How to INTERRUPT POLITELY at work | Business English communication lesson

And our topic today is how to interrupt politely, to interrupt in a very polite way.

So let's start with a situation.

Have you ever been in a meeting where you had something important to say, but you just couldn't find the right moment to jump in? Maybe a colleague was talking for what felt like forever, and by the time they finished, the conversation had already moved on.

Now, this is an interesting problem.

I was doing research on this.

I've certainly got ideas on how we can handle this, but when I come to write these scripts and to discuss these ideas, I like to see what other people think.

After all, I'm not the first person to think about these issues, and you're not the first people to have these issues.

Usually, other people have great ideas on how to solve these problems.

And it was interesting watching a couple of YouTube videos on this idea, reading the comments section.

The, uh, the comments sections are always filled with some valuable input, and the comments sections on these videos were interesting because a lot of people were saying, "Don't give these people your time.

Ignore these people.

It's not even worth trying.

If you work with someone who talks all the time and never gives anyone else a chance to speak, then they're not worth trying to deal with.

Just ignore them." The problem is, though, we often don't have that choice.

We don't have that luxury.

If you have a colleague who takes control of every conversation and doesn't let anyone else speak, then just ignoring them and not giving your input can be a problem, certainly for your visibility to your managers, to your stakeholders, to your clients, and maybe even for your career progression.

So we need to think about being just a little bit assertive maybe and how we can deal with this situation.

So here we're tackling a skill that even native speakers often struggle with, and this is how to interrupt politely.

We'll look at some phrases, maybe the timing and the tone that you need to jump into a conversation with confidence without sounding rude, without sounding too pushy or awkward.

So if you've ever stayed silent when you've had something valuable to add, this episode is for you.