Business English Course - Lesson 2: Making Suggestions in English
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The Business English podcast for Professionals
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
In this English lesson, we're focusing on making suggestions
in the next lesson, we'll look at accepting
and rejecting suggestions. This dialogue takes place and a sports shoe company
called Stratos. You'll be listening to Karen,
a marketing manager, meet with three members of her team
Charles, Sven, and Miguel. They are choosing a celebrity spokesperson
for new product. Celebrity means
a famous person. Here, spokesperson
is someone who gets paid to be in an advertisement for product
In the dialogue, target market is the place where you want to sell your
is the type of customer you want to sell your product to.
In this case the product is a special kind of new sports 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 used to make suggestions to
okay now let's talk about who we want to use as a spokesperson for this product
let's go around the table show uses sports to
or someone else spend what do you think
well look possibility would be to use a famous
overweight business executives all 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 back 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
weren't at all good suggestion but I can see one or two problems with that
to be honest Boeing first of a target market
are in the UK and the US we need
someone people with Americans and Britain's really like
secondly a target customer is kind of special
I've got a suggestion go ahead child it's just an idea
but how about choosing someone from a sport wheres normal
to be happy american football for example
but strong and fast you know what I mean Rai
I can see what you doing what do others think
yes that might be worth trying okay
the what about the UK who we get to use on this side of the Atlantic
mmm let me think about the youth show 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
that's an idea that idea you know I think this work to run
karen's team had a lot of ideas didn't what language do they use to make their
look possibility would be to use a famous overweight business executives
someone who is really successful houseman
make a suggestion he says one possibility
would be to instead will he uses
would the use of wood here means it's just a suggestion
could might and would are often use 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 making a suggestion notice the you served just
perhaps we should just use a famous pornstar
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 world 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
let's look at a couple more ways to make suggestions listener charles
I've got a suggestion go ahead child it's just an idea
but how about choosing someone from a sport worse normal
to be happy 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
is just an idea by how Barack how bout
is a normal way of making a suggestion is just an idea but
makes it extra polite instead a Powerball
you can also say what about how bout
and what about are followed by a ver plus being
I N G
it's just an idea but what about eating lunch together
these are sometimes followed by a phrase or sentence
this is more common with how about
how about you wash the dishes and I dry
finally let's look at a couple more ways
making a suggestion listen to how Karen
makes her suggestion show we try to find someone in Gulf
you can also say wanna for example
what if we cut costs by finding a new office
practice the ways and making suggestions that we've learned so far
well one possibility would be to
n but how about leaving a little bit early today
shall we try to look at this from another point of view
now it's your turn to talk in a moment
you'll hear a series of Q's followed by a bee
after each be use the information supplied
in the queue to make a suggestion for example
if you hear get back on to sponsor the product
you can say well one possibility
would be to get back come to sponsor the product are you ready
launched a new product in q1 next year
they've been a grant in Slovenia
scheduled weekly meetings to check on progress
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
and soon perhaps you should launch the new product in q1 next year
they've been a branch in Slovenia
answer it's just an idea but what if we open a branch in Slovenia
sir well what if we try to give employees legend bonuses
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 in practice again
substitute different phrases to build fluency
that's all for this unit we've covered many useful expressions for making
in the next unit will use the same dialogue
to cover rejecting and accepting suggestions will also look closely
at some idioms that were used in the dialogue thanks for listening