HOW TO SPEAK ENGLISH FLUENTLY DURING VIRTUAL MEETINGS
hey in april of 2020 zoom announced that
on a daily basis
they had 300 million
meeting participants you heard me
correctly
300 million people every day using
zoom having virtual meetings
now you as an english learner yes you’ve
had
many different virtual meetings but
you’ve also had
a lot of trouble because of those
meetings
you see speaking english is difficult
and it’s even more difficult
during virtual meetings but don’t you
worry
that’s what i’m here for today i’m going
to tell you the three main difficulties
that you
and other english learners have during
virtual meetings
and i’m going to give you the solutions
i’m going to tell you the words
the expressions and the patterns you
need to finally speak
english with confidence during any
virtual
meeting i’m teacher tiffany let’s jump
right
in all right so there are three main
difficulties that you as
an english learner experience during
virtual meetings
the first difficulty is right here being
hard to understand you see it is hard to
understand
everyone when using a computer it is
similar to
the difficulty that is experienced when
an english learner has to make a phone
call
for example when someone calls you on
the phone or if you have to call an
american company
or someone that’s a native english
speaker sometimes it can be tricky to
hello um i’m sorry what did you say
to understand what they’re saying and
the exact same
difficulties experienced during a
virtual
meeting now the second difficulty is
right here
difficult to give presentations you see
making an emotional
connection while giving a presentation
actually helps english learners feel
more confident so when people are not
around
it causes more stress to the english
learner
in other words for a virtual meeting you
literally are
just speaking to a camera
and as an english learner this makes it
so much more difficult
because you don’t have that emotional
connection to make with
someone you know making eye contact
because you’re speaking to a camera
and the third difficulty that you and
other english learners experience
is being uncomfortable during breakout
sessions or breakout rooms
you see being placed in a virtual room
with
other people is uncomfortable you feel
more pressure to speak and this can make
you feel
more nervous trust me this is something
that even native english speakers
experience so it’s heightened it’s even
worse for english learners so all right
what are the solutions
i hope you have your pen and your paper
ready because i’m going to give you the
expressions
you need here we go let’s start with
difficulty number one
what to do when you don’t understand
here we go first you need to ask
them to repeat what they said
now this is something that again i
totally understand
sometimes it’s a little bit nerve
wrecking or you can feel
nervous to ask someone to repeat
themselves
right but this is very important when
you don’t
understand you need to ask them to
repeat
what they said now let me give you three
ways
that you can ask someone to repeat what
they said all right
make sure you write these down first you
can say
my apologies i didn’t catch what you
said
would you mind repeating that last
point again very nice way of saying
please repeat what you said and you’re
also letting the person know hey
i would like to understand what you’re
saying would you mind
please just restating it so again you
can ask them by saying
my apologies i didn’t catch what you
said
would you mind repeating that last point
again and you’re also being specific hey
that last
point not everything you said but that
last
point all right now the second way you
can ask someone to repeat what they said
is i understood what you said about
but i missed your other point can you
explain it
one more time please now again
you’re still asking them to repeat
themselves right
but notice what i did at the beginning i
said hey
i understood what you said about dot dot
dot
you’re letting them know hey i have been
listening and the part you said about
maybe they’re discussing you know
different projects you’re working on you
can say hey the part you said about
project number one i understood that but
i missed your other point about project
number two
so for this second example you can let
them know i’m paying attention
i understood one part but the other part
i missed so again you can say
i understood what you said about dot dot
dot
but i missed your other point can you
explain it
one more time please now the third way
to ask someone to repeat themselves is
by saying
i wasn’t able to fully understand
the last point would you mind breaking
it down
one more time please now let me explain
something about this one
when you say to someone would you mind
breaking
it down that is letting the person know
that the way it was explained the first
time
may not have been as clear as you would
have liked it to have been so you want
them to
explain it a different way in simpler
terms
and all of that comes out in would you
mind
breaking it down so again these are
excellent ways of
asking someone during a virtual meeting
for them to repeat themselves instead of
just saying hey excuse me can you repeat
yourself please
don’t say that say one of these three
and again the last one once again
is i wasn’t able to fully understand
the last point would you mind breaking
it down
one more time please alright so when you
don’t understand
one thing you can do is ask them to
repeat what they said
now the second thing you can do when you
don’t understand
is to summarize to verify
you understood that’s right you can
summarize you heard something during the
virtual meeting
and you want to verify if what you heard
was correct
so three ways you can do that again i’m
giving you the patterns the words you
can say
here we go you can say i want to make
sure that i understood
correctly you said that dot dot dot
is that correct again this is a
great way of letting the person know hey
i have been listening
and it’s been interesting but i just
want to make sure i
understood correctly and the response is
going to be good because you’re showing
that you are paying attention and that
you really do
want to understand now the second way
you can summarize to verify you
understood
is by saying thanks for the explanation
i just want to verify that i got all of
your main
points you said dot dot dot
does that sound about right now here’s
again
the amazing thing when someone who is
presenting
or who’s the one leading a virtual
meeting here’s an individual
you ask a question related to their
presentation
and asks for clarification in this way
it will be received so well because
you’re saying hey
i want to make sure i got all of your
main points because it was so good
the presentation was so great i want to
make sure i understood everything so
again
memorizing these will help you so much
all right
so the third way you can do this is by
saying
i truly appreciated your explanation
or your presentation your main points
were
dot dot dot did i miss anything
again it’s like you’re letting them know
hey i had my notes
i was taking notes and i want to make
sure that i understood everything
please let me know did i miss anything
so this is a great way again
when you don’t understand you can say
one of these three examples
to summarize and verify that you
understood
now another way to say something when
you don’t understand
is to ask someone in
the chat area remember when you’re in a
virtual meeting especially if you’re
using zoom
there’s always going to be a chat area
so if you don’t want to
interrupt the person speaking or
presenting that’s okay
you can still type in the chat box there
are certain ways to
ask to repeat so here’s the thing i want
you to write this
here’s the first one i think i missed
the last
point would someone mind writing what he
or she
said again here super polite
and people will respond because they
realize
oh you didn’t understand we want to help
you understand all right
now another way is you can do this right
here
what did he or she say i wasn’t able to
catch the last part this is very quick
again it’s like hey
i missed it what did she say hey i
missed it what did he say
and you’re asking someone to let you
know just the last portion
not the entire presentation just the
last
portion and finally you can type a
message like this
i didn’t understand one part what did he
or she say about dot dot dot
now again this is in the chat area
but this is even more specific but
you’re letting people know hey
i’m trying to understand but i do need a
little bit of help
but when you write the message in the
chat box
either by one two or three again either
by saying i think i missed the last
point or the second one
what did he or she say or i didn’t
understand one part
when you use one of these methods people
will respond
kindly because these are so good
it’s easy for you to tell somebody i
didn’t understand
but i want to understand now here’s
something i want to pause really quickly
because
what i’m teaching you i’m giving you
expressions natural
patterns used by real native english
speakers
in real life things that we actually say
but here’s the thing i actually have a
pdf a free pdf and it has over
it literally has a thousand english
words
and expressions and what it is is it
helps you sound more like a native
english speaker so
i’m giving you a lot during our class
today but if you want to continue
learning more expressions and more words
totally for free the pdf is totally free
you can download it for free by clicking
the link right in the description again
i’m teaching you some expressions some
patterns that you can use in real life
situations
for virtual meetings but there are so
many other natural expressions
used by native english speakers that you
can use as well and
get the free pdf and you’ll learn them
too so hopefully you get it and i know
you enjoy it link in the description
so let’s keep going all right so we’ve
mastered this right here
what to do when you don’t understand but
what do you do
when you have to give a presentation
that’s right when you are the one
leading the virtual meeting
talk about nerve wrecking don’t worry
again i’ll give you what you need
here’s what you need to do so when you
have to give the presentation
the first thing you have to remember is
keep
it simple again keep it
simple now here’s the main thing right
here here we go
focus on giving three main
points that’s right i always talk about
threes
focus on three main points it’s not
about talking for a long period of time
it’s about giving the main point so no
matter what your presentation
is focus on giving three main points
then give one to three
easy to understand details
for each point that’s right think about
an
outline no matter what you are going to
present
keep it simple pick three main points
and then one
to three details about each of those
points
and then finally what you’re going to do
is give one
clear example or experience
for each point this again will help you
because it’s
simple it’ll help you connect with those
that are
listening to your presentation those
that are participating in your virtual
meeting
so again when you have to give a
presentation the first thing to remember
is keep it simple and yes this goes back
to
improving your english don’t worry about
using difficult vocabulary words
no focus on keeping it simple
the second thing to remember when you
have to give a presentation
is start with a good attention
grabber think about this at the very
beginning of this lesson
remember i told you something about zoom
i said in april of 2020 300
million people had registered to be
part of meetings on a daily basis so
again
a very interesting fact to grip your
attention at the very beginning
you need to do the same thing at the
beginning of a presentation
you’re giving for a virtual meeting so
there are three things you can use
tell a story give an interesting fact
like i did
or you can ask them a question again
this all ties in to helping you speak
english well during any virtual meeting
because
when you have this breakdown you can be
confident
and you’ll be able to give a better
presentation
now the third thing you have to remember
when you are giving a presentation
is right here make it
interactive and also engage
your audience basically get people
involved by asking questions throughout
the presentation
think about it going back and forth if
you’ve ever participated in one of my
live classes
you know what it’s like now for those
that don’t know
every week i have a live english class
with
my academy students if you want to join
the academy
all you have to do is go to let’s jump
right in dot com
again let’s jump right in com but every
week we have a live english class
and it’s very interactive i ask lots of
questions
and we go back and forth so you should
do the same thing when you’re giving a
presentation during a virtual meeting
so here we go let me give you some
examples does anyone have a question
about the last point i made
again memorize this after you give your
presentation
ask this question does anyone
have a question about the last point
i made or you can say has anyone ever
experienced
this before and finally who can tell me
the first
main point that i mentioned at the
beginning
of my presentation so you see there are
three specific questions
you can ask after you’ve given a
presentation
use these exactly memorize them people
will
interact with you after you’ve given
your presentation
don’t stress use these questions and
trust me
your presentation will go well now what
about the third difficulty
there were three main difficulties for
english learners and virtual meetings
the third one what to do when you are
in a breakout room
this can be tricky but trust me i have
some example expressions
and example patterns that will help you
so first things first
prepare a summary with three points from
the presentation let me pause really
quickly
this means usually for breakout rooms
there’s a period before you break out
where a presentation is giving or given
or something is discussed
during that period take some quick notes
before you go to your breakout room
you need to prepare have three points of
whatever was discussed during that
period
this is just in case you are asked
to say something so you can say
the three main things i learned from the
presentation were
dot dot dot you’ve already prepared
yourself you’re not nervous anymore why
because
during that first part before the
breakout sessions you took some quick
notes
and you picked three points so during
the breakout room
if someone says hey uh can you let us
know what you thought about the
presentation or
hey can you let us know what you thought
about the discussion
immediately using this pattern you can
say
ah the three main things i learned from
the presentation were
dot dot dot and again you’ll be
comfortable
you won’t be nervous and people will be
impressed with your english
now another way of presenting your three
points is right here
the three things that stood out to me
the most from the presentation were dot
dot dot
now to stand out just means something
that
um really stuck in my memory something
that
caught my attention something that was
very interesting to me
we say stood out to me so again you can
say
the three things that stood out to me
the most
from the presentation were dot dot dot
now the second thing when you’re trying
to figure out what to do in a break room
breakout room is have a few questions
prepared
now you need to make sure the questions
are related to the topic
of the presentation or the discussion
again
i’m giving you tips to help you
literally
stop feeling awkward and nervous during
virtual meetings
these things will help you so have a few
questions prepared that’s right it’s not
meant for you to just sit down and be
quiet
remember western culture we like to
engage
and be involved so someone is going to
probably ask you a question
or to ask you to say something so if you
have questions prepared
it will help you a lot so for example
here we go
um he or she said dot dot dot being the
presenter
what are your thoughts on that
conversation
mastering english conversation going
back and forth
back and forth i talked about mastering
in this conversation
actually in my last live class with my
students
from my academy and we talked about
going back and forth
naturally what’s happening here is you
have a question
already prepared based on the discussion
hey the presenter said
dot dot dot maybe you’re talking about
real estate can you tell me what are
your thoughts on that
and boom now you’re delivering the
questions to someone in your breakout
room
and it will lead to a very deep
conversation
now you can also say this he or she
presented two ideas about da da da
which one did you resonate with
the most it means which one did you
relate to
the most or which one did you connect
with the most
so what’s happening you’re showing that
you were
listening that you understood the
presentation
that it was interesting and you’re also
showing that you are
interested in the other individual or
individuals in the breakout room you see
what’s happening right
it’s not just about the words you know
it’s about
literally understanding how to operate
properly
in a virtual meeting when you master
these things
honestly not just for english learners
even for
native english speakers you will feel so
much more
comfortable in virtual meetings now
there’s a third thing i want to tell you
about
related to the breakout rooms when
you’re in a breakout room the third
thing you can do is right here
listen and restate what your group
members say you see doing this before
you give your own comment
shows that you were listening hey when
you’re in a breakout room
think about it as a small meeting and
think about it also as a conversation
back and forth so when you focus on hey
what are my colleagues what are my
group members saying and then you repeat
to them what they said before you make
your comment
they will immediately want to listen to
you more
why because you cared about what they
said
you cared about their opinions so now
they’re going to care about your
opinions
again it’s so much deeper than just
english but you’ll feel so much more
comfortable
because everyone’s going to be
interested in what you’re saying
and you’ll start feeling confident so
how do you do this here we go let me
show you
um you said dot dot again restate what
they said very quickly
i also agree with that i would add
though
dot dot dot i’m acknowledging what the
individual said
i’m then saying hey i actually agree
with that but you know what
i kind of want to add something and it
keeps the conversation flowing
now another thing you can do is right
here you can say
i like how you said dot dot dot
i think that dot dot dot again
acknowledging first what the other
individual said showing them that you
were listening
and then giving your opinion this is how
you operate in a breakout room and this
is how you
stop feeling awkward how you speak
english with
confident during any virtual meeting
now i hope you learned a lot i hope you
really enjoyed today’s lesson
i hope it helped you master virtual
meetings
no longer will you have to feel awkward
or confused or nervous
you can feel confident no matter what
virtual meeting
you’re in thank you so much for joining
again i want to remind you to please
get your free pdf 1000 english
words and expressions totally for free
the link is in the description
i taught you some patterns and some
words and expressions today
and they’re going to help you but if you
want to learn more and sound like a
native english speaker
just get your free pdf by clicking the
link in the description
thank you again so much for joining i
can’t wait to see you again next week
for our lesson
remember as always to speak english
[Music]
you still there you know what time it is
it’s story time
a i said it’s story time
all right so for today’s story time it’s
actually about
singing kind of let me explain
so when i first left nasa
right i left nasa i actually prior to
going to korea
i came back to maryland i’m from
maryland
and i stayed with my parents they’re
great people
they said tiff you can stay with us
while you figure out what you’d like to
do next
so i said okay now i’m an individual
that likes to be active i like to be
involved i like to help
out so at my church they um
voted me in as the social uh the social
ministry leader so i was in charge of
like social events
at my church for about a year or two uh
period right
so i was always trying to come up with
things that were fun
for our church family to do together and
one day i came up with this idea so i’ve
always loved
singing but i also liked lip sync
now lip sync is when the music is
playing no sound is coming out of your
voice
but it’s playing in the background and
you’re acting like you’re singing it so
for example
when i say story time
a i said it’s story time
i’m literally singing but i know many of
you and you’ve
messaged me and told me sing along or
you
mouth along so as i’m singing you’re
like
right so no words are coming out no
sound is coming out but you’re
singing along that is lip singing with
your lips right
so i came up with this great idea i said
you know what
one now i’m a seventh day adventist so
sabbath on saturdays i go to church
i said one sabbath afternoon in the
evening
i want to have a lip sync contest now
my idea was to have people of all ages
come together from our church bring
their favorite songs
and they would perform up front
in front of us and we would vote who was
the best
who seemed like they really were singing
so i told a few people i told my family
and they were like yeah that’s gonna be
so much fun
so i’m like okay great now the thing is
it had never been done at my
church and so it had to be
marketed it had to be presented to the
church
so i realized that i couldn’t just
announce it simply in a simple way like
hey church family do you want to come to
a lip-sync contest
i realized that i had to do something uh
i had to do something to grab their
attention remember we talked about
during the lesson an attention grabber
right
so i came up with this idea one of my
favorite
singing groups is mary marriott two
sisters
their voices amazing gospel group and
they had a song
um i’m trying to think there were so
many songs that i liked i wanna
remember the exact song it was in the
morning
you’ll be alright no um
okay i can’t remember the exact song
let’s just say it was that one i’ll sing
that one
so what i was going to do was during
church
there’s an announcement period now my
church is pretty big between four to
five hundred people every single sabbath
on saturdays
so i asked the pastor and the person in
charge said hey i want to give an
announcement but it’s gonna be a little
bit different i don’t need to be up
front
i actually need to come from the back of
the church and they were like the back
of the church i said just trust me they
said okay
so i gave the cd to the sound guy
one of my friends and said hey when i
say go
when i walk into the church in the very
back the doors are gonna close behind me
and i’m gonna look at you
i want you to hit play he said okay now
remember our church is not small
so i was a little bit nervous but i was
also kind of excited so you know i’m not
really a shy person but
certain situations can be a little bit
nerve-wracking so
um it was time for the announcements and
they were like okay so our next
announcement is coming up
and there was silence and the church
went silent because no one was up front
so i opened the back doors and i was
standing there and a few people started
looking at me
because i hadn’t done anything yet i
looked at my friend and i said
you know i kind of gave him the eye like
it’s your time buddy
so the music came on right and it’s kind
of a jam
right so it’s playing people kind of you
know rocking with their like what is
about to happen
so the song starts playing now i knew
all the words because again
one of my favorite gospel groups so
let’s say the song was again
in the morning you’ll be all right
so i had to lip sync though so i was lip
singing now if you’re lip singing
the entire church is looking at you you
can’t just walk normally
so i started kind of dancing down the
aisle pointing at people and
of course people were smiling laughing
having a great time
so by the time i got to the front of the
church i looked at my friend i said okay
cut the music
people were like okay you know clapping
you know laughing having a good time
and i made the announcement all right
family we’re going to be having a lip
sync contest and i explained everything
right
but again i had grabbed their attention
now fast forward
the program was amazing it was super
funny
um people of all ages participated it
was great and actually
the older individuals were the ones who
did the best so
it was really a nice program and our
family church family came together
really well so everyone enjoyed it but
that announcement i will never forget
the way i did that announcement why
because it really got everyone’s
attention so again just like i taught
you in today’s lesson about
getting people’s attention at the
beginning of your presentation
it’s very important because they will
stay with you they’ll be interested
and they’ll be involved so i hope you
enjoyed today’s story time
if you have a story where you did
something that was
really shocking or really out of the
blue let us know in the comment section
again don’t forget to get your free pdf
if you want to learn
more words and expressions and sound
like a native english speaker
click the link right in the description
and i will see you
next week