Episode 0328

Hello everyone and welcome to English Pod. My name is Marco.

My name is Catherine and we've got another lesson in our series about Small Talk today.

That's right. Today we are at the office again and we're going to be talking very briefly about uh something, a business meeting that we're going to have soon.

That's right. So, let's check out our dialogue. We'll be back in a moment.

I was hoping to see you. How have you been? How's the family?

Oh, hello Mr. Campbell. I'm fine and Jack's doing well. How are you?

I'm fine, thanks. I got your report this morning. Thanks for that. Are you joining the conference today?

Yes, I'm leaving at 4:00 p.m.

Good. Well, we can discuss this more then. But I think the figures are looking very good for this quarter.

Yes, me too.

I'm planning to discuss the advertising budget at the conference. I don't think we should continue with the TV advertising.

No, me neither. It's far too expensive.

Well, let's discuss this more at the conference. Maybe we can share a taxi there?

Yeah, sure.

All right, we're back, so now let's take a look at some vocab on language takeaway.

Today in language takeaway, we have a number of phrases and words about business. The first one we have is are you joining the conference today?

That's right, so we're going to go to a conference actually, which is a little bit different than a meeting.

That's right. A meeting is something you normally do with people at your own company, but a conference is when people from many different companies meet.

That's right. So, and also I think you don't really have too much input at a conference. You mostly listen to other people, uh, speak about a topic or a subject.

That's right. And I think these are normally held in conference centers or hotels. Uh, you have a nice lunch. So, they're pretty big deals.

That's right. All right, so it's it's more of a formal business conference that we're going to. And, uh, well, they're actually going to discuss different aspects of the company as well, especially the figures.

All right, so in the context of business, the word figure actually means number. Okay? So we can say, um, the sales numbers for this year are are a kind of figure.

That's right. So, we're talking about money basically when we're talking about numbers.

That's right. So when the figures look good, it means that our our income, our revenue, this looks good.

That's right. And when we usually talk about income or revenue, we usually have to separate it into time. And and here in the dialogue, we're talking about a quarter.

All right. So quarter, Q U quarter is a period of time very common in business that is a quarter of the year. So three months.

Three months, that's right. January, February, March, April, May, June, and so on.

That's right. So you have four quarters and that's actually what uh that's why you call it a quarter because it's 1/4.

So we can say the figures for the first quarter were very good, but unfortunately the figures for the second quarter were very bad.

That's right. And actually another similar way that you use quarter is is the 25-cent coin. It's called a quarter because it's a quarter of a dollar.

That's right. And if you're in America, you know that it has an eagle, a bird on one side of it.

That's right. All right, so we are taking a look at the figures for the quarter and they're saying, well, it's it's not looking too good because we need to talk about the advertising budget.

All right. So this is something that you um you think is very important. It's budget. It's how much money you have to spend on something. And in this case, you're spending it on advertising. So this is ads that you make.

That's right. So, as you said, a budget is the amount of money that you have available to spend on something. And on this occasion, we're talking about advertising. Now, you can have a budget for different things, right?

You could have a marketing budget. Uh-huh. So the money you have for marketing. You could have a personnel budget, which is the money you would set aside for people. Mhm. So how much you pay your employees? Mhm. Right. So you can pretty much mix up many different nouns with budget. Even you can have a budget for your home.

How much you spend at home? That's right. So many people have this for their families. They say this month, I will spend $100 on shopping and $200 on shoes. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Yeah.

So it's it's like a family budget, you would call it.

That's right.

Okay. So that's all the words we have for you on language takeaway. Let's review everything quickly and we'll be back in a bit with fluency builder.

I was hoping to see you. How have you been? How's the family?

Oh, hello Mr. Campbell. I'm fine and Jack's doing well. How are you?

I'm fine, thanks. I got your report this morning. Thanks for that. Are you joining the conference today?

Yes, I'm leaving at 4:00 p.m.

Good. Well, we can discuss this more then. But I think the figures are looking very good for this quarter.

Yes, me too.

I'm planning to discuss the advertising budget at the conference. I don't think we should continue with the TV advertising.

No, me neither. It's far too expensive.

Well, let's discuss this more at the conference. Maybe we can share a taxi there?

Yeah, sure.

All right, in today's fluency builder, we have a number of phrases you could use in a small talk situation. The first one's a question.

How's the family?

How's the family? Now, it's how apostrophe S the family, right? So how is the family would be the extended way of saying it.

That's right, but this is a short way to say it. It's very common and you normally say this with people who are a little bit older, people who have kids.

Mhm. So I haven't seen you in a long time Marco and I I know you have some kids and I can say, how's the family?

How's the family? That's right. And it's actually, it may seem strange, um, the way that this sentence is made, but it's very, very much, uh, similar to how are you. You have how to be and you in the subject.

That's right. And this is a very polite way to to say hi, how are how are you? How is your family?

How is the wife?

How's the wife? How's the wife? And, uh, she said, well, you know what? Everything's great. I'm fine and Jack's, I guess that, uh, that's her husband is doing well.

Jack is doing well. So doing well, thanks. This means good. Okay. But you know, when we say when we say the answer to this question, how are you? I'm well. That's that's the correct answer. I'm good is not correct.

Right. So if somebody says, how are you? You can say, I'm well, or you can say, I'm doing well.

That's a positive answer. Things are going well. You could say not so well, that's not not not good things are happening.

Very good. And it's very important to point out the difference as Catherine said, you don't you don't you shouldn't use good. I'm doing good or I'm good.

Yeah, no, it's incorrect because good is an adjective and we're we're looking for an adverb here. That's right. Well.

That's right. All right. And to finish things off, Mr. Campbell and Michelle were headed headed the same way, so they decided to share a taxi.

That's right. So to share a taxi means two people or three people will uh pay for one taxi together. So, uh maybe Marco, I see you on the street and I know that you have to go to a conference. I'm going to the same conference. Let's share a taxi. It will cost less.

That's right. So you will share the cost between all the people in the cab. Now, there's another way of saying it as well, more common I think in in the United States.

That's right. We say split a taxi. Let's split a cab. Split a cab. Now, remember that it's a taxi cab. So sometimes people just don't say taxi, they say a cab. Let's split a cab, let's share a cab.

That's right. Cab, taxi, both are okay.

All right. Very good, good stuff. Let's listen to everything one last time.

I was hoping to see you. How have you been? How's the family?

Oh, hello Mr. Campbell. I'm fine and Jack's doing well. How are you?

I'm fine, thanks. I got your report this morning. Thanks for that. Are you joining the conference today?

Yes, I'm leaving at 4:00 p.m.

Good. Well, we can discuss this more then. But I think the figures are looking very good for this quarter.

Yes, me too.

I'm planning to discuss the advertising budget at the conference. I don't think we should continue with the TV advertising.

No, me neither. It's far too expensive.

Well, let's discuss this more at the conference. Maybe we can share a taxi there?

Yeah, sure.

All right, so we're getting towards the end of our small talk series. As you can see, we are taking a look at different quick, but uh very useful dialogues that you can have with someone a small conversation, whether about business, family, whatever.

That's right. And in today's dialogue, we heard two people who probably know each other talking. So, sometimes you're with people who are strangers, you don't know what to say to them. You can listen to our other episodes on small talk for things to talk about with those people.

That's right. And of course, if you have any questions or comments, you can visit us at englishpod.com.

We hope to see you all there until next time. Bye.

Bye.

The English part audio review.

Listen to the meaning, then say the vocabulary word.

A formal meeting where many people talk about ideas.

Conference.

A written document that provides information about something.

Report.

Talk about.

Discuss.

One fourth of a calendar or fiscal year.

Quarter.

Money available to spend.

Budget.

To announce or praise in order to raise awareness in a product or service.

Advertise.

Let's try that faster.

Talk about.

Discuss.

A written document that provides information about something.

Report.

A formal meeting where many people talk about ideas.

Conference.

One fourth of a calendar or fiscal year.

Quarter.

Money available to spend.

Budget.

To announce or praise in order to raise awareness in a product or service.

Advertise.

Now say the word and hear it in a sentence.

Conference.

I need to go to a big conference this weekend. I'm a little nervous.

Conference.

My boss said the company will pay for all the expenses at the conference.

Conference.

The only thing I like about conferences is all the free stuff I get.

Discuss.

Please come into my office. I have something to discuss with you.

Discuss.

We need to discuss this over a glass of wine.

Discuss.

I think I should discuss the results of my recent math exam with my dad.

Budget.

Due to increased costs, our budget this year will be smaller.

Budget.

I can't operate on this budget. I'm going to ask the boss for a bigger one.

Budget.

With this new budget, we can afford to buy those new computers for everyone.

Report.

Could you please hand in the report by this afternoon, please?

Report.

The report on the company's financial health does not look good.

Report.

I have so much work today that I couldn't finish the report on company sales.

Quarter.

This quarter, I hope we can reach the sales target.

Quarter.

The last quarter was very bad for our firm. We will have to cut costs.

Quarter.

We expect this quarter to see an increase in demand for our product.