Lesson 8 – Taking Questions

 [bad word] to [bad word] #39;s "Business Meetings" course: lesson eight. I'm your host, Dr. Jeff [bad word] to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.

In the seventh lesson of "Business Meetings," we learned business vocabulary for managing discussions. In this eighth lesson, we're going to learn how to take questions. That is, how to accept and answer questions from the audience.

First we'll listen to the formal meeting at a slow speed.

Shawn: Mr. Hanson, was Ms. Graff able to allay your concern? Good. Now we have time for only two more questions. Ms. Graff?

Hannah: My question is for Mr. Hanson. I was wondering whether you could expand on the section regarding product design. I correct in assuming that you want to offer the product in more colors?

Chris: Let me see if I can shed better light on that. Although colors may not be as important to consumers, we are of the opinion that having more variety will increase sales….

Hannah: Is that the only reason?

Chris: Please let me finish my thought. Another reason, which may be

beyond the scope of your question, is that the increase in our costs will be small. Have I answered your question?

Shawn: Yes, certainly, Chris. You've made it clear for all of us. And now for our final question. Mr. Aurora?

Alex: Given the [bad word]  is it possible for us to drop this product and move into a different market? Can you speak to the implications this would have on our strategy?

Shawn: We did consider that option, but we quickly dismissed it. We believe that we should stick to our [bad word] and improve the product we currently have.

This part of the meeting begins by Shawn asking Chris whether Hannah has allayed his concerns. "To allay" (allay) means to make someone stop worrying about something, or to make something stop being a problem. Shawn could have asked whether Hannah had answered Chris's question, and that would mean the same thing as allay. When we say that you "allay" someone's concern, we mean that the person has an answer to their question, and they are no longer worried about it. You can answer someone's question, however, without allaying their concern; they could understand your answer but still be worried about it. So, Shawn is asking whether Chris has had his concerns allayed by Hannah. Chris nods (nods) his head, or moves his head up and down to indicate that yes, his question has been answered. We use this verb "to nod" when we are talking about saying "yes" by moving your head up and down. If you're going to say 'no," moving your head from side to side, we would probably use the verb "shake" (shake). So he shakes his head "no," but he nods his head "yes." Chris is nodding his head, saying that his question has been answered and his concern has been allayed. Shawn says "Good. Now we have time for only two more questions."

Hannah asks the first question of Chris. She says "I was wondering whether you could expand on the section regarding product design." The phrase "I was wondering…" means I would like to know, or I'm curious about something. You might be wondering, or wanting to know, whether this is the way people really speak at business meetings, and I can tell you that yes, it is. Hannah is wondering, or wants to know, whether Chris can expand on the section regarding product design. "To expand (expand) on something" means to provide more detail about something, to describe something in more detail, or to provide more information. Hannah wants more information about product design. We could expand, for example, on this definition more – give you more information, more details, but I think you probably understand it already. Hannah asks, "I correct in assuming that you want to offer the produc