Learn how to apologize appropriately in a business situation
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Maryssa: Apologies in a Business Setting. Maryssa Here. |
| Aurore: Bonjour, I'm Aurore. |
| Maryssa: In this lesson, you’ll learn about apologizing at work. The conversation takes place at the office. |
| Aurore: It's between Thomas and Laurène. |
| Maryssa: The speakers are co-workers, therefore, they will speak both formal and informal French. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Thomas: Bonjour, je suis tellement désolé ! Je suis en retard ! Excusez-moi pour le retard, j'ai eu un problème de bus à cause de la grève ! |
| Laurène: Ne t'en fais pas Thomas, je comprends. C'est moi qui suis désolée, j'avais oublié la grève, j'aurais dû te dire de rester chez toi pour faire du télétravail. |
| Thomas: Il y a une possibilité de faire du télétravail ? |
| Laurène: Lors de situations compliquées comme celle-ci, oui. Quoi qu'il en soit excuse-moi et si il y a encore grève demain tu pourras rester chez toi. |
| Thomas: Ne vous excusez- pas ! Merci pour votre compréhension en tout cas. Au travail à présent ! |
| Laurène: Tout à fait ! Arrêtons de nous excuser et travaillons ! |
| Maryssa: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Thomas: Bonjour, je suis tellement désolé ! Je suis en retard ! Excusez-moi pour le retard, j'ai eu un problème de bus à cause de la grève ! |
| Laurène: Ne t'en fais pas Thomas, je comprends. C'est moi qui suis désolée, j'avais oublié la grève, j'aurais dû te dire de rester chez toi pour faire du télétravail. |
| Thomas: Il y a une possibilité de faire du télétravail ? |
| Laurène: Lors de situations compliquées comme celle-ci, oui. Quoi qu'il en soit excuse-moi et si il y a encore grève demain tu pourras rester chez toi. |
| Thomas: Ne vous excusez- pas ! Merci pour votre compréhension en tout cas. Au travail à présent ! |
| Laurène: Tout à fait ! Arrêtons de nous excuser et travaillons ! |
| Maryssa: Listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Thomas: Good morning, I'm so sorry! I'm late! I'm sorry that I'm late, I had trouble with my bus because of the strike! |
| Laurène: Don't worry Thomas, I understand. I am the one who's sorry, I forgot about the strike, I should have told you to stay at home to do telework. |
| Thomas: Is there a possibility to do telework? |
| Laurène: In such complicated circumstances, yes. Anyway, excuse me, and if there is a strike tomorrow, you can stay home. |
| Thomas: No need to apologize! Thank you for your understanding anyway. Let's work now! |
| Laurène: Indeed! Let's stop apologizing and work instead! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Maryssa: Poor Thomas. He probably had a stressful morning getting into the office, only to find out that he could have stayed at home. |
| Aurore: It’s a shame they didn’t organize it better. |
| Maryssa: Yes, it would have saved stress and more work could have been done. |
| Aurore: There’s a growing number of independent workers in France. |
| Maryssa: Do you know how many there are? |
| Aurore: There are two million freelancers. |
| Maryssa: That’s a lot! Freelancing has a lot of advantages. |
| Aurore: The main one is autonomy. You can be your own boss. |
| Maryssa: It also has some downsides, though. |
| Aurore: There’s a lot of legal obligations. |
| Maryssa: Yes, you’re responsible for your own taxes, for example. |
| Aurore: You must respect things like this. |
| Maryssa: Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Maryssa: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is... |
| Aurore: problème [natural native speed] |
| Maryssa: "problem" |
| Aurore: problème [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Aurore: problème [natural native speed] |
| Maryssa: Next we have... |
| Aurore: retard [natural native speed] |
| Maryssa: "lateness" |
| Aurore: retard [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Aurore: retard [natural native speed] |
| Maryssa: Next we have... |
| Aurore: dire [natural native speed] |
| Maryssa: "to say" |
| Aurore: dire [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Aurore: dire [natural native speed] |
| Maryssa: Next we have... |
| Aurore: grève [natural native speed] |
| Maryssa: "strike" |
| Aurore: grève [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Aurore: grève [natural native speed] |
| Maryssa: Next we have... |
| Aurore: comprendre [natural native speed] |
| Maryssa: "to understand" |
| Aurore: comprendre [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Aurore: comprendre [natural native speed] |
| Maryssa: Next we have... |
| Aurore: oublier [natural native speed] |
| Maryssa: "to forget" |
| Aurore: oublier [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Aurore: oublier [natural native speed] |
| Maryssa: Next we have... |
| Aurore: télétravail [natural native speed] |
| Maryssa: "teleworking" |
| Aurore: télétravail [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Aurore: télétravail [natural native speed] |
| Maryssa: And lastly... |
| Aurore: s'excuser [natural native speed] |
| Maryssa: "to apologise" |
| Aurore: s'excuser [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Aurore: s'excuser [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Maryssa: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word is... |
| Aurore: J'ai eu un problème. |
| Maryssa: meaning "I had a problem." |
| Maryssa: Let’s look at this phrase. |
| Aurore: Avoir is conjugated into the passé composé. |
| Maryssa: The "past tense." This is also the most common past tense in French. |
| Aurore: Using it shows that the problem is finished. |
| Maryssa: What can you say if the problem isn’t over yet? |
| Aurore: j'ai un problème. |
| Maryssa: Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Aurore: Sure. For example, you can say... Quand j'étais au Japon, j'ai eu un problème avec mon passeport. |
| Maryssa: ... which means "When I was in Japan, I had a problem with my passport." |
| Maryssa: Okay, what's the next word? |
| Aurore: J'aurais dû te dire... |
| Maryssa: meaning "I should have told you..." |
| Maryssa: Let’s break this down. We’ll look first at "should." |
| Aurore: This is avoir. In this sentence, it is in the conditional form. |
| Maryssa: This can express a regret or a reproach. This isn’t a complete sentence. |
| Aurore: It has to be followed by que and an explanation. |
| Maryssa: Be careful! When expressing a condition, it is never followed by the past conditional 1st form. |
| Aurore: For example, si j'aurais. It should be si j'avais. |
| Maryssa: A more-than-perfect indicative. Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Aurore: Sure. For example, you can say... J'aurais dû te dire que j'avais raté mon train. |
| Maryssa: ... which means "I should have told you that I missed my train." |
| Maryssa: Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Maryssa: In this lesson, you'll learn about apologizing at work. We’re sure that you already know some ways to apologize in French. |
| Aurore: An easy way is to say je suis désolé. |
| Maryssa: "I’m sorry." However, in this lesson we will look at how to apologize at work. It’s very common to use adverbs. |
| Aurore: For example, tellement "so," vraiment "really," or sincèrement "sincerely." |
| Maryssa: There is also a verb you can use. |
| Aurore: s'excuser |
| Maryssa: You can use this as "to apologize for oneself." A basic pattern is- |
| Aurore: Excusez-moi pour... |
| Maryssa: "Excuse me for…" or "I’m sorry for…" followed by a reason. |
| Aurore: Or Je suis désolé(e) pour… |
| Maryssa: "I’m sorry for…" followed by a reason. Let’s hear some examples with reasons attached. |
| Aurore: Je suis désolé pour le retard. |
| Maryssa: "I’m sorry for the delays." |
| Aurore: Je suis désolé, j’ai oublié d’écrire le rapport. |
| Maryssa: "I’m sorry, I forgot to write the report." |
| Aurore: Excusez-nous pour le dérangement. |
| Maryssa: "We apologize for the inconvenience." |
| Aurore: Il s’est excusé pour son absence. |
| Maryssa: "He apologized for his absence." If someone apologizes to you, here are a couple of sentences you can reply with. |
| Aurore: Je vous en prie. |
| Maryssa: "You're welcome." or "Don't mention it." |
| Aurore: Ce n’est rien, ne vous en faites pas. |
| Maryssa: "It’s fine, don’t worry about it." Moving on from apologies, when you start a job you won’t know immediately what it is possible to do. In the conversation we heard earlier, Thomas didn’t know it was possible for him to work from home. |
| Aurore: You can ask if something is possible by saying Il y a une possibilité de…? |
| Maryssa: "Is there a possibility to…?" and then add an infinitive verb. |
| Aurore: Another option is Est-ce qu’il est possible de...? |
| Maryssa: "Is it possible to…?" again, followed by an infinitive verb. Let’s finish this lesson by hearing some examples. |
| Aurore: Il y a une possibilité de partir plus tôt ? |
| Maryssa: "Is there a possibility to leave earlier?" |
| Aurore: Est-ce qu’il possible d’être remboursé ? |
| Maryssa: "Is it possible to get a refund?" |
Outro |
| Maryssa: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Aurore: A la prochaine! |
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