BE 382: Describe Your Progress - Winding Down
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This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 382, Describe Your Progress, Winding Down.

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Hello, Michelle. How's it going today? Good. Lindsay, how are you? Good. Good. What's up today? Well, I wanted to know, are you wrapping up any business English or all those English projects, anything you're wrapping up? We are actually working on something very exciting for our professional English students, our listeners who are interested in professional English, which I am not going to say too much about today, but our listeners should expect to hear a bit more of this over the next month or so. Um,

Yeah, it's going to be exciting. It's going to be fantastic. And it's coming out soon. Yeah. Very exciting. Okay, love it. So guys, we're going to be talking about finishing things. And this is actually part three of a three-part series. So we're finishing up the series. And the series was talking about beginnings, things, middles, and ends.

Yes. The first episode of the series was on the Business English podcast. That was episode 374. Describe your progress getting started. And Lindsay, the other, the next one was over on All Ears English. Yes. This was a Saturday episode. Do we have the actual date of the episode for the name of it was describe your progress in the thick of it, right? In the thick of it. I love it. So just scroll back on the All Ears English podcast in

in the last few weeks, right? You'll see it there. - Yes. I can get the date for you. I'll get it for you in just one second. So the date on that one was,

was February 22nd. Yeah. So go back, go over to all there's English and find, you know, find February 22nd. You know, listen to that episode, listen to three Saturday or it's a Saturday episode. Yes. Love it. So we are here for the last edition of this series. Yes, exactly. So today we're going to be focusing on when something is ending and this is huge for work.

You can use these to talk about projects or meetings or even to suggest times for when something should be done. What else, Lindsay? Yeah, suggesting times or asking people questions. Other scheduling tasks, like when you need to know that something is kind of ending, finishing up. There are phases of things, right?

Yeah. Yeah. So this is really important. It gives people a heads up of where you are in a task. So let's go through it. So the first one is wrap up or wrapping up. So this one I asked you about in the beginning, are you wrapping up any tasks, any projects for All Ears English? So this one is very common.

And it makes me think of wrapping a present, right? You're putting the bow on it. Yeah, you're wrapping up. Yeah, put a bow on it. It's good to be able to wrap things up, right? We need things to end. I actually like it when things have kind of an ending point, right? So you can kind of clear your mind, move on to something else. And then there's a beginning for something else. When things kind of continue on forever, it can be a lot, right? Yeah, yeah. So here's a sample sentence. Okay, let's start wrapping up. It's time to clock out for the day.

So we need these signposts, we need these moments in life. - Yep, exactly. And the next one is wind down, right? Wind or winding down. So we are winding down our search for a new accountant. I think we have a few great applicants. - Excellent. And I like this next one, closing out or to close out. Often used to talk about the year, right? The end of the year, closing out the year. So let's close out the year. Do we have all our numbers with the accountant?

Is that something that you do at the end of the year Lindsay where you're kind of closing out everything and getting information over? Right a no I would say more that happens in the beginning of the next right before taxes right before the tax deadline Michelle But I would say we do some things to close out the year we spend time planning the next year in December January

So there are definitely things that we do to maybe we survey our listeners, right? That is closing out the year, taking stock of what happened that year. I like that. Taking stock. Yes. Okay. There is something, there's a few more though. We haven't done them all. So finish up or finishing up. Yeah. How do we say that? Yeah. We'll be finishing up in about five minutes. Can you hold your questions until then? So again, you know, it,

we've talked about this before in a presentation. Sometimes you want people to ask questions at the end. Sometimes it's okay to ask them throughout, but this would be, maybe someone is raising their hand and you're presenting and maybe you kind of hold up your hand a little bit and say, oh, we'll be finishing up in about five minutes. I agree. I see this being used in the moment in a presentation room or something during a meeting, less so than finishing up the year, right? Those large milestones. It's in a moment.

Yes. Right, right, right. Or this one is more formal, to complete. Yes. Right? My team is just about to complete a huge project. Yep, exactly. Michelle, which do you think is the most useful here? Ooh, I think I like...

finishing up and wrapping up. What about you? Yeah, I really like close out the close out, close out this tax season. Um, I like it. Sounds, sounds cool to me. So would you say that? So interesting. You're saying the year and tax season. So let's talk about more when you hear close out, it's not necessarily just the end of the year, but it's

How is closeout different than finish up? This one has a little bit of a different feeling to it than the others. Yeah, I would say it's similar. Yeah, it's similar. Yeah, I don't think there's a huge difference. So when I say closeout tax season, I mean the season of the accountant working on the taxes, right? I guess that's probably between February and April, that kind of thing. That is the season in itself, right? Yeah.

So submitting all the forms to close out this tax season for us. Right. I wouldn't say, oh, we're closing out our project. So, right. To me, it sounds more of...

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Some sort of season, some sort of significant period. Yeah. So instead of the work, right, we don't say close out the project. Not really. We say close out a period of time is what you're saying, Michelle, right? That's to me. I mean, it's possible you could use it in the other way, but I would use one of the other ones in that case. I would be more likely to talk about a period of time closing out the year, closing out tax season. Yeah. Yeah. I like that. I like that. Yeah.

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What else, Michelle? What have we learned in this series? We're wrapping up our series here. Wrapping up our series. Well, yeah, we have different vocabulary to share where you are in something.

Right. Where you're doing something you're watching or reading or working on. And again, this can be good for in the business world, but also outside the business world. So super useful. And you definitely want to listen to the other episodes on the Business English podcast and on All Ears English. So, I mean, why would you say these are good for connection lenses?

I think they're great for connection because you need to know where someone is in the orientation of something. This will tell you whether they're in the thick of it, right? They're in the middle of something, they're busy, they're just getting started. It tells you maybe if you have a friend, like I think we mentioned this before, if you have a friend who is an accountant, they're in the thick of tax season, you probably want to give them some space, right?

Exactly. Or I don't know, if someone owns an ice cream shop at a zoo, the summer would be the middle of their season. Right. And so they probably are going to be busy. So it's just there's an ebb and flow of life. You know, their life is about time periods, projects and things like that. And we need to be able to talk about that.

All right. Right. And also it can show you that you have that extra intelligence about thinking about somebody else's schedule. Oh, I know you're probably in the thick of it. Or, oh, so you must be finishing up that project. So maybe we can go and celebrate. Right. It shows that you have this extra level of emotional intelligence. Yeah. Emotional intelligence, thoughtfulness. You put yourself in their shoes. Right. I love that. Most people don't do that, to be honest. Right. So you can really set yourself apart by doing that.

- I love it. - We do have a couple of role plays, Michelle, here. - We have two. - All right, so-- - Because we have one with just finishing up and then we combine everything that we've learned. - Oh, I love it. So here in this first one, we are on a conference call. So here we go. - Okay. So have you had a chance to finish up the files? - My team is just closing them out. So we can get them over to you right after this call. - Great, we'll be wrapping up soon. I just wanna go over some final numbers. - Okay, sounds good. I've completed those.

Yes, thanks for sending them my way. We needed to wind down all the accounts.

Yes. Nice. Should we go through this? Let's go through it. All right. So you said, I said, so have you had a chance to finish up the files? So you're making it a little more casual, right? Finish up. You know, you're asking me the status, but you're making it a little bit more casual here. And then my team is just closing them out. So again, finishing, you're finishing them. Yeah. This closing,

closing them out is a little bit more to me. This one is the slightly tricky one, right? So again, we said it's to a period of time yet here. I realized I gave an example that's not, but it just feels like something bigger. So it sounds to me like this,

these files so closing them out to me it sounds like this was a bigger project maybe took some time um I don't know that it would be about something really small or right significant to me so something bigger I like that I like that and then you said Michelle great we'll be wrapping up soon

we'll be finishing up, we'll be concluding this project soon, right? Yes. And then about the final numbers, I said, okay, sounds good. I've completed those, you said it. And then you said, yes, thanks for sending them my way. We needed to wind down the

all the accounts to wind down, meaning to close out those accounts. To close out, not to be confusing. To end the accounts, right? Yes, exactly, exactly. So let's put a few of these together for beginning, middle, and end. So here we are in a business meeting. All right, here we go. Yes.

Okay, so where are we in the trace account? We are about to wrap that up. Perfect. And then we have to start gearing up for the next one. Is that the jolt account? No, we are actually already in the middle of that one. Next up would be plant. Oh, right.

Knowing where we are in each account. Ooh, so many accounts. Yeah. And also, yeah, these are good for also being quick, right? We have to just be quick. We're doing this, we're doing that and how everything kind of works together. Sometimes you really need to be able to explain where you are in a process very quickly so that you can schedule other things.

Yeah, because the reality here is that as professionals, we're not just in one project. I wish that would be amazing. Oh my gosh. No, we are running multiple projects at the same time, right? Multiple initiatives. Some of them are getting started. Some of them you're in the thick of them and some of them are finishing up, right? And you need to move around between them all day long, right? Yes. Absolutely. So we're jumping around and we need the vocab to be able to quickly express that. So-

I said, where are we on the trace account? And you said, we are about to wrap that up. - Okay, so that one is about to be done and then we're starting the next one. You said, and then we have to start gearing up for the next one, right? Gearing up, getting going, getting started.

Exactly. And then I asked about another account and you said, no, we're actually already in the middle of that one. Nice. So all these accounts were in different places, which is completely normal, right? Yeah.

Don't forget guys to go and listen to parts one and two of this series. And again, like we said, part two is over on All Ears English. So make sure you go and open your search bar, type in All Ears English and hit follow on that show. All right. Definitely. Oh my gosh. Well, this has been fun. I've enjoyed this series. I think this has been a very useful series for in and out of the office listeners.

It's good for connecting with people, showing that emotional intelligence that you're putting yourself in their shoes. And also at work, being able to really quickly communicate when you have a lot of projects going on. You got it, Michelle. All right. Good stuff. And I will see you back here on Business English very soon. All right. All right. All right. Bye, guys. Take care. Bye. Bye.

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