Read Business English for Free Online Page A

structure) und ein eventueller Hinweis auf Tischvorlagen (hand-outs). Sagen Sie gleich zu Beginn, ob man Sie unterbrechen darf: You can interrupt me at any time if you have any questions, oder ob Sie es bevorzugen, erst nach der Präsentation Fragen zu beantworten, wo genügend Zeit sein wird: After the presentation there will be ample time for questions.
    Example
    Mr Horst: Ladies and Gentlemen, I'm delighted to be here today as a guestspeaker at the annual customer meeting of Miller Communications Incorporated. Let me briefly introduce myself: I'm Gerhard Horst, head of the research and development department of Hirsch in Germany. I'd like to inform you on the latest developments in the fieldof electronic communications. I'll begin with an overview of our latest projects, then I'll brief you on our company's sales figures and I'll finish off with an outlook on the company's future plans.
    If you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer them after my presentation.
Useful phrases
    Opening words / Einleitung
Good morning. Let me introduce myself …
Let me introduce you to my colleague …
I / We represent …
    Thanking for the invitation / Für die Einladung danken
It's a great honour to be able to speak here today.
I'm grateful for having the opportunity to …
I'm glad to have a chance to speak.
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for asking me to tell you …
    Announcing the topic / Das Thema ankündigen
Today I'm going to talk about …
The topic / subject of this presentation is …
In my presentation I'll be explaining our new project.
I'll try to give you an overview of the development …
You've met here today to hear something about …
    Handouts / Tischvorlagen
In the handout, which will be passing around, you'll find …
I hope everybody received the handout?
May I draw your attention to the handout?
There is a small mistake in the handout which I would like to correct.
I'm afraid we've run out of copies, could you share with your neighbour's?
    Structure / Gliederung
I'll focus on two main points.
I'll be covering the following three main areas.
I've divided this presentation into four sections.
In the first part of my presentation I'll …
I'd like to begin with … then / next / after that …
First / firstly / first of all … Secondly … Thirdly … Finally …
My colleague will take over the second part.
    Interruptions / Unterbrechungen
Please do not hesitate to interrupt me if I'm speaking too fast / I'm not making myself clear / you have questions.
Please stop me if anything is unclear.
After the presentation there will be time for questions.
I'll be happy to answer any questions after my talk.
    Der Hauptteil
    Damit es für den Zuhörer klar ist, worauf Sie abzielen, und man den logischen Aufbau Ihrer Argumentation erkennen und verfolgen kann, sollten Sie im Hauptteil Ihrer Präsentation den jeweils nächsten Schritt ankündigen: Let me now move on to the following point, which is … Durch rhetorische Fragen können Sie den Stil Ihres Beitrags etwas lebendiger gestalten, da die Zuhörer aufgefordert werden mitzudenken: How could this problem affect us? / How could we solve this problem? So verschaffen Sie sich auch gleich einen guten Übergang zu den Lösungen, die Sie anzubieten haben: Well, one way to solve this problem is …
Useful phrases
    Step by step / Schritt für Schritt
Let's start with …
I'd like to begin with an overview of …
So that's the present situation. Let's now have a look at …
With this we have come to the following …
Let me now move on to …
So much for the figures. Now as to …
Having finished this part, I'd like to turn to the next point.
As you can see on the handout this brings us to the last part.
    Rhetorical questions / Rhetorische Fragen
The question is: What can we do about this?
What does this mean for our company?
What advantages would this offer us?
You will ask yourselves: In what way does this affect us?
Isn't there a better way of dealing with this