hey Aubry um we're not usually here today on IELTS but we thought it was very important to tell our
students something what is our big announcement yes guys we have a new podcast for business
English so if you work in English or are planning to in the future you definitely want to check this
out and uh to encourage you guys to check out the business English podcast from all ears English we
want to bring you uh one of their episodes about business English guys in this episode You're Gonna
Learn five words to not use in business emails but the reason I think this is important for
IELTS students is some of these words just sound weak right like they don't sound confident and
that means you shouldn't use them in writing tasks too either yes exactly right words that
sound weak are usually like band five or lower and impressive words often sound stronger right
so in writing task two you must share a strong opinion and if you're using weak words it comes
across as a weak opinion and you're just not going to get the score you need exactly guys uh so let's
listen in as Michelle and Lindsay teach us about better vocabulary for business English emails
this is an all ears English podcast episode 341. five English words to eliminate from your emails
welcome to the all ears English podcast downloaded more than 10 million times we believe in
connection not Perfection with your American hosts Lindsay McMahon the English Adventurer
and Michelle Kaplan the New York radio girl coming to you from Boston and New York City USA
in today's episode we'll talk about five English words that if you use
them in your email you will sound less confident and will tell you why today
get seven easy steps to a seven or higher on
the IELTS for free now go to allearsenglish.com s-e-v-e-n
hey Michelle what's going on hello Lindsay not too much not too much how are you good today I
want to talk Michelle a little bit about this interesting article that you found uh were you
just surfing around the web or did you find this article on Facebook I found it on Facebook so the
article is five common words that make you sound less confident in emails and you know we know that
a big part of connection which is what we believe in here at all ears English is confidence right we
want to make sure that we can really connect with people so we have to let out that confident Vibe
and I think our listeners often ask us how to do that not just in speaking but also in emails
right what were the five words that we're going to talk about today actually I believe that they
serve the say they create the same problems in speaking that they do in an email they make you
sound less confident what do you think Michelle yeah I definitely agree with that so I think that
we should go through them yeah this article it's really interesting it's by Lily Herman and it's
on the muse.com if you want to check okay so yeah anyway we'll try to we'll try to post a link to
the article in the show notes of this episode all yoursenglish.com three what's this episode
Michelle 330 oh 3 40. I believe sorry 3 41. oh uh yeah so let's go through them Michelle so what are
they what are the words and then we'll talk about whether we agree or not what's the first word that
makes you sound less confident in an email the first word is just yeah and we've well let's
go back to it after let's just read number two number two is hopefully right hopefully number
three is actually good and number four is kind of and number five is sorry yeah all of these words
are kind of I don't know Michelle what do these words have in common in your mind they kind of
the guy just said kinda um they they take away from what you're saying they they're indirect
yeah they're kind of unnecessary aren't they yeah and I just said kind of again too they're
unnecessary they take away from what you're saying they do make you sound Less Direct but they're not
they're not really adding any value right to what you're saying right you know and to start
off I mean this word just uh We've touched on this a couple of times Michelle when we talked
about gender uh the different genders and we talked about how women tend to use this more
or I find myself you I I find myself going to Starbucks and I'll order a coffee I'll walk up
and I'll say oh I'll just have a tall dark you know dark roast just just why do I say
just yeah it's so interesting and you know we've actually even talked about you know using wanted
right I just wanted and but it's interesting you know because we use it all the time but I
don't know why yeah and it's interesting I mean you know for example if we if we start the email
what they warn against in this article is starting emails with things like this just
checking in or I just wanted to ask a question I just wanted to drop a message you know things
like that kind of they take away from they do make you sound less confident and I've had times
when I've been texting someone that I'm dating for example and I I'm about to write oh I just
wanted to say hi and I think no no I don't I shouldn't say just because it makes me sound
less confident right right so really you should just say hi right just say hi be more direct be
and it's also just simpler to say hi hello right you know and I never thought about this before
um and but it's just it's just it's so true and I I think that we need to work on sounding
much more confident and I totally agree with you Lindsay that this is not just for emails
yeah and and so just oh my gosh I just did it again so to reiterate when you say I'm
just checking in I just wanted to ask you a question you're making it sound like you're not
as important you're not an important person like you're you you're not important you know you're
kind of making it sound like you're bothering someone right do you believe that kind of like
you're like tapping on their shoulder but like with this really hesitant face you know right
I'm sorry to bother you yeah right at least you have a moment for me I'm only a poor I'm
a poor popper or something like that right yeah I like that Michelle you're an actress at heart
but okay let's go on to the next one so the next one was hopefully now what's the problem with this
hopeful right yeah you you should expect things right you deserve it yeah yeah so in the article
she says if you're telling someone that you'll hopefully get something done right so for example
if you say hopefully I'll have this done by Tuesday if you say that in a business email
um you are you're kind of saying that as as the person who wrote this article suggested you're
kind of saying that you don't have any control over what happens almost like we can't count on
you we can't rely on you so instead of saying hopefully this will be done by Friday just say
this will be done by Friday right right and that's what I was saying like yeah be like
expected like this is like you're confident in it right as this person says uh apparently the
author's uh Mentor said oh you shouldn't have to be hopeful for anything right hmm
you just know right you should be confident so you people can expect it and can rely on you yeah
we're taking your IELTS exam this summer but you don't know where to start you can
get started with our seven steps to a seven or higher on the IELTS it's a one-page PDF
download that's free for you and will show you exactly what to do to get on your way to your
seven go to allearsenglish.com seven that's allearsenglish.com s-e-v-e-n see you there
now these are such subtle nuances in our speech that um you know even as native speakers we need
to pay attention to this you know this is something that I want to start paying
more attention to I think I commit these errors sometimes um but you know our listeners as our
listeners want to push up to that advanced level it's really interesting for you guys to start to
look at this and notice when native speakers are using these and decide whether or not you
want to put this into your speech patterns or whether from the beginning you want to leave
them out right right exactly so the third one is actually actually um what what's what's prob the
problem here you know I feel like this has become a filler word almost and I mean I use it on this
show a lot so I I feel like I I don't have the right to even say we shouldn't use it but it is
kind of annoying right I mean you know we just we say it all the time right when do you say actually
um it's a good question um when do I say actually I know that I say that all the time
um I actually I I actually think that we should do this right why can't I just say oh I think
that we should do this right yeah yeah it's almost like again it makes you sound less confident my my
web guy my web developer uses this word actually all the time in emails and it makes him sound as
a man it makes him sound less confident right um especially less confident as a man when he uses
this so guys just try to avoid it don't put it in if it's not needed just say what you want to say
right exactly so yeah you can always go through I you know try and edit a lot of my emails before
I send them out and now I'm going to go through and delete some of these words yeah okay number
four kind of kind of yeah that's really you're just you're you're backing off from what you
really want to say you're kind of kind of hahaha you're going halfway our girl says the article
says you're not totally committing or have not no idea what's going on that's from the article
right if you say for example um I kind of feel like we should change the theme of this episode
right what do you feel do you think we should change it or not it's too wishy-washy it's
too vague right right wishy washy that's a good word Michelle wishy-washy yeah I love that word
um yeah commit commit right and you know even if you aren't there's a phrase uh fake
it till you make it right yeah yeah exactly what does that mean it means
even if you're not feeling a hundred percent about something or you don't feel completely
confident if you act confident people will believe your content and eventually you're
gonna get there that's right yep you got it so try to avoid this if you can number five is sorry
using sorry oh what's wrong with this you don't need to apologize for things that you don't need
to apologize for yeah now this is sticky this is a really sticky situation because last year uh we
did an episode when my former co-host was on the show um she had a very strong belief that we say
sorry too often and then we had a response from one of our listeners from my student from Brazil
she got quite upset because she was worried that this uh we were giving people the impression that
we don't need to be polite I I do believe it's very important to be polite and to be kind of you
know in Integrity right of course when you've done something wrong it's good to apologize but this is
different right this is kind of when you don't need to apologize for something right exactly
just to feel like people just throw it in wherever right and you know some things aren't so serious
that you need to apologize for them you need to do the right thing but don't feel the need to
always have apologize this makes me think of um in England you know they that's kind of becomes
a slang when I was in London in January you know everybody's sorry sorry sorry for everything and
that's really just that's a part of their culture and I actually I feel I feel like I fit right in
because I think I apologize a lot so yeah it's very cultural and um here I think we do it a
lot too but especially when it comes to something with business um I think you might sound a little
bit you know weak right weak yeah that's what I was gonna say I mean the example that she uses in
this article is when you're trying to arrange a time and someone suggests Monday and in the
email you write back and you say sorry I can't do Monday just Tuesday work right why say sorry just
say I can't do Monday does Tuesday work right so that's the kind of thing where you really don't
need to say sorry in that case just say that you're not available on Monday right but you
know what the funny thing is I'm reading these and I'm thinking well if somebody just wrote to me I
can't do Monday does Tuesday work I I might feel that they're being a little bit abrupt
yeah no that's true It's Tricky I mean people need to get to know you also beyond your emails right
so the idea the point of an email is hopefully not just to email with someone forever hopefully
we want to eventually have a meeting with them meet them somehow and know them as a person right
um but I do think that these words make us feel a little bit weak I mean I basically agree with the
article do you agree with the article basically Michelle I do agree with the article very much
so I I would say that the the number five was the one that made me think just for a second because
I'm thinking about being on the receiving end of these emails and and you know sometimes an
email even if the person doesn't mean to sound a certain way they sometimes can and
and I'm the type of person and I think we could talk about this more another time about who I
love exclamation points like and I may have even mentioned this before but I love them and I find
if somebody writes with exclamation points I feel like they're very friendly and really it's just
somebody just pressed shift one and it has it says nothing about them necessarily right right you
know so sometimes people it depends on the person right um sometimes someone might think you're
being a little bit abrupt but they're they're also gonna think that you're confident and really so if
that's what you're going for and you should be of course then go for it um totally and a part
of connecting with people is understanding how they might feel so a more advanced tactic would
be if I'm emailing you or emailing someone else that I know might take something more personally
I might change my language depending on who I'm emailing right we do that in in language spoken
language all the time right but today we just want to just throw these out there so let us
know what you guys think you know come on back to allearsenglish.com three 41 and let us know
if you agree or disagree and what about in your culture you know the translations of these words
do you use them in in your spoken language or in your emails and do they make you feel seem
kind of weak or do you have similar words that are redundant they're not necessary and they make you
appear less confident so let's hear what you guys have to say come on back to our website Michelle
any final thoughts any final tips or tricks here uh be strong be confident be beautiful
all right let's end on that thanks Michelle hey have a nice day Lindsay see you soon bye
thanks for listening to all ears English and if you are taking your IELTS exam this
summer get our free IELTS cheat sheet the seven easy steps to a seven or higher on
the IELTS go right now to allearsenglish.com s e v e n and if you believe in connection not
Perfection be sure to subscribe to the all ears English podcast on your smartphone see you soon
all right that is super useful if you guys are already working in English right
um your emails have to be simple and direct and clear and strong right all the things they
teach you in that episode but there are also a couple words in there that we shouldn't use in
task 2 either what are those two words yes kind of and just those are very weak right this is
not the way you share a strong clear opinion on IELTS so definitely keep that in mind but I'm so
excited for you guys to check out this podcast for multiple reasons first of all if you're ever going
to work in business or if you work in business now but there's so much great vocab for IELTS writing
IELTS speaking on this podcast episode it's all has a global business um slant I guess we would
say but that can be very useful on IELTS yeah for sure so guys remember wherever you are uh
listening to us now or wherever you listen to your podcasts search for all ears English in
the search bar and look for the business English podcast remember guys every episode in there is
especially for Global professionals as you will be after IELTS so don't forget to search for that and
we'll see you in the next IELTS energy episode awesome we'll see you guys there bye Jessica