This is the Business English Podcast episode 277.
Birthdays in English Part 2.
Doing Anything Special?
Welcome to the Business English Podcast from all ears English.
Get the English skills you need to achieve your dreams and global business.
For a presentation, a meeting, or your office party,
this is real Business English with your favorite American hosts,
Lindsay and Michelle coming to you from New York City
and Colorado, USA.
Hello there, Michelle. How's it going?
Good, Lindsay. How are you?
Good question for you.
Yes. Is your birthday a big deal for you?
I mean, how do you feel about it?
Or is it just kind of a no big deal?
Just another day.
I mean, I do think that everybody goes into their birthday
with a little bit of hope, a little bit of excitement.
It's always like, what's going to happen?
That's right. But I'm not obsessed with my birthday.
What about you? Same here.
I obviously recognize that it's another day.
I remember when I was a kid, I was just shocked
when I would read the newspaper or see on the news
that something was happening on August 3rd.
I was like, how can anything else be happening?
It's my birthday.
Sometimes I, this is going to sound funny,
but if I see something in the fridge that has an expiration date
of my birthday or my family's birthday, I'm like,
oh, by the time this is expired, it'll be my birthday.
Funny. We all have these weird ideas.
But yeah, I think in terms of, I mean, people,
yeah, I think it's actually well put.
People have a little hope, a little sense of excitement.
Maybe they keep it to themselves and at work too, right?
Because you still, usually most people generally
go to work on their birthdays.
It shouldn't be that way.
I feel like we'd all have our birthdays off, you know?
But yeah, so do you tell people it's your birthday
if they don't know?
No, not really.
Yeah, right?
That's always a little bit awkward when it's your birthday
and you're like, it's my birthday, nobody knows.
No, I feel embarrassed or if it's gonna give an eye.
Kids do, though, for sure, right?
Sure, for sure.
Yeah.
Well, guys, at work, birthdays can be a huge way
to connect with people.
And we have started a whole summer series here
about the topic of birthdays.
So actually last week, we did our first episode.
So this was over on the All Year's English podcast.
If you don't know the All Year's English podcast,
you're definitely missing out.
This is our long time running show
and so much to learn over there.
So go on over and find All Year's English
where you're listening on Spotify or wherever you're listening
and hit follow.
And the first episode was last week.
That was birthdays in English part one.
When is your birthday?
And that was really fun.
We enjoyed recording that one.
Yeah, each episode of this series is going to be different.
You're gonna learn different things,
but it all centers around this important fact
that we all have a birthday.
And how does that come out in conversation
in different places, right?
So go check it out, go hit that follow button
on that episode on All Year's English.
And let's get into today's part two, basically,
of the series.
Yeah.
Okay, let's do it.
So there are two main ways that we connect
with people at work about birthday.
So the two main ways that we're gonna teach today
are number one, to ask what they will do for their birthday.
And number two, ask how their birthday was
because you don't know, you might not see that person every day
or maybe you do see them every day
and you just wanna make them feel special
and ask about their birthday.
So we're gonna get into how you do that today.
And this is just such a great way to connect with a coworker
or even outside of work.
Guys, if you're listening,
if you listen to part one on All Year's English podcast
and now you're coming over to check this out,
don't worry if you are not in the workplace currently,
this is still good.
This is still an important skill that you can learn
and use in your everyday conversations.
Right, I mean, maybe you're part of a community organization
or you're just getting to know your neighbors,
native speaking neighbors if you live in an English speaking country
and then these questions could still come up.
So this is not just at the office,
but even at the office, we're all in,
if you're in the corporate world, maybe you're in a suit,
but there's still that child inside
that wants to be recognized a little bit
on a birthday, right?
Yes, exactly.
So, okay, let's talk about how do you ask someone
what they're doing for their birthday.
Lindsay, what's one thing you could say?
Yeah, so this one's great.
Happy birthday.
Any special plans?
Very common, very common.
Or you could say, have a great birthday
doing anything special, right?
So special.
You'll notice that word is thrown out a lot
with the word with birthdays.
It is, and I like that one.
Yeah.
Or what are you doing for your birthday?
Okay.
And then this next one, this relates
to what you were just talking about.
So are you taking off for your birthday?
So, yeah, it's not that common to take off for your birthday,
but I do know that people do it,
or they might take off for their kids' birthdays.
Sure.
But everybody's different.
If you want to take off and take a vacation day
on your birthday, that's great, right?
But it just depends.
Yeah, maybe you have like a vacation coming up
two weeks later that you're going to take off.
So, but yeah, it would be kind of a perfect world
if we all just took a birthday off, no matter what.
It's just assumed like any holiday, any big holiday.
Yeah.
Or that one.
That would be nice.
Yeah.
So let's show in a couple of roleplays
how this would look in conversation.
Okay, here we go.
I heard it's your birthday, Friday.
Happy birthday.
Doing anything special?
Oh, thanks.
Yeah.
I'm going to the movies.
Oh, have fun.
Friday's a great day for a birthday.
That's, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
That's the best.
Or is that, I guess Saturday is the best.
Saturday, Sunday, probably better than Friday,
but also not bad.
Friday is still good.
It's the Tuesday.
Yeah, better than a Monday.
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah.
Or here we go.
Here's another one.
Ah, you brought these tomorrow.
Any special plans?
No, not really.
Just relaxing and falling asleep early.
Oh, that actually sounds perfect.
Yeah.
Some people want that too, right?
They just want to calm day and they just, you know,
because people have busy lives.
Maybe if they have kids running around, right?
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, exactly.
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