This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 78.
Four offensive business English phrases to avoid.
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Hey, Aubrey, what's going on today? Not much.
How are you, Lindsay? I'm doing really well.
I'm doing well. I'm excited to be on Business English today, but we are getting into an important topic.
This is very important. I think it's something that a lot of people who work in Business English haven't thought about it, but probably should.
So I think this is good. Or even people who work in business English, right?
You mean teachers specifically or students or both?
Anyone. Because a lot of these phrases, I worked as a paralegal for a while when I first graduated from college and I heard these phrases all over in the business world.
Absolutely. And I think So just to give you guys a little peek into what we're talking about, we're sharing some offensive phrases that would be offensive to certain groups, especially minimalized groups that I think we use them in business English.
Very rarely is it that we understand the history and we understand it's offensive and we're saying it anyway.
Yes. Almost always it's in ignorance. We don't realize that it's offensive.
Yeah. Yeah. And it all comes back to history.
That is so important. So what about you, Aubrey?
Have you heard anyone say something lately at work?
Hopefully not at All Ears English, but just in general?
I mean, I was working because I was posting a TikTok on our social media channel.
And you know how your For You page comes up and you see other videos.
And I saw this adorable mother and daughter.
It's gone viral. So some of you may have seen this where the daughter is saying, you know, you guys have the wrong impression about Eskimo kisses.
She's like, you think it's nose to nose, but it's actually they and she like demonstrated on her mom.
It was so cute. She like squished her nose into her mom's cheek and they're both giggling and it was the cutest thing.
But then I noticed in the comments, a lot of people were surprised they were using the word Eskimo or they were saying we shouldn't call these Eskimo kisses because the phrase Eskimo is offensive to so many.
And that was news to me. I don't know if you were aware of that, Lindsay.
I ended up doing a Google deep dive about the word Eskimo.
Okay. And yeah, so I guess a lot of these indigenous peoples in like Northern Canada, mostly they They have a specific name for their people.
For example, Inuit is one of the groups.
But we often in English use the word Eskimo to define, describe all of these different peoples.
And it's not accurate, right? Because there are so many different groups.
So they would prefer not to be called Eskimos.
And I'm like, I'm now going to avoid using that word.
I didn't know. Yeah. No, we're just getting smarter.
And what I love about our listeners here on Business English and Allers English, you guys are smart.
You're so smart and you are always looking to improve yourselves at work.
Right. And these are things that native speakers will make these mistakes, too.
So we're kind of learning together here today.
Exactly. Right. Just like I just very recently learned that that word can be offensive.
I learned a lot searching to find some of these most commonly used that we're going to share today.
I have heard them all at work. And at the time, I didn't know they were offensive.
I've used some of them for sure without realizing they could be offensive.
So I'm glad to learn more about this along with you guys.
Yeah, we've got four of them today, guys.
So you're going to want to write these down and then start observing that.
And then maybe at the end, we can kind of have a conversation about, you know, what do we do when we hear them?
Do we call people out? Do we pull them aside?
Do we just make a slight comment that's meant to hint at something so they'll go and have their own deep dive?
Right. Let's definitely talk about that because that is the communication skill.
You don't want to create an awkward situation.
Right. But once you know it could be offensive, you also want to share that, you know, knowledge with others so that they don't end up offending someone, you know, help save them the awkward or the embarrassment of saying that in front of someone who could be deeply hurt by it.
Exactly. And still maintain the connection because we're all about connection, not perfection.
All there's English. So how do you do that?
So let's get into the first one, Aubrey, and then we'll talk about what to do.
Okay, perfect. So this one is open the kimono and it's used in business meetings and communications when a company or a team needs to share internal workings, maybe internal statistics to like a potential client or partner or buyer.
Yes. And, but if you think about what a kimono is and who wears it, you can see how it could be extremely offensive.
Yeah, for sure. I mean, so a kimono is a traditional Japanese garment, right?
And the national dress of Japan, right? So it's usually worn by women.
Although I think yukatas, which is another similar dress is also worn by men.
This makes the expression a little bit uncomfortable, possibly for women in the workplace.
I'd be really interested to see what our Japanese listeners think about this.
Yeah, I would like to know, too. I did read an article by an Asian female who said this is she finds it extremely sexist and misogynistic.
Right. She said, especially with the current and historical problem in the United States of racially targeted violence against Asian-Americans.
You have to really think about, especially where often in business English, it would be a man that would be comfortable saying this expression.
And if there are Asian American women in the room or just Asian women, you could understand this could be quite hurtful as they're creating a very uncomfortable situation.
Yeah, we have had lately in the last year or two.
It's very concerning. We've had some violence towards Asian-Americans and Asians in the U.S. and the New York City subway.
Different things have happened. Very scary.
Right. So it plays into that. I've heard this used the most recent way I can remember hearing this uses towards Donald Trump having to like show his tax returns.
Interesting. And someone was saying he needs to open the kimono.
Yeah. So that kind of complicates it even more.
But in general, I would avoid this 100 percent.
Just stay away from it. Yeah, I agree. Exactly.
And yeah, we'll talk about it at the end.
I'm like, what do you do? What do you do if someone says that?
So we'll go through all four and then we'll talk about that.
What do you do? Yeah, what do you do? This one is really, to me, this is pretty obvious, I think.
If you pay any attention whatsoever in modern business culture, this one is the most obvious.
The one we want to avoid here, guys, number two is powwow.
Yes, you'll hear it very often. People use it both in business and in just daily conversations to refer to like a quick impromptu meeting.
But part of the problem here is that in indigenous cultures, there is nothing quick or casual about a powwow, right?
Interesting. And so that's part of the issue.
And then just I had to really research this one because I've heard this word.
I've definitely used this word. I'd certainly never meant to offend or meant any ill intent.
Sure. So we have to think about like, why?
Why would this be problematic? So mostly I was reading that there's such an important need to respect the efforts of indigenous people, the efforts they're making to preserve and celebrate their culture, despite centuries of oppression and oppression that continues today.
And if we use this term flippantly to refer to casual meetings, we're really undermining the importance of a powwow.
Yeah, that's a good point, Aubrey. I also don't like the idea of taking something so sacred, so important to an indigenous culture and applying it to the corporate world.
It just feels very disingenuous. That's a good point as well, right?
It's very similar to dressing as a Native American for Halloween.
It's cultural appropriation. We do have to really think about how will people feel when their culture and history that's so important to them is turned into a costume or is used frequently for a business meeting, just like you said.
And there are options. There are so many other ways to say this, right, Lindsay?
Yeah. With this one, it's great because we do have a lot of other things we can say.
You can use meetings. That is actually what it is.
Right. A session huddle. I think people have been lately in my world referring to meetings as stand ups.
Right. Or a standing meeting, that kind of thing.
Lots of good options that you guys have.
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Terms and conditions apply. Okay. I'm excited for this next one because actually I wasn't aware of this one.
Same, right? So I looked a lot. I found there are several online.
You'll find like the 10 most offensive phrases used in business English.
And this one's on all of those. And I didn't know about it.
I had never thought about it. And I definitely use this word.
So I learned something. What is the word?
So the word is uppity. which we use to mean arrogant or like having an air of superiority.
I've definitely described someone as uppity if they just seem like they think they're better than me.
Yeah, for sure. For sure. For sure. Okay.
And so why is this so bad? Why do we want to avoid it?
So it turns out that this word, the history of this word is that during segregation in the United States, racist, racist Southerners use the word uppity to describe black people who, in quotes, didn't know their place, right?
Who weren't acting like they thought a slave should.
So because that's the history of the word, and actually the term started within the black community, but then these racists adopted it and used it so negatively and so disrespectfully that once, as soon as I realized where this word comes from, like where the origins, I was like, oh yeah, I'm not using that word anymore.
I'll just say arrogant. I'll just stick with arrogant.
This is so important to know. And I'm sure that this negative use of this word continued after slavery as well, right?
In Jim Crow eras and that kind of thing to really do damage.
Exactly. And that's where it's interesting. to think about yes language evolves you know yes I would say that pretty much everyone who uses this word this adjective uppity now has no idea about the history does not mean to offend us not but once they realize the history of it I would like to hope that they wouldn't use it because I think it is more well known among African American communities what this means the history of this word and offense is taken Okay.
Well, it's good to know. I'm learning something today.
This is great. This is so important to know, guys.
So avoid that word. And that word is the spelling of it.
If you see it anywhere, it's U-P-P-I-T-Y, just in case we're not sure how to spell that.
But avoid that 100%, guys. Let's move on to the next one.
All right. Number four, we use it as a verb, gyp, G-Y-P.
It's like a slang verb that means to cheat someone.
I hear this all the time. I actually just heard it yesterday.
Someone just said, he gypped me. And I was like, no, because this I do know, like that that is shortened, a shortened version of the word gypsy.
Yes. So the, you know, more correctly known as the Romani people, an ethnic group that are now mostly in Europe and America.
They traveled a lot historically, typically made their money by selling goods and got a little bit of a reputation potentially as swindlers.
And that is where this word came from. So as you can imagine, it's quite offensive to anyone who's still part of this people that that's a clear stereotype, obviously not true for all of these people.
Right. Exactly. And so the problem is now, again, this word gyp or G-Y-P or G-I-P has become synonymous with cheating someone.
And so we definitely want to drop that from our vocabulary, not just at work, but in our daily lives.
Exactly. Exactly. Right. And like you said, I do hear it just day to day conversations.
I hear it in business English. I do feel like this is one that people in general are starting to become more aware of, okay, this word is a shortened form of gypsy.
I think more so than uppity, at least we're aware of the history and we're aware of where this comes from.
And I think a lot of people are trying to move away from using it, but I do still hear it.
So there's work to be done still. There's work to be done.
Yeah, I agree with you here, Aubrey. I think out of all these four, the one that is the most unknown as being offensive now is uppity.
But now that I know, I will not use it for sure.
Same. That's really good. Okay, so what do we do?
What do we even do? I mean, does it depend on the situation?
Who's around? We want to maintain connection with our colleagues and our coworkers.
But at the same time, we want to get the word out about exactly right.
And I think you really hit the nail on the head there to to say, you know, what's the relationship?
What's the scenario? Because we certainly don't want to call someone out in front of a big group somewhere that would would make it very awkward and uncomfortable for them.
Exactly. And do we have the relationship where we can have this conversation in a respectful way, in a way where the you know, the other person is going to say, oh, thank you for telling me.
I'm so glad that I know now. Right. Right.
Because most people want to know. They want to know.
They just don't want to be called out and embarrassed in front of their colleagues in that way.
Right. So for example, when I heard gypped use this week, I immediately, I tend to be a little playful with it to maybe eliminate the awkwardness.
And I just said, Oh, do we still say gypped?
And then this person was like, what, what do you mean?
Like, is that, what do I need to know? Right.
And so I think it's from the word gypsy and you know, they immediately went and research so that they could you know inform themselves and I'm glad I said something because I would have felt uncomfortable not saying anything and I definitely had the relationship where I knew that they would yeah yeah it wasn't going to create awkwardness it was going to be a respectful conversation I love that.
So I think the key here is find a way to do this where if playfulness is your personality, then you can bring this up in a playful way that's not accusing.
And I think that's a great way to do it the way you do it, Aubrey, the way you did that.
Do we still use that? With a little bit of strain in your voice, right?
So that shows that it's an important thing, but you're not saying, oh, you shouldn't say that.
You're not accusing. It takes the accusation out of it because, you know, I'm just kind of saying, oh, that's problematic rather than saying, I can't believe you said that I'm so offended.
Right. Because I recognize that almost always when I hear these words used, the person saying it doesn't know that it could be offensive, doesn't know the history almost always.
A hundred percent. So that's kind of the takeaway today, guys, is find a way that's within your personality, right?
And air towards the playfulness, not coming down hard on someone, but just suggesting it.
And then we hope that our colleagues will want to go research that quickly.
Like right away. Exactly. Yes. Right. We want to avoid giving offense.
And I think we do want to help spread the word of these things that could be offensive and especially in a business setting.
I think that's worst case scenario if you don't say anything.
And then your close friend says one of these offensive things to someone who could be very offended or hurt.
They could lose a client. They could lose a business relationship that you could have helped them with.
A hundred percent, guys. This is so good.
This is something that our listeners are definitely not going to get in a textbook.
So guys, hit follow on Business English for more great episodes like this.
I like when we go into the social aspect of business English.
It's so important. Absolutely. Awesome. Thanks, Lindsay.
It's a little bit of a tough conversation, right?
Yeah, a little bit. It's a little difficult.
And I love that we both learned a couple of things here today too, right?
We did. We're always learning on this podcast and all of our shows.
So good stuff. Aubrey, I'll talk to you very soon.
Thanks for coming on today. Thanks, Lindsay.
See ya. Bye. Thank you for listening to Business English, a podcast just for you, the high achieving global professional.
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