Hello and welcome to this Bizmates for beginners
video series and today's phrase
is "Thanks for backing me up."
Thanks for backing me up. What does this mean
we will find out but first let's do
our test. Okay, so we are
in an izakaya, we're drinking and Takeshi
is missing, and I say "Where's Takeshi?
Where is he?" You say... Good! That's right. "He's passed out."
Okay, so let's go on to today's phrase --
thanks for backing me up. Great
business phrase. Okay? Let's imagine Taro and I
are colleagues and we finished
a meeting; and in the meeting
Taro had some trouble. He had some trouble,
you know, and I supported him. I helped him
in the meeting. So I say: "Good job in the meeting, Taro!"
And he says: "Yeah,
thanks for giving me support." Okay, this is okay. I understand.
"No problem, Taro." The Japanese like to use this word "support"
but we don't use it so much in English like this
you know. Thanks for giving me support. Well maybe "Thanks for your support"
but a more natural way is to say it
like this -- so let's say...
I say: "Good job, Taro, in the meeting. You did a good job."
And Taro says: "Yeah, thanks for backing me up."
It means supporting me. But we often say
backing me up. So maybe Taro had some trouble in the meeting,
his boss was asking many questions and
I jumped in
and I helped him. So he says "Thanks for
backing me up." Very natural
phrase. Okay let's practice pronunciation.
So it's: Thanks for backing... not backing-gu
but its backing me up. Thanks for backing me up.
You try... Good!
Okay with my sentence: "So, good job in the meeting."...
"Hey, no problem! Anytime."
Just like that. Okay for homework,
next time I will say to you: "Good job in the meeting."
Okay and you could say, not giving me support but...
"Thanks for backing me up." please remember this
and we will see you next time. Thank you