Vocabulary – Audio Summary of your Lessons

17 May 2023

Remember core word order rules – what + what + when E.g. I drink coffee in the canteen every morning. If you use a single word that describes frequency, you need to put that before the verb. E.g. I normally drink coffee in the canteen. Notice how the object always follows the verb directly i.e. “drink + coffee”. To revise these rules, have a look at this short video lesson.

When it comes to asking questions, remember to leave the preposition at the end. E.g. What are you waiting for? What are you looking for? Who do you sit beside? Who do you work with? etc. With whom do you work? is correct English grammar, but archaic (old fashioned and very formal). Have a look at this video to revise the concept.

3/10 May 2023

Tips: same like as / We was were / How looks that does that look?

Today you mentioned that there is currently a risk of strike, so you have had to work out a contingency plan in order to ensure that you can carry out the allocation without disruption no matter what happens. At a future point, the allocation will be done differently. Initially this meant of course that there was a drop in morale among staff and a somewhat higher level of absence. The uncertainty has resulted in a lot of worry, uncertainty and a feeling of insecurity particularly among members of staff supporting dependents. In cooperation with the workers’ council, you are in the process of working out an agreement which will allow long-serving members of staff the option to take up voluntary redundancy or early retirement.

We also had a lot of terminology regarding conflict resolution and I told you about how Tony Blair managed to end the conflict in Northern Ireland in 1998. It is more difficult though to persuade people in less developed regions of the world (where there is no freedom of opinion) to solve their problems around a table via negotiation rather than using violence/civil war. Brexit brought about a lot of political instability again to the region but no return to the past, luckily. You were asking me what the motivation was for the British to support Brexit and I told you that they were “duped” (tricked) into supporting it. In reality though, it only benefits the top 5% in society.

On the 3rd, we had a lot of financial terminology like mortgage – a loan given to a person specifically to buy a home. When a person borrows from a lender, he usually has to pay the lender a deposit and needs some other kind of security to guarantee the loan.

People have to pay a deposit too when they are renting a flat. But you get it back (normally!) when you leave it, provided you don’t cause any damage. Sometimes you have to pay commission as well to the agent who manages the flat. You never get commission back! When you buy something, the value of it can appreciate (get bigger) or depreciate (get smaller).

19 / 26 April 2023

An incident is anything that happens that basically should not happen. So an “incident” might he an incident of theft, or any other breach of security or someone falling or getting injured. So all accidents are incidents, but not all incidents are accidents.

When you trip, one of your feet generally gets caught in something like a cable or some other obstacle in your way that you didn’t see (or open laces). This causes you to stumble. That means you lose your balance and either fall or nearly fall. You don’t necessarily fall when you trip or stumble. Needless to say, when you “fall over” something, you end up on the ground.

Today we also went through all the key phrases and translated them. You can revise those again by clicking here. The best way to learn them is to log in here on your phone and listen regularly for 5 mins now and again.

On the 26th of April we did the question formulations on the paper handout and talked about questions that end with a preposition. E.g. What are you waiting for? / What time does the meeting start at? etc. Click here to watch that video again. We completed the exercises on that in class and I will post more of those for you for homework for the next session on the 3rd of May at 1pm.

12 April 2023

The first thing Thomas drew our attention to today was the red pipes above our heads just after we walked onto the warehouse floor. The yellow pipes are the gas pipes. We then entered the control room where sprinklers can either be activated or shut off manually via taps. These taps are linked to the alarm so by turning then you activate the alarm.

Then you showed us the large (sliding) fire doors, which are all closed after the last shift on Saturday. The small door can still be opened during an emergency but is spring-loaded and so shuts itself when left open. This is important as the green line leads to these doors.

The green line has endured a lot of wear and tear over the years to such an extent that it is almost worn away in places. But it would be beyond budget now to re-paint it with luminous paint. A more pressing issue is the circular holes in the roof rafters which were purposefully built to enable the laser smoke detector. Recently two pigeons decided to fly in and sit in one of those holes, which activated the alarm.

There are 98 people on the fire officers’ list near the hydrant. However some of these people are no longer in the company and it isn’t proving easy to find volunteers to come forward to train to be either fire officers or first-aid officers. There doesn’t seem to be an incentive for employees to volunteer. You mentioned that it would have been good of course to train all the employees in the past.

5 April 2023

That was a good summary of the fire prevention area today Thomas. Hopefully it will have helped too to prepare for the walkabout in our next lesson onsite next Wednesday at 1pm.

The highest priority is the evacuation concept and we spent a good bit of time talking about that today. 8 minutes is the goal even though it is hard to achieve mainly because of the “boy who cried wolf” syndrome, so basically people presume when the alarm sounds that it is always just a drill, so people tend to spend a moment putting on their coats etc. and talking a few things with them and then take their time making their way out of the building to the assembly points.

Some areas too (like the kitchen) might have to make something safe before walking away. But you do have a trip switch for the kitchen which ensures that no secondary fires will start due to unattended pots, deep frying food or things baking in the oven! Nils you mentioned that you are anxious to have another drill soon. Drills were somewhat complicated to exercise during the pandemic for obvious reasons.

An outstanding issue is that of how to evacuate wheelchair users who may be either working in or visiting the building. At the moment, it would be up to the fire officers (or other volunteers) to carry people down the steps. You guys are working on a better solution for that. Suppose a gangway leading to a standalone outdoor lift is the only solution, isn’t it? I can imagine the pretty price of that!

Underneath that of course are the sprinklers which are everywhere. You regularly test the system and you have both an electric and back-up diesel pump in an external house. The sprinkler system is a fire protection system which poses another hazard i.e. flooding. Sprinkler heads are known to blow off and cause not only flooding but also damage to garments as the water is dirty.

Fire extinguishers (our favourite English word!) are distributed throughout the warehouse but are only permitted to be used by certain authorised personnel known as fire officers. These people are allowed to attempt to extinguish small flames but are not obliged to do so. They are however obliged to wait and ensure that all of the other employees find their way to the emergency exits safely and that it is done in an orderly manner without any pushing or shoving. The fire station is close by so they and they are the ones who decide when the employees can re-enter the building and resume work. They are also responsible for damage assessment and for re-arming the alarms properly. The cost of calling the fire service is actually enormously cheaper than any of us expected. The last thing not to be effected by inflation!

Finally we talked about the main potential causes of fire. Electrical faults are the main culprits. Dust which is allowed to accumulate on high voltage cables for instance or cables that are left exposed are major hazards. Another one is the use of extension cables and leaving them turned on the whole time unnecessarily or plugging one extension cable into another. It all amounts to “negligence“. This means neglecting (not paying proper attention to) safety advice/routines that are supposed to be read and adhered to by all the employees.

29 March 2023

Nils brought us down to the ABL today. One thing I hadn’t been aware of before was that Hamburg is one of the only warehouses to have three levels of totes and is therefore more space-efficient than anywhere else. I was surprised, but then when you told us about the average height of an employee, then it made sense. I guess H&M is concerned about health & safety when it comes to back strain and any other type of injury that might result from having to reach up to a height all day every day.

Employees have to check that what appears on the displays and what is written on the label matches before they start allocating. They also have to make sure that they take a box from the same order when they want to complete an allocation. That is usually not a problem because the boxes are already sorted out on the pallets.

The lanes are organised according to concept and each store in central area has one position. There is a higher conveyor to collect the empty cardboard boxes and take them to the crusher. Filled totes that are part of a campaign (=high priority allocation) carry an easy-to-see red label which is purposefully designed to help stock-room staff in the stores to spot them and give them priority when unpacking them onto the shop floor.

24 March 2023

Today we talked about the beehives that are going to be set up at the back of the car park near a little pond. It’s a new venture for the DC and the beekeeper will be responsible for maintaining and looking after them. Seems very much in line with H&M’s sustainability plan.

We talked as well about security around the building (not safety this time). You mentioned that the main reason for the fence is to guard against any kind of damage to the facility that might be caused by vandals or other people who might bear resentment towards H&M or large multinationals in general.

Even though the freight entrance is open, there is a barrier which is manually controlled by a guard. The post is manned 24/7 and drivers have to present their documentation there for validation before the barrier is lifted and they can drive in. The hut is purposefully built inside the perimeter of the fence so that when a truck arrives, no part of it is left sticking out onto the footpath. In that way, the company is not liable for any accidents involving pedestrians or cyclists going past the DC.

15 March 2023

The warehouse had to adhere to strict fire prevention regulations. Certain penalties may apply if staff breach these regulations e.g. such as a suspension of a driving permit in the case where a warehouse vehicle driver fails to observe “keep clear” signs around fire exits or fire gates and parks his vehicle in a no-parking area. The design of the building contains a number of measures designed to contain the spread of fire, such as fire doors, fire gates and fire walls.

You know the word “penalty” from football, which is good, because this word is used as well in law. A parking or speeding ticket is called a “penalty” but more specifically a “fine“, because a fine is a penalty that involves paying money. There are many other kinds of penalties such as the temporary suspension of a permit or licence (as we just saw), a temporary suspension from the workplace. The most extreme way to penalise an employee of course is to terminate his or her employment.

In the opinion of many people, rules are made to be broken unfortunately. I think that is the case everywhere. So it is one thing to make rules and regulations and another thing to enforce them. The job of ensuring compliance with regulations is tiresome and labour-intensive. While many people choose to ignore rules with the thought that nobody is likely to check or impose a penalty, others would like to comply with the rules but neglect to do so. Negligence generally comes about through laziness/carelessness when people do the same thing day in day out in a relatively relaxed environment with little policing. The result unfortunately is a number of accidents and even more near misses/close shaves.

We talked about turning the security briefing into a big-screen movie experience with surround sound! It could add great impact to the message in terms of what the company wants people to be aware of. In our conversation today we listed 10 things that are crucial:

1. The shoes
2. The yellow path – Major compliance issue here!
3. The green line
4. Air pods – Controversial issue
5. Food & Drinks – difficult to enforce
6. Bags
7. Hair
8. Clothes
9. Driving Permits
10. Use of machines

8 March 2023

Allocation boxes still come in a variety of shapes and sizes, as we saw this afternoon. The standard of perforation has improved in that a larger area is perforated and it can be pushed open (or punched open) easily. The drawback to having a bigger perforated area is of course that it weakens the cardboard and causes the boxes to bulge a bit. All the boxes sag a bit a the edges if the ones on top are fairly heavy but it’s not an issue in the allocation. It would be more of an issue up on the high-rack.

The red lines on the ground are intended to mark the area where nothing can be stored, not even temporarily. This is because the conveyor is overhead and water from sprinklers would not be able to extinguish fires there. It is also intended to make sure that there are no obstacles there if the technical team need to work on one of the conveyors or their motors. Next week, we can have a look at the ABL. See you then!

28 February 2023

Today we practised the dialogue together and revised the key phrases:

• Could I ask you to put on one of these?
• There you are!
• After you!
• So if you’d like to come this way.
• Mind your step! / Mind your head!
• Can I just remind you to walk between the yellow lines?
• I would just like to bring your attention to the sign up there on the wall..

Then we did the Presentations Vocabulary exercises again and saw some small points like “you do presentation on a topic.” You can “emphasise” something, which means you “underline” it or you “draw attention to it“. If you deal with something “thoroughly“, it means you deal with it completely, giving attention to detail. We also talked about dealing with an issue “in depth“, which also means “in detail“. The word “fallout” means negative consequences. For example, the fallout of a large incidence of absence is a drop in productivity or missing weekly goals. Remember that “head” means “go” E.g. Ok! Let’s head down this way, will we?

We discussed the difference between “must” and “have to“. Look at this video here. If you are not sure, always go for “have to”. It is always correct.

We talked too about terminology today and how many of the logistics centres around the world use different terms for the same concept. So “cardboard boxes” are called “cartons” by some people and “totes” can sometimes be called “plastic containers” and “plastic shipping cartons” in some places. The old collapsible totes saved on space but were fragile and flimsy (=they broke easily). The current type used in most/all H&M distribution centres worldwide are used as they are durable/robust and they can withstand a lot of wear and tear/punishment. They also contain a label holder which means you don’t have to use stickers, which are slow/hard to remove.

The term hanging sacks is fine. You just have to watch the pronunciation so that the “a” vowel sound is open; “sacks“. It is the same phonetic difference between “pen” and “pan” which have two completely different meanings.

The most important thing is that everyone understands each other. Many companies have a standard terminology booklet (usually online) which presents the terms to be used for standard concepts which are most often spoken about inside the global organisation. It is usually the global internal communication department that publishes it. The purpose of it is to accelerate understanding so that when international colleagues come together that they don’t have misunderstandings about the basics. It is also used for all translations from world languages back into English. It also provides a standard for training and even promotes clarity and therefore health and safety.

22 February 2023

Right! Today we talked again about the purpose of our key phrases (see notes from 15 Feb). We said that the seriousness is in the tone of voice and body language. Speaking indirectly like this is the English “Sie” form.

So here is a dialogue based on what we saw today. Before we go to the Allocation area on the 5th of March (our session is online next week), you guys can do this dialogue together on the warehouse floor. Just log in here on your phones and open up this page:

Thomas: Right! Could I ask you to put on a visitor vest? There you are! Ok! Have you all signed in? Brilliant!

Nils: Ok! So if you’d like to come to this way, we can go in though that door over there.

Thomas: After you! (holding the door open). Ok! So if you would like to come this way. Watch your step! Nils? Would you like to give us an overview of the ground floor?

Nils: Certainly. Ok So right here in front of us, you have the allocation area. Allocation is the delivery of newly designed garments going to the stores for the first time. It has an area of its own. Later we will talk about that in more detail. Down there where are going now, you have the replenishment. That is the busiest part of this warehouse. It’s re-supplying what is sold in the stores every day. And today, we want to have a look at a new system we have for lifting. So if you like to follow me, we can head down there now.

Thomas: Can I just remind you to keep inside the yellow lines? Thanks! Ok! Right! Here we are! So this conveyor here is resupplying this area. Some of these boxes are quite heavy so we implemented vacuum-lifts here for the staff so that back strain and back injury can be avoided. Nils is going to demonstrate how one of them works.

Nils: Sure! Ok, it’s actually quite easy to operate. There is a little switch here on the side which turns on this motor here at the end of the pipe. Ok! It’s working. Now you really just have to operate it using this trigger here. Once you keep it pressed the suction is off. When you release it, the suction is on. You just have to make sure you don’t attach the vacuum lift to the seam of the box here on top. Obviously the vacuum isn’t as effective there and you don’t want it to drop. So you release, attach, move and then this button here cuts the suction off and releases the box. It seems like a long way around just to avoid lifting a box. But believe me, when you work with this all day, you get fast at it!

Thomas: I’d just like to point out as well, that every vacuum lift has operational and safety guidelines here and everyone who works with these lifts gets good training for how to operate it most effectively and safely.

Visitor: Is there a safety hazard associated with the rollers?

Thomas: Of course, every one of these conveyor systems is hazardous. All of the staff get trained on safety hazards during introduction training. So as you can imagine, members of staff with long hair have to tie it up and we don’t allow people to come to work with lose fitting clothes or shorts that are above the knee. If for any reason, there is an emergency, you have a emergency-stop button everywhere along here that you just have to hit.

Nils: Mind you don’t trip! There are just some pallets on the floor in the aisle there behind you.

Visitor: The perforations in the boxes look like they have some fairly sharp edges. Is considered a hazard at all?

Thomas: Yes! Again, that is something staff are made aware of during introduction training. So it’s not a major issue. And of course, it’s important not to leave a flap hanging down so that your arm is caught by the sharp edge of the cardboard. Have a look here. You see. It’s quite sharp. Ok! Will we move on to the allocation?

Nils: Ok! If you’d like to come this way, we can head back over this way.

15 February 2023

Today we discussed the most essential language needed for giving tours:

1. Ok! Right! So each one of you gets one of these beautiful yellow vests. We have to wear them on the warehouse floor for our safety.
2. So, if you’d like to follow me over this way, we’ll go in through this door here. After you! (when you hold the door open for them)
3. Ok! Right! So just to give you an overview – if you have a look at this floor plan here, you’ll see the basic layout of the first floor. So basically, here right in front of us we have the allocation area. (finish describing the very basic layout – avoid detail) Over there to the left you have the replenishment that keeps the stores supplied every day. Later on then, we’re going to be looking at the AKL as well, which is an automated stow-and- retrieve system we use here.
4. Ok! So before we head off, just a word about safety – two things basically. The first is; could I ask you guys to stay on the yellow path at all times? That would be great, thanks! And if you could also keep your eyes out for vehicles while we are walking around. Ok? So if you’d like to follow me, we’ll head down toward the Incoming, just down there.
5. Mind your heads there under the hanging conveyor! / Mind your step going into the AKL control centre.

So that is all the stuff we looked at this afternoon. We had some other basic but really important words too for when you are pointing at things while guiding people around:

• opposite us
• behind that
• up there (something above you)
• over there (something opposite you)
• down there (=something far away from you)
• on top of that
• under that
• beside that
• All along the wall there (E.g. the loading and unloading bays)

Remember how important the word “Right!” is. It means “listen everyone, we are going to start”. It also means “Ok everyone, let’s move on to the next thing.” A lot of things we say in English are not explicit. E.g. how British Airways communicate safety information to their passengers:

• Could I just ask you to put up your tray? Thanks!
• Sorry! Could I get you to fasten your seat belt? Thanks!
• If you could just stand in from the aisle..

Remember that as nice as this language sounds, people understand that these are imperatives (orders)

However, it is important to remember too that the imperative nature of these formulations are only clear for native speakers or people with good English. If your visitors’ English is weak, go back to very clear and explicit language. Even though all of this that follows sounds a bit like what you read on signs i.e. “please do this/that etc.”, the important thing is clarity. You can use your body language to make the whole experience friendly and professional for them!

Making language clearer/more explicit for visitors with weaker English

• Right! = Ok everyone. We will start now.

• So each one of you gets a yellow vest = Please wear this yellow vest inside the warehouse.

• So if you would like to follow me over this way = Please follow me.

• So before we head off, just a word about safety = Before we start I want to give you some important safety information.

• Could I ask you guys to stay on the yellow path at all times? = Please stay on the yellow path at all times.

• Keep your eyes out for vehicles while we are walking around = Please watch out for vehicles.

• So if you would like to follow me, we will head down towards the Incoming = Please follow me and we will go to the Incoming area.

• Mind your heads = Be careful and watch out. The hanging conveyor is low. You can hit your head.

Next week, each of you can pick an area on the warehouse floor that you can talk about for a minimum of 15 mins. That will enable us to come in contact with some great vocabulary.

See you then!

8 February 2023

First of all today, we talked about social insurance. In Ireland, people pay 5% PRSI (Public-related social insurance) from their gross salaries. The government uses it to finance unemployment benefit and social services for those who need full-time care at some stage of their lives. We also discussed the difference between wages and salaries. In real terms there is no difference. Both of them describe the money that an employer pays to an employee. But wages is the older term and it is still used more to describe payment to employees who are not big earners. So there is basically a stigma attached to the word “wage”. It also often features on the news when workers strike because of “wage disputes” between unions and management.

Secondly today we discussed giving tours of the warehouse or specific areas and how to approach that with particularly limited time. Time-pressure is one thing. On top of that you have the pressure of performing in front of people you don’t know. On top of that again you have the pressure to make a good impression. And then, right on top of all of those, it has to be done in a language that is not your native one!

Confidence and power overlap and they both have a huge effect on competence. The ability to speak fluently is a central part of every person’s power as a professional. So having that removed feels like a handicap. For a while at least. But you can restore your full power and confidence in another language. It is possible. It’s a case of familiarisation. Doing those tasks in that language is key and until it becomes so familiar that you relax completely and therefore release the full power of your mind.

My suggestion therefore is to do more practice on our feet, inside the warehouse. It worked very well with your colleagues in the past.

That was interesting today about the Old Commerical Room by the way. Must go there. Here’s a link to “Laufauf“! The address is “Kattrepel 2, 20095 HH.” I would suggest making a booking as well by the way. It’s very popular!

26 January 2023

In today’s lesson we discussed transport security. Goods being transported from warehouses to split points remain an occasional target for organised crime. Theft usually involves a relatively minor part of a load which can easily go unnoticed and can be challenging to detect. The labels are a bit of a giveaway as they indicate what concept is contained in the box. However there is no more detailed information as to what it contains. So for thieves it is also a gamble.

The weakest links tend to be isolated parts of the countryside (in the middle of nowhere) and service stops even though they do have some security monitoring installations i.e. cameras. Sometimes crime gangs operate in collusion with drivers. But there are spot checks at a good number of borders particularly on the German-Poland border which is a route taken by a large amount of freight traffic.

Ergo training took place during the week. It talks about posture at work and how important it is to take breaks and alternate between standing and sitting in order to avoid stiffness and muscle aches and pains.

Finally this week, we talked about some basic differences in British and American spelling. American spelling is basically a bit easier because it is more similar to the sound of words. But the differences are relatively few. E.g. words ending in “ise” are “ize” in North America – like “criticize” or “authorize“. Words ending in “re” are changed to “er” in North America – like “liter” (litre) and “meter” (metre).

British English is stricter too with countables. So we say “a cup of coffee” and the Americans say “a coffee”. We say the number of people and they say the amount of people. Normally you can’t have an “amount” of something that you can count. But the thing is, American English has a very strong influence because of the entertainment industry. So every new generation of English speakers that grow up in Ireland and Britain are adopting more and more Americanisms.

See you guys in the DC on the 8th of February.

18 January 2023

Thanks for delivering the presentations. This is a great way to bring new words into your active vocabulary. This is Nil’s:

NCG Routine incoming goods

So you can have a look at your notes there and you’ll notice I changed “sufficient” to “sufficiently good” because remember sufficient just means “enough” so it has to do with quantities. Regarding “presently”, you used it correctly in the last line. I changed it to “then” in the earlier example because it’s now talking about “now”. Let me know if you have any other questions about that in the next session.

We talked today about health insurance and the difference between the public and private systems, their advantages and disadvantages. I told you about how in Ireland, free public insurance is given to the socially vulnerable like the over 66’s, the longterm unemployed, the handicapped and single parents.

We talked as well about classic English words with silent letters like “receipt”, “debt”, “doubt” and “cough”. Nils, you told me you didn’t know your text “by heart” so you asked if you could read it.

Finally we talked about classic English uncountable nouns like “people”, “information”, “children” and “fish”. English generally has more uncountables than German.

That’s it for today. See on Thursday on Teams at 3.30pm Thomas and I’ll see you Nils in the DC the following Wednesday at 1pm. All the best in the meantime!

11 January 2023

This afternoon we discussed rogue banks, risky lending practises and the financial crisis as well as “opportunism“. I told you guys how the economy in Ireland was “obliterated“(=totally destroyed) in 2011 by the action of one bank, and it had to be rescued by the IMF.

Then we went on to have a look at “Only Fools and Horses”, the best example of cockney English that exists on British media. From that, we saw expressions like “quid” meaning an English pound / It would bring a tear to your eye = it’s pretty pathetic and shouldn’t be that way / How someone can “owe” someone else a “favour” and how just asking “alright?” means “how are you?” in east London.

Everything you guys need to know from this clip is in this homework exercise.

4 January 2023

Hi guys, this is your first lesson summary. There will be one of these every week (Thomas, you’re familiar with it already). The idea is just so that you have a permanent archive of what we do. In that way, you can always go back and revise. Like I said today, language learning has a lot to do with revision and repetition.

I think we got off to a good start today. Most of our focus was on this list here that we will see shortly. So basically, what we have here is a list of formal words that I chose which are used frequently in all kinds of business English correspondance. Particularly though when people are making presentations or in all kinds of formal emails and documentation.

As we said today, goal number one is to take these words into your passive vocabulary, so that when you hear someone else using them, you recognise them immediately. Then it’s up to you of course if you want to use them in your own active English. It’s always a case too of thinking about who you are talking to. If you get the feeling you are speaking to a group of people who have strong English skills, then of course, fire ahead. The key thing is to always have appropriate (passend) language for the people you are working with. Check too when you are working with people in English by asking “Do you follow me?” from time to time. That brings about a good communication situation.

Anyway. Here is the set of words:

Initially (at the beginning), seek (look for), persuade (talk someone into something), sufficient (enough), brief (short), presently (at the moment), mediocre (neither good nor bad), shortly (soon), assist (help), entire (full), ensure (make sure), slightly (a little bit), nevertheless (despite that / anyway), endeavour (try).

So you have a couple of exercises to practise those. If you click on this link here, it will bring you to the last one. You need time for those exercises. Quiet time. Remember too, you can do all of this stuff on your phone. Maybe that is good for you when you are on a train or something! I know it can be hard to find time for all of this at home.

Today, as well, I gave you guys this sentence which you can always use too when you don’t understand someone:

“Sorry, do you mind saying that again?”

We don’t really ask someone to “repeat something” because it sounds a bit too stiff and formal. “Repeat” is better for asking someone to “do something again” rather than “say something again”.

By the way, if you haven’t a clue what someone is talking about and they are going on and on and on, you can stop them and reset by saying:

“Sorry! Do you mind if I cut in there for a moment? I’m not sure I’m with you completely”.

When someone hears that, if they are professional communicators, they will normally go back and explain something in a clearer way.1

Interestingly today too, we talked about how to order a pint!! It’s important enough, isn’t it? Basically, we use the future tense for making orders: So when you go into a bar in Dublin, it would normally go something like this:

Barman: “How’s it going? What can I get you?”

You: I’ll have a pint of Guinness, please!”

Barman: Grand! Take a seat there and I’ll bring it over to you!

“How’s it going” as we said, means “hello”. No one is really interested in how you are! Unfortunately!!

Finally today, we talked briefly about how to memorise vocabulary. Always build word families like we did here on the flipchart.

Ok! That’s it for today! Enjoy “Only Fools and Horses”. Don’t panic if you have problems understanding Del Boy and Rodney! We can look at it next week. That’s a famous episode because of Beckham of course!

See you next Wednesday!