GIVING OPINIONS AND MAKING RECOMMENDATIONS

Main ideas, concepts, and lessons

• Purpose of the lesson (English for Management): Learn how to communicate effectively in management discussions by:

  1) Giving opinions about management issues 2) Explaining reasons for those opinions 3) Making recommendations for what should be done

• Core management communication questions (kept in mind throughout):

  • “What do you think?” (your opinion)
  • “Why do you think so?” (your reason)
  • “What should we do?” (your recommendation)

• Key principle: Saying only the opinion (e.g., “I agree”) is not enough—listeners will ask why, so the opinion must include a reason.

---

Skills taught and how to structure responses

1) Giving an opinion (with useful expressions)

Use opinion-introduction phrases such as:

• “I think …”
• “I believe …”
• “In my opinion, …”
• “Personally, I think … / From my perspective, …”

(Parallels from Indonesian → English)

• “According to me, …” → “In my opinion / I think / I believe …”

Rule: After these expressions, you must state your opinion (the viewpoint).

Example topics used:

• Generative AI should be allowed in the workplace (agree/disagree)
• Companies should allow employees to work from home
• Whether salary/job satisfaction matters
• Indonesian consumers should prioritize local products
• AI will replace many jobs

---

2) Explaining reasons (opinion + reason)

• Don’t just give an opinion—add a reason.
• Common reason-linking phrases mentioned include:
  • “because …”
  • “One reason is that …”
  • “The main reason is that …”
  • “This is because …” (implied through examples)

Simple structure:

• Opinion + Reason
  • Opinion comes first, then the reason.

Example structure from the lesson:

• “In my opinion, companies should invest in employee training because skilled employees can improve company performance.”

---

3) Making recommendations (when opinions aren’t enough)

• A recommendation is a suggestion about what should be done to solve a problem.
• In management, you don’t just identify problems—you should also propose solutions.

Useful recommendation expressions

• Strong / direct:
  • “We should …”
  • “I recommend that …”
  • “I strongly recommend that …”
  • “The company needs to …”
• Softer / more tentative:
  • “I suggest that …”
  • “Perhaps we could …”
  • “Perhaps we should …”
  • “It might be a good idea to …”
  • “One possible solution would be to …”

Strong vs. soft recommendations (difference)

• Strong recommendations: more direct, more assertive (“to the point”)
• Soft recommendations: more cautious, tentative
• Both are useful; choose based on the situation.

Example problem given:

• Employees feel stressed and unmotivated → recommendations include:
  • improve work/schedule management
  • provide employee support
  • organize stress management programs
  • introduce adjustments like longer working hours (as examples)

---

Practice and assignment instructions (methodology)

• The video is described as asynchronous, so learners do not need to answer during the video.
• After watching: practice independently by:
  • Writing your answers first
  • Then practicing saying them aloud

For slides 16–18, learners should:

• Pick each management problem
• Give at least 1–2 recommendations using the learned expressions
• Use recommendation starters such as:
  • “the company should …”
  • “I recommend that …”
  • “I suggest that …”
  • “perhaps we could …”
  • “it might be a good idea to …”

Later assignment:

• Complete the task via a Google Form (sent by the instructor).

---

Complete “best” structure to remember (final takeaway)

The lesson’s key combined format is:

• Opinion → Reason → Recommendation

Example (given):

• Opinion: “In my opinion, employees are becoming less motivated …”
• Reason: “because they feel stressed and do not receive enough support.”
• Recommendation: “I recommend that the company improve employee wellbeing programs.”

Final assignment topic example provided:

• An Indonesian company is losing customers to an international competitor. Learners must consider:

  • What do you think is happening? (opinion)
  • Why is this happening? (reason)
  • What should the company do? (recommendation)

---

Speakers / sources featured

• The instructor/presenter (only an unnamed speaker is present; the subtitles do not provide a name)
• No other named external sources are mentioned (only general references like “CHGPT”/“AI tools,” e.g., ChatGPT is mentioned, but not as a cited source)