VIP Class Notes (Nick)

How did you finally break the news of the bonuses to your team?

Vocabulary

Don’t shoot the messenger – don’t blame the person who brings the bad news, blame the person who caused the bad news
e.g. In English, I guess we shoot we shoot the messenger when we call the bonus letter “bad.”

Factor – a reason that doesn’t make one conclusion necessary
e.g. Eating too much is one of the factors leading to obesity.

Think – mental activity
Think about – to introduce the topic or subject of your thinking (not a phrasal verb because the meaning doesn’t change)
Think of / up – to “find” something while thinking, to create something by thinking (a phrasal verb, because the meaning has changed to become creative)
e.g. What are you doing? Oh, just thinking.
e.g. What are you thinking about? I’m thinking about how to talk to my team about the sad bonuses.
e.g. Oh, how are you going to do that? Well, I haven’t thought of / up anything yet.
— Think “up” is a little more creative, like I’m thinking of a clever way out of some responsibility or to get lots of money with little effort, like a plan of some sort (maybe related to 小聪明)

No dice! – when something doesn’t work out, there’s no change, when your effort is of no use
e.g. We talked to HR about increasing the bonuses, but no dice! (they didn’t increase it)

Grammar

For names, we usually don’t use “the”

I think today is a tough day because usually by the end of the April, we should get the last year’s bonus of the last year. Today I received the bonus letter from the HR, but the result it’s not that good.

How many bonus you should get – much

there are four part – parts

how many money you earn – much

the sales achievement is the must-have factors – the sales achievement is one of the . . . / a must-have factor

once the sales did not reach the target – if the sales did not reach the target / because . . .
— “Once” is to give the moment or condition of something happening. If it won’t happen, you should probably use another word. It should at least be possible for the thing to happen.

Sales – I suggest you use “are” most of the time, unless you’re talking about the “Sales Department”
e.g. Sales were slow last quarter.

how to communicate with them about this message – how to communicate this message to them
— “Communicate” is about transferring information, like “tell”
— “Discuss” is more like a continuous activity that you do “with” someone
— “with” is usually about doing something together, or using some tool
e.g. I have trouble communicating with my girlfriend’s parents.
e.g. I wrote this story with a pen.
— “to” is usually about movement, the ideas are going from you to your team

we only get 50% of the bonus – got

I haven’t fix it out – figured

I haven’t think about any solution – thought of / found

bonus relating to sales – related
— “related” is the adjective form

try our efforts – try our best / we gave our best effort
— “Efforts” is more like attempts or ways you tried to to fix something; “effort” is the energy you put into it (also, there is only one “best”)
e.g. We tried every way we could think of to fix the car, but all of our efforts were useless / in vain.
e.g. I used to do powerlifting, which I enjoyed because it requires maximum effort.

raised this doubt – raised this question / issue / problem
e.g. question: Can you raise the bonus payments?
e.g. issue: I would like to talk about the size of the bonuses this year.
e.g. problem: The bonuses this year are not large enough.
— Question is specific
e.g. I have a question about problem #2.
— Doubt is a state, how you feel; it is usually uncountable, but always general
e.g. I really doubt whether he can run ten miles.
e.g. His answer left a lot of doubt about whether he was involved in the crime.
e.g. I still have many doubts about his abilities as a lawyer.

Pronunciation

team member under me / team member enemy – make sure to get the “d” in “under”

Obesity – oh – bee – city