This is a remastered edition of BEP 21 released in commemoration of Clayton Lee, who wrote and hosted this series.
In this is Business English Podcast lesson, we look at essential language for making telephone calls in English. Some of the key language we cover in this lesson include, identifying yourself and the caller, stating the purpose of your call and leaving a message.
In the dialog, we’ll hear a telephone call about a contract between an aircraft manufacture and one of its suppliers, called Airtronics. Nathan Beale from the contracts department of the client is calling to ask about a proposal he is expecting from Airtronics. Time is very short for all the proposals to be received, and so far, the aircraft company hasn’t received anything from this supplier.
Have you ever delivered a presentation to a quiet and happy audience that accepts everything you say and applauds at the end? Probably not. It doesn’t matter whether you’re presenting to a possible client, at a staff meeting, to a group of senior executives, or during a professional development event. Your audience will likely ask you questions throughout your presentation.
No matter how well you prepare, you’re going to have to think on your feet. That means you’ll have to step outside what you’ve rehearsed and deal with the questions as they come. You might know the answer, but then again you might not. The question might be about something you planned to talk about, but it might not. Your presentation will succeed or fail not just on how pretty your PowerPoint slides are, but on how well you handle the audience and their questions. And that’s what we’re looking at in this lesson.
The techniques we’ll hear today include clarifying a question, using a question to jump ahead in your presentation, and evading a difficult question. We’ll also learn how to separate multiple questions into parts as well as how to admit we don’t know the answer to a question.
In the dialog, we rejoin the publishing company where Amy is giving a presentation to senior executives, including Brenda and Dennis. Amy is explaining a potential overseas partnership with two Korean companies. Brenda and Dennis are asking her plenty of tough questions.
Listening Questions
1. What exactly is Brenda worried about at the start of the dialog? 2. How does Amy respond to Dennis’s question about licensing rights and terms? 3. Which question does Amy say she doesn’t have enough information to answer?
So you’ve planned your presentation carefully and you’ve rehearsed it in front of the mirror. You walk into the room, you bring up your first slide, and you begin. But you’ve hardly finished your introduction when someone throws out a question. How do you deal with it?
You’d better be ready for this situation, because you know it’s coming. How often do people actually wait for you to finish before politely raising their hands and asking you questions? It just doesn’t happen. So you need to learn how to respond on the fly. You need to read the situation and react accordingly. Your presentation isn’t ruined if you know the right things to say and do.
Today we’ll look at some of the techniques we can use to handle questions and keep our presentation flowing. These techniques include anticipating questions before they’re asked, using a question to transition to another point, and buying time. We’ll also learn about dismissing a question that you’ve already answered and redirecting a question to the entire group.
In the dialog, we’ll hear part of a meeting in a publishing company. Amy is giving a presentation about a potential overseas partnership. Brenda and Dennis, two senior managers, are asking Amy some tough questions along the way.
Listening Questions
1. What does Amy anticipate that the audience might be wondering about? 2. Which topic does Amy have to ”˜buy time’ for before talking about it? 3. When Brenda asks about priorities, how does Amy deal with the question?
In this business English vocabulary lesson, we’ll look at some key macroeconomic terms related to consumers and prices. This includes ideas such as the income gap, the cost of living, and the consumer price index (CPI). We will also explore concepts such as inflation and purchasing power, as well as disposable income, household debt, and consumer spending.
In this business English vocabulary lesson, we’ll look at some key macroeconomic terms, such GDP and GNP. We’ll explore the natural business cycle, which includes periods of expansion, recession and sometimes even depression. We’ll also look at the idea of trade balance between countries, which can be described as either a trade surplus or a trade deficit.
