This is the Business English Podcast.
Have you hit a rough patch with business English vocabulary?
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This is Real Business English, with your favorite American hosts, Lindsay and Aubrey, coming to you from Arizona and Colorado, USA.
Hey there, Aubrey.
How's it going?
I'm great, Lindsay.
How are you?
Good.
Aubrey, have you ever had a falling out with a coworker or maybe a friend?
I did have a falling out with a friend and it was really unfortunate.
And we still see each other sometimes because we have a lot of mutual friends and we're civil, we're friendly, but we don't go out of our way to spend time with each other.
And it's really a bummer.
It's always a bummer when you have a falling out.
I'm sorry to hear that.
That's hard, right?
Because you don't expect... You kind of expect that in the dating world.
Maybe you expect a breakup in the dating world, but with friends, you don't really expect...
I know it's a lot more rare and sort of shocking and you try to fix it, you try to work it out, but sometimes it just doesn't.
So you may have a really good relationship and then you might have a falling out.
Oh my gosh, for sure.
So where is today's episode inspired by, Aubrey?
Yeah, this was inspired by our Professional English Level 2 course in Module 2 about managing relationships.
You learn about building rapport, conflict resolution and we teach, among other things, the phrasal verb fallout.
So we're diving into this a little bit today and teaching some related expressions, because this is a very common scenario.
Yeah, and if you've never heard about our Professional English Level 2 course, that's because it's brand new Aubrey.
So exciting.
So we're taking the opportunity today to announce that the course is now live and ready for its very first users.
Aubrey, are you excited about this?
Are you ready?
I am very excited.
It's been amazing.
We've worked very hard on this course.
And we know that your success at work is based on those high stakes situations.
Yes.
So we built a course that focuses 100% on these situations.
Yeah.
I mean, the thing is, most business English courses, they give you kind of the basics, right?
But what we focus on in this course is the moments that make or break your career.
You know what those moments are.
Like when you're presenting to the board of directors of your company right when you are trying to close a sales deal.
These are super like sweaty palms moments, Aubrey.
Yes, the sweaty palms moments.
We want you to be prepared so the palms are less sweaty.
Yes, exactly.
So guys, you can get access to this course right now.
You can be one of the very first to join.
Go to altersenglishcom, slash career, get in, and we're gonna give you a little bit of a sneak preview of what's in the course today.
But get in the course.
It is available and open now.
Love it.
Yes.
Awesome.
So I was excited to see this phrasal verb fall out in that module.
We use this a few different ways, but we use it this way with relationships, when we talk about two people who did get along and then something happened.
Yes.
This fallout.
And we use this expression.
Have a falling out means to have a serious disagreement or argument that damages or potentially ends a relationship.
Yeah.
So here's an example.
They used to be good friends, but they had a falling out and haven't spoken in a year.
Sad, right?
Or the two business partners had a falling out and decided to go their separate ways.
So this module is amazing with all that it teaches about conflict resolution, because it can be easy to just decide.
We don't want to put in the work to try and solve this problem.
We're just going to go our separate ways.
And what a loss of possible connection.
Yes.
And for this module, I interviewed a corporate trainer from Australia, Amanda Rosaza, and she gave us a lot of good insight on how how to deal with conflict management at the corporate level in your workplace.
And so there is just so much in there that we don't have the time to go through it all on the podcast.
There's no way we could.
It's a much more systematic learning in the course.
Exactly.
Yes.
We're excited for you to get all of that.
But there are a couple of other ways to say this besides have a falling out.
We're not on good terms.
It means you have a strained, unfriendly or distant relationship with someone.
Yes.
So, for example, my coworker and I are not on good terms right now because of an argument we had last week.
And so hopefully this is temporary.
You're going to talk it out.
You'll be back on good terms.
This doesn't always mean permanent.
Or after the heated debate, the colleagues were no longer on good terms.
So if you bring up politics or religion at work, this could definitely happen.
Yeah.
And you see this a lot with business owners that maybe went into business with someone that they didn't really know very well.
And then you know, 20 years down the line, they have stories about when they first started their company, that there was a you're not in good terms with someone because things blew up.
Exactly.
You see that a lot.
Yeah, for sure.
For sure.
What else, Aubrey?
Our third phrase is hit a rough patch.
And this is more temporary.
This will often be if something happened and looking back, you say we hit a rough patch, right?
To experience difficulties or challenges in a relationship or maybe with a project, but usually for a short period of time, right.
This really indicates that you recovered, right?
So it's in the past, there was a problem, but it recovered.
You could see this in marriages too sometimes, right?
Absolutely.
So for example, their friendship hit a rough patch, but they worked through it together.
Or the company hit a rough patch last year, but sales have improved recently.
So it's about relationships, but also performance on a project or performance of a company.
But it definitely implies that it's going to get better.
We've hit a rough patch, but we'll get through it.
And I feel like in the life cycle of any company, it's totally normal to have ups and downs.
I mean, you're not constantly going up and climbing up into the right.
So this would be something you might hear in the corporate world, right?
Our sales had a rough patch or this is a rough season for us.
But we're, you know, there's always recovery coming, right?
All three of these phrases are so great for connection, right?
If someone hits a rough patch, if you have a falling out, you want to be able to talk about it.
You could connect about this happening in past relationships.
So all of these phrases are going to really be beneficial for those connections.
All right, Aubrey, we know our listeners love our role plays.
So Aubrey, let's see what we're doing in this role play.
What are we getting into?
You and I are co-workers and we're chatting over coffee in the break room.
I will start us out.
Okay.
Hey, did you notice that Sam and Kelly aren't really talking much these days?
Yeah, I heard they had a falling out over how to handle that big client account.
Oh, that makes sense.
They used to be so close, but now they're definitely not on good terms.
Right.
I just hope it doesn't affect the rest of the team.
Same here.
I mean, every team hits a rough patch once in a while, but usually things smooth out.
Hopefully this is one of those temporary situations.
Fingers crossed.
It'd be nice if they patched things up soon.
Yeah, that's interesting, right?
Because when two co-workers aren't getting along, the whole department might notice, or the whole team.
Yeah, it's hard for people to hide these kind of things, especially when it's a big blow up, right?
If we've had a falling out, it's probably going to be obvious.
And this is very true that it can affect the whole team.
So hopefully the parties involved are working toward repairing, patching it up like we have there at the end.
Yes, exactly.
So how do we get into this?
So first you asked, did you notice that Sam and Kelly aren't really talking these days?
And I said, yeah, I heard they had a falling out.
Right.
Yeah.
So this is a disagreement.
Something happened, but it wasn't, it was pretty big, a falling out, right?
There were hurt feelings.
They're not, you know, still upset about it.
Yeah.
And it's important to note here the preposition that comes after we're talking about the topic of the falling out, the reason we use over right.
So they had a falling out over something over X, over ice cream flavors, or over handling an account, or whatever it is.
Yes.
And this is really interesting because grammatically you could say they had a falling out about how to handle, but we wouldn't usually say that because of the repetition of that sound out.
It sort of sounds repetitive.
So we'll often say over instead.
That's an interesting point.
That's what you're saying because it's kind of rhyme falling out about.
And often will it just sort of subconsciously avoid that, avoid repeating a word or a sound, even though grammatically that would be correct.
Right.
Or you could say they had a falling out because they disagreed.
So it doesn't have to be over, but that's what we hear a lot.
Yeah, we often collocate it with over.
Absolutely.
And then I said, they're definitely not on good terms.
So we've been observing behavior that they're very cold, giving each other the cold shoulder.
We've witnessed that they're not on good terms.
Yes, exactly.
And then you said, I said, right, I just hope it doesn't affect the rest of the team.
And then you said, same here.
I mean, every team hits a rough patch once in a while.
And again, we said the rough patch indicates that things get better, right?
Things will get better.
Exactly.
This is temporary.
Things are kind of not perfect right now, but...
Definitely going to get better.
And then we had a bonus here.
The opposite of hitting a rough patch or being in a rough patch will say patch things up.
So that's interesting.
It'd be nice if they patch things up soon.
Right.
And that makes me think like if you have patches on your jeans.
My mom used to sew patches on my jeans.
Yeah.
You know, you get holes in your jeans, but you love those jeans, right?
If you're a teenager, you're like, I'm not getting rid of these jeans.
And that was a labor of love because I've tried to patch my kids' jeans and it's really difficult.
You have to get like the heavy duty needle and it's really difficult to do.
I guess it takes being a mom to appreciate your mom, right?
It's true.
Exactly.
So it's true.
So if we think about the meaning of patch, it can help us understand this in the spoken world, in the metaphorical world.
Be nice if they patch things up.
It's the same meaning.
We're trying to cover the hole and fix the issue right, exactly right.
We use this literally and figuratively.
We're trying to patch things up if there's some kind of misunderstanding or hurt feelings.
Yes, i love it.
So guys, we want to remind you that the course is ready now.
It's available for you.
You want to check this out because again, the whole idea here is that we know there are, there are a handful of high-stakes situations.
You might encounter them once a month, but they really matter for your career, your income, your company's success, your company's reputation.
There's a lot there in those moments.
And that's what we focus on in this course.
All right.
Exactly.
So you can go to allersenglishcom slash career C-A-R-E-E-R to sign up now for this amazing new course.
Go for it, guys.
And Aubrey, any other final thoughts on the topic here?
Yeah, I mean, relationships at work are extremely important, right?
It's not just about getting the job done.
It's also about the connections you make with coworkers, colleagues, clients.
And if there is a falling out, don't just let that relationship go, right?
It's worth it to try and patch things up.
Totally agree.
And again we do cover this topic in in-depth managing relationships in the course professional two in module two.
And that's just a tiny, tiny preview of what's in the course.
It really is just a very robust course, guys.
All right.
So allersenglish.com slash career.
Go check it out.
All right.
Awesome.
Thanks, Lindsay.
Good stuff, Aubrey.
Good to have you here.
I'll talk to you soon.
Bye.
Bye.
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