Meetings

Meetings are the same the whole world over, aren’t they?

No, they aren’t!

Be prepared!

Many former students have told us that the meetings input and practice was found to be very valuable and useful when they went on to work abroad.

The reasons for this being firstly, of course, that we learned the necessary vocabulary; secondly, and probably more importantly, we looked at how easy it can be to be caught out in a meeting situation because we don’t know how decisions are made, or how the system for making decisions works.

The traditional way of holding meetings that is used in English speaking countries will be looked at in this unit. It is presented not because it is “better”, but because it is organised in a way quite different to the “discussion” type meeting many of us are used to.

The purpose of this unit is therefore to learn the necessary professional vocabulary, but also to remind ourselves that things can be done in a different way. Not necessarily better or worse - just different!

Be aware!

Be prepared!

Don’t get caught out!

P.S: For a personal account from one of our contributors on how he got caught out whilst working in a foreign country, please refer to the “Variations of English” unit of this course.