English Lesson — Monday Noon: Technical Vocabulary for Code Reviews and PRs

☀️ Noon focus: The exact words engineers use every day in pull requests, code reviews, and Slack — so you can communicate confidently with your whole team.

📖 Word of the Day: Refactor /ree-FAK-ter/

Vietnamese: tái cấu trúc code (viết lại code cho sạch hơn mà không thay đổi chức năng)

3 Example Sentences:

  1. “Before we add new features, we should refactor this module — it’s getting hard to read.”
  2. “The PR is too large because it mixes a refactor with a bug fix — please split them.”
  3. “She spent the whole morning refactoring the authentication service to remove duplicate logic.”

🔗 Resources:

📚 Vocabulary Table

Word / PhraseVietnamesePR / Slack Example
nit / nitpickgóp ý nhỏ, không bắt buộc sửa”Nit: you could rename this variable to userCount for clarity — feel free to ignore.”
blockingchặn lại, phải sửa trước khi merge”Blocking: this will cause a null pointer exception in production — must fix.”
non-blockingkhông chặn, chỉ gợi ý”Non-blocking: just a style preference, merge whenever you’re ready.”
squash commitsgộp nhiều commit thành một”Can you squash commits before merging? We like one clean commit per PR.”
LGTMtrông ổn rồi (Looks Good To Me)“LGTM! Great work — approved and ready to merge.”

🗣️ Pronunciation Guide

Word: refactor /ree-FAK-ter/

Break it down syllable by syllable:

  • re — “ree” (like “reef” without the f)
  • fac — “FAK” — this is the stressed syllable, say it louder
  • tor — “ter” (schwa sound, like “her” without the h)

Pattern: ree-FAK-ter

Practice sentence (read aloud 3×):

“We need to refactor this function before the next sprint.”

Stress: We NEED to ree-FAK-ter THIS func-TION be-FORE the NEXT sprint.

🔗 YouGlish practice

✏️ Exercise 1: Fill in the Blank

Choose the correct word: refactor / nit / blocking / LGTM / squash commits / non-blocking

  1. “This is a _______ issue — you must fix the security vulnerability before I approve.”
  2. ”_______ ! Really clean implementation. Approving now.”
  3. “Could you _______ before merging? The git history will be much cleaner.”
  4. ”_______ : the variable name x could be more descriptive, but it’s fine either way.”
  5. “We should _______ the payment module — it has too much duplicated logic.”
  6. “This comment is _______ — just a suggestion, no need to block the PR.”
✅ Answers
  1. blocking
  2. LGTM
  3. squash commits
  4. Nit
  5. refactor
  6. non-blocking

✏️ Exercise 2: Translate to English

  1. Tôi cần tái cấu trúc lại hàm này trước khi thêm tính năng mới.
  2. Đây chỉ là góp ý nhỏ, bạn không cần sửa trước khi merge.
  3. Hãy gộp các commit lại thành một trước khi tôi review nhé.
✅ Sample Answers
  1. “I need to refactor this function before adding new features.”
  2. “This is just a nit — you don’t need to fix it before merging.”
  3. “Please squash your commits into one before I review.”

💬 Idiom of the Day

“Under the hood” Vietnamese: bên trong (phần kỹ thuật ẩn, không thấy ngay từ bề mặt)

Used when talking about the internal workings of a system — what’s happening behind the interface or API.

Examples:

  1. “The UI looks simple, but under the hood there are three microservices and a message queue handling every request.”
  2. “Before approving this PR, I want to understand what’s happening under the hood when we call this function.”

💬 Mini Dialogue

Alex (reviewer): “Hey, left some comments on your PR. Most are nits, but there’s one blocking issue.”

Binh (author): “Thanks! What’s the blocking one?”

Alex: “The database call inside the loop — it’ll hammer the DB in production. Can you refactor it to batch the queries?”

Binh: “Ah, good catch. I’ll fix that and also squash my commits — I have about six messy ones.”

Alex: “Perfect. Once that’s done I’m happy to approve. The logic under the hood is solid — LGTM on everything else.”

🎯 2-Minute Challenge

Rewrite this vague PR comment using today’s vocabulary:

❌ Before: “I think this code could be better. Also maybe fix the loop thing.”

Write a clearer version using words like: refactor, blocking, nit, non-blocking, LGTM

Example answer:

✅ “Blocking: the loop creates N+1 queries — please refactor to use a single batch call. Nit: the helper function name could be more descriptive (non-blocking). LGTM on the overall structure!”

Write your own version and say it out loud once — this is real PR English you’ll use tomorrow.

🌙 See you at the Evening session for speaking practice and interview role-play!

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