This is the Business English Podcast Episode 76, Beauty and Business.
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Offer ends August 10th. allearsenglish.com slash connection Hey, Lindsay, how are you?
Awesome, Michelle. I'm excited to be recording.
And today we're on the Business English podcast.
Very exciting. Yes. And you know what? I feel like the beauty of our podcast is we can do it online, right?
It's such a beautiful thing, Michelle. Such a beautiful thing.
Yes. It's amazing. We can record remotely.
We've always done it remotely, right? We really have never been in the same room except for maybe a few times, maybe at a live event or something.
But no, we've always done it remotely. That is a wonderful thing. right right it's great it's great well i mean it's also good because like if we didn't if we couldn't do it remotely then we'd have different people on the like we wouldn't be able to it's true yeah we just have to be whoever lives you know when we started in your neighborhood we were both in boston and i remember long days ordering pizza sitting in the living room and just recording and it was just a different setup yeah did you record on the same computer or different computers We recorded, we had a funky setup.
It was like we had a mixer and then we had these big cords and two microphones going into one computer.
But it was a confusing setup and we haven't used a mixer since then.
Okay, okay. So, Lindsay, I just said the beauty of our podcast is we can do it online.
Yes. And we have a listener question about the word beauty today for the business world, which I'm really excited about.
Um, Lindsay, could you, could you read the question for us?
Here we go. So our listener says, I love your podcast and I'm always listening and shadowing the episodes every day.
That's so good, Michelle. Yes. Yeah. Thank you for bringing fun moments into my English study.
My question is about the word beautiful and beauty.
I often hear people say something like the beauty of this system is or just react like beautiful in a business situation.
With my understanding, it sounds like something great or greatness, but honestly, it sounds a little unnatural for me to express something in business as beautiful.
Could you elaborate on that for me so that I can use it in my daily job?
Thanks. And this is from Cowrie. I love this question.
Beauty and business. That is a great question.
Yeah. Beauty and business. I love that too.
Yes. So this is a great question we're going to get into.
Guys, we also want to recommend you listen to episode 36, which is another great episode called Stand Out with these five English phrases about success.
Nice. Nice. I love it. Guys, go check out our previous episodes of Business English and make sure you hit follow on this podcast so you don't miss any new ones.
That's right. That's right. So, Lindsay, what do you think?
Do you think the words beauty and beautiful are appropriate for business?
100%, Michelle. 100%. Yeah, because this comes back to our philosophy here at All Ears English is that you are doing business with human beings.
You're not doing business with robots, right?
And so beauty is a thing that we think about all the time as human beings.
It's part of our lives. And so we're bringing that into the business world.
So yes, totally you can in the right way.
Right, right, right. I mean, of course, there's in the more literal sense, right, you know, to describe a picture or something in the office, right?
Like, oh, the graphic you made is beautiful.
But then we have like, you know, this kind of a little bit of a unique way of using beautiful or beauty.
And like, this is coming also from the listener example, the beauty of this system.
I mean, I think that's great. And I hear that kind of thing all the time.
So let's just elaborate. on it, you could say the beauty of the system is that it's built to last for 30 years, right?
Love it. Totally businessworthy, Michelle.
I think where our listener, and I'm not sure if we address this in a minute, but I think where our listener was going here, what they were concerned is that maybe comments about people's looks we want to avoid in the business world, right, Michelle?
We don't want to be making comments that might be sexual harassment, right? uh commenting on their looks or their bodies things like that we definitely want to avoid right right that's the thing so it's interesting so the way that we are going to talk about beauty and beautiful is like yeah you can you can describe a picture a graphic somebody's work um somebody's idea your idea is beautiful um but we're gonna also talk about it in this other way of not like like in a couple other ways as well Yeah, I'm excited for this.
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Exclusions apply. See details online. Okay, Michelle, are we going into some examples here?
Get some tangible examples for our listeners?
Let's do it. So the first one is to say something is a thing of beauty.
Okay, so a thing of beauty. You hear that?
Yeah, I like this one. So we could say our relationship with this client is really a thing of beauty.
We don't want to do anything to tarnish that.
This is fun because it's very emphatic. And it's a fun way of playing with language.
Right. Instead of it's just different than saying, oh, we have a great relationship with this client.
Yeah. It's more interesting. Way more. Oh, yeah.
Way more interesting. So that's good. And then another thing you could say is that's the beauty of it.
Right. So that's good to convince someone of something.
Right. For sure. And this is super useful.
Let's give a role play and then we'll talk a bit more about this.
All right. Do you really think we can use such a new software to get all this done?
That's the beauty of it. It's brand new.
There's so much exciting tech stuff going on in our field, Lindsay.
Yeah. I mean, a big part for you guys of business English, being an employee, maybe being a leader, is getting your team on board with things, getting their buy-in.
And so maybe you're introducing a new kind of software, a new system, a new way of doing business.
It's going to potentially threaten them.
You need to get them on board. And so what are the things we can say that help convince them and get their buy-in on a new way of doing something?
Bring beauty into it. Yeah. Right. I like it.
Bring beauty into it. Or another thing you could say is this.
This is just like the similar. It's just like the beauty of the system is right.
So you can use it in other ways, like the beauty of X is Y. So you could say something like the beauty of this new procedure is how efficient it can make our team.
Exactly. Exactly. So those are really good constructions, right?
Really good kind of formulas that you guys can use.
And now we're going to get into another one, which is using beautiful as a reaction.
Right. I love it. I love it. What do you?
Yeah, I love it, too. I mean, that's one of the ones that our listener brought up.
So I wanted to talk about it. So yeah, again, we can use beautiful in other ways to like, oh, that's a beautiful picture.
That's a beautiful, you know, presentation.
That's a beautiful idea, you could say. But you could also just say beautiful, right?
And instead of like great or wonderful.
You could say beautiful. Yeah. This is a more interesting way to show your approval.
I mean, as anything you learn on the show, don't always say only this.
You need to have a great job. This is great.
This is great. This is wonderful. Excellent.
But then sometimes throw this in because here what you're doing is you're offering someone kind of positive feedback.
You're affirming them and their work. Right, right.
Yes, I love it. Yeah, I think that's such a good point.
Lindsay, what we want to avoid is, you know, having you listen to this podcast and saying, Okay, I love that.
That's going to be my thing. And then all of a sudden, you become the person who always says beautiful, right?
Like, I remember when I was a teacher, when I was teaching in this school in the city, in like the Midtown area.
And I remember I became known for, oh, I know I miss this student.
Ami, if you're listening, I remember that he would always make fun of me because whenever a student said something, I would go, excellent.
Yeah. yeah yeah you become known for excellent and like yeah and it was like so ridiculous like you don't want to just like every little thing is excellent then nothing is excellent if everything's excellent and nothing's excellent so again you know you we you don't want to become known as like the beautiful uh person that uses it all the time but it is something good to sprinkle in yeah that's so good so let's give our listeners an example one more time of how this could look real quick so did you finish the project Yep.
Yesterday. Beautiful. Then we're on the right track.
And I could definitely imagine using this, you know, during check-ins with our team, for example, like, you know, weekly check-ins to see what's been done.
For sure. 100% we can use this. So beauty is relevant in business.
Yeah. i love it yeah well i think we're let's let's go over and do a role play now this is going to be it's funny because we were just talking about not using it too much but guys sometimes sometimes with our role plays we have similar you know words that are going and then you know so of course guys this is going to be this is going to be too much we don't always use beautiful so much but we wanted to show you how it would work um all together Yeah, so here we're talking, we are co-workers, and we're finalizing a project that we've been working on.
So here we go. Right. So you really think we're done?
Yes, it's a thing of beauty. No, really.
Yes, Lindsay, the beauty of this project is we have really been working on it for so long that our presentation is just second nature at this point.
Well, that's true. That's the beauty of it.
We definitely know our stuff. I still get nervous, though.
Oh, Lindsay, you got this. Okay, yes, you're right.
Beautiful. That's the spirit. And it just shows you're just a little bit more interesting than an average person, right?
When you use words like this, you're just putting a little more emphasis into it and it's fun, right?
Right. Yes, it is fun. It is fun. Yeah. Instead of just wonderful, great, awesome all the time.
So beauty. Yeah. So here, what do we say?
So you said, I said, you really think we're done?
And you said, yes, it's a thing of beauty.
Right. And then I said, the beauty of this project is we have really been working on it for so long that it's second nature at this point.
Yes. And then I said, that's true. And yeah, you're right.
I probably wouldn't repeat the beauty of in my phrase after you just said that, but for the sake of our listeners to get this, we're doing it.
So I would say that's true. That's the beauty of it. you know?
You definitely know our stuff. Yeah. Yeah.
And then you talked about being nervous and then I encouraged you and you said, okay, yes, you're right.
So I said, beautiful. That's the spirit.
Exactly. And it's always funny when people get into their niches and business and they use these beauty words to describe things that your average person not in that field would never think is beautiful.
Do you know what I mean? Like results of a scientific study.
Right. It shows that we're true nerds in our field, which is a good thing.
You know, it's good to be excited about what you do in your work.
I think that's true. That's true. No, but yeah.
So, well, absolutely. You got to be excited about what you do.
So, yeah. Yeah. I mean, I'm just thinking like, for example, my dad used to be an optometrist.
And, you know, maybe if he took like a perfect photo of the back of an eye, he'd be like, look at that beautiful retina.
It's amazing. That's funny. Do you know a lot about eyes?
Would you say you know more about eyes than the average person?
No, I would not. No. No. Definitely not.
My dad always had those books around the house, awful eye disease books, right?
These zoomed in photos of eye diseases because he was a nerd in his field, which I always admired when people just really love what they do.
I find it really contagious and inspiring.
So yeah, but no, I don't know more than the average person.
Would you say that you know more about dental work than the average person?
No, but I do know, like, the numbers of teeth.
Like, I do know, like, you know, if you want to say, like, if, like, Dan and I have a joke where we say, like, the numbers eight and nine of your teeth, like, that's your two front teeth.
So, like, if one of us has something in our teeth, we might just say, like, eight and nine.
That's funny. That's kind of a fun little code.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Or, like, I'll sometimes, like, try and figure out if it's a different tooth.
I'm like, wait, which tooth is that? And like, so yeah, so and I mean, there are some things like I do know, like some of the some of the anatomy, like of the face, just because I like learning for fun and like some of the names of different things.
It's kind of cool. Kind of cool. Kind of cool.
Well, the key here. I think the takeaway for our listeners is find the beauty in what you do guys, right?
You know, maybe you write code for websites and the code is so clean.
It's perfect. You come out of it and it's a perfect app.
Maybe that doesn't exist for coders, but it's clean code.
That is beautiful. Or a photo of the back of an eye, beautiful to an optometrist, right?
So find what's beautiful in what you do.
That's kind of a, that's the spice of life, right?
That's how we can be happy as professionals, I think.
Yeah. Right, right, right. And also just one final mention of, you know, of course, avoiding beautiful about someone's looks, things like that.
So that's the obvious thing. And I think that's probably what our listener was sort of confused about, you know, don't make comments about people's looks either way.
Even if you think it's like a compliment, I would avoid it entirely.
You know what I mean? Just because it could be taken the wrong way.
Just don't go there. Yeah, I know work or the project or the results.
That's where we use beauty, Michelle. Yeah, yeah.
I think that's the safest bet for sure. Yeah, I love it.
Such a good episode. I'm excited to get a title for this episode.
It's going to be good. Yes, definitely. And what a great question.
This is really, really a good focused question.
So guys, keep those questions coming. Definitely.
Thanks to Kaori for sending in this question.
And guys, send your questions to Lindsay at allearsenglish.com.
Good stuff. Michelle, I'll see you back here very soon.
All right. Bye. Bye, guys. Bye. Thank you for listening to Business English, a podcast just for you, the high achieving global professional.
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