Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 828, Important Business Contacts.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 828.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
Our website is ESLPOD.com.
Go there and take a look at our special courses in business and daily English.
I think you will enjoy them.
This episode is a dialogue between Kelly and John, talking about people you know in the business world.
Let's get started.
What we need are a few people in the industry to talk up our new company.
I'm on top of that.
I'm really well connected, as you know, and I've already put in a few calls to a few of the movers and shakers in our business.
I didn't know you had such a vast network of contacts.
Oh, sure I do.
I don't mean to name drop, but you know Kevin Martinez at McEucorp?
I'm pretty tight with him.
And Eva Arribas at Syntec?
She and I go way back.
Wow, those are some heavy hitters.
You've said it.
And Kevin owes me one.
And Eva would bend over backwards for me.
It's great.
What did they say when you asked them to get the word out about us?
Um, I'm still waiting to hear back from them.
I'm sure they'll call back any day now.
Kelly begins our dialogue by saying to John what we need.
The thing we need.
What we need are a few people in the industry to talk up our new company.
The industry, I-N-D-U-S-T-R-Y, could refer to any group of businesses that works in the same area.
You could talk about the car manufacturing industry or the coal industry, or the nuclear power industry or the podcast industry.
Any collection of companies, any area of business activity can be called an industry.
Here in Los Angeles.
However, when you say the industry industry, you're usually referring to the entertainment industry movie companies, television studios and so forth.
People say, oh yeah, he works in the industry.
They mean he works in some connection to one of the entertainment companies here in Hollywood.
Kelly says they need a few people in the industry to talk up their new company.
To talk up is a phrasal verb meaning to say good things about someone or something so that other people have a good opinion of it.
I'm going to talk up this new restaurant.
It's really great.
I think you should try it.
I'm saying good things about it to get other people to notice it, to go there.
John says, The phrase to be on top of something means that you are actually and actively doing something.
That you don't need any help from anyone else.
That you have it, we might say, under control.
I'm taking care of that is what John is saying.
He says, I'm really well connected.
To be well connected means that you have relationships with very important powerful, influential people in your area.
If someone says yes, I'm very well connected in the industry here in Los Angeles, that would mean they know famous movie stars or famous producers or directors, or I, for example, am not well connected in any industry.
John says.
However, I'm really well connected, as you know, and I've already put in a few calls to a few of the movers and shakers in our business.
To put in a few calls means that you have telephoned a few people.
You have made a couple of phone calls.
I've put in a few calls, John says, to a few of some, a couple, a few of the movers and shakers in our industry.
The expression movers and shakers S-H-A-K-E-R-S means people who are very powerful, people who are very influential, people who make big, important decisions about something in your particular area.
Kelly says, I didn't know you had such a vast network of contacts.
Vast, V-A-S-T, means very large.
Something that has a lot of different items or things in it.
We might talk about the universe as being vast.
It's huge really, really big, really big.
That's vast.
John says he has a vast network.
A network any t w o r k one word is a group of people who are connected to each other, usually people who have some sort of common professional interest.
I might have a network of people who are language teachers.
I don't, but I could.
And if I did, that would be a network.
Contacts, C-O-N-T-A-C-T-S, is in the title of this episode, Important Business Contacts.
Contacts are people with whom you have some sort of professional relationship and can call on for advice.
I have contacts in the entertainment industry.
That means I know people.
So contacts really are people, but usually we use that word in talking about people who you have some professional association with.
However, contacts can also be used to describe just anyone you know, whose telephone or address you have.
Many phones smartphones, computers have software programs and part of the program or part of the software I should say often has a contact program.
The contacts are the people you know, their email addresses, their phone numbers, etc.
So Kelly says, I didn't know you had such a vast network of contacts.
John says, oh, sure I do.
I don't mean to name drop, but you know Kevin Martinez at McEucorp?
I'm pretty tight with him.
To name drop means to mention the name of some important or famous person in a conversation so that the other person is impressed.
They go, oh, wow, you know that person?
For example...
Last night I was having dinner with Brad Pitt and his wife Angelina Jolie, and I was telling them about ESL Podcast.
That would be an example of name dropping.
I'm mentioning a famous person so that you will go, oh, wow, you know Brad Pitt?
Well, that's what the women would ask me.
The men would ask me if I knew Angelina Jolie.
John says that he knows this famous person, Kevin Martinez.
He says, I'm pretty tight with him.
To be tight T-I-G-H-T with someone means to have a very close relationship with them, to be friends with them.
John says, and Eva Arribas at Syntech says, She and I go way back.
The expression to go way back means that you've known them for a very long time.
You've had a relationship with them usually a professional relationship with a person for a very long time.
That's what he means when he says she and I go way back.
Kelly says, wow, those are some heavy hitters.
The expression heavy hitter, H-I-T-T-E-R, is similar to movers and shakers.
Heavy hitters are people who have a lot of power, a lot of influence in a certain area.
John says, you've said it.
That phrase, you've said it, is used to show agreement with what the other person has just said.
We might also say exactly or precisely.
So your friend says, this is a delicious meal.
This food tastes very good.
And you respond, you've said it.
Or exactly.
Or precisely.
It means I agree with you completely.
John says, And Kevin owes me one.
And Eva would bend over backwards for me.
To owe, O-W-E, someone, means you owe that person a favor.
You need to do something for that person because they did something for you.
Well, John has done something for Kevin.
We don't know what.
But now Kevin has to do something for John.
This is a very powerful social force of influence, of course, what we call reciprocity.
When I do something for you, then you do something for me.
John also says that Eva would bend over backwards for him.
To bend, B-E-N-D, over backwards.
Backwards.
B-A-C-K-W-A-R-D-S means to do something more than you might expect, especially when it's difficult or uncomfortable.
We might say it's to make an extreme effort to do everything you possibly can for this other person to bend over backwards.
Kelly says it's great.
What did they say when you asked them to get the word out about us?
The expression to get the word out means to inform other people about something, to tell other people about something that is happening, something that is going on, to make sure other people know about it.
Kelly is asking what these heavy hitters said to John.
John says, I'm still waiting to hear back from them, meaning they haven't returned his phone calls.
They haven't called him back.
I'm sure they'll call back any day now.
The expression any day now means soon, but you're not exactly sure when.
You think it will happen soon, but you're not sure.
So John has all these heavy-hitting friends, but they don't call him back.
Maybe they're not really friends.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
What we need are a few people in the industry to talk up our new company.
I'm on top of that.
I'm really well connected, as you know, and I've already put in a few calls to a few of the movers and shakers in our business.
I didn't know you had such a vast network of contacts.
Oh, sure I do.
I don't mean to name drop, but you know Kevin Martinez at McEucorp?
I'm pretty tight with him.
And Eva Arribas at Syntec?
She and I go way back.
Wow, those are some heavy hitters.
You've said it.
And Kevin owes me one.
And Eva would bend over backwards for me.
It's great.
What did they say when you asked them to get the word out about us?
Um, I'm still waiting to hear back from them.
I'm sure they'll call back any day now.
She's a heavy hitter when it comes to writing dialogues.
She's a mover and shaker in the world of language teaching.
I'm speaking, of course, of the well-connected Dr. Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2012 by the Center for Educational Development.
