Hi this is Ceema and I'm back with a new lesson on how to avoid answering a
question now a lot of times when we are confronted with a question we sometimes
don't want to give an answer or sometimes we don't know the answer to
that question now I know between me and you we'd like to just disappear when you
were asked those questions right but sometimes you've got to be very tactful
and avoid answering a question in the right way by thing the right thing.
So here are a phrases which will help you avoid answering a question
ok the first one is a very common expression saying "No comment" - No comment can
be used in two different ways if a journalist, an annoying journalist are
you know kind of keeps repeating a question and you don't want to give an
answer you will say no comment, that's when a journalist is asking you a
question that's what most celebrities do, don't they? they don't want to answer a
question that's just, no comment ok sometimes someone is telling you
something and you could say something very obvious very critical or very
negative in response to what you're being told but you'd rather not say
anything and that is why you would say no comment, so instead of being negative
or instead of saying something negative, saying something very obvious or saying
something critical in response to what is told to you, you would rather say no
comment, for example: my friend tells me
Well! Ceema my sister tells me to exercise regularly to stay fit but now
we know that her sister is so much more overweight than she is and therefore
instead of saying the obvious like your sister should see herself or your sister
really talks too much I could say no comment because we want to avoid being
negative we want to avoid being critical or we want to avoid saying the obvious
thing ok the next expression or the next phrase that you may use when you are
trying to avoid a question or avoid answering a question
is something like "I am not at liberty to say"
Liberty basically means permission so when you are going to say this you are
gonna say this when you don't have the permission you don't have the permission
to reveal the kind of information that is being asked of you for example if you
are a lawyer who is defending a person who was you know who was accused of
murdering his wife okay now some journalist for example may ask you are
you going to defend Mr. Trevor who apparently killed his wife you are not
at liberty to give that kind of information it is professional it is
quite confidential right therefore you will say I am not at liberty to say okay
the next one is "Wait and see" a lot of times we don't want to give an answer to
a question because we want the person who is asking the question to wait and
see the answer for himself you want the person to know the answer in due time
you'd rather let him find out the answer for himself so wait and see basically
when you don't want to give the answer immediately, but you would rather allow the person
to wait and to find out the answer for himself, so if you were to ask a very famous author
Say - J.K. Rowling who is the author of the Harry Potter series are you going to
write to your 8th book in the Harry Potter series she does not want to give you the
answer immediately so she would say - wait-and-see ok said she does not want to
give you the answer right now she would rather leave it to you to find out later.
The next one is "Let me get back to you" now that are sometimes when we genuinely
don't know the answer
ok so when I don't know the answer right now but I would like to give you the
right information so I don't know the answer right now but I want to find out
the information and give it to you at a later time that's when you will use the
word used the phrase let's let me get back to you so you don't know the answer
immediately you wanna find the answer but later on you want to find the answer
and then you want to give it to the person who was asking you the question
so if I am a teacher of science and one of my students tells me do you think
there is an alternative an alternate theory to evolution now I don't know if
there could be an alternative theory of evolution so therefore I would like to
find out for myself first
get the right answer and then give it to the person who asked me that's when I will
say let me get back to you
and the next one is: I'm sorry that's personal" now when you say I'm sorry
that's not personal, you say it when someone has asked you a very
inappropriate question the question could be too personal, it could involve a
very intimate topic are you dating Tim you think that's a very personal
intimate question you will say I'm sorry that's personal you don't need to know
that you don't say that but you just say I'm sorry that's personal some people do
ask you so what is the amount of wages you are drawing that's kind of a
personal question you don't answer that so you would just say I'm sorry that's
person oh ok that's how you avoid answering a personal or very question
about a very intimate topic and the next phrase is to mind your own business now
mind your own business is kind of rude thousand Andrew would be honest with you
ok you don't always use this in fact I would rather you not use this a lot of
times but there are some people who are so annoying they want to constantly
asked about questions it's almost like they were interfering into your life and
that's when you just snap sometimes and then you can be a little rude I think
and then you are you just say mind your own business so for example someone
would tell you or ask you are you gonna get married to this year or next year
well that's none of their business right so therefore you get annoyed and you say
mind your own business
ok this is a very rude way of answering a question but sometimes you might have
to use it when someone is really annoying you and interfering in your
life and the next one is i'd rather not talk about it now I'd rather not talk
about it is a phrase you use when
you are asked a question about something unpleasant or something that is too
sensitive for you I did not have a good time while I was taking my math test i
think im I just flying but my friend over your apparently she did well in her
mad tet
after we got out of class she asked me to see mom how is your math test this
was a very unpleasant thing for me I do not wish to talk about it I would say
I'd rather not talk about it because at this point in time this is a sensitive
thing for me it is quite unpleasant for me to talk about right now so I would
rather not talk about it and the next one is all tell you when you are owned
ok this sentence talks about telling someone when they grow up
defendants is something you would tell a child to a child so that you can he can
know about things that he's asking when he's older age a lot of children do ask
their parents mommy where do babies come from or how are babies made some of you
who can answer that question well that's really nice thing but with some of some
other people who don't know how to answer that question they want to just
avoid answering so they just say I can tell you Wat I'll tell you when you're
older you don't need to know right now this is a question that puts off a boy
you know that puts off on doing it for now because you want to tell that person
about it when he gets a little bit more mature
and the last one is why do you want to know
well this is a moral accounting question question instead of answering it or
avoiding to answer it
you know them or pose another question in return you saying why do you want to
know ask why do you want to know because you want to tourists know their reason
for asking you the question and depending on what their answer is you
may or may not answer the question
ok so this expression is basically used when you are trying to understand the
intention behind being argued that kind of a question for me on this lesson on
how to avoid answering questions but I hope you found it informative and
interesting I'll be back with the morning