This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 113.
Use these four English phrases to participate and succeed.
Welcome to the All Ears English podcast where you'll finally get real native English conversation and fluency for business and life.
We believe in connection, not perfection, when it comes to learning English.
Now here are your hosts Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer, and Aubrey Carter, the IELTS whiz, coming to you from Arizona and Boston, USA.
In this episode you get four immediately useful phrases that you can learn to make sure you participate in your next business meeting or discussion in English.
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What's up, Aubrey?
How are you feeling today?
I feel great.
This has been a really nice day so far.
What about you?
Good.
Yeah, it's a beautiful day here where I live.
Bright, sunny skies.
Feeling good.
Feeling good.
I'm excited about this episode.
We have been talking a lot lately about the need to participate and how to do that.
Today we're going to give you some specific vocabulary, some phrasal verbs, some phrases that you can use to participate and feel successful.
Yeah, exactly.
So if you guys missed that episode, go back to yesterday's episode 112.
And listen, because that's going to give you the theory behind it, the culture behind what we're talking about.
But the bottom line is, if you're in an American company, American business culture or university culture, you're doing a PhD, a master's, you really do have to be verbal, you have to participate.
Because a lot of your success depends on what you verbalize in our culture.
Yes, exactly.
And if you did miss that episode, it probably means that you're not following All Ears English.
So wherever you find your podcasts, make sure that you're subscribed.
Yeah.
Hit subscribe, hit follow and join us, guys.
We teach English in a new way and a different way.
Cool, cool, cool.
Okay.
Let's jump into the phrases then.
So what's the setup here?
What are we doing?
Did you even notice that you used the first one?
You said, let's jump into the phrases.
I didn't even notice.
Guys, this is how you know that you're learning real English.
Exactly, right?
We use them so natively.
That's the first one is this phrasal verb to jump in.
This means to quickly start talking about something or enter a conversation, quickly say something.
There's not a long introduction.
It's like, let's go.
And you can also use this if you want to interrupt and say, could I jump in here?
And then say, share what you have to say.
This is so useful because often you do need to get in there.
That's the other aspect.
I'm just imagining a business, a corporation.
You work for a corporation in the US and you are in that meeting room.
Let's say there are 10 of you around one of those big round tables, right?
I mean, things are going to go fast.
So you need a way to jump in, like I said, again, to show that you're going to interrupt.
You know you're interrupting, but it's okay because that's common in the way we communicate.
And if you don't use a phrase like this to signal that you're going to speak, it can be really awkward to just start talking right away, especially if someone else is talking, because they might just keep talking, and now we've created an awkward conversation.
So these phrases are perfect to interrupt, signal that you have something to say.
Do you ever run into someone once in a while who like you'll kind of jump in and they'll keep talking but talk louder?
Yeah.
Yes.
I know someone.
I'm not going to name them just in case they listen.
Okay, it's my mother-in-law.
She's adorable, but she really hates to be interrupted.
And I'm terrible about interrupting people.
It's just how I was raised.
My family does it all the time.
And so, if ever, I would often, if I interrupt her to say something, she will sort of intentionally keep talking and talk even louder to finish what she wanted to say.
And that's sort of her passive aggressive way of saying don't interrupt me.
But I do it less now that I realize you know this is a very much sort of how she was raised and her sort of personal culture.
So I always let her finish speaking now before I start saying anything.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's fascinating.
Yeah.
I mean, everyone has their own personal upbringing, what they were taught.
All of our parents are different in the way they would communicate.
So we learned what they learned, right?
And I don't want to seem. seem rude.
I don't want to seem rude that I'm interrupting.
And often you feel like someone's finished or about to finish.
And so you start, but then you realize they actually weren't done.
So it was accidental.
And this happens to everybody.
It happens to everyone.
But I mean, it comes down to business.
You got to do it, guys.
You just got to get in there.
Okay.
I like the next one.
I like the next one.
Right.
To chime in.
So this is a very similar meaning, just that you're going to contribute something to a conversation spontaneously.
But I feel like it's even more native to say, let me chime in here.
And it comes from the chime is like the sound that a bell makes.
So if you imagine ringing a bell like, attention, I have something to say.
Yeah, I agree.
It feels a little less intrusive.
Yes.
And don't get confused between chip in and chime in.
I actually remember.
I don't know why I remember weird things, but my roommate in Boston. made this mistake.
She's a native speaker.
But I remember we were all talking about going in together and buying a new couch or something.
And she goes, Oh, I can chime in.
I'm like, what?
Wait, chime in?
So she used it wrong.
And I just remember that.
That is funny because they are pretty similar, especially how they're written.
But yeah.
So chip in means you're going to put money towards something like let's all chip in and buy this couch together.
And chime in all is very specific to I'm going to say something.
So she's like, I can chime in here.
Everyone would look at her like, yes, what do you have to say?
Right.
Yeah.
So hopefully you guys will remember that example.
Now just think of the couch.
Think of the couch.
All right.
The next one is jot down.
So all right.
So how would we use this?
This is talking about something you might do while you're hearing other people speak.
Yeah, if you're going to write something down.
So this will happen often.
If you don't have someone specific who's supposed to take notes during a meeting, you could say I'll jot down notes for our group.
And then you everyone knows you're sort of taking notes, you're keeping track of what's said and you'd send that out later.
Yeah.
And I would just put a warning here.
Don't try not to get stuck every time as the note taker or as the person that sends out the agenda at the beginning of the meeting, because that could mean that you think that's your new job and you don't want to think that that replaces the responsibility that you have to participate.
OK, so don't distract yourself with that.
That's a good point, right?
This is not making you a secretary.
You still will need to participate and share your ideas.
So you don't want to be doing that every time.
Right.
Just because you say I'll jot down notes, that's helpful, but that's not going to get you the same respect in the eye of your manager or your boss as someone who's sharing those ideas.
Would you agree with that, Aubrey?
Yeah, I agree.
It's good, but it's an added bonus.
It's not enough.
Yeah, exactly.
This is.
You might hear someone who's leading a meeting say they might ask someone specific, or they might just say hey, can somebody jot that down if something important is said?
But I love that note that you know it doesn't always have to be you if you find yourself sort of getting stuck in that rut.
You know, let that's if there's not someone specific assigned to that.
That's definitely a task that should be shared.
Yeah, because I think that could be tempting for our listeners, right?
If you guys are feeling insecure about your English in that meeting, you're nervous to talk.
You would think oh, I could just jot this down and I can add my value this way.
No, that's not the way to do it.
OK, you have to be verbal.
Yeah.
And I think these two last ones, there's something interesting about phrasal verbs.
You guys probably know this, that often you can move the object around, but sometimes you can't.
So for jot down, you can say like, I'm going to jot that down.
Somebody jot this down, you know, jot these notes down.
You can put the object between the verb and the preposition here, but chime in, you can't, right?
You couldn't say, I'll chime this in here.
I'll chime that in.
It's sort of idiomatic where you have to say it that way specifically, chime in or like glued together.
And you'll just say, let me chime in.
Yeah, that's a really good grammar point, right?
We have separable and inseparable phrasal verbs.
So you guys need to know the differences.
And that's why we learn this in context.
Hopefully you guys are going to remember that couch story, right?
You're going to remember it and you're going to remember how it was shared.
You're going to share your own story and you're going to know that that is not separable.
OK, I love this.
Exactly.
Always learn them in context.
Pay attention to the examples we share and then just recognize that we can't be as flexible sometimes with these.
We have to learn them in context and then use them that way.
Yeah, I love it.
Okay.
And the last one, this is good.
I like these because this one well, this one acknowledges the history of things that have been said before or done before, right.
Yes.
Yeah, so it's it goes back to.
So you use this to connect ideas.
You can link what you're talking about right now.
So, for example, you could say today's episode goes back to the episode from yesterday where we talked about why we have to participate right,
You're sort of calling back something that everyone else is aware of.
Yeah.
Or you can use this to call out someone.
And I like calling out people, like acknowledging them for what they've said and shared before the value they've already added.
I find that to be a really good way to introduce my own idea.
So you could say it goes back to what Aubrey said about inseparable, inseparable phrasal verbs.
Yes.
And you guys have probably heard us do this without even noticing when we're sharing something and saying well, it goes back to what Lindsay said earlier or last week.
We'll do this a lot to sort of make us realize how things are connected and linked and come full circle.
Yeah.
It also gives you a little boost of confidence before you say it, because you know you're not saying something that's out of left field.
That's a bonus phrase for our listeners, Aubrey.
What does that mean?
Out of left field.
Out of nowhere.
It probably comes from baseball, right?
Where there's a left field.
But yeah, to say something is out of left field means it was unexpected.
It sort of came out of nowhere.
It doesn't make sense.
It's not connected.
Oh, yeah.
We use this all the time.
And it gives us the confidence to say something, because it's kind of weird if you just say something and it's not connected to something.
You have to connect the dots for people.
Exactly right.
You can create an awkward conversation if ever you say something out of left field, right?
You want to connect those dots like you said.
You want to make sure that all ideas are connected.
And with these others you don't want to.
You know, start saying something right away, sharing an idea without one of these great phrases?
So start with, could I jump in here?
Or let me chime in here.
And then you're dissolving this potentially awkward situation and sharing your ideas in a very native way.
Yeah, this is fantastic.
Guys, on this show, we do talk a lot about career English, right?
Modern global business English.
We know you guys are citizens of the world.
You guys are doing business across cultures countries, and we're going to help you do that in a good way that fosters connection.
Right, Aubrey?
Yes, exactly.
Right.
We really believe here that it's all about connection, not perfection.
So don't worry so much that everything you say is absolutely perfect grammatically.
It's fine if you make a mistake here and there with phrasal verbs.
What's most important is that you're connecting with people, learning English and then using it.
Yes, I love it.
All right.
Let's end on that one, Aubrey.
I'll see you very soon in the next episode.
Yes.
All right.
See ya.
Take care.
Bye.
Bye.
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