This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 8.
Be happy at happy hour with your American colleagues.
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 Michelle, coming to you from New York City and Colorado, USA.
Still translating in your head when you speak English?
It's time to change that. The Connected Communicator course from All Ears English helps you train your ear, speak naturally, and finally connect with real people.
In our tailored study plan, you'll hear unscripted interviews from tattoo artists to entrepreneurs from all across America. and you'll use new AI tools to practice speaking anytime you want.
No more stiff, scripted English. Build confidence, fluency, and cultural insight all in one course.
Plus, get real-life speaking experience at our Open Conversation Club every single week and build community with Allers English teachers and students.
Go to allersenglish.com slash connection to save $50 this week only.
Offer ends August 10th. allearsenglish.com slash connection.
Yeah, definitely. I like to go to holiday parties and happy hours and all sorts of things.
It's very, it's very fun. Yeah. And we actually had a listener.
So the name is Zheng Yuan Zhou or Zhou. Alexia is this person's nickname.
So thank you to this person. Thank you for asking this.
So Zheng Yuan wrote in and asked us the question, you know, how can we order drinks at a happy hour?
What are some of, what's some of the language that we need to succeed in this situation, right?
And succeed could mean a number of things.
It could mean to connect with our boss, right?
If we go out with our colleagues for drinks or maybe to meet someone, but you know, there's some good phrases that we can give you guys to how, for how to handle yourself in this situation at a happy hour.
First of all, Michelle, what is a happy hour?
What are we talking about here? Usually a happy hour is something that happens after work.
Usually, I don't know, what time would you say it usually is?
Like, I think it usually starts at 5, 5 or 6.
Yeah. Yeah, something like that. And there are usually a lot of drinks on, like, discounted drinks, things like that.
They're usually specials, right? Mm-hmm.
And, you know, people often go with colleagues or friends just to get like a quick drink after work, probably just for an hour, right?
Happy hour or two. Yeah, exactly. And here in Boston, we don't have technically we don't have happy hour.
There's this weird Puritan influence here in Boston, you know, because of the Puritanical roots in Massachusetts.
Yeah. And it's not legal for bars to offer technically a happy hour, but they still might say they have happy hour, but there's no discount on the drinks.
Normally there's a discount on the drinks, right?
In New York, the drinks are cheaper during those hours.
Happy hour. Wow. That is, I did not know that.
There's no, so yeah, that's interesting.
So food for thought here. So Michelle, all right.
So let's say we walk into this bar with our work group, right?
We come, often people come from work. And that's always a fun thing to do to build that connection.
What are some things that, you know, we would say when we go up to the bar and we want to order?
How do we order a drink? How do we do it?
Right. So one way you could say is, hey, can I get a smutty nose IPA?
Yeah, that's one of my favorite beers. It's a New Hampshire beer, IPA, and it's good.
That's just an example. But the phrase is, hey, can I get a something, right?
Hey, can I get a glass of wine? So that's quite casual, isn't it, Michelle?
Yes. Yes, yes. Quite casual, yeah. Another one is I'll have a martini or a Manhattan, right?
I'll have a Manhattan. Yeah, that one's a little bit more formal.
I think the first one is more like going up to the bar, like, hey, can I get a, you know.
Yeah, yeah, exactly. It's more of like a very informal kind of situation.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and the next one is kind of informal also, right?
Yeah, so you could say, I'll get a glass of Malbec.
Yeah. Also very informal. And and then another phrase is could I have a right.
Could I have a cosmopolitan. Right. Could I have a strawberry daiquiri.
Right. Right. Yeah. Those are all good. Those are all good.
So the next skill Michelle is to tip or not to tip or how much to tip.
Good question. You know I mean what do you normally leave for tip when you go to the to the bar.
Um, yeah, I would say, well, I was a waitress, as I've talked about on the show.
And I would say about 20% is good, right?
20% or even more. But it's asking a lot of people.
It depends. Usually around the holiday season, I think people tip more.
Yeah, it's tough. I mean, when you're in a bar situation, it's hard because you're going back and forth to the bar.
If you're getting more than one drink, it's tricky.
But usually what I do is I just throw down $1 or $2 on the bar in addition to my drink.
Mm hmm. Yeah. And I know if you're sitting at a table and if you have waitress service and then you go to the bar, oh, you'll make that waitress mad.
Oh, she'll be mad because she'll miss out on the tip.
Right. Right. Yep. Yep. Yeah, that's true.
Sometimes it's confusing because you walk into a restaurant.
They don't you don't know where to go. Like, should I go up to the bar?
Should I stay and get served at my table?
And oh, God. Yeah. The politics of restaurants.
It is tricky. Yeah, it is. And then usually people just get something from the bar while they're waiting and the waitress is like, no.
Yeah, no, it's tricky. I mean, you have a great perspective having worked at a restaurant before.
And so the point is tip 20% on the drink, not just on food, right?
That's also on drinks. So the bartender needs to be tipped.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And how – and very important topic, Michelle.
It's the holidays. Some of our listeners are living here in the States or in other English-speaking countries, and we want to make sure we stay safe when we're leaving the bar, right?
That's huge. So that means we don't want to get in a car if we've been drinking too much, obviously.
I think that goes without saying, I hope.
I mean, clearly, we want to have our listeners stay safe.
So what are some of the phrases if we're with someone – who looks like they've been drinking a lot.
What could we say to them to make sure they don't get in a car?
Abercrombie's viral denim sale is back. And Spotify listeners get an extra 15% off with code SPOTIFYAF.
Yeah, well, you could say to them, are you okay to drive?
Mm hmm. Yeah. Or can I call you a cab? Mm hmm.
Or you could just say, let me call you a cab.
It'll only take a few minutes. Right. Or can I offer you a ride home?
And now, Michelle, luckily, we have Uber, which is great.
I mean, in New York, you guys don't have to worry about this because you have the subway and same in Boston here, but everywhere else in the country.
Right. You know, people have to worry about driving and we've got to be really careful about that.
That's a really serious topic. And we have to have the language to be able to approach someone to help them out.
Right. And sometimes you might even need to insist, because if you say, are you OK to drive?
Somebody might say, yeah, yeah, I'm fine.
I know. I know. They're really not. So, you know, really, really be careful.
If you have to insist, you have to insist.
Oh, my God. It reminds me of when I was in high school, there was a situation.
Yes, in high school, there was a situation where I'd gone to a party and a friend of mine had had too much to drink.
And my other friend, this football guy, this football player, this guy had to literally rip her out of the car.
She was ready to drive home like she was behind the wheel starting her car.
He had to go and grab her, like pull her out of the car.
Oh, my gosh. It was so intense. Yeah. Yeah.
When I worked at the bar, at the restaurant, you know, we would have a lot of people who had had too much to drink.
And we always, you know, you have to be careful.
And also as the, as, you know, someone serving, you know, you have to be really careful that you don't serve somebody too much.
It's a little, I mean, it's a huge responsibility.
Yeah. Yeah, a lot of the bars have some rules around that, right?
Did your bar have any specific kind of standard operating procedures around how many drinks you can serve in an hour to one person?
Or was it just kind of you figure it out as you go along?
I don't remember, but I don't remember specific things.
But I do know that you could, you know, kind of make the decision like, you know, you would say if the person is done drinking, you say, oh, you're cut off.
Yeah, you're cut off. That's the expression.
Yeah, you're cut off. You're done. Yeah, exactly.
So, guys, please be safe. I don't remember the rules, but I remember we had to watch out for it.
Yeah, you got to watch out for it. I'm sure there were some rules.
I don't know. Yeah. And I wonder if you as the bartender could be legally in trouble if something happened or if the bar could be sued if someone wanted to drink too much and go out and drive and get killed or kill someone in the car.
If the bar I bet I bet the bars have to take out a lot of insurance.
Yeah. I'll ask my brother because he actually owns a bar.
I'll have to ask him about that. Yeah, that's interesting.
So anyways. All right. So we're going to have on another tangent here, Michelle.
But one more thing, one more situation. We're going to go backwards.
I know we've just talked about leaving the bar.
Let's go back to how do you say that you want to pay for someone's drinks?
Right. What would you say to someone if you want to pay for their drinks?
You're having drinks with one person and you want to pay.
Or even with more than one person, you could say, I'll get this round.
Yeah, I'll get this round or let me get this one.
Right. Often a round could be with more than one person.
Right. And you got to be careful there because you don't know how many people are going in on the round.
Right. That's the thing is sometimes when I hear somebody say, I'll get this round, I'm like, oh, no, I was only going to have one drink, you know?
Yeah. And then you feel like you have to get another drink and pay for everyone yourself for the next round.
Yeah. So don't pressure anybody to to be, you know, make sure that everybody's in it for, you know, probably more than one drink.
Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And so then the next one you could say is let me get this one.
You can get the next. Right. So, yeah, the politics again of the bar.
Yeah. So we'll come back to this again, guys.
But hopefully that gives you some hints that you can use as you're going into this holiday season, going to happy hours and holiday parties with your stat, with your colleagues and your friends.
So guys, let us know if you have any questions.
Come back to allearsenglish.com. Go to episode 445 and type in your question.
Michelle, let's wrap it up for today. But thanks for hanging out.
Thank you. Everybody stay safe. All right.
Yeah. Talk to you soon, Michelle. Absolutely.
Bye. Thank you for listening to Business English, a podcast just for you, the high achieving global professional.
Want more from All Ears English? Don't miss our biggest and best podcast with 8 million monthly downloads.
Just search for the All Ears English podcast and hit follow to get four new episodes per week on fluency, American culture, grammar, and so much more.
Or tap the link in the show notes. Remember, we believe in connection, not perfection when it comes to learning English.
Follow the All Ears English podcast now.
