會議英語-遠距會議英文 Teleconference in English

At the very beginning, please introduce yourself.

Hi, I’m _____ [name] from _____ [dept.]

I’m in charge of _____ [work scope].

I volunteered to join this project because_____ [learning English is so much fun!]

There’s a good chance that I do conference calls on a weekly or even daily basis.

Things I would most like to learn from the lessons are_____ [your objectives]

Lesson 1 – Open the meeting

Before starting the meeting, you have to make sure that everyone is paying attention.

What can you say to get attention?

• Is everyone online?
• Is everyone here?
• Are we waiting for anyone else?
• Is Michael coming later?
• Good afternoon, everyone.
• Without further ado[1], let’s begin.

If you have a meeting with new participants, make sure to introduce them as you start the meeting.

[1] Ado [əˋdu] 沒有用的閒話
  without more or further ado 立即
  make much ado about nothing 庸人自擾

Before getting down to business

<Student should read aloud this paragraph for your teacher>

Nobody likes a meeting that drags on with no purpose. In order not to waste your colleagues’ valuable time, writing a clear-cut agenda is of much help. By creating a plan which includes establishing what you will cover and how long you’ll spend on each item/subject, and following through, you’ll accomplish more.

Lesson 2 – Get through the agenda

Now you are getting into the most important part of the meeting – presenting your main ideas.

What can you say to introduce agenda items?

<Student should prepare your answers to fill in the blanks>

• Have you all received a copy of the agenda? Shall we take the points in this order?
• I’ll start with reading the minutes from our last meeting, which was on ____ [date]
• Has everyone received a copy of the PDR (preliminary design review) report on____ [product name]?
• So, let’s start with ____ [the action items from the last meeting]

After you have discussed this first topic, you need to let the attendees know that you finished, and the discussion should move forward.

Focus on the agenda and avoid distraction

<Student should read aloud this paragraph for your teacher>

Nobody likes meetings which go on too long.

To be a good chair, you need to keep people focused on the agenda and avoid distraction. If someone is speaking for too long, there are good and professional phrases that you can use.

Few things are more annoying during a video conference than video quality issues and poor audio. You’ve joined a meeting from your computer but cannot hear others, be heard, or be seen. What should you do?

Lesson 3 – Deal with Distractions

A common problem encountered during video conferences is a poor network connection or a lack of bandwidth. ALWAYS do a test call for trouble shooting. Complete a dry run prior to using it live—make sure you know all the ins and outs of the tool.

What can you say to help overcome sound issues?

• Can you hear me ok?
• I can’t hear Michelle, can everyone else hear Michelle?
• There is a lot of background noise. Can you say that again?
• Please adjust your speaker volume.
• Say again? I can’t hear you clearly.
• There’s an echo on the line.
• You are breaking up/cutting out.
• Have we lost John?

Sometimes you just have difficulty understanding the points.

Lesson 4 – finish the meeting

<Student should read aloud this paragraph for your teacher>

Once you finish discussing everything, you need to sum up the main points of the meeting.

Your closing statement should act as a very clear signal to the attendees that the conference is coming to an end.

What can you say to summarize the meeting?

<Student should prepare your answers to fill in the blanks>

• Before we close, let me just summarize the key points.
• To sum up, …. [we have decided to terminate the EMEA project]
• In brief, …. [your answer?]
• Shall I go over the main points?
• Let’s review the action points before we finish.
• Before we finish, I’ll briefly go over what we have decided. First, …. [your answer?]

Useful verbs: discussed, went over, talked about

Now it’s time to wrap up.

Here, you should show that you are finished and ask for any final questions.

What can you say to give ending signals?