English Conversation Learn English Speaking English Course English Subtitle Part 25

hello and welcome to the third English today business DVD in this DVD you can watch another four episodes of our story on the job followed by the business skills section win-win language will then look at the following topics note-taking and report writing different levels of formality the various grammatical forms we use to talk about the future and the writing styles used in email communications have fun and enjoy your viewing I've called you in today to bring you up to speed on our new cookbook series Anne's going to take notes from which will then develop the detailed outline of the work-in-progress and then set the deadlines so Gary which authors have we contacted we've got in touch with Jones Bradford Smith Fox and Grant unfortunately we haven't been able to contact Tchaikovsky I think he's abroad at the moment ciao what I'm sorry could you spell that for me please Gary certainly ch a k OS WS ki is one of our Russian collaborators couldn't we get in touch with Parker in his place what do you think he's worked with us in the past it's a good idea unfortunately I haven't got his number I think I have it in my old appointment book let me just make a note of that so I don't forget what's the news on the contribution so far have the authors started sending in material yes and I've already begun editing the first batch excellent Dan you'll also have to take care of researching the images when you've got those you can send them along to the graphics department for page insertion let's move on to the typography Rachel have you seen the first batch of proofs we got from Mon text today yes mr. Stevens great work I must say it seems to me that they've done an excellent job good so it looks like we can trust them with this edition let's get a bid in immediately take note of that Rachel yes mr. Stevens I'll call them as soon as we finish this meeting one last thing we haven't found a title for this series do you have any ideas come on use your imagination I want something original something catchy nothing okay then that's your first task do some brainstorming to come up with some ideas and then we'll go through them together why the long faces there's nothing to worry about you're a great team I'm sure you'll think of something interesting okay the purpose of today's meeting is to discuss the Smarty marketing campaign does anyone have any suggestions before we move forward with the planning I think we need to take into consideration a number of aspects of the campaign I'm referring to the concept the objectives the targets and the type of media we need to employ good observation mr. Chiang getting our ideas clear before we move on to the direction and score of our marketing drive is an excellent idea what do you think Paul I'm in complete agreement with you first we need to set our objectives for this campaign we need to decide upon our focal points in terms of brand communication could you explain what you've written on the board there that'll help us understand where you're going with this brand awareness rising will help potential clients become familiar with our products and the market place we're targeting in our case this type of campaign will serve to improve the image of Spector in the Chinese market but what about focusing the campaign on the product itself a product campaign is generally much more focused and serves to meet different objectives above all Cannell communicates the unique characteristic of the product to help it stand out in its marketplace of course this can eventually bring positive results to the entire line of products and in your opinion what type of campaign best suits our needs well considering that the Chinese market is new for us I choose a campaign focusing on brand awareness with a simple but effective message such as our company provides Sporting Goods with a high-tech edge and then follow up with a successive campaign focusing on the Smarty are there any comments on Paul's proposal I'm in complete agreement with him great would you like to add anything Paul not for the moment well if there are no objections I'd like to move forward on this our next step is to contact a marketing agency could you take care of that Paul certainly Victoria well if there's nothing else I really need to get going oh my goodness look at the time you're always busy aren't you mrs. Lee I think you work too much well actually I need to go to my son's school play I promised him that I wouldn't miss it for anything in the world well then get a move on children always come before business what are we doing now let's go for lunch you good so there you saw two different meetings and now let's talk about report writing after meetings because it is important you have to keep a record of things that happen in meetings but it's not easy and people are usually very bored with writing reports so I want to try and give you a few tips of how to improve your report writing so let's use the screen now obviously the first thing is you have to identify the speakers know exactly who is in the meeting and what their position or job is now the second thing is to write brief summaries of the main points now it's important to keep these brief for example Victoria's meeting let's think about that can you remember the content of that meeting well we could say that the main points were number one brainstorming on the Smarty marketing campaign that was the general activity at the beginning so the first thing was brainstorming on the Smarty marketing campaign then the next important thing was setting objectives for the future steps the third thing they talked about was the brand awareness of the campaign for China that's the third most important thing and then after the future plan was contacting the marketing agency so from that meeting there were four main points to be recorded now try to remember to keep your notes concise so the people can read them quickly you don't want to have to read pages and pages of reports there's no time all right keep it concise then try to highlight and this is very important highlight the decisions made and the conclusions because that's more important than saying what has been said we want to know the conclusions we want to know the decisions taking and another important thing probably the most important thing is the action that is going to have to be taken in the future so what are the actions to be taken all right then immediately after the meeting try and write up your notes as soon as possible because otherwise you tend to forget all right so as soon as possible fantastic now how do we organize the report what's the layout like well it's really quite simple you have an introduction where you state the relevant old business and also the new business so that could be your introduction then in the main part you specify the main discussion points of the meeting as we mentioned before and then in the conclusion in the summary you talk about the decisions and about the actions so that would be an efficient report not too long the most important decisions the most important conclusions and actions for the future all right now often in reports we abbreviate language to make again the report shorter and I want to look at some of those common abbreviations with you now look at the screen EG means for example IE means that is atc very common is etc CF c dot f means compare C or CA means about or approximately n B means note take note of this aprox approximately d EPT is Department X n which is e x CL means excluding mi MP dot is important incl means including Ltd is limited often to describe companies n o is number P or P P is pay age or pages probs Pio rbs probes problems are e with reference to or concerning our EF is reference just reference V dot is very and s stroke T is something now these are very very common abbreviations and you can use them freely in your reports it shortens the task alright so remember when you're writing reports keep it short keep it concise and to the point concentrate on the decisions taken the conclusions and the plans are for future actions alright well thank you very much and we'll meet again in the next lesson bye mr. Chang can you yes yes I can go ahead okay then let's begin so Paul how's the marketing campaign coming along we're putting together a complex communication strategy that's going to leverage different channels from TV spots and radio jingles to magazine runs and banner advertising on the Internet the internet are you sure that will bring about results absolutely Victoria the enormous potential web marketing is direct and allows for niche advertising that builds better rapport with our clients isn't that right mr. Chang yes even if it's true that not all Chinese families have a broadband connection like you do here in the West the Internet is still very popular in China especially with the young internet cafes of all sorts are opening across the country and according to the Chinese Information Technology Ministry the number of avid Internet users has already reached 120 million Wow I had no idea there was such a boom in information technology yes technology has become the determining factor in the economic and cultural development of the contemporary Chinese society its young adults who are influenced by these new communication media 60% of web servers in China are between the ages of 18 and 26 words such as forum blog email and Chad have become part of their everyday speech I think we need to focus our efforts in this arena to successfully market our knowledge as a matter of fact not only am i working to develop a graphically attractive site with plenty of content but I am also contacting my Internet portals to post animated banners I am also looking into other means of reaching a much more clearly defined niche by target advertising through news groups mailing lists chat rooms and forums I'm even thinking of launching a viral marketing campaign a viral what sounds like a disease to me viral marketing is a marketing strategy that induces users of certain internet sites to promote products to other surface like a virus in this way exponential visibility of our message is possible it's like a word-of-mouth on steroids if we succeed it's a low-cost communication strategy that has an extremely attractive growth potential that's hard to calculate pure genius I must say Paul you're the tops when it comes to technology well considering I spend so much time shopping don't tell me that you prefer friends made in virtual space well to be truthful I found my fiancee on the Internet you Gary did you get that email problem fixed yes I did I set up a new account for you you only have to create a new username and password how do I do that I'm hopeless with computers I know you are in fact by now I've lost all hope with you but you really do need to try to learn I mean email and Internet are indispensable in this day and age I know I know Gary you don't ever get tired of repeating that I must admit I'm a Luddite how I miss the days when you wrote letters by hand and visited the library to do research everything's changed now I think I've done well to learn to send and receive emails speaking of emails I noticed what you were writing to the authors and if you'll permit me Rachael your emails are much too stuffy and formal they don't fit in at all with internet jargon what are you saying give you an example when you start off an email you use we'd like to inform you that it's quite old-fashioned you know it's better to write did you know that or another example when you need to make an excuse you begin we regret to inform you that it's much better to use something like unfortunately we can't it's less formal but at the same time more professional email needs to be kept simple and to the point these abbreviations as often as possible and keep phrases short if you're writing to someone you know well you can even add an emoticon it's always a pleasure to get one an emoticon what the devil is that you're so old-school Rachel emoticons are those little faces that you can make using keyboard characters that show how you're feeling at the time okay okay professor I'll try to simplify and use a more colloquial tone when writing hmm perhaps I'll even put in a smiley it's not difficult you'll see just what the magic of the Internet transports you but remember to use netiquette you're talking like a computer manual what is netiquette it's good manners on the Internet it's the rules of the road of the network Rachel Rachel Rachel you really do need to get some practice don't you I've got an idea why don't you let me sign you up for a forum that way you can learn the rules of the road and the lingo as you surf speaking of which do you like music huh music yes very much so great then I'll add podcasting sites to your favorites so you can download podcasts and maybe even burn them to this can't stop Gary oh you're driving me crazy I don't understand a word besides email I have no desire to learn any of it none of it do you understand good now before talking about email writing I want to talk about another concept which we've already looked at before it's when we use formal and informal language in English because often you have to choose and it depends on certain factors in the conversation so let's look at the screen now to help us with that now one of the first important things to remember when you're choosing either formal or informal language is the function what do I mean by that what I mean is what is the purpose of the conversation because if you are asking your boss for a favor now that's quite a tricky situation so you need formal language but if you are asking a colleague or a friend for help or assistance then that's a more informal situation so you need informal language ok that's the first thing the function and then also the domain that means what is my position in the conversation what is my role what are my rights and responsibilities because again if I am speaking to my boss then my language will tend to be more formal if I'm speaking to a subordinate that my language will then tend to be more informal all right but let's look at some examples for you and just understand better now the first one is look at this excuse me do you think it would be possible for me to have a day off next week now do you think it would be possible that is obviously high register formal language and the situation is a subordinate asking their boss do you think it would be possible the next example is Tom could you give me a hand now you can see could you it's less elaborate language it's informal it's probably a situation between two colleagues so that's informal what about the next one Peter hurry up with that report that's interesting because hurry up isn't imperative it's asking for specific action so in this case it's probably a boss talking to his or her subordinate okay so formal informal and in the second scene where there was Gary and Rachel Gary was trying to make Rachel use less formal language and in fact examples were these she wrote initially we'd like to inform you that now that's very formal in English he suggested this he said no use informal say this did you know that look at the difference we'd like to inform you that or did you know that the other example that he draw to our attention was she said I regret to inform you that regret is a very formal verb I regret to inform you that he said no no use unfortunately unfortunately we can't so that's very interesting and we will look at that more closely in another lesson to help you when you're in the process of writing emails but one more important thing when you're dictating email addresses you need to know how to say the punctuation of emails so let's look at that list now together the first one underscore - or - next colon semicolon . dots comma apostrophe / double / @ brackets speech marks question mark and exclamation mark alright so learn those and practice them they're very important from where you fall when you're giving or you're taking email addresses good that's all about emails for now but we'll come back to it in another lesson okay bye hi Victoria hi Paul Paul what's the matter you look awful what haven't you heard you know I've been away for four days my boy was sick and the babysitter went to visit her mum did something happen while I was away only a disaster Victoria total disaster you're frightening me Paul just calm down and tell me what's happened Spector has been bought by a Japanese multinational mrs. frost has been fired and mr. Chang has been transferred to Atlanta I would have be in charge of a men's clothing department what come on Paul you've got to be joking I'm afraid not Victoria and there's more you've been taken off the project you're no longer in charge of this Marta project the headquarters have called in a marketing manager from Harvard you'll be her assistant and I don't handle your position at all I spoke to her on the phone earlier and she didn't seem to be friendly to say the least you know the type mr. know-it-all as a matter of fact she's just sent this fax with her analysis of the sporting goods market and with a few other tactics the Fox is entitled study this throughly before my arrival oh my god but why things weren't perfect Spectre was having trouble certainly but they were indicative of a crisis that is being felt throughout the sector in fact that's why we launched the Smarty campaign targeting the Chinese market we were trying to create some momentum new opportunities things weren't going badly to start with no but then the current negative trends were felt in this area as well low salaries were enrolled in consumer confidence forcing us to raise prices to keep profits up after that the competition then literally beat us over the head it's very difficult to compete in a market with raw materials and labor costs are so low the final result was an excellent high quality product that was priced out of the market which prevented us from competing I know I know but we were creating a niche market for ourselves yes but the revenues were too marginal in any case we'll get the details of the meeting this afternoon mrs. frost and mr. Chang will be there and possibly even our new boss Helen Collins speaking of which here is a outline make sure you study 12 as you know we're dealing with a very difficult situation at the moment on the one hand our revenues are sinking due to price battles with our competition and the fact that consumer demand continues to decrease on the other hand our internal costs continue to rise the result is a significant fall in profits which has forced us to sell out to a Japanese multinational it's not a pretty picture couldn't we have considered corporate overhaul anything would have been better than this drastic solution improving company efficiency calls for massive investments that we are just not in a position to make and with our books in the red we couldn't move forward with these investments not to mention the personnel cuts we would have had to endure believe me mrs. Lee before we went ahead with the sales a specter to the Mikiko group we took a number of other solutions into consideration unfortunately none of these provided the answer and what about the Michiko group how do they intend to resolve this current crisis Michiko has already reorganized a number of firms in the past and therefore possesses the appropriate know-how I do know that they plan to put a major restructuring of the company into action from A to Z corporate workflow and bookkeeping management sales and logistics to name a few above and beyond that they intend to introduce new direct marketing techniques to improve consumer satisfaction and improve corporate visibility in the marketplace and how what is the winning strategy I don't know exactly but I believe they want to create incentives through promotional strategies they intend to participate in the largest trade fairs in the sector open a franchising chain of brand-name shops as well as factory outlets for wholesale and what do they intend to do with the Smarty campaign I think mrs. Lee you've already been informed that you will no longer be in charge of that campaign from that point on you will be working with mrs. Collins Collins is a marketing manager the headquarters has chosen to send here to take charge of the Smarty account as well as other products as you know after the initial sales success of smarty on the Chinese market sales fell well below our expectations as far as I know mrs. Collins intends to analyze exactly what went wrong and then relaunch the campaign using traditional market techniques and these will include market research telephone surveys thoughts etc in any case she will soon be here to explain everything in more detail she should be arriving any moment actually oh she is may I introduce mrs. Collins the new marketing manager for Spectre this is Collins this is your not waste time with these introductions we've got plenty of time for that later I'd like to get down to brass tacks now have you all studied my outline well that was pretty dramatic news wasn't it big changes for the future and in fact that's what I want to look at right now with you the future and the different ways of expressing the future let's call on the screen to help us do that now a lot of people think that in English to describe the future we use will well that's true up to a point but there are many other ways of expressing the future depending on the type of possibility in the future that you want to talk about so let's look at the examples if you think that something could happen 40% the possibility is 40% you wouldn't use will you would use these verbs you could say for example this could this may or this might happen or this could may might not the negative create a problem you see these verbs here could may and might express 40% possibility of something happening in the future okay let's increase the possibility to 80% and we need to change the verb so the example would be this shouldn't create a problem so it should expresses more 80% of possibility now there's another very interesting way of expressing this 80% of possibility maybe you don't know it it's this this is likely to create a problem now likely means probable so this is likely to create a problem the verb to be plus likely now if if it's the negative form we would say this is unlikely to create a problem all right important you'll hear it a lot describing future possibility then if you want to make a very strong prediction for the future so we're talking about a hundred percent possibility that's when we use will because really related to a strong prediction and the examples are this will create a problem the negative would be no this won't particularly create a problem okay this will and this won't create a problem and in fact in the video episode that we heard the example that Paul said was you'll be working with mister mrs. frost that's what he said to Victoria you'll be working with mrs. frost because that's a strong prediction all right so that's interesting different ways of expressing future possibility could may might 40% should likely unlikely to 80% and then will for a hundred percent prediction okay so that's all we have to say for the time being on the future remember different ways of expressing the future okay that's the end of this lesson and I look forward to seeing you again in the next one bye okay sweetheart and remember do all your homework and then you can watch those cartoons you like so much on TV I better get going then okay bye you do know don't you mrs. Li that personal calls are not allowed during working hours it was just a short call mrs. Collins I was just checking in on my son don't you have any children I do not I don't care for children now let's get back to work we've already wasted too much time with a small talk mrs. Li from now on you'll be in charge of all the email correspondence we received from our website keep in mind that I expect satisfactory replies specifically do not try to argue with anyone just come up with results invent something we have to win our customers trust they have to know we can satisfy any desire they may have even if we can't but mrs. Collins I've never been responsible for responding to clients emails our personnel in customer service usually take care of that I don't care how things were done in the past today we're off to a new start and you'll take care of the tasks that I assign you have I made myself perfectly clear I do not like to be challenged oh by the way mrs. Lee speaking of email you'll soon be receiving your work schedule for next week goodbye ah so this client who just purchased a pair of outdoor shoes would like to receive a Spectre catalog dear client first of all congratulations on your purchase in exchange would it be possible for you to spend five minutes at our company website completing a customer satisfaction survey please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions you may have concerning our product you're sincerely I think that works who would have ever thought I'd end up doing a job like this now that that spiteful woman has arrived to order me around I'm tempted to give it all up I wish I had a more creative position writing now that's my true passion in life ah an email from mrs. Collins mrs. Li attached you will find your work scheduled for next week don't forget to keep this in mind at all times I do not want any more time wasting she manages to be a royal pain even when writing an email I don't think I'm going to hold up for much longer another email what the hell does she want this time I know it's from mr. Chang dear Victoria before leaving I wanted to send my regards I'm truly sorry that things have gone so terribly wrong we worked very well together and I highly appreciate the mutual respect we had for one another I know that between you and mrs. Collins there's no loss of love you'll have to believe me when I say that I find her highly unlikable as well stiff upper lip there you're an asset to this company and I'm sure you'll do very well it's been a great pleasure knowing you and please keep in touch let me give you one last piece of advice in China when we are sad or angry we have a way of relaxing which always works we close our eyes and have a good laugh try it and you'll see that it works Oh mr. Chang I'm gonna miss you he really was a nice person to have around let's try his method mrs. Li what are you doing is this how you work emails emails emails and that's what we're going to talk about now because when you're writing emails you need the flexibility to be able to move from a formal style of writing to an informal style of writing because if you're writing for example to new customers new contacts to your superiors where there's a distant relationship then you need to use formal language if you're talking to colleagues and friends with people with whom you have a well-established relationship then you can use informal language but you need to be able to move from one to the other with ease and it's not so simple so I'd like to give you some examples of differences between formal and informal expressions that we very often use in emails let's look at the screen to help us with this now look at this example here very often we might begin an email in a formal way with this phrase further to your email of the 7th of July notice further to your email now that's formal how would we say that informally well we were just right re your email of re our e your email of that's the informal way now you try and guess every time the informal way I will give you the formal way okay I apologize for not answering but you see that's very formal I apologize for not answering the gerund but what's the way of saying that in an informal situation yeah you could say just simply sorry I didn't answer but alright sorry I didn't answer but next one I'm writing with regard to the invoice of blah blah blah I'm writing with regard to how can you make that informal okay we could say something like just a note about invoice 7 for example just a note about that's informal next one I'm delighted to tell you that we won for example the business I'm delighted to tell you is formal informal you could say just simply good news we won the contract all right good news next one again very very formal I regret to inform you that we I regret to inform you that in that's a formal verb regret what can you say informally just simply unfortunately unfortunately we lost the business so you can see the difference very often the informal is much shorter and more concise and more familiar obviously next one please find attached now that's when you're sending documents the formal way usually is please find attached documents bla bla bla bla bla informally yes you could say I've attached the following documents bla bla bla bla bla alright next one I'd be grateful if you could now here are three typically formal expressions that we use very often in emails listen to these I'd be grateful if you could I wonder if you could I wonder means it's a thinking process um do you think you could know English is full of very polite language and that's an example how can you make those less formal yep simply by saying please could you or please can you write next one do not hesitate to contact me should you need any further information now that is a classic phrase that we use in emails do not hesitate to contact me should you need any further information it's formal how do you make it informal well we could say let me know if you need anything else quite simply let me know if you need anything else all right next one at the end often of emails you could say I'll inform you on any developments I'll inform you on any developments let's make that informal we can say I'll keep you posted I'll keep you posted which is an unusual expression to keep someone posted you need to learn it by heart okay and the last one again is a classic phrase I'm looking forward to seeing you soon I'm looking forward to seeing you soon informally could be just see you soon best wishes alright good so I hope that helps you be able to expand your repertoire of formal and informal language because it's important for you to give the right impression when you're writing good so that's well for now about emails and see you again in the next lesson bye hello and welcome back to business talk our topic for the next two programs is win-win language the language that allows all parties of a conversation to feel like winners whether the conversation is business-related or not Eric and I will be demonstrating how the use of win-win language in an argument a negotiation or even an informal chat can ensure that both speakers involved come away satisfied today we'll be focusing on the language of argument and next time we'll look at the language of negotiation and small talk so how can we present an argument in the best possible way when when language is the answer when you make a business proposal or a request you win your case and this is the important part you make the other party feel that they've won to you both win hence the name when when now listen to Lucy carefully asking for an increase in an advertising budget afterwards we'll consider if we'd accept a request or not well as you know our new product smarty is not selling as well as expected I don't think it's possible to solve this problem without spending more on advertising if you'd accepted my original proposals things probably wouldn't be so bad I think the product is good but if you don't increase my advertising budget there's no way that smarty will be successful I'm asking for an increase of at least 15% if I'd had this money last year I could have organized a much more effective campaign I can't produce great results without the necessary resources well I think we can safely say that that's not what we mean by win-win language I know I'd be reluctant to agree to requests presented that way well you'd be absolutely right because I didn't mention any of the benefits of my proposal I didn't use any facts to support my case and my attitude was very negative I said what I didn't want rather than what I did want okay now listen to me present the same request good morning everyone this morning I'd like to propose an increase in our advertising budget of at least 15% this may seem a lot but there are two good reasons why we should agree that this increase is necessary let me try to explain as simply as possible first our new products smarty as we all know is vital for the survival of our company it is therefore essential to give smarty the very best advertising campaign that we can what's more we should do all that we can to ensure that smarty is not just a success but a real market leader the second reason is that with a bigger budget we'll be able to create the sort of market image that our company needs if we are to survive in a world of global competition let's try to imagine a campaign where we can really enter the minds of ordinary people let's suppose for example that we invest in a series of full-page color ads in the three major weeklies of the largest countries where we sell smarting imagine the positive impact this will have on the sales of all our products and I'm sure you'll agree that it's most definitely worth a try that's what I call win-win language well-organized emphasizing a team spirit and the benefits of the proposal well yes I'm sure we'll all agree that my chances of getting that budget increase are definitely higher than yours Wow that's all from us for now so see you soon bye bye now let's take a closer look at exactly why my request was more convincing than Lucy's well if we consider the three fundamental points that are the basis of all communication strategies simplicity organization and language and look back at all presentations we can clearly see that Lucy hadn't organized what she wanted to say she didn't mark each point clearly and she created a barrier between herself and her listeners with her repeated use of I and you here are just a few examples from Lucy's request I don't think it's possible if you'd accepted my original proposals if you don't increase my advertising budget there is no way that I'm asking for I can't produce great results without remember team spirit well it's very important in win-win language because if you and the person you're speaking to are on different teams it means there will be a winner and a loser and a loser could be you notice also how Lucy's attitude and language are very negative if we look at my budget increase request we'll see a very different approach first of all I presented my case in a logical way people react positively to ideas that are well organized I marked each point clearly with opening sentences like let me try to explain first it is therefore essential to what's more we should the second reason is that we will be able to let's try to imagine a campaign where we can let's suppose for example that we invest in these opening structures are very useful they organize your presentation logically and therefore make it clear and simple to understand notice to how the use of we and our make a huge difference it puts the speaker and the listener in the same team and makes it possible for both to be winners as well as organization simplicity and language here are a few argument strategies to help you win your case present your proposal in a logical way emphasize the benefits of your proposal choose two or three strong arguments too many reasons can weaken your case be positive say what you want not what you don't want use facts and figures to support your request

Channel: Learn English Conversation

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Id: 4Q-c7NqsCuE

Length: 52min 11sec (3131 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 12 2014