This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 382, Describe Your Progress, Winding Down.
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.
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Hello, Michelle. How's it going today?
Good, Lindsay. How are you?
Good, good. What's up today?
Well, I wanted to know, are you wrapping up any business English or all those English projects?
Anything you're wrapping up?
We are actually working on something very exciting for our professional English students, our listeners who are interested it in professional English, which I am not going to say too much about today, but our listeners should expect to hear a bit more of this over the next month or so.
Um, yeah, it's going to be exciting.
It's going to be fantastic and it's coming out soon.
Yeah. Very exciting.
Okay. Love it. So guys, we are going to be talking about finishing things.
Um, and this is actually part three of a three part series.
So we're finishing up the series and the series was talking about beginnings middles and ends yes the first episode of the series was on the business english podcast that was episode 374 describe your progress getting started and lindsey the other the next one was over on all ears english yes this was a saturday episode do we have the actual date of the episode for the the name of it was describe your progress in the thick of it right in the thick of it i love so just scroll back on the allers english podcast in the last few weeks right you'll see there i i can get the date for you i'll get it
for you in just one second um so the date on that one was february 22nd yeah so go back go over to allers english and find you know find february 22nd you know listen to that episode listen to three saturday or it's a saturday episode yes love it So we are here for the last edition of this series.
Yes, exactly. So today we're going to be focusing on when something is ending.
And this is huge for work.
You can use these to talk about projects or meetings or even to suggest times for when something should be done.
What else, Lindsay?
Yeah. Suggesting times or asking people questions, other scheduling tasks, like when you need to know that something is kind of ending, finishing up.
There are phases of things, right?
Yeah. Yeah. So this is really important.
It gives people a heads up of where you are in a task.
So let's go through it.
So the first one is wrap up or wrapping up.
So this one I asked you about in the beginning, are you wrapping up any tasks, any projects for all ears English?
So this one is very common.
Yeah. And it makes me think of wrapping a present, right?
I know. You're putting the bow on it.
Yeah. You're wrapping up.
Yeah. Put a bow on it.
It's good to be able to wrap things up, right?
We need things to end.
I actually like it when things have kind of an ending point, right?
So you can kind of clear your mind, move on to something else.
And then there's a beginning for something else is when things kind of continue on forever, it can be a lot, right?
Yeah. Yeah. So here's a sample sentence.
Okay, let's start wrapping up.
It's time to clock out for the day, right?
So we need these signposts.
We need these moments in life right yep exactly and the next one is wind down right wind or winding down so we are winding down our search for a new accountant i think we have a few great applicants excellent and i like this next one closing out or to close out often used to talk about the year right the end of the year closing out the year so let's close out the year do we have all our numbers with the accountant right is that something that you do at the end of the year lindsay where you're kind of closing out everything and getting information over I would stay no I would say more that happens
um in the beginning of the next year before taxes right before the tax deadline Michelle but but I would say we do some things to close out the year we spend time planning the next year in December January uh so there are definitely things that we do to maybe we survey our listeners, right?
That is closing out the year, taking stock of what happened that year.
I like that, taking stock.
Yes. Okay. There is something, there's a few more though.
We haven't done them all.
So finish up or finishing up.
Yeah. How do we say that?
Yeah. We'll be finishing up in about five minutes.
Can you hold your questions until then?
So again, you know, we've talked about this before in a presentation.
Sometimes you want people to ask questions at the end.
Sometimes it's okay to ask them throughout, but this would be maybe someone is raising their hand and you're presenting and maybe you kind of hold up your hand a little bit and say, Oh, we'll be finishing up in about five minutes.
I agree. I see this being used in the moment in a presentation room or something during a meeting, um, less so than finishing up the year, right.
Those large milestones.
It's in a moment. Yes.
Right, right, right.
Or this one is more formal to complete.
Right. Um, my team is just about to complete a huge project.
Yep, exactly. Um, Michelle, which do you think is the most useful here?
Ooh, I think I like finishing up and wrapping up.
What about you? Yeah.
I really like close out the clothes out close out this tax season um I like it sounds sounds cool to me so would you say that so interesting you're saying the year and tax season so let's talk about more when you hear close out it's not necessarily just the end of the year but it's how is close out different than finish up or it this one has a little bit of a different feeling to it than the others yeah I would say I would say it's similar I think it's similar it's kind of yeah i i would i don't think there's a huge difference so when i say close out tax season i mean the season of the accountant
working on the taxes right between i guess that's probably between a you know between february and you know april that kind of thing that is a season in itself right so submitting all the forms to close out this tax season for us right i wouldn't say oh we're closing out our project so right i to me it sounds more of yeah yeah yeah yeah significant period yeah so instead of the work right we don't say close out the project not really we say close out a period of time is what you're saying michelle right that's to me i mean it's possible you could use it in the other way but i would use one of the other ones
in that case um i would be more likely to talk about a period of time closing out the year, closing out tax season.
Yeah. Yeah. I like that.
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Terms apply. What else, Michelle?
What have we learned in this series?
We're wrapping up our series here.
Wrapping up our series.
Well, yeah, we have different vocabulary to share where you are in something, right?
Where you're doing something you're watching or reading or working on.
And again, this can be good for in the business world, but also outside the business world.
so super useful and you definitely want to listen to the other episodes um on the business english podcast and on all ears english so i mean why like why would you say these are good for connections i think they're great for connection because you need to know where someone is and the orientation of something this will tell you whether you're they're in the thick of it right they're in the middle of something they're busy they're just getting started it tells you maybe if you have a friend like I think we mentioned this before if you have a friend who is an accountant yeah they're they're in the thick
of tax season you probably want to give them some space right exactly or I don't know if someone owns an ice cream shop at a zoo the summer would be the middle of their season right and so they probably are going to be busy so it's just there's an ebb and flow of life you know their life is about time periods projects and things like that and we need to be able to talk about that all right right and also it can show you that you have that extra intelligence about thinking about somebody else's schedule oh i know you're you're probably in the thick of it or oh so you must be finishing up that project
so maybe we can go and celebrate it right it shows that you have this extra level of emotional intelligence yeah emotional intelligence thoughtfulness you put yourself in their shoes right i love that most people don't do that, to be honest.
So you can really set yourself apart by doing that.
We do have a couple role plays, Michelle, here.
Because we have one with just finishing up and then we combine everything that we've learned.
Oh, I love it. So here in this first one, we are on a conference call.
So here we go. Okay.
So have you had a chance to finish up the files?
My team is just closing them out.
So we can get them over to you right after this call.
Great. We'll be wrapping up soon i just want to go over some final numbers okay sounds good i've completed those yes thanks for sending them my way we needed to wind down all the accounts yes nice should we go through this let's go through it all right so you said i said so have you had a chance to finish up the files so you're making it a little more casual right finish up uh you know you're asking me the status but you're making it a little bit more casual here um and then my team is just closing them out so again finishing you're finishing them yeah this closing them out is a little bit more
to me this one is the slightly tricky one right so again we said it's to a period of time yet right here i realized i gave an example that's not i but it just feels like something bigger so it sounds to me like this, these files, so closing them out.
To me, it sounds like this was a bigger project, maybe took some time.
I don't know that it would be about something really smaller and significant to me.
So something bigger.
I like that. I like that.
And then you said, Michelle, great.
We'll be wrapping up soon.
We'll be finishing up.
We'll be concluding this, this project soon.
Right? Yes. And then about the final numbers, I said, okay, sounds good.
I've completed those.
You said it. And then you said, yes, thanks for sending them my way.
We needed to wind down all the accounts, to wind down, meaning to close out those accounts.
To close out. Yeah.
Not to be confusing.
To end the accounts, right?
Yes. Yes. Exactly. Exactly.
So let's put a few of these together for beginning middle and end so here we are in a business meeting all right right here we go yes okay so where are we in the trace account we are about to wrap that up perfect and then we have to start gearing up for the next one is that the jolt account uh no we are actually already in the middle of that one next up would be plant oh right knowing where we are in each account.
Ooh, so many accounts.
Yeah. And also, yeah, these are good for also being quick, right?
We have to just be quick.
We're doing this, we're doing that and how everything kind of works together.
Sometimes you really need to be able to explain where you are in a process very quickly so that you can schedule other things.
Yeah. Because the reality here is that as professionals, we're not just in one project.
I wish that would be amazing.
Oh my gosh. No, No, we are running multiple projects at the same time, right?
Multiple initiatives.
Some of them are getting started.
Some of them, you're in the thick of them and some of them are finishing up, right?
And you need to move around between them all day long, right?
Yes. Absolutely. So we're jumping around and we need the vocab to be able to quickly express that.
So I said, where are we on the Trace account?
And you said, we are about to wrap that up.
okay so that one is about to be done and then we're starting the next one you said and then we have to start gearing up for the next one right gearing up getting going getting started exactly and then you and then i asked about another account and you said no we're actually already in the middle of that one nice so all these accounts were in different places which is completely normal, right?
Yeah. Don't forget, guys, to go and listen to parts one and two of this series.
And again, like we said, part two is over on All Ears English.
So make sure you go and open your search bar, type in All Ears English and hit follow on that show.
Definitely. Oh, my gosh.
Well, this has been fun.
I've enjoyed this series.
I think this has been a very useful series for in and out of the office.
It's good for connecting with people, showing that emotional intelligence that you're in, you're putting yourself in their shoes.
And also at work being able to really quickly communicate when you have a lot of projects going on.
You got it, Michelle.
All right. Good stuff.
And I will see you back here on Business English very soon.
All right. All right.
All right. Bye, guys.
Take care. Bye. Thank you for listening to Business English, a podcast just for you, the high achieving global professional.
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