This is the business English podcast episode 173 how to organize your points in English with letters and numbers Welcome to the Business English podcast from All Ears English.
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Offer ends August 10th. allearsenglish.com slash connection. well a the weather is beautiful b i have some fun plans for the weekend and c i slept well last night oh my gosh you really yeah you have a lot of reasons to be having a great day michelle that is just sensational i love it the funny part is when i planned this episode i thought to myself i wonder if i'll have actually slept well last night and the answer is actually no you did not sleep well last night okay yeah but the weather is beautiful um yeah I do I mean I have some kind of fun plans for the weekend but really just kids birthday parties and but I didn't sleep well last night what about you oh my gosh the weather so I'm actually on the East Coast I'm in Boston right now visiting my family and the weather has been amazing this week it's been just I know on the East Coast it's one of those you know like a late summer feeling but it's fall so in Northern New England the trees are changing oh my God it's gorgeous yeah yeah it's beautiful here too yeah yeah yeah okay so that's interesting the way you gave me all your reasons in an abc format michelle tell me about that yeah yeah so we're going to talk about this today this is a common way that people make points in business it can be used in other parts of your life as well but we're going to focus on the business aspect today because it is useful in business so guys before we do that we want to remind you to hit follow wherever you are listening to the business english podcast so you never miss anything yes hit that follow button guys we will drop right into your queue so you don't miss a single episode of the show so michelle i imagine that our listeners have heard people say things like first of all right i mean do you ever hear that Yeah, of course.
First of all, the first thing, the second thing.
Yeah. So this is a this is a more unique kind of fun way to do this.
People might also just list out the numbers, right?
Like they might say one, two, three. Right.
Yeah. lindsay do you ever do this abc one two three abc one two three do i do the abc's the one two threes um you know what not very much i don't know if my thoughts are usually that cohesive enough to to know that three things are coming and i write a list which one is number one which one is number two which one's number three but i've certainly heard it and i think it's good i think it's good for business that's why we're talking about it here on business english Have you ever heard anybody kind of do the wrong thing and they'll say A and two?
Yeah, it's like kind of a joke. Yeah, that you forget if you're doing letters or numbers and then you mix them up.
Oh, yeah. And I feel like I've seen comedy skits about that, too.
Yes. Yeah, exactly. So to me, I think it's interesting that you said that you're you don't think that you're necessarily your thoughts are that organized.
Because I said that, to me, it does sound kind of organized, it sounds kind of fun and very confident.
So if you are You know, even even if you aren't sure that of all the points you're going to be making, you can still just give it a go.
You know, try listing it out with A, B and C. But yeah, let's do some examples.
So here we go. OK, so we should definitely switch to the new platform.
The tech is astounding. A, the new platform is cheaper.
B, it's higher quality. And C, it's more user friendly.
Ooh, Michelle, that sounds very well. It sounds professional.
It sounds like not I don't want to say rehearsed because we're trying to be spontaneous, but it sounds well prepared, like well informed.
That's how you sound to me. Right. Thank you.
Thank you. Let's see. Why don't you give a do another example?
OK, here's another example. Let's see. I don't think it's a good idea to change up the presentation.
One, it's going to take too much time. And two, it's really not necessary. nice more cohesive than ever yes exactly lindsay if you were to use one of these do you think you're more inclined to use letters or numbers probably uh numbers probably numbers michelle because it's just more natural for me one two three right rather than thinking about the alphabet what about you I was gonna say I think I'd more likely use letters why is that that's interesting I don't know but just when I think of this like the more natural thing felt like basically when I started planning this episode it was because I thought of ABC and then okay that that was like the inspiration for it and then I realized oh that we also just do numbers so I think just ABC sounds Okay.
Well, we can have our personal preferences here.
I mean, here's the key question, right? So I bet our listeners are wondering, does it ever go on to four, five, six, or D and all the remaining letters?
Or what do you think? Or do we just stick with the first three?
Yeah, I think I don't ever hear like, I can't imagine somebody being like, and seven, like, or, and G, you know, that's a good question.
Because I feel like it's usually one, two, or 123, or a B or ABC.
And then you cut it off there, right? Like, do you ever hear anything past?
Not really. If I do, it's a lecture. It becomes a lecture and people are going to sleep by then, right?
So, you know, three is supportive. This is a way to support your statement, right?
These are kind of reasons why. Exactly. You really don't need more than three, do you, Michelle?
No, you don't want to go overboard. And also this means that you can do this with just a few, like, you know, you have some points to make, but it's not, it's not for like a huge, you know, essay or anything like that.
It's kind of cool because you know that it's just for a few quick points.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. Abercrombie's viral denim sale is back and Spotify listeners get an extra 15% off with code SPOTIFYAF.
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Exclusions apply. See details online. Okay, Michelle, what would be another way if we don't want to keep using ABC, one, two, three, what could we say?
What else might we say? Yeah. Well, you could say, instead of just saying like first, second, third, you can add of all, right?
So first of all, second of all, third of all.
Do you use that, Lindsay? Yeah. Well, I'm much more likely to use first of all.
And then, you know. Yeah. Yeah. And then have that be it. first of all and then I got nothing yeah yeah I got nothing else um but yeah so you can you could I mean you could do second of all third of all you could but um it could get a little bit repetitive but I mean basically let's talk about why is it important to have these markers oh my gosh this oh this is i think this is especially important for our listeners because one of the challenges is pronunciation we want to make sure our co-workers at work understand us and sometimes we can't control how good they are at listening to all sorts of different accents inevitably we're gonna have an accent right as adults a slight accent it's just gonna happen and so that's not really our fault sometimes if our co-workers don't understand us but there are certain things that we can do to give benchmarks and signposts i love signposts yeah yeah exactly i think it just keeps things a little bit structured it makes things easier to follow signals yeah signals right it's signaling um and it shows that you put some thought into something now I think it's an interesting point that you brought up, Lindsay, about how organized, how sure do you have to be before using these things?
Do you have to have the whole thing in your head?
It's like something on index cards all written out.
It doesn't have to be. I think that's why that joke comes about, like A and then 2 and then D. I think it's because people haven't, you know, it's more stream of consciousness.
So you can give it a try, even if you're not exactly sure.
Just if you know you have some points to make. just try and you know stick an A in there and as long as you make it I think as long as you do A and B or one and two that's fine you don't need to have three points but it would be it's a little weird if you just say A or one because it sounds like where's the rest of it I agree totally agree And you're right.
Those comedy skits we've all seen come from an incoherent argument.
Someone who's trying to sound organized, but is coming up with something spontaneously and probably doesn't have any competence in the area.
That's usually what's highlighted in those skits. yes right that's true yes exactly you're right that's true so um well let's let's give let's give a role play here okay um so we can see what it would sound like in a regular conversation so here we are we are co-workers and we're going over some decisions in our business plan okay let's do it michelle all right so yeah so i think we should save the reviews until june really yes a it gives us a little more time to see what's going on and b we're just too busy right now to make that a priority well that's true but i don't think we should put it off too much longer than that one it's important to keep track of all this information and two it's good to get it out of the way sooner than later Ooh, we're both doing our ABCs and our one, two, threes here.
ABCs, one, two, three. It's like a Jackson 5 song over here.
So we were both able to use that. I don't know that necessarily you would use it, you know, back to back like that.
But for the purpose of the role play, we did.
So let's see. So first I said... I'm going to make that point.
And I say, A, it gives us a little more time.
And B, we're just too busy right now. So I didn't go on to C and that's fine.
Yeah, that's fine. And what I said, right, my point of view was I don't think we should put it off much longer than that.
And I said, one, it's important to keep track of all this information.
And two, it's good to get it out of the way sooner than later.
And Michelle, on this show, we talk a lot about tone of voice.
And I think it's important here. tone of voice yeah you kind of need to change your tone right how are we changing our tone between a and b and one and two it's like i'm getting confused no i'm just joking um it's like a and b yeah you just need to we need to see it's again the signposts come from the letters but it also comes from our tone of voice a little pause and then your tone of voice sounds a little bit different yeah Right.
That's exactly right. So that's that's true.
It wouldn't it wouldn't work to just say like a da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da one to a and then like you're really kind of dragging out the letter a right one.
Right. So not just like a this be this. It's a long it's a long sound because it's kind of like you're conveying an argument through emphasizing that you have multiple reasons.
Right. That's kind of what you're doing, right?
You're not just giving the reasons, you're showing that you actually have multiple reasons for saying this and therefore pronouncing the A and the B and the one and the two and the three, that becomes important.
We need to notice that. Don't be annoying with it.
Don't be like one, right? No, no, no, not to to don't go overboard, don't go overboard.
And also don't go overboard in general with this, right?
You don't want to be that person that always walks into a room and says a B, you don't want to be the person that repeats usage of anything in English.
Right? Yeah, we talked about that a lot, especially I feel like on all ears English, we definitely, you know, because we teach things and We know you guys are hopefully hopefully excited to try things you hear on the show.
But we want to always remind you just like in your first language, you wouldn't just go around repeating the same thing.
I can imagine somebody doing this all the time.
Like I could see that on the office or something like that.
Somebody would always say ABC one, two, three, and then that would be a joke.
That would be like their quirk. Yes. That'd be a fantastic.
Oh, sorry. Excuse me. Oh, by the way, Michelle, we should recommend The Office to our listeners.
Yes. Gosh, that's a great show for our listeners.
We should do a whole episode talking about The Office.
It would be fantastic. The Office, I see it as in a way sort of similar to Seinfeld, not similar, but kind of equally funny.
They just take things that are weird about office life.
It's, um, it's a people, these people that work in a paper company and like some, uh, Scranton, Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania.
Yeah. And it just highlights the, the ridiculousness of corporate life in the U S and it is quite funny.
Don't you think? It's, it's really funny so that's a good one to watch guys we we recommend that and um also as far as business english goes uh go ahead and listen we did a little while ago episode 168 was you need to listen to this episode yesterday so that's another uh another expression that you can learn about if you go over to that episode yeah so go ahead right after we finish up today guys go and listen to 168 get another little dose of business english what's our takeaway today Michelle?
Well, this is a good way to signal with numbers and letters.
This makes you sound organized and compact, but don't do it all the time.
And make sure, make sure that you don't go A and two.
No. OK, I'm going with letters. I'm going with numbers.
But I really challenge our listeners to try this out.
Try this out the next time you're in a meeting, the next time you're in a conversation.
Even if you don't necessarily know, it doesn't have to be that you have it written down.
It doesn't have to be super, super organized.
But just give it a try. As long as you can get to A and B or one and two, you're golden.
Totally, Michelle. And then the other piece is it's kind of nice to know that there are ways we can make sure that we are understood beyond just the correct pronunciation because we can work all day in pronunciation, but there are strategic things like this that are going to make our points very clear.
So you won't be repeating yourself to your colleagues, right?
How nice to have other things we could do to structure and be very clear beyond just pronunciation.
I love that idea. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, that's true.
You're going to be clear. People are going to understand your points and just be able to follow easily.
So it's definitely useful to have these signposts to help out.
I love it. So guys, go on over and check out Business English 168 and make sure you have hit follow on this podcast.
So we will see you again very soon. Michelle, you have a nice day.
I'll talk to you soon. You too. Bye. Bye, Lindsay.
Bye, guys. Thank you for listening to Business English, a podcast just for you, the high achieving global professional.
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