This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 368, Flailing with a New Office Tool, What to Say.
Welcome to the Business English Podcast from All Ears English.
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For a presentation, a meeting, or your office party, this is Real Business English with your favorite American hosts, Lindsay and Aubrey coming to you from Arizona and Colorado, USA.
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Hello, Aubrey. How are you today?
I'm great, Lindsay.
How are you? I am good.
I'm good. I'm already ready for the weekend.
But I do have a question for you here, Aubrey.
Is there any tool at work that you've used recently that was kind of hard to get used to?
It was new for you?
You're kind of fumbling around?
Yes. Oh, great question.
We work with this amazing nonprofit called Be The Voice of Girls.
And when I went to teach a class just last week they were using google meet which i'm not as familiar with yeah so i went to share slides and couldn't figure it out at first and i wanted to still be able to see the students in the class while i saw the slides and that was really tricky it was kind of frustrating
oh that's always that moment of can you see my screen right it's that are they gonna say no they can't see my screen and then it's like i don't know how to share my life for sure but today obviously we're focusing on business english and why it matters at the workplace and it really does matter because people
take their cues from you especially if you're a leader it matters how you compose yourself when something goes wrong right aubrey exactly and if you're starting at a new position people will have different expectations about your experience level with modern tools so you you need to be honest of course
right and i think there's this expectation that we may need to help people train and learn new tools and most of your co -workers and your employer are going to be okay with that but you need the way to express that and the truth is these tools are changing all the time I mean I feel like chat gtp gpt
just came out but it came out two years ago already crazy and I haven't really adapted to it yet at all I I most people are saying now oh yeah I'm training my chat gpt I'm thinking what what are you doing I don't know if I've told you my partner is using his, like a therapist.
Did I tell you about that?
Because the more you talk to it, it really learns a lot about you.
And he'll now ask questions like, what's something I don't realize about myself?
And it will give such profound answers.
That's fascinating.
I love that. So, there's always going to be a new tool, right?
And you're either going to be behind the curve or ahead of the curve, but you're always learning something new.
Maybe we're learning something else that came out two or three years ago and whoever else learned that two years ago is on to the next thing.
There's always new things.
We're always going to have a moment of beginner, like a beginner's moment.
And you want to be able to express this honestly without seeming too incompetent, right?
You want to show that you're a quick learner.
You're going to pick it up quickly.
But I think it would be a huge mistake to try to kind of cover not knowing something that sort of is seen as dishonesty.
And you could get in trouble if you're expected in the middle of a meeting to know how to do something that you don't.
Right. Or people will just find out, right?
They'll find out. Exactly.
So today we have three or four or five great phrases.
And some of them are casual, some are formal.
But let's go through the first one, which is what you said at the top of the show, Aubrey.
What is it? Yeah, it's bear with me.
I use this a lot. Bear with me.
I'm new to Microsoft Teams.
In my previous job, we used Zoom.
So it means basically be patient with me.
Give me a little grace here.
Give me a little grace i love this one because it does feel quite professional and quite articulate i think don't you think yeah and it's spelled b -e -a -r there are a few versions of bear in english so if you ever want to write it make sure to spell it correctly because there are homonyms no you're right it's
the bear like the grizzly bear right so bear with me i love that so that is our most formal option for today but then we could also say still getting the hang of it i'm still getting the hang of asana Asana is a task management tool like Monday .com.
So I'm still getting the hang of Asana.
So this is casual, but it's not revealing too much or too little.
I love this because it's showing that you do know some about it.
I love this for saving face a little bit.
You're not saying, I don't know anything about this.
I'm so dumb. We don't want to at work emphasize a lack of knowledge or skills.
We can be honest about that without undermining ourselves.
Yeah, you almost want to imply that you realize there's a gap, but you're on top of it.
You're on top of that gap.
You're taking care of that on your own.
And you've already started, right?
Yes. What else, Aubrey?
This is a good one.
Yes. The next one is there is a learning curve.
So for example, I've noticed there's a real learning curve when it comes to ChatGPT.
You have to write your question code.
Just kind of whispering to the side.
Yes. Yeah. Because it's more informal.
It depends a lot on the relationship, right?
Co -workers definitely in daily life, absolutely with friends.
But depending on the situation, you may want to avoid this one at work.
Yeah, exactly. As an adult professional, you're good at your job.
You know what you're doing.
In fact, you sound confident when you talk about your job in English.
However, in conversations with co -workers about daily topics and informal chats with clients on the phone, you struggle.
This is the English you need to truly express yourself in any situation.
On the All Ears English podcast, you'll learn natural vocabulary, impressive grammar, and connection strategies to be prepared for any English conversation.
Search now for All Ears English wherever you listen to podcasts and hit follow.
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OK, Aubrey, we are back.
Now, here's a hot take question.
Do you think that you should couple these phrases by saying, I'm sorry, like apologizing in a way?
What are your thoughts on that?
That's a really good question.
I think the trend at work is to avoid apologizing if you can help it, especially where if you haven't made a mistake, you haven't made an error.
It's not something you need to apologize about, but sometimes it's hard to avoid, right?
Yeah, I agree with you.
I think try to stay away from it unless you've really affected someone in a negative way.
You've deleted a bunch of files, God forbid.
Then apology is in order.
Of course, please apologize in that case.
But if you haven't done anything yet, don't apologize for your lack of skills.
Initially. Instead, you need variety in your vocabulary.
If you need to say, I don't know, and this is definitely related, you're going to admit sometimes that you don't know how to do something.
You need the vocabulary to do that.
Exactly. I mean, just to leave our listeners with this idea, guys, we can't all be experts at everything all the time.
There's going to be a new tool next year.
It's going to be something else in AI or encoding or task management.
I mean, it took us a few months to learnmonday .com, right, Aubrey?
And there's going to be a new one next year.
We're going to switch to something else maybe.
Who knows? So we're always learning.
So what do we say in those moments?
It really matters. Exactly.
And we all are going through this.
It's a very human experience, right?
So to admit that you're new at something, it builds this, you know, it's this opportunity to admit vulnerability, which builds connection.
It definitely builds connection.
So it's also that chance to get to know your coworkers by being honest about what you can and can't do.
Just be careful about who's around and what you've already said you can do.
Obviously, there's a line there we want to watch out for.
All right. Good stuff.
Aubrey, thanks for being on the show today.
I'll see you next time.
Awesome. See you next time.
Take care. Bye. Thank you for listening to Business English, a podcast just for you, the high achieving global professional.
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