hello I'm Gina and welcome to Oxford
online English tomorrow you have a
meeting to attend if the meeting is in
English will you be ready this lesson
will help you learn useful phrases to
introduce yourself respond to
suggestions and ideas and ask questions
in a business meeting I want you to
imagine you're in the meeting and the
chair has asked everyone to introduce
themselves what are some phrases you can
use
sometimes you'll be in a meeting with
people you don't know
other times the chair will ask for quick
introductions to break the ice there are
three things you should do here say your
name say your job title describe your
responsibilities to say your name you
can use a formal my name is or if the
meeting is more informal you can say hi
I'm for your position title use to be
just like for your name then decide if
your position is the only one in the
company or if there are others who have
the same job title for example if you
are the only secretary use the I'm the
secretary if other people also have this
position in the company use a I'm a
project manager if necessary you can say
which department you work in you can use
the preposition in plus the now
engineering marketing finance etc for
example I'm in the engineering
department or I work in the marketing
department
finally you can briefly describe your
responsibilities like this I manage each
project from start to finish
I'm risk on
Cybil for web analytics and testing for
I handle purchasing and our negotiations
with suppliers you can see that using
verbs and phrases like manage be
responsible for or handle can be useful
here here is an example of a full
introduction in a formal meeting with
people you don't know or don't know well
my name is Gina Maris and I'm the
marketing manager here I handle online
advertising and web analytics here's an
example of a more informal introduction
hi I'm Gina I'm in the sales department
I manage our sales team how would you
introduce yourself in a meeting you can
give it a try now now that you've
introduced yourself the meeting will
begin during the meeting you might need
to give your opinion on the different
agenda items which you are discussing
you might also need to react to other
people's suggestions how can you do this
when making suggestions modal verbs can
be very useful should ought to or might
want to can express something you think
is a good idea but not an obligation we
ought to give new clients a gift from
the company we might want to consider
looking for another engineer to help
with this or I think we should make this
a priority for this month have to and
need to can express something that is an
obligation we have to improve the way we
collect and record sales data or we need
to find a cheaper solution our budget is
very tight remember you can also use
these to make negative suggestions we
shouldn't rush this we need to think it
through carefully or we don't need to
hire new staff at the moment now if your
turn
choose a phrase and make a suggestion
for something in your own company next
what can you do if you want to respond
to another suggestion well if you think
it's a good suggestion you can show you
agree with phrases like I agree with
that sounds good or let's go with this
idea here go with means you agree with
this idea and think you should put it
into action however what if there is a
suggestion you don't agree with here are
some good professional ways to disagree
to be honest I'm not sure about this
idea good suggestion but I see a few
problems or I see your point
however after a phrase like this explain
your point of view for example I see
your point however I don't think
advertising in a magazine is a good idea
people don't read them as often these
days or to be honest I'm not sure about
this idea
I think improving our website UI is a
higher priority right now okay now take
the suggestion which you made earlier
pause the video and write down two
sentences one to agree and one to
disagree use the language you just
learned now let's move on to different
ways to ask a question in a meeting
as an attendee it's important to make
sure you understand the content in the
meeting
sometimes the chair will ask everyone to
save questions until the end if you are
in a meeting where you can ask questions
at any time there are a few good phrases
you can use for more formal meetings you
can begin with a phrase like sorry or
excuse me to politely bring me attention
to you then you can use phrases like I
have a question
why is how or does this mean for example
excuse me how will the new requirements
affect the project deadline or sorry to
interrupt but I have a question does
this mean the new IT systems won't be in
place this year if there is something in
the meeting that you don't understand
you can use phrases to ask for
clarification I didn't understand can
you elaborate on or can you clarify when
using these phrases it's important to
explain exactly what you don't know or
ask for clarity on something specific
that they set again you can use excuse
me and sorry in more formal meetings to
begin for example sorry can you clarify
the third step in your proposal I didn't
get the main idea or excuse me but could
you elaborate on how this will fit in
with our existing marketing campaign
now it's your turn
practice asking a question or asking for
clarification about something it can be
from a recent meeting or something from
your job in general again you can pause
the video and write down your ideas for
extra practice okay now you can make
suggestions and respond to what others
say in the meeting you can also ask
questions if there's something you don't
understand
next imagine that you've discussed the
agenda items and come to an agreement on
the important decisions you needed to
make you might need to show what you're
going to do about these decisions after
the meeting has finished
here
offer to do something using a few
different phrases for something that you
decide to do at that moment for the
future you can use will for example I'll
call the client tomorrow or I'll discuss
this with the rest of my team and get
back to you by the end of the week if
you had a plan even before the meeting
begins you can use going to or planning
to I'm going to get a team together for
this project or I'm planning to do one
more round of testing and then we can go
live if you want to make an offer you
can use can could or shall I can contact
the supplier next week if we need to I
could put together a report if you think
it would help or shall I talk to our
engineering team and get a cost estimate
on the other hand what if you are asked
to do something that you cannot do well
there are some useful polite phrases you
can use I'm afraid I can't I'm sorry
but I don't think I can unfortunately I
won't be able to think about this what
if someone asked you to move your
project deadline forward but it wasn't
possible you could say unfortunately we
won't be able to complete the project
any sooner because we don't have the
supplies yet or I'm sorry but I don't
think we can finish by the end of this
month we need at least another six weeks
at this point the meeting is wrapping up
and hopefully you have been able to make
good suggestions and offers and take
part in discussions effectively will you
be attending a meeting in English soon
hopefully some of these phrases will be
useful for you that's all for this
lesson hope you enjoyed and thank you
for watching please visit Oxford online
English comm for more free lessons like
this see you next time