This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 218, Improve Your Business English Status Quo.
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Hey, Aubrey, how's everything going today?
We're recording on a Friday. How are you feeling?
I love a Friday. Are you excited for the weekend?
Yeah, I'm so excited, but I'm actually pretty happy to be right here on the mic right now, present as always, recording a good episode of Business English.
So, Aubrey, here's a question for you to start off.
You ready? Yes. So are you ever content with the status quo or do you always feel like things should change or things should be different?
Are you ever just content with the status quo?
I feel like this is one of my biggest faults that I am never content with the status quo.
I think I would be happier if I could just be content is a good word.
Just be happy with what's... I do think it pushes you to improve and always be, but sometimes I think a life would be happier if you could just be happy with things as they are. yeah i think you're right i think you're right i think as i've gotten older i've become a little less content and striving more like always wanting to be better at something or get or improve things um i think maybe when i was in my 20s i was a little bit more like this is great You're fine.
That's really the skill is to always be pushing yourself to do better while also being happy with where you currently are.
That's the secret to a happy life, I think.
I think you're right. I mean, for me, I'm able to get there through things like meditation, spiritual practice, and trying to build community and other things outside of work or goals, right?
Yes. I know I'm not the only one out there who, as far as the status quo with like the amount of income you're earning or with how much you're having to spend, it's difficult to ever be content with the status quo.
I thought about this when you and Michelle were recording episode 193 of the Business English podcast right here.
If you guys missed it, scroll up. It was about talking about money and spending money and some great vocab for that.
It was called Get the Biggest Bang for Your Buck with this episode.
That was a good one. Yeah, guys, go check out 193 and that's a very common term.
So learn what it means and how to use it.
All right. Yes, absolutely. And be sure to hit follow right here if you missed it, because it means you're probably missing some episodes that you don't want to miss.
Don't want to miss it. I'm going to go ahead and read Moeko's question.
We have a question from Moeko from Japan.
So she says, Hello, I'm Moeko from Japan.
Thank you for answering my question before.
Your podcast makes me more motivated to study English.
I have a question again. When I read the English magazine, when I read an English magazine, I found a phrase status quo.
When is this word used? I just read something relating to a political article.
So is the word used only in political news?
Good question. Yes, very interesting. And I could see why Moeco is thinking this because it does sound very professional.
It comes from Latin. But no, we say status quo a lot in daily conversations like that convert that question you asked me right at the top to say, are you ever content with the status quo?
Yeah, I could ask someone this my family, friends.
So it's not just for the news and very professional conversations, but we do also use it a lot at work. it's definitely not just but uh for sure there are a lot of ways that it could come up i think one good way is is in politics for sure or society or current situations in any kind of like a sociological way but also our personal lives You could for sure hear this in a political debate.
Someone saying, we cannot be content with the status quo.
I will bring change. Or you might hear it at work.
Your boss might say, okay, try to motivate.
We need to do better next year. The status quo isn't cutting it, which means it's not quite good enough.
Yeah, love it. All right. So do we have any poll results to report?
I love it when we have these results, Aubrey.
Me too. Yes, we're going to share the results of the poll from episode 196, where we asked about double dipping, if you would ever take two full-time online jobs.
And I was fascinated by the results. 39% of you said yes.
You would maybe 39% of you are for all we know.
And I mean, good for you. It couldn't be me.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And all the stress, but interesting, right?
Really interesting. So 38, let's say 39% said yes and 39% said no.
So we're pretty closely matched here. Really interesting.
And then maybe we did offer that. Maybe, maybe we should have just said yes or no.
We decided to say maybe because I think it really would depend on, I could imagine a lot of people saying, well, it depends on the jobs.
It depends. Am I single or do I have children?
Right? How much extra time do I have? Am I going to put in 90 hours or am I still doing 40 hours though?
Yeah. 22% said maybe. Interesting. One of our few poll questions that has a maybe option.
Usually we force you guys to choose one or the other because we can learn more about you that way.
By the way, guys, if you do want to participate in any of these polls, these are done over in Spotify.
So you need to be listening in Spotify. So go find us over there.
Yes. Every episode has a poll. So stay to the end.
We'll announce what today's poll is for this episode.
We love hearing your opinions, getting some feedback from you about all of these very interesting questions.
So come to Spotify and answer the poll. All right.
Good stuff. So let's get into it. Let's get into status quo.
We're going to teach four phrases today that are very similar to status quo.
So we're going to teach you how to use them with examples because this is another thing you need variety.
There are a lot of ways to say this. You don't want to say status quo over and over and over in the same conversation.
No. So yeah, we're going to teach lots of ways to say this today.
All right. So again, just going back to status quo, we said it's the current situation, right?
Aubrey, anything else we want to say? Any sample sentences there?
Yeah. You might say we can't be content with the status quo.
Instead, we always want to strive for growth.
I love this verb strive. It feels so motivational and forward thinking.
It's a good one. It's a good one. Or as you said earlier, the status quo isn't going to cut it.
That's also a really good one. We could do another episode on, you know, it's just not cutting it or all the different ways cutting it.
I really like cutting it because it feels very harsh to say this isn't good enough.
Yeah, this isn't cutting it feels just a little less critical, I guess.
I actually like that word for another episode, just that one and the ways that we use it.
Really good. What would be another way to talk about status quo?
Yeah, to say the current state of affairs.
This feels so polished and professional.
You might say, can you update us on the current state of affairs?
It means the same thing. Can you update us on the status quo?
Yes, for sure. Or they're unhappy with the current state.
Yeah, we often shorten this just to state, right?
Current state of affairs or just the current state.
And then we have, you know, in politics, we have the state of the union that the president always presents.
I think around this time, actually, around mid-January, February.
Yeah, I think it's coming up soon. Yeah, he summarizes what's going on in society, in the world.
All right, so we're going to take a quick break, Aubrey, and then we'll move on to the next one.
See details online. Okay, Aubrey, what would be the next one here?
Yeah, the next one is the present circumstances means the same as status quo, current state of affairs.
But if you're having a conversation, and you're feeling yourself about to say status quo for the third time, instead, you can say the present circumstances.
How do you feel about the present circumstances?
Ooh, sounds very fancy. These last two have felt very highbrow and fancy.
I like it. I like it. So present circumstances or in light of the present circumstances, we need to make some changes.
Now, what would be an example of maybe something that's just happened that Yeah, maybe you didn't meet your sales quota for the quarter, right?
And so then we're having this motivational team meeting.
We're going to try and set new goals and be excited about it.
So in light of the present circumstances means we didn't make the goal.
We didn't meet that goal. We need to make some changes.
Let's talk about what we can do differently to try and hit that goal next quarter.
Right. So the idea is that something is suboptimal currently and we need to make some changes now.
And it's just a fancy way to say that. Yeah.
And I love this chunk in light of the present circumstances.
There's all these other ways that we just wouldn't say.
We wouldn't say like, according to the present circumstances, we just say in light of the present circumstances, or we sometimes say considering the present circumstances, we need to make a change.
I think we'll cover that one another day in light of.
Don't get confused, guys, with in lieu of, which means something totally different.
Yeah, that means like instead of. Yeah, I could see listeners getting confused there.
So let's go into that another day. I love that.
That sounds good. How things stand, guys, is number four.
This one feels a little more casual, a little more conversational.
Yeah. yeah yeah right maybe uh just at work in general if you have sort of an informal talk you might ask someone what do you think about how things stand yeah i also feel like i hear this a lot when people are asking about a relationship oh how do things stand with you and your boyfriend sure right sure sure yeah that's a good point that's a good point checking in on the status of anything right or we were discussing how things stand and decided that we need to make a change what could this one be about What do you think?
Yeah. And it means the same as status quo, right?
We were discussing the status quo, status quo and decided we need to make a change.
Maybe it's maybe everyone's arriving late to work, right?
Everyone's getting here late. Yeah. Okay.
We were discussing how things stand and we need to make some kind of change.
How can we get everyone to show up to work on time?
Yeah, any current circumstance, anything that's just not, again, not quite working, then what do we need to do to fix it?
Yes, really good. It's important to do a role play.
Yeah, let's do it. Here we go. You and I are discussing a project.
You're asking me about a project at work in this role play.
All right. So, Aubrey, how do things stand with the Long Island project?
Considering the difficulties we faced at the outset, the present circumstances are fantastic.
Well, that's right. I forgot things got up to a rough start.
We turned it around quickly, though, and all is well with the status quo. sounds like a professional conversation that i would have at work right works for business english i like it uh-huh and we had a little bonus here at the outset means at the beginning right considering the difficulties we faced at the outset that just means when things started yeah and so i asked you how do things stand so this might be like a manager asking you know someone on a team or casually i might also say what's happening with the Long Island Project, I could get even more casual from today's episode, right?
Today's episode, these expressions are a little fancier, a little more formal, okay?
A little more polished, right? So they're definitely, it's good to have variety, right?
If you feel like you're always saying, you know, one of these, maybe you've say how things stand quite a bit.
There are so many other ways to say this.
So switch it up. right or maybe you use how's everything going when you're just with your colleague but let's say your consultant and the client is in the room then we're going to say how do things stand with or where you know we're going to elevate our language or depending on who's around us of course Exactly.
And then I used the present circumstances are fantastic.
I could say the status quo is fantastic, right?
These are interchangeable. Sure. Yeah, that works.
And then you said we turned it around quickly, though, and all is well with the status quo.
So clearly things didn't start off well, but you fixed it.
Yeah. This is a conversation like, well, considering the difficulties we faced at the outset in the beginning, things are going great now because we've turned it around.
Yeah. I love that. I love that. Okay. We have a poll for our listeners and we're going to have this posted for you guys when this episode goes live or as soon as we can on the morning that this episode goes live.
Right. Keep in mind we're on US time guys.
So come back, you know, come back and participate in the poll.
But what is our poll question today? Yes, we want to ask you the same question Lindsay asked me and I asked her, are you ever content with the status quo?
Right? So yes or no. Are you the type of person that's like, I'm happy with how things are, we are good, or are you always striving to do better?
That's interesting. And so we mean just in any area of life.
Right? Just broadly. The way you think. We want to know how you think.
Do you think in a way of seeing the gaps or do you think in a way of seeing what's great?
It's kind of like a glass half empty, glass half full kind of question, isn't it, Aubrey?
Yes. And because we don't have a maybe, we don't have an in-between.
You're right, Lindsay. I love that. We're pushing you to really think, which am I more?
You might be like me where it's like, oh, some of both. which sort of is the dominant character trait there.
Yes. We rarely give you maybe options. I love that.
Make you think about it. You have to choose yes or no.
Yeah. We'll see how optimistic our listeners are.
I like this. It's good. So what's the takeaway for today?
Yeah, this is so useful in business English because we often need updates at work.
And today's vocabulary gives you four native natural phrases when you need to ask about the status quo, get the update on how things are going.
And not just that, but when you need to elevate what you're saying about the status quo, right?
Another day, we could actually do an extension, a part two, which would be the more casual ways, even at work, to ask about the status quo.
As we said, how's it going with, what's up with, what's happening with?
These are things that a more casual team might use, like our team.
But again, when you're around a client, around maybe the president of a huge company, you're going to say something different.
This is what today is for. Yeah. Exactly.
Elevate it a little bit. Love that. And so definitely follow so that you get that follow up with the more informal ways to say this.
All right. Coming to you soon, guys. Hit that follow button.
Take care, Aubrey. Have a good one today.
You too. Awesome. See you next time. Bye.
Bye. Thank you for listening to Business English, a podcast just for you, the high achieving global professional.
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