The Art of Speaking: Communication and Negotiation vol. 2
In the last newsletter, we talked about several improvement points that we need to address in order to bring our speaking to a higher level, but we still keep being reminded by that part of our brain which says: Yeah, how could this be difficult, anyway? You speak every single day so you must be equipped for any kind of conversation or presentation, right?
Well, it turns out that we need to be careful and address different situations in different ways. One context is daily meetings where we have a pretty…
The Art of Speaking: Communication and Negotiation vol. 1
We all saw it in The Wolf of Wall Street when Leonardo DiCaprio talks about selling that pen or whenever he or one of his associates is on the phone — proper communication is king!
During our schooling and taking additional private English classes, we are all trying to reach that famous threshold — the first certificate in English a.k.a. the FCE certificate. Upon attaining it, many will say Alright, alright, alright in Matthew McConaughey’s voice from the famous scene in the movie Dazed and Confused, thinking they have reached the…
Scrum English: Daily Meetings vol. 3
Past — checked!
Present — checked!
Future — here we come!
As previously mentioned, during the daily scrum, the participants discuss three important topics by answering the following questions:
- What have I done so far? What did I do yesterday?
- Do I have any impediments and what am I working on at this moment?
- What am I going to do today?
Therefore, having covered the first two questions by analyzing the past and present tenses that can be used in daily meetings, this newsletter is about to cover the final part of the meeting…
Scrum English: Daily Meetings vol. 2
With past events covered in the previous newsletter, we are now onto the second part of this agile approach to tenses (pun intended) where we are about to cover the present.
As previously mentioned, during the daily scrum, the participants discuss three important topics by answering the following questions:
- What have I done so far? What did I do yesterday?
- Do I have any impediments and what am I working on at this moment?
- What am I going to do today?
These slightly changed questions (for the sake of this newsletter) are the basis…
Scrum English: Daily Meetings vol. 1
In some of the previous newsletters, we discussed the tenses and compared them against each other in order to better understand how to use them in different contexts. This time around, we are pinpointing those parts of the English language which we need to pay attention to in order to be precise, concise, and correct.
Daily Scrum 101
According to the definition, as described in the Scrum Guide:
The purpose of the Daily Scrum is to inspect progress toward the Sprint Goal and adapt the Sprint Backlog as necessary, adjusting the upcoming planned work.
The Daily Scrum…
The Conditionals: Alternatives
Now that we have covered all the possible options related to the usage of the conditionals, we can start toying with them and check some of the alternatives related to formulating our conditional sentences. But, why, you may ask?
Well, first of all, there are cases when we tend to sound repetitive, so the easiest thing to do there would be to use a synonym or an alternative to mix things up a bit. By doing so, we will be perceived as more knowledgeable and not sound like a broken record. …
The Conditionals: Mixed
Time to roll out the heavy artillery.
Over the course of the previous three weeks, we have been discussing the regular conditionals — the zero, first, second, and third. We explained how they are used and how we need to pay attention to the patterns that each of them has in order to convey the intended message in the correct way.
Today, we are wrapping up the conditional saga by mixing things up a little bit. How so? Well, check it out!
First things first — the regular conditionals’ recap:
- The Zero: to talk about events that…
The Conditionals: Regular (Second and Third)
Continuing on the same note this week as we are reaching the last of the regular conditionals — the infamous Third Conditional.
So far we have discussed three of them and in that way covered the future and the present, but there has still been no say on the past. Now, it may sound shocking, but this conditional is actually the easiest to remember as it has only one purpose, and that is to talk about regrets from the past. If only… Alas!
Once again, we will revise the previous newsletter, i.e. …
The Conditionals: Regular (First and Second)
If you have read the previous story, you will find yourselves in a position to further improve your knowledge on conditionals with this one. This time around, we are raising the bar by one notch and introducing the Second Conditional. The focus will be on how to differentiate between the first and the second conditional, i.e. in which situations each of them should be used so that the right message is conveyed.
Before we begin, we just need to recap the previous story in two short points:
- The Zero Conditional — We use it…
The Conditionals: Regular (Zero and First)
New year, new me — as the saying goes. But some things should not change. Like grammar. :BaDumTss:
Conditional sentences are one of those grammatical lessons that people find difficult to digest. One of the reasons behind this is the lack of logic that follows English tenses. Just imagine — you spend years learning the 12 tenses and all of a sudden a wild conditional shows up saying that we need to use present tenses to talk about the future or past tenses to talk about the present (or the future). Lord almighty!
Yet…
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