Technical English: 9 key words for communication

When you work for an international organisation chances are you will need to speak in English a lot of the time. You will need to write in English, take meetings in English, maybe have your lunchbreak in English if your boss is visiting from abroad.

How can I describe this?

What if you need to talk to your IT helpdesk in English?

Your computer doesn't work, or your email is acting up (phrasal verb meaning to not work properly).

How can you communicate clearly with your English speaking support desk?

Check out some of these key words to help you with your next IT issue:

Online

"My computer is online all of the time, when I'm at the office."

You are connected to the internet. You are able to take part in live teams chats, send emails and use other internet based tools.

Offline

"I can't send any emails. My computer is offline."

This might be a problem. If you are offline you have no internet connection. Maybe on a train, or especially if you are on a plane, you will be offline. What if you are offline at your desk? Then there might be a problem with your computer or the network. Tell your IT helpdesk that you are offline and they should be able to help you to fix it.

Working offline on a train

Back up

"When I'm working offline I make sure to back up my document every 15 minutes."

Ever been asked to make a back up of your document?

This means to save an extra copy. When you are working online you might already be saving automatically to a cloud based system. This is not the case when you are working offline, so it's a good idea to back up your document every 15 minutes so you don't lose essential changes.

Email has bounced

"The email I sent to you has bounced. Can I check your address again, please?"

The word 'bounce' is normally used with a ball. When you bounce a ball you throw it off a hard surface like the ground or a wall and it comes back to you.

This is the same with an email. It has come back to you without reaching the recipient. It could be that the recipient's mail box is full, or that the email address you are using is incorrect.

Now if someone says to you 'I sent you an email, but it bounced.' you know what they mean!

Breaking up

"I'm sorry, I can't hear you very well, you're breaking up."

This means that the connection is bad. Perhaps someone is travelling by train and going through a tunnel, or maybe the internet connection is slow so the video link doesn't work. It's a way of letting someone know that their communication is not being received clearly.

User-friendly

"We have been told the new computer system will be very user-friendly."

This means that it will be easy to use. When you work with a system you are the 'user' and of course we all want a system that is as user-friendly as possible.

Attending a conference call

Conference call

"Can you set up a conference call later in the week to talk about this?"

A conference is when a group of people get together in person to talk about something they all have an interest in. A conference call is when this happens online.

Mobile device

"Please make sure that all mobile devices are set to silent before the meeting starts."

A mobile device is a something you carry around with you that you use to go online, such as a mobile phone or tablet. Using these devices you can communicate with other people, but during a meeting we don't want them all to let us know when they have received a message! Set them to silent.

Access

"I can access my work emails from home."

Meaning that you can log into your work emails, enabling you to work from home. If you are having problems doing this you can say that you 'can't access' your emails for some reason. You may have seen a sign around your place of work saying 'no access to unauthorised personnel', meaning that only people who are allowed to can enter that part of the building. Access literally means to be able to get into something.

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"I really enjoyed the English lessons with Joanne. She is such a sweet teacher!

The lessons were completely adapted to tasks I have to do at work. 

Whenever she saw that I was struggling with something, extra attention was paid to it. 

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I definitely recommend Joanne Reilly!"