This is the Business English Podcast episode 272.
Can you catch me up?
What to say if you missed a meeting?
Welcome to the Business English Podcast from all years English.
Get the English skills you need to achieve your dreams in global business.
For a presentation, a meeting, or your office party,
this is real Business English with your favorite American hosts,
Lindsay and Michelle coming to you from New York City and Colorado, USA.
Hey, Michelle, what's going on?
Hey, Lindsay, not too much. How are you?
Fantastic, fantastic.
What? Let's get into it today.
Do you have a question to start off the day today for me?
I do. Lindsay, have you ever come into a meeting late
or misdemeanoring completely, be honest?
Oh, yeah. Of course. Of course.
It happens to everyone.
Yeah, it happens to everyone.
I mean, you know, and then the key thing that my mind goes to is,
what did I miss?
Because business moves fast, you know?
Yeah. You need to keep up and know what happened.
So you can, you know, follow through on the tasks or what the goals are for your company, for sure.
Yeah. Yeah.
This is huge for work. It's a skill that's needed.
You need to be able to catch up and see what you missed.
So you don't fall behind, right?
We try not to miss things, but it is kind of inevitable.
Things happen in life and things come up and sometimes it happens.
So today we're going to be talking about what can you say to a coworker if you miss a meeting?
Somebody that's going to help you.
You need to catch up.
So this is a huge skill that is going to help you guys if you find yourself in this scenario.
Ooh, what can you say to your coworker if you miss a meeting? Good topic for today, Michelle.
Yeah.
Guys, if you, you know, yeah, oh, sorry, Michelle, we're going to say something.
Go ahead. No, I wasn't. Sorry.
I was just saying, yeah.
All good. All good.
Guys, if you love our topics, you know, we really focus on business English here, obviously.
But we also know that we're human beings at work, right?
We don't, we don't become computers or bots when we go into the workplace.
And so we bring our full selves.
So we show you how to be informal, formal and semi formal at work.
That's the whole idea and always a focus on connection, not perfection.
If you love that value, that vibe, go ahead and hit that follow button on business English.
Right, Michelle?
Yes, please do that.
So that'll be great.
Guys, if you haven't already listened just a few episodes ago, we did episode 265 was
late on a deadline.
How to ask for an extension in English.
So all of these really key skills that when you're in a pinch, you need to have them, right?
Yes, yes.
Yeah.
So let's get into some of the things that you can say that you can ask.
Lindsey, do you want to do the first one?
Yes.
Okay.
All right. Here we go, Michelle.
So get me or bring me up to speed, right?
So sample sentence would be, can you bring me up to speed?
I missed the first 10 minutes of the meeting.
I'm a little lost, very common.
And of course, you would want to wait to ask that when there's a break, when you don't
want to just come in 10 minutes in and then you make the person miss the rest of what
they're of the meeting, right?
You have to be, you know, you have to use good timing here.
You have to wait when there is an opportunity for someone to catch you up.
Yeah, for example, maybe it's an hour meeting you came in at half, the half hour in, let's
say 10 a.m., you came in at 10 30.
Maybe there's a little break at 10 30 and you're taking like a coffee break or something.
Yeah.
Or there's a transition of speakers and there's a minute.
Maybe then you ask, I would probably also maybe wait until the end of the meeting if
there's no chance to do that, you know?
Right.
Right.
There is a break or, you know, you could even say maybe they can give you the notes or
something like, let's say there's a break.
If you're, because then if you're going to be behind for the entire meeting, right,
right, right, right, it's going to be quite.
Yeah, it'll be harder.
So see if there's a time when there's a break.
Of course, if there is a break, now we can get into all situations.
Maybe that person's running to the bathroom, whatever it is, you got to use your own judgment.
All right.
And then there's another one, Michelle, which is catch me up.
This one's kind of interesting.
Catch me, catch me up.
Yeah.
So it's a, okay, so it couldn't make the conference call because I was meeting with our donors.
Can you catch me up on what I missed?
Yeah, this one's interesting because normally I think our listeners have seen, come on,
catch up, catch up or catch up with us or catch up with me.
But here we're saying catch me up, which almost feels like it should be grammatically incorrect.
Yeah, but it's a common saying.
Or another way to say this is, can you get me caught up?
Can you get me caught up?
Right.
That's funny because that one feels a little bit less natural to me.
Like I feel like I hear, can you catch me up?
Can you get me caught up?
It's fine, but this one sounds, I hear this one more frequently, at least in my circle.
So yeah, totally.
Not sure.
But to catch someone up, you know, you can also say, can you catch her up on what she missed?
So that's a good one.
But yeah, I mean, we all hear different things on the course.
Yeah.
Yeah, and I'm just thinking, you know, when I think about catch up with me or it's in the
physical sense, we don't say it that way.
Like if I'm running and I'm trying to catch it, like we wouldn't say catch me up physically
with this person, like can you push me?
Where can you pull me?
Yeah.
Right, right.
No, it's just in terms of getting up to speed.
Again, the first one we learned, or just getting a briefing of what's been happening.
So there's some tricky stuff going on here, guys.
I hope you're writing this down or using the iOS Android app, for example, right, to get
this down.
All right, good stuff.
All right.
What's the next one, Michelle?
Okay.
The next one is to give me the summary.
So the summary is the basics, the short version, the most important point.
So Lindsay, we have a tiny mini role play here.
Okay.
I love those role plays.
I took notes for you.
Okay.
Give me the summary.
Nice.
Okay.
Yes.
Give me the summary straight forward.
You know, what happened?
What just happened in the meeting?
What did the team leader say?
What did the team say?
All those things.
Now the next one is cultural.
First of all, we should say what?
We're at Cliff.
What are Cliff's notes?
Cliff notes?
I had to look it up.
I had to look it up because I think it is Cliff's notes.
I look it up.
Okay.
Well, does Cliff notes?
Cliff notes.
Yeah.
Whenever I look it up, it's Cliff's notes.
But I think a lot of people say Cliff notes, don't you think?
I've heard both.
I mean, it was those in school.
It was the yellow books that you would get, the little booklets that were the Cliff's
notes to any major work of literature.
Any Shakespeare.
You know, Hemingway probably all the classics that you would read in middle school and
high school, maybe college.
I just remember it more in high school.
Yeah.
And you're not supposed to use the Cliff's notes instead of reading the book, but I'm sure
many people.
A lot of kids did, of course.
So I wonder if this is a global thing.
If they're translated into other languages, I actually have no clue.
We could ask that in our poll if you wanted to.
That's the cultural background that you need.
Usually there, I don't know, maybe what 40 pages, a tiny little booklet, not even hardcover,
softcover, yellow.
They were very distinct to the yellow and black.
Yellow and black.
Because the famous cultural phenomenon.
Okay.
I think everybody can relate to this one.
I don't even know.
But actually Michelle, I wonder if that's even a thing anymore for kids in high school because
now, well, now more recently we have chat GPT where you could probably just type in, give
me the main points, the most important points up, you know, Hemingways, you know, or the
great Gatsby or something and you'd get it.
So do you even need to go buy a physical booklet?
I kind of doubt it.
Yeah.
I don't know.
I'm on Cliff's notes.com now.
So I'm going to have to take a poke around and see.
But you are right.
That GPT is kind of going to fill that role, I'm sure.
I'm sure maybe it's just become a website rather than a booklet.
But anyway, so that's the case.
So then in that case, what is the expression?
That's what we were so excited to talk about it.
Yes.
Okay.
This is, give me the Cliff notes version.
Cliff notes.
So Lindsay, do you hear this one a lot?
This is pretty common, I think.
Yeah.
Yeah, exactly.
Because everyone knows at least in this generation, millennials, Gen X, certainly baby boomer
generation, we know Cliff notes.
So give me the Cliff notes version.
It's kind of intuitive.
What that means.
Right?
Yeah.
Exactly.
Exactly.
So here's a little role play with it.
Okay.
I can meet with you for 20 minutes to go over what you missed.
It's okay.
Just give me the Cliff notes version.
The Cliff notes version.
It's hard to say that fast.
Cliff notes version.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So very, very common.
Lindsay, which one of these is your favorite?
We have four that we've done.
We've done Gat or bring me up to speed.
We've done catch me up.
Give me the summary and give me the Cliff notes version.
Anything.
I really like the Cliff notes version.
Only promise it's hard to say it.
But I actually like it because it just speaks to a cultural phenomenon.
It's just, it's very cultural societal, this concept of Cliff notes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It is fun.
It's a little bit different.
And notice the first two are a little bit different than the second two we taught.
The first one is more, the first two are, you know, bring me up to speed, catch me
up.
You're not really putting a time limit on it.
You're just saying, let me know what's happening.
The other ones, it's more, give me the summary.
It either you know that you don't need all the information.
So you're just saying don't worry, don't take too much time about it.
Or maybe you know your co-worker is likely to want to meet with you for an hour about it.
And they might want to overshade.
Overshade.
Give me just give me the Cliff notes version.
But of course, then you don't want to offend them.
So yeah.
That's a thing.
So much to think about.
Did you used to sometimes miss classes in college or high school?
Would you have to get someone's notes?
Would you do that?
Of course, of course.
Yeah.
I mean, I want to say a lot.
I tried to go, but of course, that happened.
What about you?
Yeah, for sure, for sure.
But then you do have to find someone that you know has taken good notes, of course, in
the class.
Right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Definitely, definitely.
Are any of these, would you say better for certain people?
Like, if people have equal status at work, bosses, more importantly, anything you want to
bring up there that comes to mind?
I think definitely a coworker of pretty equal status is good.
Someone that you feel comfortable asking that question to someone that's kind of a friend,
like a work friend would be good.
Yeah.
That's what I would go for.
Yeah.
It's definitely an art.
It shows that you care.
But, you know, like we said, the ones with the Cliff notes or the summary, you just want
to be cognizant about time.
And you might not care quite as much.
It's all very context dependent.
But the thing is, you know, ask someone you trust and don't let it happen all the time.
Yeah.
Don't miss the meeting.
Yeah.
That's the key.
I like it.
Roll play time, Michelle.
So here we are co-workers and I have missed a meeting.
Okay.
Lindsay.
Okay.
Here we go.
Gosh.
Hey, Michelle.
Hey, we missed you at the meeting.
I know I can't believe my train didn't arrive in time.
Oh, too bad.
Well, can you bring me up to speed?
Yeah.
There was so much covered.
Okay.
How about give me the summary?
Yeah.
I can catch you up.
Yeah.
Just give me the Cliff notes version.
Okay.
Okay.
Pretty common, right?
So, you know, obviously I missed the meeting.
My train was late.
And then I said, well, can you bring me up to speed?
Okay.
You bring me up to speed.
That's also a good one.
I would say that one is my second favorite.
And that's actually probably the one I use the most.
It's fun to say.
It makes sense.
Everyone knows it.
Bring me up to speed.
Just, you know, yeah, definitely.
Definitely.
Yeah.
Right.
And then you said, I said there was so much covered.
So I'm basically saying like, this could take some time.
And you said, okay, how about give me the summary?
So you're saying just the basics.
Right.
And then you said, yeah, I can catch you up.
And then you wanted to really hammer your point home.
And you said, yeah, just give me the Cliff notes version.
Right.
So here I'm emphasizing, I don't need all the details.
Right.
Just give me the broad strokes of the meeting, the things I need to know.
And then we'll be fine.
Yes.
Yes.
Exactly.
Exactly.
Oh, these are really fun.
I think the takeaway is that don't be afraid to ask, but there is an art to this.
When is the right time to ask?
How do you want to ask and how much information do you really need to make sure that you have
enough to move forward?
And who are we asking to, right?
And who are we asking?
Right.
That is always important, right?
Yeah.
I mean, business English is not just how to give that presentation, right?
How to do that phone call.
Sometimes it's moments like this, talking to our coworkers, asking to be caught up on something.
Little things that build our professional relationships, guys.
Yeah.
That's right.
That connection piece is super important in these skills.
These phrases will help you connect.
They'll know exactly what you're looking for.
Right.
Okay.
Well, great.
Well, this was a lot of fun.
And guys, don't miss your meetings, but if you do, you know what to do now.
Perfect.
Perfect.
Good stuff, Michelle.
Thank you for bringing this topic to the show.
And I'll see you back on very soon.
All right.
Bye.
Bye, guys.
Bye.
Bye.
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