This is the Business English Podcast episode 336.
Will lunch be provided?
How to ask about a lunch and learn.
Welcome to the Business English Podcast from All Ears English.
Get the English skills you need to achieve your dreams in 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.
Hey, Michelle. Question for you today.
All righty. Hi, Lindsay.
What's your question?
All right. So have you ever been to a lunch meeting where lunch was actually served?
Oh, like where they provided lunch for.
Sure. Yes. Yes, I have.
What about you? Yeah, I suppose I have for sure.
Different kinds of conventions or conferences or things like that.
Right. Right. Well, guys, this is a scenario that I wanted to talk about today because sometimes you might be asked to attend a lunch meeting or something called a lunch and learn.
Lindsay, what's a lunch?
That's a great term to learn.
Yeah. This means I remember when I did an internship in Newark, they would do lunch and learns.
And in this case, we'd actually bring our own lunch or bag lunches, brown bag lunches.
But the idea is basically you're coming together, you're eating lunch together.
And you're someone is giving a talk on something, a little seminar, learning something, you're launching and you're learning.
Right. So it could be a lunch and learn or a meeting at a conference.
So anything during lunch.
And this is about when something is something out of the norm happens with lunch at work.
So maybe there is a retirement party, a birthday party, whatever it is, where lunch is blocked out and you have to stay there for lunch.
Right. You're not taking your typical lunch hour.
But yeah, so in these situations, sometimes lunch is served.
Your employers get you your lunch.
They have slatters.
Right. But yeah, not be maybe it's like Lindsay said, oh, you had your brown bag lunch.
So depends on the company, doesn't it?
Yes, it definitely does.
And it's good to find out beforehand so you know if you should bring your lunch or not.
Yeah. So that's what we're going to talk about today.
Michelle, when you worked at that, your internship at the radio station or your job at the radio station, did they tend to cater lunches a lot?
Or would you tend to for these events?
Would you have to bring your brown bag lunch?
I think I brought my lunch most of the time or I went downstairs and got a salad from the place.
Yes. Right at Radio City.
Yeah, that's cool. That's cool.
Yeah. So we're going to talk about how to ask if lunch will be served or if you should bring it because I bet our listeners have been in this situation where there is going to be some sort of lunch meeting and you have to think about, OK, well, what you know, what do I do?
I don't you because you don't necessarily want to assume that you're getting lunch and then you're going to be sitting there starving.
It's a great. It's a great question.
It's a great. It's really important to be able to ask this and ask this in a classy way.
Right. Exactly. Exactly.
So we're going to talk about some ways to do this in just a second.
But, guys, we want to remind you, if you haven't already, please hit the follow button on The Business English podcast wherever you are listening so that you never miss anything from us.
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Yes. Hit that follow button now, guys.
Well, we'll get into it now, Michelle.
So these are the ways to go ahead and ask.
And who might we ask?
Would we ask just our colleagues or co -workers or teammates?
I think whoever is organizing the meeting.
So unless it's somebody on your same level, then probably they're not buying you lunch, right?
So I would say, right.
If if it's your your supervisor, you know, you do kind of have to go well, let's say let's say your supervisor is having a meeting, but they kind of they have an assistant.
Then I would go and ask the assistant rather than asking the supervisor.
What are you sure? Yeah.
As someone somewhat involved with organizing this, because your colleagues might not know, you could ask your colleagues, but they just may not know that might give you their own information.
Who knows? Right. Might not know.
So all right. Here's what we can say.
Will lunch be provided?
Yes. So, for example, you could say for the lunch and learn, will lunch be provided?
So people typically know that's a nice way of saying, are you buying me lunch?
Right. Basically, exactly.
And then companies hire.
They usually have contracts with catering companies.
I know that's one of the industries that has kind of gone downhill after the pandemic, you know, because a lot of people haven't come back to the office full time.
And so businesses for these these catering companies are going down.
Really interesting.
Yeah. That's so bad.
And then you can always add in this.
So you could say, or should I bring my own lunch?
So you could make it.
Will lunch be provided or should I bring my own lunch?
Right. And then here's another option for our listeners is lunch being served.
OK, so, for example, should I say the sentence, the example is for Sherry's party is lunch being served or should I bring my own lunch?
Mm hmm. Or you could say, should I plan on bringing my lunch instead of asking if lunch is being served?
You're going the other end.
Should I plan on bringing my lunch?
So we have a lunch meeting Tuesday.
Should I plan on bringing my lunch?
Yes. Yes. You're all of this is kind of a little bit indirect ways, polite ways to ask if they are buying the lunch for everybody.
I just think your goal here, the overall connection goal is to make sure you don't sound like you're entitled to something.
Right. To make sure your tone doesn't sound like, well, like you said, Michelle, you were joking, are you going to buy me lunch?
Right. Yeah. Right.
Just kind of hedging towards assuming you need to take care of your own lunch.
Most of these questions are doing that or just they're neutral.
Right. So it's just polite.
Right. Right. Exactly.
So this would just be a way to ask in a nice way without being too direct, even though we all know what you're asking.
Exactly. Exactly. All right.
Good. All right. So it can feel a little bit awkward, right, Michelle, when you're asking this, why is it awkward?
Well, because it sounds like it might sound like you are trying to get someone to buy you lunch.
I mean, I imagine in a small business, if somebody asks this, they the supervisor might even feel a little like then obligated.
What do you think? Yeah, for sure.
It could be. Yeah, it could be.
It does depend probably on the size of your company.
Some huge companies have huge budgets and they just spend them.
I mean, the Christmas parties, the holiday parties for these big companies are just lavish spending and crazy things.
I've been to some of them with my partner, but then small businesses, they pinch every penny.
So you really do kind of need to know where you work and have a basic sense of how much is the money flowing?
You know. Right. Right.
Right. Exactly. Yeah.
If it's if it's a big company, don't even worry.
Just ask. Great. Don't even.
I don't even think you need to think twice.
Totally. What do you think of it's the smaller business?
Do you think? I think it's always the best way to do it.
I mean, I think it's always good to be aware of how what you're saying sounds right, even if it's a big company.
But you're right. I think because big companies have so many layers, HR might be or some department might be in charge of this event that there is a lot of it's less personal.
Your question with a small business, I think I think any of these would would totally work.
I might tend more towards.
So should I plan on bringing my lunch?
That's what I was going to say.
Right. Because that is the least assuming.
Right. Mm hmm. It's more putting it on you rather than asking if the lunch is being provided.
Exactly. It's more saying, oh, should I bring my lunch to that?
Exactly. You're putting it on yourself more.
Yeah. Yes. Right. So then, of course, if they say, yes, we're we're providing lunch, you could say, OK, great, thank you so much.
Perfect. Thank you.
Things like that. And if no, what could you say?
Could you say, OK, thanks for letting me know or OK, great.
I'll bring my regular my regular lunch.
Is that what we mean here?
Yeah. My regular lunch.
Exactly. So, Lindsay, we could also do an episode in the future talking about how to order your lunch at work, because sometimes they'll say, oh, we're taking lunch orders.
Uh huh. So that could be that could be good.
But Lindsay, shall we do a role play?
Yeah, let's let's do a role play.
Let's yeah. OK, let's jump into the role play.
Here we go. So, Michelle, here I am scheduling a meeting and you are going to attend that meeting and it is a lunch meeting.
OK, all right. Here we go.
OK, great. So we will have the meeting during lunch.
We'll all come in the conference room and eat there.
Sounds good. Oh, will lunch be provided or should I bring my own lunch?
Yes, we'll provide lunch.
No need to bring your own.
OK, great. Thank you so much.
All right. So coming back to what we said here, you said, will lunch be provided or should I bring my own lunch?
I like that. It's balanced.
It's not saying you should provide me lunch.
Right. You're taking personal responsibility.
Right. I like that.
Right. It sounds more like you just want to be prepared.
Are you making your lunch or not?
It doesn't sound like you're hoping for anything.
The key goal here is not to be starving at 5 p .m.
because you didn't have a chance to get out of the building all day.
Right. Right. I mean, it's a fair question.
It's fair to ask. Sure.
Sure. And then I was very gracious when you said that you will provide lunch.
I said, OK, great. Thank you so much.
So always good. Make sure you are always thankful if somebody gets you lunch at work.
Yes, guys. There's another episode we recommend that you check out.
It is Business English 325.
Use this expression to foster creativity at work just a few weeks ago.
So go back and check that one out.
Michelle, what is our takeaway for today when it comes to, you know, asking if something will be provided for us?
Well, think about the size of the company.
Think about the money flow and what you know about that company.
And maybe also what you've done in the past for these meetings.
If you've if you've been to them before, don't be afraid to ask these questions.
But just think about which one you want to use.
And it's in our opinion, well, at least in my opinion, it's better to kind of put it on yourself than make it to make sure you don't sound too much like you're assuming that you're getting something.
I love it. So good.
We're giving you all the context, all the social nuances, as well as the phrases here.
So, guys, if you love Business English, hit that follow button and we will be back very soon, won't we, Michelle?
We will. All right, guys, have a great day, Lindsay.
Have a good day. Bye.
Bye. Thank you for listening to Business English, a podcast just for you, the high achieving global professional.
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