會議英文: 40 Meeting Phrases Taiwan Pros Use (2026) | 開會英文完整指南

Forty percent of Taiwan professionals at foreign companies say their first English meeting was the most stressful day of the year — worse than the job interview that landed them the role. 會議英文 is the gap between knowing English and actually using it at work, and it shows up the second someone says “Let’s get started.” This guide is the cheat-sheet I wish my own Taiwanese colleagues had when they walked into their first call with HQ in California.

Below you’ll find 40 essential meeting phrases organized by where they show up — scheduling, opening, chairing, disagreeing politely, video calls, closing, and the dreaded follow-up email. Every phrase is one you’ll actually hear in a real meeting, not the textbook English that makes you sound like a 1990s ESL tape.

Mastering 會議英文 starts with knowing the right phrases for every stage of a business meeting.

會議英文有哪些？The 5 Meeting Types You Need to Know

Most Taiwan professionals translate every business gathering as “meeting,” and that’s where the trouble starts. English has five different words for what we casually call 會議 in Chinese, and using the wrong one can make you sound either too formal or too casual.

• Meeting (會議) — the default term. Small to medium, usually under 20 people, internal or with a client.
• Conference (大型會議 / 研討會) — large, often multi-day, with speakers and an audience. Don’t call your Tuesday team sync a “conference.”
• Seminar (講座 / 研討會) — academic or training focused, one expert presenting to a group.
• Workshop (工作坊) — hands-on, participatory, designed for skill-building.
• Stand-up (站立會議) — short daily team check-in, originally from software development, now everywhere. Usually under 15 minutes.

And then there’s Con-call — short for conference call, which just means a phone or video meeting with multiple people. Your boss saying “I have a con-call at 3” almost always means a scheduled video meeting these days, not an actual phone call.

Before the Meeting: 8 開會英文 Scheduling Phrases

The meeting starts before anyone joins the call. Half of what makes Taiwan pros sound stiff in English meetings is the scheduling email or Slack message, which lands hours before the actual conversation.

The phrases that actually get used at Western companies are surprisingly informal — closer to chat than formal business writing. Notice how short and direct they are:

1. “Can we set up a meeting to discuss this?” — most natural opener for proposing a meeting.
2. “I’d like to schedule a call for next week.” — slightly more formal, for clients.
3. “Does Tuesday at 3 work for you?” — natural way to propose a time. Not “Are you available at Tuesday 3pm?” — that’s textbook English nobody actually says.
4. “Let’s get this on the calendar.” — confirms commitment without sounding pushy.
5. “Can we push this to Thursday?” — to reschedule. “Push” sounds far more natural than “postpone.”
6. “I need to drop a few minutes early.” — letting people know you’ll leave the meeting before it ends.
7. “Could you send a calendar invite?” — asking the other person to schedule it formally.
8. “Let’s keep it to 30 minutes.” — setting a time limit upfront. This one signals professionalism — saying it cuts your meeting count in half within a quarter.

A clean agenda in English is often the first thing foreign clients judge you on.

主持會議英文: 10 Phrases to Open and Chair a Meeting

This is where most Taiwan professionals freeze. The chair (主持人) controls the room, and the language is more direct than most ESL textbooks teach. Bossy is bad, but soft and apologetic is worse — you sound unsure of why everyone is even in the meeting.

The chair’s job in English meetings is to keep things moving. Here are the phrases native speakers actually use:

9. “Thanks everyone for joining. Let’s get started.” — the universal opener. Don’t overthink it.
10. “I’ll keep this brief.” — sets expectations, signals respect for time.
11. “The goal of today’s meeting is X.” — state the purpose. Critical for Taiwan-style meetings that drift.
12. “Let’s walk through the agenda.” — “walk through” is the right verb — not “go over” or “read.”
13. “Sarah, would you like to kick us off?” — handing off to the first speaker. “Kick off” is a sports metaphor used universally in business.
14. “Let’s hear from David next.” — transitioning to the next speaker without being abrupt.
15. “Can we park that for now and come back to it?” — when a tangent threatens to derail the meeting. “Park” is the magic verb here.
16. “Let’s stay on topic.” — direct but not rude when someone wanders.
17. “In the interest of time, let’s move on.” — polite but firm, perfect for cutting off a long-winded speaker.
18. “Before we wrap up, does anyone have anything to add?” — opens the floor without committing to another 30 minutes.

A small team meeting uses different English than a large conference.

How to Disagree Politely in 會議英文 (Without Sounding Rude)

This is the section every other meeting English guide skips, and it’s the most important one for Taiwanese speakers. The cultural default in Taiwan is to avoid direct disagreement — “I think maybe perhaps we could possibly consider another option” — which in English sounds either weak or sarcastic.

Native English speakers in business meetings disagree directly, but they use specific softening phrases that signal respect without giving up the point. The trick is to validate the other person first, then state your view clearly.

19. “I see your point, but I’d push back on that.” — the gold standard. Acknowledges, then opposes.
20. “I hear you, but I’m not sure I agree.” — gentler, still clear.
21. “That’s a fair point. Have we considered X?” — disagrees by introducing new information.
22. “Can I play devil’s advocate for a second?” — invents a buffer so the disagreement feels less personal.
23. “I’d respectfully disagree.” — formal, for higher-stakes meetings.
24. “I’m not convinced that solves the actual problem.” — strong, attacks the idea not the person.

The phrase that ruins Taiwanese professionals in English meetings is “I think you are wrong” — translated directly from 我覺得你錯了. It works in Mandarin in some contexts; it never works in English. Replace it permanently with “I see this differently.”

How to Interrupt Politely

Interrupting is acceptable in English business meetings — even expected — but only with the right phrase to signal you’re not being rude. Silence is read as agreement, so staying quiet because you don’t want to interrupt is often the worse choice.

25. “Sorry to jump in, but…” — the most common polite interrupt. “Jump in” is the natural verb.
26. “Can I add something here?” — softer, requests permission.
27. “Quick question on that —” — interrupts while signaling you’ll be brief.

Polite disagreement in English is a skill most Taiwanese professionals never get taught.

視訊會議英文: Video Meeting Vocabulary for Zoom, Teams, and Google Meet

Video meetings now make up the majority of business meetings in Taiwan, especially for anyone working with foreign clients or remote teams. The vocabulary is its own world — and using it wrong sounds amateur fast.

What every Taiwanese professional should know cold:

28. “Can everyone hear me?” — the opening test. Universally said at the start of every video call.
29. “You’re on mute.” — the most-said phrase of the post-pandemic world. Tell people kindly.
30. “Sorry, I was on mute.” — your response when you’ve been talking to nothing.
31. “Can you turn on your camera?” — direct request, perfectly fine in Western workplaces.
32. “My internet is laggy — let me drop and rejoin.” — “laggy” and “drop” are the natural verbs.
33. “Let me share my screen.” — “share my screen,” not “show my screen.”
34. “Can you see the slides?” — confirms others can see your shared screen.
35. “I’ll drop the link in the chat.” — referring to the chat panel inside the video tool.

Video meeting vocabulary differs from in-person — and getting it wrong sounds amateur fast.

Watch this video for a complete walk-through of how to chair a meeting in English — it’s the highest-ranked video on the topic in Taiwan search:

結束會議英文: How to Close a Meeting Professionally

How you close the meeting is often what people remember. A weak ending — “OK so… that’s it I guess?” — signals you didn’t really know what was decided. A strong close summarizes decisions and assigns owners.

36. “Let’s recap what we decided.” — the cleanest close. “Recap” is the right word, not “summary.”
37. “To summarize the action items…” — followed by who does what by when.
38. “Who’s the owner on this?” — assigns responsibility. Critical for follow-through.
39. “I’ll send out the minutes by EOD.” — EOD means end of day, common business shorthand.
40. “Thanks everyone, talk soon.” — casual, friendly close. Most Western teams use this.

Notice how all of these are short. The fastest way to lose authority in an English meeting is to drag the close — say what you mean, assign owners, end the call.

How you close a meeting in English is what people actually remember.

會議紀錄英文: Writing and Sending Meeting Minutes

Meeting minutes are not a court transcript — they’re a one-page summary that anyone who missed the meeting can read in two minutes and know exactly what happened. The Taiwan habit of writing 10-page minutes that include every comment word-for-word is the wrong move for an English-speaking team.

The structure that actually gets read:

• Date and attendees at the top
• Decisions made (bulleted, 3–5 max)
• Action items with owner and due date — this is the only part most people will read
• Next meeting date if applicable

Useful phrases to drop into the email when sending minutes: “Attached are the minutes from today’s call. Please flag any corrections by Friday.” Or shorter: “Minutes below. Action items in bold. Reply if I missed anything.”

Action items recorded on a whiteboard need clean English follow-up afterward.

Common Pronunciation Traps for Taiwan Speakers in Meetings

Three specific sounds trip up almost every Taiwanese professional in English meetings, and once you fix them your meeting English improves more than studying another 100 phrases.

“Agenda” — pronounced uh-JEN-duh, with stress on the middle syllable. Not AH-jen-dah. This word comes up every single meeting, so getting it right pays off fast.

“Schedule” — American English says SKED-jool, British says SHED-yool. Pick one and stick to it. The hybrid pronunciation many Taiwanese learners use sounds like neither.

“Minutes” (the meeting notes) — same word as the time unit but different stress. Both syllables are flat in the meeting-notes sense, and it always takes a plural verb: “The minutes are attached.” Not “The minutes เป็น attached.”

One Phrase That Will Save Your Career

If you only memorize one phrase from this entire article, make it this one: “Let me make sure I understand — are you saying X?”

The number-one career problem for Taiwan professionals in English meetings is leaving a call having agreed to something they didn’t actually understand. The phrase above buys you 30 seconds, signals competence rather than weakness, and lets you confirm what was just decided before you commit to it.

Use it in every meeting for a month. Watch your foreign manager’s opinion of your English skills go up — not because your English improved, but because you stopped pretending to understand things you didn’t.

Con-calls used to be the nightmare of every Taiwan professional in a foreign company.

Your Next Move

Print the 40 phrases above. Pick five for your next meeting and use each one once. The next meeting after that, pick five more. By the end of two months you’ll have rotated through all 40 and the right phrase will be there before you have to think about it.

For more Taiwan-pro English at work, read our guide to phone English for handling international calls, our breakdown of presentation English for the inevitable next step after a meeting, and our reference on modal verbs — the politeness backbone behind most of the phrases above.

แหล่งที่มา

1. Cambridge Dictionary — 會議 (meeting) entry — authoritative pronunciation and example sentences.
2. BBC Learning English — English at Work — free video series covering meeting language.
3. Harvard Business Review — running effective meetings — research on what makes meetings actually work.
4. 104 人力銀行 — 商務英文會議 — Taiwan’s largest job board on business meeting vocabulary.