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In this Business English Podcast, we ll be looking at the language used to make appointments on the telephone. We live in the era of remote communication: teleconferencing, videoconferencing, and online meetings. More and more group efforts are getting done from a distance. In theory, at least, it s possible to work closely with anyone in the world without leaving our desks. Nevertheless, there s something about a face-to-face meeting that no virtual one can replace. We still need to shake people’s hands, read their body language, and make personal connections. That’s why - even today - one of the commonest uses for the telephone is to make appointments. In this episode, we’ll take a close look at making appointments on the phone. Gordon Knight works for Bridgewater, a U.S. pension fund. (Pension funds are institutions that invest retirement savings.) At a recent conference, Gordon met Penny Yip, a senior financial analyst for the Asia Markets office of Solomon-Clyde. Solomon is a boutique - or small and specialized - global investment company that deals only with institutional customers - very large clients, like Bridgewater. Now, Gordon plans to be in Malaysia, and he phones Penny to set up an appointment to discuss possibilities for investment. Listening Questions: 1. Where and when does Gordon say he met Penny? 2. When does Gordon suggest meeting with Penny? 3. Why does he want to meet with Penny? 4. What time do they finally agree on? Premium Members: Study Notes | Online Exercises | PhraseCast

This ESL Podcast is about cosmetic surgery. Learn English for daily conversation and have fun listening.

This ESL podcast is a discussion about coke zero and diet pepsi max.

Negotiations don t always go according to plan. Disagreement is part of life. But to build lasting relationships, coping with failure is even more important than celebrating success. So in this show, we ll examine a deal that does not get completed. We ll look at making a final offer as well as expressing dissatisfaction and regret. In particular, we ll focus on maintaining goodwill even when talks break down. Peter is the owner of mobile phone ringtone and game provider, Textacular. He is in discussions with Maxine about buying her company, Gamester. Eventually, Peter wants to sell his business to a larger, regional service provider for a profit, so he is attempting to roll up or buy other small companies to increase the value of his business. But Maxine wants €15 million for her business, and Peter isn t prepared to pay that much. As you listen, pay attention to how Peter makes a final offer, how Maxine declines it, and how they both work to maintain goodwill. Listening Questions: 1) What are Maxine s reasons for staying firm on price? 2) What does Peter say to justify not being able to pay more? 3) How does Maxine leave open the possibility for future cooperation? Premium Members: Study Notes | Online Exercises | PhraseCast

This ESL podcast is about an important rule that you'll hear about a lot in business and life. The 80/20 rule.

In this Business English Pod lesson we re going to look at how to clarify and evaluate positions during a negotiation. An important part of any discussion is making our position clear; at the same time, we must make sure we understand the other side s point of view. Achieving mutual understanding can help us save money by avoiding missed opportunities. In addition, the ultimate goal of any negotiation is to create value. Therefore, evaluation - determining whether an offer or position is good or bad - plays an important role. So in this show we ll study stating, clarifying, and evaluating positions. Peter is the owner of mobile phone ringtone and game provider, Textacular. He is attempting to roll up, or buy, other small companies like his in an effort to increase the value of his company. Eventually, he wants to sell his business to a larger, regional service provider for a profit. In the listening, he is meeting with Maxine, owner of Gamester, to discuss a possible merger. As you listen, pay attention to how they clarify and evaluate each other s positions and try to answer the following listening questions. Listening Questions: 1. What is the basic source of disagreement between Maxine and Peter? 2. What are Maxine s reasons for insisting on her price? 3. What does Peter mean when he says he has done months of due diligence? Premium Members: Study Notes | Online Exercises | PhraseCast

This ESL podcast is all about the health benefits of drinking green tea.

In this Business English Pod episode, we ll be completing our discussion of charts and graphs by studying language for making predictions and for supporting your predictions with analysis. We ll also look at a couple of advanced ways to rhetorically emphasize a point. Rhetorical means using words effectively to get your message across. Today s listening continues Pat s presentation of the market trends for Ambient and its competitors. This time Pat is coming to the real story - the main point - of his presentation. As you listen, see if you can catch what it is. Listening Questions: 1) What is the main focus of this part of Pat s presentation? 2) What happened in 2005 that caused the trend in RPU to break out of existing trend lines? 3) What are Pat s predictions for Ambient s RPU in 2007? Premium Members: Study Notes | Online Exercises | PhraseCast

This ESL podcast is a dialog describing a new job.

In this episode from our e-Book on presenting in English, we ll look at how to describe the trends show by a chart or graph. To get the background to the presentation and to review language for introducing visuals, you can refer back to BEP 103 - Charts and Trends 1. A trend is the general direction or tendency of a metric or measurement - upward, downward, flat, fluctuating, peaking, bottoming out, and so on. So, you ll be learning how to use these and many more terms for describing your charts and graphs in fluent, vivid sentences so that you can present your data with maximum impact. Pat, Ambient s new Central Europaan finance director, has just finished talking about sales revenue and is now moving on to discuss market share. The visual he will be talking about is a line graph that compares the trends in market share over the last six quarters from Q1 2006 to Q2 2007. His discussion centers on the top three players in the mobile phone business – his own company, Ambient, and their two top competitors, CallTell and Sirus. As you listen, pay attention to the trend language that Pat uses to describe the recent changes in the market. Listening Questions: 1) Which company has the largest share of the market in 2006? 2) How does Pat describe his own company s performance in the current year (2007)? 3) How big is the others group share of the market in Spring 2007? Premium Members: Study Notes | Online Exercises | PhraseCast

Today s podcast continues our series on business vocabulary, with a special focus on collocations or word partnerships. By focusing on words that are commonly used together you can improve your vocabulary and also your ability to understand your English-speaking colleagues. When you think of office administration , what are the first things that come to mind? They might be things like paperwork, filing, copying, and other boring and repetitive tasks. Most people probably don t think of an office manager s job as a crucial service that supports the successful running of a company and, therefore, its ability to make money. Well, today we re about to meet Thomas, who s going to tell us about the role he plays as office manager at the Mexican subsidiary of a multinational chemical company. Listening Questions: 1) How does Thomas summarize his role as Office Manager? 2) What characteristics does Thomas list as important qualities of an office manager? 3) According to Thomas, what is a common misunderstanding about the best way for an office manager to do his job?

This ESL podcast is a discussion about what makes diamonds valuable.

As part of our series on job interreproducciones, in this Business English Pod episode we ll be taking a closer look at the process from the HR perspective. Specifically, we ll be studying the language of reaching a decision about whom to hire. A Brazilian business unit of fast moving consumer goods company Fun Beverages has recently interviewed several people for an HR manager position. Now the regional HR director, Ted, and the business unit general manager, George, are meeting to discuss the short-listed, or final, candidates. As you listen, pay attention to the language they use to compare the two interviewees and to decide which one is the best fit. In addition, we ll study how they support a candidate, emphasize priorities, express reservations (or second thoughts), and suggest action. Listening Questions: 1) Which candidate do they prefer and why? 2) What are the relative strengths and weaknesses of the two main candidates, Ronaldo and Yala? 3) What are the main reservations about Yala? Premium Members: Study Notes | Online Exercises| PhraseCast

This ESL podcast is about an anniversary dinner date.

Congratulations! You were successful in your first job round interview, and you have been called back for a second interview. What should you expect? The key word is more - there will be more questions, more pressure - and, of course, more likelihood that you will get the job. An important function of second-round job interreproducciones is to find out whether we fit with the employer s company culture. In this episode, we ll study how to demonstrate that we are a good match with an organization. In addition, we ll review some other useful second-round interview skills, such as summarizing the previous discussion and referring to something you forgot to mention earlier. We ll listen to Sherry s second interview with a big international accounting firm, Grimshaw and Keene (commonly referred to as GK.) The interviewer is George Tan, an Asia-Pacific key account manager. As you listen, pay attention to how George and Sherry establish that she is a good fit for the organization, and try to answer the following listening questions. Listening Questions: 1) George describes GK as both high-pressure and tremendously rewarding, but he is concerned about whether or not Sherry is ready to take the plunge. What does he mean by that? 2) What does Sherry say is one of the things that most attracts her to GK? 3) What is George s major concern about Sherry s work experience? Premium Members: Study Notes | Online Exercises | PhraseCast

This ESL podcast is all about true happiness. It was inspired by a Harvard professor who teaches a popular course on the subject.

This is part of an ongoing series on negotiations. In this Business English Podcast episode, we ll study how to open a traditional commercial negotiation between buyer and seller. We ll focus on creating goodwill, starting off, setting ground rules, suggesting an agenda and exploring possibilities. We ll be listening to a telephone conversation between Tony, a supplier of building materials, and Paul, a purchasing manager for a large construction company in Canada. Paul is buying materials for a harbor project. A harbor is a protected area of water where boats dock, or park. For this project, Paul needs to buy anchor bolts. These bolts are the thick steel screws that are embedded or buried in concrete to support or anchor structural steel columns. Structural columns refer to the steel frameworks that hold buildings up. This is the first time Tony and Paul have talked on the phone. As you listen, pay attention to the language they use to get the negotiation started, and try to answer the following questions. Listening Questions: 1. How does Tony begin off the phone call to establish goodwill? 2. How long does Paul say he has available for the phone call? 3. Paul asks Tony how he will be using the bolts. How does Tony respond? 4. What other option does Paul want to explore with Tony?

This ESL podcast is a dialog about things to consider when opening a restaurant.

This Business English Podcast episode on relationship building is part of an ongoing series on negotiation skills. In negotiation, establishing a good relationship based on trust makes it possible to jointly search for creative solutions, to overcome blockage and even to turn conflict into a productive force. Both Peter and Maxine are owners of local telecommunication services that provide mobile phone users with ring tones and games. Peter s company, Textacular, has a significant presence in Denmark; meanwhile, Maxine s company, Gamester, is based in northern Germany. Peter is working on a plan to sell his business to a large, Europaan-wide telecom service provider. In an effort to increase his company s value so that he can get more money for it, Peter wants to roll up or buy other local services like his. In today s listening, he is having lunch with Maxine to find out whether she might be interested in selling her company. As the dialog starts, they have just ordered their food. Listening Questions: 1) Have Peter and Maxine met before? 2) What does Peter say is his and Maxine s biggest overlapping concern? 3) How does Peter bring up the subject of a possible merger between his and Maxine’s company? Premium Members: Study Notes | Online Exercises | PhraseCast

This ESL podcast is about the summer olympics.

This ESL podcast is about a guy who claims to have become rich by playing the stock market.

As we ve discussed in other episodes on job interreproducciones, one goal of the person conducting the interview is to get you to let your guard down. Often, after a series of warm-up questions, the interviewer will give you a tough question. This will likely come out of the blue, that is, unexpectedly. We call these types of questions stress questions because part of the intention is to see how you react under pressure. Common types of stress questions range from problems, such as how to solve a business case study or even a mathematics question, to behavioral questions, such as how to deal with imaginary work situation involving conflict or communication. The key with this type of question is “Don’t panic!” which is the theme of this episode. We ll be looking at strategies and language that will help you deal with this type of query coolly and calmly. Listening Questions (Good Example): 1) What is the interviewer’s stress question? 2) What does Yala do to give herself some thinking time? 3) How does Yala answer the question? Premium Members: Study Notes | Online Exercises | PhraseCast

This ESL podcast is about sleeping in.

You ve had your first and second interreproducciones, you ve performed well, and you ve been selected. You re one of the lucky few - you’ve succeeded: You ve got a job offer in hand. But now comes one of the hardest parts of the whole process - negotiating your salary. If you make a mistake here, all of your time and effort might be wasted. For salary negotiation, preparation - doing your research - is obviously important. In the internet age, there are many websites that focus on salary information, so investigating the market is much easier than it has been in the past. Knowledge, however, is not enough. We also need to have the confidence to broach, or bring up, the subject and the tools to bargain up the initial or first offer in order to reach a compromise. You will only get what you deserve if you ask for it. So in today s episode, we ll focus the skills you need to successfully talk money. Fun Beverages International has already emailed an offer to Yala Santos for an HR manager position in one of its Brazilian business units. Yala has written back asking to talk with the HR director, Ted, about the details. We ll be listening to their conversation. Listening Questions: 1. Why does Ted say he needs Yala to begin work by the suggested start date? 2. How does Yala broach the subject of compensation? 3. How much over the median or average market rate does Ted say Fun Beverages offered Yala in recognition of her skills and experience? 4. What is the final compromise they discuss? Premium Members: Study Notes | Online Exercises | PhraseCast

This ESL podcast is about falling in love at first sight.

This is the second in a two-part advanced business English lesson on negotiation strategy. It is part of a longer series of podcasts on the language and skills of negotiating in English. In the first episode, management consultant Bryan Fields discussed the basics of making a deal. We learned how to avoid some top common mistakes and we reviewed important vocabulary, such as BATNA, bottom line, bargaining chip, win-win, and zone of possible agreement. Today s podcast continues the interview with Bryan. In the dialog, we ll learn five important elements of strategy – parties, interests, value, power and ethics. And along the way we ll study useful vocabulary and idioms. Listening Questions: 1) What is the interviewer talking about when he refers to a trap? 2) How does Bryan say we should think about interests? 3) In the interview, we learn that overcoming blockage – that is, getting past problems – is not just about reaching the agreement but also about maximizing what? Premium Members: Study Notes | Online Exercises | PhraseCast

This ESL podcast is about learning how to look at the important aspects of a situation.

This is the beginning of a new Business English Podcast series on the skills and language of negotiating in English. Over the coming months we ll explore the topic in a series of podcasts that examine several typical business negotiations and the language used in each stage of the process. Today s show is the first in a two-part sequence on the fundamentals of negotiation strategy. We will be hearing an interview with experienced management consultant Brian Fields. Brian discusses key concepts and important strategic considerations. The dialog teaches us both useful vocabulary and helpful skills. Listening Questions: 1) What are the top mistakes people make in a negotiation? 2) What is a BATNA, or best alternative to a negotiated agreement? 3) What does Brian think about the idea of win-win negotiations Premium Members: Study Notes | Online Exercises | PhraseCast

This ESL podcast is a funny story about a girl thinking a regular guy was a famous movie star.

This ESL podcast is about a guy who desperately needs to make a lifestyle change.