1. Conducting Meetings in English Prepared by Carol Liu 1

2. A Chairperson or Participant? Role of a chairperson ◦To make a decision or to coordinate ◦To control the meeting ◦To encourage people to speak ◦To summarize the result Role of a participant ◦To socialize ◦To contribute Source: Lee, C. H. Business English Conversation. Taipei Hsien: Hsin-ye [ 新頁 ]. 2010. Print. 2

3. Procedure for a Meeting: Chairman Prior to the meeting Familiar with the rules Prepare the agenda and everyone gets it Open the meeting Greet participants Invite introductions (when appropriate) Explain the purpose & present the agenda Announce the rules (in formal meetings) In the meeting Go through each point on the agenda Encourage people to speak, to get involved Ask repetition or clarification Summarize the ideas of each point before moving on to the next Close the meeting Make a conclusion of the meeting Announce the next step or action 3

4. What is the most annoying thing when you have a meeting? Being late Not well-prepared/Not to the point Silence Cell-phone rings Disagreeing all the time Do and Don’s in the meeting 4

5. Participating a meeting: Be Tentative and Polite Proposing your ideas in an open way: using tentative suggestions Leaving your opinion unsettled Not being assertive 5

6. Examples of Tentative Questions Why don’t we…? I don’t suppose we could….? What if we…? How about if…? Perhaps we could…. Could we…? 6

7. Cultural Issue I Criticism or Euphemism? ◦Criticism may be seen as an insult. ◦Disagreement to seniors may cause offense. ◦Negative suggestions are not taken personally. ◦Managers take challenges from their subordinates. ◦In some culture, euphemism pervades. Observe the business culture you are in! 7

8. Cultural Issue II Interruption, Turn Taking, and Silence ◦Silence between the moments is common / most Asian countries– to think, to show respect ◦Silence suggests people ‘drop’ conversation / most English-speaking countries– turn taking is tight; interrupt is impolite ◦Interruptions shows interest in the conversation / Latin culture Don’t take interruptions personally in business meetings; get to know your colleagues’ cultural background. 8

9. Expression: interrupting May I have a word? If I may, I think… Excuse me for interrupting. May I come in here?

10. Expression: giving opinions I (really) feel that… In my opinion… The way I see things… If you ask me, … I tend to think that…

11. Expression: Asking for opinions Do you (really) think that… (name of participant) can we get your input? How do you feel about…? What do you think about this proposal? Would you like to add anything, (name of participant)? Has anyone else got anything to contribute? Are there any more comments?

12. Expression: commenting on other opinions I never thought about that way before. Good point! I get your point. I see what you mean.

13. Expression: agreeing with other opinion Exactly! That’s (exactly) the way I feel. I have to agree with (name of participant).

14. Expression: Disagreeing with other opinions Up to a point I agree with you, but… (I’m afraid) I can’t agree.

15. Expression: advising & suggesting We should… Why don’ you… How/What about… I suggest/recommend that…

16. Expression: Clarifying Have I made that clear? Do you see what I’m getting at? Let me put this another way… I’d just like to repeat that…

17. Expression: requesting information I'd like you to... Would you mind... I wonder if you could...

18. Expression: asking for repetition

19. Expression: asking for clarification I'm afraid I don't quite understand what your are getting at. Could you explain to me how that is going to work? I don't see what you mean. Could we have some more details, please?

20. Expression: asking for verification Do you mean that...? Is it true that...?

21. Expression: correcting information Sorry, that's not quite right. I'm afraid you don't understand what I'm saying. That's not quite what I had in mind. That's not what I meant.

22. Expression: keeping the Meeting on Time well, that seems to be all the time we have today. Please be brief. I'm afraid we've run out of time. I'm afraid that's outside the scope of this meeting. That's not really why we're here today. Why don't we return to the main focus of today's meeting. We'll have to leave that to another time. We're beginning to lose sight of the main point. Keep to the point, please. I think we'd better leave that for another meeting. Are we ready to make a decision?