One of the most common reasons people learn English is to get better job opportunities. But
what if you've already got the job and you still feel like your English is not good enough? Well,
in today's lesson I'll walk you through my work day and we'll look at some of the most essential
vocabulary that you need to know around the office. I'll also teach you some useful tips that
you can use so you no longer have to feel anxious or nervous when using English at work. Let's go?
So, this is the reception area and if most workplaces you'll find that this is the first
point of contact for clients or visitors to your office. And you might find that you usually have a
receptionist or someone who welcomes the clients or the guests into the office. So as this is a
co-working office that's not the case, there are many different people from many different
companies working here. But there is space for clients or visitors to sit over there and now I'll
show you around this desk, the reception desk. So over here she has a desk organizer and this
is used to basically separate documents according to the actions that she needs to take. Down here
she has a desk drawer pedestal and these are useful for keeping and organizing your documents,
especially if you need to keep it safe. It usually comes with a little key. And the top
drawer usually has a little organizer as well. So this is quite useful for keeping your stationery.
And you can see over here she has a stapler, a punch, scissors, pens and this is sellotape.
Something useful you might want to to know about is the difference between stationary
with an A and stationery with an E. So stationery with an E is pens and things like that. Anything
you use around the office. But stationary, with an A, means to stand still and not
move. So when something is stationary, it's standing still. It's still, it doesn't move.
So the next thing we're going to look at is the printer, scanner and copier. So most offices
have these and I'm sure you know what they're used for. Over here we have ring binders and
these are really durable files or folders that allow you to keep your documents neat
and tidy without the edges getting, you know, really messy and tearing or things like that.
So I'm gonna leave Jeanne alone for now. Thanks, see you later.
So there's a myth that the work environment requires perfect English, but what is perfect
English anyway? It doesn't matter if you're not at bonds, because English for work is not about
sounding fancy or smart. It's about using your English to solve problems and to communicate
efficiently. You don't have to sound flawless, but you do need to familiarize yourself with
business grammar and vocabulary such as idioms, collocations and phrasal verbs. To make it easier
to remember everything you learned in today's lesson, we've included a free downloadable PDF
document. Watch until the end of the lesson, because I'll reveal how you can access it.
Most of us start our work day by checking emails and other communication. Well,
I have a useful tip for you when it comes to responding to work emails and texts. Ever noticed
how quick emails are often made up of 2 or 3 sentence paragraphs, many of each
often start with the pronoun I for example? "I'm glad to hear from you" or "I'm looking
forward to our meeting on Monday." To avoid having a series of paragraphs that begin with the word I,
we drop some, but not all of the pronouns. For example, "I'm glad to hear from you"
would become "Glad to hear from you", or "I'm looking forward to our meeting
on Monday" will become "Looking forward to our meeting on Monday." The same is true for texts
and other quick business communication with expressions like these. Before we continue,
if you're loving learning English that you can actually use in your daily life, then be sure
to hit that subscribe button and bell down below, so you never miss out on any of our new lessons.
Now let's look at four business idioms that you're bound to encounter in the workplace.
The first idiom we look at is "to think outside the box" and this means to think creatively,
unconventionally and to come up with original ideas. For example,
"If you want to succeed in the marketing industry, you need to be able to think outside the box."
Next we have "to get down to business" and this means to start getting serious about something.
For example, "After they introduce themselves in the meeting they got down to business."
Next we have "to get someone up to speed." Now to get someone up to speed means to update someone
on the current situation or to provide them with all the necessary information they need in order
to complete their task. For example, "After she returned from her vacation, her boss called her
aside and got her up to speed on what had happened in the office." Now the final idiom we look
at today is "to roll up your sleeves" and this means to prepare to do hard work. For example,
"She rolled up her sleeves and showed her boss why she deserved a promotion." So now I'll be entering
the meeting room and, since I meet my team online, this meeting room is used for filming. I use it
for filming my Learn English with TV and RealLife English lessons, but for most people it is common
to use the space to get together with a small team and basically use the facilities here,
such as the desk, the whiteboard and the markers over there, to brainstorm ideas or to just have
a chat about different topics or issues that they are currently facing. Now let's look at
some vocabulary related to meetings. Now when we talk about meetings, we typically use the verbs
"have" and "hold". For example, "We usually have a department meeting on Mondays" or we could say
"Let's hold a meeting about the issues we've been facing this past quarter." Now when you're talking
about a meeting that's going to take place in the future, you can use the words "schedule",
"arrange" or "organize" to talk about a meeting that you're planning to have. Now for normal way
of talking about participating in a meeting would be to say that you're attending the
meeting. Less formal would be to say that "you're going to the meeting". For example,
"I'm going to attend the meeting on Friday" or "He wasn't able to go to the meeting, because
he was stuck in traffic." Now let's talk about business phrasal verbs. And the first one we're
going to look at is to "come across something." Now, if you come across something, it means that
you find it unexpectedly. For example, "If you come across my keys in the break room, please
return them to me. I've been looking for them all morning." The next phrasal verb we'll look at is
"drop by", which means to visit briefly or to meet without having an appointment first. For example,
"My boss asked me to drop by her office after the meeting." Next we have "to run something by"
or "pass someone." Now, this means to discuss something with a person in order to get their
opinion. For example, "I need to run this proposal by my manager before I submit it." Next we have
to "zero in on something or someone". Now this means to focus on that thing or that person. For
example, "After the team performed poorly, the manager decided to zero in on all of the staff
members." You'll find that after learning these common phrasal verbs and repeating and practicing
them, you'll start to feel more comfortable with using them and understanding them. And this is
important, because very soon you'll find that you're using them in your own word vocabulary.
Are you ready to zero in on your English and become a confident natural English speaker? Well,
with our RealLife English app you can do just that for free, you'll have access to
real life conversations with our podcasts. Where we talk about how to best learn English, movies,
culture and so much more. The best part is that you can practice with new transcripts
and flashcards every single week. You'll also be able to practice the new words that you've
learned with speaking partners from around the world. You never again have to feel like a lost
and insecure English learner. So download it right now for free by clicking up here or down
in the description below. Or simply search for RealLife English in your favorite app store.
We're about to enter the boardroom and this would be the place you would come if you want to have
more serious discussions with clients or your team. And it's larger than the meeting room,
as you can see there's a lot more space for everyone to sit or stand. Maybe you'd like to do
some team building in the boardroom, so boardrooms are usually equipped with things that allow for
longer meetings and more in-depth discussions. So this is where you'll find things like
the smart TV, where you could display your work or your presentation, there's also a power point in
the middle of the table over there. Oh there! There's also a whiteboard and an eraser and
whiteboard markers and there's a lot more space here. So as I mentioned, you could have a team
building session where people are getting up and standing. You can have food here,
You could have... There's a lot of different things you could do in the boardroom depending
on your team's needs. It's really a space that's meant for, you know, sitting down,
coming up with ideas and thinking, but I think, depending on your team, you could use the space,
as I said, for different purposes. There are tons of vocabulary points that I could cover
related to The Boardroom and presentations and more serious meetings, but instead,
today we'll focus on four areas of serious meetings and I'll show you how you can respond
to these different areas. Which are interrupting, giving your opinion, agreeing and disagreeing.
Now there will certainly be times that you want to interrupt a discussion and it helps to use
polite phrases to do so. So here are three of my favorite ones: "Sorry for interrupting, but...",
"Excuse me, could I say one thing?", "May I please add something?"
Let's look at sharing your opinion. Now let's imagine that you believe that the strategy
will be a success and you want to share this opinion with your teammates, so you could say
"I strongly believe that it will be a success." "I'm convinced that it will be a success." "I'm
positive that it will be a success." "I have no doubt whatsoever that it will be a success."
But if you would like to base your opinion on your experience you could also say "In my experience,
this will be a success." While agreeing, is usually a positive thing, it helps to know how
to do it and here are three common ways to agree during a meeting. You could say "I completely
agree" or "I couldn't agree more" and if you're agreeing with something, someone else said,
you could say "I'm with them." For example, "Kate, I'm with Kate on this." In English saying that
you disagree with someone can come across as too direct and can seem impolite. That's why it helps
to know some useful phrases and ways to disagree. So you could say "I see where you're coming from,
but..." or "That's a valid point, but..." or you could say "I see things differently because..."
Using the words "I'm sorry" can also make the phrase seem more polite. For example,
"I'm sorry, but I completely disagree" or "I'm sorry, but I don't agree with that at all."
Now you might be wondering "what can I possibly do to improve my job related vocabulary?" And
the answer is simple: read, read as much as you possibly can about business and specifically about
your area of expertise or your field of study. One of my favorite resources when it comes to
job related topics is "indeed.com". From resumes to interviews to salaries to Career Development,
there are articles on almost any topic. It also helps to read business news articles like Forbes
or Business Insider as these help you stay up to date with current events or trending topics within
your industry. LinkedIn is one of my favorites and, although it's structured like a social
media site, there are tons of benefits to using it, the top three benefits that I would like to
share with you is that it's great for professional networking, job searching and there are also tons,
tons of free resources that you can use to develop your skills.
So it's common office culture for co-workers to talk around a water cooler and what this involves
is stepping away from your desk and having chit chat or small talk with your co-workers
and basically talking about personal things so not work related and you would be having
conversations about your life your interests and sometimes even gossiping, which is obviously,
not a good thing to do. And basically the space is meant to make you feel like you can relax and
not worry about your work. If you're meant to feel as though you're stepping into a different
space and another thing that you might have in your break room is a kettle for making coffee,
a microwave for heating up your food and of course a refrigerator. And of course this
is meant to be a space where you can relax, so this is where you would take a break, put
your feet up and just relax between meetings or between tasks that you still have to complete.
Such an awesome day spend with you guys here at the office, but it's getting late you might
have noticed that it's quite dark and empty so I'm getting ready to leave now but before I do,
do you remember all the words tips and phrases that we've shared today? Well if not,
don't worry because we put together a free downloadable PDF document that you can access
by clicking on the link in the description below, so you can practice whenever you have a chance.
One more question before we get going do you enjoy these types of lessons about everyday
activities? Well if so, let us know down in the comments what other everyday activities
would you like to learn more about and we might just do a listen about it soon if you
would like to continue your learning with us then be sure to check out this lesson next: