【职场英语】 委婉表达方式+用词

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DeclanWu
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最近看帖子,感觉如何用英语委婉表达是一个在地里很多人都想要提高和学习的地方。因为工作学习里跟同事和朋友一起,大家反馈说我的interpersonal skills还可以,所以今天想要来抛砖引玉,总结一下自己想到的比较适合职场的英语表达方式和用词,希望大家也在下面补充,一起学习!

语言表达方式:

1. 多用问句,相信大家也都感觉到外国人比较喜欢用问句来表达诉求。eg.
- Do you have time today to sync?
- Can I get back to you later today?
- Would you be able to do ... when you get a chance?

2. 欲抑先扬,当我们想要提出意见/批评/difficult request的时候,可以用一些encouraging/understanding的tone先说一些鼓励或者理解的话,然后再提出意见的话,对方肯定会更好接受,也会让你的表达显得不那么生硬。
比如:
- I like how you considered a variety of factors in this design doc, but in our org, costs is not the most important factor, and ....
- I like how you are thinking of xxx feature/concern to improve xxx, but we are kinda in a rush to push xxx ...
- I know you are probably busy working on xxx, but would you have sometime today to help me with xxx by chance?

3. 接着上一点,在别人问我们问题,或者是提出意见的时候,一般的都会先acknowledge他们的问题/意见。比如:
- That's a great question/suggestion/catch, on that note, ....
或者如果你暂时不想要回到这个question的话,可以
- Thanks for the question, I'll make sure we save some time at the end of the meeting to discuss any questions that are outside of the agenda.

4. 在我们自己提出意见或者是问题的时候,我们可以先prime一下自己对这个东西可能并没有像对方一样了解之类的话语,这样如果我们说的不对,不全面或者是不能实现的话,对方不会感觉我们是来挑刺的. 比如:
- I might not know this area as much as xxx, one small question I have is ....
- I might not understand that part completely, can you explain how xxx works again?
- Sorry to interupt, I'm not sure if I understnad that part, can you ....?

5. 在我们想要打断别人说话的时候,
- (I'm so )sorry to interupt, ...
- If I may add to XXX's point, ...

6. 暗示。有的时候我们想要让别人做一些事情的时候,可以用暗示的方法。比如A负责一个东西,然后你做的东西需要他的帮助之类的,你可以Hi A, I've been working on xxx, and it appears to have xxx issues that has something to do with xxx, should we look into this? 如果这个东西是完全是他负责的话,那么他一般看到这个,就会自己去做了hopefully lol。

7. 用被动语态可以显得更professional一些,因为把主体摘出去了。比如:XXX manager did something. 别人听起来就可能会interpret出一些情绪来。 但是如果用Something was done by XXX 就会弱化一些情绪,然后sounds professional。

委婉用词:

1.多用一些情态动词,像是could you, would you, might, may I 也可以让我们的语气变得softer. 但有的时候看你跟同事的关系也不需要特别特别的客气。

2. by chance 问别人问题的时候可以经常用。by chance在问句里就imply这个问题的答案或者是request可以做到的话是一个很小的chance,如果对方做不到或者是不知道的话,也会是一个很好的台阶给对方下。所以对方拒绝起来也不会特别僵硬。eg. Do you know where the xxx doc is by chance?

3. 外国人很常用表达negative的方式,一般都不会直接说xxx is bad, 而会说 xxx is not the best / not the most important / not the highest priority,

4. kinda, sort of, a few, a little, a bit, slight, It seems, It appears to be

5. I see, got it,

最后我感觉说话的语气和方式也很大程度上取决于你跟同事的关系之类的,以上并会对适用于每种情况。soften tone也不是内容上也也要软化。在workplace里面也是要用很professional和polite的语气,push back之类的。哈哈。

如果有说的不对的地方,希望大家指正,也希望大家集思广益,在下面也一起补充。 然后如果以上对大家有用的话,求一些米!
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