{"id":200,"date":"2007-10-27T21:01:33","date_gmt":"2007-10-28T05:01:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.businessenglishpod.com\/2007\/10\/27\/bep-70-adv-mergers-1-breaking-bad-news\/"},"modified":"2023-01-11T06:21:42","modified_gmt":"2023-01-11T14:21:42","slug":"bep-70-adv-mergers-breaking-bad-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/9to5english.com\/wordpress\/2007\/10\/27\/bep-70-adv-mergers-breaking-bad-news\/","title":{"rendered":"BEP 70 &#8211; Mergers: Breaking Bad News"},"content":{"rendered":"<!--[if lt IE 9]><script>document.createElement('audio');<\/script><![endif]-->\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-200-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/secure\/bizpod\/BEP070ADV-Mergers1.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/secure\/bizpod\/BEP070ADV-Mergers1.mp3\">https:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/secure\/bizpod\/BEP070ADV-Mergers1.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<p>This is the first in a three-part Business English Pod series that explores the use of many different language techniques in the context of a merger. Today&#8217;s episode focuses on vague, diplomatic language and probing questions. Vague and diplomatic language was introduced in podcasts <a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessenglishpod.com\/2006\/12\/10\/bep-24-teleconferencing-using-diplomatic-language\/\">BEP 24<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessenglishpod.com\/2007\/06\/09\/bep-51-strategically-using-vague-language-part-1\/\">BEP 51 <\/a>and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessenglishpod.com\/2007\/06\/13\/bep-52-int-strategically-using-vague-language-part-2\/\">BEP 52<\/a>, so you might wish to review those to refresh your memory.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, we&#8217;ll be covering probing questions, which we first looked at in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.businessenglishpod.com\/2007\/09\/01\/bep-64-adv-questioning-techinques-part-1\/\">BEP 64<\/a>. To probe is to explore or investigate, so probing questions are used to gather more detailed and targeted information. And I should also point out that there are two speaking practices at the end of this podcast &#8211; an action packed episode indeed.<\/p>\n<p>For this series, we again visit our U.S.-based guitar manufacturer, which has a production plant in Costa Rica. In this episode, we find out that the company is merging with a larger guitar manufacturer. To merge is to join together. When two companies join together, we call this a &#8220;merger.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The new owners want to cut costs, which might mean cutting jobs. So, an important question in the mind of our old friend Jack is &#8211; who is going to be fired? We join Jack and his boss Jim, who meets Jack by chance in the hallway of the company headquarters.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Listening Questions:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>1. Who will Jack be meeting with after his chat with Jim?<br \/>\n2. What city might the Costa Rican plant move to?<br \/>\n3. Why do the new owners want to move the factory out of Costa Rica?<\/p>\n<p>[tp no_translate=&#8221;y&#8221;]<strong>Premium Members: <a href=\"https:\/\/businessenglishpod.com\/learningcenter\/StudyNotes\/BEP070SN-Mergers1.pdf\">PDF Transcript<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Download: <a href=\"https:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/secure\/bizpod\/BEP070ADV-Mergers1.mp3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Podcast MP3<\/a><\/strong>[\/tp]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is the first in a three-part Business English Pod lesson that explores the use of many different language techniques in the context of a merger.  Today&#8217;s lesson focuses on vague, diplomatic language and probing questions.  Vague and diplomatic language was introduced in podcasts BEP 24 and BEP 32.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":"","powered_cache_disable_cache":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[13,45,2,9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/9to5english.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/9to5english.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/9to5english.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/9to5english.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/9to5english.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/9to5english.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19841,"href":"https:\/\/9to5english.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200\/revisions\/19841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/9to5english.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/9to5english.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/9to5english.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}