Business English – Page 61 – BEP Dev (9to5English)

BEP 253 – English for Meetings: Decision-Making Meetings (1)

Welcome back to Business English Pod for today’s lesson on decision-making in English meetings.

Success in business depends on making good decisions. But making good decisions is not just an individual skill. It’s a group skill. Several people come together to discuss an issue, explore options, and decide which path to follow. With good information, a good decision-making process, and good meeting skills, the participants should be able to make the best decision possible.

So what kind of skills might be useful in decision-making meetings? Today we’ll explore techniques such as framing a decision, inviting discussion, and referencing criteria. We’ll also cover raising concerns and requesting more information.

In the dialog, we’ll hear a group of people at an engineering firm trying to decide on a tech support company to hire. Scott, as senior partner, is leading the meeting, while Anne and David and Kelly are participating. The group discusses their options in order to figure out the best company to hire.

Listening Questions

1. What does Scott say is the basic question they have to answer?
2. What consideration does Kelly bring up in the discussion?
3. What piece of information about City Tech does David want to know?

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Business English News 28 – Eurozone Recovery

Business English, Business English Vocabulary, Business News, Finance and Accounting / May 11, 2014

In today’s Business English News lesson, we look at the situation in Europe as the Eurozone begins to recover. Since emerging from its longest-ever recession last summer, the Eurozone recovery has been muted at best. While recent reports show some positive signs, the region still has a long way to go in addressing some of its imbalances.

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BEP 252 – English Idioms of Choice (Part 2)

Business English, Business English Vocabulary, Business Idioms / May 4, 2014

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 / April 27, 2014

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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Skills 360 – English Communication Skills (2): Clarifying

Business English, Business English Skills 360, Communication / April 20, 2014

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Welcome back to Skills 360 for today’s lesson on how to improve your communication skills.

Communication between people is never perfect. Even with the people closest to us, who you might think we can understand very well, there is miscommunication. Sometimes we don’t hear things correctly, or we don’t hear them at all, and sometimes people don’t express ideas precisely. That’s enough to complicate the situation, but then we can throw in implied meaning and our own understanding of what’s being said indirectly. But have no fear. There are ways to work though the minefield of communication and make everything clear. And that’s exactly what we’ll look at today: clarifying what people have said.

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