hey aubrey how's it going what's shakin i am great how are you oh i'm awesome i love summer
time so i'm feeling good i'm feeling good yeah i'm gonna be going to a podcast conference right
around this time so always love those oh that's fun i haven't been to one yet that they sound
really cool i think that would be awesome to make all of those great connections yeah conferences
are so good and it's good to follow up by email with the people you meet after the conference
isn't it are you good at doing that are you good at following up with an email after you
meet someone i would say not as much actually you know because sometimes i don't i don't quite know
what to say but i'm pretty good at connecting on linkedin and there's a little box i can just say
hey let's connect it was great chatting you know let's connect here that's a little easier than a
whole email where you have to bring up everything you talked about right it's too much for sure yeah
that's fine it's smart to use linkedin that way as a tool you guys out there listening
we know a lot of you are working in business english you know working in english at work
and that's a useful tool if you're not on linkedin you should be get a good strong profile on there
yeah guys we talk about business topics so much on alders english that's why you should go ahead
and make sure you hit follow on this show so that you don't miss any of our four episodes
a week aubry what are we getting into today yes we are talking about business english today we
had a great listener question about phrases to use to get people to respond right away
if you need to express some urgency you need to hear back from them right away so let's hear this
question because i know that everyone out there is going to need this one day if you haven't already
yeah this is a really good one because oh you still need to be polite right you need to be
polite you need so let's see what the listener asks and then let's see what our answer is here
we go happy new year firstly i want to thank you michelle jessica and aubry for this amazing job
at all airs english i really love it i used to listen to the podcast when i'm driving
from my job to my house awesome um once i lived in sao paulo brazil i take a lot of time in the
traffic yes there's lots of traffic there we know that but being able to listen to all her english
i'm not wasting my time that's great i have a question for you sometimes i have to engage people
from my company to answer emails and questions to solve some system issues and always i'm not
sure which are the best approach to say this please revert back on this please return back
please answer this please try to respond i hope you have a great day many thanks in advance ariane
sosa great question great question and i know this is a common struggle i mean i've also experienced
this myself like what is the best way to let them know i need them to respond right away and
in helping students with their business english emails i've also seen this struggle or i've seen
sentences where it's either um a little bit unkind maybe a little too pushy or not clear enough
right because if it's important they get back over you need to make sure that message is clear so
that's a good point so the challenge here for our listeners today is how do we land in the middle
where it's direct enough uh so that people know what they have to do but it's not so you know it's
not so it's not rude it's not pushy right that's our challenge today the first thing that you need
to be aware of is that the tone of your email will be very different depending on who you are writing
we talk about this in our business course to really be aware of what's the relationship what's
the context so that you know how informal your tone will be because the vocabulary the phrases
are very different depending on that relationship so we're going to share today formal phrases if
you know the relationship is pretty formal you either haven't met yet or don't know them well
and need to stay quite formal and some informal phrases for people that you work with all the time
that you know well and you're going to be quite a bit more informal with them yes i love it so let's
dive right in guys take out your pen and paper get ready to write this down so let's go into formal
first right aubry yes let's do it okay all right so the first thing you can say is please respond
at your earliest convenience that does sound really really formal but really urgent right quite
urgent and quite formal to me yes exactly right you you're never going to say this to a co-worker
that you've known forever best friend right it is very formal it's perfect for prospective clients
but that you need to hear from right away it's very polite and respectful and impressive really
and and expresses that urgency yes absolutely guys so that's that's a good one to go for and so what
about this next one this one's interesting i look forward to hearing from you soon what do you think
about this yeah so this is also quite formal right you're not going to end a business email that
was someone you know very well but not quite a bit more formal but this one it it doesn't
express urgency as clearly no it doesn't i would definitely follow this this one needs to follow
something where you're saying like i need these numbers by friday and then you'll say
i look forward to hearing from you soon right so it's great when you've clarified in the email
when you need to hear from them by you've made that clear this is a perfect way to end that
yeah that's exactly what i was thinking too right if you just say i look forward to hearing from you
soon they might not who knows where you're going to go in their order of importance for that day or
that that on its own doesn't really let them know like i need to hear from you right away no no no
no so make sure you add that extra piece guys okay so those are i like that we have just two options
for each that's really good because our listeners are definitely going to be able to you know take
these in write these down guys and use these right you don't need a bajillion different options right
you just need a few okay good exactly so let's dive into informal this is one that i emailed to
both you and jessica all the time right which is let me know asap so just the asap and when it's
an informal email you don't need to capitalize it like acronyms usually we capitalize i always
write asap and lower case when it's an informal you know email among co-workers that i'm emailing
often or friends but if i've let them know right okay i need your feedback on this i need to know
something then i'll end it with let me know asap i love that let me know asap it's simple it's clear
it's not rude at all it's just casual right and so just make sure that you know you are on the
level that you know you're all in the same level you're understanding each other you work well
together you work closely as a team that's when you want to send that exactly right because again
you know very different depending on who the relationship with is it's a formal email to
someone that i haven't actually met maybe i'm you know writing someone to maybe um record with them
on their podcast i would never end an email this way because it's very it's respectful it's great
when you know them well if not it does seem sort of disrespectful because you're being too informal
right this is awkward yeah this is kind of more of an insider outsider thing right you're talking to
your team you're not talking to people outside your team representing your company no no no
what's the last one yeah so this one is a little bit of a semi-formal middle of the road it's
please get back to me as soon as you can so i would say that to you or to jessica right
yeah it's just a little bit more formal but also acceptable but i also would potentially say it to
a prospective client to someone i don't know quite as well right it's not as um formal and um serious
as the please respond at your earliest convenience but really has that same meaning right please get
back to me as soon as you can yeah i think the word you might have been looking for was like um
impersonal complete but please responded to earliest convenience to me sounds pretty
impersonal in a way you know kind of a stoic and distant kind of yes it definitely feels more like
something you would write at the end of an email to someone you haven't met yet you don't even
keeping them at arm's length as you should when you don't have a relationship yet yeah completely
completely i love it so guys those are two options for formal and two for informal have we ever
talked about this topic before aubry anywhere else yes there is another great episode you guys need
to make sure you don't miss all your english episode 1737 where we talked about how to end
business english emails and we were focusing also on the importance of thinking at the end right
we know that gratitude goes a long way and to end an email with a thank you is so useful so
make sure to uh revisit check out that episode if you missed it yeah guys if you're listening and
listening in the ios or android app you can just go and type in 1737. now that is the best way to
get all of the episodes of alder's english all right aubry let's dive into a role play
all right here we go so we are on a phone call you and i because the tricky thing about doing a role
play here i was thinking about it is when it's an email how do you do a role play but one thing
to note is you can also say these things on phone calls so we're going to show you in the role play
how you could also use these phrases on a phone call all right it's a good question how do you do
an email as a role play but we're going to show you guys how to do it you can also use these on
phone calls so that's how we're doing the role play okay here we and i are on a business phone
call okay all right well i think that's about it thanks for taking the time to chat today
oh no problem and just get back to me as soon as you can about those numbers
uh yes we'll do you need both past stats and future projections let me know the
future projections asap and then we do need documentation on past stats but it's not as urgent
oh yes two of those phrases here right you said no problem just get back to me as soon as you can
about those numbers totally something i would say in both an email and a phone call yes i love it
and then i said let me know the future projections asap and then we do need documentations on past
stats but it's not as urgent i would say the only thing that's easier here about the conversation
is you can hear in my voice we do need documentations on past stats i'm speaking a little
louder right i'm showing certain things certain changes in my voice to show that that thing
the past stats really matter okay absolutely yeah point out i noticed that you said um asap instead
of asap oh those listeners recognize that both are totally acceptable neither is right or wrong
neither is really more formal or informal it's sort of someone's personal style right yes and
i think we've done a couple episodes in the past guys about acronyms go back to allairsenglish.com
and just type acronym in the search bar i think we've done a couple of them but maybe we'll have
to revisit and come back to them again aubry yeah there are a lot where we'll make it into a word
like i did and say asap yeah then sometimes we will just say each letter asap both are accepted
both are comments you know just sort of depends where you're from maybe and your personal style
yeah i love it what's our takeaway for today yeah so this is a very high level business
english skill to be able to ask someone to get back to you right away with respect but clearly
right to express that urgency so that there's no there's no communication breakdown but also no one
takes offense right and today's episode is really going to help you with just some phrases you can
use to do that yeah and i think one final piece of advice guys for writing an email for anyone if
you're feeling like adrenaline and your boss is bothering you for something you need that thing
things are feeling urgent you know write the email and then like get up and walk around for a minute
and then come back and read the email and then send it and proof it again make sure you're not
being pushy or rude because it's so easy just to send that email and kind of you can ruin
relationships pretty quickly yes it's true right there are so many things that you could say like
i need this right away please do this right away exactly it just feels so blunt and harsh and pushy
demanding it sounds really demanding yeah so our goal here is to show you how to build a connection
and maintain it that's the other key once we've built it now we've done all these things with our
english to build that connection we don't want to lose it guys so take a minute just breathe yes for
sure that's a really good advice lindsay yeah i know i need to take my own advice too don't worry
all right all right aubry good stuff i'll see you in the next one take care all right bye-bye bye