This is the Business English Podcast episode 275.
Is this meaty topic offensive?
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Hey there, Michelle. What's going on? What are you having for lunch today?
Lately, I've actually been, we've talked about this recently. I have been trying to avoid meat
a little bit more. So for breakfast and lunch, I usually don't have any meat. If I'm going to have
meat, it's going to be at dinner. Yeah, what about you? Interesting. Yeah.
Well, I don't eat very much meat. I sometimes do. I'm not, I'm not 100% vegetarian.
I'm not like, I've been called chousatarian. So, oh, okay, I got it.
When I feel like it, if it looks good, I'll try a little lexeterian,
lexeterian, chousatarian. Yeah, we all kind of have our own interesting diet concoctions,
right, Michelle? Yes, exactly. Well, we are going to get to the meat of this episode quickly today.
Lately, so, I mean, once the last time you ate meat, actually, I did have some chicken last night,
a few pieces of chicken, because we've been doing this, you know, the cooking style sous vide.
How it's, I don't know what I mean. I know it, but I don't know what it means.
It's cooked in a plastic bag and it like walks in the juices. Yeah. So, yeah. So, there's like a,
I don't know, a brand that we buy that just tastes really good. It's pretty healthy from my
understanding and I had a little bit of that. Yeah. Yeah. That sounds good. But do you have any
vegetarian or vegan friends or family members? Sure. Sure. And at our wedding a few years ago,
that was, yes, that was a challenge navigating a lot of different diets. We did it. We did it
with a few mistakes, but I think everyone was good. We were good. But yeah. That's good. That's good.
So, today we are going to answer a listener question about a common expression that is really
useful both in and out of the workplace. Yeah, I'm excited for this. First, guys, go and check out
episode 2216. And that was where all airs English podcasts of all airs English. Yes, different show,
but say if same podcasters, basically, it's our team here at all airs English. But I, it's as a guest
interview where I interviewed a well-known podcaster Whitney Johnson on how to navigate change in your
international life. We talked about the S curve and what that means adapting to change when you move
a broad was a great episode. Okay. Very, very interesting. Love it. Okay. So let's get into the
listener question today. So this is from Omihau. And Omihau says, is it okay to say, let's get into
the meat of the topic as an expression to vegans. I worry if it's a bit offensive. Very interesting
question. Great question. I mean, that's really creative thinking and really thoughtful. I mean,
to think if this is actually offensive, because we do want to think always about what's appropriate
to say to whom. And so lots to think about there. So Lindsay, what do you think? Yeah, I agree with
you. First of all, Michelle, I love that our listener is thinking this way and it's be this listener
is being respectful. And that is the way to find action, right? But basically, I'm just going to say,
no. Yeah. And so there are a lot of other things you could say that based on people's identity that,
yes, definitely would be offensive. And we could we highlight those on this show. This one is not,
is generally is really, it's really not. Do you agree, Michelle? I agree. I don't think that
because it's one, it's it's something that's so common that you don't think of meat, right?
You don't, you don't, I don't get this image of a hamburger in my head if somebody uses that.
Yeah, it's just so ingrained in our conversations, this expression that it just doesn't,
you don't think of that. Yeah, and it's important. It's it's a great expression. We don't want to lose it.
We want to use it. We use it in business quite a bit. It means, I mean, what does it mean? First
of all, when we say, let's get to the meat of it. Well, yeah, well, it means to get to the most
important part, right? To the, I mean, and it does, it is this idea of meat, right? Like the thick,
the thickest part, right? Is if you think of sandwich in the meat in it with the meat in it.
If you do eat meat, you're probably thinking that's the most important part of the sandwich, right?
So it is it is related to that. But we don't necessarily, it's it's it's you'd so frequently in
this and other context that is not thought of as the meat. No, yeah, it's really not it's it's not
offensive. So, but we do use meat. Is that what today's episode is all about? I am actually kind of
excited about this fun episode. I'm not even much of a meat eater myself, but like I said, but
I think this is going to be a fun episode because yeah, meat does come up quite a bit in English.
Yes. And even in the business English world. So it could, it's useful for business. It can
help signal and meetings, presentations, right? Yes. We're going to share how you could use this.
And then also share some additional meat idioms or words that can be useful for business or
outside of business as well. Let's do an example. Lindsay, what's one? The first one. Okay. Now that we've
gone through the basics, let's get to the meat of the subject. So if you don't want to say this
word for whatever reason, again, it's okay to say this culturally. You can say, let's get to the
heart of the subject. Right. You could do that as well. Or here's another one. We are spending too
much time focusing on minor details. I think we need to get to the meat of the soon before we lose
the audience's attention. Yeah, you're just saying let's get to the chunky part, the substantial part,
the part that really matters to what you're talking about, the topic, right? And as we mentioned,
don't worry about this being offensive. There are, you know, this goes into many, many idioms.
We've, like Lindsay says, we've deconstructed a lot of idioms to like think about certain
meanings and what they mean for our culture. I mean, I remember certain ones about death and also
like about guns and different things. But sometimes when it's just an idiom and it's so ingrained
in our society and how we use the language, that's not in a way of that thing, then it's just,
it's like kind of evolves in meaning to mean what the idiom means, right? Because an idiom
doesn't mean word for word. Right. What is written? You have to, you have to know that extra level
of English to be able to extract that meaning. Yeah, exactly. So like we said, we've done plenty
of other episodes before about terms that used to be commonly used, but now we don't use them
anymore. You know, terms that have changed over time and are no longer acceptable and ones that have
never been acceptable. But this is not one of them. Okay. No. So we're going to show you after the
break, a bunch of other ways to use the word meat and meaty in English. I'm excited to be a show.
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All right. We're back. And Michelle, first one where meat shows up. What is it? Yeah, you just
said it before the break. So it's a meaty. Yep. So yeah, I mean, this is basically it's good.
It's juicy. It's interesting. This is very common. Lindsay, what do you think about this?
Totally common. And a business English example would be when we built our course, the connected
communicator, before we knew what it was going to be, before I took the trip, this is the trip
where I drove around the US, interviewed native speakers, brought it to you guys as a course.
We identified what we called meaty themes. And the meaty themes were topics that I wanted to ask
people about. We envisioned eventually those meaty themes coming into units and modules,
homelessness in America, the history of slavery in America. Some very heavy, important topics,
gun rights, guns in America. These were meaty themes. So it's used as an adjective to mean important.
Right. Right. So yeah, exactly important that there's a lot to it. It holds weight. So you could
say something like, oh, slides one through three or a bit boring, but four through seven are really
meeting good meaty, good job with those. Right. Not meeting meaty, right? Yeah, meeting a job. Yeah.
So seem they've got substance. They mess. Okay. Yes. Exactly. And then we're going to teach one
more. Lindsay, what what is this one? This is fun one. This is fun. Meat and potatoes.
What does this mean? Yeah. It's also that it's like the basics, right? When you think of
somebody eating meat and potatoes that a lot, you think of, oh, those are kind of the basics,
the important stuff. So for example, you could say there's a lot of flowery language in this
report. We just need the meat and potatoes. It's like there's a lot of extra. We need the meat
and potatoes, the basics. And this was kind of meat and potatoes. I feel like historically,
especially in certain regions like the Midwest, maybe the plain states, it was the typical diet
in the US, meat and potatoes, right? It was a very common. That was kind of, you have your meat
and then your vegetables and your potatoes. I feel like that was very typical. And I think
that's where this comes from. We just need the standard. Yeah. That's exactly. And then what's
one more you wanted to highlight? Well, I just this one came to mind just spontaneously. Let's put
some meat on the bone, right? So the idea is if you're if you've got a skeleton idea of something,
let's say I present a very broad idea for a project or a new course idea, very broad. We're
going to talk about business English presentations, but we sketch out the framework, but now we need
to add some meat puts a meat on the bone, meaning add some substance to the broad skeleton that we've
created. Yeah. So that's absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely. So I mean, if you feel like you don't want to
use the word meat, there's tons of other things we can use you could say things like the essentials,
the most important part, the most interesting part, we could do a follow up adding even more,
but we wanted to give you the meat and potatoes of the standard today. Yeah, I think we should do
a follow up actually maybe in a few months, something other ways to say what is the key point?
There's so much we could say I mentioned at the top of the episode, you could say the heart of
something, the key point, the essential, there's so much you could say, you do have a lot of other
options. So many so many options, but don't worry about this very sweet of you to think of people
who could be offended by it, but you're good. So let's do a role play here. Lindsay and I are
working on a report together. Here we go. All right. Here we go. Okay. So the first three pages are
Justin intro, when do we get into the meat of the topic? Well, that starts after the table of
contents. That's when we start to cover the basics. Oh, I see. Do you think we should get to the meat
and potatoes earlier? I thought about that, but if we start covering the essentials too early,
people may lose interest early on. Oh, yeah, that's true. Okay. Oh, I like the meaty stuff there.
Yeah. Great. Yeah. So we're structuring the presentation, thinking about where things are
going to go in the report. Right? Exactly. Yeah. So guys, we're not going to necessarily use meat
over and over and over. Right? This is one of that way. It's just throw them all together.
So I'm weird if you said get to the meat. That's why you're like playing doing some kind of pun.
You could be playing around. Wow. The meat and potatoes will be here kind of making a joke.
You probably wouldn't put those in the same conversation. You might pun sometimes, Michelle.
You're you can be kind of punny sometimes. That's a little bit punny.
Let's see. Okay. So I said the first three pages are just an intro. When do we get into the meat
of the topic? Yeah. Like the juiciest stuff. Yeah. And then I said that starts after the
table of contents. That's when we start to cover the basics. Right. So something else you could say.
And then I said, do you think we should get to the meat and potatoes earlier? So same idea.
Right. And then you I said, but if we start covering the essentials too early, the big things,
the most important things, people might lose interest. Right? Right. Right. And then I said,
that's true. Oh, okay. And then so maybe I'm reading on and then I said, oh, I like the meaty
stuff there. Yes. Love it. Okay. So that's an example. And what's the takeaway for listeners
today, Michelle? Okay. So there are ways words can be offensive of course. Yeah. And it's good to
always have this in mind. That's why this is such a good question because yeah, I understand why
the listener would want to know. But and sometimes you might find something that is offensive. So
it's a good question to ask, but I wouldn't worry about this one too much. But if you do feel
uncomfortable for some reason, you can also try out other suggestions. Yeah. For sure. This is a
great. This is kind of fun showing some color in English. So use these expressions. Guys,
make sure you hit that follow button right here in business English because we've got a lot of
good stuff coming up this summer. We've got a fun summer series going on across all three of
our shows and you want to close the loop on that series. So hit the follow button guys. All right.
Love it. Okay. Lindsay, well, this was fun. And thanks for listening for that question. And we'll
see you on the next one. Take care. Bye. Bye.
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