Lesson 7 – Challenges in everyday situations

October 25, 2017
Summary
Expressing opinions and reaching a consensus

Kathy is the teacher who let us :

  • discuss problems and solutions in common situations
  • practise expressing emotions and explaining opinions
  • explore different ways to understand others and reach a consensus
  • learn how to use intonation to express your emotions.

Challenges are somehow inevitable in our life. There are numerous examples: we might have problem on utility services like power failure, which black out our home; we might have to wait for ages outside the restaurant; we might have experience about negotiation of rental rate with our landlord; we might have come across signal glitch on MTR; we might have met taxi driver who drove over-speeding; we might met some over-enthusiastic shopkeeper in outlets; we might have forgotten our e-banking password and need to reset it from bank. You might even name more!

Notes:
Utility services – electricity, gas, water ;
Landlord /Landlady – who rent you their property ;
Tenant – who ask to rent the property from the landlord

One day, if we need to help other solving their problem, we may say:

What is the problem? ( = What’s the problem? )

In the lesson, I have just learnt some phrases to express emotions or explain opinions:

  •  [Anger]
    • Great! That’s just great!
       (here is the usage of sarcasm – what we say has the opposite meaning)
    • That’s it! That does it!
    • What a life!
    • (The lamp) I told you about is (flickering) again!  [(what) I told you is … again!]
    • That’s really bad!
      (≠ That’s too bad. [Sympath])
    • (The traffic in London) is terrible. Is (the traffic) always this bad?
  • [Surprise]
    • Are you serious? Why?
    • You must be joking!
    • O…Really? I can’t believe it.
    • Oh my God!
    • You’re kidding!
  • [Disappointment]
    • Well, that’s the way it goes I guess..
    • Well, just my luck.
    • What a day!
    • So much for (me today!)
  • [Sympathy  + (making offer)]
    • I know what you mean.
    • (Peter), I know how you feel. That was my initial reaction as well  (, but….)
    • I understand… (Hmm…would it be possible…? )
    • I’m (really) sorry to hear that.
    • I’m afraid there’s nothing we can do
    • Come on! It’s not the end of the world.
    • Oh! That’s too bad.
      (≠ That’s really bad! [Anger])
    • What a day!
  • [Gratitude]
    • Thanks a million!
    • Oh! Perter, I can’t thank you enough.
    • You’ve made my day.
    • I really appreciate it.
    • Oh, that’s a relief.
  • [Conflict resolution]
    • How can we make it work? Would it be possible ( for you to…. / for us to…)
    • How can we resolve this?
    • What do you suggest?
    • What do you think I should do?
    • Well, maybe you should …
    • I’ll have (Robert) take a look at it.
    • I would appreciate it if …
    • I could (give you…)  /  You could… / We could…

 

TAG:  #Managing situations
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