Good morning! Today’s focus is a skill most engineers underrate: listening well enough in a meeting to ask the one question that actually clears things up. Being able to say “let me clarify that” with confidence saves you from nodding along to something you didn’t fully understand.
📖 Word of the Day: Clarify
- Word: clarify
- IPA: /ˈklær.ə.faɪ/
- Vietnamese meaning: làm rõ, giải thích cho dễ hiểu hơn
- Example sentences:
- “Could you clarify what you mean by ‘done’ for this ticket?”
- “Let me clarify — we’re deploying Friday, not Monday.”
- “I asked a follow-up question just to clarify the deadline.”
Listen and practice pronunciation:
Vocabulary Table — Active Listening & Meetings
| Phrase | Vietnamese | Example |
|---|---|---|
| To paraphrase | diễn đạt lại theo cách khác để xác nhận hiểu đúng | ”So, to paraphrase — you need the API ready before QA starts?” |
| Follow-up question | câu hỏi thêm để làm rõ hoặc mở rộng | ”That raises a follow-up question: who owns this after launch?” |
| Active listening | lắng nghe chủ động, tập trung để hiểu đúng ý | ”Active listening means not planning your reply while the other person is still talking.” |
| To recap | tóm tắt lại những gì đã thảo luận | ”Let’s recap the three action items before we close the meeting.” |
| Talk over (someone) | ngắt lời, nói chèn khi người khác đang nói | ”Sorry, I didn’t mean to talk over you — please continue.” |
🗣 Pronunciation Guide
“Clarify” breakdown — /ˈklær.ə.faɪ/:
- Stress on the first syllable: KLAR-uh-fy, not kluh-RI-fy
- “Klar-” rhymes with “car” said quickly
- The ending “-fy” rhymes with “sky” or “my”
Practice sentence (read aloud 3x):
“Before we recap, can I ask a follow-up question just to clarify one point?”
Notice how “clarify,” “follow-up question,” and “recap” naturally chain together — that’s the exact sequence of a good clarifying moment in any meeting.
✍️ Exercise 1: Fill in the Blank
Fill each blank with one phrase from today’s list: paraphrase, follow-up question, active listening, recap, talk over.
- “Can I just _______ what you said to make sure I got it right?”
- “Sorry to _______ you — I just want to add one thing quickly.”
- “Good _______ means you can repeat back the main point in your own words.”
- “I have a _______ about the timeline you mentioned earlier.”
- “Before we end, let’s _______ the decisions we made today.”
Show answers
- paraphrase
- talk over
- active listening
- follow-up question
- recap
✍️ Exercise 2: Translate to English
Translate these Vietnamese sentences using today’s vocabulary.
- “Bạn có thể làm rõ deadline cho việc này không?”
- “Để tôi tóm tắt lại những gì chúng ta vừa quyết định.”
- “Tôi có một câu hỏi thêm về phần thiết kế database.”
Show answers
- “Could you clarify the deadline for this?”
- “Let me recap what we just decided.”
- “I have a follow-up question about the database design.”
💬 Idiom of the Day: “Read the room”
- Vietnamese meaning: nắm bắt không khí, cảm nhận tâm trạng hoặc phản ứng của mọi người trong tình huống
- Example 1: “He kept pushing his idea without reading the room — everyone else had already moved on.”
- Example 2: “Good facilitators read the room and know when to pause for questions.”
📺 Recommended Watching
- Harvard Business Review — YouTube — short videos on active listening and meeting facilitation
- Communication Coach Alex Lyon — YouTube — practical breakdowns of clarifying questions and paraphrasing
- Cambridge Dictionary — quick pronunciation and definition lookup
🎯 Daily Challenge
In your next meeting today, ask one clarifying question using “Let me clarify — ” or paraphrase someone’s point back to them before responding. Notice how much clearer the conversation gets.