Hello, English learners.
Welcome back to another great podcast here at EnglishPod.
My name is Marco.
And I'm Erica.
And today we're going to be bringing you bad news.
That's right.
Actually, what we're really going to be bringing you is language to talk about bad news.
Exactly.
So maybe you have to give bad news to your boss, to your parents, I don't know somebody, and we're going to be teaching you how to do this in English.
Well, obviously it's always difficult to tell somebody bad news, but in your second language it's even harder.
So we're going to try and help you today with some great phrases and vocabulary items.
We're not going to preview anything today.
Let's go directly to our dialogue, where we will be in a company and one of the employees is going to be giving bad news to his boss.
So let's listen.
Now that we've been over the gory details of our disastrous first quarter, Ed give us some good news.
How are things looking for us in terms of sales this month?
Uh, well, would you like the bad news first or the really bad news?
What?
Ed, don't tell me you only have bad news.
Well, sir, our sales have dropped.
No, plunged.
Fifty percent in the past month alone.
We are currently overstocked and overstaffed and our profits are falling fast.
The market is in recession and we have no way of moving our inventory or getting rid of our staff.
If we consider redundancies, it would cost us a fortune because of the new regulations governing compensation packages.
It's a real mess.
You're crying out loud.
How fast are we losing money?
Um, um, how can I put this?
Let's just say that at this pace, we will be filing for Chapter 11 in less than three months.
What?
Jeez, how could this have happened?
So what's the bad news?
Oh, that's the really bad news.
Our suppliers suffered QC problems, and, well, half of our production is faulty.
We're going to have to recall all items sold in the last quarter, and the worst part?
We're going to have to shoulder this cost.
Are you joking?
Get the supplier on the line now.
They have to assume the cost of this mess.
We tried that, sir.
The factory has gone under and the owner apparently has fled the country.
We're doomed.
There's some really good news, though.
Really?
What?
I got offered a new job.
All right, it sounds like a pretty tough time for this company, doesn't it?
But good news for the employee.
He won't be jobless.
Well, I guess he knows when to get out.
But why don't we take a look at some of the language now in Language Takeaway.
Language Takeaway.
So in Language Takeaway today, we have five vocabulary items.
And, well, let's start with the first one.
All right.
So the boss, you know he's talking about the gory details of our disastrous first quarter.
So let's look at the phrase gory details.
All right, so gory details.
Gory details.
This sounds kind of strange.
Gory details.
It seems very scary.
Well, the word gory comes from gore, like blood and guts, right?
Exactly.
That's why it sounds a little bit scary to me.
So gory details mean all the little details of a negative or shocking or bad situation.
Okay, so the gory details of the meeting, so all the nasty and negative stuff.
Or you could say the newspaper reported all the gory details of the murder.
Okay, very good.
So gory details.
So the employee was talking about how bad the company was doing and he mentioned this word redundancies.
Redundancies.
They are considering redundancies.
Okay, so redundancies, again, it's based on the word to be redundant, right?
All right.
And that means?
To not be needed anymore.
Okay.
So redundancies are basically firing people.
It's, well, laying people off.
People that you don't need anymore.
They are redundancies.
All right.
So this is actually a British term, redundancies, to become redundant.
Because in American English, you would just say layoffs.
Yep.
Okay.
Very good.
All right, so moving on.
They were talking about redundancies and maybe they should or shouldn't lay some people off, but one of the problems were the regulations governing compensation packages.
Okay, so regulations governing compensation packages.
Regulations governing something.
So we have a noun governing noun.
What does that mean?
All right.
So I think it would help us to understand this a little better if we listen to some examples of this pattern noun governing noun.
I don't agree with the regulations governing income taxes.
People shouldn't have to give away their hard-earned money.
We need to protect the environment.
Therefore, there will be new policies governing corporate levels of pollution starting next month.
The lack of regulations governing city transportation has led to many traffic accidents.
Okay, great examples.
And well before we move on this, compensation packages.
I guess it's all the things that the company gives you when they lay you off, right?
Right, maybe a certain portion of your retirement benefits or... Like a month's pay, et cetera.
Okay, compensation packages.
All right, so moving on to our next item on Language Takeaway, we have to shoulder the cost.
To shoulder the cost.
All right, so if I shoulder something...
You have to carry it.
I carry it.
Yeah, that's a good one.
So basically it's the same as the shoulder, your body.
So you carry this cause or you carry this responsibility.
Yeah.
So you might also hear shoulder the burden.
To shoulder the burden.
Yeah.
So it just means to carry the responsibility.
Okay.
To share it.
Yep.
All right.
Interesting.
And we have one more word on language takeaway.
And the factory has gone under.
To go under.
All right.
To go under.
When something goes under, a company goes under, it goes bankrupt.
It goes bankrupt.
So it's not working anymore.
That's right.
All right.
So to go under.
Great vocabulary items here on Language Takeaway today.
It's time for us to move on to the next segment of our show, where we're going to look at some phrases.
So let's start now with Fluency Builder.
Fluency Builder.
All right.
So we've got some phrases that you can use when somebody is going to tell you some bad news, but also some phrases you can use to deliver bad news.
All right.
So let's start with our first phrase.
So, you know, the boss is getting ready to prepare for this bad news and he says, lay it on me.
He's like, OK, lay it on me.
Lay it on me.
So if I say this, lay it on me, I'm just saying, tell me.
Exactly.
So give me the bad news.
All right.
So lay it on me.
Very informal, though.
Yeah, you're right.
It is kind of informal.
For crying out loud.
For crying out loud.
Okay.
All right, so this is a very common phrase of frustration.
Yep.
Right?
So why don't we listen to some examples to kind of understand how we use this phrase.
Example one.
For crying out loud.
When I tell you to have the report done by Wednesday, that means I expect it to be on my desk by the end of the day.
Example two.
We've got to figure out a new marketing strategy for crying out loud.
Example 3.
For crying out loud, you just got your driving license and you already got in an accident?
So it kind of reminds me of Oh My God.
So you're frustrated.
You're just saying this phrase as, oh my God, or something like this.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's like, oh, this is so annoying.
Exactly.
For crying out loud.
Yep.
All right.
Moving on to our third phrase.
How can I put this?
How can I put this?
So the boss asked him a direct question and he said, well, how can I put this?
So we use this phrase.
We want to say something maybe a little bit more indirectly, right?
Right, so you're looking for words of how you can make it softer or more polite.
Maybe the truth of what you're about to say is a little bit strong, so you want to soften it up a bit.
Yeah.
Okay, so you say, how can I put this?
But then you have to complement it with, let's just say that.
Let's just say that.
Okay.
Let's just say that.
So how do we use this phrase?
So for example, somebody asks me, well, what do you mean?
Why can't you come on vacation with us?
And I would say, how can I put this?
Let's just say that in nine months you will hear the pitter patter of little feet.
Okay, so your girlfriend's pregnant.
Exactly.
So you're not saying, my girlfriend's pregnant.
You're giving like a metaphor.
A metaphor of what's going on.
But you don't want to say it directly.
Yeah.
Another example.
I might say, let's just say that Michael isn't doing a great job.
All right.
So maybe there are very strong reasons or he's doing very, very poorly.
Right.
But I'm just sort of not saying it exactly directly that he's doing bad.
Okay.
Very good.
So it's a phrase that you can actually use a lot and to be a little bit more polite or a little bit more indirect when you're giving somebody some bad news.
Exactly.
Two nice sort of complimenting phrases for delivering bad news.
And why don't we hear them one more time in the dialogue?
Now that we've been over the gory details of our disastrous first quarter, Ed give us some good news.
How are things looking for us in terms of sales this month?
Oh, well, would you like the bad news first or the really bad news?
What?
Ed, don't tell me you only have bad news.
Well, sir, our sales have dropped.
No, plunged.
Fifty percent in the past month alone.
We are currently overstocked and overstaffed and our profits are falling fast.
The market is in recession and we have no way of moving our inventory or getting rid of our staff.
If we consider redundancies, it would cost us a fortune because of the new regulations governing compensation packages.
It's a real mess.
You're crying out loud.
How fast are we losing money?
Um, um, how can I put this?
Let's just say that at this pace, we will be filing for Chapter 11 in less than three months.
What?
Jeez, how could this have happened?
So what's the bad news?
Oh, that's the really bad news.
Our suppliers suffered QC problems, and, well, half of our production is faulty.
We're going to have to recall all items sold in the last quarter, and the worst part?
We're going to have to shoulder this cost.
Are you joking?
Get the supplier on the line now.
They have to assume the cost of this mess.
We tried that, sir.
The factory has gone under and the owner apparently has fled the country.
We're doomed.
There's some really good news, though.
Really?
What?
I got offered a new job.
All right, great.
So this topic of filing for Chapter 11 is actually very recent.
Very common now because recently one of the biggest companies filed for Chapter 11 in the US.
Yeah, that's right.
But I often get confused by the phrase to file for Chapter 11 versus to file for Chapter 13.
All right.
So in the United States, the bankruptcy law has different chapters or different sections, right?
And Chapter 11 is basically for companies that run out of money, that go bankrupt.
So they have to declare themselves in bankruptcy.
Yep.
And so they file for Chapter 11.
But what about Chapter 13?
Chapter 13 is for people.
Ah, okay.
So people who have large debts, maybe with the car company or the telephone company, and they can't pay, they file for Chapter 13.
They say, hey, I don't have money.
I can't pay.
Right.
And so I guess here it's kind of a metaphor again.
You know, it's this phrase to file for Chapter 11 or Chapter 13, meaning bankruptcy.
Right.
And people will say personally that they're filing for Chapter 11.
Exactly.
Yep.
Right.
So this is an interesting situation because if you file for bankruptcy in some countries you can go to jail.
Right.
I read recently about this happening in Dubai, actually.
Exactly.
So there is prison for debts.
In the U.S., you don't go to prison for debts.
But what about in your countries, listeners?
What happens when you go into debt in your country?
Or what happens when a company goes into bankruptcy?
Let us know.
Come to our website, EnglishPod.com.
Leave your questions and comments.
And, of course, Erica and I are always there to help you out.
Thanks for downloading, you guys.
And until next time, goodbye.
Bye.
