一下。如果碰到个脾气没那么好的，估计就会来一句：Please make a long story short. 就是“请您长话短说”。 19.up in the air，可以表示对某事不确定，还在天上飘着呢，相当于not sure。比如你连续接了几个大单，业绩很棒，客人非常赞赏，连忙恭喜你升职。但这事情毕竟没有正式公布，你也不好意思得瑟，就可以说I really hope so. It’s still up in the air. 20. 表示“很遗憾、很可惜”，多年前我们就学过what a pity，但这短语跟形容美味的delicious一样，中国学生用得实在太泛滥。其实在美国，还有一个短语what a bummer，也很常见。如客人跟你说，他没拿下最终客户的订单，你就可以答：What a bummer you losing the opportunity. 就很地道。 21.谈判的时候，当你给了客人某个专业意见获得采纳，客人或许会夸奖你，可能会说一句You can say that again! 意思就相当于Great! 或者Wonderful! 是对你的夸奖，而不是让你把话再重复一遍。 22. 有的时候我们常常会碰到一些不知所谓的人和事，让自己满腹怨气。比如客人指定某个货代出货，而那货代可能非常麻烦，要求巨多，费用巨贵，服务巨差，实在忍不住想跟老外抱怨几句，电话里可以来一句I don’t like their red tape. 这里，red tape表示“打官腔”、“做事不专业”。 23. 客人为了跟你表示亲近，常常会透露一些“秘密”给你，比如跟别家供应商过去的成交价格，希望你提供更好的价格和服务等等，然后请你保密。这个时候，可以回答客人：Sure, we will be dumb as an oyster. oyster在这里，就不是生蚝的意思了。 24. 客人来访的时候，常常会介绍自己的老板给他认识，比如说，这个是我们的director，这个是我们的CEO，这个是我们的big boss，这类表达都很常见很频繁，总有用厌的时候，偶尔也可以幽默一下，跟客人说，这是我们的big potato，客人也会恍然大悟，哦，这是你们老板。 25. 很多业务员写邮件特别爱用try one’s best这个句型，客人要早点交货，就回复客人I will try my best to ship them earlier. 客人要价格低一点，sales就try my best给你最好的价格；客人要尽快得到回复，sales还是会try my best尽早回复你。其实用词可以多变，用go all out to do也无妨。 26. luck这个词表示幸运，但口语中，Just my luck. 的意思截然相反。比如客人是一个进口商，你上周刚报了价，寄了样品，今天电话过去问问客人进展，客人很无奈地跟你说Just my luck. 就表示“很遗憾”、“很郁闷”，下半句很可能就是我们最终没拿到订单。 27. 动词decide表示“决定”，但有一个非常非常重要的例外情况，就是当后面跟matter的时候，含义就变成了“解决”，是solve一样，而不再表示决定。如客人抱怨验货没有通过，你跟客人解释了原因并完成返工，就可以跟一句：Please don’t worry. We decided the matter. 就意味着问题解决了。 28.“放弃”这个词，除了我们常用的短语give up外，也可以用back away来表达。如：We couldn’t accept L/C 60 days as payment term. We have to back away. 29. sample是样品，但sampler这个词就比较少见，可以做采样器、取样器来解释。但在日常生活中，sampler还有一个重要的意思，就是我们中文里所说的“集锦”。比如某天跟客人去吃日本菜，问对方，有没有兴趣来一份sushi sampler? 这里就表示很多种口味集锦的寿司拼盘。 30. sauce是酱汁的意思，但沙拉酱，往往不用salad sauce，欧美的习惯用法是salad dressing。如我们吃肯德基的鳕鱼条，可能会用到千岛酱，英文是Thousand Island dressing。如是蔬菜沙拉，配上橄榄油香草和胡椒的酱汁，就属于意式沙拉酱，就是Italian dressing。 31. 口语中，ring a bell表示“对……有印象”。比如在展会上收到某某客户的名片，突然发现这个客户是去年联系过的，自然会顺便跟客户聊几句，也问问去年报价的产品有没有消息之类的。也许客户不记得，自然会问你的名字和公司名，可能就会来一句：Oh, the name rings a bell. 32. 很多客人非常喜欢砍价，价格谈完了，为了让对方满意，有赢的感觉，往往会拍拍他马屁，说一些你是谈判高手啊，你谈判很厉害之类的话。美国俚语有一个like nobody’s business，就表示“无以伦比”。如Joseph, you have excellent price negotiation ability like nobody’s business! 33.形容“真遗憾、真可惜”，很多朋友脑海里还是会浮现出那句经典句型: It’s a pity! 当年从新概念英语中学来，这么多年屡试不爽。可最近美国同事告诉我，这个说法没错，很地道，但是用法太老了，现在的美国年轻人里面，几乎不用这个句型，往往用It’s a shame! 或者That’s too bad! 34. 订单操作中出现某些问题，如订单要延期，但是具体原因不方便告诉客人，我们往往会编个理由、找个借口，可能就能体面地解决。但比较尴尬的是，一旦谎言被客人识破，受到责问的时候，也千万惊慌失措，可以先sorry，再跟客人解释一下，当初用white lie是不想他过分担心。 35. of no avail这个短语可以用来表示“无用的”、“无效的”。如果要表达“品质无法改进，单纯靠降价是无用的”，就可以写成：It is of no avail to reduce the price only without quality improvement. 36. 往往会遇到以下这种情况，客人拿别家的低价来压你，跟你说，某某供应商的报价比你低很多呢，如果你心里有底，产品是完全不同的，就可以告诉客人：There is a world of difference between their item and ours. 这里a world of difference就表示“极大的不同”，语气程度得到了加强。 37.有朋友留言给我，问我“女汉子”如何用英语地道表达。其实英文中有一个很形象的表达，a man of a woman，就十分形象了。记得很多年前，一个美国客户夸我助理能干，我答他：Yep, she is a man of a woman. 就可以理解为：“她是个女汉子”。 38. suitable这个词使用要谨慎！很多朋友喜欢说，The quantity of 20′GP is suitable for us.字面上理解没错，但实际在英文中，suitable往往是以否定形式出现的。如This testing issue is not suitable for our item. 39.刚和美国同事讨论了incident和accident的区别。虽然都有“事件”、“事故”，在词典里属于近义词，但实际在英语国家，两个词用法差别很大。incident指意图发生的事情，如There was a special incident yesterday that I quitted. 而accident指的是偶然事件，如车祸，就是car accident。 40.当客户在展会摊位上，或者在样品间里，我们拿着某某产品请他看看，英文口语怎么表达？可以说，please have a look或者please take a look。在美国，还有一个地道的近义短语，就是check it out。可以拿着自家的新产品，对老外说一句，Hey buddy, check it out. 41. 请老外吃饭，往往在开吃前，很多朋友只会说一句，Please help yourself.其实这句话在美国并不常见。一般都是你去别人家里吃饭，别人会请你自便，才会说这句。而在餐厅里，老美跟老美之间，往往会用一个更加简单的表达：OK, Eat up! 中文可以理解为，“好了，开吃吧！” Is English really difficult to learn ? Are you still worry about the bad English in the Fair? Are you embarrassed of the spoken English in the Fair? Do not be afraid! I have experienced many times of Canton Fair. Now I would like to share with you some relevant foreign trade English. 1.The foreigners hate the salesman who usually say OK for everything but finally can not do anything which is known as the Yes-man. When the customer ask for changing the product but you can not do, you can directly explain why and say: I'm a professional guy, not a Yes-man. 2.There is a local expression in oral English: white elephant. Do not think is as a white elephant. You should judge it according to the context. Assuming in the trolley factories, salesman is negotiating with customers about whether to make the logo on each rivet? The customer asks how much extra money does it cost? The salesman answers a total of $ 3;Then the customer says, “No, that's the white elephant.” It means that it is expensive and useless. 3. In the Fair, when customers visited the booth and said glad to meet you and thank you for your entertainment. The salesman can also say, We enjoyed having you . The expression is very common in the United States. 4. Describing someone blush, do not use “turn to red” because the foreigners will be very surprised how face turns red? They could not understand. May be it is hot or may be embarrassed or what other reason. English has a special word blush, which can be an intransitive verb and a noun. Such as:. She blushed. Never say Her face turned to red, which will make a stupid mistake. 5.After doing foreign trade for a long time, there will be occupational hazard. For example, a clothing salesman someday goes to the counter to buy clothes may touch the fabric, checking the detail and work, and calculating the labor costs and material costs in mind, and this belongs to occupational hazard. Many of us will have such kind of situation. When you are joking with the foreigners , do not use career disease and the correct expression is occupational hazard. 6. we all know the word indoor. We often encounter the indoor furniture and indoor decor in the work. But once the indoor changes into an adverb, very a few people know that is to add a “s”behind,becoming indoors. Such as: Come indoors and give me a helping hand, which means that come in and do me a favor. 7. The word “different” is very common. If you add a prefix, it becomes indifferent? Do be dumbfounded and do not think it will becomes the meaning “the same”. It means actually “I don't care”. When your colleague said that if you don’t lower the price, your customer will go away. And you can say “ I'm indifferent.” 8. Do not misuse the word “Lust”. When open the mailbox, you can see many development letter, which are stereotyped of saying the product, the good quality and competitive price. The most funny thing is she wrote that I'm confident to increase your purchasing lust. “lust” more means "sexual desire." 9. In the English, we often need to express "whim", "spur of the moment." For example, when the Americans ask you, why do you buy a piece so ugly shirt? You replied: "Oh, it is never mind, a impulse." You can speak it with English: Come on Just a spur of the moment. Of course, the consumer can be impulsive to buy somethings, also the customer often also impulsive to make orders. What the key is that can you give a nice impression to each other 10. “Stop by” can be used to mean "drop by". You can say to the Americans: Be sure to stop by our booth in the coming Canton Fair. You can use it in the e-mail and spoken language. 11. When ask for forgiveness, European and American salesman often use “intentional” but few domestic salesman uses. For example, “We’re really sorry for the poor logo painting. Please realize it was not intentional.” 12. In spoken English, you can use “hungry” or “feel empty” to describe the hunger. For example, "I feel empty", means "I'm a little hungry," which is the same with "I'm hungry." Do not misunderstand it as I feel very empty. But “I have an empty feeling.” really means the "feeling of emptiness." 13. You can use “low stock”to express the low storage. For example, to explain that the delivery date will be delayed 45 days because of the low storage, you can say, “Due to the low stock of raw material, we have to postpone the delivery date to 45 days later.”. In addition, out of stock means there is no stock; sufficient stock means the storage is enough. 14. The Chinese proverbed which means when you say someone, he comes. And in English, you can say “Speak of the devil”. For example, when you are discussing some interesting with the foreigners about your colleagues, and the colleague comes this time, you can say, Wow, speak of the devil! This is an omitted usage and the whole sentence is “Speak of the devil and he appears.” 15. The word “fries”, the British called it chips and the U.S.called it French fries. As for what to do with French? There are two sources. The first one is that the French here refers to the "French deep-fried," which is a way of cooking; the other one is that the fries first appeared in the late 19th century Paris. In the United States ordering, you can simply say fries and the waiter will know what you want. In addition, there is also mashed potatoes. 16. Ship is a verb, which do not simply refer to shipping, but can also refer to air transportation. For example, When could you ship the samples? According to the context, it is impossible transport by shipping but by air. Another example, we will ship the goods by air next week. The ship here is equivalent to deliver. 17. "Lump sum payment". When the customer give a small trial orders, only $ 500, according to the conventional rule, it should be 30% deposit, and 70% against the B/L copy. And it would be too much trouble and two sums bank charges are also very expensive, so you can give the message to the customer: Could you help to pay in one lump sum for this trial order Thanks? 18. Sometimes encounter customers to visit the company, the boss may tend to spout the company and product and the development future. Many foreigners will patiently listen but when meet someone with bad temper, he may say, “Please make a long story short is.” 19.Up in the air, means it is not sure about something which is the equivalent of not sure. For example, you pick up a few large order and the performance is great, the customers appreciate you a lot and congratulate on your promotion. But it is no official announced and you are too embarrassed to show off. So you can say I really hope so. It's still up in the air. 20. To express "Unfortunately, it is a pity," we learned “ what a pity”, which is over used. In fact, in the United States, there is also a common phrase “what a bummer”. If the customer tell you, he did not win the ultimate orders, you can answer: What a bummer you losing the opportunity, which is very authentic. 21. When negotiating, you give the customer the professional opinion and is adopted, the customers may compliment you and say “You can say that again!” It is the equivalent to great or wonderful for the compliment, but not asking you to repeat the words. 22. Sometimes we often encounter some of the ridiculous people and things, and make you full of grievances. For example,customer specifies a forwarder for shipment and the forwarder is cumbersome,with many requirements and huge cost and bad service. So you can not help complaining to the customer and you can say, “I don't like their red tape.” Here, red tape means "bureaucratic jargon", "not professional." 23. The customer want to have a closed relationship with you and tell you some "secret", such as the last trade price with other suppliers, hoping to get your better prices and services and he will ask you to keep secret. At this time, you can answer, “Sure, we will be dumb as an oyster.” 24. When the customers visit, you always introduce your boss to him. For example, “this is our director”, “this is our CEO” and “this is our big boss”, which are very common expression. Sometimes to be humorous, you can also say “this is our ‘big potato’” and the customers will suddenly understand that it is your boss. 25. Many salesmen like to use the sentence “try one's best”. When customers urge the delivery date, you can say, “I will try my best to ship them earlier”. When the customers want to reduce the prices, you can reply “try my best”to give you the best price. In fact, you can also use “go all out to do”. 26. Just my luck. If your customer is an importer and you quoted last week and sent the sample, and you called him to ask the progress, he may said to you“ Just my luck” which means "very unfortunately, "" very depressed ", and the next may be we probably did not get the order. 27. When “matter”comes after “decide”, the meaning changes. It means "solve" but not decision. If customers complain about the not passing inspection, you can explain to them the reason and will rework, saying “ Please don't worry. We decided the matter.” which means the problem is solved. 28. To express "Abandon", in addition to “give up”, you can also say “back away”. Eg: We couldn't accept L / C 60 days as payment term We have to back away. 29. Sampler is relatively rare. In daily life, “sampler” means "collection of the best". For example, one day, you eat Japanese food with the customer, and ask each other whether he needs a sushi sampler, which means the collection of the best of the sushi slash. 30. In Europe idioms, we say salad dressing but not salad sauce.If we eat KFC cod bar, there will be Thousand Island dressing. If vegetable salad with olive oil vanilla and pepper sauce,it becomes the Italian dressing. 31. In the spoken English, ring a bell means "have an impression on something" For example, you find that you have contacted the customer last year and you begin talking with him. The customer did not remember that so he will ask your name and the company name with “Oh, the name rings a bell.” 32. Many customers like to bargain. In order to satisfy them, you can praise them. There is a U.S. slang “like nobody's business” which means "unparalleled." For example, Joseph, you have excellent price negotiation ability like nobody's business! 33. To describe " what a pity," many friends will think the classic phrase sentence: It's a pity! But recently the American colleagues told that this statement is true and authentic,but too old-fashion. The young Americans don’t use it now. They use “It's a shame!” Or “That's too bad!” 34. When the order operations appear some problem and need to be postponed, but the specific cause is not convenient to tell the customers, we tend to make a reason and excuse to solve the problem. But embarrassingly, once the excuse see through by the customer and you are being accusing, you can say sorry first and explain that you only want to use the white lie to ease your worry. 35. “Of no avail”means "useless" and "invalid." If you want to express "quality can not be improved, simply relying on lowering the price is useless", it can be written: It is of no avail to reduce the price only without quality improvement. 36. You often encounter that the customers use the lower price of other supplier to force you lower the price, saying others are lower than yours. If you know the difference of your product and the industry,you can tell the customer, “There is a world of difference between their item and ours.” The“a world of difference” here means "great difference" ,which can strengthen the tone. 37. A friend left a message to me and asked me,how to express the "female man" in English. In fact, there is the very vivid expression “a man of a woman”. I remember many years ago, the U.S. customer praised my competent assistant and I answered him, “Yep, she is a man of a woman”. 38. Using the word suitable should be careful! Many friends like to say, The quantity of 20'GP is suitable for us. Literally it is true but actually in English, “suitable” often appears with negative form. For example, This testing issue is not suitable for our item. 39. I have discussed with my American colleagues about the difference between “incident” and “accident”. Although in the dictionary they are synonyms, but actually in English countries, the use of the two is very different. “incident” refers to “something that intent to happen”. For example, “There was a special incident yesterday that I quitted.” while“accident” refers to accidental events, such as a car accident. 40. When we want to show our product to our customer at the booth or in the sample room, how to express in spoken English? You can be say, “please have a look” or “please take a look”. In the United States, there is another phrase “check it out”. So you can hold your own new products and say to your customer,Hey buddy, check it out. 41. If you invite foreigner for dinner, many people will say, “Please help yourself.” In fact, this sentence is not common in the United States. Usually it is used when you go to others home for dinner. While at the restaurant, the Americans tend to use “OK, Eat up!” |
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