BE 391: How to Skim to Save Your Colleagues' Time in English
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This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 391. How to skim to save your colleagues time in English.

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 Michelle, coming to you from New York City and Colorado, USA.

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Save up to $50 before March 30th and get a free bonus course. Go to allearsenglish.com slash B2. That's allearsenglish.com slash letter B number two. Hey there, Michelle. How's your day going?

Lindsay, good. Lindsay, could you skim over this episode before we start recording? I actually have already skimmed over the episode, Michelle. Oh, good. 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 are going to answer a question from Sophia about the word skim and its various uses.

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 going to 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. - All right. I'm gonna call her Superstar Sophia, 'cause her questions are incredible. So thank you, Sophia, for another great question. - Yes.

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 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 on All Ears English and the examples would look a little different, but it's great over there too. Okay. 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 going to focus on one main one, which kind of connects to, you know, really what we're talking about today. So skim.

This means to read or look at something kind of quickly. So to me, I think of a magazine, right? So you may be kind of flipping through the pages. So you're skimming it. Yeah. You go into the dentist's 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? 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. And recently I've started, even when I read books, cause I realized sometimes I'll just get, when I get to a part where they're talking a lot about scenery, like a lot of the descriptive writing and sometimes I'll find my brain wandering, I found myself kind of skimming those parts a little bit more and just kind of thinking, okay, I, I don't think I need to know.

You're on a need-to-know basis, a need-to-know basis with your book. I love it. Right, right. Exactly, exactly. So, but one way you could use this is, I skimmed the article, but I'm honestly not that interested in the topic. I love it. So there's, okay, so that's what skim means by itself. And now we're going to add some prepositions here, right? 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?

Right. 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 systematic. So flipping page to page or through an article, it may be a more, 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're 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. 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. I think skim through is maybe used for longer things. Okay. I mean, skim could be, I wouldn't really say I skimmed the book. I would probably have skimmed through the book, right? It's a little bit longer or I skimmed through, 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 yeah the difference it's it's very minute if anything so basically they're interchangeable skim and skim through you can basically use both so we're going to 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. If you're looking to take your learning even further while gaining invaluable business insights, we highly recommend a podcast that we love called TED Talks Daily. This show delivers daily TED Talks from some of the world's brightest minds covering topics like technology, career growth, education, and beyond.

It's the perfect way to improve your English, fuel your curiosity, and get inspired. Listen to TED Talks Daily wherever you get your podcasts. 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 oh wow he's really he's really into it

it. And but imagine a water skier, they're just skimming over over the water, right? They're not going down all the substances in the water, let's imagine. But they're just skimming over it in a way, right? So it's kind of that feeling, right?

Right. Yeah, exactly. Just kind of passing it by a little bit more, maybe a little less paying attention to something. And then 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, Michelle, it means 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 excess flour off to make it even at the top, right? But you can use this in other contexts 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. Right. Hopefully that's not happening anywhere. But, you know, that's what we're another another use for it. Yeah. I mean, yeah. Skimming 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

You need 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 flower. I mean, I've been trying to make...

more 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 yeah skimming it off so it is kind of a 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 uh so in this role play Michelle

We are working together on a presentation. All right? All right. Let's do it. Okay. So I skimmed through your notes. Really great start. Oh, 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.

Oh, okay. Got it. Okay. We're using skim here a lot. Every sentence. Skim, skim, skim. Yeah, I think of skim milk too. What kind of milk do you prefer? 1%, 2% 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, 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. Yeah.

And it's everywhere, everywhere. It's everywhere. It's crazy. And 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, all right. So coming back to this random side note, right? But we'd like to be able to do that, take things in one direction and show our listeners how to do that too. That's also a language skill, right? Yep.

Absolutely. All right. So you said, okay, so I skimmed through your notes. Really great start. So, you know, their 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, 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, condense down would be another way to say that. Condense down. You know, that's the process of editing. You start with more content than you need and you reduce it down.

And then you said, 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 that section, read section two instead, right? Right. Pay more attention to that section, second section. Love it. All right. 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. 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. 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 our listeners 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. Bye. Bye.

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