BE: Agreeing and Disagreeing in Business Meetings
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This is the Business English Podcast, agreeing and disagreeing in business meetings.

Welcome to the Business English podcast from All Ears 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 Aubrey, coming to you from Arizona and Colorado, USA. Welcome to the Business English podcast from All Ears English.

It's your last chance. Our new professional English level one course is ready to help you build your fluency and your professional communication skills to strengthen relationships at work when you socialize, make your ideas heard at meetings and give outstanding presentations. It all starts with getting into our study plan. But this special offer goes away on April 20th at midnight.

Save up to $100 off the normal price before the price goes up. allearsenglish.com slash professional. And I can't wait to see you in one of our live speaking events. One more time, go to allearsenglish.com slash P-R-O-F-E-S-S-I-O-N-A-L. See you there. Hey, Lindsay, how are you? Doing well, Aubrey. How's everything going for you?

Excellent. I am curious, when you are in a meeting at work, how often do you need to agree or disagree with someone? I mean, definitely sometimes I need to push back and express that I don't totally agree with someone. So I'd say occasionally. Yeah.

Yeah, it does happen, right? It's interesting because often meetings, like we're all on the same page. We're just finding out about things. But this happens sometimes that you need to either agree with a plan or disagree or maybe express neutrality, sort of neither agreeing or disagreeing. Maybe you need to talk about it and think about it and get back to them. You need the language to be able to do this. And it's important to support.

speak up at the times when you really disagree, right? I mean, some things maybe you could let them slide, but it's important to make your voice heard at work. And I think one of the places, Aubrey, where that happens is

is meetings, right? As you said, meetings are the high pressure situation for so many of our listeners. Absolutely. And you could find yourself in a situation if you don't speak up, then feeling like you need to later when it's almost too late or it's awkward or uncomfortable and you will wish I should have said something in the first place. Maybe you didn't have the vocabulary. You weren't sure exactly what to say. You needed to go look it up, think about it later. And then the moment has passed and it's harder.

Yes. And that's a huge part, Aubrey, of why we created our brand new course. Are you excited for this? This is going to be amazing. Yes. This is great. Our brand new course called Professional English Level 1 is live this week for the very first time.

And the big thing that we focused on for this course, what contexts are we focusing on? We're laser focused on three or four contexts in this course. Right. There's a combination in this course of fluency and professional communication skills. So whether you work in English or not, you will be learning the skills you need for meetings, presentations, small talk, these stressful moments.

that you face, whether in everyday life or at work, they're all covered in this brand new course. - Yeah, and that's exactly why we created this course. It's why this course is different from other courses. It's why it's different from our other Business English course.

Our other business English course, frankly, is more designed for you if you are already working every day in English at a very high level, a B2C1 level. This course is going to build this professional level one is going to build your fluency foundation at the same time

as building your professional communication skills. So our business course, the other course only builds your business skills. In this new course, we do both. So we go back and review some fundamental grammar that we might be still making fossilized errors, right Aubrey? Exactly. Love it. So how do we, yeah, go ahead, go ahead.

I was just going to say so. And if you did take our business course and felt like you could use more foundation, this might be perfect for you as well. So check it out at allersenglish.com slash professional to save $100 for a limited time only. We're very excited about this, but we also are going to dive in today to some things that we taught.

in this course. You're sort of getting a sneak peek today into module eight of this professional English course, which is all about succeeding in meetings.

Yeah, exactly. And why I love that we're getting a sneak peek here is because these phrases, these vocabulary chunks came directly from my interviews with native speaking professionals, right? We don't really write scripts for our courses. What we do is we interview people and then we take all those interviews and our curriculum designer actually creates lessons based on those interviews. So you know you're learning real English here.

Exactly. So the vocabulary you're getting today came from these native interviews. It wasn't scripted. This is how we actually talk when we're agreeing, disagreeing, sharing opinions at work. Yes. All right. So let's dive into it to give our listeners some clear tips and takeaways today. So where do we go first? Yeah. So we first want to share in that module eight, you would learn best practices for effective meetings.

how to state opinions and agreeing or disagreeing phrases for this, strategies for this, and also how to articulate the why behind your opinion, your reasoning, right? And today we're sharing phrases from the course for agreeing and disagreeing in a meeting. And then, of course, stay to the end for details. We want to make sure that you guys know when this special offer is going away so that you don't miss it.

Yes, I love it. So the first skill that we have, of course, is agreeing. And what this does on a social level is it builds your relationship with someone. It lets you support them. It lets you work towards a common goal. Incredibly important things to be able to do, right?

Yes, and there are levels of how much you agree, how emphatic you are. So we're going to start with the most emphatic when you really agree and you want them to know, you know, how strongly you feel about that. We'll often say, "Absolutely, yes!" And we'll often stack things like this as well, right? "Absolutely, I couldn't agree more." Something like that where you're really wanting to emphasize how strongly you agree with something.

That actually gives me another episode idea, Aubrey. We should do an episode idea on stacking responses.

Yes. Right. Maybe on the All Ears English podcast. Right. When would we stack our responses and why? What are some different contexts? So guys, hit follow on All Ears English to make sure you don't miss that. So absolutely. Yes. Right. And maybe we say one more thing for sure. But then without a doubt. Right. Without a doubt. Yes. But this is what came out of our interviews. Absolutely. Yes. Right. And then another one. I definitely agree. Right.

You can feel the sort of lower tone, right? If you're wanting to really emphatically say, yes, I agree. This might not be what you'd say, but there will be times where you agree, but it's not quite as emphatic with not quite so much gusto, right? This is a great phrase. I definitely agree. Yeah. And I also want to say that it depends on your personality because I, as if I remember back to the interviews correctly, I think it was Dakota that said this. Um, and Dakota's personality was different from, you know,

Mallory's personality or Lindsay's personality. His tone was a little quieter, a little more soft spoken, a little more serious. He is an engineer. And sometimes we can tailor our responses to what feels right for us.

And that brings up another good point that you have coworkers who have such different personalities. Some of them might never say absolutely yes. The strongest they might get in agreement is I definitely agree. And you need to be paying attention to their language, their context clues to know this about their personality. It's interesting. Really good point. Really good point. And this next one also is very interesting. What is it, Aubrey?

Yeah, so this is another kind of step down on how emphatically you're agreeing to say, overall, I would say that I agree. So this, you're hedging just a little bit with the overall. There are some caveats here, right? There may be some things where you disagree, but you're saying, overall, I agree. Overall, I would say that I agree.

Yeah. And the question here is, what are they agreeing to or agreeing about? Well, in the course, if you're in the course, you'll learn quickly what we're talking about here. We get great advice from these native speakers on how to run meetings, how to run presentations, asking for opinions. So not only are we learning how to express our opinion, but we're also learning and getting tips on how to do these things at work, in addition to building the skills.

Yeah, good. Exactly. Okay, let's move on to disagreeing. And same, we have our levels here, right? So the most emphatic you would be might be, I disagree completely, or I definitely disagree, right? This is a strong disagree. You have real clarity when you say that, right? Number two, it depends, but overall, I disagree. And I like this because

Most of the time, most things are not in my mind, most things are not black and white. There's a lot of gray in the world, right? A lot of gray area. And we see that nuance, of course. So we have to say that in our expressions, right? Yes. And we also have to recognize that when we disagree, we are creating a little bit of a wall between people because for whatever reason, we don't agree. In our language, we can soften that.

by saying something like this, you know, I see where you're coming from, but overall I disagree or it depends, but overall I disagree. Oh, that's a good point. So there are kind of two uses. You know, if you legitimately just think it's a nuanced answer, um, you might say this, it depends, but overall I disagree. Or if you're trying to more maintain the relationship, right? Exactly. Interesting. Well,

What's the third one? And then last, so this is even less emphatically disagreeing. You might say, I don't know if I would say that. Or maybe something like, I don't know if I agree exactly. And this adding, I don't know at the beginning, you are being more hesitant about it, but you are acknowledging more that you might disagree, but you haven't really made up your mind that strongly. It's an even better way to keep that wall from building up where you're sort of acknowledging that you're

maybe your thoughts aren't that clear about this yet. Yeah. And I have a feeling that this chunk might not be, uh, our listeners may not have heard it before cause it's very natural. Um, I don't know if I would say that, right? It's just very, like I said, these come from real conversations that it's very clear to me that they come from real conversations and not textbooks as I look at them. And this is an interesting one where the more you change your tone,

it could change some, right? If you instead say, well, I don't know if I would say that, then you're actually disagreeing quite a bit more strongly, right? You're almost mocking, poking fun a little bit about what they said. Like, well, I don't know if I would say that. I love it. The third category here is neither agreeing nor disagreeing. So you're staying on the fence, right? So for example, I would say that really depends, right?

Okay, another neutral response. Exactly, right? And then from there, maybe you would go into your reasoning for why you think it depends, why you might agree in one scenario, and then you might disagree in a different situation, right? Or you might say, that's an interesting point. I'll have to think about it. And this is where you don't want to agree or disagree. Maybe you're not sure exactly what your opinion is, or you feel like it's not the appropriate situation to get into it.

Yeah, so many options available to our listeners, but many of these, again, we don't find in our English classes. We don't find in our textbooks, Aubrey. Exactly, right? That's why we use these native, natural conversations unscripted to show you how people are really speaking because that is how you will sound more native and natural when you are using this type of language. Yes.

Okay, Aubrey, we are back. Shall we go for a role play? Yes, let's do it. We are in a meeting in this role play. Surprise, surprise. Makes sense. Makes sense. I'll start us out. Okay. Absolutely. Yes, I love that plan. What do you think, Lindsay? Well, overall, I would say that I agree. I have some concerns about the timeline. It is definitely aggressive.

I disagree completely. I think it's not aggressive enough, actually. Oh, really? Well, that's great news. I was worried I was rushing some of the deadlines. I guess it really depends on everyone's bandwidth, but I can definitely be done much sooner than Friday. Okay.

Nice. Okay, so this is interesting where this happens sometimes you'll make an assumption about someone's bandwidth or about the dead, you know, and so this was interesting where you are disagreeing completely, but in a way that makes me happy. I'm like, oh, that's great. Yeah, faster than I thought. Right? Yeah, sometimes. Yeah, we don't know. It's hard to know people's bandwidth. And we, we have different expectations also around how, how quickly we can get something done.

So this is a very real conversation. - Definitely, let's go through it. I first said, we're coming from, this is jumping into the middle of a conversation. Someone has provided us with a plan and timelines and I say, absolutely, yes, I love that plan. - Yeah, good. And then I said, I was a little more moderate, right? In my response, pulling back, I said, overall, I would say that I agree. I have some concerns about the timeline. I might also use a transition there.

Although I have some concerns about the timeline, maybe something like that. And then I'm thinking you mean it's too aggressive that maybe we don't have time. We're not going to finish on time. And then you said, I disagree completely. I think it's not aggressive enough, actually. Wow.

We have very different perspectives. And this happens, right? This happens. And of course, there are a lot of ways you could say this. I feel like this would be more like you know each other well. You have a good relationship because if you're trying to keep it very formal and professional, you maybe would say like, actually, I was thinking it's not aggressive enough. I think we could get done quickly.

But I feel like there's, you know, you know each other well enough to it's almost like you're making a joke. I disagree completely. I think it's not. Yeah, it's much more casual. Right. Responding like that very quickly because I'm going to be surprised by it. Right. But we do this sometimes with our language when we're sort of intentionally being fun, like surprising someone in a good way. You know, that's going to make me happy that we can get done more quickly.

Yes, exactly. So anything else we want to highlight from this conversation, Aubrey, this meeting? Yeah, I think, no, that's all as far as the language, but it's really important to think about how strong of phrases you use, right? Which level you use there depends on so many things. The relationships,

the context, the situation. And that sort of comes with practice. But also we always cover it here and in our courses. So you know how semi-formal to be, how formal, how informal. There's a lot that goes into that.

Exactly. And the difference between the podcast and the course, right, of course, like all of our courses, is you drill down into the practice. This course has the most practice of any of our courses so far. This is the most in-depth course we've ever created. We have layers and layers of practice. So this is where the practice actually comes from, is getting into Professional English Level 1 to build that foundation.

Yes, it's so exciting. You're going to learn the strategies and the vocabulary, grammar, and then you'll be challenged by these fluency activities to reach your fluency goals. But not only that, this is so exciting for me that all students in any of our courses are able to attend bonus live speaking events with us, with the members of our community, weekly open conversation club, monthly fluency parties, where you can meet speaking partners and practice speaking English in a very stress-free and fun environment.

Exactly. I was on there this morning with 35 of our students. It was amazing to connect, allow them to connect with each other. I love that when I close the breakout rooms, people wait until the very last second until the technology pulls them back. That means they're enjoying getting to know each other, right? Yes. So you get a chance to speak in very small groups and breakout rooms, bigger groups in the main lobby with all of us. It's such a great practice opportunity.

It's so cool. So this will be part of your package when you join Professional English Level 1. So guys, the only problem is there is a deadline, right? This course is new and it's only available for $100 off until April 20th at midnight. A breeze.

Yes, that's right. So go to allersenglish.com slash professional to take advantage of that deal. And guys, the bottom, the takeaway here is you are guaranteed at work to need to agree and disagree. Maybe not every day, maybe not every meeting, but it does come up.

and today's phrases are really just the starting point. - So good, so exciting. So one more time, I'm gonna spell the link so you can get right into the course right now, guys. allearsenglish.com/professional. That is allearsenglish.com/P-R-O-F-E-S-S-I-O-N-A-L. All right. - Awesome. We're so excited to see you in the course and to see you in our live speaking events. - All right, take care, Aubrey. Talk soon. - Bye. - Awesome. See you next time. - Bye.

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