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Talking about meetings

Episode 250829 / 29 Aug 2025

(Photo: Getty)

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Introduction

Georgie and Beth have a real conversation in easy English about work and meetings. Learn to talk about whether meetings are useful and how many meetings you have.

Vocabulary

brainstorm
gather together to discuss ideas

speak up
express your opinion using your voice

in-person or face-fo-face (meeting)
a meeting where everyone is in the same physical place

remote (meeting)
a meeting that happens on a call, often a video call

Transcript

Georgie
Hello and welcome to Real Easy English. In this podcast, we have real conversations in easy English to help you learn. I'm Georgie.

Beth
And I'm Beth. You can find a video of this podcast and a worksheet to help you learn on our website, bbclearningenglish.com.

Georgie
Hi Beth, how are you today?

Beth
I'm good, thank you. I am very busy. I have a lot of meetings. How are you?

Georgie
I'm OK, thank you, Beth, I don't have many meetings today. But today we are talking about meetings, in particular work meetings where you talk to colleagues and discuss ideas or make decisions.

Beth
That's right.

Georgie
OK. Shall we get started?

Beth
Yes.

Georgie
So, Beth, you have a lot of meetings today. Do you generally have a lot of meetings at work? It really depends on what I'm working on. So if I have a project where I need to meet a lot of people, then I might have quite a few meetings. And that's why I'm busy now. But generally, we have a lot of, a few meetings together as a team. But I don't think we have loads of meetings.

Georgie
Compared to other jobs, I don't think we have many meetings. Most of our work is producing things and editing and writing. But you're right. When there are lots of big projects that we need to talk to other people on the project, we have more meetings. But yeah, like you, it really depends.

So, when do you think meetings are useful?

Beth
I think when you need to brainstorm. So, brainstorm is when you have lots of new ideas and you need to talk about them together. I think then meetings are really useful because you hear lots of new ideas, and when you're in a room with other people, if, for example, I have an idea and you say, that's good, and we can also do this and we can all work together, and I think those kind of meetings are really useful.

Georgie
Yeah, I think that way of doing it is also more efficient. So sometimes it's better to just have one hour, come up with ideas and decide on the ideas.

Beth
Yeah, definitely. Do you tend to speak up in meetings? So, that means do you ask questions and feel confident to speak?

Georgie
I think, if the meeting has lots of people, I find it a bit more stressful to speak up because I get a bit nervous to speak in front of lots of people. But if it's a meeting with just our team, for example, you guys I like and trust. I, I don't mind speaking up that much.

Beth
And sometimes we have meetings in person. Sometimes you have meetings on a call. So a video call. Do you prefer meeting in person or having calls?

Georgie
I think I prefer meetings in person because you can, you can kind of see the facial expressions and body language more easily, I think. And it's easier to know when a person wants to speak, these kinds of things.

Beth
Yeah. No, I agree with what you're saying. A lot of the meetings that I have had recently have been with people in different time zones in different countries. So definitely then a call is better because it's the, the best way to speak without having to go to different countries. But I agree, I think it's nice to be able to see body language better in a face-to-face meeting. But meetings on calls now are so normal that there's not loads of difference.

Georgie
It is also really nice to be able to take calls in your own house. So, working from home can be really nice because you can have your snacks and drinks nearby. So yeah, they both have their pros and cons.

Beth
That's true.

Georgie
OK, let's recap the language we heard during the conversation, starting with brainstorm, which is when you get together with a group of people to come up with ideas.

Beth
If you speak up in a meeting, you express your opinion using your voice.

Georgie
In an in-person meeting, everyone is in the same physical place. We can also call this a face-to-face meeting.

Beth
And we also talked about having a call. This could be a phone call or a video call. And we can also describe this as a remote meeting.

Georgie
That's it for this episode of Real Easy English. Why not test what you've learned using the worksheet on our website, bbclearningenglish.com.

Beth
And we'll be back next week with another conversation in easy English. See you then.

Georgie
Goodbye. 

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