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BEP 252 – English Idioms of Choice (Part 2)

Business English, Business English Vocabulary, Business Idioms /

Welcome back to Business English Pod for today’s lesson on idioms related to choices and their consequences.

Every day in work and business we are faced with tough choices. Do we choose vendor A or vendor B? Employee A or employee B? Location A or location B? Or maybe even location C? Making the right choice typically involves evaluating all the options and discussing them with others. So how do we discuss the choices we face? How do we talk about the options we’re presented with so that we can make the right choice? Well, luckily, English has lots of great idioms for these types of discussions. So whether you’re talking with colleagues, bosses, or friends, you can use the expressions we’ll learn in today’s lesson.

Today we will rejoin a conversation between three friends: Harry, Wendy, and Thomas. They’ve been discussing a difficult situation, and decision, that Harry faces. Harry hired a company to build out his new store, but the company hasn’t finished the job and now Harry is trying to figure out what to do. In their conversation, you’ll hear many idioms related to choices and their consequences.

Listening Questions

1. What did Harry’s partner want to do at first?
2. What does Thomas seem to think about Harry’s chances in court against the construction company?
3. After considering all the options, Wendy says Harry must decide between two things. What are they?

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BEP 251 – English Idioms of Choice (Part 1)

Business English, Business English Vocabulary, Business Idioms /

Welcome back to Business English Pod for today’s lesson on English idioms related to choices and their consequences.

We all love choice. Whether we’re buying something, deciding on a career, hiring a new employee, outsourcing operations, or looking for a new office location, we like a range of options to choose from. And the less choice we have, the more powerless we feel. Just imagine if you had no choice in life and business.

But this isn’t to say that choice is easy. On the contrary, life and work are full of really tough choices. In fact, we spend a lot of each day thinking, discussing, and arguing about decisions. And for this reason, English has lots of great idioms for talking about choices. Today we’ll look at some of these idioms and how to use them.

You will hear a conversation between three friends, Harry, Wendy, and Thomas. Harry has been planning to open a new store and he’s had some trouble with the contractor he hired to do the construction. He is now faced with some tough choices about how to get the work finished so he and his partner can open their new store. In their conversation, you will hear many idioms related to choice.

Listening Questions

1. What did Harry think about the contractors when he hired them?
2. What does Thomas think about Harry’s decision?
3. Besides going to court, what other option does Harry say he has?

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BEP 237 – English Idioms of Luck and Opportunity (2)

Business English, Business English Vocabulary, Business Idioms /

In today’s Business English Pod lesson, we continue our look at English idioms related to luck and opportunity.

What do you say to a friend who is on his way to an important job interview? If you’re like most people, you’ll say “good luck.” But does your friend really need luck to succeed? Well, it’s clear that luck is not the only factor in success, but it does seem important in some cases. It might have been good luck that your friend saw the job posting online one day. But then again, it might be bad luck that your friend trips on his way into the interview.

In any case, making the most of a good opportunity like a job interview certainly seems to involve some luck. Think back on your own career. You can probably think of your own examples of good and bad luck, and how that affected your success with certain opportunities.

In English, we have many common expressions related to luck and opportunity. In our last lesson, we learned some great idioms such as “lucky break,” “tough luck,” and “opportunity knocks.” In this lesson, we’ll learn many more.

In the dialog, we will rejoin Jim and Oscar, two colleagues riding the bus home after work. They are talking about their own opportunities and luck, and they use many useful idioms.

Listening Questions

1. What does Jim think of his chances of getting the job?
2. What does Jim think would be difficult?
3. What does Oscar say about moving into management?

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BEP 236 – English Idioms of Luck and Opportunity (1)

Business English, Business English Vocabulary, Business Idioms /

Welcome back to Business English Pod for today’s lesson on English idioms related to luck and opportunity.

Some people have good luck, some people have bad luck, and some people have no luck at all. But what exactly is luck? And how important is it? Some successful business people will tell you that it’s very important. Donald Trump has said that “everything in life is luck.” But other people will tell you that luck is just what happens to people who work hard. In fact, there’s an old saying that luck is what happens when “preparation meets opportunity.”

And opportunity is another word and idea we hear about a lot in business. Opportunities are the good chances that come our way. We can “seize” opportunities, which means we accept them. Or we can let them go. What we do with opportunities is completely up to us.

But whatever you think about luck and opportunity in business, they are both common ideas and words. And not just on their own, but as parts of common English idioms. And it’s these idioms of luck and opportunity that we’ll look at in today’s lesson.

You will hear a conversation between Jim and Oscar, two colleagues who are taking the bus home from work together. Jim and Oscar are chatting about their day and some recent developments in their office. In their conversation, you will notice many idioms related to luck and opportunity.

Listening Questions

1. What does Oscar suggest about buses after 5:00pm?
2. Why does their colleague Ethan have “tough luck”?
3. At the end of the dialog, what does Oscar seem to suggest to Jim?

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BEP 222 – Idioms of Success and Failure 2

Business English, Business English Vocabulary, Business Idioms /

This Business English Pod lesson is the second in our series on English idioms related to success and failure.

80% of new businesses fail within the first five years. Those don’t seem like very good odds, do they? But new businesses continue to be born every day. And every one of them is started with a dream of success. Yes, the possibility of success motivates us, inspires us, and keeps us going to work every morning. Or is it the fear of failure that does this? Do we keep trying because if we don’t, we might fall on our face and disappoint everyone around us? Either way, success and failure are two sides of the same coin.

At work and in business, we almost have an obsession with success and failure. Just think of your conversations about colleagues past and present. What is it you talk about? Well, you might talk about their health and their families. But you probably spend more time talking about whether they’ve made a million bucks yet.

Fortunately, English has lots of great expressions for talking about this common topic. We looked at a few in our last episode, and today we’ll learn lots more.

In the dialog, we’ll rejoin Sam and Dylan, two former colleagues who have been talking about their own successes and failures. Today we’ll hear Sam and Dylan discussing the fortunes of someone they both know named Cameron Smith.

Listening Questions

1. What did Cameron do when his photo-sharing app was successful?
2. What happened as a result of Cameron’s lack of management skills?
3. What did Cameron’s investors decide to do?

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