This is the Business English Podcast, episode 133.
Do you travel for work? How to talk about business trips in English.
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Hey, Michelle, how's everything? Hey, Lindsay.
Good. I'm happy to be here. How are you?
Yeah, I'm excited to be here. I'm going to be taking a trip back to the East Coast for Father's Day, although this is coming out later.
I'm excited to get home and see my dad for Father's Day.
That's nice. Yeah. Oh, I bet. Was it like kind of a surprise?
When did you make this trip? I think like three weeks ago, I was thinking, oh, it would be nice to do that.
And so I just said, I'm going to come book a flight.
So it's really not that far from Denver.
It's like a three hour. It is a red eye again.
Michelle, I'm doing it again. I just can't help myself.
They're just so much cheaper, these overnight flights.
So it leaves at 11, gets in at 5 a.m. Usually I'm a complete wreck on Friday, but it's worth it.
It's worth it. Yeah. Oh, well, you're a very nice daughter.
That's very nice of you to do that. So I'm sure I have a great time.
So but today we're talking about travel, not for pleasure, but for business.
So, Lindsay, do you take do you travel a lot for All Ears English?
Not a lot. I would say I've traveled a few times for all.
I mean, we do. We go to conferences. I go to conferences.
That's one thing. And that's an all English trip kind of.
And then we've done a few trips. I mean, there was New York.
We had our urban adventure, Boston. There was two events in Japan that Jessica and I did.
That was business travel for sure. so we've traveled a little bit the pandemic kind of put a put an end to those maybe we'll revive them someday yes around the world world tour of all there's english that would be cool oh that'd be cool yes um so do you like to travel for work i do i like it it's fun i think it's pretty cool um yeah yeah it was really cool going to japan for work it was amazing Oh, yeah, I bet.
Yeah. And I like to I like to go to Boston.
I got to hang out with you and do our urban adventure.
So, yeah, I also like to travel. I also went in a past job.
I went I traveled to Austin, Texas. Cool.
And then once in a job before that, I went to L.A.
So I've been on a couple of business trips.
But my my brother travels a lot for work.
Um, and my sister-in-law too. So they, so they, my brother really, um, he gets to travel internationally for work.
So I'm jealous. Yeah. My brother does too.
He travels a lot. Just, uh, I don't know if internationally, but within the country.
So he always has those corporate benefits, right?
Like When he and I were going out to California together a lot to do stuff for our family, he always had like the rental car special priority thing, right?
Like you're given these things from your company usually if you are traveling for business.
So you can tap into those for other trips sometimes too, which is awesome.
Right. Yeah. Nice. Yeah. People who... Yes.
I have friends who they travel a ton for work and then they just... have so many points oh points yeah totally it's you could get all these free trips and actually this summer i'm not sure exactly when but we are going to be interviewing a travel coach i think he's going to be talking about points airline points and how to travel globally on the cheap so guys get ready to follow on actually that's going to be on all ears english so hit follow on all ears english as well as business english yeah Okay, good.
Well, speaking of All Ears English, guys, we have another episode for you about travel.
That was episode 489. It got Wanderlust, Three Ways to Travel the World and Immerse Yourself in English with James Weber.
So listen to that one. Love it. I think we all have a little wanderlust when we think about the globe and how many places there are to see.
So, okay, well, we're going to talk about business travel.
So some people really love to travel for work.
They really want to. They enjoy it. But some people, they think that they want to, and then they realize that it's not really a vacation, right?
Like you might not be able to experience what you'd want to experience when you're on vacation.
So I always dreamt of traveling for work.
But then I also realized that, yeah, it's not...
Not quite a vacation. I mean, there are, you know, and then you have to deal with the flight times and everything like that.
Although I'm the type of person, I just love the airport.
Yeah, I like airports too. Yeah, I just love being at the airport.
It's just like... Yeah, I've been at the airport a lot this spring.
So that's sort of when you... For me, there's a clear line.
If I go overboard with the airport, it starts to get really annoying.
But it's still... a certain, you know, maybe like, let's say six times a year, seven times a year.
If I go to the airport at that cadence, I still love it.
You know what I mean? I still love it. And I feel this is cool.
Everyone here is going to different places.
It's kind of a magical place. If you think about what's happening.
I was going to say, it's a little bit magical too.
I love going and then seeing like the departure sign and I'm like, Oh, want to go there well especially like an airport because i had a layover in istanbul was that yeah in istanbul on my way to japan uh last time we went to japan that was just incredible eight hours in the istanbul airport i mean that is the intersection of the world right people are coming from africa there are direct flights to parts of africa asia north america europe it's just incredible if you just sit there and people watch for hours with the drink yeah it's just so cool That's nice.
That's great. Yeah. So it really depends.
And then if you have families, people might not really want to be away for so long or it might be difficult on like one parent and the other one is always traveling.
So it really depends. But we want to talk about some ways, some expressions, some things that you can use to talk about. about business travel.
So yeah, we're gonna talk about how they're used and maybe go over some conversation questions that we can use.
So Lindsey, what's the first one? Okay, so we'll start with business trip or work trip, right?
This is usually what people use to say, like I have a business trip coming up, I have a work trip.
I feel like work trip these days is a little more common. business.
I think so. Like when I hear, you know, people that are close to me doing these trips, business trip feels very like, I don't know, 1980s or something with this.
Like, I don't know. I just see it as more formal.
Yeah. Okay. That's interesting. Yeah, I could see that.
I could see that. Yeah. But well, yeah, you could say, Oh, I can't I have a work trip scheduled that week.
That sounds very common to me. Yeah. Or I'm going somewhere for work.
Right. I will get into that in a minute.
Or travel for work is what we said. I travel for work a lot or I travel a lot for work.
Both work for our listeners. What else? Right.
And then this expression could be used in different ways.
So when somebody says business or pleasure.
Right. Are you here for a business or pleasure?
Do you hear that ever? Yeah, for sure. For sure.
I hear that a lot. Maybe when you check into a hotel, I guess I'm trying to think of where I hear it.
Maybe at customs. Oh, right. Sometimes at customs, they're like, what are you doing here?
Maybe they, I mean, they don't necessarily say business or pleasure, but maybe they would, but they'll say like, you know, I remember coming back from London, they'll say, oh, you know, what are, like, what were you doing there?
So maybe someone working at customs would say, was it business or pleasure?
I don't know. Yeah. Or sometimes when you book a flight, I have been booking a lot of flights lately.
When you go and book your flight, they may have a bonus question.
You don't have to answer it. They say like, is this a business trip or is this a personal trip?
Right. That kind of thing. Yes. Right. Right.
Right. And then another thing is company card.
So what is that? The company card? Put it on the company card.
Big companies, I mean, or small companies, if you're traveling for work, often you'll have a card that, you know, is under the company's name.
So you can expense anything that you need to.
And I think that's also another verb that they use, you know, to expense something, right?
I meant to add that. You have a meal allowance, which we're going to talk about in just a minute, meals or transportation.
If you need to Uber from the airport to your hotel, you can put that on the company card.
Yeah. Yeah. So what does that mean? So to expense means to, I guess, to just charge that amount to the company.
Yeah. Right. Instead of paying for it personally.
Right. But then it can be hard. Like I've done it where then you have to like keep track of all the receipts.
Yeah. Yeah. Like I remember. Yeah. When I went to Texas.
Yeah. You had to keep track of everything.
Maybe it's easier now. And I bet there are apps for keeping track of everything.
But at that time, it was like, yeah, it was it was tricky, like to just keep track of all this paper.
Oh, forget it. Useless. Lately these days, if I do need to collect receipts, I'll just grab the receipt, snap a photo of it, and then trash the receipt because I just don't want to have all this paper.
Yeah, that's what I would do now. Yeah. Abercrombie's viral denim sale is back.
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Exclusions apply. See details online. Okay, Michelle, should we move on to a little role play today?
What do you think? Yes. So just to briefly mention meal allowance, that was another.
So you could say sometimes a company will give you a certain amount that you can spend on meals a day.
So you could say like, oh, I have a meal allowance of $100 a day.
Yes. So that might be something that you can use as well, which sometimes that's, that's, that's a lot.
Yeah. It's a lot kind of, I don't know when I go to, it depends on, it's interesting, right?
I don't, I have a friend who used to work for just until recently she worked for McKinsey and that's a company, any of these consulting companies, Deloitte, McKinsey, you're just, you're just traveling every week all over the country, internationally and nationally.
And just, you are never home. And so they give you a nice meal allowance, but often you're taking out clients.
But I don't think your meal allowance necessarily applies to that.
Like I think that's something different because you're taking clients out for dinner.
But a lot of times you're traveling in these cities where it's unless you're just going to run into a grocery store to go out and sit down and have a proper meal, $100 a day.
Hmm. Maybe. I don't know. Right, right.
I don't know. I don't know. So yeah, so but these are all kind of key terms that you could hear people using when they're talking about work travel.
So let's do a role play and go through all of them.
Okay, sorry, I can't make it to the party.
I have a work trip that week. Oh, too bad.
Where to? Paris. Wow. Is that really a business or pleasure?
I hope I have time to enjoy, but I have a lot of work.
I travel for work a lot, so I'm kind of over it.
It's exhausting. I bet. I hope you get to enjoy the food, though.
Yeah, I will. I have a meal allowance. It's pretty generous.
So I just put meals on the company card.
That's great. Yeah. And then of course, there's always the thing, you know, if you're lucky enough that your company, a lot of companies, I mean, at a certain level will, will put you in business class, right?
When you, or first class, when you apply for business, cause they, especially if it's an overnight flight, um, um like uh to london or something from the states and you're expected to work and do a presentation the next morning they'll put you in business class because they want you to actually recline and sleep right and so i personally my philosophy i don't know what you think about this i don't do business class on my own as i just don't think it's worth the money yeah um but that's pretty cool if you get that perk it's a very special experience yeah yeah no i never i i I don't think I've ever done it.
I think once I got upgraded when I was a little kid.
But I know. Do you ever then you're just like walking on the plane and you see all the people sitting in their beautiful chairs?
That's always really interesting, right?
Because you have to walk past people that are in business class and first class.
And I just kind of wonder what's going through their heads.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, that's why you got upgraded.
Like, oh, it's my lucky day. Great. I'm going to sit back and I wouldn't recline.
Oh, man. Oh, well, yeah. Well, not to always bring it back to Seinfeld.
But do you remember there was an episode where Elaine got Like they got up.
One of them got upgraded and Jerry took the first class and Elaine took, you know, regular.
It sounds familiar, but I don't know what happened.
It goes back and forth with their experiences.
And it was just hilarious. Like Jerry is just like living like a king and he's like sitting next to this beautiful woman.
And it's a great episode. You should watch that one.
That's funny. I love it. All right. Should we go through the role play?
Let's do it. All right. So I said, sorry, I can't make it to the party or I can't make the party, which is another episode waiting to happen.
Michelle, I can't make something if we haven't done it already.
I don't know. I think we have actually. And I said, I have a work trip next week.
So we taught you guys business trip or work trip.
And I'm pretty sure a lot of our listeners are taking these trips for work.
Michelle, this is really good. Yeah. And then you said Paris, which is pretty awesome to go to.
So I said, is that really business or pleasure?
I'm kind of teasing you. Right. And then I said, hi, I hope I have time to enjoy, but I do have a lot of work.
I travel for work a lot. Very common phrase.
I travel for work a lot. You see that all over the place.
Okay. And then I asked you if you'll enjoy the food and you said, I have a meal allowance.
That's pretty generous. Yeah. So I just put meals on the company card.
Yes. Love that. What's the takeaway for our listeners?
Well, people have mixed feelings on traveling for work.
I'm curious to hear from our listeners. Where do you travel for work and how do you feel about it?
Do you love it? Do you hate it? Do you, you know, like, I mean, for example, I think my brother had a trip recently and he um was supposed to get like one day where they could tour around a little bit uh and enjoy a little bit and then they missed their connecting flight and the whole team had to stay overnight and so they missed that whole part of the day so then it was yeah so anyway um i'm just curious to hear your thoughts but um yeah it's always it's always still fun to be at the airport Yeah, the one thing I wonder about when it comes to if you work for a company where they fly you around all the time, like a consulting company, I wonder about how to stay healthy on the road.
Because I know even when I travel home, like tonight, I'm going to be awake all night eating snacks, just not and then probably not eating well on Friday, because I'll be tired.
So I just wonder how people what people do to stay healthy.
Maybe there's an episode there and how to stay healthy during business travel or something.
Yeah, well, I always wonder about like musicians and like going through between the time zones if they're doing tours and stuff.
I mean, the private jets probably help, but still.
Yeah, I've always said there should be yoga studios in airports.
I mean, why not? Yeah, that's a good idea.
Why not? I know there's massage. Sometimes you can find like a back massage in an airport, which is really nice.
But like, why not yoga? Why not ways to stay gyms, ways to stay healthy during our layovers?
These are all ideas. I like it. I like it.
All right, Michelle. Thanks for hanging out and talking about travel.
Now I'm excited to go to the airport. All right.
Have fun. All right. Take care. Bye. Bye.
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