Good morning! ☀️ Thursday means Professional Communication — today we’re focused on meetings: how to keep them on track, guide a group toward a decision, and sound confident doing it.
🌟 Word of the Day: Facilitate
IPA: /fəˈsɪl.ɪ.teɪt/ Vietnamese: tạo điều kiện thuận lợi, điều phối (một cuộc thảo luận/quy trình)
Facilitate means to make a process easier or to help a group move smoothly toward a goal — in meetings, it usually means guiding the discussion rather than dominating it.
Examples:
- “Can you facilitate today’s stand-up? I want to focus on my update instead of managing the clock.”
- The new project tracker really facilitates communication between the design and engineering teams.
- A good facilitator asks questions — they don’t just give answers.
🔗 Real references: Cambridge Dictionary — facilitate · YouGlish — hear “facilitate” in real videos
📋 Vocabulary Table
| Phrase | Vietnamese | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Keep it on track | Giữ đúng trọng tâm | ”Let’s keep this on track — we only have 15 minutes.” |
| Table this discussion | Gác lại vấn đề này (bàn sau) | “Good point, but let’s table this and come back to it next week.” |
| Circle back | Quay lại (vấn đề) sau | ”I’ll circle back to your question at the end.” |
| Take this offline | Trao đổi riêng sau (ngoài cuộc họp) | “That’s a detailed topic — let’s take it offline.” |
| Wrap up | Kết thúc, tổng kết | ”Let’s wrap up with clear action items before we go.” |
🔊 Pronunciation Guide
Word of the Day breakdown: fa-CIL-i-tate — stress falls on the second syllable (“SIL”), not the first. Many learners stress “FA” by mistake — practice the shift: fə-ˈSIL-ɪ-teɪt.
Practice sentence (read aloud 3 times):
“I’d like to facilitate this meeting so we can circle back to open items and wrap up on time.”
✍️ Exercise 1: Fill in the Blank
Fill in each blank with a phrase from the vocabulary table above.
- We’re running out of time — let’s ______ and finish the rest by email.
- This is important, but it’s not for today’s agenda. Let’s ______ until next sprint.
- As the meeting host, my job is to ______ the discussion, not to give my own opinion first.
Show answers
- take this offline / wrap up
- table this discussion
- facilitate
✍️ Exercise 2: Translate to English
Translate this sentence into English:
“Chúng ta hãy quay lại vấn đề ngân sách sau khi thảo luận xong lịch trình dự án.”
Show answer
“Let’s circle back to the budget after we finish discussing the project timeline.”
💬 Idiom of the Day: “On the same page”
Vietnamese: cùng chung quan điểm, hiểu thống nhất với nhau
This idiom means everyone in a conversation shares the same understanding or agreement about something.
Examples:
- “Before we end the call, let’s make sure we’re all on the same page about the deadline.”
- After the long discussion, the team was finally on the same page about the design direction.
📺 Recommended Watching
- English for Meetings — BBC Learning English — short, practical meeting-language videos
- How to Run a Meeting — Harvard Business Review (YouTube) — facilitation techniques in real workplace context
- YouGlish: “facilitate” — hear the word in dozens of real videos
🎯 Daily Challenge
Today, in any meeting or call (even a casual one), try using one phrase from the vocabulary table above — “circle back,” “table this,” or “wrap up.” Notice how it changes the flow of the conversation. Bonus: use the Word of the Day, facilitate, in a sentence about your own work.
See you this evening for practice! 🌙