F2F Class Notes 2nd December (Tony)

my boss flew to Germany

He will fly to Germany

So he hasn’t flown there yet?

Semantics – excessive details that don’t add much to the discussion eg: “Starbucks is a company from the USA, it is just semantics to say they are from the Northwestern USA.” “I‘m not trying to argue over semantics, but I would like to offer a change inperspective.” “It is just semantics to tell German colleagues which province in China I’m from.” “Telling my Chinese colleagues which province I’m from is very important, but to my German colleagues it’s just semantics.” “It is important to tell my Chinese colleagues where I’m from, but it’s just semantics to my German colleagues.”

Out of context – words are taken away from their original discussion, so that some meaning may be lost. eg: “I hate people who lie and cheat.” “I hate people.” “That was taken out of context, it’s not what he means.” “During negotiations the purchaser said he doesn’t want to continue negotiating with this guy. And the seller understood that he wanted to stop negotiations altogether. The seller took the purchaser’s words out of context.”

Subjective – placing emphasis on one’s own moods, not rational thinking because it is biased. eg: “His ideas are too subjective to represent everyone here.”

Objective – not influenced by personal feelings,interpretations, or prejudice; based on facts; unbiased eg: “We need to examine this case with the utmost objectivity.” 

I’m over on the phone.

He told me that on the phone/over the phone.

We talked online.