Meeting and Greeting

On 23rd February we will be holding a model lesson for
our new BE course, the topic of which will be greeting
visitors.

Meeting people for the first time can sometimes make
people feel uneasy. It's difficult to know what to talk
about and how to keep a conversation going.

As a taste of what's to come try to correct the
errors in these sentences.

1. Hello. My name is Marc. I am at ECC.

2. How long do you spending in Japan?

3. I am a terrible journey.

4. Are you first time in Tokyo?

Answers will follow next week!

Telephone Conversations

Anybody who ever studies English for business at ECC
always tells us that they hate using the telephone
in English. One of the reasons for this is that
meaning may be ambiguous (not completely clear;
vague) because you can't see the person you're
talking to. This means that it's often difficult to
know how people are feeling.

Some strategies that may be useful on the telephone
are asking questions if you don't understand (much
like the previous post on clarifying) and
checking similar sounds.

"Did you say fifteen - one-five, or fifty - five-oh?"

It sounds obvious but it's also a good idea to have
a notebook with you when you're using the telephone.
You can take notes of key words and ideas while the
other person is talking.

Also, it's useful to speak a little slowly on the
telephone because this will make the other person want
to match your speed. Don't go too slowly though; you
need to sound natural but very clear.

Meetings - Clarifying

In the previous post we looked at how to ask for clarification in a meeting
but we didn't look at what to do if somebody asks you for clarification.

Basically you need to explain your ideas or meaning in very simple and
plain terms. You need to avoid nuanced, vague vocabulary. You may
need to be more direct than you actually wanted to be; you need to
think about whether being indirect or expressing your feelings is more
important in this situation.

You should:

AVOID JARGON (no specialised language)
AVOID IDIOMS (especially if there are other non-native speakers present)
USE SHORT SENTENCES
ORDER YOUR IDEAS AND SHOW THE PROCESS (using words like 'first',
'next', 'before that', etc.)

If you have the opportunity, you should also try to check whether
the person understood you by having them tell you what you meant.

An example of how to simplify would be:

"We must strive to push the envelope regarding the volume of units
being distributed to domestic retail outlets."
BECOMES
"We need to try harder to send more stock to shops in this country."

Meetings - Asking for clarification

I'm sure that many of you have been in meetings where you haven't completely understood what was being said at times. A lot of people who study English for business worry that when they don't understand that it could be a language problem. In truth, it isn't necessarily the case. The fact is, sometimes you may need to interrupt politely to ask for clarification.

"Excuse me. I'm sorry but I don't understand exactly what you mean. Could you clarify that
for me, please?"

"I hate to interrupt but do you mean that sales are decreasing because we don't have enough sales reps?"

"I'm afraid that I don't understand exactly what you just said. Do you mean...?

New Blog

Happy New Year!

This is the first entry on the ECC Shinjuku L-Tower School blog.

On this blog we will be looking mainly at English for business, not only for higher level students but for students of all levels.

We hope you will continue to visit this blog and discover new words, phrases and ways of using English.

For those of you looking for general English, why not look at the Shinjuku Honko blog?