Welcome to the Breakout Business English podcast, where I help you to communicate better at work.
Hi, everyone. My name is Chris.
And I'm a business English coach and tutor.
Thank you so much for listening today and for your time and today's topic is AI Artificial Intelligence and specifically how we can talk about it in English with our colleagues at work.
It feels like everywhere you look these days, people are talking about AI in every industry and at every level of every AI is changing the way that we work and the way that we think about the future of our professional lives.
Today we're going to take a look at some natural and native sounding vocabulary that we can use to talk about AI with our colleagues and hear some great examples of how we can build this vocabulary into natural and native sounding sentences.
Let's start with some ways that we can describe this period of time, this moment in history, and the changes that are happening.
We're going to hear some great really natural sounding sentences and And then we'll take a closer look at them.
It really feels like a watershed moment in the way that we use computers.
It really feels like a watershed moment in the way that we use computers.
Honestly, I don't think much is going to change.
it's being blown out of proportion by the news and it'll all be forgotten about soon.
Honestly, I don't think much is going to change.
It's being blown out of proportion by the news and it'll all be forgotten about soon.
I'm not sure what to make of it.
I'm not really up on all of this new technology and most of the time it goes over my head i'm not sure what to make of it i'm not really up on all of this new technology and most of the time it goes over my head okay so we heard three different perspectives on ai that maybe you could call them positive negative and indifferent.
let's start our vocabulary discussion today with that first example there was a really interesting word in there and that was watershed watershed we heard it really feels like a watershed moment it really feels like a watershed moment a watershed.
If you look up an image of a watershed, then you'll probably find a diagram showing a mountain or a hill with a line going down the middle.
When rain falls, it eventually flows into a river.
A watershed is the place where water stops going in one direction and starts going in another.
If a rain drop falls on one side of the watershed it will flow into one river.
If it falls on the other side of the watershed then it will flow into a different river.
We use this word more generally to mean a moment of big change.
We might call the release of the first iPhone in 2007, a watershed moment in technology.
Or maybe we could say that 2020 was a watershed year for how we work!
So much changed in that year!
So when we describe the rise of AI as a watershed moment, we mean that it feels like a big change is happening.
And a little extra fun fact if you lived in the UK in maybe the 90s or the early 2000s as I did watershed has a different meaning the watershed is what we call 9 p .m. on television in the UK so before 9 p .m. everything on Television was great for anyone watching.
You could watch television with your children, your kids, that was fine.
But after 9 p .m, everything on television was allowed to have violence and bad language and lots of other things that we don't always want children to see.
So 9 p .m in the UK when talking about television was called the watershed.
Okay, in that second example we heard I'm not sure what to make of it.
I'm not sure what to make of it.
If you are not sure what to make of something then this means that you haven't formed your opinion yet, you are still deciding.
we often use this in the form of a question as in what do you make of this or thanks for coming to my presentation what did you make of it so if anyone ever asks you a question like this you know that they are asking for your opinion.
And one more from this section, I think we should talk about being blown out of proportion.
So proportion is a word to do with size.
How big something is.
If something is in proportion or proportionate to something else, then it is the right size.
The appropriate size.
If there's a really big important thing happens in the world, then proportionate news coverage would be well a lot of news coverage.
The news would probably talk about it a lot.
If it's a small thing and it's not so important, we won't get quite as much news coverage.
So a smaller amount of mentions on the news would be proportionate.
Equally when we say that something is being blown out of proportion this means we're taking it too seriously.
We're treating it like it's more important than it is.
We're acting as if it were a really big deal when in fact it's not necessarily a really big deal.
If I come into the office and I'm your manager and and you were supposed to be in at 9am and you came in at 902.
I might mention it to you, I might say hey, don't forget, got to be here for 9am.
But If this happens just the once and I start shouting at you, what are you doing?
I can't believe you're late today, those two minutes are so important.
then you might accuse me of blowing this out of proportion.
So if people are asking what you make of all the new AI tools that are available to us or what you think the future will be like then you'll probably want to give an opinion.
So let's take a look at a couple of ways that we can give opinions on this very polarizing issue.
I know it's a polarizing topic but personally I'm excited about where this is heading.
I know this is a polarizing topic, but personally, I'm excited about where this is heading.
I'm a little apprehensive about how this is going to turn out.
The whole thing makes me anxious whenever I think about it.
I'm a little apprehensive about how this is going to turn out.
The whole thing makes me anxious whenever I think about it.
I think it's too early to tell how this is going to go and the jury's still out on how this is going to change our lives.
I think it's too early to tell how this is going to go and the jury's still out on how this is going to change our lives.
let's jump straight into that last example and take a look at the phrase the jury's still out, the jury's still out.
in our example we heard the jury's still out on how this is going to change our lives.
Okay, if I did an image search for a jury, then what am I going to find?
What would I find? That's JURY spelled J U R Y.
This is the second time today I'm talking about image searches but I think it's often a really great way to understand vocabulary.
Well an image search for jury would usually give us photographs of a group of maybe 12 people sitting in a room likely around table having a discussion.
A jury is a group of people who have been chosen to to listen to all of the facts in a trial, in a legal case, in a court of law and to decide if a person is guilty or not guilty.
When a jury is still debating and discussing what they think, we say that the jury is out.
The jury is out. So, when we take this idea and apply it more generally to English communication, we get an idiom.
An idiom that means that we haven't made up our minds yet.
We haven't decided.
Maybe I have a new boss.
I've worked with them for a couple of weeks, and one day you ask me what i think of their management style, i might tell you the jury's still out on that i'll let you know in a few days.
the jury's still out on that i'll let you know in a few days.
In the first example, we had the adjective polarizing, polarizing.
This is another great word to picture in your mind, or another great word to put into an image search. When we think of the word polar we get images of well polar bears big white bears and the coldest parts of the earth the North and South Poles the areas right at the very top and the very bottom of our planet.
So when we use this to describe ideas, then we mean that people have very strong feelings about something in either one direction or the other.
Often politicians can be very polarising.
People either fully believe in what they say and want them to be in power, want them to govern, Or they fully disagree and they think that particular person winning an election would be the worst thing that could possibly happen.
Politicians that divide people into two groups like this can be called polarizing.
They are polarizing people, polarizing public figures.
There's a famous type of food in in the UK called Marmite I think in Australia they have something very similar called Vegemite but it comes in a small glass jar and you can spread it on toast I think there are other uses for it but mostly people spread it on toast Now this particular spread smells and tastes like beef and famously or maybe infamously people either love the taste of this product or they really really dislike it in fact love it or hate it has been part of their marketing for many years, and we would definitely call this a polarizing thing to have in your kitchen.
And if you're interested, I really don't like Marmite.
I'm really not quite sure how anyone can eat it.
It's disgusting stuff, but maybe you've tried it yourself and you disagree with me.
we also heard again in that second example the phrasal verb to turn out to turn out in the example we heard I'm a little apprehensive about how this is going to turn out I'm a little apprehensive about how this is going to turn out.
This is a really common phrasal verb and we use it to talk about whether or not we know the outcome of a situation, whether or not we know whether something was good or bad.
When you have all the information about an event or an activity then you know how it turns out.
For instance, you could get up early and go to the airport and then find out that your flight was delayed by 4 hours.
We might say that it turned out that you could have left a lot later.
It turned out that you could have left a lot later because you really had so much more time to catch that flight.
Or at work you might say I spent the whole evening preparing a great 20 minute presentation, but it turned out that I only needed to speak for a few seconds.
I spent the whole evening preparing a great 20 minute presentation, but it turned out that I only needed to speak for a few seconds.
so by the end of that meeting you had all of the information you knew what was expected of you and it turned out you didn't really need that full presentation.
Okay so don't forget before we move on to our next idea and our next set of vocabulary don't forget that my full -time job is helping international professionals who use English at work to improve their communication skills.
So if you need English to do your job but you don't speak it natively then maybe we can work together to help you to achieve your language goals.
If you'd like to some time to meet with me through one -to -one video calls just you and me then you can go to breakoutbusinessenglish .com that's breakoutbusinessenglish .com and find out more.
Also I sometimes have offers and discounts on class packages and entering your email address on the website is the way to be the first to find out when those limited time deals are available.
I've worked with over a 1 ,000 non -native English -speaking professionals from new graduates up to CEOs and government leaders to help them achieve their goals and I look forward to meeting you.
Okay let's move on and keep going.
Let's move on now to talking about the role that AI currently plays in your work life.
Maybe like me you found some great ways to integrate AI into your workflow to make your work days just a little easier.
Personally I use AI to help me when preparing for coaching sessions.
It helps me understand new industries and fields quickly and to come up with some really interesting questions to discuss with the people I'm working with.
Let's take a listen to some sentences that people might use to talk about how artificial intelligence has already changed the way that they work.
I started using AI in my workflow a few weeks ago and it's all been really seamless.
I started using AI in my workflow a few weeks ago and it's all been really seamless.
I've never used it.
I just don't really have a good reason to right now.
I've never used it.
I just don't really have a good reason to, right now.
I don't really have any objections to using AI tools at work, but personally I only really use them once in a blue moon.
I don't really have any objections to using AI tools at work, but personally I only really use them once in a blue moon.
Okay, let's start with a great word from the first example sentence and that is seamless, seamless.
Let's start by breaking this word down.
The first four letters, S -E -A -M, when used on their own, form a noun.
A seam, a seam, is the line that we see where two pieces of fabric or material as sewn together are connected together to make well often clothes.
You can see this on the sides of a shirt or a pair of trousers for instance.
You might even have some sports clothing that has no seams at all.
So when we add the suffix less to the end we get a word that means without seams seamless so what does this mean when used in a professional communication context if a process or a change is seamless this means that it's easy that that the change caused no problems or interruptions, and that it was barely even noticeable.
You just had the past and then the present and that difference happened really easily, that change happened really easily.
For instance, if it takes me more than a few days to integrate an AI tool into my workflow and I need to stop doing my regular tasks in order to work on this, then it's not seamless.
Maybe it even causes some problems and doesn't work well for the first couple of days.
That doesn't sound seamless at all.
However, if it works the first time, there's no interruption to my work, and I can immediately continue working really easily then we could call the process seamless.
we can also use this as an adverb seamlessly seamlessly as in I was able to seamlessly pass some of my more boring tasks to an AI.
I was able to seamlessly pass some of my more boring tasks to an AI.
We also heard there, once in a blue moon.
This is a really fun sounding idiom.
A blue moon is a rare occurrence where the moon actually turns blue.
In our example we heard, I only really use them once in a blue moon.
i only really use them once in a blue moon.
personally i don't think i've ever seen one of these blue moons but apparently they do happen even though they are very rare.
this phrase however once in a blue moon has been used for i think hundreds of to mean a very rare event.
So if you do something very rarely then you can say that you do it or it happens once in a blue moon.
And if you only speak English once in a blue moon and you want to change that then maybe I can help.
My who use English at work to improve their communication skills.
So, if you need English to do your job, but don't speak it natively, then maybe we can work together to help you to achieve your language goals.
If you'd like to book some time to meet with me through one to one video calls using maybe Zoom or Google Meet for instance, just you and me, then you can go to BreakoutBusinessEnglish .com, that's the title of the podcast, BreakoutBusinessEnglish .com and find out more.
Also I sometimes have offers and discounts on class packages and entering your email address on the website is the best way to be the first to find out when those limited time deals are available.
I have worked with over 1000 non -native English speaking professionals from new graduates up to CEOs and government leaders to help them achieve their goals and I look forward to meeting you.
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That's it for today.
Thanks a lot for listening and for your time.
And I'll talk to you again next time on the Breakout Business English podcast. Thanks a lot, everyone.
Talk to you soon.
