日米会話学院 Podcasting

2006.09.16

035_Talking_Trends

In this episode, Charles Tully listens to a section of a presentation and gives suggestions on vocabulary which describes trends.

Kevin:

Hello everyone and welcome to Nichibei Kaiwa Gakuin Podcasting. A great way to review English words and phrases. My name is Kevin Jones. And with us today is Nichibei student Taketo. Hello Taketo.

Taketo:

Hello Kevin

Kevin:

And also here to help us out is Nichibei instructor Charles Tully. Hi Charles.

Charles Tully:

Hello Kevin.

Kevin:

So Taketo, how are you today?

Taketo:

I'm excited because I'm going to be giving my first business presentation in English.

Kevin:

Aren't you a little nervous?

Taketo:

Not really. I've been practicing and I have another week before I have to give it at our European office.

Charles Tully:

What's the topic of your presentation?

Taketo:

I'll be speaking about the growth of broadband in Japan.

Charles Tully:

It sounds like you're ready. How can we help you today.

Taketo:

Well, If you could just listen to a little bit of my presentation and give me your opinion, I'd really appreciate it.

Charles Tully:

Sure, that'd be fine. Go ahead.

Taketo:

OK. I'll give you a small section from the middle of my presentation.

Charles Tully:

Good. Let's go.

Taketo:

Now that I've told you about the recent history of broadband in Japan, I'd like to move on to the current trends for new customers. Fiber optic, which is called Hikari fiber in Japanese, has been going up. While at the same time, customers for ADSL have gone down in 2005. We plan to increase our new fiber optic customers in the upcoming fiscal year by 2.7 million. This trend is very different from the mobile phone market. This market which has no change.

OK. How does my presentation sound so far.

Charles Tully:

Your presentation sounds pretty good so far. Your voice is clear and easy to understand. you introduced that section very well. But there is one problem with that section.

Taketo:

What's that?

Charles Tully:

You didn't tell us how by how much these trends are changing. You should tell us by using an actual number like 'by 28%' But in addition to that you should use words to help communicate how much something is increasing or decreasing.

Taketo:

What kind of words?

Charles Tully:

Well, let's start with small increases or decreases with words like
'a bit' ,
'a little' ,
or 'slightly'

Charles Tully:

Good, now for big increases or decreases, we can use words like
'a lot',
'dramatically' ,
or 'sharply'.

Taketo:

What if something has stopped growing?

B:

in that case you can say it has
'remained the same'
it has been 'steady'
it has 'flattened out'
or it has 'plateaued'.

Taketo:

Sorry, but what does plateaued mean?

Charles Tully:

To plateau means to reach a state of little or no change after a time of activity or progress. 'My Chinese language learning has plateaued'.

Next, you can use these words to tell us the rate of change , or how fast something has changed. Words such as
'Rapidly'
or 'Steadily'
Now why don't you try your presentation section again and this time use some of these words.

Taketo:

OK.

Taketo:

Now that I've told you about the recent history of broadband in Japan, I'd like to move on to the current trends for new customers. New customers for fiber optic internet service, which is called, Hikari fiber in Japanese, has been increasing dramatically . While at the same time, customers for ADSL have been steadily decreasing since 2005.
We plan to sharply increase our new fiber optic customers in the upcoming fiscal year By 2.7 million. This trend is very different from the mobile phone market, which has flattened out in the past two years.
OK. How does my presentation sound?

Charles Tully:

It sounds much better, although there are some more things I'd like to go over with you. Why don't we have a cup of coffee and talk it over.

Taketo:

OK, Thanks.

Kevin:

Now, let's review some of the words covered in this episode.
A bit, 'sales have increased a bit'.
Slightly, 'sales have increased slightly'.
Dramatically, 'Sales have increased dramatically'.
Sharply, 'Sales have increased sharply'
Remained the same, 'sales have remained the same'.
Flattened out, 'sales have flattened out'.
Plateaued, 'sales have plateaued'.

END

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