Small talking
Troubleshooting
Sugar coating
Troubleshooting 2
Miscellaneous
100
Answer the question: "What's up?"

-Not much
-Nothing much, or
-Not a lot

100

You see that Freddy's microphone is muted and he's trying to participate. Tell him. 

-You're muted.

-You're on mute.

100

Name the three softening techniques we learned in this course. 

  • adding a softening word or phrase
  • using a modal verb (including negative modal questions)
  • replacing negative words with positive ones
100

Someone is speaking too quietly. Ask them to speak louder. 

-Could you speak up a bit, please?
100

Name 2 phrasal verbs for interrupting.

cut in, jump in
(hop in)

200

Imagine it's Monday. Ask me about the previous weekend. 

-So did you do anything interesting last weekend?
(teacher discretion- many correct answers possible)

200

Freddy was kicked out of the meeting due to poor connection. What does he say when he comes back? 

-Sorry, I was cut off.
200

Add three softeners: The task is too difficult. 

-EX: I'm afraid, the task might be a bit difficult.

200

Rephrase: Sorry for the dead air here. 

-Sorry for the awkward silence.

200

What is a synonym for "similarly"? 

Likewise

300

Small talk is over and now it's time to talk about issues on the project. Transition in 3 different ways! 

-Ok, let’s get started.
-Let's kick off.
-Let's get down to business. 

300

There's a lag between audio and video. Tell them. 

The image and sound are out of sync.

300

 Make it less direct: This is a better option.

This seems to be a better option. 

300

You saw Michael join the meeting at the beginning. There are about 25 people on the call. Maybe he's experiencing tech problems. Find out if he's there. 

Do we have Michael on the call?
Did we lose Michael?

300

A problem arose during your presentation that you didn't expect. Use two phrases to indicate that you're surprised by this. 

-That's something we/I didn't anticipate.
-We/I haven't encountered this problem/issue before.

400

Make this transition from small talk to business talk more polite and sophisticated: "Let's move on to the migration, _____ ___?" 

"Let's move on to the migration, shall we?"

400

Ask for patience while you fix something. Use three different ways. 

Please bear with me while I ..... 
Hold/Hang on while I...

400

Make it a question and add a softener: Implementing these changes will take too long. 

Wouldn't implementing these changes take a bit too long

400

Defective hardware or improper network configuration can cause audio to cut in and out. If the audio cuts in and out on multiple devices, the issue is likely network related. Describe this audio problem.

Your audio is breaking up

400

This verb means to highlight the best aspects of something.

to showcase something

500

There were 4 techniques to show interest in this course. Use one of each to respond to: "I get up at 5:00 AM everyday to exercise".

Short comments and ‘I’m listening’ words: No way! 

Longer comments: You must be quite dedicated to your fitness. 

Echoing: 5:00 in the morning!?

Follow-up questions: What kind of exercise do you do?

500

Indicate that you're researching the cause of the issue. 

I am looking into it now.

500

Michael is still learning how to code. His code is full of bugs and other issues. Suggest that he be removed from the project. 

Wouldn't Michael be a better fit for a different project? 

500

Speaker phones are notorious for experiencing this problem due to their loud speaker and sensitive microphone.

There's an echo on the line.

500

Ask for an update on the core libraries in four different ways.

1. Where are with with the core libraries?

2. How's the core libraries coming along? 

3. What's happening with the core libraries?

4. What's the current status of the core libraries?