This is the business English podcast episode 254 how to respond to a person of higher status in English Welcome to the Business English podcast from All Ears English.
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Hey, Michelle, what's going on? How are you today?
Hi, Lindsay. I'm good. I'm happy to be recording with you today on the Business English Podcast.
How's everything? Feeling good. Let's talk about business.
Do you have a question for me to start off the day today?
Yeah. So, Lindsay, are all of your meetings online or do you have in-person meetings?
Actually, I know the answer to that because you just had you were at a conference and you had in-person meetings, right?
I have in-person meetings like twice a year.
So, yes. And I have my special blazers for those meetings.
Oh, very nice. Very nice. No, yeah. not very much honestly most are in person what i'm sorry are remote what about you are your meetings mostly remote or in person or what's your breakdown um well for for stuff that i'm working on with uh my husband uh those things can be in person but uh some of them um but for my work everything is remote so yeah It's just easier, right, to be remote and be able to connect with the whole world.
It's kind of amazing. Oh, yeah, actually.
For sure. It's good stuff. It's good stuff.
So today we are going to answer a listener question about an online meeting with a professor.
And this is a great question for Business English.
So it's going to be really useful for our listeners.
Oh, I'm excited, guys. Before we read the question from our listener, hit that follow button wherever you are listening, whether it's Apple Podcasts or Spotify or CastBox.
Hit follow now. I'm going to go ahead and read the listener question, Michelle, okay?
All right. All right. So our listener, Ann, says, Hello, Lindsay and amazing teachers.
My name is Ann from Japan, and I've been listening to your exquisite podcast since 2021.
Michelle, that is amazing. Thank you. Thanks for listening.
We so appreciate our longtime listeners.
Wow. Today I have a question for you about responding during the conversation. which I mean uh-uh or right in general.
Okay, we're going to get into that a bit more, I'm sure.
I recently had an online meeting with a professor in the U.S. and I suddenly got confused about how to react politely to what he mentioned.
I could only say yes and I understand to him and I regret that I should have had more variety in the response.
I would be happy if you could tell me about how to react to someone of higher status.
Your podcast has broadened my horizons every day and I am and will be a huge fan of you guys.
Thank you in advance and have a lovely rest of the day.
Best on. Oh, we love it. Thank you. That is really nice.
Thank you so much for listening. It means the world to us, really.
It really does, Michelle. I mean, it makes all of our hard work totally worth it when we get these emails from our listeners, doesn't it?
Absolutely true, Lindsay. So thank you, Ann.
And this is a great question. So I realized that I was asking also about uh-huh or right or in general.
So I'm not sure if you were asking me to specifically cover those or that was just an example of yours.
But we're going to be talking about other expressions today.
So if you need a follow up, please feel free to email us back.
Yeah. And the thing that stands out before we get into today, the thing that stands out is their question on about higher status.
So in some cultures, status is a bigger deal.
But I think in any culture, we know that a professor has status, right?
If we're a student, the professor has status.
So I think that the examples are going to vary across cultures.
So just be aware as you're learning English, maybe if you're coming from a culture where status is a bigger deal than it is here, just be aware of that.
Okay. And then let's see what we have for examples and maybe we'll come back to culture in a minute.
All right. For sure. Yeah. So many of our listeners might feel awkward reacting when someone is talking to them in a meeting at work and they're not sure what to say.
Do you stay silent? Do you say, uh-huh, what is it?
So this could be one-on-one meeting or in a group.
So it's really just, it could also be when someone is explaining something to you at work.
So many different things, but yes, This is about status.
So it could be to a professor, but it could be to your boss, it could be to just a project manager.
So even though maybe you're on a similar footing at work, maybe they are heading a certain project.
And so for that, you are more, you are quite up to, right?
Right, right. I mean, as human beings, it's evolutionary, right?
We always knew when we were in caves, we knew who was of higher status because maybe that person was protecting the group or something, right?
So we are wired, our mind is actually wired to kind of look for status and to pay attention to that.
So it's nothing to be ashamed of or to worry about.
And we can give you the language today to make that work.
But yeah, you're right, Michelle, you find it in business, you find it in academia.
You find it everywhere. So another great episode, though, is what?
What was that great episode that I was? Yeah.
So guys, check out episode 245. This was how to deal with a toxic colleague in English.
So super important here. Also could deal with status in some ways as well.
So listen to that one. That was that was an interesting one.
Yeah, good stuff. So, yes, and I understand is what Ahn had said that they were using.
How do we feel about that? Yeah, there's nothing wrong with these.
Lindsay, what do you think? Yeah, I agree.
I agree. I think they are standard responses.
They're clear. you can't, you're not going to offend anyone with those, but there's more you can do, of course.
Right. So let's go through. So the first one is I see.
So this one is, or you could say, I see you could put the stress in different places.
So this one is similar to, I understand.
It's all, it's, it's, I think it's a little bit more formal than informal.
I see. Right. What do you think? I like it.
I like it. I think it's kind of respectful.
It's showing that you, it shows a bit of interest acknowledgement that you now understand.
I think it's a great one. Yeah. Good. Good.
So here we go. Let's do a role play, Lindsay.
So, so you just use that wire right there.
I see. And yeah, there is some intonation we can work with here.
You could also say, I see. That might be when someone's given you negative bad news of some sort.
I see, right? I see. Could be. Could be.
Or maybe it's just very – maybe it's a little bit difficult to understand.
So you might say, I see, kind of in this way of I'm still grasping it all with my brain.
Mm-hmm. Yeah, there's a lot of things we could do here.
So that's one good option for on and for our listeners.
And the next one that makes sense. I use this all the time.
Do you? I don't know if I use it all the time.
No, I do use it. I think that I've heard you use it a lot.
So I use it a lot. I was inspired by you.
Well, then let's show our listeners how to do it.
Here we go. Let's do it. Okay. So we'll present our findings on Tuesday.
It gives us more time to gather the data.
That makes sense. Yes. Good. So again, could some of these be used for someone of equal status?
Yes. But I'm trying to give you some that are slightly elevated to use.
And now we're actually going to get into one that's a little more informal just to give you some variety.
Yeah. Okay. So the next one is gotcha or I gotcha.
Now this one is very casual, right? We should be clear about that. um if you are talking to a professor or someone who feels very high status and you want to show maximum respect i probably wouldn't use that in that case right right right you could also say got it right that's another way you could say it but yeah i this is more informal so if you're looking for something to that end um this would be good for that so here we go i'll see you for lunch remember our table is in the back by the corner gotcha or i'll just say i gotcha or i got it got it so it could be gotcha i gotcha got it i got it yeah there's a lot you could do there right michelle lots of lots of choices abercrombie's viral denim sale is back and spotify listeners get an extra 15 off with code spotify af abercrombie is known for their denim with 30 to 50 off all jeans find out how denim should feel shop the viral denim sale in the abercrombie app online or in stores Valid in stores and online through August 11th, 2025 in US and Canada.
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Next one is just right. So I think the key that I'm seeing as a theme here is for on and anyone else wondering about this question, we don't need to come up with these huge fancy responses, especially when we might feel the pressure and think we have to, and we're in front of someone of higher status.
We actually don't. The less you say in some ways is better.
Your purpose is to support the speaker and say you understand, right?
You don't need to say a whole long sentence.
Right. Right. I just said it. Right. Actually, and this is one of the ones that Ann brought up in the question.
So, yeah, it doesn't. Right. We don't need to add words just to have them.
We don't need to just feel like they have to be there.
Sometimes just less is more. Yeah. And we need to learn that more so in American culture.
Yeah. Think American culture is a culture where we're afraid of silence where we're we want to say more because we think that adds more value But it doesn't always add more value, which is interesting, right?
Yes. Yeah Lots to think about there. So let's do a role play of that one.
Okay, so that's why we decided to let Ron go right Okay, so you just yeah, you're saying I heard you I Mean, that's a good question here Michelle though.
I want to ask are you saying you agree that?
Or are you just saying, I heard you? Here, I'm just saying, I heard you, right?
I don't think if we go through them, it's more...
I would say that we're more so talking about I heard you sentiments.
Yeah, that makes sense. Could be kind of touching on.
I agree with you. Yeah, but I agree. Yeah.
Yeah. It's just that I heard you. OK, it's an OK.
If you say you're right or you were right to let Ron go or you were to elaborate, then, yeah, you're agreeing.
But in this case, it's just I heard you and I'm acknowledging that you just spoke.
OK. Mm hmm. Okay, and the last one is, of course.
Yeah, this is polite. And I like this. What can we say?
All right, here we go. There's got to be an easier way to do this.
Of course. Okay. So, and that, we don't know what direction that conversation could go in, but this works in a lot of cases.
Often you hear this also in the service industry.
If, if, um, a customer or client asks for something, uh, and someone goes to, to get something, uh, you know, of course I'll get you a coffee or something, right?
Of course. Sure. Right. You can see that too.
Right. Lindsay, which one of these is their favorite?
What'd you say? Well, I think when I look at these, I like, I kind of like, I see, and I wish I used that more.
I think I will start using it more. I don't know.
It feels like you've opened your mind and you've really absorbed what you've heard.
That's my bias when I hear someone say that.
Yeah. Interesting. Yeah, no, that's good.
Oh, I'm glad. I'm glad I gave you an idea here today.
All right, let's do a role play today, Michelle.
Here we go. So we're coworkers talking through an upcoming presentation.
Okay. Okay, so the slides should all be in pink to match the branding.
Right. I do think we should include some blue too to add a peaceful element.
That makes sense. And we'll add a ton of pictures.
Of course. I also have all those graphs.
I see. Well, wait, hold on. I don't like how I said that.
I also have all those graphs. Okay. I see.
Yeah, we should include as much as possible.
Gotcha. It's going to be great. Why did you not like what you said?
Because I said it in a very straight, I said, I see.
It just sounded weird. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It didn't match. Right. Interesting. So we used a lot of things today that we taught, right?
We used right. So I said, okay, so the slides should all be in pink to match the branding.
And you said, right. So, again, you heard me.
And then I said, I do think we should include some Bluetooth to add a peaceful element.
So I said I heard you, but then I added something.
Right. So it doesn't mean that you agree necessarily.
But you said that makes sense. So here it sounds that you're agreeing with me.
Right. Exactly. Oh, geez. I said it again.
Right. Okay. And then you said, and we'll add a ton of pictures.
And then I said, of course, I'm here. The of course is agreeing.
It is agreeing. So in some cases, we're agreeing.
In other cases, we're just saying, I heard you.
Okay. And then you said, of course, also, I have all those other graphs.
And you said, I see. right yeah i heard you i i maybe i'm talking about physically seeing the graphs okay and then you said yeah we should include as much as possible and you said gotcha it's going to be great so it sounds like we're just pretty much on the same page with our ideas here and i feel like this is a pretty typical conversation that you might hear you might hear people acknowledging each other what they've said frequently in this way.
Otherwise, it'd be weird. We have to say something, don't we?
If you just stay silent. Right. Exactly.
If you were to do the same role play, we are not going to do it right now.
But if you were to take out these words, something would feel a little awkward.
It would feel like we're missing something.
Someone would be speaking to themselves.
You need these transitions. It serves to reinforce that the other person should keep speaking.
It just does a lot of good stuff. So hopefully we've given on some good ideas.
Is there a takeaway for today, Michelle, where we should leave our listeners?
What do you think? Right. So these are great ways to not only show someone that you understand, but to interact with them and connect.
And perhaps you're using one of these to agree with them.
But we do want to think about formal, informal for status, right?
Using gotcha with your boss, maybe not the best idea.
So think about those things. We went over them today and let us know if you have any other questions.
Yeah, I think there's a lot more we could explore on this topic.
So guys, hit the follow button on Business English and we'll come back to it another day.
All right? Okay. All right, Michelle, you have a nice weekend and I'll see you next time.
All right? Thanks, you too. Bye, Lindsay.
Bye, guys. Take care. Bye. Thank you for listening to Business English, a podcast just for you, the high achieving global professional.
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