Welcome back to Business English Pod for today’s lesson on how to argue for a position.
A position could be an opinion, an idea, or a plan. And whether you’re in a meeting, a one-on-one discussion, or a presentation, you’ll often find yourself arguing for your position, or against other people’s positions.
So how can you argue for or against a position effectively? Sicuro, you can just state what you think. But there are some more effective techniques you can use to support your position. Per esempio, you can use language to make an idea stronger. Instead of just saying “this plan is disorganized,” you can say “this plan is totally disorganized.” That has a greater impact.
You can also work the other way around, e utilizzare softening and minimizing linguaggio. Per esempio, instead of saying “we are happy with the new building but there are some problems,” you might say “overall we’re pretty happy with the new building, but there might be a few problems.” And if you want to criticize someone’s ideas, you need to introduce that carefully and balance the criticism with praise. All these techniques will help you present your position.
Nella finestra di dialogo di oggi, we’ll hear Jack, who’s trying to argue for the idea of moving his company’s production overseas, to Costa Rica. Tuttavia, Angie, E, and Jim are not convinced that Jack’s plan is a good idea. Mentre sostengono le loro posizioni, tratteremo alcune tecniche utili su entrambi i lati della discussione.
Domande sull'ascolto
1. Come introduce Angie la sua prima critica alle idee di Jack?
2. Cosa dice Jack riguardo ai rischi connessi al suo piano??
3. Che cosa positiva dice Angie di Jack più avanti nel dialogo??
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