Lesson 002 · Team English
The Stand-Up
Run a 10-minute daily stand-up in English with three to five developers: get status, catch blockers, assign the next task with a date — without falling back into Hindi.
cd C:\Altamash-Next-js-Project\spoken-english-learning then
python -m http.server 8080, and open
http://localhost:8080/lessons/0002-the-stand-up.html in Chrome or Edge.
Why this lesson, now
Your owner has put you in charge of a small team whose common language is English, not Hindi. The stand-up is the meeting you will run every single day for the next year — so it is the highest-value 10 minutes in your week to get right, and the cheapest place to practise. Get this one meeting automatic and you will walk into the customer meetings with a lot more air in your lungs.
Two things make a stand-up hard in a second language: asking (you must drive the conversation, not just react) and listening at speed (three to five people answering in a row). This lesson drills both.
Strand 1 — Speaking: the status triangle
Three questions, one per developer, in this order. Ask, then stay quiet and listen. Do not fill their pause with your own words.
1. Yesterday — “Ravi, what did you finish yesterday?”
Past simple, because the time is stated (yesterday). Say the name first — it hands the turn over.2. Today — “What are you working on today?”
Present continuous for work in progress. Do not say What you will do today?3. Blockers — “Any blockers for you today?”
The most useful question in the whole meeting. Ask it even when you are short of time.Move it on — “Okay, thank you. Priya, your turn.”
Use your turn to hand over. It keeps a 5-person stand-up inside 10 minutes.When someone is stuck or silent
“Take your time. Say it in simple words.”
Gives them permission to speak simply, which is exactly what you need from them too.“Can you give me an example?”
When their answer is vague, do not repeat the question. Ask for an example — you get detail fast.“So to sum up, you're blocked on the API, right?”
The read-back from lesson 1, now on your own team. It confirms and it buys you time to think.Before the meeting ends — assign the next task
A stand-up without a clear next task is just a chat. This is where your English has to be sharpest, because your developer has to walk away knowing exactly what to do. Use one task, one owner, one date.
Give the task with a name — “Ravi, can you take the invoice page today?”
Name first, then the task. If you say the task first, four people wonder whether it is for them.Assign with a deadline — “I'm assigning the payment gateway to you. It's due Thursday.”
Pattern: I'm assigning + thing + to you, then the date. No date, no task.Make the requirement explicit — “Please write a comment on the ticket before you push.”
Standards are taught in stand-ups. This one line prevents most rework.Invite the blocker early — “If you're stuck for more than thirty minutes, come to me.”
The single most valuable sentence a new manager can say. It converts silent struggling into visible progress.Check they understood — “Does that make sense? Tell me the task back in one line.”
Your read-back from lesson 1, reversed. This is how you find out that “yes sir” meant nothing.Ask for a real date — “Can you give me a realistic date, not an ideal one?”
Removes the guess-and-promise habit in one polite sentence. Say this instead of arguing later.Fourteen words cover almost everything you will say to your team this week. The capital letters show the stressed syllable — say that syllable longer and louder. Hindi speakers flatten English stress, which is why a correct word can still sound unclear.
| Word | What it means in your day | Hear it |
|---|---|---|
| STAND-up | The short morning meeting where everyone gives status. | |
| SPRINT | A fixed block of work, usually two weeks. | |
| TICKet | One item of work in the tracker, with a number. | |
| TASK | The same as a ticket, in plain client-friendly words. | |
| BLOCKer | Something that stops a person working. Always ask for it. | |
| DEADline | The last acceptable time to finish. Not “dead-line”, one strong beat: DEADline. | |
| MILEstone | A big checkpoint the owner or client cares about. | |
| E-T-A | Your expected finish time. Spoken as three letters: E, T, A — never as one word. | |
| CODE reVIEW | Reading someone's code before it goes into the main branch. | |
| PULL reQUEST | Short form “PR”. The change you ask the team to review. | |
| dePLOY | To put the code on the live server. American English: dih-PLOY. | |
| STAGing | The test copy of the site, before live. | |
| BACKlog | The list of work not started yet. | |
| SCOPE | How much work is inside the project. “Out of scope” = not included. |
This sprint ends Friday. Any blockers? What is your E-T-A on the payment gateway?
passed
This is the sentence you will say most often this month. Say it twice: once slowly, once at meeting speed.
Strand 3 — Grammar: present perfect vs past simple
One grammar point today, because it is the one your status reports need. Your developers will say “I have finished” and “I finished”, and you have to hear the difference instantly — and say it correctly yourself.
| Use | Form | Example from your stand-up |
|---|---|---|
| Finished, and you say when | past simple finished / pushed / fixed |
I finished the invoice page yesterday. |
| Finished, and the result matters now — no time word | present perfect have + past participle |
I've finished the invoice page — it's on staging now. |
| Started then, still going | present perfect continuous have been + -ing |
I've been working on the API since Monday. |
| Not finished yet — the developer needs help | present perfect negative | I haven't received the test credentials yet. |
The three errors you will hear (and stop making)
| Wrong | Right | Why |
|---|---|---|
| I have finished it yesterday. | I finished it yesterday. | A finished time word (yesterday, last night, at 4) always takes the past simple. |
| I am working on it since Monday. | I've been working on it since Monday. | Since + a start point needs have been + -ing. |
| I didn't finished the ticket. | I haven't finished the ticket. | After didn't, use the base verb: didn't finish. Or say haven't finished. |
Say the contractions like a meeting speaker
Nobody says “I have finished” at meeting speed. They say “I've finished” — one beat, almost attached to the next word. Practise these five, because your team says them to you all day and you must hear them:
I've finished → sounds like “ive-FINished”
If you miss the 've, you hear “I finished” and you think it was done yesterday.He's pushed it → “heez-PUSHED-it”
He's here means he has, not he is. Context tells you which.We've deployed → “weev-dih-PLOYD”
Same pattern for the whole team — common in your own reports.I haven't → “HAVent”, not “have not”
The negative is where your blocker reports live.Check the grammar — click the sentence you would actually say
Q1. You want to tell the team the work is done, without mentioning any time. Which sentence?
Q2. A developer started the API work on Monday and is still on it. Which sentence is correct?
Q3. You need a finish time for the payment gateway. Which question is natural English?
Practice — build the status sentence
This is a real stand-up line with two present-perfect verbs. Click the words in order, then check.
Strand 4 — Listening: a real stand-up, at speed
Click Play the stand-up and listen once, all the way through, without reading anything. Then answer the three questions. The transcript stays hidden until you ask for it — that is the whole exercise.
How to use it: play it three times. Once: just listen, no stopping. Twice: listen only for the blocker. Third time: read the transcript while it plays and notice which words you missed — those are your practice words. Same technique as the BBC 6 Minute English episodes in your listening routine.
Q1 (listening). What has Ravi finished?
Q2 (listening). What is Ravi's blocker?
Q3 (listening). What is Ravi's ETA for the dashboard bug?
Speaking practice — you are the person running the meeting
Tap a line to hear it, then click Say it and speak the whole line. Pass mark: three of the four key words heard. The words matter, not the accent.
Ravi, what did you finish yesterday?
passed
Any blockers for you today?
passed
Three words, with a rising tone at the end. This is the question that will save you the most time this year.
Can you give me a realistic date, not an ideal one?
passed
If you're stuck for more than thirty minutes, come to me.
passed
Say this to every developer at least once this week. It is the sentence that turns a struggling team into a fast one.
This sprint ends Friday. Any blockers? What is your E-T-A on the payment gateway?
passed
Five drills done? You have now said the whole meeting out loud. That is more rehearsal than most managers get in a year.
Timed role-play — 20 seconds each, out loud
Start the timer, speak without stopping, then compare with the model. Run it twice: once for content, once for speed.
A. Assign one task
Give Ravi one task, with a deadline, and one requirement.
Task, owner, date, requirement — four things in three sentences.
B. Handle a blocker in the same breath
He says: “I haven't received the test credentials from the client yet.” Respond, own the unblocking, and give him his next task.
Read back, own the unblocking yourself, give the next task, set the date. Notice you never said “no problem”.
C. Give one piece of feedback
Priya's work was good, but she pushed code without a comment on the ticket. Say it so she fixes it and still feels good about the work.
Praise first, then one thing, then the reason. Never two corrections in one sentence.
Your mission this week
- Run tomorrow's stand-up entirely in English. Write the three questions on a sticky note. Sixty seconds per developer, no more.
- Write down every date they give you — start time and ETA both. At the next stand-up, open with those dates: “You said Thursday. Is that still good?”
- Say the thirty-minute line (“If you're stuck for more than thirty minutes, come to me”) to each developer, once.
- Listening, 10 minutes: one BBC 6 Minute English episode, played twice. Write down three phrases you heard.
- Grammar spot-check: in tomorrow's stand-up, notice one “I've finished” or “I finished” from your team and check whether the time word was there.
Pehla English stand-up awkward lagega, do-teen baar mein normal ho jayega. Aap ka team English samajhta hai — sirf aap ko wo teen sawaal bolne ki practice chahiye.
Cold recall: what I will ask you at the start of the next session
Close this page and answer these out loud, from memory. Then check your answers here.
- The three stand-up questions, in order.
- “I'm assigning ___ to you. It's due ___.”
- “Does that make sense? Tell me the task back in one line.”
- “Can you give me a realistic date, not an ideal one?”
- The present-perfect rule in one line: time word → past simple; no time word → have + participle.
- “What's your ETA on the payment gateway?”
- The stressed syllable in: blocker, deadline, milestone, backlog, deploy.