023_Disagreeing

023_Disagreeing

This is the second of four episodes dealing with English for business meetings. In this episode, Nichibei student Yuko asks Charles Tully how to disagree in a meeting.

Kevin:

Hello and welcome once again. This is Nichibei Kaiwa Gakuin Podcasting. A great place to review English words and phrases. My name is Kevin Jones. This episode is the second of four dealing with meeting skills. This episode we have another question from Nichibei student Yuko.

Kevin:

Hi Yuko.

Yuko:

Hello Kevin.

Kevin:

And also with again is Nichibei instructor Charlie Tully. Hello again.

Charles Tully:

Hello Kevin.

Kevin:

So, Yuko, In the last episode we talked about phrases for introducing opinions, and then you had one more question we didn’t have time for. You were asking about disagreeing. Could you reiterate?

Yuko:

Sorry, could I…. what?

Kevin:

Could you reiterate. Reiterate means to say again.

Yuko:

Oh I see, sure. When I’m in a meeting, I’m a little nervous about disagreeing. I’m not sure about the best way to disagree with someone. I’m always afraid of being too rude.

Kevin:

OK. Thank you Yuko. So Charlie, last episode you gave Yuko some good advice about introducing opinions, how about phrases for disagreeing with another persons opinion?

Charles Tully:

I think first we have to establish the different levels of politeness. Sometimes you want to disagree softly and politely and sometimes you want to disagree strongly.

Kevin:

What’s good way to disagree politely.

Charles Tully:

Well, as with many situations in English, we use I’m afraid…to introduce bad news or a disagreement. So a soft disagreement would be, I’m afraid I don’t agree with you. To make it a little stronger use can’t, I’m afraid I can’t agree with you.

Kevin:

Are there any other ways to softly disagree?

Charles Tully:

Oh sure, there are many, but one more example would be the phrase That’s not how I see it.

Yuko:

Thanks Mr. Tully, but what are some ways to disagree strongly?

Charles Tully:

By using the word strongly actually. You can say simply, I strongly disagree. Another adverb to use is completely, as in….I completely disagree.

Kevin:

Yuko, why don’t you give it a try with Charlie? Charlie….give Yuko a couple of opinions and Yuko try disagreeing softly and strongly.

Yuko:

OK.

Charles Tully:

It seems to me we need to change the product design.

Yuko:

I’m afraid I disagree, The current design has been very successful.

Charles Tully:

OK. In my opinion, we should lower the price on all our products.

Yuko:

I strongly disagree. It will damage our image if we lower the price.

Kevin:

Excellent. That sounded good Yuko. And Charlie thank you so much for your help.

Yuko:

Yeah, Thanks Mr. Tully.

Charles Tully:

You’re welcome, it was fun.

Kevin:

Let’s review the words and phrases for this this episode. Reiterate. I’m afraid I don’t agree with you. I’m afraid I can’t agree with you. That’s not how I see it. I strongly disagree. I completely disagree.

END