01 The first ten minutes · 8 min

When you did not catch it

Nodding at a number you did not hear is how a launch date moves without you. Asking late is still cheaper than shipping the wrong week.

Objective

Ask for the missing piece with a closed question, not “pardon” and not “repeat again.”

On the exam

Integrated speaking, when this course adds listening later, lives or dies on whether you caught the number. The repair language is the same one you need in the room this week.

Don't translate it like this

Don't say

Please repeat again.

Say

I missed the figure. Was it 12 percent or 20?

Repeat already means again. And a bare “pardon?” makes the other person guess which word failed.

Phrases

Read them aloud. Listen if you want a model. Nothing is recorded.

Could you say that last part again?

마지막 부분을 다시 말씀해 주시겠어요?

Not “repeat again.” Repeat already means again.

When you say soon, do you mean this week?

곧이라고 하시면, 이번 주를 말씀하시는 건가요?

Pin a vague time to a real one. Soon is not a date.

Let me check I understood.

제가 이해한 게 맞는지 확인할게요.

Then restate their point in one sentence. Do not announce that you understood everything.

I missed the figure. Was it 12 percent or 20?

숫자를 놓쳤습니다. 12퍼센트인가요, 20인가요?

Ask a closed question. “Pardon?” makes them guess what you missed.

Give me one second to write that down.

받아 적게 잠시만요.

Better than nodding at a number you do not have.

In the room

The number goes past

Finance says a percentage once, quickly, and moves on.

  1. Finance

    Returns came in at twelve percent, not twenty. We're fine if we hold April.

  2. You

    I missed the figure. Was it 12 percent or 20?

  3. Finance

    Twelve.

  4. You

    So we hold April because the return was 12 percent, not because of the date itself.

What would you say?

All three have to be right to close the lesson.

1. What you saySomeone gives two possible figures and you only caught one of the words around them.
2. What you sayA director says the work will be done “soon.”
3. RepairYou want to confirm the deadline without accusing anyone.

Answer every question, then check.

Next lesson: The subject line that gets opened