Meetings- vocabulary of opinions practice

Meetings vocabulary opinions practice

Read out one of the opinions below and back it up with reasons why you think that way. Your
partner should guess whether that really is your opinion or not, and then give their own reaction.

This is just my opinion, but I think that PowerPoint has made meetings worse

I strongly believe that the unions should have a place in every board meeting

In my humble opinion, there should be a way of forcing your boss to stop rambling and stick to
the agenda

I think that the minutes should be taken by the most junior person in the meeting

In my personal opinion, the minutes should be taken by whoever is best at taking notes

Personally, I think that everyone should take notes in all meetings, even if they will get a copy of
the minutes afterwards

I really think that small talk at the beginning of a meeting should be kept to an absolute minimum

If you ask me, things should almost always be decided by consensus rather than a show of hands

The way I see it, meetings should just be to rubber stamp decisions which are made by prior
individual consultation with all the people involved

In my honest opinion, haggling over your pay package is humiliating. It should all be decided
company-wide

I would say that all meetings should have a fag break every hour

Frankly, most meetings are a waste of time

In my experience, it’s better to play it by ear than to decide on a fallback position in advance

I would imagine that there’s no such thing as a win-win negotiation

To be frank, there is no good reason for a meeting to overrun

If you want my opinion, I’d say that the venue is the most important thing for a meeting to go well

As far as I’m concerned, a verbal agreement is the same as a written contract

Not everyone will agree with me, but I think that the best way to break a deadlock is to bring
someone else into the meeting

Written by Alex Case for UsingEnglish.com © 2010

This might be a bit controversial but I would say that teleconferences are better than face to face
meetings because they tend to be shorter

Without a doubt, longwinded bosses are the worst kind

I’m convinced that a direct chairperson is better than a tactful one

I’m absolutely certain that no one listens while the minutes to the last meeting are being read out

I’m positive that action minutes are the best kind

With some reservations, I’d probably say that renegotiating agreements is unfair business

I’m not sure about this, but I would guess that laser pointers look very uncool nowadays

As far as I know, interrupting your boss in meetings is okay in Europe and American

Do the same, but with the person responding taking or pointing at one of the cards below to decide
what opinion they should give.

Go through the list above and tick the ones you agree with, put a cross next to those you disagree
with, and put a question mark next to those which you aren’t sure about

Compare your answers with a partner and discuss those you have different views about

Check the meaning of any of the words in bold that you aren’t sure about

Strong agreement

Strong

disagreement

Weak agreement

Weak or polite

disagreement

Weak agreement

Strong agreement

Strong

disagreement

Weak or polite

disagreement

Strong agreement

Weak or polite

disagreement

Strong

disagreement

Weak agreement

Written by Alex Case for UsingEnglish.com © 2010

Without looking back at the previous worksheet, write down useful language for each of the
functions you used in the activities above

Giving your opinion strongly

Giving your opinion weakly

Strong agreement

Strong disagreement

Weak agreement

Weak or polite disagreement

Written by Alex Case for UsingEnglish.com © 2010

Look at the phrases on the top worksheet one more time and see if you can add anything to the
table.

Written by Alex Case for UsingEnglish.com © 2010