Preparing for meetings

Participating in meetings which are conducted in a foreign language can be nerve-wracking – people may speak very quickly, they may use words that you do not understand, they may have strong accents, or they may talk about topics which are outside your area of expertise.

All these factors can make meetings difficult, but if you prepare for meetings by studying the agenda, researching the topics that are likely to be discussed, and preparing vocabulary that you think you might need during the meeting, you will feel more confident and your performance in the meeting will be better.

Meeting style and etiquette can change from country to country, company to company, and even from meeting to meeting, but generally speaking, it is important to be polite in meetings, even if the meeting is quite informal in tone.

If you are interrupting or disagreeing with people, it is even more important to be polite: your views are more likely to be respected if you present them in a professional and non-confrontational (non-argumentative) way. There are several ways to make what you say sound more polite and less confrontational:

Use 'can' or 'could'. For example,
John says; 'Sean, can I just ask you…?'
Alex says 'If you could go through them in order…'
Both expressions above are more polite than simply saying 'I want to know…' or 'Go through them in order…'

Use 'would like'. For example,
Tim says '… I'd like to be with other editors…'
Will says 'I would like to be able to show her drawings…'
This sounds much more polite than 'I want…'

Say 'sorry'. For example,
Tim says: 'I'm sorry, but I really strongly disagree…'
John says: ' Sorry to hold the meeting up'
This is a very common way to 'soften' what you say. Tim and John are not really apologising for what they say - using 'sorry' is telling the listener: 'I'm going to say or do something you might not like, so please don’t get upset'.

Use 'just'. For example,
Sean says: 'I just wanted to see…'
John says; 'Sean, can I just ask you…?'
The word 'just' gives the listener a message that you are not asking them to deal with something difficult or time-consuming; that it is not going to be a problem.

Use 'I think' or 'I feel'. For example,
John says: ' I do feel quite strongly that we're bringing this out too soon…'
and Carrie says ' I don’t think we’ve got any choice…'
These phrases have the effect of softening what they are saying, by presenting their ideas as opinions, not orders or instructions.

It's important to acknowledge the other people in the meeting, by using their names, or words like 'you', 'we', 'everybody', 'my colleagues' etc. If you don’t use these words and expressions, you may give people the impression that you are rather detached and/or authoritarian.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/business/talkingbusiness/unit2meetings/expert.shtml.