you're listening to Business English Pod
the business English podcast for professionals on the move
welcome back to business English pod today's show is part of a two-part series on making rejecting
and accepting suggestions reject means to say no and accept means to say yes today we're focusing
on making suggestions in the next episode we'll look at accepting and rejecting suggestions this
dialogue takes place at a sports shoe company called Stratos you'll be listening to Karen a
marketing manager meet with three members of her team Charles spen and the go they're choosing a
celebrity spokesperson for a new product celebrity means a famous person here spokesperson is someone
who gets paid to be in an advertisement for a product in the dialogue target market is the place
where you want to sell your product and target consumer is the type of customer you want to
sell your product to in this case the product is a special kind of new sport shoe made especially
for overweight people overweight is a nice way of saying too heavy or not fit okay let's listen
as you listen pay attention to the language the speakers use to make suggestions to each other
okay now let's talk about who we want to use as a spokesperson for this product let's go around
the table shall we use a Sportster or someone else spend what do you think well one possibility would
be to use a famous overweight business executive or CEO someone who is really successful sorry can
I come in here yes go ahead Miguel that's a good idea but I'm not sure it would work why not well
for one thing our customers want to be fit not fat well then what do you suggest perhaps we should
just use a famous sports star like we usually do if it isn't broken don't fix it you know what
I mean we could try getting Rooney or Nadal good suggestion but I can see one or two problems with
that to be honest Oh first off our target markets are in the UK and the US we need someone who both
Americans and Britons really like secondly our target customer is kind of special I've got a
suggestion go ahead Charles it's just an idea but how about choosing someone from a sport
where it's normal to be heavy American football for example heavy but agile overweight that's
strong and fast you know what I mean right I can see what you mean what do others think yes that
might be worth trying okay but what about the UK who are we going to use on this side of the
Atlantic hmm let me think about this shall we try to find someone in golf that's popular in the US
and in the UK and that way we can kill two birds with one stone that's what I do that idea yeah I
think that's worth trying Karen's team had a lot of ideas didn't they what language do they use
to make their suggestions first listen to Sven well one possibility would be to use a famous
overweight business or CEO someone who is really successful how does men make a suggestion he says
one possibility would be to instead of will he uses wood the use of wood here means it's just
a suggestion past modal verbs should could might and wood are often used like this in suggestions
now listen to Miguel making a suggestion perhaps we should just use a famous sports star like we
usually do if it isn't broken don't fix it you know what I mean perhaps we should is another
polite way of making a suggestion notice the use of just perhaps we should just use a famous sports
star this shows that what he's suggesting is no change from the normal way of doing
things that's why he says if it isn't broken don't fix it this is an idiom it means don't
change something if it's already working fine in informal American oral English you can say
if it ain't broke don't fix it so far we have two ways of making suggestions one possibility
would be to and perhaps we should now let's look at a couple more ways to make suggestions listen
to Charles I've got a suggestion go ahead Charles it's just an idea but how about choosing someone
from a sport where it's normal to be heavy first Charles shows that he has a suggestion I've got a
suggestion then since he's talking to his boss and perhaps since he's not sure everyone will
agree with him he uses a careful polite way to introduce the suggestion it's just an idea but
how about how about is a normal way of making a suggestion it's just an idea but makes it extra
polite instead of how about you can also say about how about and what about our followed by
a verb plus in ing how about washing the dishes it's just an idea but what about eating lunch
together these are sometimes followed by a phrase or a sentence this is more common
with how about how about you wash the dishes and I dry how about we have lunch together
finally let's look at a couple more ways of making a suggestion listen
to how Karin makes her suggestion shall we try to find someone in golf you can
also say what if for example what if we cut costs by finding a new office
now with Karen's team practice the ways of making suggestions that we've learned
so far well one possibility would be to hire more staff
apps we should have more vacation
it's just an idea but how about leaving a little bit early today
shall we try to look at this from another point of view
well what if we try to open a new store in Germany
now it's your turn to talk in a moment you'll hear a series of cues followed by a beep after
each beat use the information supplied in the queue to make a suggestion for example if you
hear get Beckham to sponsor the product you can say well one possibility would be to get Beckham
to sponsor the product are you ready let's give it a try launch the new product in q1 next year ah
open a branch in Slovenia
you give employees larger bonuses you
hold English training
you
scheduled weekly meetings to check on progress
you
how did you do listen to the examples to check your answers remember there are many
possible ways to respond to each question launch the new product in q1 next year
answer perhaps we should launch the new product in q1 next year
open a branch in Slovenia answer it's just an idea but what if we open a branch in Slovenia
give employees larger bonuses
answer well what if we try to give employees larger bonuses
hold English training answer well one possibility would be to hold English training
scheduled weekly meetings to check on progress
answer let's schedule weekly meetings to check on progress
now that you've heard some examples go
back and practice again substitute different phrases to build fluency
that's all for this unit we've covered many useful expressions for making suggestions
in the next unit we'll use the same dialogue to cover rejecting and accepting suggestions we'll
also look closely at some idioms that were used in the dialogue thanks for listening