F2F Class Notes (Nicholas)[S]

Vocabulary

father figure – someone that is like your father but not your real father

e.g. My boss is a father figure for me.

demoted – opposite of promoted – to go lower in work

warm contacts / warm relationships

cold contacts / cold relationships

I can’t get his heart – I can’t win his favor

I don’t care what they do with their business, I just invest money – I’m hands off

Pronunciation

not change-ed / change-duh

Grammar

I have left this company for 9 years / I left this company 9 years ago

he is just a manager / he was just a manager

I have joined this company for 9 years / I have been with this company for 9 years

I tripped a lot in the past month / I have traveled a lot in the past month / I have taken a lot of trips in the past month

Original

It’s hard to say if a boss is bad or good. Some of them did something to me I didn’t like but it’s hard to say he is bad because his job/responsibility – I want to talk two bosses I experienced.

One was my ex-boss, I worked for him from maybe 2003 to 2006, and I had two times worked for him. The second time is from 2008 to 2009. The first time was for 3 years, the second was for 1.5 years. Actually I think he had some good sides but I really didn’t like that he never promoted me and never increased my salary never. I had asked him that “does I finish my work well”, he said “no, you are good”. If I talked to him to increase my salary, he always find a lot of excuses — kick the can down the road — or my company hasn’t made a profit. It is a reason I left this company twice, I really hated it.

Corrected 

It’s hard to say if a boss is bad or good. Some of them did some things to me that I didn’t like but it’s hard to say that he is bad because of his job/responsibility – I want to talk about two bosses I experienced.

One was my ex-boss, I worked for him from maybe 2003 to 2006, and I had worked for him two times. The second time was from 2008 to 2009. The first time was for 3 years, the second was for 1.5 years. Actually I think he had some good sides / qualities / aspects but I really didn’t like that he never promoted me and never increased my salary. I had asked him that “have I performed well? / have I finished my work well?“, he said “yes, you are good”. If I talked to him about increasing my salary, he always found a lot of excuses — [he would kick the can down the road] — or my company hasn’t made a profit. It is a reason I left this company twice, I really hated it.

Original

But I can understand him because he was the boss / really boss / head boss / true boss, not a manager and now he gets older and older in March one day when I did my housework, I was clean the floor, I don’t know why, suddenly I thought about him, and I felt sad little bit – I thought that maybe I need to visit him in a couple days. I connected him on WeChat and said “how are you, are you available recently? I want to see you, if you have time.” I visit him in April; he looked old. I respect him – I learned a lot from him: how to negotiate a contract with customers, how to make an appointment with customers — a lot. But he was really selfish. It was good, we had lunch together. I don’t know why — I’m getting older and older, I usually can think something happened long time ago. I think now he just likes my father, my uncle, I respect him.

Corrected

But I can understand him because he was the boss / head boss / true boss, he was not a manager and now he is getting older and older in March one day when I was doing my housework, I was cleaning the floor, I don’t know why, suddenly I thought about him, and I felt sad a little bit – I thought that maybe I needed to visit him in a couple days. I connected with him on WeChat and said “how are you, are you available recently? I want to see you, if you have time.” I visited him in April; he looked old. I respect him – I learned a lot from him: for example how to negotiate a contract with customers, how to make an appointment with customers — a lot. But he was really selfish. It was good, we had lunch together. I don’t know why — I’m getting older and older, I usually can remember  things that happened a long time ago. I think now he is just like my father, my uncle, I respect him.

Past – While you were doing this action

Was + verb-ING

I was doing

I was cleaning

While I was cleaning / doing my house work I was thinking about my old boss.