Part Ⅰ Situational Dialogues

Situational Dialogue 1

Susan，a junior secretary of ABC Company，is asked to arrange an important meeting. She doesn’t have much experience，so she asks David for help.

（S：Susan，D：David）

S：Hi，David. Can you do me a favor？

D：I will if I can.

S：Could you help me arrange this meeting？I don’t have much experience arranging meetings and I heard that you have done it before.

D：What kind of meeting is it going to be？

S：We’re going to have a meeting with all the departmental managers.

D：When is this meeting？

S：Next Tuesday.

D：That’s easy. The first thing we need to do is to set an agenda for the meeting and then give copies of it to everyone who is going to be attending.

S：No problem，I have a list of all the people right here.

D：Which meeting room are you going to use？

S：I think we should use Conference Room 2. It’s the most comfortable one and the facilities there are new and excellent.

D：That’s a good idea.

Practice 1

Task 1：Listen to the dialogue and role-play it in pairs.

Task 2：Simulated situational conversation.

Suppose you are Susan，the secretary. You are calling to inform the Marketing Manager，Mr.Brown，of a meeting.

Situational Dialogue 2

Sophia，a secretary，is talking with Tony，the director of the Administrative Department，about taking minutes.

（S：Sophia，T：Tony）

S：Although I’ve taken minutes for several meetings，I don’t think I’ve done a good job. Would you please give me some tips？

T：I’d be happy to. To take good minutes，you really need to concentrate. Of course，you must be accurate as well.

S：Surely I did. But the problem is I can’t take down everything everyone says during the meeting.

T：You have to take down all the topics discussed，the main points made by each speaker and any decisions made，but you don’t have to write down every word.

S：So it’s OK for me to write down the main points about each topic？

T：You are right. And I think you should make good preparation before the meeting.

S：What should I prepare？

T：Make sure you have the name of the meeting，the date，time and venue correct and the names of all the people present.

S：Oh，I get it. Thank you very much，Tony！

T：Don’t mention it.

Practice 2

Task 1：Listen to the dialogue and role-play it in pairs.

Task 2：Simulated situational conversation.

Suppose you are Linda. You are very interested in chairing a meeting，so you ask Peter，an experienced chairperson，some questions to get the general idea of chairing meetings.

Situational Dialogue 3

Mr.Jackson，the Chairman，Mr.Brown，the Marketing Manager，and Mr.Wu，the HR Manager are having a discussion at a meeting.

Mr.Jackson：Mr.Brown thinks we need to reduce the training budget. What’s your opinion about this，Mr.Wu？

Mr.Wu：I’m afraid I don’t agree with that.

Mr.Jackson：Why？

Mr.Wu：If we cut the budget，we won’t be able to provide the most up-to-date technology training.

Mr.Jackson：But we’ll be in real trouble if we don’t find some way to reduce costs.

Mr.Wu：I understand that. But I think staff training is very important. What if we cut expenses in other areas first，like advertising budget？

Mr.Brown：May I cut in here？To be honest，I don’t like the idea. Advertising is one of the most useful marketing strategies.The advertising budget shouldn’t be cut.

Mr.Jackson：Well，what do you have in mind，Mr.Brown？

Mr.Brown：How about reducing travel budgets？

Mr.Wu：Good，I can accept that.

Mr.Jackson：Do we all agree on this？Then let’s move on to the next item.

Practice 3

Task 1：Listen to the dialogue and role-play it in pairs.

Task 2：Simulated situational conversation.

Suppose you are Jack Brown，the Marketing Manager. You are discussing the pricing strategies for the new products with the staff members of your department.