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925 English Lesson 24 – How to Clarify Meaning in English

925 English, A2, Business English, English Video, ESL Podcast, Functions /
YouTube video

In today’s 925 English video lesson, we’re going to learn some ways of clarifying what someone means.

Sure, you can just nod and smile when you don’t understand. People do that all the time. But they also feel foolish later, especially when the speaker realizes what has happened. Or when you have to ask a question that clearly shows you didn’t understand the first time.

Sometimes it’s just a matter of one word you don’t know. In this case, don’t be afraid to stop someone for clarification. You can always begin by saying you’re sorry, then just ask what the word means. Or you can say you’re “not quite clear what you mean by” a certain word.

925 English is a course of video English lessons for beginner level (CEFR A2) English learners. With 925 English lessons you can learn business English expressions to use in work and business.

Members: PDF Transcript | Lesson Module | Quiz | MP3 Audio

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BEP 333 – Business Development 4: Following Up with Partners

Business English, Sales English, Socializing /

Sales English - BEP 333 Business Development 4: Following up with Partners

Welcome back to Business English Pod for today’s lesson on how to follow up with potential partners.

Everyone knows that business is a competitive world, sometimes brutally competitive. But it’s not all “dog eat dog,” as they say. Good business people know that one of the keys to success is collaboration. You find other people and businesses that are doing great things, and you cooperate so that you both benefit.

In fact, forging good partnerships is an important aspect of business development. And every partnership begins with a conversation in English. Or a few conversations, I should say.

Once you’ve identified someone as a potential partner, you’ll want to follow up, by phone or in person. And that conversation might involve asking about the person’s work activities, before steering the conversation toward your own field of work and what your company is doing. From there, you can carefully move toward the idea of working together. You might even propose a small joint effort to get the partnership going.

In today’s dialog, we’ll hear Nick, a business development executive with Quest HR. Nick is talking to Ian, who works with a management consulting firm. The two met at a conference, and Nick quickly identified Ian’s company as a potential partner. Now Nick is trying to figure out how they might be able to work together.

Listening Questions

1. What does Nick say his company believes is the secret to success?
2. What does Nick suggest Ian do if he’s interested in the work of Nick’s company?
3. What joint effort does Nick propose at the end of the conversation?

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BEP 332 – Business Development 3: Following Up with Prospects

Business English, Sales English, Socializing /

Sales English - BEP 332 Business Development 3: Following up with Customers

Welcome back to Business English Pod for today’s lesson on following up with prospects.

English for Business development is all about the art of conversation. A smile, some chit chat, and a few good questions should be able to tell you if someone’s worth following up with. And when you do follow up, you’ll need to take your English conversation skills to next level.

When you’re following up with a prospect, you’ll likely start off with some English small talk. But pretty soon you’ll have to steer the conversation toward business. More specifically, you might ask leading questions to get the prospect to talk about their challenges. From there, you can set up solutions, and connect these solutions to their goals. If they have doubts along the way, you’ll need to address them. And if you’re successful, you should be able to arrange a follow-up meeting.

In today’s dialog, we’ll hear Nick, who works in business development for an HR consulting company. He is talking on the phone with Andria, the HR manager for a manufacturing company. Nick met Andria at a conference, and now he’s trying to find out more about Andria’s potential as a customer.

Listening Questions

1. What does Nick say he wants to understand about HR departments?
2. What does Nick say engagement surveys can help with?
3. What doubts does Nick ask Andria to explain in more detail?

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925 English Lesson 23 – How to Clarify Understanding in English

925 English, A2, Business English, English Video, Functions /
YouTube video

In today’s 925 English video lesson, we’re going to learn how to clarify something you didn’t hear properly.

If you don’t hear what someone says, the easiest thing to do is just let it go. Move on. Let them keep talking. But that can be a very dangerous strategy. I mean, what if they asked you to do something important? Or what if they told you some important information? Do you really want to miss that?

So rather than letting it go, it’s easy to just ask the person to repeat what they said. To do that politely, we might say “Could you repeat that please?” Or you can use the expression “I beg your pardon?” Then the person knows you haven’t heard them, and they’ll repeat it for you.

925 English is a course of English video lessons for beginner level English learners. With 925 English lessons you can learn business English expressions to use in work and business.

Members: PDF Transcript | Lesson Module | Quiz | MP3 Audio

Download: Podcast Video

BEP 331 – English Idioms for Giving Advice and Warnings (2)

Business English, Business English Vocabulary, Business Idioms /

Business English Idioms for Giving Advice and Warnings 2

Welcome back to Business English Pod. My name’s Edwin, and I’ll be your host for today’s lesson on business English idioms for giving advice and warnings.

People don’t usually deal with problems or make big decisions on their own. No, they usually turn to those around them for advice. And unless you work alone on an island, you probably find yourself giving advice to others on a regular basis. Could be a colleague coming by your office to chat about a difficult project. Or it might be a friend calling you up for help with a workplace conflict.

But we sometimes find ourselves giving advice even when it’s not asked for. You might be chatting with an employee and realize they’re about to take a big risk. Or a co-worker might be about to accept a bad deal. Whatever the case, it’s your job to warn them about the hazards of their choices.

When you give advice, you can rely on the usual language of suggestions, and expressions like “should” and “how about doing” something. But we also have a lot of English idioms for these situations. And it’s these idioms of advice that we’ll look at today.

In the dialog, we’ll hear a conversation between two work friends, Ryan and Dana. Dana has had ongoing problems with another colleague named Jane. She’s telling Ryan all about the latest developments in the conflict. And Ryan is giving both advice and warnings to her about her approach to the problem. In their conversation, they use lots of useful business English idioms.

Listening Questions

1. What does Ryan think Dana should do instead of avoiding Jane?
2. What does Ryan say about Dana’s plan to send Jane an email?
3. Dana misunderstands some of Ryan’s advice. What does she incorrectly think he is telling her to do?

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