Improve your English: Phrases for your online meeting

Fancy seeing you again. Well, here we are. Another lesson. Let's go. What are we talking

about today? We're looking at the skill of teleconferencing. What on earth is that? It's

a meeting that is not in person. Yeah? It's via the internet. This is not just a video

for business people. Okay? Because you're going to be learning key phrases that you

can use in other contexts. But do bear in mind that the way the economies are shifting

in the world, that people can often work from home more and more. So, hopefully, something

there for you.

Before you start, you need to make sure you're absolutely prepared for the meeting, knowing

how things are going to work. So, do you know how to enter the program where you're having

the meeting? Have you got your password, your login details all to hand so you can do it

quickly? Very important, you know where the mute button is, because it's good practice

when you're not talking to press mute, because we don't want to hear the cliche of the coffee

machine in the background or your dog barking. Yeah? Make sure you're joining it on time,

you're prepared, and you know who the meeting is with. So, typically, everyone will introduce

themselves. Yeah? We'll say, like, "Hi, everyone. This is Jean-Claude Van Damme from the Corporal

Punishment Department." No, from Sales and Marketing or HR, whatever it is.

"Jemima Bond from R&D, Research and Development, has just joined us. Hi, Jemima." "Hello. Hi,

everyone." She'll say. And the person who is chairing, organizing the meeting might

give an announcement, like, "Sueby will be with us shortly." Yep, in a few moments. So,

think about what you would say if you were introducing yourself. "Hey, this is..." Okay?

I hope we got something good there.

Now, the person who is chairing the meeting needs to get the call, the meeting going,

so they could say, "So, the purpose of this call is... The purpose of this call is to

agree an action plan for..." Whatever it is. "The first item on our agenda is..." Yeah?

So, we've got overall purpose, and hopefully we've got a sort of schedule, the minutes

of the meeting, what we're going to be talking about.

Now, it's good to get other people talking, to ask them what they think, if that's relevant.

So, where I have the dots, you would substitute the person's name. "Samantha, could you talk

us through the sales figure for the second quarter, please?" Quarter meaning quarter

of a financial year. "Samantha, could you talk us through the sales figures?" "Talk

us through" means kind of give us the information. Yeah? Explain it.

"John, I'd be interested in hearing what you think about this." "I'd be interested in hearing

what you think about this." I.e., what do you think? Okay? But it's more formal, because

we're in a formal setting, here.

"Julie, maybe you've got some thoughts on... Julie, maybe you've got some thoughts on this.

Maybe you've got some thoughts on..." Another way of saying, what do you think? How do you

feel about? How do you feel about this idea? Well, I feel that it's da-da-da-da-da-da-da.

"Jane, what do you think about the proposal?" Yeah? Jane answers. "Well, in my opinion,

from what I've seen so far, I would say that..." Okay?

"Mary, what's your view on this?" Your view on this. Yeah? Looking, but it means what

do you think? Okay? Let's clear the slate, we've got some more for you. Okay, let's carry

on.

You'll want to be able to give an opinion in this context, so simple ideas like "I think

that's a good idea", "I think that's a good", here's the emphasis, "a good idea". Or, "In

my opinion, we need to diversify, implement, choose a specific verb." "As far as I'm concerned,

I think the main problem is that..." Or, "As far as I'm concerned, this doesn't seem to

be a particularly good idea." Okay?

What about checking understanding? This is also a way of summarizing what's been said.

"Am I right in thinking that the general opinion is..." i.e., are we all agreed on this? "Am

I right in thinking that the general opinion..." i.e., everybody thinks, da-da-da-da. Or a

simple question, so you're saying that, and then you paraphrase what that person has said.

So you're saying that bananas are red. Really? Come on, we know.

Can I just check, are we all up to speed? Are we all up to speed on? Do we all know

about? Let's write that phrase down. "Up to speed". "Up to speed" means we're all at the

same place. "Don't agree". Now, this is a sort of formal construction, here.

With respect to what you were just saying about the blah-blah-blah-blah-blah-blah, I'd

like to point out that. So, with respect to, and then whatever topic you're going to be

talking about. I've still got some reservations about that, so this is not a dinner reservation.

That sounds quite nice now, I'd quite like to go for dinner, so any tips to the engVid,

and then I can go and have a nice meal after this? Excellent. Here, "reservation" means

a doubt or a concern about whatever the other person has been talking about.

What if we want someone to... Okay, that's enough, you can stop talking now. Well, you

might say, "Sorry, could you just let..." So, bear in mind, this is a teleconference,

so we're going to need to use names. "Sorry, Ahmed, could you just let Juliana finish what

she was saying?" Or, "Okay, I think we're digressing. We are leaving the agenda and

we're going off and talking about something else." Digress, to go off topic a bit, here.

Could we just come back to the agenda, folks? "Folks" meaning people, yep, everyone. Could

we just come back to the agenda, folks? And then, because I've said that, I would need

to go on. Right, whatever the second point on the agenda is, the chickens in the farm

are being eaten by the fox. What are we going to do about the fox problem? If it was a farm

meeting, for example.

Now, towards the end, we need to clarify who has responsibility for doing what. So, I might

say, "Let's summarize what's been agreed." Yeah? Perfect tense. What has been agreed?

Can I just check who's doing what and by when? And then, I might say, "So, Tom, can you remember

what you need to do? Can you remember what you need to do? Philippa, you've agreed to

do that. Is that okay? Great. And you're going to do that by... Excellent." Yeah? So, just

making sure people are being accountable for their responsibilities. Yep. You're going

to do that, you're going to do that, and it's all going to get done. Hurrah. And you're

going to do your quiz, aren't you? So, you're taking careful note. Excellent.

Now, we need to end it. So, something like... Okay, we seem to have some sort of consensus

here. Consensus, meaning an agreement. Yeah? We're all on the same page. Yeah? We're going

to need to draw things to a close. We're not drawing a picture. Yeah? Kind of imagine yourself

shutting the curtains. We're going to draw the curtains, we're going to draw things to

a close now.

Very much hope that has been useful to you. If you do want any more help from me on a

one-to-one basis, I do offer Skype tuition via my website, honeyourenglish.com. Thanks

for watching, and I'll see you in the next video.