VIP Class Notes (Nick)

What steps will you take to adapt to your new boss? How can you help her transition and to get to know her work-style?

OR

Describe different kinds of weather in Shanghai. Use the best words you can find for each season.
(Next class, maybe talk about cold, wet, windy, dry words)

Vocabulary

Headquarters – (it has an “s”)
— The base word is “quarters,” which means a place where you live.

Good with / to have a head for – to really understand and be good at someting
e.g. Our old boss really had a head for numbers, but the new boss… well, we’re not sure.

Broad – including many things
e.g. Our previous boss had really broad experience, including all parts of the company.
Comprehensive – including all things
e.g. His knowledge of the company was comprehensive because of his broad experience.

Partial – when you are supposed to decide what is best, but you favor one side
e.g. We are worried about our boss’s replacement, because she has only worked on the commercial side of the company. When the commercial and operations sides fight, she may not be balanced, but partial.

Irrational – not rational

Turkish

Portuñol / Portunhol – when spanish and portuguese speakers speak together and mix their languages, or use their own to talk

Stuffy / Oppressive / Suffocating – hot and probably in a closed room, no airflow; hot air that feels heavy and maybe hard to breath; so hot or heavy that you really feel that it’s difficult to breathe
e.g. The weather in Shanghai gets pretty oppressive by about June (around June 1st).

Roasting / Scorching / Burning / Blazing – these just mean very hot, without talking about my own feeling; this focuses on the feeling of heat, so it probably also means very sunny
e.g. It is just scorching/burning hot today!
e.g. At noon, the blazing Sun beat down upon his sweaty head.
e.g. Boy, I was just roasting inside of that bus because the AC was broken / That bus was roasting (hot)!

Muggy – hot and also very humid, uncomfortable
e.g. Tomorrow morning we are expecting rain, but by the afternoon expect it to be muggy as the Sun comes out and dries everything up (and when the water evaporates off of the ground it goes into the air).

Overcast – flat, gray sky, sort of dark; usually clouds but no rain, or only light rain

By about – this is a two-part description: “by” tells me when something will happen, and “about” tells me that it’s not exact
e.g. I will be there by about six (maybe ten minutes before or after,but definitely before this period is over)

Grammar

Not quite long – very / so

He know – knows

No idea of what we are doing – about
— “About” is a topic; “of” is the material, what something is