This is the Business English Podcast episode 363.
Shall we? How to Talk About Leaving In Business English.
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Hey Aubrey, how you doing today?
I'm great, Lindsay.
Are you going anywhere fun today?
Ooh, actually yes. I have a different answer.
I'm actually going out this afternoon slash evening for drinks with my friends to do like a little Christmas drink should be fun.
Oh, that's fun. What time do you need to leave by?
Oh, we have to leave here by 4, so that we can be there by 4 .30 because it's very hard to get into this particular place.
So you got to hit the road by about 4.
You got it. I asked you what time you had to leave because we got this great question about the idiom hit the road, and we're sharing it, and some other ways we say, we need to leave, yes.
Both in daily conversations, but also in business.
There are lots of situations where you need to say like, let's go or I need to go.
And they're a lot of interesting ways to say this.
You got it. I am excited to get into this.
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Alright, so I'm going to go ahead and read the listener question from Moika, Mo intention from Japan.
Are you ready? Yeah, let's do it.
All right. Hello, I'm Moiko from Japan.
I always enjoy watching videos on YouTube.
Thank you for giving me such great episodes.
I have a question when I watched one movie.
One character said to another character hit the road.
What does that mean?
Could you explain it?
Thank you. Moaiko Tomita Love it.
Oh, such a good question.
And I could imagine this being really confusing like it's idiomatic there's no way to understand what they're saying from the actual words right.
Exactly. And we do use this two different ways in english too which is tricky.
In that movie they were saying like, get out of here like leave and not in a very nice way it means like, I want you to leave right now.
Yeah sometimes you see that right makes what that just made me think of as the scene in Home Alone he didn't say it but he said even more colorful.
Remember when he set up the trap for the pizza guy and he puts the TV, the movie on, it makes it sound like you.
There's like like gangsters are like yelling at each other.
Yes, he used different, colorful language rather than he enlightens the animal.
Good. Oh my God. It's great.
If you guys hadn't watched Home Alone, you need to check it out.
It's a great film, so funny, but yeah, we also use it a lot more politely, right?
That's Okay. That's not polite to say to somebody hit the road, meaning like leave right now.
I want you gone, but we will say it to me like, let's go.
We need to leave. Like I said to you, you need to hit the road by four.
It just means like, you need to leave by four.
Yeah, there's a lot we can do.
We've said before on the show, when we implement slang, sometimes we're trying to be less direct instead of you need to go, hey, let's hit the road.
Right? It's more fun.
It's more friendly.
Just more friendly.
Exactly. Yes, right.
And this happens all the time at work.
If you are late for something or you need to go, you do need more friendly ways to see, because it can be awkward to be like, we need to leave right now.
There are so many more friendly ways to say that, where you can build the connection instead of maybe hurting it.
And that's what we're going to dive into today.
So Anbrey, what would be the first context?
The first example. Yeah, so this first one we're teaching is let's hit the road.
You might say, Let's hit the road, we need to meet the client in 20 minutes.
And this is so much more friendly than we need to leave now.
And even though it is a business scenario, it's totally, it's totally fine.
It's okay. Uh, let's do a roll play.
Okay. Let's do a little role play here to show how this would look.
Are you coming to happy hour?
Yes. Planning on it.
Wanna ride? Oh, that'd be great.
Awesome. Let's hit the road.
All right. Nice. Very friendly.
Very friendly. Even though you're at work, right, it's often you're having these more informal conversations where we do use idioms or you can say, let's hit the road.
Yeah. It just means let's leave.
Yeah. And we know for our listeners a lot of what they want to improve is kind of the white space moments around the big things at work.
Giving someone a ride, having a business lunch with someone, I don't know, hanging out in the break room.
These are really important times to build business relationships, but if we don't know what to say we're stuck.
Right? Exactly right.
So we're going to give you a few more great options.
The next one is, let's head out, which also just means let's go, let's leave.
So you might say, we're supposed to be there at 1 p .m.
So let's head out. Super common by the way.
Super common and also more friendly than saying let's leave.
Yeah don't say that.
Yeah. Here we go. Are you leaving now?
I think the event doesn't start until 4?
Yeah. I was planning to be there early to help set up.
Oh, good idea. I'll come help too.
Awesome. Let's head out.
Yeah. Okay. And again, because you're saying let's go.
Like another good reason not to say let's leave because you're kind of pulling me out the door a little bit.
Right? Exactly. Right.
So let's head out is like more like, are you ready to go now?
We can go there. Sort of more implied here.
Let's leave. Let's go right now is not giving any space for your schedule.
If I say, let's head out, you could say, Oh, you know, I've got just a couple things to finish up no problem.
Exactly, love that.
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USAA. Okay Aubrey, so number three is another alternative way to say this.
What is it? Yeah, we say get going.
I should get going, or we should get going which is, I think using the present continuous like this just makes it a little more informal, a little more friendly, instead of we should leave.
We need to leave. Yeah, just don't, just stay away from that one.
Here's an example, my meeting starts at three, and is downtown, I should get going, get going.
Very common, very natural.
Yes, all of these sound so much more native and natural than the alternatives, the more formal verb.
So even if you, like if you're in a more formal situation, you still would probably opt for these even at work because it's a little more harsh to say I have to leave.
Like the actual verb is just a little more abrasive.
Exactly. Here's a role play for this one.
Do you often hit traffic on your way home?
If I leave right at five, it's not too bad any later, and I'm in for it.
It's five now. Oh, wow.
Time got away from me.
I should get going.
Yeah. Nice. Really good.
There's a couple of bonus phrases here.
I love this. Any later, and And I'm in for it.
I mean, it's like I'm in trouble.
I'm going to hit traffic.
Yeah, it sounds like someone would say in LA or something, right?
How's the traffic in the Phoenix area, hungry?
It's not too bad. In downtown Phoenix, there's a stack, like an exchange freeways that are stacked and that can get blocked up.
So sometimes there are traffic jams or especially if there's an accident, then traffic will be bad.
but it's nothing like California, where no matter where you're going, it's going to take you forever.
Yeah, I don't know why it's so bad there, but it's bad news.
Yeah, a lot more people to probably, right?
There's just, yeah.
A lot of people crammed in there.
Yeah. But it's also interesting.
Just this verb that we often say, um, do you hit traffic?
We hit traffic, right?
This is kind of the verb we call a cake, whereas it seems a strange verb to say hit.
Right. But we would say that I'm kind of like, are you going to come across any traffic?
It's a weird word to us when you're talking about traffic.
but basically it come across or encounter, but you wouldn't say encounter traffic.
It is hit traffic. This is a chunk.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I love it.
Uh, and I'm in for it.
Yeah. There's some good stuff in that role play there, but there is a fourth that we want to make sure our listeners know about Aubrey.
What is that one? Yeah, this is, shall we, and you can also combine these.
You could say, shall we get going?
Shall we head out? And we don't hear shall as often in the English language, it sounds a little bit formal, but with this trunk, we do hear it quite a bit to say like, you know, should we leave?
We'll just say, shall we?
Yeah, for sure. I feel like I've been using this a lot in my business emails for some reason.
Like, shall we set up a meeting, right?
I mean, sometimes it actually works well, you know, when you're writing to maybe partners or vendors that you work with or someone you want to do like a guest episode recording with, shall we set up a time in January?
Absolutely. It's friendly, but elevated a little bit, a little more professional.
So, yes we use it a ton in emails a ton at work and we use this chunk just to mean should we go?
Shall we leash? Is it time to go?
Yeah, it's kind of like a combination of should and will.
Isn't it? Yeah, that's true.
So, for example, you might say we need to be there in 15 minutes, shall we?
And that shall we means should we go?
Shall we leave now?
Right. And again, just to be totally clear, you could also say shall we go?
But when you say shall we alone, it specifically means, uh, should we leave?
Exactly. And the intonation is a little different.
I'm going up on we shall we?
Right? It would be strange to be like, shall we?
I don't know if it went down.
They'd be like, what do you mean?
Shall we what? Yeah.
Right. You need the dough up.
Shall we? Yup. And it's just about as like your kind of gesturing to the person, about that you're you're going to go out the door together, right?
There's a lot in there.
it's a very specific context for that one, but putting shower in front of other things also works well.
As I said in my examples or inviting someone to meet or something.
Yeah. Let's do it. An example.
Alright. Okay. Are you headed to the conference?
Yes. I'll be there all day today?
Oh, me too. Want to write together?
Sure. Shall we? All right.
So that is right away.
We're getting in the car probably holding your coat.
Like you're ready to go.
So it's like, shall we means it doesn't mean like, should we leave in an hour?
it means shall we go right now?
No, no. No, that'd be weird if you meant show – you gotta leave it in an hour.
No, no it's, right now we're walking out the door immediately.
Yes. Okay? I wanted to share another episode that we just did very recently.
You could scroll up and see this one, PlayStation 359, Should You Call A Business Colleague A Piece Of Work.
Because I was thinking about – you'll find out in that episode, don't call anyone a piece of work.
But it's interesting how these little minor things could really break the connection, right, if you just are a little more harsh and say, I need to leave now, or let's leave now.
It's crazy how that can really come across people might judge you as like a someone who doesn't read social cues maybe, right, you definitely need these options that are a little more friendly.
100 % agree with you, Aubrey.
You know, for me, the the visual picture of someone saying let's leave now or I need to leave now someone with our arms crossed.
Absolutely. And demanding that.
I need to release now.
That's not the vibe that we want to let off.
So we need to know these alternatives and use them at the right moments.
Yes. Absolutely. All right, so let's see, we talked about the other episode.
And any other takeaway ,rowa, that we should know?
I mean, that's really the point of it.
That's the main point we want to get across today.
Anything else? I think there are so many options for something like this, if you just need to say, I need to go or let's go.
Also there are lots of options.
These four that we're teaching today are the most native, natural, friendly.
So avoid saying, let's leave, I need to leave.
And use one of these instead.
All right. Sounds good.
We'll see in the next episode.
Alright. Take care.
See you next time. Bye.
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