This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 460.
Be playful with your mistakes to boost connection 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 Aubrey, coming to you from Arizona and Colorado, USA.
Think about the last time someone leaned in and said, sorry, can you say that again?
It's frustrating, right?
You know the word, you said it, but the sound wasn't clear.
That's not a grammar or a vocabulary problem.
It's a pronunciation problem.
And it doesn't mean changing who you are or erasing your accent.
It means making your English easy to follow and clear every time.
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That's allearsenglish.com slash f l u e n c y s c o r e. Hello, Lindsay, how are you?
Good, Aubrey.
How's it going today?
How are you?
Excellent.
I have a question.
Do you ever point out your own mistakes?
Oh, for sure.
Because sometimes I feel like I'd rather point them out than other people point them out.
Right?
Right.
Absolutely.
And this is interesting.
It's whether it's about language, little language errors, which is more what we're talking about today, or big mistakes at work.
We all make them.
Right.
Right.
Often you do.
You want to be the one to point it out, maybe apologize rather than have someone else notice.
Oh, for sure.
For sure.
And it can make a fun you know, funny or fun moment, like we saw with Michelle on a previous episode.
Right.
Exactly.
This happened on Allers English.
I was listening back to the episode.
It was so funny at the very beginning of an episode.
She was like, we are in the summer.
And guys, I'm sure a lot of you are taking summer trips this summer.
Right.
And then she was like, how many times can I say summer?
And it was so native and natural and such a great way to kind of poke fun at herself for repeating the word.
We do this all the time and it's such a great way to build connection.
Yeah.
And it also just really sounds like something Michelle would say.
It feels really in her personality.
So I love it.
So good.
Yes.
But a lot of us we do this where, if we notice that we have mispronounced a word or repeated a word, we often, instead of it could create awkwardness, to ignore it entirely.
We will often point it out in a funny way, just like lighthearted poke fun at ourselves a little bit.
And that is so much better than just pretending it didn't happen.
And we do this all the time, all the time.
This is such a hallmark of native natural conversation.
So I'm really excited for our listeners to learn this and learn how it might apply to the business world today.
Exactly.
And first, we want to share a recent poll.
We asked, do you use AI a lot?
And the results were interesting, surprising.
Yeah.
Yeah, 100%.
Everyone that voted said yes.
So we are all on the AI train riding it to we don't know where, but we're riding it somewhere.
Right.
This came up in episode 439, Five Ways AI Can Improve Your Business English.
But yeah, we're right there with you, right?
A lot of people are using it either at work or for language.
So yeah, 100% of our listeners said yes.
They use it a lot.
And we'll have a really great poll coming up at the end of this episode.
So if you're not listening in Spotify, you might want to consider that, because that is where you need to be listening in order to vote in the poll.
Okay.
All right, Aubrey, let's dig into this here.
Tell us about this.
Yeah, we first want to share the reasons that you should point out a minor error, right?
So first, it creates a learning experience.
So these are minor errors with your language.
You're working in English, it's your second language or maybe even third.
But whether it's a language mistake or any kind of mistake, admitting to it will give you a chance to reflect on what caused the error and what you would do next time, right?
Because if we don't, if we ignore them and move past, then we probably would just make the same error again.
Exactly.
And we love doing this because it shows humility and people like people that are humble, right?
It takes humility to actually admit that you are wrong, that you made a mistake, but it's such an easier way to be in the world than to feel so solid, have such a solid personality.
That just is always right.
That's painful in our hearts to be that way, right?
I agree, right?
We love when someone's humble can admit a mistake and is able to poke fun at themselves a little bit, because that's what today it's not like.
I'm so sorry.
I made a mistake.
It's doing it in a fun way, a lighthearted way to just kind of poke fun at yourself.
Exactly.
And we're not stopping the conversation here.
We're actually making it better.
What else does it do?
Yeah, we also mentioned that it eliminates awkwardness, right?
Some errors could create awkwardness.
If you say the wrong word, if you name it and laugh about it.
This will either minimize or even totally eliminate any awkwardness.
Yes.
And it builds relationships.
It makes you relatable.
Again, we, you know, we're all human.
So the person you're talking to, they know they make mistakes too.
They won't be able to relate to you if you think you never make mistakes.
Therefore, you don't point out your own mistake.
Exactly.
And if you point out your own mistakes, then when they make a small mistake, They're not going to stress about it.
They're going to they're going to know that you don't mind.
Right.
You clearly didn't make a big deal about it when you made a mistake, and you'll feel the same about their mistakes.
But it's really interesting Aubrey, because in English native speakers there are some mistakes they do point out and some they just move on from.
And we're going to talk about that now, Aubrey.
What are some of the mistakes that we do point out and we recommend pointing out?
Exactly.
So first of all, is this example that Michelle gave us is perfect.
Repetition of a word.
Right.
So like she said, how many times can I say the word summer?
Or we might say something like, I think I just said summer five times.
Right.
So we'll just say a funny little phrase that points out that we accidentally repeated the same word several times.
Right.
So for example, here's one.
So about the meeting.
During the meeting, we planned our meeting for next month.
We'll be meeting about the budget.
Wow.
Did I just say meeting five times?
I love it.
This could happen to any of us.
And imagine the awkward situation if you don't say anything and you just look around awkwardly and then just move on.
Or if you make like a completely straight face, like nothing's happened.
That's even weirder.
Or you're just missing an opportunity for like, a chance to just laugh.
Point it out, right?
Yeah, think about how good it feels to laugh, like all these hormones flood our brain.
It's so relaxing and just within that laughter, those hormones, that connection is building right there.
Absolutely yes, that's a good thing when this kind of mistake happens right, because you're bonding, you're connecting, and then when your co-worker makes the same mistake, you'll be able to recall this moment, be like.
That's just like when i said meeting five times yesterday.
Yeah, And then what is something else that we will call out on ourselves?
The other one is mispronunciation, right?
So if we accidentally mispronounce a word this happens all the time, native speakers as well as language learners we'll often say like blah or like wow, and maybe we'll shake our head and then we'll say the word correctly.
This happens all the time.
Right.
So can you give us an example of what this could look like, Aubrey?
Yes, here's an example.
Trust is a nuclear element in our business, but wow, a nuclear element.
And this could be because you've heard the word mispronounced or just like a slip of the tongue, right?
Sometimes we just accidentally say words incorrectly.
It just happens.
It just happens.
I love it.
So we've said pronunciation is one of the ways, repeating words, and then vocabulary mistakes.
So sometimes what we do here is we laugh and we repeat the wrong word before we correct it and say the right one.
So that's really interesting.
I wonder if this is what people do in other languages.
I am curious as well, right?
But we do this a lot.
Native speakers do this a lot in English, as well as language learners.
It's a great way to point out that you just said the wrong word and correct yourself.
So here's an example.
You know, she's really well spoken.
I've always been impressed with how artificial she is.
Artificial articulate.
I'm impressed with how articulate she is.
Like sometimes we just like we're thinking of other things and we're thinking ahead and we just say the wrong word.
Yeah.
I mean, sometimes we call this like a brain fart, right?
This happens.
It's just, it's normal.
We swap in different words. happens all the time.
And so that's what we do.
We, this is one option.
There are other things we might do, but you can repeat the wrong word with emphasis.
Can you remind us again, what kind of emphasis you used here, Aubrey, pronunciation wise?
Yeah.
So this is how I always do this is I'll say the word again, but kind of laughing through it.
Right.
So here I was like, she's really well-spoken.
I've always been impressed with how artificial she is.
Artificial articulate.
I'm impressed with how are you right?
So i'm sort of saying it again, but like laughing at it as i say it okay, that's kind of cool.
So that's kind of a personal style.
So you could choose.
We could say to our listeners you could do this in different ways.
You could laugh at it like aubrey does, you could just kind of repeat it in like a deadpan way, which is what i usually do right, i've always been impressed with how artificial she is.
Artificial articulate, Right.
Totally.
That works too.
Or like with what we were saying with the pronunciation, where you can kind of be like wow, articulate is what I meant.
Right.
Or I guess you could also make it a question.
You could say, I've always been impressed with how artificial she is.
Artificial?
Articulate.
Articulate.
You could do that.
You're asking yourself, why did I just say that?
Yeah, you're sort of questioning, like, how did I mess that up?
How did I say that?
Okay.
Yeah, that wouldn't be wrong.
Right?
Yeah.
Love it.
So many options, right?
But for all of these, the point is that you're being playful, right?
You're being lighthearted in just like a fun, silly way.
You're calling it out, but where you're not taking it that seriously, like you don't feel that terribly about it.
You're recognizing that it's kind of funny what you did.
Oh, that's so good.
But what is the one area in which we really don't do this?
Realistically, you've spent some time preparing this episode, Aubrey.
You've thought about it.
Native speakers don't do it.
Yeah, this is really interesting that we don't do this when we make a grammar mistake.
We either just move on and ignore it, or we won't point it out.
We just, you know, we'll immediately restate it correctly.
So if we, this happens, right?
Even native speakers will catch ourselves making a small grammar error.
And if we decide we want to correct it, we'll just immediately correct it.
We don't really like joke about it, laugh about it.
It's really interesting how this is different for grammar.
That is really interesting.
I wonder why that is.
But it does tie in with our philosophy, our whole vision here at the show of connection, not perfection.
You know, what matters is what you do immediately after you make that mistake.
And we've shown you how to be playful.
And when it comes to grammar, it's kind of moving on.
And again, we say don't drop the eye contact.
Don't let your shoulder slump.
Don't step back.
Yes.
Right.
Don't move yourself out of the game of the connection.
Right.
And I think there are a lot of things that could go into this.
We've talked a lot here on the podcast and on All Ears English, about how grammar is sometimes different depending on your regional dialect, depending on where you're from.
So maybe we don't as often point it out and laugh about it because we're not positive.
The person we're talking to would recognize it as a grammar mistake, or maybe right.
So it's interesting how, when it comes to vocabulary pronunciation, most often the person you're talking to will see why it's funny.
It's like, oh, that's a silly mistake.
It's funny.
Whereas with grammar, it might not always be that way.
Yeah, that's an interesting point.
I love it.
The point is here, I mean, what do we do next?
That's the entire philosophy of All Ears English.
As soon as we make a mistake, what is our next action?
There is a right action that will lead to connection and there's an action that will lead to isolation and feeling more disconnected.
Exactly, right?
So excited for all of these tips that can help you connect when you make a small, silly mistake.
Yes.
So you're about to make a trade based on a friend's text.
But which you do you listen to?
Is it, we could buy a house in Tulum.
Get optioning those options.
We could lose everything.
Or let's do a little research.
Get your head in the trade and make the investment decision that's right for you.
Learn more at finra.org slash trade smart.
Okay, Aubrey, let's roll this out in a role play, shall we?
Here we're co-workers attending a meeting.
Okay, so we'll need to go over the survey and then report the results clearly.
I agree.
I think it will be really important to avoid any ambidextrous results.
Ambidextrous?
Ambiguous results.
We'll need to avoid any ambiguous results.
I was gonna say ambidextrous?
So funny.
Should we give the survey another week or two or should we close it now?
Nice.
Nice.
I like this too.
I added this to the role play because it is important what the next person does, what the person you're talking to does right.
When we point out our own mistakes, we laugh about it.
Imagine if you don't laugh or very serious or pretend it didn't happen.
That could be tricky as well, right?
You kind of need to let yourself be in on the joke.
I love it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
This is very typical.
And again, that connection is there.
You can build the connection even more because that other person did make that remark.
Right.
So good.
Let's go through it.
So what exactly happened?
Just one more time.
So I made the mistake of saying ambidextrous when I meant ambiguous.
Right.
These are both big words that start with a, and sometimes we're thinking about something else and the wrong word just comes out.
It can happen.
It's like a misfire.
Yes, exactly.
It happens.
I was showing one of the things that you could possibly do, which is just to repeat the word.
You said wrong, but like it with a questioning voice or laughing.
Right.
I was just like ambidextrous.
Yeah, ambiguous results.
And then, if I were in a meeting like this, I would do what I did here, which was to repeat the entire sentence again.
We'll need to avoid any ambiguous results.
That's a good point.
So that makes it professional, right?
When we go and repeat it in a calm voice, in a professional voice, correctly.
That's an important step to keep in mind.
If we're giving a presentation, leading a meeting, giving a speech of some sort, we need to do that.
You can also do this in a quite formal situation, right?
To quickly like point it out, laugh at it, but then you will immediately, everyone's rushed for time when we're at work in a meeting in a presentation you're going to quickly bring it back and say the sentence correctly exactly you may not need to do that in a social world right if we're hanging around at a barbecue with friends maybe you don't take that extra step you probably don't at least not in that professional tone exactly would be different yes Good.
So I love our poll today, Aubrey, because this is really a human topic.
This is not an English and American English topic.
It's a human topic, right?
Exactly.
Right.
So come back to Spotify and fill out our poll, which will be do you often point out your own mistakes?
So think about this.
Maybe not grammar, just like we don't as much but like funny vocabulary mistakes or mispronunciation.
Do you do this often and point it out?
Yes.
And for a takeaway today.
I mean, this is such a signature, All There's English episode, because this is what we stand for, right here.
It's the moment after you make the mistake.
What do you do?
Right.
Think about that.
Think about what you do now in English and how you can maybe shift that, pivot that into something that leads to more connection.
Exactly.
Don't be afraid to point it out.
It might actually help eliminate awkwardness and can often create a fun connection moment.
All right.
Love it.
Great topic today, Aubrey.
And so excited.
Guys, hit the follow button to get more great Business English and All Ears English episodes.
All right.
Take care.
Thanks.
See you next time.
Bye.
Bye.
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