Challenging someone's ideas
Do the preparation exercise first. Then watch the video and do the exercises to check your understanding and practise the language.
Transcript
Ana: Hi! I'm Ana. Welcome to What to Say!
Do you know what to say when you want to challenge someone's ideas? Listen out for useful language for challenging someone's ideas. Then, we'll practise saying the new phrases – after this.
Vanya: Guys! I've got it! I've figured it out!
Emir: Figured what out?
Paul: That it's polite to knock on the door before coming in?
Vanya: This idea is just too good, Paul! It's too good!
Paul: Go on, then.
Vanya: So! Cats!
Emir: I'm a bit lost. What are you talking about?
Vanya: Videos. Cat videos! For our social media account. Hundreds of them. Everyone loves cats!
Paul: I hate cats.
Vanya: Everyone except you, Paul.
Paul: Have you considered the fact that we're a branding agency, not a pet shop?
Vanya: I take your point, Paul, but, come on, be imaginative! Cat videos are some of the most searched videos on the internet.
Emir: I see where you're coming from, Vanya, but I think I agree with Paul here. How is this relevant for a branding agency?
Vanya: Look. Social media, it's a numbers game. If we share dozens of cat videos each day, then we get more followers.
Emir: That's true. So how exactly do you see this working? I mean, who's going to find all these videos?
Vanya: Erm, OK, I'm very aware of the challenges here, but I'm convinced this is going to work.
Paul: I'm not so sure.
Emir: Well, I guess you have to look at it from both sides. Why don't we try it for a couple of weeks and see if there's any impact?
Vanya: Great! We are going to get so many more followers. I'm absolutely positive!
Paul: Good luck with that! I hope it doesn't turn out to be a cat-astrophe ... What? ... It's a good joke.
Ana: Hello again! Well, I thought that was a good joke! So, did you notice the useful phrases used for challenging someone's ideas? Listen to me and then repeat.
I'm a bit lost. What are you talking about?
Have you considered the fact that we're a branding agency, not a pet shop?
I take your point, but be imaginative.
I see where you're coming from.
I think I agree with Paul here.
How exactly do you see this working?
I'm very aware of the challenges here, but I'm convinced this will work.
You have to look at it from both sides.
Ana: Try and use some of these phrases the next time you want to challenge someone's ideas in English. Bye for now!
in my collage days i experienced being a leader and pushing for difference ideas, but it was so hard to motivate the students to do anything interesting, they seemed completely disengaged from my ideas, they only did what i told them to do, nothing more. nobody tried to challenge my ideas, which made me feel like they were completely indifferent to my work. to be honest, after all this staff, after my huge dissapoitment i started to become an angry leader, sometimes i even shouted at them (i was a student too, not a teacher or something), i was so exited and ended up so disillusionment. so right now i’m trying to align myself with leadership positions that i’m dreaming of, but everyone who knows me says that i’m too serious and harsh. i don’t know what to do about that
Yes. Always
Yes, but I don't share it most of the time.
I'm a teacher. As so, I've been working with new ideas in a daily basis and some of them are quite odd sometimes. I usually like to ty something different, since working as a teacher could be repetitive (as well as challenging). When I surprise my students with a new activity, I believe they learn better. Many times, however, I'm the surprised one and my plans turn into a completely disaster.
Yes, dealing with young minds everyday. Exploring, adopting and adapting new ideas have been one of my core too.
Yes, I have tried, since we are a manufacturing business, we are bringing ideas to the table in every meeting on how to solve certain issues with our items, engineer discussions are always part of our work routine.
Yes, At the company where I work, we started in an office, then we started working from home. I don't have many issues with it. The unusual thing is that our HR department, in order to celebrate the end of year holidays, created a "Virtual Party" where everyone sits in front of their camera to say hello through the screen to everybody. It's not the most comfortable situation.
Virtual Parties are quite odd! I could imagine how strange this situation was for all of you there.
Everything OK.
Stunning!