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BEP 15c – Telephoning: Asking for Help

A2, Business English, Telephone English / July 26, 2015

Welcome back to Business English Pod for today’s lesson on how to ask for help on the telephone in English.

Asking someone for help with a problem is hard enough to begin with. But on the telephone it can be even more difficult! You can’t see the other person and how they are reacting, and they can’t see you. You can’t rely on a smile and friendly body language. So how can you get the help you need?

Well, don’t worry. In this lesson we’ll look at some simple steps to making an effective call. If we’re talking to someone we know, it might start with a bit of friendly small talk about things like sports or the weather. That helps makes people feel relaxed and positive, which is important if you want to talk about a problem. After you’ve created a relaxed atmosphere, you can introduce the problem. You don’t want to just blurt out “I have a problem, please help me.” You need to do it gently, or carefully. At this point, the other person may ask some questions to clarify the situation. If they’re going to help you, they’ll need a clear idea of what you need.

Next, you can suggest a solution or explain how the other person can help. Again, you don’t want to just tell the person directly what they should do. You need to be friendly and polite so that the other person actually wants to help you. And hopefully the result of all this is that you have some agreement about what will happen next and who will do what. It’s a great idea to summarize this agreement near the end of the call just so both of you are perfectly clear. So, that sounds like a pretty good way to ask for help, doesn’t it?

We’ll hear all of these steps in today’s dialog between Eric and Brenda. Brenda works for a manufacturing company that buys parts from Eric’s company. She is calling because there is an important part that hasn’t been delivered. But Brenda doesn’t just want to complain about her problem. She needs to get Eric to agree to help her.

Listening Questions

1. After introducing themselves, what do Eric and Brenda talk about first?
2. What solution does Brenda suggest for her problem?
3. What does Eric say he will do for Brenda to help solve her problem?

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BEP 273 – English Collocations for Discussing Business Strategy (2)

Business English, Business English Vocabulary, English Collocations, English for Meetings / July 19, 2015

Welcome back to Business English Pod for today’s lesson on business English collocations for talking about strategy.

Think about the future of your company. How will it remain competitive? What are the long-term goals of your company? What does your company want to achieve? And how will it do that? These are just some of the questions that you might consider when you discuss business strategy. You need to think about what your business does well, how you can use your resources wisely, and what you need to do to grow the company. And when you discuss these ideas, you can use some common expressions, or combinations, which we call “collocations.”

But what is a collocation? A collocation is a group of words that sound natural together. They sound natural because native speakers commonly use them. And you can sound natural too if you learn these collocations. For example, you can say “implement a plan.” That sounds natural. But how about “do a plan?” Well, that’s not a common collocation and so it doesn’t sound natural.

As you listen to the conversation in this lesson, try to pick out some of these collocations and we’ll discuss them later in the debrief.

In the dialog, we’ll hear Anne, Jenny, and Max, three executives at a food company called Healthy Organics. They are discussing their strategy for developing the company into the future. They’ll talk about some important strategic decisions, and they’ll use lots of useful expressions.

Listening Questions

1. According to Anne, why do they need to broaden their product offerings?
2. What does Jenny think they need to build on?
3. What specifically does Anne want to figure out for the next three to five years?

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BEP 272 – English Collocations for Discussing Business Strategy (1)

Business English, Business English Vocabulary, English Collocations, English for Meetings / July 12, 2015

Welcome back to Business English Pod for today’s lesson on English collocations for discussing business strategy.

Look behind any successful business and what will you find? Good strategy and wise planning. Good strategy involves understanding the environment, the market, the customers, and the competition. And good planning means taking all that knowledge and deciding how to compete now and into the future.

In this lesson, we’ll hear how the executives in a food company discuss business strategy. And as they strategize, the speakers will use some useful expressions that we call “collocations.” Learning English collocations will help you improve your vocabulary and sound more natural. So what exactly is a collocation? Well, it’s just a group of words that we commonly use together. For example, we often say “reach a goal.” It sounds natural, because that’s what people say. But what about: “grasp a goal” or “arrive at a goal?” Well, those don’t sound natural because they’re not common combinations or collocations.

As you listen to the discussion, try to pick out some of these collocations and we’ll discuss them later in the debrief.

In the dialog, we’ll hear Anne, Jenny, and Max, executives at a food company called Healthy Organics. The speakers have gone on a weekend retreat to try to create a good strategy for moving their company into the future. They’ll talk about their vision and a strategic plan for growth.

Listening Questions

1. What does Anne say they have managed to accomplish so far during the retreat?
2. What does Max say is the goal over the next two days?
3. What does Jenny want to figure out first?

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Business English News 33 – Employment Practices

Business English, Business English Vocabulary, Business News, Human Resources / July 5, 2015

In today’s Business English News lesson, we look at developments in employment practices and how these effect job stability and opportunities for career development.

The world quietly passed a significant milestone recently – the global jobless total surpassed 200 million people, according to a study by the UN. To put that into perspective, that’s 30 million more without work than at the height of the recession in 2008. As CBC News reports, these figures could have grave implications for the future.

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BEP 271 – Brainstorming Meetings (Part 2)

Business English, Communication, English for Meetings / June 28, 2015

Welcome back to Business English Pod for today’s lesson on running an effective brainstorming session.

The basic idea of brainstorming is quite simple: you have a problem to solve and you bring together a group of people to generate ideas. You don’t evaluate those ideas immediately, you just want to generate as many ideas as possible. And with the right focus, a good facilitator, and respect for the process, brainstorming can bring out some great ideas.

Today we’ll look at some useful language and techniques for group brainstorming sessions. For facilitators, we’ll look at encouraging more ideas and resisting evaluation. For participants, we’ll cover qualifying your own ideas, introducing an unusual idea, and praising other people’s suggestions.

In the dialog, we’ll rejoin Sally, Melissa, Noah, and Eric, who work for a coffee shop faced with increasing competition. The group is trying to come up with ways of attracting more customers to the shop. Sally is the store manager, and she’s facilitating the session.

Listening Questions

1. Melissa introduces an idea that she says might be “a small thing.” What is it?
2. Noah questions Eric’s suggestion about being more creative with product names. How does Sally deal with Noah’s reaction?
3. How does Noah respond to Melissa’s idea about a delivery service?

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