Useful Sentences for your next Business Lunch

IN Business, Useful Phrases

Help, I have a business lunch – Hëllef, ech hunn e Geschäftsiessen

Does that sound familiar? Business lunches can be a great opportunity to connect, but when it comes to speaking in Luxembourgish you might feel unsure about what to say or how to keep the conversation flowing.

In this lesson, I’ll share useful sentences and conversation starters to help you feel more confident and natural during your next business lunch. Whether it’s small talk, or discussing business matters, you’ll learn how to navigate it all in Luxembourgish.

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These days you might be meeting your business contacts for coffee, for lunch whatever, but in any meal there are 3 important parts that you need to know how to manage to make sure that that meal goes well.

Now a business lunch has a purpose and you probably know why you are there and what you want to discuss with your business contact. And my clients often ask me for help how to start a business lunch. Well as you probably know small talk is very important and it’s expected at business lunches. The idea of small talk is to build a connection with that person. Because of that you want small talk to be comfortable for everyone, a lively conversation, but not too personal.

But how do you do that?

Hei sinn e puer Froen, déi s du stelle kanns fir eng Konversatioun an esou enger Situatioun unzefänken:

Natierlech ass d’Wieder e beléift Theema a mir schwätze jo alleguer gär iwwer d’Wieder. Also kanns du soen:

Wat hu mir Chance mam Wieder dës Woch. Dat ass seelen datt mir am Januar {esou waarm Deeg} hunn. How lucky are we with the weather this week. It’s rare that we have such warm days in January.

Especially if the weather is exceptionally hot, cold, rainy, sunny. So it’s a pretty versatile conversation starter.

An hei ass eng aner Iddi fir eng flott Konversatioun mat engem Business Partner ze hunn: du kanns Interessi weisen iwwer senger Carrière. Zum Beispill:

Schafft Dir scho laang bei Luxzone – Have you been working for a long time at Luxzone
Säit wéini schafft Dir hei zu Lëtzebuerg bei …? – Since when have you been working here?
Hutt Dir ëmmer am Beräich Projet Management geschafft? Have you always been in project management?

So you never know, you may have in common in your professional backgrounds. But small talk can also be about cultural interests, especially if there is something big going on. Du kanns zum Beispill froen:

Hutt Dir de Film XYZ gesinn? Ech hunn héieren, e wier ganz gutt. – Have you seen the movie YXZ? I hear it’s really good.
Ech hu gelies, do ass eng grouss Ausstellung an der Luxexpo – I read there is a big exhibition at the Luxexpo. Hutt Dir de se gesinn? Have you been there?

But here I suggest to start with some information about yourself first (to avoid being too intrusive). So instead of saying:

Wat sinn är Hobbyien? Oder Wat maacht Dir an ärer Fräizäit you can say something like:

De leschte Weekend war d’Wieder esou gutt dofir hunn ech profitéiert fir Vëlo ze fueren. Da war richteg flott. An wat hutt Dir mat deem schéine Wieder gemaach?

And again during those conversations you may discover that and your business contact share some kind of interest. And if that’s the case you can ask follow up questions to show that you are interested in their life. Zum Beispill:

Also ech fueren net gär Vëlo, allerdéngs ginn ech gär de Weekend lafen.

And then it is easy to keep the conversation going:

Wéi oft gitt Dir lafen? Wou gitt Dir lafen? Wéi laang laaft dir?

As important as it is to make small talk … you also need to get down to business.

Now in a normal meeting you might simply say: Ok, da kommt mir schwätzen elo iwwer Affären.

But in a business lunch that might feel a little direct. So you can use more business related questions to move the conversation towards business. So stay focused all the time.

If you know that their company is working on new projects you can ask:

Wéi leeft et mat ärem neie Projet? – How’s your new project going
Wat gëtt et Neits iwwer de neie Projet? – What’s new?
Wéi wäit sidd dir mam Projet XYZ? – How far are you with project XYZ?

And if a business partner is starting asking questions to you, that can also be the cue that it’s time to move the conversation to business. So stay focused.

Eventually your business lunch will come to an end and this happens when someone brings you the bill.

And to end you can say: Merci fir d’Iessen / d’Invitatioun. Et huet mech gefreet. – It was a peasure.

You can suggest staying in contact:

Mir bleiwen a Kontakt an ech schécken Iech all d’Informatiounen per Email.
Dir hutt jo meng Mailaddress? Da schéckt mir gären all d’Informatioune per Email
Kontaktéiert mech iwwer Telefon oder Email, falls dir Froen hutt. – Don’t hesitate to contact me per phone or email, should you have any questions.

May be you work in a Lux speaking environment? And if you would like to continue learning business vocabulary with me right now and you would like to expand your business vocabulary then stay tuned as the next episode you’ll learn to introduce yourself before your next business meeting in Luxembourgish.

And if you would like to continue learning business vocabulary with me right now and you would like to expand your business vocabulary to be able to talk in meetings or with your colleagues, and, learn to talk on the phone, or give presentations in Luxembourgish then