Market Leader: idioms

Small talk is one way to break the ....... when meeting someone for the first time.

• end

• ice

• eye

• water

I was thrown in at the deep . . . . . . . . . . . . when my company sent me to run the German

office. I was only given two days' notice to get everything ready.

• eye

• fire

• water

• end

We don't see eye to .. . . . . . . . . . . with our US parent company about punctuality. We have

very different ideas about what being 'on time' means. It's a question of culture.

• water

• eye

• fire

• ice

I got into hot . . . . . . . . . . . . with my boss for wearing casual clothes to the meeting with the

potential Japanese customers.

• fire

• water

• ice

• end

I really put my . . . . . . . . . . . . in it when I met our Spanish partner. Because I was nervous,

I said 'Who are you?' rather than 'How are you?'.

I get on like a house on . . . . . . . . .. . . with our Polish agent; we like the same things and

have the same sense of humour

When I visited China for the first time, I was like a fish out of. .

so different, and I couldn't read any of the signs!

My first meeting with our overseas clients was a real ...-opener

that style of negotiation before.

• bottle

• eye

• can

• box