This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 384, one phrase to change the game in English.
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Hey there, Michelle.
How are you doing today?
I am good. How are you, Lindsay?
Fantastic, fantastic.
What are we getting into on business English today?
So today we are going to talk about taking things to another level.
So this is actually Lindsay.
Do you want to share where this idea came from?
Yes, I have been loving hosting Open Conversation Club, what we call OCC.
I'm trying to host once a week or so, more or less, and I get a chance to meet our students.
And nowadays, if you join one of our courses, you get invited to these Open Conversation Clubs.
It's actually really amazing Michelle, the connections, the breakout rooms.
We're doing a hot seat program now where you get to talk with me if you're randomly selected for five minutes and get corrections and we check in together, we talk about your goals.
It's actually very cool but just a few weeks ago, I was hosting OCC, Open Conversation Club and one student expressed what we're all thinking, which is, he said, it's one thing to join the course but it's another thing entirely to login and practice every day.
Oh, that's true. And he spoke the truth and I said, you're so right.
Right? And he made an important distinction.
And I also just love this construction that he made.
So I wanted to highlight that, and we actually did stop and learn this as a group during that call, but we're gonna have all of our listeners learn it today.
Great. So let's talk about what this actually means.
So let's start with that example.
So which one is better in that example?
Joining a course or logging in every day and practicing in that course?
So definitely logging in every day and practicing, right?
It's right. Because we usually have we have goals, we commit to a course, but then it is not easy to get back to the course every day, it can be hard, it can be a challenge, right?
Yes. Absolutely. Exactly.
So the everyday practice because it's going to get you more in the end.
It's going to get you to your goals.
You can join a course never using it and never use it.
So you gotta use it.
You got to work hard.
So that's really what the essence of this expression is.
Yes. So before we get a little bit further into it, let's make sure everybody's hit the follow button so you never miss anything from the Business English podcast.
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All right. Michelle, what's the exact construction again?
Because I think I tweaked it a lot.
I changed it a tiny bit when I presented the example from OCC, but what is it?
Okay. So it's one thing to x, but it's another thing to y.
So, x is kind of the basic thing.
Y is changing the game.
It's more extreme. It's doing more.
And so, but y can be positive or negative.
Now, this is sounding a little bit like alphabet soup, which we just started talking about on the All Years English Podcast.
So, we're going to explain it.
Let's break it down.
Yeah, let's not, let's not have any alphabet soup here.
Michelle, that's really good.
Into it. Here we go.
So in the positive category, right?
Here's one positive example is one thing to reach out to your clients via email, but it's another thing to call them personally.
And I agree with that because it's a heavier lift on most people to make a call.
It's just a little more vulnerable, a little harder to talk to someone on the phone than it is to write an email, but the benefits could be so much better.
Right? So which one is better?
Making that call. making the call.
So it's one thing. So that's the basic thing maybe, the easier thing.
Yeah. Then as Lindsay said, I like it the heavier lift is to call them personally.
So it's changing the game, it's making it more intense doing more.
Here's another one.
It's one thing to organize the files but it's another thing to do it alphabetically.
So maybe this is funny I didn't even realize because yeah, there's a hand about the alphabet soup.
But yeah, so organizing the files basically is good, but I'm saying even if you do it alphabetically, it's better, it's going to be easier to find things.
And so that example would be better.
Right. Or it's one thing to network online, like use LinkedIn, for example.
But it's another thing to actually go out and do informational interviews and go to events.
Yeah, that's harder.
It's harder. Yeah, but it's probably a better thing because you'll probably form better in person relationships, right?
Better networking connections.
in person. Exactly.
Exactly. So those are the positive ones.
And we're gonna go over to how it might be used where the second the Y is more of a negative thing.
Oh, I'm excited to see what that looks like.
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OK. So we're back to talk about Another variation of how this might look in the negative side of things.
So for example, it's one thing to make a mistake, but it's another thing to not even try to fix it.
Ooh, okay. So maybe if we're in an argument, or we're talking about someone at work, maybe which we don't recommend.
Yeah, right. Exactly.
But yeah, it's one thing to make it a mistake.
Right. Okay. So you made the mistake, but if you don't try to fix it, right?
That's another thing.
Like, it's okay to make mistakes, but it's not okay to try and get everything to be okay.
And here's another, it's one thing to leave your job, but it's another thing to quit and try to steal all the passwords.
Oh my gosh. It's horrible.
Yes. Exactly. Or it's one thing to accept lunch from your coworker, but it's another thing to not even say thank you.
So, and these ones, the second part, the why, as we're calling it is really changing the game in a negative way, making it worse.
Mm -hmm. Yeah. I mean, the one that I see the most frequently here is very much what the students said in Open Conversation Club about, like I said, heavier lifting.
Right? The thing that is harder to do but we know it's going to get us the best results.
It's like the step...
So, more on the positive too.
Yeah. Yeah. Right. So exactly.
So with the clients examples, emailing them versus calling them personally networking online versus going out, right?
It's the heavier lift.
It's the thing that is going to get you further.
Um, so it's just about the second thing being more extreme or specific or intense or the heavier lift.
And you know, this is so useful for business.
You could use this to talk about work or talk to a coworker or I mean, you could use it in a meeting?
There are just so many ways that you could use this.
Yeah. The one way, one really specific way that I see this being used is in a performance review.
Right? So if your boss is doing a performance review with you, which tends to happen maybe twice a year, if you're being praised by your boss or your manager, and you did something that was above and beyond, right?
And they want to highlight that to you.
They want to make sure that they know that you appreciate that, that you know that that they appreciate it.
So they say, oh, it's one thing to do a good job in our presentations, but it's another thing to close the deal within the space of the 45 minute presentation.
You closed the deal, right?
So it's a way of praising someone.
If you are a boss or a manager and you're talking to your direct reports, that could be a good way to do it.
Yeah, yeah. So it sounds like to you, you definitely hear more in the positive way.
That's how you think about the 60s.
Yeah, the leveling up leveling up.
Right. Whether it's positive or neutral or praising or just talking about how much harder something is, but how much better it is for us.
Right. Right. Right.
Right, exactly. Yeah, I like that.
So while we're going to do a negative example of.
We're all fine, but that's all right.
That's OK. There we go.
We're coworkers in a meeting.
Here we go. I'm right.
Here we go. All right.
So you're telling me Chila's figures are wrong?
Yes. Yes. And we didn't know this until now.
Unfortunately, no. Yeah.
It's one thing to have some incorrect numbers, but it's another thing to not even notify us before this meeting.
I agree. And yeah, don't get me wrong.
I think this is a totally realistic scenario too.
Right. I think some of it honestly actually depends on your company culture.
So what is being said at work at your company?
Are people pointing out people's mistakes more often?
Or are they praising people more often or are they talking about just how could we get better?
Like our Student in Open Conversation Club.
We realize it's a heavy lift.
It's a challenge, but we know we need to do it by logging in every day and doing our work.
We know we're going to be that much further along with our fluency.
Right? Yeah, exactly.
That's really important.
So we used this. So what happened was Sheila gave us some wrong numbers.
And so I say, we didn't know this until now, and then you said no and then what did I say?
And then you said, yeah, now here's the big phrase, right?
It's one thing to have some incorrect numbers, but it's another thing to not even notify us before this meeting.
So the really bad thing is actually that she didn't tell us the numbers were wrong.
Yeah, she made a mistake on the numbers.
Fine. This happens, but to not tell us.
And I want to actually add a bonus piece here because at the top of the show, I inserted a word and I said entirely, but it's another thing entirely to not even notify.
So that is an optional insert for our listeners.
If you want to really make your phrase even a little more fancy and more natural, you can do that, but you don't have to, just for emphasis.
Yeah, that's definitely a good thing to add into really hammer at home.
Totally. Yeah. And I feel like this could actually be a good check on our lives.
Are we in the right place work -wise?
Are we in the right environment around our friends?
How are people using this construction, right?
Right. And this just in general, I think when you use this it's because you have some sort of strong feeling about something, whether positive or negative.
So I don't think you use this just willy -nilly.
Just totally not. Totally not.
Yeah, because it takes a lot of energy to say this exactly it does and to think of this even So it's not necessarily just Totally something that is you're just blasé about it's just something where you have some feeling you have some opinion It's affecting you in some way and you want to express that Exactly, but we need the expressions to do it and I love that this came up from directly from a listener from a student Thank you to that student for saying this is in Open Conversation Club and Michelle, is there another episode we could check out?
Yup. Head on over to the Business English Podcast.
That was episode 375 was Improve Your English Around the Margins.
Love it, that was a fun one where we talked about accounting, the accounting phrases, and how does accounting actually come into English?
Believe it or not, it comes into a lot of parts of our vocabulary, Michelle.
It's really cool. Very fun.
All right, good to show.
All right, yup. Anything you wanna say before we head off?
I think we kind of did take away.
That's it. That's a takeaway.
Think about your life.
Are you working in a positive environment?
Are you living in a positive environment?
Are people making these big statements positive or negative?
Just a good gauge on your life to see how things are going.
Right? Yes. Love it.
All right. Perfect.
Well, thank you to this listener for the question, and thanks for talking about this with me today, Lindsay.
All right. Talk soon, Michelle.
Bye. Bye. Thank you for listening to Business English, a podcast just for you, the high achieving global professional.
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