Speak Better English with Harry | Episode 78

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Okay. So wherever , wherever you are, keep safe and keep, well today we're going to talk to you about some business English in particular. We're going to look at eh, English around the start and perhaps the closing of meetings. So if you're not used to , um, hosting a meeting, particularly if you're not used to hosting meaning to hold a meeting in English, well hopefully some of the phrases and expressions that I have for you would be helpful.

Meetings can be a little bit , um, boring of the gone too long. I always found that I always liked to have a bad time at the beginning and a time when they'd definitely would, would end rather than dragging on forever and meaning, and they wouldn't last forever. But sometimes some people liked talk, they like to listen to themselves talking. And unfortunately then we , uh , we end up with them lengthy meetings.

Okay. But if they're in English, they can be a little bit difficult for you if you find it hard to know what you say and what you shouldn't say. Like all meetings at the beginning, there's often a lot of small talk, particularly if you haven't seen the people for a while. There may be talk about how they got there to the meeting. Did they find the, the office, eh, okay. Do they need a taxi? What does the weather like? What was the flight like?

Whatever ad journey they've had to make to get to the meeting. Um, it's , it's as something that you can use as small talk . And of course, a lot of meetings take place, not physically, but , uh , on a conference call. But so what I'm going to tell you wouldn't, won't make any difference. The, the expressions and phrases would be exactly the same. Of course, the small talk might be a little bit different because they're going to be in their own offices and haven't traveled.

So you might just be something about the weather, the football match the family, if you know them well, whatever it may be. But small talk always helps to break the ice and get people warmed up and ready for them, the meeting. So if you're the , the whole store, the chairman of the meeting, then you can start by saying something like, hi guys, welcome or hello everybody. And thanks for, thanks for joining us. Thanks for phoning in. If it's a conference call.

Um, okay, so let's get the meeting started. Yeah, so that's a good way to just to kick it off. Ah , let's get the meeting started. Let's kick off like in the football match. Let's kick off mean. Let's, let's begin. Why don't we start? Yeah, yeah. We have everybody here. Everybody seems to be present. Why don't we start? Anybody else can join in later as they come. We've a lot to cover or we've got a lot to get through.

So yet you're making everybody aware that the , the meeting won't go on longer than is absolutely necessary. But we have a lot to get through. We have a lot to cover. So the sooner we start, the sooner the meeting will end. Okay, so let me just go over that again. So you have your small talk, you welcome the people there, you thank them for coming or for phoning in or joining in on the conference call and then you S you can use phrases like, okay, let's get started. Everybody's here.

Let's begin. Let's kick off. Why don't we start , uh , we have a lot to do. We've a lot to cover. We've a lot to get through. Okay, so let's start with the minutes of the last meeting. So if you've got a very formal structure and somebody kept minutes or the notes on the last meeting, well it's always a good place to start. So let's start with the minutes of the last meeting. Has anybody got any questions arising from those minutes?

Meaning is there anything in the minutes that they need explained or they don't understand or something has fallen through the, the um, instructions that hasn't been followed up. Okay. So let's start with the minutes of the last meeting as anybody got any questions or anything they wished to add. Okay. So somebody might like to add something following on from that particular meeting.

Something has perhaps has changed, some action has taken place that has resulted in something either been resolved or perhaps it is now off the agenda. We noticed we don't need to worry about it anymore. So it's a good opportunity at the beginning of the meeting just to find out where everybody is. So you want to know as everybody read the minutes, is everybody okay with the minutes as everybody understood the minutes and is there anything additional to add?

Anything extra that people should know? Okay. So let's start with the minutes of the last meeting. Anybody, any questions or anything they wish, eh to add or would like to add before we move on? So again, you're just letting people know that we just spend a few minutes with this and then we'll move on to the items that are specific to this particular meeting today. Okay?

So you should all have a copy or you should have all got a copy or you should have all been copied in with this week's agenda and Casey , you sent it by email or you sent it through the post or whatever format you use for communicating this. Everybody has received it and if anybody hasn't got it, then you can ask them just to let that be known and you can send eh a copy of it by email.

Now in case of anybody around the table or on the conference call who hasn't got a copy of it, then um , you would be happy to send it to them. So everybody is up to date. Well then let's get onto the first item. So this is the next part. What is the first item to be covered? So you look around and you see who is the most appropriate person to cover this first item. So you might pick somebody like Michael and you can say , okay Michael, can I come to you first?

Um, can you give us a quick update as to where we are with the new product development or the application or the um, design. Okay. So depending on what business you're in, you want this guy Michael who is probably the key person involved in this part of the product or the project. You want him to give everybody an an update as to where we are. So you just ask him, okay, can I come to you first?

So you're identifying him and he is then going to give everybody a quick update as to where he is aware the company is with the application, with the product, with the development, whatever it happens to be. Okay. And then you will thank him. Okay, thanks Michael. That's very clear. Anybody, any questions? Anybody got anything to add? And then again, you open it to everybody around the table or in the various conference, eh , locations if they , anything that they wished to ask specifically.

Okay. Okay. Next. So this is again, we're going to move on to the next point. Okay. What's next? Um, let's move on. We, as I said, we've got a lot to do so there's a couple of these points that we may be able to get through quite quickly. Okay . So you're , again, you're letting people know that you don't want to spend all day on, on these points because some of them it might just be a yes or no or just a matter of updating people or informing them as to what has happened.

And then you might ask some questions of the people. Have you had time to consider? Question, what can you add to improve the situation? Question.

Um Oh and have you all had time to consider what we proposed at the last meeting and if people start getting off the points, if people start talking about things not particular to what you want to talk about, we'll then pull them back. Meaning get them back and say, okay guys, let's stick to the point that stick to the agenda. I know there's a lot you want to talk about, but no, we can cover those outside the meeting or we can add them to the next meeting.

But I really want to stick to the agenda and want to stick to the point we are getting off the point. Please. Let's stick to what we are talking about. Let's not wonder, let's not stray. Let's stick to our agenda and let's stick to the points that we are talking about. So very clearly letting people know that you want to cover everything. They'll get a chance to raise issues later on. But for the moment, the items on the agenda, the most important things, so please let stick to the agenda.

Let's stick to what we are talking about. Let's not get off the point

So once you've gone through all of the pints and you're , as I said, writing your minutes, then you come to the end and you might say something like, well, I think that covers everything for today. So I believe we've covered everything. Um, thanks for attending. Thanks for your input. Thanks for your contribution. Has any book , anybody got anything else to raise? Meaning, is there any other issue that they would raise?

And here we're talking about then any other business, and you'll often see this on the end of an agenda, a O, B, any other business. So once we've covered all the key points, then we're onto any other business. And that's when you're asking people, okay, anybody got anything else to raise? Sometimes they're raised things, sometimes they don't. You're probably sitting there with your fingers crossed hoping that they don't raise any more issues.

But if they do, then you have to be prepared to deal with them. Okay, well if nobody has any other questions to ask, let's wind the meeting up mini . Let's bring the meeting to an end. Eh , let's stop there and let's , um , just call , uh , call it quits. We'll go for lunch or we'll have coffee, whatever, or people will hang up from the conference calls and came . So , um, if there's no other business to conclude, we'll then we'll bring the meeting to an end.

And then you thank people for their time. You thank them for their input. You might promise that you will circulate the minutes. You will give them copies of the minutes. As soon as you get a chance to do, to write them, you'll send it by email. As always, we all know what we have to do. So you might want to spend just two minutes going over and actionists or if there's some key points that uh , arose during the meeting, then maybe some follow up action that somebody has to do.

So you might just say, okay, before we go, you know, there are just these followup actions. Michael has to do this. Mary promised to do this. I said, I would get back to you on this, I will report you at the next meeting. So we just tick tick, tick pluses , our to do list. Okay. And then when you get them, the minutes of anybody has any , uh , issues , uh , arising from that or the action points will then they can contact you , um , and you, you, you respond in the normal way.

Okay. So their key ways of , uh , controlling the meeting in English, key phrases that you can use a different parts of the meeting, whether as I said, it's face to face or it's a mix of face to face and people who have dialed in on some conference facility or Skype or whatever it might be. And during the meeting when people are , um, raising points, then you might like to add some phrases, you know, to support them. Um , Oh, that's a good point. Yeah. I see where you're coming from.

Um, or you might want to ask some something a little bit more searching, deeper question wrote watcher exactly as your point about that. Um, where are you coming from? Can you give me a little bit more information? What do you think? Yes . So you're just trying to get people engaged and ask for an opinion and there'll be oftentimes when people will, eh , want to interrupt so they can use phrases like, Hmm , can I come in there? I think I've got some, some information that might help.

Ah , I'd like to add that. Um , if you don't mind, I'd like to say something. Um, do you mind if I brought in? This is very informal, but it's used a lot, your mind of I , but in meaning, do you mind if I interrupt and if somebody wants to be really formal, they might use expressions? Well, I would like to point out that. Okay, so that's quite formal or something like, well, if you look at it another way, perhaps in case or again , somebody expressing some doubt about something.

Okay. So they're all a typical business expressions and phrases and words that you can use when you're hosting or holding or attending a meeting in your office. Um, when it , whether it be conference calls, Skype or anything else.

Okay. Good. Good. Well, what I'll do in the next couple of podcasts out, introduce you to some other , uh , business English that we can use for different meetings, whether it's interviews or , um, meetings with bosses or subordinates that you might like to have and to help you further with your English and your particularly your business English. Okay. Well, thanks for listening. And as always, if you want to contact me, you'll get me on w w. w. dot.

English lesson via skype.com and I'm very happy to talk to you. I'm glad you're listening and , uh, catch up with you soon.

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