This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 27.
How to become a leader at your workplace 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.
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Hey, Michelle, what's going on with you?
Not too much, Lindsay. How are you? Oh, I am getting excited for the weekend because today's Friday and we're recording this on Friday at least.
And this weekend I'm doing something kind of cool.
Oh, what are you doing? Well, actually, it's my friend's birthday and she is really excited about tiny homes.
This whole tiny home movement, tiny house, tiny home.
And she's reserved three... three or four tiny homes for us to go up in New Hampshire and like a outdoor area with a lake.
And we're going to live in these tiny homes for the weekend.
Yeah, it's pretty cool. So what's a tiny home, Michelle?
Oh my gosh, that's so cool. Yeah. It's a very small home.
Yeah, it's a very small home. That's the best way I can describe it.
I know. Well, technically speaking, a tiny home, I think it needs to be a minimum of 320 or 350 square feet.
Well, that's where it starts to be called a tiny home.
And I've stayed in one before when I was couch surfing in Michigan.
I did stay in a tiny home. And I don't know.
It's just going to be a cool thing because it's like a test run for her.
And she eventually wants to live in a tiny home.
It's a good test run, you know? Wow. That's really cool.
All right. I'm looking forward to hearing about that.
I know there's a big trend going on right now in the U.S. that people are getting super excited about these.
People are building them and, you know, people are trying to downsize the old model in the U.S. of the huge home, the backyard, the oversized mortgage, 20, 30 year mortgage.
I think people are just after the recession.
I think they're just kind of seeing past that a little bit.
Like maybe that's not the way to build wealth in the 21st century.
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Exciting. Okay. I think we have a connection issue today, Michelle.
I'm not hearing you very well, but we'll keep going.
Oh, no. We'll see if it gets any better.
Yeah. I think there's a little bit of a delay.
Oh, no. Yeah, I hear it too. Okay. Anyways, let's keep going.
So I want to say thank you to some of our reviewers.
So I want to start off by saying thank you to Max1947Roswell.
Thank you to Igor Korkin from Moscow. Thank you to Yung San from Thailand.
And thank you to Hisam Dubarari from the U.S.
Guys, go ahead and leave your review if you haven't done that yet.
We would love to know what you think about the show.
And it helps our show to stay high in the rankings.
So thanks, guys, for that. Thank you. Thank you so much.
I know. I know. And Michelle, what are we talking about today, Michelle?
Okay. We are talking about how to speak to people who are kind of at this beginning level of English.
Yeah. And not only how to do it, but if you are kind of an English learner still, if you're an advanced English learner, how do you speak to someone who's just getting started?
Because you're in the unique position to know how they feel.
Exactly. Yeah, that's true. You can really empathize with them.
Yeah. And that's important because, and you, and you can really be kind of an advocate for them too, because a lot of people who haven't gone through what you two have gone through, they have no idea what it's like.
They just have no idea. Most people, at least in this country, they stay in the U S their whole lives.
They don't live abroad. They barely travel.
They don't even own a passport. People just don't know what it's like to go abroad and try to make a life guys.
So that's where you can have an opportunity to advocate for other people.
Okay. So I think it's kind of a responsibility.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. For sure. Yeah.
So we got a question from one of our listeners here, and that's where this topic started off from.
So, Michelle, could you go ahead and read the question?
We don't have the listener's name, unfortunately, but we'll go ahead and just read the question.
Okay, here we go. I am one of the everyday listeners of All Ears English podcast, and thanks for the great work.
Oh, well, thank you. You're welcome. I've been learning a lot of expressions from you two, and it has been very helpful.
Thank you very much. You're welcome. Thank you.
I've got one question for you. How can I speak to English beginners clearly and nicely but not make them offended?
I've been living in the U.S. for six years, but I have been surrounded by native speakers.
So the only issue for me was to speak fluently or use the right expressions.
But I've never thought about how to speak to someone who is at the beginner level.
Recently, I got a new job, and here I'm exposed to more diverse environments, and I need to communicate with colleagues who just came from foreign countries.
Since I had been through the same situation, I understand how they struggle with English, but I also need to communicate effectively.
But I'm afraid my English is not also perfect to deal with this issue.
Do you have suggestions and tips that I can use?
Thank you very much. Very interesting question.
Yeah, it's a good question. And it's also very broad.
So we really can't give you I mean, today is not going to be a phrase episode, because what phrases can we give you?
Like, we don't know what you're trying to say.
Okay. So that's the first thing. So for this listener, if you're listening, if you want more specific phrases, specific language tasks, that's then you need to write in to us and let us know what you need.
But instead, we'll just take a look at this of how we would approach this and what you can do in the position that you're in, okay?
And you guys are going to want to go ahead and grab the transcripts because this will really help you to really know the nitty-gritty of what we're saying today, to really go into depth.
You are going to learn some vocabulary, obviously, and you want the transcripts to do that, okay?
Absolutely. So what's the first thing that this listener should think about, Michelle?
Okay, well, they should think about not just like what words to use, but how to treat the interactions, right?
Like your body language, you know, nonverbal cues, things like that.
So think really, how would you want to be treated, right?
Yeah. Yeah, exactly. How would you have wanted to be treated when you first arrived?
I mean, because these beginner learners at your work may not understand everything, they'll be looking to nonverbals more than anything else.
And if they feel like you're losing your patience with them, if they can see that in your nonverbal communication, it's going to sever the connection.
And we're always trying to improve the connection or maintain the connection.
So try to really be in their shoes. You know, I love that expression, Michelle.
Do you know that expression? Yeah, for sure.
It's like see things from the way they see it.
Yeah. And the other thing is that you have an opportunity to be the leader at your workplace, right?
If you have native speaking colleagues, they might not understand this beginner English speaker.
So you might need to be kind of the bridge between them.
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So again, try to be more specific in your question next time and write in if you have a question.
And so one thing that I would do if I were you is I would push for some changes at your workplace.
I mean, obviously, these guys are coming in as beginner English speakers and they're working in an English office.
I mean, something's wrong there. They need lessons, right?
They need cultural training. I mean, talk to your employer and see what kind of budget there is for English lessons.
Yeah. work for these beginners. I mean, you're not going to be able to take on the full responsibility of these guys not being able to speak English yet.
Okay. Right, right, right. The company should really, you know, realize that they have a lot of people coming in who are new to this country and what can they do to help them?
It's, I mean, you can definitely help, but it's also not your main responsibility.
Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And so when you talk to your employer about that, I mean, you may need to make the business case.
You may need to try to look at how much productivity is being lost, how much time is being lost in confusion, how much money is the company losing, and then take that information to your employer and say, hey, it makes sense for us to invest in these lessons because we'll save this much money.
Right. But I don't know. I think it's it's crazy that an employer would just throw in these employees who don't have any English skills into this English speaking environment.
That's tricky. Right. And also don't take too much.
Don't worry about it too much. Like if you feel uncomfortable going to your boss about that kind of thing, like don't, you know, you know, you can just see how things kind of pan out and you can make suggestions.
But yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So do you think it's not a good idea to go to the boss and ask for lessons, Michelle?
Or what are you saying? I don't know. I think it has to be done in the right way.
It depends on the workplace culture. Depends how close this person or listener is to the boss.
So, yeah, I think, you know, it really depends.
So I just wanted to bring out the other side also.
Yeah. Yeah. OK. OK. And then the second thing is we want to go ahead and think about how you're communicating with them, with the beginners.
That was your kind of your question directly.
And so, Michelle, what should our listener keep in mind when they're communicating with this with this beginner speaker?
Well, you know, keep your sentences a little bit simple, right?
Don't, you know, speak too quickly and speak clearly, right?
Like don't really just like jumble or mumble your words.
Yeah, exactly. Try to keep the tone of voice kind of even.
Use gestures as much as you can. Use images.
See if you need to write something out. You know, sometimes you need to draw a picture.
Right. Sometimes that's what you have to do.
Yeah. Right. We've done some episodes in the past that you can go back to to get the phrases that you need, right?
Like, for example, we did an episode called Five Ways to Ask Native English Speakers to Repeat.
And you can go back to our blog, allersenglish.com, and type that in.
And then, Michelle, what did we do in episode 586?
In episode 586, you can ask someone to slow down.
Yeah, exactly. So we did that just recently.
I remember when we did that because there's the problem where native speakers sometimes think that it's about repeating, but it's not about repeating.
It's about slowing down and repeating. Right, right.
Exactly, exactly. Yeah. So just come back to our blog for those actual language functions for the phrases, because we're not really going to go into them too much today.
Um, but come back to them if you need them and then ask us a specific question if you have a question.
Um, and then I would say don't speak to them in their native language.
If you share a native language, don't, you know, let them have that crutch because that just makes it harder in the end, unless it's an emergency, obviously.
Um, I think that if you do that, you give someone a crutch and then they always expect it.
I think that tough love. I mean, do you have any thoughts on that, Michelle?
Yeah. I mean, well, I mean, I obviously teach English and I really stress that it should be English in the classroom.
And yes, there are definitely times when it's necessary to speak in your native language.
And I'm not... I'm not like, oh, never, never, never.
But yeah, sometimes it's just used too much.
So you just don't want to let that happen.
Yeah. I have a feeling that this listener doesn't share a native language with these other employees.
So it probably won't be a problem. But if you do, yeah, don't let them have that crutch because it'll be harder for them in the long run to learn.
And the other thing is don't shut down. Try to listen and understand them.
I think that's what people... struggle with.
I think native speakers shut down and they when they hear that foreign accent, they stop listening.
And that's so it's so often it's the native speakers fault because they don't try to listen.
So don't do that to this new learner. Right, right, right.
Exactly. Yeah. And then I think the other thing is, is that you have a unique opportunity to kind of be the advocate, the diplomat between these new employees and your native colleagues, you kind of have this responsibility.
So what does that mean, Michelle, if you're going to if this listener is going to take on that responsibility?
What does that mean? Mm-hmm. Well, you know, you have to have an eye out for cultural misunderstandings, right?
Maybe you're not from their culture, but you might know when there's some sort of cultural issue or misunderstanding.
And you can even say, like, this might be a cultural misunderstanding.
Like, in my culture, I know that in my culture, blah, blah, blah, we do this and that. something like that, right?
Exactly. So it's very possible that your Native colleagues haven't thought about cultural differences at all.
If they haven't traveled, they probably haven't.
I mean, nowadays, I think we're coming around to it a bit more, but still we have a lot of work to do.
So they might just take for granted their way of doing business as being the only way.
But you know that because you've come from another culture, you know that these other new employees... come from a different culture too, and maybe approaching a business situation from a different angle, thinking about it differently.
So that's really important that you highlight that to your native colleagues.
Oh, there might be something cultural going on here.
Let's look at this more. Yeah. Yeah. And also, you know, try and paraphrase what people are saying for others.
Right. So like you can say, oh, I think what he is trying to say or the point she is making might be right.
So just paraphrase when other people don't understand, if you understand.
Yeah, exactly. And we can do, you know, maybe we could do another episode on that topic, Michelle, in a couple of weeks.
We could cover how to paraphrase what someone's saying.
I think that would be a good topic that we haven't covered yet.
Yeah, for sure. That's an important skill.
Yeah. But basically, the point is, your question is too broad for us to give you very specific phrases because we don't know what you're trying to say.
But I think the most important thing here is just try to be in their shoes in every way, like be their advocate.
I mean, you kind of do have a little bit of a responsibility.
So step into that, you know, step up, step into it.
It's only going to improve your business skills and your English skills.
And try to be in their shoes. Stick up for them.
Be patient as much as you can. And just try to do your best.
That's what I would say. Michelle, any final thoughts there on that one?
Good luck. And, you know, I think you're in a good position.
Yeah, it's a good position. And it's something that you could talk about in the future.
If you're applying for a new job in your career, you could talk about the fact that you kind of became a bit of a leader at the workplace.
So that could actually even be put on the resume in some way.
I mean, that could be talked about in a job interview.
So think of it less as a burden and more as an opportunity.
That's what I would do if I were you. Yeah, I like that.
I like that. Okay, well, thank you so much for that question.
And thanks, Lindsay. Yeah, thanks for hanging out today, Michelle.
Okay, thanks for listening, guys. Have a good day.
All right, bye. Bye. Thank you for listening to Business English, a podcast just for you, the high achieving global professional.
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