Episode 0298

Hello everyone and welcome to English Pod. My name is Marco.

My name is Catherine and for those of you who've been following, this is the very last episode of our 10-part series about giving a presentation in English.

That's right. This is part 10 where we are going to receive questions from the audience.

So this is called a Q and A session or question and answer session. Let's take a listen to our dialogue. We'll be back in a moment.

Sincere thanks, Michael. Now, I'm sure many of you will be keen to ask some questions, so I'd like to open up a Q&A session. Please raise your hand if you have any questions at all. Uh, yes, Janice, go ahead.

Yes, thank you, Jonathan. I would just like to go back to the comment Mr. Ford made in regards to our competitors, particularly Orange.

Now, as you know, Orange has established themselves as the market leader in the high-end laptop market. How does Mr. Ford expect to compete with a company that has such a huge reputation and huge resources?

Well, Janice, first of all, thanks for a very good question. I think you have hit the nail on the head actually.

Orange are the global leaders precisely because of their size and power. But although we can't compete in terms of size, I do believe we hold an advantage in terms of dedication to customer service.

Yes, I admit this is a David and Goliath battle, but don't forget who won that contest.

Um, Mr. Ford, could you elaborate on technical details of the X420 a little more?

I love to, but I think we're a little pressed for time right now. However, Jonathan has all the technical specs for you on the PowerPoint presentation, which you can look over in your own time.

All right, we're back. So now let's take a look at some words on language takeaway.

Well, at the beginning of today's dialogue, Jonathan said, I'm sure many of you will be keen to ask some questions. What does this word 'keen' mean?

All right. So, to be keen to do something, which basically means that you want to or would like to do something.

Right. Are you keen? Would you like to do it? Are you interested in doing it?

Now, this is a very British form of addressing something, right?

That's right. This is very British. We don't really say this as much in America, but you can. People will understand you. I would say, I'm sure many of you would like to ask some questions. And so you could say that both ways.

That's right. That's right. Okay. So many people want to ask questions, and Jonathan said, so I'd like to open it up to a Q&A session. So, the series of words here to open it up to a Q&A session. What does that mean?

To open it up. It means the discussion. So he would like to invite people to ask questions. So, I'd like to open it up for questions means I would like to give you guys the opportunity to ask.

So, to open up a discussion or to open up a conversation, right?

I would like to open this up to you guys.

Okay. Now one of the audience members asked about another company, which is their competitors, and said that they have a huge reputation and huge resources. This competitor. So, what is this word reputation?

Reputation is important. A person can have a reputation, but a company can also have a reputation. Now, reputation means the way that other people talk about you.

Okay, so he has a good reputation means people say good things about him. Or the media, like newspapers and and websites, they say good things about him. But if you if you have a bad reputation, it means people are saying bad things about you.

Right. Okay. So that pretty much sums it up, a reputation. What other people say about you or how other people see you. So maybe if a company like this has a huge reputation, it means that it's very well respected and people talk very good thing and people talk well about this company.

That's right.

All right. Now, uh, another question came along and they wanted to know a little bit more about the technical details of this product that they are introducing. And uh, Mr. Ford said that, uh, you know what, right now, we don't really have time, but uh, I'm going to leave all the technical specs on this PowerPoint presentation and you can look at it later.

Okay. So, specs, uh, this is something you'll hear very, very often, especially in technical areas. Um, but it means specifications, for details. Um, so maybe I have a computer and it's, I know it's an IBM computer, but I don't know the specs. I don't have the details. Um, so that's something that that you would wanna find out if you have a problem or you want to look into it more closely. And so, um, specs.

That's right. Okay. So these are the specs.

Now, uh, why don't we take a break? Let's take a look at our dialogue again and we'll be back in a bit.

Sincere thanks, Michael. Now, I'm sure many of you will be keen to ask some questions, so I'd like to open up a Q&A session. Please raise your hand if you have any questions at all. Uh, yes, Janice, go ahead.

Yes, thank you, Jonathan. I would just like to go back to the comment Mr. Ford made in regards to our competitors, particularly Orange.

Now, as you know, Orange has established themselves as the market leader in the high-end laptop market. How does Mr. Ford expect to compete with a company that has such a huge reputation and huge resources?

Well, Janice, first of all, thanks for a very good question. I think you have hit the nail on the head actually.

Orange are the global leaders precisely because of their size and power. But although we can't compete in terms of size, I do believe we hold an advantage in terms of dedication to customer service.

Yes, I admit this is a David and Goliath battle, but don't forget who won that contest.

Um, Mr. Ford, could you elaborate on actual technical details of the X420 a little more?

I love to, but I think we're a little pressed for time right now. However, Jonathan has all the technical specs for you on the PowerPoint presentation, which you can look over in your own time.

All right, we're back. So now let's take a look at some of those phrases on fluency builder.

The first phrase we have here is one that I really like and I use very often. It's, I think you have hit the nail on the head.

That's right. To hit the nail on the head. So this is a a very common phrase, which basically means, I think you got it exactly right.

Okay. So think about a nail that you're hammering something, you have a hammer in your hand, it's very easy to miss. But boom, when you hit it, hit the nail on the head, it means you have it exactly right.

That's right. So this was actually a a a response to one of the questions because it was a very good question and it had a valid point. So this is why Mr. Ford said, you hit the nail on the head. This is exactly right. I completely agree with you.

After that though, we had this interesting phrase. He said, I admit this is a David and Goliath battle.

Okay. So now this is obviously he's speaking metaphorically, right?

That's right. So David and Goliath, that's actually a story that we often talk about. Uh, it's a biblical story, so it comes from Christianity and David and Goliath fought, but David was very, very small and Goliath was a monster. He was very huge. And so everyone said, Goliath will win the fight. But David won the fight. And so this is an example or a story that people often use when they say, listen, it may be, uh, the case that you think the big giant will win, but actually the small man or our small company will win.

That's right. As you said, uh, we many times make reference to this, even not in the biblical sense, but it's just the the the size. Maybe we're a small company, we're going to fight this big company. So we say, it's a David and Goliath battle, or even athletes, maybe two boxers. Uh, one is bigger than the other. So they'll say it's a David and Goliath boxing match.

That's right.

Okay. Now, when we got the questions about the technical details of the computer, Mr. Ford said that we are a little bit pressed for time right now. That's why we can't really answer that question.

That's right. And so to be pressed for time means that you don't have a lot of time. You are, uh, in a rush.

That's right. So if you are pressed for time, you don't have too much time, you can't, you're in a hurry basically.

So I could say, hey, Marco, can you come here and look at this thing on my computer, please?

I'm sorry. I'm a little bit pressed for time right now. I'll take a look at it in an hour.

Okay. So, those are all of our phrases from fluency builder. Let's take another listen to our dialogue and we'll be right back.

Sincere thanks, Michael. Now, I'm sure many of you will be keen to ask some questions, so I'd like to open up a Q&A session. Please raise your hand if you have any questions at all. Uh, yes, Janice, go ahead.

Yes, thank you, Jonathan. I would just like to go back to the comment Mr. Ford made in regards to our competitors, particularly Orange.

Now, as you know, Orange has established themselves as the market leader in the high-end laptop market. How does Mr. Ford expect to compete with a company that has such a huge reputation and huge resources?

Well, Janice, first of all, thanks for a very good question. I think you have hit the nail on the head actually.

Orange are the global leaders precisely because of their size and power. But although we can't compete in terms of size, I do believe we hold an advantage in terms of dedication to customer service.

Yes, I admit this is a David and Goliath battle, but don't forget who won that contest.

Um, Mr. Ford, could you elaborate on actual technical details of the X420 a little more?

I love to, but I think we're a little pressed for time right now. However, Jonathan has all the technical specs for you on the PowerPoint presentation, which you can look over in your own time.

All right. So that was part 10 of our 10-part series about presentations. We took a look at many different aspects where you can take it as an example, as we talked about computers and marketing, but you can more or less have an idea of how a presentation should go and the type of vocab you can use.

That's right. And I think that this particular dialogue today was very, very useful because a lot of times you're going to have people asking you questions and filling in details. And so you can use some of these phrases to help explain exactly what your presentation was about when people do have questions.

That's right. So we hope that you enjoyed this series and we would like to hear from you. If you have any other suggestions about a series of dialogues or a series of lessons that we can do, we had one about a job interview, all the steps and everything, how a job interview would go. We just had a series about uh, presentations. So maybe you can give us some feedback or some ideas of what you would like to learn.

Let us know. Our website is English pod.com. We'll see you there.

All right. Bye.

Bye.

The English part audio review.

Listen to the meaning, then say the vocabulary word.

Stimulation or arousal of the mind, feelings.

Inspiration.

Begin, start.

Open it up.

About.

In regards.

To say something that is exactly right.

Hit the nail on the head.

To explain something in a more detailed way.

Elaborate.

Don't have enough time.

Pressed for time.

Let's try that faster.

Begin, start.

Open it up.

To explain something in a more detailed way.

Elaborate.

Stimulation or arousal of the mind, feelings.

Inspiration.

Don't have enough time.

Pressed for time.

About.

In regards.

To say something that is exactly right.

Hit the nail on the head.

Now say the word and hear it in a sentence.

Inspiration.

Inspiration.

Inspiration.

Mother Teresa lived an inspirational life.

Open it up.

After his speech, he opened it up to questions.

Open it up.

I will present my research and then open it up to the debate.

Open it up.

Now, let's open up to the audience. Any questions?

In regards.

In regards to your request, we can come over this afternoon to fix your computer.

In regards.

In regards to your question, I don't have the information right now to give you a good answer.

In regards.

In regards to the problem you mentioned earlier, I'm sure we can figure out a solution.

Hit the nail on the head.

You hit the nail on the head with your analysis, Lily.

Hit the nail on the head.

Matt hit the nail on the head when he said that we need to improve our presentation skills.

Hit the nail on the head.

He usually hit the nail on the head with his observations, but lately he's been a bit off.

Elaborate.

Could you elaborate a bit more on your research? It's very interesting.

Elaborate.

Let me elaborate on the new features of this computer.

Elaborate.

He elaborated on his ideas for improving the company.

Pressed for time.

I'm a little pressed for time right now, but I will tell you more about it later.

Pressed for time.

James couldn't finish his story because he was pressed for time.

Pressed for time.

Why don't we discuss this when you're not pressed for time?