Skills 360 – Making the Most of Personal Learning 1

Welcome back to the Skills 360 podcast.

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We’ve got a great lesson today on making the most of personal learning. We’ll start by looking at setting SMART goals and personalizing your studies with a personal learning plan. We’ll also look at how you can vary your input by using a variety of sources and study what is interesting and relevant to both you and your job.

Discussion Questions

1. What are the different things you do to study or practice English?
2. What aspect of English would you most like to improve?
3. What do you find are the best online resources for studying English?

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Skills 360 Podcast is Now Available in iTunes

Business Skills 360 - The podcast that looks at the other side of Business English.
Our Business Skills 360 Podcast is now available in iTunes: Free iTunes Subscription


Business Skills 360 lessons provide essential tips and language for communicating in English. Free transcripts, quizzes and PDF downloads are available on the myBEonline website.

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BEP 193 – English Idioms: Time Idioms (Part 2)

This is the second of our two-part Business English Pod series on idioms related to time.

Time is a very precious resource. And for this reason, time management is a very important issue at work and in business. We’re always thinking about how to better manage our time, get our work done, juggle deadlines, arrange schedules, and follow timelines. Time, like money, is something that we can measure, budget, save, and even waste.

English is rich in idioms related to time. These idioms are very useful in business considering time is such a constant concern. In our last episode, we covered many common and useful expressions related to time in general. Today, we’ll look at a few more, particularly ones related to a lack of time and expressing a sense of urgency.

We’ll rejoin Jeff and Claire, two managers who are overseeing the development of a mobile phone app and a new website. Previously, we heard them talking about the design and development of the app. Today, they’re going to focus their discussion on the new website.

Listening Questions

1. Why is the website behind schedule?
2. Which part of the team usually waits to do their work?
3. When do they hope to assemble the website?

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BEP 192 – English Idioms: Time Idioms (Part 1)

Welcome back to Business English Pod. In this lesson, we’re going to take a look at business English idioms related to time.

At work and in business, time is always a concern. We rush to get to the office “on time,” we work hard to finish projects “in time” and we sometimes have to work “overtime” to get it all done. If you’re like most people, you watch the clock and the calendar constantly. It’s hard not to with such busy schedules and tight timelines.

In English, time idioms focus on a few key ideas. We hear the word “time” a lot, as well as the words “clock” and “hour”. Many of the idioms are related to speed, duration, regularity, and how late or early something happens or is finished. We also see a lot of idioms related to time pressure.

In this lesson, we’ll hear a conversation between Jeff and Claire, two project managers who are overseeing the development of a mobile phone application and a new website. We will hear them discuss timelines on different parts of the project and different project teams.

Listening Questions

1. What does Claire say about the designers?
2. What does Jeff say about the writers?
3. Which part of the project is behind schedule?

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Download: Podcast MP3