Speaker 1: I know that I promised to keep you in the loop,
so I'm touching base with you in this podcast English
lesson to let you know that I've been thinking outside
the box and everything you need to improve your English
is here in the pipeline. Let's discuss.
Speaker 2: Welcome to another Happy English podcast, coming to you from
New York City, and here's your English teacher, Michael.
Speaker 1: Alright, thank you, Jan and thanks everyone. It's Michael here
from Happy English and I help people speak English better.
And this is Happy English Podcast, Episode nine twenty one.
Business English Idioms for everyday work life. Thanks for tuning in.
As you promise know, Happy English is an office of one.
You know, just me, but a lot of my friends
do work in offices, and especially my friend Ed. Whenever
we talk, he drops a bunch of business expressions that
honestly sound more like sports or drama than business. Like
the other day he said I need to touch base
with my boss before the meeting, and I was like,
touch base? Is this baseball? Then another time he said
that something was still in the pipeline, and I thought,
what pipeline? Natural, guess oil, what are we talking about here?
So it got me thinking and then I decided that
today I would walk you through six of the most
common idioms you'll hear in American offices and help you
sound more nat and confident at work, or at least
understand what your co workers are saying. First up is
touch base, which does come from baseball, but as an idiom,
to touch base with someone just means to connect with them,
to check in or have a quick update. It sounds
physical like a high five, but it's totally verbal, like
last week when Ed said that he was going to
touch base with the design team before he presents the
slides to the client. Touch base. This is a very
common phrase that you'll hear everywhere in the office, like
let's touch base after work or can we touch base
tomorrow morning. It's just a businessy way to say, let's talk.
How about you? Who do you need to touch base with?
The next one is keep me in the loop. This
one's all about communication. It means keep me updated or
keep me informed. My other friend Jack had a funny
situation with this. His boss changed the deadline for a
big presentation, but she only told one person, and that
person forgot to tell the rest of the team. So
when Jack checked in, the next day, the whole team
was scrambling totally confused. Later, his boss said, we need
to do better at keeping everyone in the loop. A
no kidding. So if you're working on a project and
someone says keep me in the loop, what they really
mean is, don't forget to tell me what's going on.
Oh and don't worry, I'll keep you in the loop.
When I hear new business idioms in English, now, let's
talk about in the pipeline. When something is in the
pipe pipeline, it means it's in progress, it's coming, but
it's not ready yet, like when oil moves in the
pipeline from the pump to the distribution point. In the
business world, new products, a report, or even a decision
can be in the pipeline. You'll often hear in the
pipeline when people talk about future plans or new projects,
like we've got several new hires in the pipeline this month,
or Apple has a new product in the pipeline. It's
a nice casual way to say something's coming, but it's
not quite finished. Like the other day, someone asked me, Michael,
are you working on a new ebook? And I said, actually, yeah,
I've got a few things in the pipeline. See how
that works. So next time someone says that's still in
the pipeline, you'll not Oh, it's coming, but it's not
here yet. So next up in the pipeline here is
back to the drawing board. This one means, well, it's
time to start over. Something didn't work out, so now
you've got to rethink the whole thing. You'll hear this
when a project or an idea gets rejected or hits
a roadblock, like the client didn't like the design, so
it's back to the drawing board. Or our budget proposal
was too high. I guess it's back to the drawing board.
I remember a few years ago I was helping a
student with his presentation. We worked on it for hours,
and then the next day, when he brought it to
his manager, she said, Nope, that's not what I had
in mind. Ouch. So yeah, it was definitely back to
the drawing board for us. A little frustrating, but that's
part of business life. And now let's look at a
dramatic one. Throw someone under the bus yikes. To throw
someone under the bus means to blame someone else, often unfairly,
in order to protect yourself I remember my old boss
would constantly blame me for doing something wrong or not
doing something, even though she never told me what to
do in the first place. Like when I first started
working there, she told me I needed to remember to
write a check for the office rent and bring it
to the building office on the first of the month
without fail. Then months later she said head office was
angry with me because I wasn't authorized to write such
large checks. She totally threw me under the bus even
though she told me to do it. She blamed me
for breaking the company rule. She constantly threw me under
the bus like that, So shortly after I quit and
went back to teaching, aren't you glad? So if you
hear someone say he threw me under the bus, you'll
know it was a workplace issue and not an actual
traffic accident. The last one for today is to think
outside the box. I really like this one. To think
outside the box means to be creative, to come up
with new original ideas. In my buddy Ed's office, at
every brainstorming meeting, the boss says, all right, team, I
want you to think outside the box. So Ed set
up a TikTok page for his company and his boss
was like that outside the box, but I like it.
So yeah, if someone wants you to think outside the box,
don't give the usual answer. Surprise them, and you may
remember what Steve Jobs did. He took this idiom and
made his own version of it as Apple's marketing slogan,
Think different. Nice. Right, So let's recap what we learn today.
Even if you don't work in an office like ed,
these idioms are useful in everyday conversations too. When you
touch base, you check in and talk with someone. When
you keep someone in the loop, you keep them updated
and informed about any changes. When a project, a plan,
or an idea is in the pipeline, it's in progress
or in development. When you need to go back to
the drawing board, it's time to start something over from
the beginning. When someone throws you under the bus, they
unfairly blame you for something. And when you think outside
the box, you are thinking in a new and creative way.
So here's your challenge. Pick one of these idioms and
try using it in a sentence today, or just listen
for it the next time you're watching a show or
reading something in English. And hey, if you want to
practice this English with me and a group of other
awesome learners. Come check out my podcast Learners study Group.
We meet once a week and practice the language from
these podcast lessons together. It's a great way to build
confidence and improve your speaking. Just check the link where
you're listening to this podcast right now, or visit Myhappy
English dot com and choose podcast episode nine twenty one
for more info. Thanks for listening, and remember, learning another
language is not easy, but it's not impossible, and I'm
here to help you on your journey.
Speaker 2: This podcast is brought to you by Happy English. Please
visit Myhappy English dot com show your support for Happy
English by leading us a review. Get English, Get Happy,
Happy English.