Business English Pod / Articles by: BEP / Page 36

BEP 319 – English Idioms for Expressing Degrees of Certainty (1)

Business English, Business English Vocabulary, Business Idioms /

BEP 319 - Business English Idioms for Expressing Degrees of Certainty (1)

Welcome back to Business English Pod for today’s lesson on English idioms for expressing degrees of certainty.

There’s an old saying in English that “nothing is certain except death and taxes.” The idea behind that expression is that we can’t really be sure of anything. Of course, that doesn’t stop us from talking about what might happen or will probably happen or what is unlikely to happen.

This kind of discussion is all about degrees of certainty. In other words: how sure you are about something. It’s important to know, or at least to guess, how certain something is. How else can you plan? How else can you decide the right course of action? And just like other common topics of discussion, English has many idioms for expressing certainty. In today’s lesson, we’re going to look at some of these expressions.

We’ll hear a conversation between Maria, Tom, and Gavin, who work for a company that makes mobile apps for children. The three colleagues are talking about several new ideas being considered in the company. More specifically, they’re discussing how certain they are about the potential for each app.

Listening Questions

1. What does Maria think about the app called Waffle Bunnies?
2. Which app does Maria think they can successfully market and sell?
3. What expression does Tom use to show how certain he is that the music-making app will be a success?

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Skills 360 – Making your Ideas Stick (Part 2)

Business English, Business Skills 360, Communication, Persuasion /

Business English Skills 360 Lesson - Making your Ideas Stick 2

Welcome back to the Business English Skills 360 for today’s lesson on making your ideas stick.

Have you ever been in a meeting or listened to a presentation where someone talks about their big idea? And then, forty PowerPoint slides later, you’re still not quite sure what they’re talking about, or why their idea is so great? Well, there might be a good idea somewhere behind it all, but for some reason it didn’t stick.

On the flip side, there are ideas that you couldn’t forget if you wanted to. For whatever reason, people understand them, they remember them, and they get behind them.

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Skills 360 – Making your Ideas Stick (Part 1)

Business English, Business Skills 360, Communication, Persuasion /

Business English Skills 360 Lesson - Making your Ideas Stick 1

Welcome back to the Business English Skills 360 for today’s lesson on how you can make your ideas stick.

Let’s face it: ideas are a dime a dozen. And just having a great idea doesn’t mean a thing if you can’t get other people to believe in it. And before you can get anyone to believe in it, you need to help them remember it. You need to make it stick. So today I want to share a couple of tips for helping your ideas stick. It doesn’t matter if you’re giving a presentation, proposing something in a meeting, or pitching to investors. The secrets to stickiness are the same.

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VV 55 – English for Marketing: Product Management

Business English, Business English Vocabulary, English Video, Marketing English /
YouTube video

In this lesson, we’ll look at business English vocabulary related to product management.

In many companies, product managers help promote a product. Companies do market analysis as well as competitive research in order to develop a business case for a product. A product roadmap lays out the plan for developing a product, including the go-to-market strategy and the product launch.

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BEP 32 B – English for Discussing Solutions to a Problem (2)

Business English, English for Meetings, Teleconference English /

BEP 32B - English for Discussing Solutions to a Problem 2

Welcome back to Business English Pod for today’s lesson on discussing solutions to a problem during a teleconference in English.

Have you ever been in a meeting where everyone just wants to complain about a problem? And maybe they criticize every solution that is suggested? Well, if that’s all you do, the problem will never be solved.

Discussing solutions is all about figuring out what might actually work. It’s about finding the best solution, even if it’s not the perfect solution. So you need to learn how to agree with people’s ideas, either strongly, or with conditions. In other words, you might agree but only if something else can happen.

If you’re leading a problem-solving meeting, you’ll likely need to highlight the best solution that comes forward. Even when you have a pretty good solution, you might still want to invite more ideas. And whether you’re leading or participating in the meeting, you might offer to take the lead on implementing a solution. In this lesson, we’ll cover all these skills for discussing solutions.

In today’s dialog, we’ll rejoin a teleconference led by Jim. On the line with Jim are Jack, Dan, and Angie. They are discussing how to deal with the issue of paint fumes at a factory. They’re trying to find the best way to solve this problem.

Listening Questions

1. What expression does Angie use to agree strongly with Dan’s idea?
2. What solution does Jim highlight as the best one?
3. What does Dan say he wants to do about the research on different types of paint?

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