1.

First impressions
Starting point
1. Why are first impressions so important in business?
First impressions are important in business, but also in general, first of all because they tend
to last beyond the moment when they are made. If you happen to have a not so positive first
interaction with a client for whatever reason, their impression of that interaction can stick with
them. (to continue to have a bad opinion). So you should always at least try to be as polite as
you can and empathetic or empathic towards everyone (empathetic: to be able to imagine how
someone lese feels).
2. What gives us a first impression of a company or a person?
We can gain our first impression of a company via its website or by listening to other people`s
opinions of it, or by using the company`s services.
The first impression we make of a person is often based on immediate observations. People
often judge our trustworthiness after having a conversation with us. There are a lot of factors
that are important for an effective communication to occur and to make a good first
impression. You should show that you are a good listener, that you genuinely care about the
client`s problem or question.

Virtual impressions
 Prospective: /prəˈspek.tɪv/: бъдещ, очакван; future, eventual
People who are expected to buy something, employ someone, become parents, etc.
 Via: /ˈvaɪə/: през; чрез, посредством
By way of, or by use of
 Manage: /ˈmæn.ɪdʒ/ управлявам
To control and organize something or someone
 Researcher
Someone who studies a subject, especially in order to discover new information or reach a
new understanding:
 Missouri /mɪˈzʊə.ri/
Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It`s capital city is Jefferson
City.
 Brand /brænd/
A type of product made by a particular company and sold under a particular name
 Track следя, диря, проследявам
to record the progress or development of something over a period:
to follow
 Logo /ˈləʊ.ɡəʊ/
A design or symbol used by a company to advertise its products.
 Freelancer /ˈfriː.lɑːn.sər/
Someone who is not employed by any one organization but does particular pieces of work for
different organizations.
 Survey /ˈsɜː.veɪ/ проучване
An examination of opinions, behaviour, etc., made by asking people questions:

1
  To take a dislike to someone
If you take a dislike to someone or something, you decide that you do not like them.
 Applicant /ˈæp.lɪ.kənt/
A person who formally requests something, especially a job, or to study at a college or
university.
 To come across
To behave in a way that makes people believe that you have a particular characteristic.
 CV, curriculum vitae /kəˌrɪk.jə.ləm ˈviː.taɪ/, plural: curricula vitae
A short written description of your education, qualifications, previous jobs, and sometimes
also your personal interests, that you send to an employer when you are trying to get a job.
 Truthful /ˈtruːθ.fəl/
Honest and not containing or telling any lies.
 Promote /prəˈmoʊt/
To encourage or support something, or to help something become successful.

Page 7, exercise 5. Work with a partner. Choose five of the questions in 4 to ask and
answer.
1. What kind of impression would your company like to create on its website?
The design and the content of our website reflects our company`s values or guiding
principles: reliability, commitment, efficiency and a genuine care for the client, because the
lives of more than two hundred thousand people depend on the quality of our work to some
degree. So the impression that we would like to create or the message that we would like to
convey is that our customers are important.
2. What sort of reputation do you or your company have?
Well, I think that there are people who appreciate my commitment and the company`s
dedication, but there are also clients who tend to accuse us of being the sole reason for their
unhappy life. I work at a local utility company. People nowadays are so used to having
electricity, gas or water that when a breakage occurs for whatever reason, instead of trying to
understand that these things do happen all over the world, some of these people contact us just
to express their indignation and often times are extremely impolite.
3. How does your company project the right kind of image through its advertising?
It is very important that we always find a way through the texts that we publish and the press
releases to address customers in such a way that they could feel that they are important to us.
One of the last things that we`ve introduced is using mobile or removable boards with our
logo and an apology to the clients. Our workers use these boards when they have to repair a
water main break in the city.
4. How important is to manage your own online profile?
I agree that everyone can read about you on the Internet, especially if you are some sort of a
public figure.

2
5. When you meet someone for the first time face-to-face, how do you form an opinion of
them?
One of the qualities that I find most important in a person is his willingness to listen and I
guess his broad-mindedness. You can`t know in advance, unless you`re some sort of a
psychic, how did this person become the person that you are talking to. So I think we should
always respect other people`s life experiences regardless if they coincide with something that
we know and understand fully. Sometimes, when I have the opportunity to do so and when I
consider the moment to be appropriate, I ask for the person`s date and hour of birth, I raise a
natal astrological chart and this is how I find additional information about his personality.
6. How do you think you come across to people you meet for the first time?
Well, it depends very much on the setting. But usually I come across as moderately sociable.
In fact, I feel more comfortable writing than speaking, but it`s something that I`m working on
even right at this moment.
7. In your line of work, how important is it for you to build a close relationship with
customers or clients?
Well, I combine two full-time jobs: I work as the company`s manager`s secretary and as a
communications specialist (answer the phone, respond to complaints or inquiries, organize
events and meetings, write press releases and notices, and help the colleagues and the boss
when they have to give an interview, I handle part of the public relations of the company) ,
although I`m far from being perfect. Every day I have to attend to a variety of people from all
walks of life and I always have to choose my words carefully. As I said before, it`s important
to show that you care, but you should also try to know how to create boundaries because not
everyone is considerate enough to respect your free time. Creating some distance between you
and the customer sometimes is a very healthy choice.
8. Do you ever take an instant dislike to someone when you meet them for the first time?
No, it has never happened to me.

Page 7, exercise 7
1. reliable – trustworthy - надежден
2. unsuccessful – ineffective - неефективен, неуспешен
3. showy – ostentatious – показен
4. positive – favourable
5. costly – expensive
6. mistrustful – suspicious
7. practical – functional
8. complicated – complex
Complex: involving a lot of different but related parts

3
Complicated: involving a lot of different parts, in a way that is difficult to understand.
9. simple – modest
10. effective – successful
11. over-confident – arrogant
12. cautious – wary

8. Work with a partner.

1. Which of the adjectives in 7 are positive and which are negative? Explain your
choices.
Positive adjectives:
Reliable, trustworthy, positive, favourable, practical, functional, simple and modest (in most
cases), effective, successful, cautious, wary. Why are they positive? Well, I think they are
quite self-explanatory. I don`t think I know anyone who would say that being trustworthy, for
instance, is a negative trait.
We have a positive adjectives and a negative adjectives group. I would add a neutral one,
because I think there is at least one adjective that can be perceived as neutral depending on the
context that we find it in. This is the case with the word complex /kɑːmˈpleks/. For example,
one procedure can be complex, i. e. involving a lot of steps or stages, but this doesn`t
necessarily mean that it will be difficult to understand or comprehend.
Negative adjectives
Costly, expensive, unsuccessful, ineffective, showy, ostentatious, mistrustful, suspicious
(again, depending on the situation), complicated, over-confident and arrogant
2. Using as many of the adjectives as possible, discuss what makes an effective website in
your culture.
I think that most of the users prefer well-structured websites, which contain clear and concise
texts. Of course there are subjects that are quite complex and you can`t present them in an
overly simplified manner, but you should always try to use more accessible phrasing. I
personally prefer simple and well defined sections. And I also think that it is very important
for a website to include an “about us” page. The company should introduce itself somehow.
We all want to know who are we dealing with. And last but not least, every website should
have a contact form or it should contain contact information so that every potential customer
could interact with the company. These are some of the characteristics which can transform a
website into an effective communication tool.
3. What aspects of a website would give a negative first impression?
As a linguist nerd, I would say that the first thing that can either captivate me or repulse me is
the quality of the wording in the websites articles or notices. And I`m not talking about the
correct punctuation or spelling, which are important, don`t get me wrong, but there are things
that are even more important such as the grammar rules and the semantic rules. Sometimes I

4
visit websites where I instantaneously find out that the author doesn`t know the meaning of
some words in his mother tongue or that they choose to fill the texts with loan-words when
they are absolutely unnecessary.
Page 9, exercise 9
Work with a partner. Look at these things which can create a good or bad first impression of a
company.
1. Which four are the most important and why?
We find that the quality of the product/service which the company provides, the price, the
company`s reputation and the office or business premises are the things that we would focus
on when creating a first impression of a particular company, because, at the end of the day,
which matters the most and what makes a company different from the rest is the quality of the
services. When a company provides excellent services and has high level staff, it
automatically creates a very good reputation, so these factors are connected. But, of course, it
all depends on the business that we are talking about. If, for example, you are interested in
investing in your own website, you would go for the website designer with the best website,
wouldn`t you?
2. Choose to of the factors that create a good impression of your company. Explain how.
I chose the website and the quality of the services that we provide. I think that the design and
the content of our website reflects our company`s values or guiding principles: reliability,
commitment, efficiency and a genuine care for the client. So the impression that we would
like to create or the message that we would like to convey is that our customers are important.
As for the quality of the services, I can safely say that it`s the most important factor, because
the lives of more than two hundred thousand people depend on the quality of our work to
some degree.
people nowadays, especially in the developed countries, are so used to having electricity, gas
or water that they often forget to or they simply don`t think that they should appreciate our
efforts. Of course, there are other people as well, that live their lives with more awareness. I
guess what I`m trying to say is that even monopolist has to work hard to make a good first or
second impression.
3. Choose two of the factors that are less successful at creating a good first impression of
your company. How could they be improved?
I chose the business premises and the telephone answering system. None of our administrative
buildings has an elevator, I don`t know why, they are an absolute nightmare for the people
with disabilities, and I think that we would benefit from creating a real call center. The
employees in our client center perform many other tasks apart from answering the phone and
they are not able to constantly pick up the phone or to find an answer to a specific inquiry.
How could these factors be improved? Well, I will give a rather prosaic answer by saying that
the current situation would change by investing enough resources and by hiring more people.
But this will happen when or if these factors become a priority for the management.

Business communication. Arranging a meeting

5
1. What percentage of your time is spent in meetings? What kind of meetings do you
attend? How do you normally arrange them (e. g.1 by email or by phone)?
I spend 25 per cent of my working time in meetings, about two hours every day. I have a one-
one-one meeting with my boss early in the morning, I attend meetings with my colleagues
when we have to prepare a specific report or a letter of great importance to an administrative
body or a client. I both arrange and attend meetings regarding the implementation of some of
our construction projects. As part of my work revolves around handling the public relations I
organize our press conferences and most of the meeting that involve giving interviews to the
media representatives by the company`s manager. How do I normally arrange them? Well,
mostly by email and by phone.

Page 9, Exercise 8
Since you will need to acquaint yourself with the products that we are using currently, I
suggest that we meet in Ruse.
2. What are your responsibilities at work?
Well, I organize our press conferences and most of the meetings that involve giving
interviews to media representatives by the company`s manager. Sometimes I write responses
to inquiries, to complaints, our press releases, almost all of the texts for our information
campaigns, some of the texts that we publish on the website, so on and so forth. Besides that,
I`m the manager`s secretary and, I`m sure you can all imagine what a secretary does every
day. I answer the phone, I arrange meetings, etc.
3. What is your daily routine?
I don`t think I have one. Almost every day differs from the previous one. Sometimes I stay in
the office, but there are times when I have to meet people outside. And you never know who
will you have to talk to or what report will you have to draw up. And if a water main breaks,
God forbid, and a relatively big part of the city remains without running water for a large
period of time, say five or seven hours, I practically can`t go to sleep, because I`m constantly
on the phone or near the phone, waiting for un update from my colleagues.
4. How are your English studies going so far?
I`m glad that I`ve enrolled in this course but, frankly speaking, I don`t know if I have made
any progress. But we`ve met only three times, it`s still too early to draw a conclusion. I hope
that with time I will learn to speak significantly better and I will intuit the correct phrasing
instead of constantly analysing and wondering what word and tense to choose. For now, I feel
more comfortable writing than speaking, but I`m willing to work on it.
5. Which department or area do you work in?
I work in Public Relations, but I don`t have a department.
6. Would you like to tell me something about a current project that you are involved in?

6
Currently me and a colleague of mine who is a very good lawyer, he deals with Public
Procurement.
7. How regularly do you need English at work?
Two or three times a week, for now.
8. What is your schedule for the next week?
I don`t know yet, but one of the things that I`ll have to do is to organize our office Christmas
party. We won`t celebrate it at the office but in a nice hotel and I`m planning on creating
some type of a party hybrid. Something between a traditional banquet and a team-building
event. We haven`t had one since before Covid.