Agenda and minutes

VOCABULARY. Meetings

Business etiquette of the translator

Time

Not all cultures live by the clock. In time orientated cultures such as the British or Germans, the start time, finishing time and all the different stages of a meeting will be planned carefully. Other cultures will see the start time as an approximation, the finish time as non-fixed and all the different stages in between as flexible.

In France, Italy and Spain, it would be considered rude to broach the issues immediately; it is seen as much more civilized to ease into the subject after exchanging pleasantries, which can last from 10 minutes to half an hour. In Japan, there is almost a fixed period that has to elapse before the senior person begins the meeting.

In some cultures, such as Australia, Germany and China, it’s considered rude to keep someone waiting for a business meeting. But in other countries, such as the United Arab Emirates, France, Spain, Russia and Kazakhstan, punctuality is not considered a virtue and is often treated casually, so you may be kept waiting before or during your meeting.

The multiple contacts with representatives of the foreign countries become everyday practice.

Very often, international commercial negotiations can run without participation of a translator, particularly if it is required to use the commonly spread language – English, French, German.

However, When it is necessary to work out carefully each item of the agreement, where an inexact word or expression can bring about incidental loss to / of one or both parties, to wrong or even illegal …. Reception or use the profit and other problems, it is better not to risk and прибегнуть to the services of the translator.

As a rule, each of the parties participating in negotiations has a group of its translators. In business and negotiations translator find himself in a unique position/ On the one hand, his services are necessary, but ….

Agenda is a written list of issues to be discussed at a meeting. It also indicates the order of business items. The agenda should be short, simple, and clear. Follow the agenda closely during the meeting.

You draw up an agenda when you prepare it. The things listed are called points or items. You use AOB (any other business) to refer to things that aren't on the agenda and that are discussed at the end of a meeting.

Ken has drawn up the agenda - there are only five items, so it should be quite quick.

'Do we have any other business?' – 'Yes. I'd like to talk about the venue for our away day.'

Minutes are a written summary of a meeting. The basic function is to record decisions made and summarize who is to do what by when.

You take minutes when you write notes during a meeting. After the meeting you write up the minutes when you write your notes in a form other people will be able to read. You decide on action points when you give people different tasks to carry out after a meeting. You circulate the agenda before a meeting and the minutes after a meeting.

Jen is taking minutes and will circulate them tomorrow.

Verbs. You meet someone or have a meeting with someone. In American English and in spoken British English you will probably hear people say meet with.

I'm having a meeting with the Managing Director later today. I met (with) the new designer yesterday.

You set up a meeting when you organize the date and time. You hold (have) a meeting at a particular time and place. You attend a meeting if you go to it and you miss it if you don't.

You send apologies to say that you're sorry that you can't attend a meeting. You chair a meeting if you're the person in charge of it. The person who chairs a meeting is called the chair or chairperson. You close a meeting when you say that it's over.

Prepositions. A meeting is on/about a particular subject, e.g. a meeting on/about training new staff.

You use at + time to say when a meeting is; you use in + place to say where a meeting is; you use go/run over time or the meeting overran to say a meeting was longer than planned; you use in time to mean 'early enough' and on time to mean 'at exactly the right time.'

We finished the meeting on time. (at the scheduled time)

We finished the meeting in time to send out the new schedule. (Early enough to send out the new schedule)

The meeting overran so I was late for the next one. (It went on longer than planned.)

Frequency. You add - ly to week/fortnight/month to mean 'every week/fortnight/month'.

We have a weekly production meeting.

Дата добавления: 2014-11-20