This is the Business English Podcast, episode 263.
Good point. How to acknowledge an interesting business idea in English. welcome to the business english podcast from all ears english get the english skills you need to achieve your dreams in global business for a presentation a meeting or your office party this is real business english with your favorite american hosts lindsay and michelle coming to you from new york city and colorado usa Still translating in your head when you speak English?
It's time to change that. The Connected Communicator course from All Ears English helps you train your ear, speak naturally, and finally connect with real people.
In our tailored study plan, you'll hear unscripted interviews from tattoo artists to entrepreneurs from all across America.
And you'll use new AI tools to practice speaking anytime you want.
No more stiff, scripted English. Build confidence, fluency, and cultural insight all in one course.
Plus, get real-life speaking experience at our Open Conversation Club every single week and build community with All Ears English teachers and students.
Go to allearsenglish.com slash connection to save $50 this week only.
Offer ends August 10th. allearsenglish.com slash connection.
Hey, Michelle, how's it going? Good. How are you, Lindsay?
Excited to be on Business English today.
I have a question for you, though. Are you ready?
Okay, I'm ready. All right, here we go. So who do you know who has really good ideas?
Does anyone stand out in your mind? Anyone?
Well, all of the All Ears English team has good ideas.
I'm thinking in my regular life, My sister-in-law has good ideas.
She's always good for giving advice, good ideas on how she can help.
Yeah. So I'll say my sister-in-law. How about you?
Interesting. Yeah. I mean, I think definitely good ideas come from our team for sure.
Often, you know, having different experiences when we go out of our home offices, when we have different experiences, I think we're more likely to have good ideas.
Yeah. You know, we just, we can put ourselves in different places, things occur to us in different ways.
Do you think that your sister-in-law thinks differently than you, like fundamentally has a different way of thinking?
Or is it just that she just always comes up with angles on things?
I think she's very creative. I think she is very smart.
And she's very successful. And so perhaps she thinks in a in a different type of way.
But she just she comes up with a lot of creative ideas or I always especially when I was a little young.
I mean, I've known her now over half my life.
Uh, yeah. So when she, I mean, she, she helped do my makeup for my sweet 16.
Oh yeah. So yeah, she always, but she always, I would go to her for advice and things like that.
So she just has a good way of thinking about things and expressing herself.
So yeah, that is a great relationship to have.
That's very cool. I love that. All right.
So today we're talking about the expression good point in this episode.
Why are we talking about this today? Well, this came up on episode 247 of the Business English podcast.
That episode was, this episode will help you punctuate correctly, period.
So good point came up there and you said, we should do a whole episode about good point.
So here it is. This is one of the most important things you need to be able to say in business English, right?
In life too, in connection, but also the office. right yes absolutely so we're going to devote a whole episode to this because this is so common so useful uh but before we get into it we want to say thank you to our reviewers yeah i just want to say thank you to one person that reviewed our show malia sophie from germany and she put it very simply she said this podcast is very very good love that love that fantastic so guys Remember, if we see your review, we're going to do our best to read your name out loud on the show.
You get to be a little bit famous, right?
So leave us your review. Let us know what you think about the show, and we would love to get that feedback from you.
We love those, Michelle. I always forward them to you.
You do. You do, and I love it. So thank you so much for that great review.
So let's get into it. Lindsay, what does good point mean?
Good point means I think you've just said something that's interesting, right?
Yeah, that's basically what it means. Oh, good point.
I hadn't thought about that before, but you've said that and it's interesting. yeah so point in general just the word point here would mean something an idea or something someone says so saying good point is just a way of acknowledging that you appreciate what they said they made an interesting observation so maybe you fully agree with them or maybe you thought you had another opinion but realized something new because of what this person said yeah that's that's actually an interesting question michelle does it mean i agree or Or I might think about it more and tend to agree?
Or does it mean you've just said something interesting that I should stop and think about?
All of the above. It depends on the context.
It doesn't necessarily mean I agree. It just might mean, oh, it might mean you need to reevaluate what you thought.
Yes. Right. And I want to just highlight one other episode for today because we also did the episode about the expression to your point.
So that was episode 242 was to your point how to create cohesion in a meeting in English.
So all the point episodes coming together.
Building all the points. I love it. Yeah.
So I agree. It doesn't completely mean you're totally correct, but it means, Ooh, I just heard something that I'm, I think we should consider.
Right. Maybe a little thought provoking, something that surprised you in some way, perhaps.
So you could use good point or you might say that's a good point.
So either one you can use. So, Lindsay, let's let's give this a try and a quick role play.
OK, here we go. We should delete that picture.
Really? I think it's important to match the text to a visual here.
Oh, good point. So I guess in this instance, I changed your mind.
I do agree. Yeah. But it doesn't have to mean that you 100% agree and you're going to do exactly that right now.
But in this case, it does. Yes. Abercrombie's viral denim sale is back.
And Spotify listeners get an extra 15% off with code SPOTIFYAF.
Abercrombie is known for their denim. With 30-50% off all jeans, find out how denim should feel.
Shop the viral denim sale in the Abercrombie app, online or in stores.
Valid in stores and online through August 11, 2025 in US and Canada.
Excludes clearance, price reflects discount.
Code valid in US and Canada through August 11, 2025.
Exclusions apply. See details online. Okay, so how does it make someone feel?
Because we're all about connection, not perfection, which is super important in our business lives, right?
To be successful and fulfilled. So what does it do for us?
How does it make that other person feel?
If someone says good point to me, I might feel a little flattered. like someone's really listening to me that they think I'm smart, what I said was smart or creative or good in some way.
So to say good point, it's it's good for connection.
Now, you might be saying, that's a good point.
But, right? It depends how you're using it.
But even so, it's a good way to even show someone that you disagree because you're giving them this this compliment and then you're saying your opinion.
So to me, it's a very good for connection.
What do you think? Yeah. Well, which is another episode we could do, Michelle, right?
How to validate someone's and then disagree, right?
Which is kind of a pivot that we should definitely go into.
I feel like we could do an entire course just on that.
Yeah. Um, guys, we'll be looking to make some business English challenges later in the year.
So get ready for those. But yeah, I think, um, I think it's all about validating people.
You know, I mean, people need to feel heard.
If you're not just having a conversation with yourself, like you are talking to someone else and we're throwing out ideas, you need to acknowledge if they've said something that is going to be causing you to stop and think, right?
Yeah, yeah, definitely. Definitely. So let's do some more examples here.
So she didn't come because she isn't committed to this company.
Hmm. That's a good point, but I think we should give her another chance.
Okay. So here are you, you're saying, I hear what you're saying and yes, that's, I can understand what you're saying here, but.
I'm not agreeing. Right. It might not be totally true that she's not committed.
I want to give her another chance is what I'm saying.
I hear what you're saying, but let's give her another chance.
It's like a 50% agreement kind of. Right.
It is definitely a good feedback expression.
You can also say make a good point. You make a good point or you made a good point.
Let's show our listeners how that would sound.
Okay, you made a good point yesterday when you said that we should send the surveys out to a few more people.
Thanks. Yeah, I think we just need to have some more data to make our case stronger.
Nice. Now here's a question. If, if you don't actually, if you're having a, let's say you're having a meeting, there's four of you in the meeting, small meeting, small team, you're brainstorming ideas.
You're trying to make a decision about something and you're, so you're not brainstorming.
You're, you're weighing, okay, what should we do?
Our options. What if someone says something and you don't actually think it was a great, what do you say?
Or do you say anything? Do you say interesting?
What do you do in that case? Some people might say interesting.
Oh, that's interesting. That's a key way to say uh-uh, right?
I think we maybe even did an episode on this one.
Did we? Okay. That's interesting. I think so.
Okay. I think so. Maybe on All Ears English, I'd have to take a look.
But yeah, that one, if you hear someone say that's That's interesting.
Especially with that tone of voice. Yeah.
Especially with that tone of voice. That tone of voice, right?
Instead of, that's interesting, right? Right, right, right, right.
Yeah. I'm just wondering, I wouldn't recommend using this for when you don't, because it's a little disingenuous, right?
If you don't actually think they made a great point, I think I would choose something else or just stay quiet maybe or nod my head, move on.
It's a tricky thing. I mean, you could say you made an interesting point.
So saying something is interesting isn't really saying it's good or bad.
So, oh, you made an interesting point with that, but I think this, or I...
I understand. I understand what you were saying.
Something more neutral, more neutral. But I think this would be a great follow-up episode.
That would be a great episode. Let's stay on track for today.
So, all right, Michelle, where should we come back to it here?
Coming back to it. Okay. So let's talk about some other things you might say.
So what's the first one, Lindsay? All right. well you could say i've lost my place here what is it michelle so you could say good suggestion oh you made a good suggestion right if it's specifically a suggestion uh or you could say good idea yes you could also if if you didn't want to say good point you could use another adjective like we talked about interesting would maybe be a little more neutral but what are some other things you could say with point uh you could say nice right instead of good or Yeah, nice point.
Excellent point. I would save that for when you really, really agree.
Yeah, just save your words, right? Because if you say things too much, they'll lose their meaning.
Yeah, you know, if you say excellent point to everything everyone ever says, they lose the words lose meaning. and then you have to go bigger.
Right. No, it's true. That brings me back.
I'm sure I've talked about this before on the show.
When I was just starting teaching in New York, I remember one of my favorite students, I still remember, he always made fun of me because I said, excellent about everything.
And because I would get so excited when somebody got something right, I would just get Oh, excellent.
And he always used to imitate me and go, excellent.
That's funny. Well, it's better to go in that direction.
Sorry, go ahead. Then I stopped doing it once he brought it to my attention.
It really made me aware. I see. I see. Well, you were a newbie.
And also, I think it's better to err in that direction than be half asleep in front of the class and not excited about things.
I'd rather have you as a teacher, Michelle, and someone who's not enthusiastic and not giving that praise.
Well, thank you. Thank you. All right. Okay, so role play time, yeah?
Role play time. Okay, here we are at a meeting and we are brainstorming ideas.
All right, so I just think we need more time and we shouldn't rush into this new platform.
Yeah, but we are really behind our competitors on this.
Hmm, good point. I'm not sure what to do.
What if we see if they have some sort of trial period?
That's a good suggestion. I'll get Bobby to give them a call later.
Good idea. Nice. Okay. We solved that problem.
There we go. Putting fires out everywhere.
Yeah. It's really interesting because there's a lot of moments in business, at least in my experience, where you just don't really know what to do.
There's no guidebook. There's no playbook.
If your company's in this position, do this.
There's so many things you could do. And so I do think our listeners, guys, use this.
You're going to spend a lot of time trying to figure out what to do, actions to take.
And it's very useful. We want to make sure we're building connection within that confusion or that sense of not quite knowing what to do.
Yeah, that's true. That's true. Good point.
Good point. I did that without thinking about it.
It sounded genuine. So it was I said it and then I realized, oh, my gosh.
So, guys, It's pretty easy to throw this out.
Oh, good point. Good point. And you probably hear us say this on the podcast a lot.
I have a feeling. So let's go through this role play.
So I said we're really behind on our competitors on this.
So I'm going against what you said. And then you said, good point.
I'm not sure what to do. So this is... You're not sure you're saying, yes, what I said was a good point.
And now I've kind of confused you and we're not sure.
Yeah, right. Exactly. It's the same thing that we said at the top of the show.
You presented new information that's interesting to me.
And so I'm saying good point, right? It's not 100% that I agree necessarily, but yeah, I'm moving towards agreement, right?
Oh, you've raised a good idea. Good point.
And then you said, what if we see if they have some sort of trial period?
And then I said, oh, that's a good suggestion, right?
And then you told me that you're going to contact Bobby about this.
So I said, good idea. Bobby's going to help us all.
Yes. And that's always good. If you can find some way to try something and sit before committing to it, it's a good thing.
All right. So I feel like it's kind of the takeaway is what I said earlier, Michelle, is that we spend a lot of time just not quite knowing what to do.
That's okay. That's human. You know, we're not robots.
We're not AI. We don't always know what to do, but if we can find a way to build the relationships within that confusion with it, that's how relationships get built, figuring it out together.
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Good point, Lindsay.
It's a great way to connect, to give someone credit for their thoughts and ideas.
So very useful. Throw it out there. Definitely, definitely comment.
Love it. Good stuff. All right, Michelle, thanks for being on the show, guys.
Don't forget to hit follow on the Business English podcast so you don't miss three days a week with us.
All right. All right. Bye, guys. Take care, Michelle.
Bye. Thank you for listening to Business English, a podcast just for you, the high achieving global professional.
Want more from All Ears English? Don't miss our biggest and best podcast with 8 million monthly downloads.
Just search for the All Ears English podcast and hit follow to get four new episodes per week on fluency, American culture, grammar and so much more.
Or tap the link in the show notes. Remember, we believe in connection, not perfection when it comes to learning English.
Follow the All Ears English podcast now.
