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Business EnglishIntermediate

English for Meetings, Calls and Negotiations

Twelve lessons on speaking up in English: interrupting politely, asking people to repeat, disagreeing without a fight, chairing a call and closing a deal

English for Meetings, Calls and Negotiations

About this course

A course for people whose English is good enough to read and write at work, and who still say almost nothing in meetings. The problem is rarely vocabulary. It is that nobody ever taught you how to cut into a conversation between two native speakers, how to say you did not understand without feeling stupid, or how to disagree with a manager in a language where the word no is usually wrapped in three other words.

Twelve lessons follow a meeting from the agenda to the follow-up email: opening and small talk, interrupting on a ladder from gentle to firm, asking somebody to repeat or slow down, agreeing and disagreeing, chairing and keeping time, surviving a bad connection, and negotiating a price without saying a flat no. Every phrase comes with the situation it belongs to and with the way it is heard on the other side, because the same sentence can sound helpful or rude depending on three words at the front. Each lesson has a full dialogue you can listen to and read, a test after every module, and a final test at the end. Level B1 to B2.

Course curriculum

  1. Before the meeting starts

    The agenda and the goal of the meeting, who does what in the room, small talk that helps and small talk that gets in the way, and how to introduce yourself in twenty seconds.

    • 1.The agenda, the goal and the first two minutes15 min
    • 2.Small talk: where it helps and where it gets in the way12 min
    • 3.Introducing yourself and saying why you are here13 min

  2. Taking part: interrupting, not understanding, disagreeing

    How to cut into a conversation without being rude, what to say when you did not understand a word, and how to disagree in a language where a flat no is rarely used.

    • 1.How to interrupt without being rude17 min
    • 2.When you did not understand16 min
    • 3.Agreeing, disagreeing, and phrases that sound harsher than you think17 min

  3. Running the meeting

    Chairing in English: keeping time, giving people the floor, stopping an argument, summing up, handing out actions and naming the next step.

    • 1.Keeping time, giving the floor, stopping an argument15 min
    • 2.Summing up, actions and the next step14 min

  4. Calls and video meetings

    A bad line, people talking over each other, cameras off, the chat, sharing your screen and meetings spread across time zones.

    • 1.When the connection lets you down13 min
    • 2.Cameras, chat, screen sharing and time zones14 min

  5. Negotiating in English

    Positions and interests, questions instead of statements, trading one thing for another, a soft no, a deadlock, needing to check with somebody, and the email that makes it real.

    • 1.Positions, interests and questions instead of statements17 min
    • 2.A soft no, a deadlock, and putting it in writing16 min