Get involved!

Get involved!

Thank you!

Alright, let's try that on a bigger scale.

Your company wants to organise a Work–Life Balance day. The aim of the event is to get employees to see colleagues as people with real lives outside the workplace, and therefore to be more supportive, understanding and friendly towards each other. There is a very limited budget, and the event will take place on a normal working day, without dramatically reducing employees’ productivity during that day. You and some other junior members of staff have been asked to plan the events for the day. Hold a brainstorming meeting to plan the event.

Here are some useful phrases for interrupting:

- Can I just say something?

- Can I just stop you for a second?

- Sorry to interrupt, but …

And preventing an interruption:

One more...

- Can I just finish my point?

- Hang on a second, can you let me finish?

- I’ll let you speak in a second

- I’m sorry, but this is really important.

Checking that you've understood:

- I'm sorry, I’m not familiar with the abbreviation R and D.

- OK, I understood almost everything, but not the last bit.

- Sorry – I didn’t catch that last word.

- Sorry, but you’ve lost me. What exactly are we talking about?

Your company wants to hold a Staff Integration event, to enable employees from different teams and work locations to get to know each other and build relationships. You and other senior managers meet to plan a budget for this event (in terms of cost per employee) and to brainstorm ideas for the event.

Let's take a questionaire!

WRITE DOWN YOUR ANSWERS ON A PIECE OF PAPER WHILE WE DISCUSS!

1. You’re at a brainstorming meeting where everyone is speaking English. The other participants seem to speak much better English than you. You have lots of ideas and opinions about their ideas. What do you usually do?

a. I interrupt others frequently in order to express my opinions, even though I know I make lots of basic mistakes with my English.

b. I wait for my turn to present my opinions, and then try to express myself as clearly as I can.

c. I only speak if someone asks me for my opinion, and keep my answers short to avoid mistakes.

SCORE KEY

Q1: a: 10 b: 0 c: -10 Q2: a: 10 b: 0 c: -10 Q3: a: -5 b: -10 c: 10

Q4: a: -10 b: -5 c: 10 Q5: a: 5 b: 10 c: -10 Q6: a: 10 b: -10 c: 0

If you scored between -60 and -30, you are too much of a perfectionist to participate actively in meetings in English. This is completely normal – most people hate making mistakes and looking stupid in front of their colleagues. But your colleagues may think even worse of you if you say nothing at all. You should …

If you scored between -25 and 25, you are a fairly typical user of English, with some good strategies for getting involved. However, there’s always room for improvement. You could …

If you scored between 30 and 60, you are a risk-taker. You have a lot of self-confidence, which means you can function effectively in English at work despite problems with the language. However, you may be rather dominant in group discussions. Also, some people may see your care-free attitude to English as a reflection of your care-free attitude to work. You should …

2. You’re at a meeting in English where several participants are sitting silently and just listening. What do you do?

a. I ignore them – if they have nothing to say, they shouldn’t be there.

b. I feel sorry for them – perhaps they are having problems with the language.

c. I do everything I can to involve them, by inviting them to speak and preventing others from interrupting them.

3. You’re at a meeting where a junior colleague clearly can’t speak English properly, and they keep making really basic mistakes like “it don’t work”. How do you feel?

a. Superior. My English is much better, and I’m glad I don’t sound so stupid when I speak.

b. Irritated. If they can’t speak English, they shouldn’t be at this meeting.

c. Impressed. My colleague is demonstrating excellent self-confidence and determination to overcome a language barrier. And they’re making lots of useful contributions to the meeting.

4. At your meeting, everyone is talking at the same time in English. You can follow their conversations, but you’re a few seconds behind. By the time you’ve thought of something to say, and planned how to say it, the conversation has moved on. How often do you experience this feeling?

a. All the time.

b. Quite often.

c. Rarely or never.

5. You are at a meeting in English where you understand about 60–80% of what you hear. What do you do?

a. Keep interrupting to check what’s going on. It’s a bit embarrassing and frustrating for others, but it’s important that I understand.

b. Participate actively in the meeting. From time to time I’ll misunderstand the topic and my contributions will sound a bit stupid, but I’m prepared to take the risk.

c. Sit quietly and listen so as to avoid sounding stupid by talking about the wrong topic.

Risk taker or perfectionist?

OK, last one!

6. Who is responsible for overcoming your problems with English?

a. Nobody. I make mistakes but it’s not a problem. I’m paid for my professional skills, not for being an expert in English.

b. My employer. They should provide more English lessons and give me time to study. My teacher could also do more to improve my English. Also, the other people at meetings should try to help me more.

c. Me.

a. Record yourself speaking at a meeting in English. Later, listen to your ‘performance’ (e.g. while traveling home from work) and try to correct some of the mistakes you hear.

b. Learn a few “interrupting phrases” like Can I just say something? or Sorry to interrupt, but …. These phrases will give you time to plan what you’re going to say. The best one-word interrupting phrase is But …, or you could simply say the person’s name.

c. Learn hundreds of new words. Be systematic and organised – if you learn 10 new words per day for a year, you can increase your vocabulary by 3650 words! Think what that would do for your fluency and confidence.

d. Actively try to involve less confident colleagues by asking their opinions frequently and listening patiently while they speak.