meetings: keeping minutes without waisting hours

Serie Business-English

Sobald am Konferenztisch Englisch gesprochen wird, steigt bei Nicht-Muttersprachlern der Adrenalinspiegel: Was heißt noch mal „Vorsitzender“? Und wie unterbreche ich meinen Kollegen höflich, aber bestimmt, in seinem Redefluss? Der dritte Teil unserer Serie Business-English zeigt, wie Sie am runden Tisch eine gute Figur machen.

A meeting, it is said, is a group of people who keep minutes and waste hours. It has been estimated that middle-to-senior managers spend as much as 40 per cent of their working days in meetings. Even half of all German-speakers who need English in their jobs need to take part in meetings in English. These might be anything from an informal discussion with one other colleague to a full-blown board meeting. Whatever form the meeting takes, there are a number of key terms and phrases you need to master, in order to take part effectively.

One of the biggest problems non-native speakers have is getting their view heard at all. You need to develop an effective technique for interrupting other people. There are many polite phrases, such as „Excuse me, could I just come in here...“ or „I'm sorry to interrupt, but...“. However, the most commonly used phrases by native-speakers are simply „Yes, but...“ and „No, but...“.

You also need a technique to prevent other people from interrupting you when you are talking. Possible responses are: „If I could/might just finish....“, „I'll come to that in a moment“ or „I'd just like to finish if I may“.

If you wish to return to a point that you were making earlier, you can say: „As I was saying...“ or „I'd just like to go back to my previous point“.

Extras:

• Hilfreiche Wörter und Ausdrücke fürs Meeting in Englisch.

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