They say there’s one rule of conversation that you should always follow in business – don’t talk about politics, sex or religion. Eigentlich, Jedoch, it seems like 90% of casual conversations are about just those things – politics, sex and religion. Also in dieser Folge, we’ll be focusing on one of these topics – politics. We’ll be learning some language that will help you cope with this difficult topic.
There’s a trick to talking about politics in business. In international business culture, it’s usually better not to express strong opinions. The focus is generally on the exchange of information rather than on debate, because the main goal is to maintain harmonious relations. Häufig, we state our opinions non-committally. That means we don’t commit ourselves to an opinion – in other words, we don’t voice a strong view one way or the other. Stattdessen, we prefer to be vague, or ambiguous. This strategy helps avoid conflict.
So in this podcast, in addition to covering some general phrases and vocabulary for discussing politics, we’ll be studying how to soften your questions and be non-committal when necessary.
We’ll be listening to Ricardo and Lars, alte Kollegen, die sich auf einer internationalen Konferenz wieder getroffen haben. Sie sprechen über die politische Situation in ihren Heimatländern, Brasilien und Dänemark.
Fragen zum Zuhören
1) Ricardo says he has heard that the Danish government is pretty far “right”, das ist, konservativ. Aber Lars scheint zu glauben, dass das auch eine gute Seite hat. Was ist es?
2) Lars erwähnt, dass Brasilien seine Bewerbung um die Ausrichtung der Weltmeisterschaft gewonnen hat. Ricardo sagt, dass Brasilien in welchen Bereichen noch viel zu tun hat?
3) Lars talks about a certain kind of problem that has “cropped up”, das ist, erschien oder ereignete sich während der Präsidentschaft des brasilianischen Präsidenten Lula. Was ist es?
Download: Podcast MP3
