Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1092.
Keeping a meeting on track.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 1092.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Go to our website at eslpod.com.
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This episode is a dialogue between Linda and Bruce and about being in a business meeting and making sure you get done what you are supposed to get done.
Let's get started.
Could I say one more thing about that?
I'm afraid we're running short on time.
Maybe we could wrap up this discussion now.
Before we leave this topic though, I really think we should talk about next year's plans.
That's outside the scope of this meeting.
We can put it on the agenda for next time. but we won't meet again for a month.
We should spend some time talking about our plans for next year.
I think we should consider closing the Irvine office and moving it to Franklin.
It would save us a lot of money.
If we get off on a tangent, we won't be able to get through our discussion for today.
Let's try to get back on track and discuss the main focus of today's meeting, which is how to end this year without any more problems.
We can't make any decisions when there are still so many unresolved issues.
Things are still up in the air because we don't know what will happen next year.
Any decisions we make now will be moot if our assumptions are wrong.
I'm afraid we differ on that.
I think we have enough information now to forge ahead.
We can come to some tentative decisions and make any adjustments later.
Should we take it to a vote?
I'll take that as a no vote.
Our dialogue begins with Linda asking something.
She says, could I say one more thing about that?
She wants to say something at this meeting we're at.
Bruce says, however, I'm afraid we're running short on time.
To run short on time means to not have enough time to do something.
You are saying that you don't have very much time, that you have to stop whatever you are doing very soon.
Bruce says maybe we could wrap up this discussion now.
To wrap W-R-A-P up.
Something means Here, means to finish something, to complete something, to bring something to an end.
Bruce doesn't want to allow Linda to make another comment.
He wants to end the discussion right now.
Linda says.
However, before we leave this topic meaning, before we stop talking about this, I really think we should talk about next year's plans.
Bruce says.
However, When we say something is outside the scope S-C-O-P-E of something, in this case a meeting, We are saying that it is not related to what we are doing right now or discussing right now.
It is irrelevant.
It is not relevant.
It is not something we should be doing right now.
Bruce says we can put it on the agenda for next time.
An agenda A-G-E-N-D-A is a written plan or list of topics that you are going to talk about in a meeting.
Linda says, but we won't meet again for a month.
She's complaining that this committee or this group won't be meeting again for at least a month.
She thinks the group should talk about her topic right now.
She says, I think we should consider closing the Irvine office and moving it to Franklin.
It would save us a lot of money.
So Linda is making a proposal about closing one of the company's offices.
Bruce is not too happy, I think, about Linda's comment.
He says, if we get off on a tangent, we won't be able to get through our discussion for today.
To get off on a tangent T-A-N-G-E-N-T or, more commonly, to go off on a tangent means to become distracted from your main topic or your main purpose.
To start talking about something else that isn't really related to the main thing you're supposed to be talking about.
Bruce thinks that...
Linda's topic is not relevant to what the group is talking about right now, that they would go off on a tangent if they started talking about her topic.
He's worried the group won't get through their discussion for today.
To get through something means to finish it, to accomplish or complete it.
Bruce then says let's try to get back on track and discuss the Return to what you should be talking about, or to return to what you should be doing after you have done something that you shouldn't have been doing.
In other words, if you get distracted and you want to go back to what you are supposed to be doing, you are getting back on track.
That's what Bruce wants to do.
He wants to talk about how to end this year without any more problems, not talk about next year.
He says, Linda, however, is not giving up.
She's not quitting.
She says, when there are still so many unresolved issues.
If an issue or a problem is unresolved U-N-R-E-S-O-L-V-E-D, it is not yet finished or not yet decided.
It still needs to be addressed.
It still needs to be solved or talked about.
The opposite, of course, would be a resolved issue.
A resolved issue is something that you have decided or had made a decision on or a determination about.
Linda says that there are too many unresolved issues to make any decisions.
She continues, Things are still up in the air...
Because we don't know what will happen next year.
If something is up in the air, it is unresolved.
It is still not decided or still unknown.
If someone asks you, where are you going on vacation this year?
And you say, I don't know.
My plans are still up in the air.
You're saying that you have not yet made a decision.
You don't know yet.
Linda says, any decisions we make now will be moot if our assumptions are wrong.
To say something is or will be moot.
M-O-O-T means that it is debatable, or it is too uncertain to be resolved, or perhaps really to make any difference at all.
To say something is, for example, a moot point is to say that even if what you say is true, it's not really important.
It doesn't have any real significance for what we're talking about.
If, for example, you spend all of your time planning on how you're going to spend a million dollars that you hope to win from a lottery, really the discussion is moot unless you actually win the lottery.
It doesn't have any significance.
It has no practical meaning or practical application.
Linda is saying that they can't make any decisions about now because the decisions will be moot if our assumptions are wrong.
Your assumptions are your beliefs about something in the future or about what is true.
You don't necessarily have any evidence or proof, but you think it's true.
We often use the verb to make with assumption.
I'm going to make some assumptions.
I'm going to think about certain situations and believe them to be true, or perhaps pretend that they are true in order to make some decision or to take some action.
Linda is saying that if the assumptions of the company are wrong, if what they think is true is not true, then all of the decisions they make will be moot.
They'll have no importance because they'll have to make new decisions or make new plans in the future.
Bruce says, I'm afraid we differ on that.
To differ D-I-F-F-E-R means to have different beliefs or opinions about something, or simply to be different in some way from something else.
My brother and I differ on which professional baseball team is the best in California.
He thinks it's the San Francisco Giants.
I think it's the Los Angeles Dodgers.
We differ.
Of course I'm right, but I'm just giving a possible example there.
Bruce says, I think we have enough information now to forge ahead.
To forge, F-O-R-G-E, ahead, means to move forward, to continue on.
Bruce says we can come to some tentative decisions and make any adjustments later.
A tentative T-E-N-T-A-T-I-V-E, sometimes pronounced without the second T as tentative means to be provisional, to be temporary.
In this case, it means not final.
A tentative decision is a decision you're making now, but you might change it in the future.
Bruce says that they can make some tentative decisions now and make any adjustments later.
An adjustment is a change or adaptation of something.
Bruce says, should we take it to a vote?
Meaning, should we vote on it?
Should each person say whether they like this idea or not?
Linda says if you insist, meaning if you are demanding very strongly that we do that, I still think it's premature.
She says
When something is premature P-R-E-M-A-T-U-R-E it happens before it should, or it happens too early.
When we talk about a premature birth or a premature baby, we're talking about a baby who is born earlier than would be expected.
And this, of course, can sometimes lead to health complications in the baby.
Linda thinks it's premature to make a decision about Bruce says, I'll take that as a no vote.
He means that Linda is saying that she does not want to vote on the matter right now.
She thinks they should continue talking about it.
And if you have ever been in a committee meeting, a meeting of a group of people trying to make a decision, you know how difficult it can be to keep the meeting on track, to keep everyone from going off on a tangent.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Can I say one more thing about that?
I'm afraid we're running short on time.
Maybe we could wrap up this discussion now.
Before we leave this topic though, I really think we should talk about next year's plans.
That's outside the scope of this meeting.
We can put it on the agenda for next time. but we won't meet again for a month.
We should spend some time talking about our plans for next year.
I think we should consider closing the Irvine office and moving it to Franklin.
It would save us a lot of money.
If we get off on a tangent, we won't be able to get through our discussion for today.
Let's try to get back on track and discuss the main focus of today's meeting, which is how to end this year without any more problems.
I feel like we're getting close to making some decisions.
We can't make any decisions when there are still so many unresolved issues.
Things are still up in the air because we don't know what will happen next year.
Any decisions we make now will be moot if our assumptions are wrong.
I'm afraid we differ on that.
I think we have enough information now to forge ahead.
We can come to some tentative decisions and make any adjustments later.
Should we take it to a vote?
If you insist, I still think it's premature.
I'll take that as a no vote.
We need to wrap this episode up, but before we do, I want to thank our wonderful scriptwriter, Dr Lucy Say, for her wonderful scripts.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again right here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2015 by the Center for Educational Development.
