An argument at the meeting in Serbian

How the whole thing sounds

The situation: a work meeting: two people argue over a client's proposal and raise their voices. First the whole conversation, then each line on its own, with a translation.

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  По мом мишљењу, треба да одбијемо ту понуду.

  Po mom mišljenju, treba da odbijemo tu ponudu.

  In my opinion, we should reject this proposal.
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  Не слажем се. Који ти је аргумент, осим осећаја?

  Ne slažem se. Koji ti je argument, osim osećaja?

  I disagree. What's your argument, besides a feeling?
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  Чињеница је да цена расте, а рок се скраћује. То је довољно.

  Činjenica je da cena raste, a rok se skraćuje. To je dovoljno.

  The fact is the price is rising and the deadline is shrinking. That's enough.
• ▶
  Ја бих ипак узео у обзир и предности: клијент је велик и плаћа на време.

  Ja bih ipak uzeo u obzir i prednosti: klijent je velik i plaća na vreme.

  I would still factor in the advantages: the client is big and pays on time.
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  Инсистирам на писаном одговору од њих пре него што одлучимо.

  Insistiram na pisanom odgovoru od njih pre nego što odlučimo.

  I insist on a written reply from them before we decide.
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  То је разуман предлог. Али немој да подижеш глас, нико те не напада.

  To je razuman predlog. Ali nemoj da podižeš glas, niko te ne napada.

  That's a reasonable proposal. But don't raise your voice; nobody is attacking you.
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  Извини, био сам груб. Признајем грешку, лоше сам то поднео.

  Izvini, bio sam grub. Priznajem grešku, loše sam to podneo.

  Sorry, I was rude. I admit the mistake; I took it badly.
• ▶
  У реду. Онда ћемо донети одлуку кад стигне писани одговор.

  U redu. Onda ćemo doneti odluku kad stigne pisani odgovor.

  Okay. Then we'll make the decision when the written reply arrives.

Lines one by one

How to prepare for a conversation like this

Memorizing the lines is not enough: the other person will say their own thing, not what is written. What helps more is catching the key words by ear and keeping three rescue phrases ready: “I don't understand”, “repeat, please”, “slower”.

And one more thing phrasebooks do not mention: awkwardness gets in the way more than not knowing the words.

• Fear of making mistakes gets in the way of learning a language, and noticeably so. The link turns up study after study, and together those studies cover almost twenty thousand people.checked many times
  Teimouri, Goetze & Plonsky, 2019, Studies in Second Language Acquisition 41(2) · 19,933 participants from 23 countries; correlation with results r = −0.36.
• That fear can be dealt with — the methods have been tested and they work.checked many times
  Xiong et al., 2024, Journal of Language and Social Psychology · 37 studies, anxiety reduced by −0.61. Of the seven conditions examined, only age turned out to matter.

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