Business English – Page 63 – BEP Dev (9to5English)

BEP 248 – Socializing with Strangers (2)

Business English, Socializing, Travel / March 9, 2014

Welcome back to Business English Pod for today’s lesson on socializing with strangers.

Imagine you’re on an airplane during a flight across the Pacific. You have to spend several hours seated right beside another person. You want to be friendly and perhaps find out what this person does and who this person is. So you turn to him or her and open your mouth to speak.

And what do you say? How do you start a conversation and then keep it going? Well, in any kind of travel situation it is useful to know some common topics and techniques. Today, we’ll look at asking a person about their destination and their purpose for traveling. We’ll also learn how to invite detail by echoing, identify a point of intersection, and summarize your work.

In the dialog, we’ll join Connie and Scott, who are sitting beside each other on a flight to Hong Kong. Connie starts up a conversation with Scott and uses many common and simple, though not always easy, ways of making small talk with strangers in a travel situation.

Listening Questions

1. What is the purpose of Scott’s trip?
2. What do Scott and Connie find they have in common?
3. What kind of work does Connie do?

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BEP 247 – Socializing with Strangers (1)

Business English, Socializing, Travel / March 2, 2014

Welcome back to Business English Pod for today’s lesson on socializing with strangers.

Traveling, whether for business or pleasure, will put you into all sorts of situations with people you don’t know. They could be sitting beside you on a train, in an airport lounge, or on a ferry ride. And what if you want to strike up a conversation with these people? What can you say to get the conversation going, and to keep it going?

Well, making conversation with strangers is a useful skill, and there are some great techniques you can learn for these situations. Today, we’ll look at how to start off a conversation by commenting on your surroundings, as well as how to ask about someone’s travel. We’ll also learn about reacting with interest, telling a personal story, and giving your name.

In the dialog, we’ll hear Scott and Joe, who find themselves sitting next to each other in an airport lounge waiting for their flights. Scott strikes up a conversation with Joe, and the two demonstrate a typical interaction that you might hear between two travelers.

Listening Questions

1. What is Joe and Scott’s first topic of conversation?
2. What does Joe mention that Scott shows interest in?
3. At what point in the conversation do Joe and Scott introduce themselves?

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Business English News 27 – Microsoft Reboot

Business English, Business News, IT and Computers / February 23, 2014

Microsoft has been busy since CEO Steve Ballmer announced his retirement last summer. On top of buying Nokia, introducing a new tablet lineup, and tweaking Windows 8, they searched high and low for a viable replacement for Ballmer. Even with the recently announced hiring of Satya Nadella as CEO, last year may have been Microsoft’s annus horribilis.

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BEP 246 – Product Presentations in English (2)

Business English, Presentations, Sales / February 16, 2014

Welcome back to Business English Pod for today’s lesson on giving a product presentation in English.

There’s no better way to show off a new product than talking to a group of customers directly. You can teach them about the product and gently persuade them that they need it. And you can adapt your presentation for specific audiences. Whether you’re at a trade show, a corporate event, a conference, or a customer’s office, you can learn to work the crowd in front of you.

Working the crowd during a product presentation is probably familiar to anyone who works in sales and marketing. But the techniques involved are useful for anyone in a company who has to talk about products or deliver presentations. In this lesson, we’ll cover many of these useful techniques, including relating changes to customer feedback, highlighting user benefits, and demonstrating a feature. We’ll also look at anticipating concerns and encouraging questions from the audience.

In the dialog, we’ll rejoin Jenny, who’s presenting a new software upgrade to a group of customers at a trade conference. She’ll also be joined by Tony, who works for a partner company called PaySys. Together, Jenny and Tony are explaining how their products work together.

Listening Questions

1. What does Tony say customers have asked for?
2. Tony mentions a few benefits of the recent product changes. What are they?
3. What does Jenny think that some people might be concerned about?

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BEP 245 – Product Presentations in English (1)

Business English, Presentations, Sales / February 8, 2014

Welcome back to Business English Pod for today’s lesson on giving a product presentation in English.

Okay, so imagine your company has just launched a brand new product, or a new and improved version of an existing one. Now it’s time to get the word out and show the world what this new product is all about. And how do we do that? Well, nothing beats a great product presentation. You can go to the customer directly and show off the item, talk about its features, and demonstrate how it works.

So how can we make sure our product presentations are effective? How can we talk to our customers in ways they understand? Fortunately, there are several key techniques you can learn to deliver a great product presentation. In this lesson, we’ll cover many of these techniques, including presenting the current situation, relating features to audience needs, and giving an overview of features. We’ll also look at how to call attention to something on-screen and deal with technical issues, which can mess up any well-planned presentation.

In the dialog, we’ll hear Jenny, who’s at a trade conference representing her company, ProBooks. They’ve just launched a new upgrade called ProBooks Fusion, and Jenny’s explaining what it’s all about to an audience of existing customers.

Listening Questions

1. What is the key concept behind the most recent ProBooks upgrade?
2. What feature of the software does Jenny want to demonstrate?
3. What is Jenny’s solution to the technical problem?

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