Profile Update Class (Nick)

Your profile has been updated!

Next update September 2019

Previous Levels

Listening: 4.5
Speaking: 4
Pronunciation: 4
Writing: 4.25

Class Notes from today:

Prepare some presentation materials for next class related to your upcoming presentation.

Vocabulary

Recover – when you are sick, injured, or tired and you take time to get better
e.g. My friend recently got injured and had to take some time off work to recover.

Godspeed – good luck, success; rather formal or literary and usually used to wish someone luck on a difficult task or trip
e.g. He had made a big mistake last week at work and got the call from his boss to come to his office. I said as he left: “godspeed”
e.g. As he left, I knew that he had difficult times ahead and so I wished him godspeed (safe, quick, and smooth travels).
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/godspeed

Explain – a general term for helping someone understand something; from the beginning, how does this work
e.g. Let me explain to you how our payment plan works.
Clarify – to make clear; to clear up some misunderstanding; to explain some part that someone doesn’t quite get in more detail until they understand
e.g. Let me clarify how our payment plan allows you to pay online.
e.g. I think we have different ideas of how this plan should work. Let me clarify my plan so we can see if we are really in agreement.
Verify – to check; to make sure that something really is the way you think that it is
Confirm – similar to verify, BUT “verify” is trying to find out whether something is true; “confirm” is to make sure that something was done
e.g. Before we sign this contract, let’s verify that we have the approval of our lawyers.
e.g. Before we sign this contract, let’s confirm that our lawyers reviewed the terms.
— In the first situation, we are verifying a state, “having approval,” which is true or false. It’s like a fact, a thing.
— In the second, we are confirming the completion of an action, a verb.

In the weeds – when you get away from the main part of a conversation and talk about very small, perhaps not very important details; still related, but not the main point
e.g. At this early stage in the negotiations, let’s just talk about what is you want us to design so that we can understand the scope of the project without getting into the weeds on contract terms.
— The contract terms are certainly related to the main topic, but they are not important just yet. They will only make us more confused right now.

What does that have to do with the price of tea in China? – this is unrelated to what we were talking about
In Spanish: I have an Aunt who plays the guitar (tengo una tía que toca la guitarra)
Let’s focus on … because I think that is the most important problem

Tug-of-war – when you have two groups of people pulling in opposite directions on a large rope; any situation where

Two-way, three-way, four-way – something with many different directions
e.g. At work I often find myself in a three-way tug-of-war with the other departments, because we all have different priorities.

Grammar

I start to thinking – I start thinking about / I get to thinking

Along the conversation – along the way, I will think of more questions / during the conversation
— Usually “along” is used with phrases that mean distance

Always have more people who want to join the conversation – there are always

I have to spend a lot of time to deal with this situation – dealing with this kind / type of situation

I will think that what I said is correct – how
— What is the content; How is the grammar