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Speaker 1: I know that I promised to keep you in the loop,

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so I'm touching base with you in this podcast English

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lesson to let you know that I've been thinking outside

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the box and everything you need to improve your English

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is here in the pipeline. Let's discuss.

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Speaker 2: Welcome to another Happy English podcast, coming to you from

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New York City, and here's your English teacher, Michael.

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Speaker 1: Alright, thank you, Jan and thanks everyone. It's Michael here

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from Happy English and I help people speak English better.

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And this is Happy English Podcast, Episode nine twenty one.

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Business English Idioms for everyday work life. Thanks for tuning in.

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As you promise know, Happy English is an office of one.

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You know, just me, but a lot of my friends

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do work in offices, and especially my friend Ed. Whenever

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we talk, he drops a bunch of business expressions that

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honestly sound more like sports or drama than business. Like

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the other day he said I need to touch base

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with my boss before the meeting, and I was like,

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touch base? Is this baseball? Then another time he said

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that something was still in the pipeline, and I thought,

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what pipeline? Natural, guess oil, what are we talking about here?

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So it got me thinking and then I decided that

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today I would walk you through six of the most

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common idioms you'll hear in American offices and help you

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sound more nat and confident at work, or at least

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understand what your co workers are saying. First up is

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touch base, which does come from baseball, but as an idiom,

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to touch base with someone just means to connect with them,

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to check in or have a quick update. It sounds

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physical like a high five, but it's totally verbal, like

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last week when Ed said that he was going to

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touch base with the design team before he presents the

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slides to the client. Touch base. This is a very

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common phrase that you'll hear everywhere in the office, like

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let's touch base after work or can we touch base

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tomorrow morning. It's just a businessy way to say, let's talk.

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How about you? Who do you need to touch base with?

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The next one is keep me in the loop. This

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one's all about communication. It means keep me updated or

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keep me informed. My other friend Jack had a funny

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situation with this. His boss changed the deadline for a

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big presentation, but she only told one person, and that

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person forgot to tell the rest of the team. So

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when Jack checked in, the next day, the whole team

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was scrambling totally confused. Later, his boss said, we need

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to do better at keeping everyone in the loop. A

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no kidding. So if you're working on a project and

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someone says keep me in the loop, what they really

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mean is, don't forget to tell me what's going on.

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Oh and don't worry, I'll keep you in the loop.

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When I hear new business idioms in English, now, let's

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talk about in the pipeline. When something is in the

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pipe pipeline, it means it's in progress, it's coming, but

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it's not ready yet, like when oil moves in the

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pipeline from the pump to the distribution point. In the

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business world, new products, a report, or even a decision

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can be in the pipeline. You'll often hear in the

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pipeline when people talk about future plans or new projects,

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like we've got several new hires in the pipeline this month,

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or Apple has a new product in the pipeline. It's

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a nice casual way to say something's coming, but it's

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not quite finished. Like the other day, someone asked me, Michael,

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are you working on a new ebook? And I said, actually, yeah,

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I've got a few things in the pipeline. See how

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that works. So next time someone says that's still in

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the pipeline, you'll not Oh, it's coming, but it's not

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here yet. So next up in the pipeline here is

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back to the drawing board. This one means, well, it's

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time to start over. Something didn't work out, so now

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you've got to rethink the whole thing. You'll hear this

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when a project or an idea gets rejected or hits

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a roadblock, like the client didn't like the design, so

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it's back to the drawing board. Or our budget proposal

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was too high. I guess it's back to the drawing board.

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I remember a few years ago I was helping a

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student with his presentation. We worked on it for hours,

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and then the next day, when he brought it to

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his manager, she said, Nope, that's not what I had

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in mind. Ouch. So yeah, it was definitely back to

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the drawing board for us. A little frustrating, but that's

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part of business life. And now let's look at a

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dramatic one. Throw someone under the bus yikes. To throw

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someone under the bus means to blame someone else, often unfairly,

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in order to protect yourself I remember my old boss

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would constantly blame me for doing something wrong or not

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doing something, even though she never told me what to

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do in the first place. Like when I first started

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working there, she told me I needed to remember to

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write a check for the office rent and bring it

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to the building office on the first of the month

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without fail. Then months later she said head office was

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angry with me because I wasn't authorized to write such

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large checks. She totally threw me under the bus even

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though she told me to do it. She blamed me

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for breaking the company rule. She constantly threw me under

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the bus like that, So shortly after I quit and

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went back to teaching, aren't you glad? So if you

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hear someone say he threw me under the bus, you'll

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know it was a workplace issue and not an actual

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traffic accident. The last one for today is to think

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outside the box. I really like this one. To think

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outside the box means to be creative, to come up

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with new original ideas. In my buddy Ed's office, at

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every brainstorming meeting, the boss says, all right, team, I

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want you to think outside the box. So Ed set

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up a TikTok page for his company and his boss

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was like that outside the box, but I like it.

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So yeah, if someone wants you to think outside the box,

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don't give the usual answer. Surprise them, and you may

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remember what Steve Jobs did. He took this idiom and

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made his own version of it as Apple's marketing slogan,

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Think different. Nice. Right, So let's recap what we learn today.

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Even if you don't work in an office like ed,

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these idioms are useful in everyday conversations too. When you

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touch base, you check in and talk with someone. When

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you keep someone in the loop, you keep them updated

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and informed about any changes. When a project, a plan,

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or an idea is in the pipeline, it's in progress

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or in development. When you need to go back to

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the drawing board, it's time to start something over from

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the beginning. When someone throws you under the bus, they

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unfairly blame you for something. And when you think outside

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the box, you are thinking in a new and creative way.

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So here's your challenge. Pick one of these idioms and

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try using it in a sentence today, or just listen

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for it the next time you're watching a show or

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reading something in English. And hey, if you want to

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practice this English with me and a group of other

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awesome learners. Come check out my podcast Learners study Group.

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We meet once a week and practice the language from

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these podcast lessons together. It's a great way to build

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confidence and improve your speaking. Just check the link where

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you're listening to this podcast right now, or visit Myhappy

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English dot com and choose podcast episode nine twenty one

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for more info. Thanks for listening, and remember, learning another

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language is not easy, but it's not impossible, and I'm

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here to help you on your journey.

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Speaker 2: This podcast is brought to you by Happy English. Please

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visit Myhappy English dot com show your support for Happy

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English by leading us a review. Get English, Get Happy,

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Happy English.