Blog Archives

The Trap of “Useful Phrases” for Business English

Posted on February 23, 2016

By Emily Stallard

We English teachers are often asked to provide useful phrases for business English on some topic or other; negotiating, meetings, presentations and so on. If you’re making a presentation, “moving on now to my next topic” is a good useful phrase to help you sound natural.

Useful phrases can be very useful to bridge knowledge gaps and to provide specific functions. These functions could include moving on in a meeting and disagreeing tactfully. The Market Leader series has some excellent useful phrases for business English in various work situations.

So what’s the trap? There is a common misconception that learning lots of useful phrases by heart will lead to fluency. People learning English often believe that when they have learned enough useful phrases they will be able to access a dictionary-like store of memorised phrases when they need them.

Despite diligent learning, this never works well. This is because the phrases are often not quite suitable for the situation and should be modified. It’s through constant modification and practice in real speech that you can improve your English.

I’m sorry to say I know this through experience because I did the same in Japan when I was studying Japanese. I would write useful Japanese phrases in my notebook and commit them to memory, but through lack of use I would soon forget them. The useful phrases went “in one ear and out the other“!

Children acquire language through trial and error and a lot of the sentences we produce are unique to us. So in conclusion, while useful phrases in business English can be a good supplement to learning English, we must be careful not to rely on them too much.

 

Are You Lovin’ it? How to Use the Present Continuous

Posted on February 16, 2016

 

By Emily Stallard

 

Something that learners of English often have difficulty with is when to use the present continuous, also called the present progressive.

You know the McDonald’s slogan: “I’m lovin’ it”. I wonder if McDonald’s could ever have predicted that their global influence would have caused so many learners of English to be confused by the present continuous. Except for McDonald’s adverts and people who have adopted this slogan into everyday life, we don’t use a “state” or “stative” verb with the present continuous. So when we use the present continuous in standard English, it’s “I love it”.

 

The way I explain it is that if you always do something, it’s a state. You can’t say you are doing it right now because it happens all the time. Here are some common “state” verbs:

 

Like
Dislike
Love
Hate
Know
Own
Believe

 

Below we have examples of these state verbs in sentences:

 

• I love it when a project goes well
• She likes praising her staff
• We hate ongoing conflict
• We believe in treating everyone as equals

 

The state verbs happen all the time even if we are asleep or doing something completely different. For example “I love it when a project goes well”. This is part of a description of me rather than my actions. If I am on the phone and totally absorbed in what I’m doing, I still love it when a project goes well. When I’m asleep, I still, as part of my personality, love it when a project goes well.

 

The other type of verb is “action” verbs. Here, you can imagine the person doing something rather than just existing.

 

• I walk to work
• He gave me a report on his findings
• Be sure to finish it before Friday

 

You can use these action verbs in the present continuous tense too if appropriate:

• I’m walking to work
• Next week he’s giving me a report on his findings
• I’m just finishing that report now

 

Find a longer list of state verbs, a video and exercises on state verbs and the present continuous here.

 

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English phrases learned at school versus real life

Posted on February 9, 2016

When did you start learning English? What English phrases did you learn at school? I started learning Japanese at  university. A typical Japanese phrase for beginners is “Watashi no namae wa Emily desu”. This translates as “My name is Emily”. This phrase seems intuitive for native English speakers because it follows the pattern of English. It has direct equivalents for all the English words, and the idea of possession. The problem is, Japanese people don’t tend to say it! In Japan, people told me it’s more natural just to say “Emily desu”.

In our company English classes we hear phrases that students learned at school. These phrases often seem out of date or unnatural. Here is a selection of English phrases learned at school and more natural, modern equivalents used by native English speakers.

How do you do?

This is extremely formal, in fact, I have never used it. I imagine at an ambassador’s reception or something it could be used. The problem with “How do you do” is that it obliges the other person to reply “How do you do”. To sound more natural try saying “Nice to meet you” or “Pleased to meet you”.

Note that you should wait until you both know each other’s names before you use these. Otherwise you haven’t really “met” the person. I would use this structure when meeting someone in a business or social situation:

Emily: “Hi, I’m Emily.”
Robert: “Hi Emily, I’m Robert. Nice to meet you”.
Emily: “Nice to meet you too”.

Please wait a moment

This is OK if you are a receptionist in a five star hotel. It has the air of formality and it’s definitely an instruction rather than a request. In most situations if you want someone to wait it is more polite to ask them. If I was on the phone in a business situation and I needed the person I was speaking to to wait, I would say something like “Could you hold on a second please?” or “Would you mind holding on a minute please?”

Repeat please!

An important phrase to avoid. I can see how this is used in the classroom when teachers use it to instruct children. In this situation the teacher is in a position of control over the children where he or she can make demands. When you’re speaking to other adults, saying”Repeat please!” could sound quite rude. If you want someone to repeat what they’ve just said it’s much more polite to say “Pardon?” instead.

It’s a fine day

This is lovely and nostalgic but it’s very old fashioned. You’re too young to use it! Try “It’s a sunny day” “It’s a nice day” or “It’s a lovely day”. “Fine” in modern English usually means “OK”. “How was your day?” “It was fine.” (It was OK) The exception to this is saying “fine wine” or “fine dining” where “fine” means luxurious.

It’s raining cats and dogs

An expressive idiom that is hugely overused by learners of English. I think I must have heard people learning English use this phrase about a hundred times more than I have heard native speakers use it! For variety, try “It’s pouring down”, “It’s raining torrentially” or “It’s bucketing it down”.

What other English phrases did you learn at school that you don’t hear now? Do people learning your language use unnatural phrases?

Read about the trap of useful phrases when learning English here.

Why Never to Say “I Don’t Speak English”

Posted on January 19, 2016

By Emily Stallard , Owner and Trainer at Orchid English

We have all had experiences when someone says something to us in a language we are learning and we don’t understand – it can be very awkward. I remember being asked something in Japanese on stage in Japan in front of an audience to which I had to admit I didn’t understand. Another time I was speaking in French on the phone in France and the woman I was speaking to hung up on me, annoyed that she couldn’t make me understand. Both of these incidents were stressful but they were some years ago so now I try to look back and smile! I hope that this experience helps me understand my students more and appreciate that moment of not understanding.

Often I am speaking to someone who speaks English as a foreign language and they don’t understand something I have said. This could be in one of our in-company English classes or speaking to someone else in my daily life in our multicultural city of London. In my opinion, the most important thing to do at this moment when you don’t understand someone is to relax. Lots of people look sad and say “I’m sorry, I don’t speak English”, or “Sorry, my English is not very good”. Of course, people may want to be modest, and at this point they feel embarrassed.

The problem with this is that the person they are speaking to will often think they don’t want to continue the conversation, or that they don’t want to improve their English. Then the conversation soon finishes, and the person who didn’t understand may never know what the speaker was trying to say.

How much better would it be for everyone to turn this into something positive?

Try (with a smile!) “Pardon?” first, then “What does ____ mean?” or “I’m afraid I don’t understand, I’m still learning English”. The last two sentences will show the person you are speaking to that you are interested in learning English and that you want to continue the conversation.

Remember, if you are reading this – you can speak English!

British Understatement

Posted on January 6, 2016

As you become ‘quite good’ at English, you might have noticed a thing called British understatement. It’s inherent to British culture and can baffle us foreigners, apparently even other English speakers like Americans and Australians.

Did you know, Shakespeare popularised the phrase “manners maketh the man” but that it had already been in common use for hundreds of years? This means the British have been saying “manners maketh the man” for the best part of a millennium! Undoubtedly, this is still just as true today, even if what constitutes good manners has evolved over time.

Manners are all-important, and generally the British use understatement with the intention of being kind. They want harmony, not to hurt your feelings, and to maintain a positive relationship. Communicating in a very direct, harsh way can damage your relationship with British people. This is because it may be interpreted as an insult, which will be remembered, and a disinclination to want any future relationship.

British understatement: Beware!

My opening line in the first paragraph is an example with a touch of somewhat implied sarcasm. If a British person says “Oh, your idea is quite good.” then a non-English speaking foreigner might be very pleased with the praise. However, is it praise? Of course it may depend on the context and the intonation used by the person to some extent. In truth, the meaning can range from “surprisingly good” at the best to “somewhat disappointing” at the low end.

British understatement: Translations

For those of you who may be good at English but know less about UK culture, the following are translations from British understatement to plain English.

“That’s very interesting” means “That is clearly nonsense”
“That is a very brave proposal” means “You are insane”
“With the greatest respect” means “You are an idiot”
“I only have a few minor comments” means “Please rewrite this completely”

Some might say these are exaggerated interpretations to make fun of the British, but there is a lot of truth in them. So please be aware and watch out.

By Honami Matsutani, business skills trainer at Orchid English. 

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Capitalisation Rules in Business English – Advanced

Posted on December 1, 2015

Hello again! We hope you have read the intermediate rules first from the blog post last week.
If not, we recommend going back and reading that first.

Here are some more advanced rules to perfecting your capitalisation skills in your business writing. These are all examples that we often see used mistakenly in students’ writing in our company English classes.

Firstly, here are some concrete rules:

Titles should be capitalised if they come before the person with the title.
I have got a meeting with Dr Brown later.
Contrast this with:
I am seeing the doctor later.

North, south east and west should be capitalised if they are regions, but not if they refer to the general direction.
We have a branch in West London. Our subsidiary is in South-East Asia.
You will have to drive south to get to the client’s office.

Capitalise brand names but not the common nouns that come after them:

I work on a Samsung laptop.
Our company gives us Nexus phones.
On our floor we have two Packard Bell printers.

Now let’s move on to the optional guidelines. One of the hardest things about capitalisation is that native speakers are not in complete agreement about the rules and different native speakers will edit the same text in different ways. Your company may have a style guide which you can follow, especially if your company is one that uses a lot of formal writing such as a law firm or a newspaper company.

There is some artistic licence regarding which words and how many should be capitalised in titles or headings. In the three example titles below you could do any of the following:

How should we capitalise?
How Should we Capitalise?
How Should We Capitalise?

I prefer the second with the important words for meaning capitalised, but this is just a question of personal taste.

If you want to use a colon, you can capitalise or not after it:

Attention: there will be a project meeting today at 11:00
Attention: There will be a project meeting today at 11:00

Good luck! Let us know your views on Twitter or Facebook.

Capitalisation Rules in Business English – Intermediate

Posted on November 26, 2015

Capitalisation (or capitalization, for those using American spelling) can take a bit of getting used to. Across different languages that use the Roman alphabet there are different rules for using capital letters, so with this in mind be sure to use the correct rules in English.

German speakers take note, not all English nouns should have capital letters; and French and Spanish speakers should pay attention to differences in capitalisation for nationalities. In this blog post we give you some rules and guidelines that will help you avoid common mistakes. The examples we give are sentences we see in our business English classes at companies around London, and accordingly, the kind of sentences you may find useful in your professional English writing.

Capital letters in proper nouns

Proper nouns (those which identify an individual person, animal, place or thing) should start with capital letters.

Following this rule, you should capitalise names of particular people, animals, and companies or organisations.

Our new colleague is called David.
I used to have a dog called Rover.
She works for Virgin.
It’s part of European Union regulations.

General nouns

You may have noticed above that if you are speaking generally, we don’t capitalise the words:

She worked at an insurance company before here.

Capital letters in geographical proper nouns

You must also use capitals for particular geographical names:

• The Gherkin is a famous modern building.
• I have worked on Fleet Street in London for 5 years.
• Our office party was a cruise along the Thames.
• We used to have a view of Mount Vesuvius from our office.
• We recycle in order to protect planet Earth.

Geographical common nouns

Notice the difference; these are general nouns so we don’t use capital letters:

• Look at that beautiful building.
• What street is that?
• Working in cities can be exciting!
• We enjoyed the river cruise.
• Have you considered hiking in the mountains as an away day?
• I travel all over the world for my job.

Capital letters in days and festivals

Days and festivals are capitalised, so Monday, New Year’s Day, Easter. The last two are bank holidays, and there are several “bank holidays”. Accordingly, “bank holiday” is not a proper noun and it is not capitalised.

• Are you working on Monday? No, it’s bank holiday.
• I’m looking forward to our ski trip at Easter.

Capital letters in nationalities and countries

We capitalise nationalities as well as countries:

• I need to speak German and also English at work.
• We have a multinational team which includes Brazilians, Germans and Australians.

Learn more and test your knowledge with this great quiz from the British Council.

Do you want to improve your English language skills from the comfort of your own company in London? Then get in touch today to set up your free trial English class.

Six Quid or Sick Squid?

Posted on October 5, 2015

By Honami Matsutani, Guest Blogger

For those learning the English language, the ability to tell jokes may seem a long way off. From one-liners you might find in Christmas crackers to more complex jokes, it can be quite fascinating to get closer to British people through appreciation of their humour. But demonstrating your witty character or proficiency in English needn’t involve memorising an entire act of a popular stand-up comedian.

Telling jokes stage 1

I have proudly drilled into my grandkids that making fun of someone to laugh at the person is not a joke. Instead, a joke ought to be clever enough to be able to share the fun with the others around you. My 5-year old granddaughter has now progressed from ‘knock-knock’ jokes (e.g. “Knock. Knock.” “Who’s there?” “Atch.” “Atch who?” “Bless you!”) to a few one-liners taught by her 11-year old brother, though some of which must not be uttered at school.

Telling jokes stage 2

My 11-year old grandson, on the other hand, now often demonstrates his wit with puns (a play on words, exploiting multiple meanings of words or of similar sounding words for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect, as in the title of this blog post), and this is exactly the type of short but effective joke that I would recommend to learners of English to try. As they are contextual, you have to be very quick but I believe they are excellent in improving your brain functions for verbal communication and can certainly impress your native English-speaking friends no end!

Expert level joke telling

So to wrap up, here are a couple of examples:

“Every company has to display its name at the registered address. Did you know that?”
“No I didn’t. But wouldn’t every company want to promote its name anyway?”
“Well, sometimes some dodgy companies want to hide themselves.”
“I know what they are called. Invisible inc.”

A shark was on his way to the casino and saw his friend the squid. “Are you coming to play blackjack with me?” the shark asked. “Oh I don’t know, I feel awful today” said the squid. The shark persuaded him to join him. At the casino the staff wouldn’t let the shark in because of his debts. “No!” exclaimed the shark. “Here’s the sick squid I owe you!”

Do consider your poor audience with some of these!

Key:

1) “Ach who” sounds like a sneezing noise “Achoo”, and “Bless you” is what people often say hearing a sneeze.

2) “Inc” is short for “incorporated; “invisible ink” is ink you can buy from joke shops that disappears when dry.

3) “Sick squid” sounds the same as “six quid”, or six pounds sterling.

 

Would you like to improve your English in London? Get in touch for excellent English classes at your company. We promise not to tell you any more squid jokes unless you really want us to.

Coping with Plateaus in Language Learning

Posted on June 16, 2015

By Honami Matsutani, Guest Blogger

Some years ago, one of my British friends (a Welsh man to be precise) had been living in Japan for many years and was going through a bad patch in learning Japanese. He thought his ability to learn the language had reached a kind of plateau and he was repeating the same mistakes and struggling with the same issues over and over again. He was becoming increasingly frustrated and disillusioned with his lack of progress, particularly in reading and writing.

It is often said that Japanese is one of the most difficult languages to learn, and I can imagine those of you who are not from that part of the world thinking my friend was very brave (almost foolhardy) in attempting something so hard and feeling sympathetic towards him. Yes, he was utterly dejected at that moment.

However, it turned out that what he was experiencing was not a permanent state of decline and I merely caught him in one of his “low” periods in between the contrasting “high” phases which he also went through from time to time. In other words, his improvement had always been intermittent and, although his development was generally upward, his progress had been step-like with repeats of advance and stagnation.

Now, I think this type of cyclical progress is quite normal in learning anything, especially mastering a difficult language. My experience of learning English has certainly been in that fashion. No matter how much effort I put into my homework or how systematic my vocabulary learning routine was, my progress has never been a steady upward move but instead, a repetition of a triumphant stage followed by a period of little success. Nevertheless, my achievement over the course of my life-long learning (30 odd years so far) has been quite satisfactory on the whole.

Over a long period of time, our learning method might change (e.g. intensive study of the essential skills to start with, then gradually turning into more real-life learning through observations and corrections) and our pattern of progress might vary (i.e. the height and depth of the “steps”), but it’s your continuous effort that counts in the end.

So please be assured and keep it up, my fellow learners!

And as for my friend, his Welsh-Japanese daughter is now very happy with Daddy’s bedtime stories in Japanese.

What is Conversational English?

Posted on April 13, 2015

By Honami Matsutani, Guest Blogger

What is it?

I have often wondered where the line should be drawn between so-called “conversational English” and it’s presumed opposite “non-conversational English”. Is the distinction equivalent to “spoken English” versus “written English”? Or alternatively even “casual English” v. “formal English”?

I am sure I’m not the only one in noticing that the “conversational” label is often used to mean only-good-for-getting-by. Worse still, conversational English is almost regarded as a licence to remain uninitiated. However, is this fair? Should this be the case?

Is it just basic English?

Newcomers to the English language speak “elementary English”. Then the reasonably well-educated natives speak “advanced English”. But surely the degree of being able to speak conversational English varies depending on who is communicating? Furthermore, in what circumstances?

Do we just mean elementary English? No, it doesn’t. Do proficient speakers of English language never engage in a conversation? Yes they do, and most probably in a rich and comprehensive manner, using more vocabulary and wider expressions. This means there should be no excuse for holding yourself back in the supposed “conversational” boundary! Why? Because in reality we have no limit in content or context for conversations in English.

How to boost your conversational English

Since I am a long-term learner of English, I have always wanted to increase my vocabulary. One important way I do this is through reading. I read all kinds of materials from newspapers and reports through to books and journals. What’s more, to improve my spoken English, I read aloud whenever appropriate. Through practising dialogues and speeches I can master more intellectual conversation.

Fellow students of English, you should really try this to reach the Holy Grail!

Practise your reading with some excellent texts here, using free British Council resources.

Do you want to boost your spoken English skills? Get in touch today to book your free trial English class at your company in London.