078_Do You Understand?

078_Do You Understand?

Kevin:

Hello and welcome to Nichibei Kaiwa Gakuin Podcasting episode 78. A great place to review English words and phrases. My name is Kevin Jones. As we explain complex business situations to our coworkers, it is important to always check that the person you are talking to understands. In this podcast we will review a variety of phrases to check understanding and phrases to show if we understand.
First let’s listen to a conversation between a Japanese staff member and an American staff member. The Japanese staff, Kentaro is teaching the American, John, how to use the scanner function on a copy machine. Listen for the phrases Kentaro uses to check that John understands. Also, listen for the phrases John uses to show that he does or does not understand.

John:

Kentaro, have you got a second?

Kentaro:

Sure what’s up.

John:

I was wondering if you could show me how to use the copy machine to scan a document.

Kentaro:

Sure, I’d be glad to. Can you read Japanese?

John:

Only Hiragana, Katakana and a few Kanji

Kentaro:

OK then first your should change the message screen to English. Push this button here and then select English.

John:

I see

Kentaro:

Next, lay your document on the glass.

John:

I want to scan this business card.

Kentaro:

OK lay it on the glass here.

John:

Uh huh.

Kentaro:

Now select a destination using this button. Is that clear?

John:

I don’t get it. Why you have to select a destination?

Kentaro:

You have to choose which hard drive to send the document to.

John:

I see what you mean. So what’s next?

Kentaro:

Push the name button and type in a name for the scanned document. And then push OK. Got it?

John:

Got it.

Kentaro:

Good. Now all you have to do is push the green button over here.

John:

OK. Hey what happened?

Kentaro:

Yeah. See the message?

John:

The message says “Can not detect original size”.

Kentaro:

Do you know what that means?

John:

Not at all.

Kentaro:

That means the machine doesn’t know what size the paper is.

John:

You lost me.

Kentaro:

You’re trying to scan a business card. It’s too small for the scanner to recognize. Push the choose size button and select a small paper size like B5. And hit scan again. Do you follow?

John:

Yeah I follow. There it goes.

Kentaro:

So, did you catch all of that?

John:

Kind of… Could you run me through that again?

Kentaro:

OK. Sure. Push the logout buttton and let’s start from the beginning. Next…… Did you notice all the phrases used for asking for and showing understanding? First let’s review the phrase pairs for checking for understanding. These pairs consist of a question to check understanding and a response. The first pair of phrases was “Is that clear?” and “I don’t get it” Listen.

Kentaro:

Now select a destination using this button. Is that clear?

John:

I don’t get it. Why you have to select a destination?

Kevin:

Here Kentaro checks for understanding by using “is that clear?” and John says that he does not understand with the phrase “I don’t get it”. Now, Let’s now move on to the next pair.

Kentaro:

And then push OK. Got it?

John:

Got it.

Kevin:

This one is easy. Both speakers use the same phrase but use different intonation. A rising intonation – Got it? – and a dropping intonation to say yes – Got it -. Now for the next pair.

Kentaro:

Do you know what that means?

John:

Not at all.

Kevin:

Kentaro ask if John understands the meaning of the message with “Do you know what that means?” and Johns says that he has no understanding with the phrase “Not at all” – “Not at all”. Another easy pair way when Kentaro said ” Do you follow? and John responds with “Yeah I follow”. In the last pair Kentaro ask “did you catch all of that?” to catch something means to understand. This time, however, John does not fully understand so he says… Kind of… he might also say “Sort of” to show partial understanding. That’s it for the pairs in this dialogue. Did you also notice the other phrases John used? He used I see Uh huh and OK The second one is Uh huh, is OK in casual conversation but I think you should avoid using Uh huh in the office. Even if others are using it. That’s all the time we have for this podcast. Did you understand all of these phrases?

John:

Kind of..

Kevin:

Well, I suggest you go back and listen to the conversation again. And remember that you can find a transcript for this podcast and listen to past episodes at www.nichibei.ac.jp . And be sure to check out the classes for this term at Nichibei. We have classes in business, conversation, TOEIC, art and history and others. Find out why Nichibei Kaiwa Gakuin is a great place to build you future.
This podcast is a production of Nichibei Kaiwa Gakuin.