Welcome back to Business English Pod for today’s lesson on English idioms for describing challenges.
If you listen in on conversations in the break room at work or at a popular restaurant, what will you hear? Chances are good you’ll hear people talking about problems and challenges. And it’s not just that people are naturally negative. It’s that talking about difficult experiences can help us feel better. And it can also help us find solutions.
Beyond feeling better and finding solutions, talking about past challenges can help us learn from them. And if you’ve shared a difficult experience with someone, then your relationship will develop and grow. For all these reasons, talking about challenges has inspired lots of English idioms.
In today’s dialog, we’ll continue with a conversation between two former business partners. Simon and Allie are meeting for coffee and their conversation has focused on their old graphic design business. They’ve been talking about several different challenges, including challenges with staff. In their conversation, they use many idioms for describing challenges, which we’ll talk about later in the debrief.
Listening Questions
1. What does Allie call the situation where you do some work you like and some to just help pay the bills?
2. How does Simon describe many of the projects they worked on?
3. How does Allie react when Simon says he feels he wasn’t helping her enough?
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