Hi there, guys, this is Teacher Harry here and welcome back to my
English lessons where we try to help you to get a better understanding
of the use of the English language. So what are we going to talk about today? Well, before we
get on to the topic for today, let me just remind you that you can listen to my podcast, lots of
things to help you. Lots of useful information to help you with the English language. And at the
end of this particular lesson, I'll give you my contact details. So what is it about today? Well,
in today's lesson, we're going to talk about online meetings, in particular, must have phrases
for online meetings. The whole world is changed upside down, as you know, in the last two years
and loves lots and lots of people are now working remotely and lessons like the lessons that I give
all remote or online. So when people are having their online meetings using zoom, or Skype,
or Google meets, or Microsoft Teams, whatever it is, they're these are all online meetings that
they're having day to day, week in, week out. And sometimes non-native speakers have difficulty not
with the business language, but some of the small talk or the chit chat or the introductory phrases
that you should use when you want to introduce a topic or raise a topic or have a question whatever
it might be. So this particular lesson is going to focus on as I said, the must-have phrases and
expressions for online meetings, and we're going to break it down into different parts.
Okay, so the first part we're going to look at is the start of the meeting the beginning of
the meeting. So what I'm going to give you now are just specific key phrases that you can use,
some of them may be quite obvious, some of them you might be using already, but they are very
simple. And I always emphasise the simplicity of the language that we want to use. In this way.
Nobody can misunderstand what you want to say. You remember it a lot easier if it's simple,
okay. And it's easy to use. So let me give them to you. So if you're in charge of the meeting,
well, you'll just start by welcoming everyone. Welcome, everyone. Today's meeting is about Okay,
so you just tell them, It's a sales meeting. It's a marketing meeting. It's a particular
client complaint issue. It's a budget, whatever it might be. Welcome, everyone.
Welcome to today's meeting. These are the issues that we want to talk about.
This is our agenda. Or I sent you the agenda before the meeting,
so you should all have a copy of what's on it. If you want to say something,
then just interrupt as we go through this particular meeting. So starts off with
Welcome, everyone. The purpose of today's meeting is to complete the budget process or to
sign off on the budget or agree on the marketing strategy for the launch of a new product. Okay,
so introduce the topic and what it's going to be about. And perhaps you might even tell the people
how long the meeting is going to take, you might just say, Well, today's meeting is to discuss that
the marketing the launch of the new product, the meeting is going to last no more than one hour. So
we're going to start at two, and we're going to finish at three o'clock. So everybody will be
out of here by three o'clock. So remember to look into the camera of your particular screen so that
people can see you, and you're engaging with them, as I'm hopefully doing with you now. So welcome,
everyone. Welcome to a Zoom meeting. The purpose of today's meeting is to discuss the important
launch of a new project, which is going to start from the first of November, the meeting today is
going to last no more than an hour. So hopefully I'll have you out of this meeting. And offline
by no later than 10 minutes after three o'clock. Okay, simple, easy, easy to understand.
Or you can start another way. Thanks, everyone for attending. It's really good to talk to you.
It's really good to see you. Today's meeting is blah, blah. Okay, so just another way
to introduce it. Or if you want to get straight to the point, so people attend your you're
logged into the meeting, you accept them into the meeting. So when you look around the screen,
it looks like you've got everybody, you can just simply say, Okay, are we good to go?
Meaning as everybody present? Is everybody ready to start? So are we good to go? Meaning Are we
good to get started? Or simply Okay, let's get started, shall we? So it's a nice way
to introduce it. Let's get started, shall we? I think everybody is here. Anybody else is late.
They can join in as we go along. Or in a little bit more informal way. Okay, let's get this
meeting started or let's kick off the meeting with Okay, so let's kick off the meeting with a brief
rundown of the last meeting. So you might have a summary of what was agreed, so that everybody
knows the starting position. So let's kick off the meeting. Now, we don't want to hold anybody up,
we have to finish by three o'clock. So it's good if we can get the meeting started straight away.
And in keeping with that sort of football type theme, and let's, let's kick off the meeting,
we can also say, let's get the ball rolling with, okay, a ball rolling when the ball rolls and means
something has started because when the football game starts, one player kicks the ball to another
player. And that's the first movement in the game. So when we talk about a meeting,
and we're using that sort of metaphor in relation to football, let's get the ball rolling. Let's
get the meeting started. Okay, so let's get the meeting started. Or let's get the ball rolling
with a rundown of today's agenda. So you go down quickly, the three of the four the five points you
want to cover, and then you go back and start with points. Or we can be very, very specific and say,
Okay, today, we're going to get started with so you introduce the first point, immediately today,
we're going to get started with budgets. Today, we're going to get started with the annual report.
Today, we're going to get started with that complaint we had that we didn't really satisfy the
customer last week, whatever it happens to be very specific. And you tell the people exactly what,
how. And when you're going to start that particular meeting,
when we have online meetings, where interfacing with the customer, or interfacing with our
colleagues, or interfacing with the client, through a camera, and online on the screen, so
sometimes it can be a good idea just to tell the person what you're doing. So when I'm starting
a lesson, I often say to the student, okay, can I share my screen with you? So I might say that
because I've got a book or some exercises or some work that I want to share with you, the students.
So I just simply say, Okay, I'm going to share my screen with you now, is that, okay? So you
get their permission to do it. So if you've got a bigger meeting with six or seven or 10 people,
then you're going to tell them, right, you're, you're going to see my screen and on the screen,
you're going to see the agenda or the minutes of the meeting, whatever it might be. So you
give them advanced notice of what's going to appear on the screen. And then you ask them,
Can you see my screen? Can you see it? Clearly? Can you see what I'm showing you?
Do you want me to make it bigger? Yeah, so you might have to enlarge it because
the print size might be a little bit small for some people to read,
if they're not accessing it through a laptop or a big screen,
I'm going to put up my presentation now. Okay, so that's the next step is so they can see your
screen. And when you click on the next thing, that's the is the presentation. So it might be
it might be a PDF document, it might be a PowerPoint presentation,
it might be some other way that you have to put the presentation together, or it might
simply just be a Word document. So whatever it is, it is going to give them advance notice as
to what they're going to see on the screen. So by doing that, they know what to expect.
So in case they cannot see it, they can say well, sorry, I don't see it, or I don't see it yet. Or
there's something wrong or the screen is blank or whatever here. So the screen is frozen, for
example. So they can come back to you and tell you their experiences from their side of the screen.
So can you see my screen? And when doing that you say I'm going to share my screen with you. Now,
I'm going to share my document with you now, I'm going to put up the presentation, I'm going to
share the PowerPoint presentation. If you've got any comments, you can put them in the chat line,
wherever or whatever way you have of dealing with Q and A's questions and answers.
Okay, so let's move on to the next part. Often when we have online presentations or meetings,
there can be more than one or two people there. So if there are quite a number of people,
it really got to control it quite well. And in some cases, people might want to
ask questions and in other cases, you might want people to speak up a little bit or you want them
to be more emphatic. So you've got to give certain signals. So these next expressions and phrases
would be for those particular situations. Could you speak more slowly, please? So somebody is...
And I often get requested by people to slow down a little bit. So could you speak more slowly so
that everybody can understand because if it's an international call, and you've got some
colleagues that are sitting in India, or Italy or Poland or Portugal, no matter where they are,
they may be all using English but they may have different levels of English and therefore it's
better if you can speak more slowly so that everybody gets an opportunity to understand
exactly what you're saying? Okay, so could you speak more slowly, please? Nice, polite request.
Could you explain that again? Or
could you go through that again because I didn't quite understand it?
Could you repeat the last bit? Meaning the last few sentences or the last slide? Could you repeat
that last bit again? I wasn't quite sure. Perhaps you could give me another example. Could you speak
up, please? I didn't quite hear it. So if you've got a question to ask or common to
make or some observation, sorry, could you just speak up a little bit, please? Yeah. Okay. I
got that. Yeah. Great. Thanks. Let me take that, let me answer that. I didn't quite get that. Could
you repeat it? I didn't quite get it or didn't understand quite what you meant. Perhaps you could
go through that again. Okay. So just polite ways to ask people to repeat something, to speak up,
to speak more slowly, to explain it in more detail to go through some final points or the
last bit that you covered so that everybody can understand. Okay. Or somebody might say, Well, my,
my picture froze for a minute. I just missed the last bit. You said? Could you repeat please,
I'm sorry to have to ask. So you repeat the point again.
And of course, when we're doing online meetings, there's always the potential or opportunity or
desire for somebody to interrupt, we might want to interrupt what somebody is saying,
they might want to interrupt us with a question and observation. So there are
certain expressions and phrases that you should use and you must have when you want to make those
interruptions. So let me go through those. A simple one is sorry, would you mind if I asked
a question? And of course, the person hosting the meeting and say, well, could you leave it
to the end? Or why? Sure. Just put it into the chat line? Or? Yeah, give me a question now. And
perhaps it's a question that other people want to ask as well. So there's a different way to
deal with it? Or if you want some clarification, or just to clarify what you're saying, is this
what you meant. So you repeat in your words, what you thought the point was, and the person hosting,
the meeting will either agree or disagree or give a further explanation. So you can say,
just to clarify, what you're saying is, yeah, so you, you ask it in that way?
Or, could I interrupt you for a minute, so you want the opportunity
to make a point to ask a question, to clarify something?
Could I interrupt you for a minute? Or could I interrupt you for a minute,
please? Or would you mind if I interrupted you for a minute? So either of those will be
absolutely acceptable. So another more informal way would be
Would you mind if I jumped in here? Because I've got something to say
I've got a point to make? Or would you mind if I butted in? This is more American English. So
jump in and butt in mean exactly the same. Would you mind if I interrupted? So would
you mind if I interrupted much more formal? Would you mind if I jumped in here? Or butted in here?
Much more informal. So I've got something to say, Could I butt in, please. Or
if I could jump in there because you know, this point is very relevant is very important,
it cuts across something that I'm doing. So you, you lay out the reasons why you feel it necessary
to jump in. Why you feel it necessary to butt in or interrupt with some particular point.
Or can I stop you there quickly? for just a minute? Yeah. So again, you're asking the speaker,
if he could just hold while you make a point? Or if he could just stop while you add something?
Or ask a question or enlarge on something that he has already said. So can I stop you there?
Quickly? Can I stop you for a minute? Yeah. So again, it's very polite, and it's very acceptable.
Or hold on a minute, please, just for a minute. We don't seem to have discussed that in
much detail. Could we go back over it because I'm... I've got some questions. I'm sure other
people have some questions as well. And then that way, you involve the other people in the meeting,
who might agree with you who want this explained in a different way. So different ways in which you
can interrupt and the expressions, the phrases, the must-have words that
you should use for your online meetings. Of course, as we're online, then we've got the
problems that everybody has with high the sound, picture, interruption of connection, freezing,
lagging all of these sorts of problems. So there are certain words expressions that you need to
have when this happens. I'm having problems hearing you so you don't get the sound or somebody
hasn't unmuted themselves or they haven't switched on their video. Do you? Would you mind switching
on your video? Would you mind unmuting it? Would you, you know, speak up? Or there seems to be
something with your headset. All of those can be problems visual or with listening and hearing.
Finally, there might be sometimes an echo yeah, there's a bit of a,
you get the sound coming back to you, you
hear yourself. So that might be something to do with somebody's headset or headphones or
whatever way it may be. So you're trying to just explain to somebody,
the different types of interruptions you get. So just be very clear what they are. So your
pictures are frozen, there's an echo, I can't see the picture. I don't hear you. So clearly,
or my, my connection has broken all of those types of things.
Okay, so let's move on then. So if we want to actually talk about moving on in the meeting,
so we can say, well, let's move on to the next point. So you want the people
clearly on the screens to know that you've finished with point one or point two? And
you're moving on? So somebody had a question, somebody asked something,
somebody added something else. So you say, Okay, let's move on, or
it's time to move on. So let's move on to the next item or
moving on. Let's talk about this. So let's talk about that. So use those again,
those exact words. Moving on, on, sometimes you say moving on swiftly. Okay, guys,
there's a bit of a time issue here. So I think we should move on. And if you've
got any other points about this, come back to me later, or come back to me, offline.
Let's pencil in another meeting for next Wednesday. So you might run out of time. So
you might say, Okay, let's pencil in mean, let's write into
a diary or make a diary entry or somebody will send around an invitation electronically,
that we'll have another meeting to pick up on these points. Next Wednesday, same time.
Okay. So when we want to summarise because often when we have a lengthy meeting,
there are lots of points that have been made. And it's no harm from time to time, during
the meeting, to summarise, what have we done so far? What have we covered so far,
or at the very end of the meeting, you really want to summarise the key points that have been made,
the action points that you have, and more importantly, who's going to take responsibility
for each of those individual action points? So here are some of the phrases that you might need.
In summary, we're going to do this, or let me summarise by saying this. This is what
I think we've agreed on. I think we can leave it here for today. I think we've done enough.
I think this is a good place to stop or to end, we can pick up again the next
day. But we've covered most of the key points that we wanted to cover. Thank you very much.
We can pick up this again tomorrow. And I've made a note, I'll send you an email.
And we'll start again same time and go through the remaining points. So all very clear,
very specific, so people know exactly what you've done. You've got your agenda. So okay, we've
finished point three, we'll pick up from point four from tomorrow, or we finished the agenda.
If anybody's got anything else to add. You can either ask it now we've got a few minutes left,
or get to me offline through email, and make sure you clued or CC everybody else so everybody's kept
up to date. Okay, so ways in which we can summarise Okay, so it's really important.
When we're talking about online meetings that we do summarise, it's important that everybody
knows where they are, particularly, we've got a lot of people that are participating. If they're
coming from many different countries, it's really important. They know where you started,
where you ended, what happened is at the end of the meeting, is it going to continue another time,
particularly if they've got a job to do? What are you asking them to do? What has been agreed
so that everybody knows what would happen next? Okay, so, online meetings, online expressions,
really good to know the language that you can use. So hopefully, you've enjoyed that. As I
said before, if you want to contact me, then you can do so on www.englishlessonviaskype.com.
I'm really happy to hear from you anytime with some suggestions that you might have
these words that we use today. I'm sure they'll be of use to you, particularly in the modern
world when lots and lots of meetings have moved online to Zoom in everything else. And of course,
if you want lessons on a one-to-one basis, or for family members, or friends, or colleagues,
it won't always be me that will be giving the lesson. But we'll be delighted to hear from you.