This is the Business English podcast, episode 391.
How to skim to save your colleagues time in English.
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Hey there, Michelle.
How's your day going?
Hey Lindsay. Good Lindsay.
Uh, could you skim over this episode before we start recording?
I actually have already skimmed over the episode.
Okay. Good, good good.
All right. Thank you so much. All right.
Well, so yeah, everything's good.
Lindsay. I'm excited for today's episode.
We're gonna answer our question from Sophia about the word skim and it's very abusive.
Yeah, this is great We love great questions So if you have a question, we have answered a couple questions from Sophia on other episodes, but she has another good one So here we go.
I'm gonna go ahead and read the question Michelle.
Are you ready? I am ready.
She says hi. Hello I'm Sophia and I have a question about English Could you please explain how to use skim like in skim through skim over or skim off?
Thank you so much for all the effort you've put into preparing this content and have a good day.
Nice. I'm going to call her Superstar Sophia because her questions are incredible.
So thank you, Sophia, for another great question.
Let's get into it, Lindsay.
I mean, this word skim is extremely versatile.
Absolutely. It's very versatile.
And we like this on Business English English on this podcast because it can be helpful for talking about things at work.
So today we're going to look at it through a work lens, a professional English lens, but of course, we could do this onSL English and the examples would look a little different, but it's it's great over there, too.
OK, so it's general English and work English.
Absolutely. So let's get into it.
So let's just start with skim the basic one.
Yeah, there can be many meanings of this word but today we're gonna focus on one main one which kind of connects to you know really what we're talking today talking about today so this means to read or look at something kind of quickly so to me I think of a magazine right yeah you may be kind of flipping through the pages so you're skimming and yeah you go into the dentist office or the eye doctors right and there's magazines and you just kind of skim through by flipping the pages you're not Reading anything in depth, right?
It's a light breezy way to read and not really read.
Just gather information kind of Yeah, I mean Lindsay do you tend to when you're reading an article do you tend to skim articles or read them thoroughly?
Um, I think I try to skim pretty quickly because there's a lot to read.
You know what I mean.
I think I skim for the most part Yeah.
Yeah. Um, yeah I would say that I do, too.
Recently I've started, even when I read books, because I realized sometimes when I get to a part where they're talking a lot about scenery, a lot of the script of writing and sometimes I'll find my brain wandering.
I've found myself skimming those parts a little bit more and just kind of thinking, okay, I don't think I need to know.
You're on a need to know basis, a need to know basis with your book.
Right. Right, exactly, exactly.
But one way you could use this is, I skimmed the article but I'm honestly not that interested in the topic.
Mm, I love it. So that's what skimm means by itself and now we're going to add some prepositions here.
And we're going to create some new words.
Love that. And what would be the first way we might add a preposition to skim.
So skim through. So Lindsay, I mean, this is pretty much the same thing to me as just skim.
Now, skim may be slightly more generic.
To me, skim through may be a little bit more symptomatic.
So flipping page to page or through an article, it may be a little bit more of a system like skimming through a book.
Let's skim through all the notes Faye left for us so we are prepared for the meeting.
but honestly these are almost the exact same.
They are the same. I think the most important thing is just, I would add skim through when I'm saying exactly, maybe when I'm being more specific, maybe.
So skim through, yeah, hmm, this is a tough one.
What is the difference, actually?
Because you wouldn't really, you could say I skimmed through the article, but you could also say I skimmed the article, and skim through the book and skim the book.
Maybe it's even lighter.
Yeah, I think skim through is maybe used for longer things.
Okay, okay. I mean, skim could be, I wouldn't really say I skimmed the book.
I would probably skim through the book, right, it's a little bit longer or I skimmed through, but if, you know.
I think people would say, I'd be like, did you read that, you know, Catcher in the Rye, you might say, yeah, I skimmed it.
I think people would say that, I mean, I don't know who does that.
But I don't know, I think they're very very similar.
I would say don't worry about specifically the difference.
It's very minute if anything.
So basically they're interchangeable, skim and skim through.
You can basically use both.
So we're gonna take a quick break and look at two more combinations, all right?
Yeah. Hey listeners, we're happy to have you with us as we explore business and sharpen your English language skills.
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Okay, skim over. Now what is this one about Michelle?
Tell us about this.
Yeah, so Sophia was asking also about skim over.
So think of through and think of over.
So through is actually going into something while over is above and it's kind of that same idea.
when you skim over something you may get to a bit but you're mostly passing it by you may not be paying that much attention to it so you could say they skimmed over the issue of employee retention during the meeting so i don't think it's much of a concern yeah the other way that i like to think of this is you're a water skier my brother lives on a lake and that is like his religion that's what he does he goes water skiing off the boat and he goes wakeboarding he does it every morning before work, it's insane.
He's really into it.
But imagine a water skier, they're just skimming over the water.
They're not going down all the substances in the water, let's imagine, but they're just skimming over it in a way.
So it's kind of that feeling.
Right. Yeah, exactly.
Just kind of passing it by a little bit more.
Maybe a little less paying attention to something.
Yes. When there's skim off now this one is totally different.
And it's just it's more of a different way of using skim than we've been talking about.
Lindsay, when you think skim off or to skim something off, what does that mean to you?
Well, to me, Michele, it means to remove a little bit of something, for example, with baking.
You know, when you're getting a quarter of a cup of flour, you'll fill that cup.
And then with your finger, you might skim the access flower off to make it even at the top, right?
But you can use this in other context too, for example work context.
Let's skim off five minutes from the presentation.
We're definitely taking too long.
I also sadly think of this when I think of corruption.
I think of, you know, for example, people are skimming money off the top of some transaction.
Hopefully that's not happening anywhere but you know, that's So we're we're another another use for it, you.
I mean, yeah, it's giving money, skimming flour off your baking tools or skimming time kind of just reducing.
Right? Right. Right.
Right. Exactly. So really good that Sophia asked about all of these and we can do a follow up of how to say you're just reading something quickly.
So other ways to say that.
So just hit follow make sure you're following the Business English podcast. I mean, Lindsay, why are these important for work?
I think they're functional.
I mean, being able to tell someone, we need to reduce your presentation by five minutes, unique, creative ways to say that, friendly ways to say that.
And I think it is kind of, hey, let's just skim off five minutes from the presentation.
That's a little bit more approachable and friendly than saying, you need to cut down your presentation by five minutes or reduce your presentation by five minutes.
I mean, cut down is good, but skim off is another good option there.
Yeah, because skim off has kind of like a little bit of a softer feel.
Yeah, right. Because I guess I'm thinking of the flour.
I mean, I've been trying to make my kids snacks nowadays, because I'm tired of all the junk they're eating.
So I've been trying to make them some snacks.
So I'm always getting the quarter cup of flour and then using my finger.
Skimming it off. Skimming it off.
So it is kind of a gentle way to say it, in my opinion.
Yeah, gentle and I just think we just need we need a lot of ways to say the same thing That's what our listeners are looking for.
So this is it guys right here So in this roleplay Michelle we are working together on a presentation.
Alright All right, let's do it.
Okay. So I skim through your notes really great start.
Ah, thanks I think I could skim off some of the introduction.
What do you think? Yeah, maybe a bit but I liked it Can you skim my section?
Sure. Oh actually just skim over that section, the main one in Section two.
OK, got it. OK, so we're using skim here a lot like skim.
Yeah, I think of skim milk.
Yeah. Do what kind of milk do you prefer one percent, two percent, whole milk, skim milk, what do you drink or do you not drink milk at all?
I don't drink milk that much anymore.
I used to love drinking milk, but I would say I I would growing up, I always had skim milk And then now I don't really care.
I'll just have whatever.
I usually just have a splash of it in coffee or something like that.
So I don't really, but it doesn't bother me.
Whatever it is, I don't care.
What about you? Good to know.
I'm back to skim milk.
I went to almond milk for a while and then I realized there are tons of chemicals in it.
So now I'm back to skim milk.
I just can't, I don't know, Michelle.
Nutrition advice and research coming out.
It's so hard to follow these days.
And it's everywhere.
Everywhere. It's everywhere.
It's crazy. Everything you eat kills you.
No, no, yeah. But that's true.
It's confusing. I'll say that much. I'll say that much. So, alright.
So coming back to this random side note, right, but we like to bill to do that.
Take things in one direction and show our listeners how to do that, too.
That's also a language skill, right?
Oh, absolutely. Alright, so you said, okay, so I skimmed through your notes.
Really great start.
So, you know, there are notes like there wasn't like a deep report.
So you said, oh, I skimmed through.
I took a look. Right.
Yeah. You took a quick look.
Quick, quick, easy look.
And then you said, thanks, I think I could skim off some of the introduction.
So you're saying reduce the introduction.
You could take, you know, condensed down would be another way to say that condensed down.
You know, that's the process of editing.
You start with more more content, sorry, content than you need and you reduce it down.
rights and then you said uh yeah maybe a bit but i liked it can you skim my section so you could have said skim through but you said skim and that's fine perfect yeah can you look at my section can you read it but not really read it right and then you said oh actually just skim over that section the main one is section two so basically you're saying don't really read closely Read section two instead.
Right, right. Pay more attention to that section, second section.
Love it. Alright, so other than our choices in milk, Michelle, what is the most important thing our listeners should learn from today's episode?
Yeah, I mean, again, you wouldn't use these all in one like this, but these are just very useful.
All of them. They can be just very functional, talking about getting rid of something, reducing something, or telling somebody how to read a report.
Do you want them to take a whole afternoon to read through all of the notes or do you just want them to skim it so they can talk about it briefly in the next meeting, right?
So this is just very, to me, very functional for the workplace.
It's functional. It's important to respect people's time, right?
Yep. If people have their own work to do and you're asking them to look at your presentation or your report, you need to be telling them which parts they can skim over or skim or truly read in depth, right?
Super important for respecting our colleagues.
Yeah, I love that. All right.
Well, that was it for today, Michelle.
I'll see you back here very soon.
Oh and also do we want to direct this to another episode before we leave?
Check out episode 381.
That was we've barely scratched the surface with this business vocabulary.
Yes, guys, go and check out that episode and we'll be back here very soon.
All right. All right.
Thanks, Sophia, for the question.
Yes. Thank you. Bye, Michelle.
Take care. Bye. Bye.
Bye. Thank you for listening to Business English, a podcast just for you, the high achieving global professional.
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