ESL Podcast – Page 2 – BEP Dev (9to5English)

BEP 377 – English Idioms for Describing Challenges (2)

Business English, Business Idioms, ESL Podcast / August 1, 2021

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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BEP 376 – English Idioms for Describing Challenges (1)

Business English, Business Idioms, ESL Podcast / July 18, 2021

Welcome back to Business English Pod for today’s lesson on English idioms for describing challenges.

According to an old expression, what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger. The idea is that life’s challenges and difficulties are good for us. They help us grow. They force us to learn. And shared challenges have a way of strengthening the bonds between people.

In your work life, you can probably think of many challenges that have tested you. There’s a good chance that you’ve talked about these challenges, with your colleagues or at the dinner table with your family. You’ve also probably listened to other people describe their challenges. Yes, difficulties at work are a rich topic of conversation. And for that reason, there are many useful English idioms we can use to describe challenges.

In the dialog, we’ll hear a conversation between two friends and former business partners. Simon and Allie ran a graphic design business together some years ago. Now they’re chatting over coffee and recalling some of the challenges they experienced. In their conversation, they use many idioms to describe these challenges. Try to pick out these idioms as you listen, and we’ll talk about them later in the debrief.

Listening Questions

1. What did Allie think about the idea of keeping their office?
2. What does Simon now think about their idea to rent a big office?
3. How does Allie describe the situation in which they had a team of people they didn’t know how to manage?

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Business English News 47 – Post-Pandemic Workplace

Business English, Business English Vocabulary, Business News, ESL Podcast / March 14, 2021

In this Business English News lesson we look at English vocabulary related to how the pandemic will change the workplace.

Clearly, the COVID-19 pandemic has spurred incredible changes in how we work. At the end of 2020, a whopping 42% of the American workforce continued to work remotely. This has meant rapid upskilling and massive investments in technology and infrastructure.

According to Candace Helton, operations director at Ringspo, “It’s worth noting that 70% of companies have been working on digital transformation before the pandemic hit.” But the pandemic tipped their hands, and the resulting change in work cultures around the globe will push even more businesses to accept remote options as the new normal.

In this new normal, relationships are different. There are no corner offices in the virtual workplace, no staff rooms, and no cubicles. There are fewer physical reinforcements of hierarchy. And it’s oddly humanizing to see the CEO deal with the same interruptions, like kids and barking dogs, that we all experience working from home.

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Skills 360 – Adapting to Change (Part 1)

Business English, Business English Skills 360, ESL Podcast, Management English / January 18, 2021

Welcome back to the Business English Skills 360 podcast for today’s lesson on adapting to change.

You might have heard that “change is the only constant,” meaning nothing ever stays the same. That’s easy to say, but not always easy to deal with. Many of us like certainty and stability. We get comfortable and we want to stay that way. But being comfortable shouldn’t mean being complacent, especially in today’s world.

Change doesn’t always happen at the same pace. These days, change seems so fast. And the COVID-19 pandemic has introduced new uncertainties and has accelerated certain trends, like the move toward remote work. Many industries have been battered. And the fact that people are tired of the word “pivot” only demonstrates how the pace of change has accelerated.

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BEP 364 – English for Startups 1: Preparing for a Pitch

Advanced, Business English, ESL Podcast, Training / October 10, 2020

Welcome back to Business English Pod for today’s lesson on preparing for a pitch in English to investors.

It’s easy to look around at the economy today and applaud the tech companies that made it big. But for every success, there are a hundred failures. Anyone who’s founded a startup or worked for one knows that new businesses face a lot of uncertainty and a world of challenges.

In this economy, the success of a startup depends on many factors. If you can learn to navigate the challenges, or to see them as opportunities, then you too might make it big. One important factor in startup success is good mentorship. There’s a strong tradition of established business people helping young entrepreneurs find the path to success.

And one of the most important opportunities a mentor can help you with is preparing for your first pitch to potential investors. If there’s any time that you should learn to take advice, it’s at this point. An English pitch to investors can make or break your company. And good preparation, as any mentor will tell you, is key.

Working with a mentor depends on you being open to input. That might mean accepting critical opinions and admitting your own weaknesses. But if you can do this, then you’ll be able to use your mentor to bounce ideas off, and to ask directly for help with challenges.

In today’s dialog, we’ll listen to a conversation between Quinn – a young entrepreneur – and Kira, his mentor. Quinn is getting ready to pitch his online payments startup to a potential investor. And we’ll hear how he learns from his more experienced mentor.

Listening Questions

1. What strong opinion about his pitch does Quinn have to accept?
2. What weakness does Quinn admit to?
3. What challenge does Quinn ask Kira for help with?

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