Open Björn

American English · C1 · Unit 1

Explaining your field

Explaining your field

By the end you can

Explain a complex subject from your field to a non-expert
Answer detailed questions precisely
Understand a specialist text outside your field

Words and phrases

American English	Meaning	Example
in layman's terms	in simple language for people who aren't experts	In layman's terms, we teach computers to spot patterns.
essentially	basically, at its core	Essentially, I help hospitals waste less money.
think of it as	a way to introduce a comparison	Think of it as a map of the body's wiring.
to put it another way	saying it differently	To put it another way, we find leaks before they happen.
that's a common misconception	many people wrongly believe that	That's a common misconception about my job.
it's more nuanced than that	it's more complicated and subtle	It's more nuanced than that, though.
the jargon	specialist words used in a field	Sorry, let me skip the jargon.
broadly speaking	in general	Broadly speaking, there are two schools of thought.
to be precise	more exactly	To be precise, it's 3.2 percent.
the gist	the main idea	That's the gist of it.
in a sense	in one way	In a sense, we're detectives.
dumb it down	make something too simple (informal)	I don't want to dumb it down too much.

Then talk it through

Explaining your work to a curious stranger at a dinner party. In the app you have this conversation out loud or typed, with the unit's goals to tick off and corrections at the end.