How to manage conference calls in English

Conference calls can be complicated to manage in a foreign language like English but there are plenty of tactics you can use to make it easier.

Here are some phrases that could come in handy to be assertive and participate:-

HOW TO START A CONFERENCE CALL

• I would like to welcome everyone here today.
• Thanks for attending.
• Could you all state your names, clearly, before speaking, please?
• Please indicate which office / department / project / site you represent.
• I would like to start by giving you an overview of + noun

HOW TO INTERRUPT DURING A CONFERENCE CALL

• Sorry, would you mind if I asked a brief question?
• Just to clarify, are you saying that / do you mean that....?
• Would you mind if I jumped in there, please?
• I'm terribly sorry to interrupt but...
• So sorry to interrupt but before we move on*, I’d like to add my thoughts on this topic. (*Note: to move on means to start doing or discussing something new.)
• May I add something quickly?

HOW TO CLARIFY SOMETHING

• I didn't get that sorry, would you mind saying it again please?
• Could you speak up a bit please?
• Could you explain that in layman's terms (non technical language) please?
• Would you mind going through/over that again please?
• I didn't catch what you said, do you mean.....?

OTHER USEFUL PHRASES

• Can you leave it with me? / Leave it with me and I'll get back to you ASAP.
• I think that may have been a misunderstanding. / I think you may have misunderstood me sorry.
• I'll look into it and let you know.

Now let's try and put some of that into practice by listening to an extract from a conference call (featuring several different English accents) and do some related activities below:-

https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/conference-calls-0

Spam... a nightmare or in this case something memorable?!

Let's talk about spam. Something we all get on a regular basis or rather on a daily basis. More often than not spammers want to sell you something but sometimes spammers want to scam you.

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/es/diccionario/ingles/scam

It's something that wastes our valuable time and annoys us at best. However, what if someone gives these scammers/spammers a dose of their own medicine.

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/es/diccionario/ingles/give-sb-a-dose-taste-of-their-own-medicine?q=give+sb+a+dose%2Ftaste+of+their+own+medicine

Namely, I have found a TED speaker who does precisely this. Enjoy!:-

https://www.ted.com/talks/james_veitch_this_is_what_happens_when_you_reply_to_spam_email#t-567797

Now you've watched the video, try to answer the quiz:-

1. What kind of spam email, or junk mail did James receive?

 a.) A misleading message from someone you know whose email account has been hacked.
 b.) A counterfeit message that looks reliable that attempts to trick you into supplying your personal information.
 c.) An unsolicited commercial email message sent in bulk.

2. Does James believe he will receive gold?

 a.) Yes
 b.) No

3. How much gold does James want Solomon to ship to him?

 a.) 25 kilograms
 b.) 50 kgs
 c.) a metric ton

4. What will Soloman spend his commission on?

 a.) hummus
 b.) real estate

5. For how long did James email back and forth with Solomon?

 a.) a few days
 b.) a few weeks

6.) What is James doing?

 a.) He's having fun, playing the scammers at their own game
 b.) He's having fun and saving people money

You can check your answers on the video quiz page.

Feel free to leave your comments about your experience with spam / junk mail / scammers below!

A CLEAN PLEDGE FOR THE ENVIRONMENT

When we think about the environment, we very often think about how little is being done to protect it but some parts of the world are finally taking a stand* against pollution.

*take a stand. Adopt a firm position about an issue, as in She was more than willing to take a stand on abortion rights. This idiom alludes to the military sense of stand, “hold one's ground against an enemy.”

California (USA) is one of those places that is hoping to reach 100% clean power in order to significantly reduce the amount of pollution generated when producing power.

Take a look at the following video about California´s pledge:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Va1nKrZ2oo&list=PL0mZ7bq-eDAuizak3m89tI9rV3TXeD73z&index=6&t=0s

Decide if the following sentences about the video are true or false:-

• The pledge of clean power should be completed in 2045

• The falling cost of energy storage or battery storage will help California to carry out the plan

• The interviewee thinks the most realistic way to achieve clean power all over the US is to arrange the same deadline for every state.

• The wide range of variables that surround this pledge make it very difficult to estimate its final cost

• As for the original climate accords, specifically the aim to prevent the 2ºC temperature gain, we have done more than enough to achieve this target

I'm walking on sunshine, aren't you? Here are some summer idioms which are very suitable for the season

I expect a lot of you are on holiday but if, like me, you're still counting down the days until your break or you've just come back, these summer related idioms could come in very handy to talk about it.

1. TO BE WALKING ON SUNSHINE

It refers to when someone is absolutely delighted or very happy, something similar to "I'm over the moon".
Here is the definition in the idiom dictionary:-
https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/walk+on+sunshine

This idiom is also the name of a song, here's the song on lyricstraining, with an activity, to help you to get to grips with its meaning:-
https://es.lyricstraining.com/en/play/katrina-and-the-waves/walking-on-sunshine/HqYNA9pVyq#!julie86

2. ONE SWALLOW DOES NOT MAKE A SUMMER

This idiom refers to the fact that swallows normally appear at the beginning of summer and it can also be used in a different context, when you only have a small clue that doesn't guarantee something is a fact, i.e. you don't have enough solid evidence. Here's the definition:-

one swallow does not make a summer

One piece of evidence does not mean that something is definitely the case or is going to happen. A reference to themigration of swallows that happens in the spring or early summer.A lot of things went right for us this year, but one swallow does not make a summer—we still have a long ways to gobefore our finances are back in order.A: "I'm really worried the boss is going to fire me. He said he really wasn't happy with my work lately!" B: "Calm down,one swallow doesn't make a summer."

3. TO SUMMER AND WINTER SB
This idiom is about monitoring somebody's behaviour, on a trial period for example. To check if it's suitable. Here's the definition from the idiom dictionary:-

summer and winter

To monitor one's behavior or abilities for a sufficiently long period of time.Oh yes, I will summer and winter him during this probationary period, to determine if we should hire him full-time.

4. TO MAKE WAVES
This idiom means that somebody is "making a show" or having a reaction which will cause trouble or some type of confrontation:-

make waves

Sl. to cause difficulty. (Often in the negative.) Just relax. Don't make waves. If you make waves too much around here,you won't last long.

What a difficult accent!!!

If I had a euro for every time someone has said "What a difficult accent!" following a listening activity in class, I would probably be quite well off nowadays. 

Many people ask me, where's he/she from? Why is it so difficult to understand them and so easy to understand you? Good question.... It's true that listening to as many different accents as possible helps to broaden our understanding but perhaps you haven't necessarily got time or you need to get straight to the point, in that case I would advise you to try to receive as much input as possible in your target accent. Your target accent would be, for example, the accent that you will or are being exposed to the most. So if your customers or suppliers are mainly in the UK it's best to use British Council resources or if they're from the USA, try Vaughan systems. 

Another good resource I have come across is IDEA:-
https://www.dialectsarchive.com/
Here you will find a collection of audio extracts separated by people's origin/accent.


Try listening to one of the extracts and writing a brief summary of what you've heard in the comments below!

International Day Against Bullying

Last Saturday was the International Day Against Bullying.

Here's a piece of reading about how we can take a stand against bullying (take a stand is to face or confront something):-

Why do we need to take action against bullying?

Sadly, bullying is really common. In a study of young people in the UK aged 12-20, half of them said they had been bullied. About 1.5 million young people in the UK were bullied last year, and many of these were bullied every day. People who are bullied are more likely to suffer from depression and anxiety. They might lose interest in the activities they enjoy, avoid spending time with other people and not go to classes or school, which has a negative effect on their learning.

What is bullying?

Bullying is not just physical, like hitting or kicking someone, or taking their things without permission. Bullying can also be with words – saying or writing things that are not nice. Another type of bullying is social – choosing not to include someone, embarrassing someone or telling other people not to be friends with them. Bullying can happen at school, on public transport, when you're walking home, online ... in fact, it can happen anywhere. Bullying involves an imbalance of power – one person (or a group of people) that is more powerful than another. Maybe this person has private information or is more popular, or maybe they are physically bigger and stronger. 

The roles kids play

Bullying usually involves more people than you think. There are the people who bully and those who are bullied. (It is better not to say ‘the bully’ and ‘the victim’ because that makes it sound like things can’t change.) Sometimes other people help the bully or join in. Then there are the kids that support – they don’t bully anyone directly, but they support the bullying by being an audience. They laugh or encourage the children who are bullying in other ways. This is why it’s important for everyone to work together against bullying. Some children see what is happening and want to help, although they don’t know how. Others may comfort and defend the person being bullied. To stop bullying we need everyone to be brave and take a stand.

How to help

Does your school do anything to prevent bullying? Why don’t you create a student anti-bullying group? This group can do many things. Let the head teacher know how well the school is doing with fighting bullying and give them advice. Choose an anti-bullying slogan for your school, make posters and displays or take over the school’s social media for a week to send out anti-bullying messages.
Bullying is a social problem and it needs a solution from society – in other words, everyone. The next time you see someone being cruel to someone else, take a stand! Don’t laugh or ignore what’s happening – tell an adult as soon as possible and help everyone to realise that bullying is not OK.

Take a look at these sentences and decide if they are true or false:-

1. Bullying doesn't happen very often in the UK.


2. Bullying can affect people's mental health, social life and progress at school.


3. There are two main types of bullying.


4. Bullying can happen between two people who feel equally powerful.


5. If you laugh at a bullying situation, it makes it better.


6. There are many things young people can do to prevent bullying.


7. Young people need to stop bullying on their own.


8. If you see bullying, the best thing to do is talk to your friends for help.

Were you ever bullied? Feel free to leave your comments on the subject below!

Walk a mile in my shoes!

The following article is a very interesting read about the old expression "walk a mile in my shoes".

This expression invites the listener to understand your position by taking some insight from your side and imagining what it would be like to be in your shoes. Have a read to get a clear picture of the context:-

https://www.scotwork.co.uk/negotiation-blog/2019/walk-a-mile/

Now try to guess if the following sentences are true or false:-

1. Across the red line is a TV series.

2. The article is about training for the London Marathon.

3. Simon Turney is a headteacher.

4. The British School Swap is an iniciative to stop racial problems at schools.

Tell me about a time where you have walked a mile in somebody else's shoes in the comments below :)