Welcome to a new episode of English Vocabulary Booster.
My name is Lara and I'm a SALSA-certified English teacher.
Learning new vocabulary usually takes a long time, but we'll do it in a way that's easy, quick and efficient.
In every episode, we'll learn how to use five new English words or expressions, so that you too can start speaking like a native.
So let's get learning.
What is up, you guys?
So I think you know, if you've listened to the previous episodes, you probably know that I'm in Italy right now and I am incredibly cold.
As of right now, I am wearing two sweaters, I'm wearing two pairs of socks, I'm underneath a blanket and sometimes I also wear two pairs of pants.
That's right.
So yes, I was definitely, I forgotten how cold it could get, especially at my mom's house.
I don't know what's wrong with this house, but yes, thankfully I have the cats that keep me warm.
Okay, so let's talk about today's episode and let's listen to the story.
Today, we're talking about numbers.
Hello everyone.
Thank you for coming.
Please, take a seat.
So, like I said in my last email, this is a special meeting.
Never in a million years did I think I would have to tell you this.
But, as your boss, I want to be completely honest with you.
The company is in trouble.
You know how much I care about this company.
This was my father's company.
And before that, it was my grandfather's company.
Over the past couple of years, things seem to be going well.
But now, now we're back to square one.
All the progress we'd made last year, gone.
I mean, look at this graph.
Sales have gone down tremendously.
I don't have the exact numbers, but just to give you a ballpark figure, we're talking about a 1 million loss.
This is unacceptable, and things will have to change around here.
I did the math and things are not looking great, which means we're probably going to have to let some of you go.
I know it's not what you guys expected, but... Boss?
Yes, Mike?
Sorry to interrupt, but I think you're looking at the graph wrong.
It's upside down.
Sales have actually gone up.
In fact, they have quadrupled this year.
Um... Well, Mike, that is a very good observation.
Well, in that case, then, good job, everyone, and keep up the good work.
I think we're done here.
Oof, that must have been pretty embarrassing for the boss.
But let me tell you, that could have happened to me because I'm terrible with numbers.
I'm terrible with graphs.
Anything that has to do with math, ugh, I just stink at it.
All right, let's begin with expression number one, never in a million years.
Never in a million years did I think I would have to tell you this.
When you begin a sentence by saying never in a million years, are you talking about something that you think is possible or impossible?
When you begin a sentence by saying never in a million years blah blah blah, it means you're about to say that you think something is impossible, that it will never happen or that you would have never imagined that it could happen.
Can you think of something that happened to you that you thought that never in a million years would happen to you?
Well, never in a million years would I have thought that I would move to Spain, because it was such a last minute decision.
It was something that I hadn't planned at all.
So yeah, never in a million years would I have imagined that.
Expression number two, back to square one.
Now we're back to square one.
If you're working on something, but then you realize you're back to square one.
Have you made any progress?
No.
Unfortunately, if you are back to square one, it means that all the progress that you had made up until that point boom, it's lost.
It's gone.
How would someone who's back to square one feel?
Well, imagine you've made all this progress and then something happens.
You're back to square one.
You've lost all that progress.
You probably don't feel too great, right?
You probably feel sad and demotivated.
You feel like, you know, a little hopeless even.
When was the last time you thought, I'm back at square one?
Well, it's not that big a deal, but I think it was when I went back to Spain after spending six months in Asia and I moved into a different house, into a new house, and I realized that I didn't have any winter clothes.
And all the winter clothes that I had and that I had spent so much money on.
I'd either given it away, given it to charity, or thrown it away.
And so I looked at the closet and I had nothing to wear and I thought, all right, here we go.
I'm back to square one.
Now I have to start rebuilding my wardrobe and I have to start I have to start buying all of these winter clothes once again.
And I feel like because I move a lot, that happens to me pretty frequently.
Yeah.
Expression number three, ballpark figure.
I don't have the exact numbers, but just to give you a ballpark figure, we're talking about a 1 million loss.
Is a ballpark figure an exact number or an approximate estimate?
A ballpark figure is an approximate estimate, so I don't tell you the exact number, but more or less.
But what kind of professionals are ballpark figures used?
Well, it's very used in companies, you know, because a lot of the times you don't have the exact numbers.
So when you have to talk about sales and things like that, usually you give ballpark figures, estimates.
How big will the world's population be in 2050?
Give me a ballpark figure.
Huh.
What do you think?
I have no idea.
I know the world's population is growing.
So I don't even know how big it is right now.
I think it's around 7 billion, I want to say.
But probably, I don't know, in 2050?
So that's in about 30 years' time.
That's not a lot.
I want to say 8 billion.
There you go.
That's my ballpark figure.
Expression number four, do the math.
I did the math and things are not looking great.
If you do the math, do you make calculations or do you analyze graphs?
If you do the math, you make calculations, okay?
Two plus two and three minus one.
I guess they're bigger numbers than that.
When was the last time you did the math and realized you could or could not afford to buy something?
The last time I did the math was to make sure that I could afford to pay a professional to help me out with a new website, because I got to a point where I knew there were a few final things that I needed to get fixed and I couldn't do it by myself because I didn't have the knowledge to do it.
And so I had to do the math.
And actually I have my calculator because I everything, all the calculations that I make, I make them using a calculator.
And I did the math and I realized that yes, I could afford it.
Expression number five, quadruple.
Sales have actually gone up.
In fact, they have quadrupled this year.
If a number quadruples.
Does it become four times bigger or four times smaller?
If a number quadruples, it means that it becomes four times bigger.
Let's do a quick math problem.
Uh-oh, if you're like me, you're not going to like this one.
Just kidding, it's simple.
Let's say that your company made $2,000 last month.
This month, that number has quadrupled.
How much did your company make?
Feels like you're back in school, right?
Well, if you make $2,000 last month, then you quadruple that number, you get $8,000.
And that is it for today.
And remember, if you want to access the transcript, as well as lots of other resources, visit enboocom.
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Have a great day.
