Business English Pod

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Welcome back to Business English Pod for today’s lesson on analyzing trends during a presentation in English.
Business is a game of numbers. And whether you’re in marketing, finance, sales, or operations, you have different metrics that tell you whether you’re successful. Read any business report, and you’ll see these metrics presented in charts and graphs.
But charts and graphs aren’t enough on their own. Sure, you can use them to present a snapshot of the current state. And you can show how different numbers have gone up or down relative to other numbers. But so what? The numbers are only useful if we can analyze them, learn from them, and make better decisions with them.
When you analyze trends in a presentation, it’s a good idea to clearly state your approach from the beginning. Then you can do things like describe the rate of change and speculate about future developments. You might also make specific predictions about what will happen and raise people’s awareness of possible future trends.
In today’s dialog, we’ll rejoin a presentation at a mobile company called Ambient. A director named Pat has been presenting results for sales and market share. Now Pat is digging deeper and analyzing the company’s performance on one key metric: revenue per unit, or RPU.
Listening Questions
1. What is Pat going to compare in his approach to analyzing trends?
2. What does Pat predict about his company’s “RPU” in the future?
3. What possible future trend does Pat warn about at the end of the dialog?
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The post BEP 116c – Charts and Trends 3: Analyzing Trends first appeared on Business English Pod :: Learn Business English Online.

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Welcome back to Business English Pod for today’s lesson on describing trends during a presentation in English.
Every great presentation has two things: good content and skilled delivery. These aren’t separate features. The content becomes good through skilled delivery. And skilled delivery means bringing the content alive, rather than just reading from a slide deck.
This marriage of content and delivery is especially important with charts and graphs. Many people know that visuals can enhance a presentation. But we’ve all had the experience of seeing a graph that’s so confusing that we come away feeling we know less, not more. So as a good presenter, you need to tell the graph’s story.
A graph’s story is all about change. Or lack of change. When we are presenting a graph, it’s always good to begin by introducing the theme, so people know what they’re looking at. Then we can bring people’s attention to specific parts of the graph. And we might describe how things are decreasing, staying the same, or increasing.
In today’s dialog, we’ll rejoin a presentation from Pat, a director with a mobile phone company called Ambient. Pat is giving a presentation to his sales team about market share. He’s talking about their own company as well as the competition, describing the trends in market share.
Listening Questions
1. What does Pat say is the theme of the chart that he’s showing?
2. Which company’s market share decreased in 2007?
3. What does Pat say about the market share of all the smaller competitors in recent quarters?
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The post BEP 115c – Charts and Trends 2: Describing Trends first appeared on Business English Pod :: Learn Business English Online.

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In this Business English News lesson on data centers, we look at business English vocabulary related to energy supply and tech.
AI seemed relatively uncontroversial when it was limited to simple functions in your toothbrush or car. But then, in 2022, ChatGPT made an enormous splash, signaling the commercialization of generative AI. Since then, there’s been a rapid proliferation of new tools. And the popularity of these tools has necessitated massive infrastructure to support all this computing power.
The energy demand is huge. In 2024, U.S. data centers used 183 terawatt-hours of electricity – more than 4% of all U.S. power usage. A single large AI data center can use as much electricity as 100,000 homes in a year. Bigger ones under construction may use twenty times more. This growing demand puts pressure on local power grids and can lead to increased energy costs.
They also need large amounts of water to keep their machines cool, which can strain local water supplies. Yet companies are not required to fully report their energy or water use.
As concerns grow about higher bills, water shortages, and climate change, companies promise cleaner energy and better technology. Still, experts warn that AI’s energy use may grow faster than these improvements.
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Welcome back to Business English Pod for today’s lesson on using visuals and describing charts and trends in an English presentation.
We’ve all sat through boring presentations, with PowerPoints that are just slide after slide of too much text. If all you’re doing is reading off your slides, then why do a presentation at all? And if your audience falls asleep, then you’ve effectively communicated nothing.
If you really want to grab people’s attention, you use visuals. That could mean not just pictures, but graphs and charts. There’s no better way to represent data than with graphs. But the graph doesn’t do all the work for you. You still need to give it life and make it a seamless part of your overall presentation.
The first thing you might do is introduce the point you want to make, before you use the visual. And remember that your audience might have some understanding of the topic already, so you should acknowledge that. And you can make it dramatic by using foreshadowing and highlighting important points. And just like in any presentation, it’s good to use clear transitions between points and slides.
In today’s dialog, we’ll hear a presentation from Pat, a director with a cell, or mobile phone manufacturer called Ambient. He’s presenting to the company’s sales team about how they’ve regained market share after a rough couple of years. We will hear how Pat uses visuals to enhance his presentation.
Listening Questions
1. At the start of his presentation, what does Pat say they will focus on?
2. When talking about the company called Sirus, what does Pat “draw people’s attention” to?
3. What does Pat say to transition to showing information about Ambient?
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The post BEP 103c – English Presentations Charts and Trends 1: Visuals first appeared on Business English Pod :: Learn Business English Online.

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Welcome back to the Business English Skills 360 podcast as we look at how you can help others to develop good habits at work.
Making and breaking your own habits is hard enough. But as a manager or leader, how can you make or break habits in other people? I mean, how can you make sure your employees have good habits? Well, here’s the sad truth: you can’t make people change. But you can create the conditions that foster good habits and disincentivize bad habits.
One thing to be mindful of from the outset is the difference between habits and simple compliance. I mean, do you want people to do something only if and when their boss is watching? Or do you want that behavior to be automatic, something that the employee does because that’s just how things work in your company. In other words: how things work in your culture, which includes people’s shared habits.
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The post Skills 360 – Developing Good Habits (2) first appeared on Business English Pod :: Learn Business English Online.

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Welcome back to the Business English Skills 360 podcast as we look at how to develop good habits for success at work.
The start of a new year feels like the right time to make big resolutions, or promises to yourself. You’re going to call people back promptly. You’re going to keep a tidy desktop. You’re going to stop reading new emails as soon as they come in. You’re going to manage your time better. It sure feels great to make these resolutions. But what doesn’t feel great is the realization in February that you haven’t made good on any of your promises.
In most cases, the problem is that people intuitively believe that setting a goal or making a resolution is enough. But it’s not. Setting a goal without looking at the systems that support specific habits or behaviors is useless. Intention isn’t enough. You need to break down what happens around habits, both good and bad, and create the right conditions for the right behaviors.
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The post Skills 360 – Developing Good Habits (1) first appeared on Business English Pod :: Learn Business English Online.

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Welcome back to Business English Pod for today’s lesson on finishing a meeting in English. We’ll learn how to summarize action points and wrap up the meeting.
A well-run meeting can be productive and useful. But a poorly run meeting can leave everyone feeling like their time has been wasted. And one of the big differences between good and bad meetings is how they end.
A good meeting doesn’t slowly run out of energy. Instead, there’s a clear ending to it. And people come out of the meeting with a strong sense of purpose and a clear idea of what they need to do. Without a sense of purpose, people might feel like the meeting generated a lot of discussion but nothing more.
Giving a strong finish to a meeting isn’t actually that hard to do. First off, you need to be clear that the meeting is about to end. That gives people a chance to collect their thoughts. Next, you can summarize the action points and assign tasks. You may also want to emphasize how important they are to give some extra motivation. Then you can wrap up the meeting with some closing thoughts.
In today’s dialog, we’ll join a meeting at a bank. The team has been discussing some recent issues and future plans. You will hear Lisa provide a strong finish to the meeting with James, Bryan, Charles, and Cecilia.
Listening Questions
1. What question does Lisa ask the group before stating the action items?
2. What does Lisa emphasize about James planned action?
3. What does Lisa say to officially end the meeting?
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The post BEP 81c – Meeting English: Action Points and Wrapping Up first appeared on Business English Pod :: Learn Business English Online.

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Welcome back to Business English Pod for today’s English for meetings lesson on how to deal with interruptions during a meeting.
Meetings are a very important part of work life. They are where decisions are made, relationships are built, and work is coordinated. When meetings go smoothly, they can feel very productive. But meetings can easily become messy and unfocused.
In many cases, people compete for time and attention during meetings. They interrupt each other to give new ideas, disagree, or try to get their way. Knowing how to deal with interruptions is a critical skill if you want to participate fully in a meeting.
Interrupting people is easier if you learn some useful phrases. You can also learn language to help you stop an interruption and finish what you were saying. In some cases, you might need to concede someone else’s point, either partly or fully. When we concede a point, we are saying “okay, you’re right.” Sometimes that’s the key to moving on after an interruption.
In today’s dialog, we’ll join a meeting at a manufacturing company. Bill is the production manager and Mei Lin and Sam work in HR. They are discussing staffing and recruiting for a new production line. Bill is keen to hire new staff, but Sam and Mei Lin want to explore alternative approaches so there’s a lot of disagreement and interrupting during the meeting.
Listening Questions
1. What does Bill say is the purpose of the meeting?
2. What is one of the expressions Mei Lin uses to interrupt Bill when he’s speaking?
3. What does Bill say to get back to what he was trying to say after being interrupted?
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The post BEP 68c – English for Meetings: Dealing with Interruptions first appeared on Business English Pod :: Learn Business English Online.

Learn English for project managers in this lesson on dealing with conflicts with subcontractors. >>> The post BEP 419 – English for Projects: Managing Conflict with Contractors 2 first appeared on Business English Pod :: Learn Business English Online.

Learn English for project management in this lesson on dealing with conflict with subcontractors. >>> The post BEP 418 – English for Projects: Managing Conflict with Contractors 1 first appeared on Business English Pod :: Learn Business English Online.

Learn how to use a persuasive approach in business. >>> The post Skills 360 – Developing a Persuasive Approach (2) first appeared on Business English Pod :: Learn Business English Online.

Learn how to develop a persuasive approach in business. >>> The post Skills 360 – Developing a Persuasive Approach (1) first appeared on Business English Pod :: Learn Business English Online.

Learn financial English collocations for discussing the findings of an audit. >>> The post BEP 417 – Accounting English: Discussing an Audit (2) first appeared on Business English Pod :: Learn Business English Online.

Learn English collocations for discussing an audit with an accountant. >>> The post BEP 416 – Accounting English: Discussing an Audit (1) first appeared on Business English Pod :: Learn Business English Online.

Learn business English vocabulary in this lesson on the effects of tariffs on global trade. >>> The post Business English News 60 – Tariffs: Rewiring Global Trade first appeared on Business English Pod :: Learn Business English Online.

Learn how to keep a conversation in English going while socializing at work. >>> The post BEP 45c – Socializing: Keeping a Conversation Going first appeared on Business English Pod :: Learn Business English Online.

Learn how to start a conversation in English. >>> The post BEP 44c – Socializing: Starting a Conversation in English first appeared on Business English Pod :: Learn Business English Online.

Welcome back to Business English Pod for today’s lesson on how to manage the discussion during a meeting in English. Bad meetings can waste time and leave everyone confused. But a well-run meeting can help create new ideas, solve problems, and move a project forward. Running a great meeting is about more than just following […] >>> The post BEP 43c – Meeting English: Managing the Discussion first appeared on Business English Pod :: Learn Business English Online.

Learn how to start a meeting in English. >>> The post BEP 42c – Meeting in English: Starting a Meeting first appeared on Business English Pod :: Learn Business English Online.

Learn how to build a culture of collaboration in the workplace. >>> The post Skills 360 – Fostering a Culture of Collaboration (2) first appeared on Business English Pod :: Learn Business English Online.