Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 568, Describing Brisk and Slow Business.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 568.
I'm your host, Dr. Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
You can also support our podcast by making a small donation to help keep these audio files free for the world.
On this episode we are going to be talking about when business is good, when a, and when they are doing not so well.
Slow business.
Let's get started.
Anya, long time no see.
Let me buy you a drink.
I'm celebrating.
Oh, yeah?
What's the good news?
My company has had a banner month since we launched our new line of software.
We're having trouble keeping up with demand.
Every product is flying off the shelves.
Wow, that's great news.
Everybody I talk to is singing a different tune.
Foot traffic is down and business is slow, really slow.
That's too bad.
I thought that Yao's company was doing brisk business.
Six months ago he was selling a line of cell phones that was all the rage and customers were beating down his door to get one.
That was six months ago.
It's a different story now.
Those cell phones are now considered passé, and he has inventory he can't unload.
You know how fickle the market is.
I'm sorry to hear that.
How about you?
How's the travel business?
Why do you think I'm sitting here crying in my beer?
Pull up a chair and I'll tell you my sob story.
Clint begins by saying, Anya, long time no see.
This is an old expression, which means it's been a long time since we have seen each other.
Long time no see.
Let me buy you a drink.
Of course, if he's buying her a drink, that means they're in usually a bar and the drink will be a beer or wine, or Possibly a Cuba Libre with a little bit of lime on top.
Yeah.
So Clint says, I'm celebrating.
He's happy about something.
Something good has happened and he wants to celebrate.
Anya says, oh yeah?
What's the good news?
Clint says, my company has had a banner month.
When you say you've had a banner, something as an adjective, it means very good, better than expected.
We often use this in talking about a company and how much it is selling or how well it is doing.
But it could also be, for example, about a person saying, Charlie had a banner year.
He got good grades, he found a new girlfriend, and he won the lottery.
That would be quite a year.
Actually, he won the lottery and then got the new girlfriend.
So if you're looking for a new girlfriend, just win the lottery.
Clint continues.
Since we launched our new line of software, we're having trouble keeping up with the demand.
To launch something means to start a new project, a new program, maybe even a new business.
In this case, Clint's company is starting to sell a new line of software.
When we use the word line in talking about business products or services, we mean they are a group of related products.
Sometimes we use this term in talking about the name or the brand of a product.
For example, he likes the guest line of jeans.
That's the kind of jeans, the brand, the name, the specific kind of jeans that he likes.
But in that line, usually there are several different products that are somehow related or similar.
Clint's company is launching a new line of software and they're having trouble keeping up with the demand.
To keep up with something is a phrasal verb meaning to be able to reach something, to be able to do what you're required to do.
In this case, you're able to keep up with demand.
The demand is demand. people who want to buy things from you.
It's the willingness of people to buy your product.
There's two parts in any business.
There's supply, which is what you produce, and then there's demand, which is what people want.
So Clint's company needs to keep up with the demand.
Or keep up with demand meaning they need to make sure they have enough things to sell for the people who want to buy them.
He says, S-H-E-L-V-E-S, means to sell something very quickly.
A shelf is like a flat area where you put things in a store so people can see them.
Usually there are more than one shelf, so there are several shelves, the plural.
To fly off the shelves means to sell something very quickly.
So Klimt's company is selling these pieces of software very quickly.
Anya says, wow, that's great news.
A tune is like a song.
It's music.
To sing a different tune T-U-N-E however means to have a different experience than someone else.
Usually to have a different experience because something has changed a lot.
For example, Anya says that although Clint's company is successful, other people she has talked to, other businesses, are not successful.
She says, for example, foot traffic is down and business is slow, really slow.
Foot traffic is the number of people who come into a store or a business that come in to buy something.
So if there are fewer people coming, there are fewer people buying.
And therefore, business will be slow.
Clint says that's too bad.
I thought that Yao's company, Yao must be the name of a friend of theirs, was doing brisk business.
Brisk, B-R-I-S-K, is an adjective that means very fast.
Often it means with a lot of energy, with a lot of excitement.
When we use it to talk about business however, we mean that they have a lot of success, that they're selling things very quickly.
Clint says, When we say something is all the rage, R-A-G-E, we mean it is very popular.
Something that suddenly becomes popular and everybody wants to buy it.
A few years ago, there was a dance song called the Macarena, many years ago.
It was all the rage.
Everyone wanted to get this song.
I'm very sorry about that.
Really, I am.
Well, that's what we mean by all the rage.
Very popular.
So Yao's company was popular six months ago.
In fact, customers were beating down his door to get one of these cell phones.
To beat down someone's door is a phrase that means to do anything to get this product.
In this case, it means anything that the product is very popular, that all of the customers wanted to buy one of these cell phones.
Anya says that was six months ago.
It's a different story now.
Those cell phones are now considered passé.
When we say something is passé, P-A-S-S-E, with an accent mark over the E because it is a foreign word, we mean it is no longer popular.
It is old-fashioned, out of date, we might say.
Anya says that Yao has inventory he can't unload.
Inventory are the things that a company owns.
So if you make cell phones somewhere, you have a bunch of cell phones in your building ready to sell.
That's your inventory.
To unload, in this case, means to sell.
But unload can also mean to give something away, especially if nobody wants it.
To try to get rid of something is another meaning of unload.
Unload has other meanings as well, as does the word banner that we began our dialogue with.
Look at the learning guide and you'll find more explanations.
Anya continues, you know how fickle the market is.
Fickle F-I-C-K-L-E means to change your mind frequently, especially about what you like and don't like.
One day I like popcorn.
The next day, eh, I don't really want any.
I'm fickle.
I change my mind a lot.
Anya says the market, meaning people who are buying things or business in general, is fickle.
It changes quickly.
Clint says, I'm sorry to hear that.
How about you?
How's the travel business?
So apparently Anya is in the travel business, airlines, railroads, that sort of thing.
Anya says, why do you think I'm sitting here, here in the bar, crying in my beer?
The expression to cry in your beer means to drink beer or alcohol because you are sad or depressed and you think that the beer will make you feel better.
So to cry in your beer means to be sad and to try to make yourself happy by having a beer.
Anya says, pull up a chair and I'll tell you my Saab story.
To pull up a chair literally means to take a chair and put it next to someone to talk to them.
More generally, it means...
Sit down and listen to someone who is going to tell you a story.
So you pull up a chair when you are about to listen to a story.
And if someone says pull up a chair, they mean listen to my story.
Her story is a sob, S-O-B, story.
To sob, as a verb, means to cry very emotionally.
A sob story is a sad story, something that would make you cry.
The girls spent all night talking about their sob stories related to their ex-boyfriends.
Something you might want to do over a beer.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Anya, long time no see.
Let me buy you a drink.
I'm celebrating.
Oh yeah?
What's the good news?
My company has had a banner month.
Since we launched a new line of software, we're having trouble keeping up with demand.
Every product is flying off the shelves.
Wow, that's great news.
Everybody I talk to is singing a different tune.
Foot traffic is down and business is slow, really slow.
That's too bad.
I thought that Yao's company was doing brisk business.
Six months ago he was selling a line of cell phones that was all the rage and customers were beating down his door to get one.
That was six months ago.
It's a different story now.
Those cell phones are now considered passe, and his inventory can't unload.
You know how fickle the market is.
I'm sorry to hear that.
How about you?
How's the travel business?
Why do you think I'm sitting here crying in my beer?
Pull up a chair and I'll tell you my sob story.
Our dialogues are never passe here at ESL Podcast.
That's because they're written by the wonderful Dr. Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Come and listen to us again.
Pull up a chair next time here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2010 by the Center for Educational Development.
