BE 406: How to Get Comfortable in Business English
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This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 406, How to Get Comfortable in Business English.

Welcome to the Business English podcast from All Ears English. Get the English skills you need to achieve your dreams in global business. For a presentation, a meeting, or your office party, this is Real Business English with your favorite American hosts, Lindsay and Aubrey, coming to you from Arizona and Colorado, USA.

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rules and restrictions may apply. Hello, Aubrey. How are you doing today? I'm great. How are you, Lindsay? Good. But I have a question to start off our episode today. Are you ready? Yes, I'm ready. All right. Here's my question for you. Aubrey, when is the last time you weren't comfortable?

Ooh, comfortable. Okay. I have a good example. I visited Rocky Point, Mexico last week with some friends. So fun. We were there for relaxing in the sun, but I also needed to work a bit at the condo that I was renting. And normally the internet connection is really good at these condos. But when I got there, I tried to

upload some short videos and I realized the connection was not good enough. It was really frustrating and there wasn't a business center of any kind. So I'm searching for a place that had a strong enough connection. I had to work in the middle of a hotel lobby and it definitely was not comfortable. Yeah, that sounds super frustrating, Aubrey. I can't even imagine. I would have been stressed out and very uncomfortable.

Yes, I was. This is interesting. We got a really good question in our Q&A about the different ways we use the word comfortable in English. They had used it a few different ways and were a little confused. This was a great conversation. So we are going to dive into all of

the ways we use this in English today. Yeah, guys, don't forget to hit the follow button right here on Business English to make sure you get three episodes a week. I love this. So our listener had heard this used in different ways, right? Let's break it down into the different ways we can use it. Aubrey, what would be the first way?

Yeah. So first is just providing physical ease and relaxation. So if you're looking for like a couch to go in the lobby of your office, you're looking for something comfortable. This couch is extremely comfortable. Or when someone comes, if you are greeting someone as they come into the office, you might say, make yourself comfortable, offering them bottled water or coffee, letting them know where to sit. Yes. The first thing I think of when I see this word, I think of a good pair of jeans, like your oldest pair of jeans. You know, I have

I have this great pair of jeans that I love so much and I love them so much. I've broken them in so much, Aubrey, and they fit me so well that they started getting holes in them. So I took them to the tailor to start to patch them up and now they're getting more holes. I'm going to take them back. How many times can I- You're hilarious. They're just molded to my body. They're so comfortable. I love them.

It makes me think about it's one of the biggest perks to working from home is being able to wear comfortable clothing. Whereas if you're working in an office, especially anybody, right? I really hated the business casual attire, pencil skirts and slacks and the things and maybe heels. Kill me. Or even business attire. I mean, some people

People have to wear high heels, right? Yes. No, no, thank you. Yes, not good. But a quick pronunciation note, you will hear some native speakers say comfortable, comfortable, and some say comfortable, comfortable. And so they sort of change the syllables. Both are right. Depends on someone's regional dialect.

Interesting. Yeah, what I usually just say is comfortable. Yeah, so all right, so jeans sitting down into a nice, beautiful leather couch. Oh, all the good things in life, Aubrey. Right. But we also use comfortable the second meaning to mean free from stress or fear. So for example, people have asked me, Are you comfortable with your teenagers staying out late?

It's like, does this make you uncomfortable? Does it stress you out? Yeah. Or for example, he isn't comfortable discussing controversial topics, right? A lot of times in families, we don't feel comfortable talking about politics if we know we have a difference or, you know, controversial issues, right? Or we've heard from some of you that you're not comfortable speaking in meetings or giving presentations in English. Like that's why we're here to help you be comfortable in these situations. Okay. So that's the second use of comfortable.

And is there even a third? Yes. Right. We also use comfortable to mean free from financial worries. Right. So, for example, she makes a comfortable living. What that means is she is making enough money to live a comfortable life, meaning free from financial stress.

Yes, I love that. You might say, we're not rich, but we're comfortable. Yeah. Exactly. There was just a scene on White Lotus, if you guys are watching it, where he asks her, what would happen if I lost my job? And she's like, I'm just not prepared to live an uncomfortable life at my age. Yeah.

It's so funny. Parker Posey is a genius. That's so funny. And we have a whole thing with talking about money in American culture. We don't like to do it. We don't like to talk about it. Yeah. And so sometimes people will use this term as a stand in for saying that you maybe do have money that, oh, we're comfortable. Right. Or comfortable living. There's lots of social stuff in there that we could go into another day in another episode. Right. And then we also have this very interesting word discomfort.

which means either pain or lack of physical comfort. It's often used by medical professionals who will say, are you experiencing any discomfort? But what's tricky here and what was really tripping up the student that brought this up is that discomfort is only used for physical comfort, not these other two meanings. We would not say I'm in financial discomfort or

or you know, I'm just comfortable what you don't know, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

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all right aubry let's dive right into a role play where we're going to use today's vocabulary to see exactly how it's used all right yes you and i are sisters waiting in the lobby of our dentist's office oh going to the dentist you got to do it right you got to do it i'll start us out these chairs are really comfortable i'm impressed they really are you're getting a cavity filled right

Yes, and I'm nervous. I'm really not comfortable with needles. I'm getting a root canal, so I'll be experiencing some discomfort for a few days. Ugh, no fun. Root canals are expensive too. Luckily, mom and dad make a comfortable living so they can afford it.

Well, this is tricky to figure out how to use all of these in one conversation. I'm thinking what's going on with dental hygiene in our house if we're getting a cavity and a root canal done? Well, let's see. I mean, I can confirm that all of my children like brush and floss the same amount, but some of them are just prone to cavities and root canals. It's crazy how much it's just the teeth you're born with, the enamel and how strong it is. I

It's crazy to me. And also me, I get cavities and root canals all the time. And my husband never does. And I swear it's not my dental hygiene. It is my teeth genetically. It was not my strongest, the strongest thing that I passed on to my children. Interesting. I've had cavities too, to be fair. So it's okay. I've had several root canals in spite of like, I'm an avid flosser and brusher of my teeth. It's just my terrible teeth.

Sounds uncomfortable, right? Sounds uncomfortable. A lot of discomfort at the dentist's office for me. Yes. All right. Let's go back through this role play here. So first thing I remarked on was the chairs, right? You said, well, you said these chairs are really comfortable. I'm impressed, right? Your dentist is investing in nice dental chairs, right? They have nice. Well, it's like I'm imagining the chairs in the lobby, right? It can be like a hard backed, uncomfortable chair or it can be like a nice, comfy couch.

That's true. That's true. And then what did you say? And I said, I am really not comfortable with needles. So this is often someone, you know, the needle they use to numb your gums or anytime you get a shot as a kid, you might not be comfortable with needles. And this means they give you stress. They give you anxiety. It's not about how comfortable a chair is. It's about whether it makes you nervous or not. Yeah, that's the worst. When they come in with a shot, give you Novocaine.

Right. And then you can't feel anything. It's just, oh, yeah. And you know what I discovered? This is fascinating. Really quick. One time it didn't hurt. And I asked the dentist. He said it all depends on how fast they insert the medicine into your gums. If they do it really slowly, it hurts almost not at all. If they do it really fast, it really hurts a lot. So you could have a word with your dentist if it hurts a lot.

It shouldn't. Good to know. Yeah. Good to know. They have to be patient. Yeah. And then I said, I'm getting a root canal. So I'll be experiencing some discomfort for a few days. And this feels, for me, it feels like it should kind of more come from a medical professional. Maybe it feels a little fancy as a word. This was tricky to work into the same conversation, right? Someone would talk about someone making a comfortable living, but also

use the word discomfort. No, it's not easy. Yes, it's possible that you'd say, oh, I'm going to be experiencing, but it's more likely the doctor would come out and say, you're going to experience discomfort for a few days. Yeah. You probably say something different to your sister, right? It'd be much more casual. It's going to hurt for a few days. Totally. Right.

Simple. Yeah. And then what, Aubrey, what'd you say after that? And then I was talking about how expensive this dental work will be. I said, luckily, mom and dad make a comfortable living. So this is another way of saying they make enough money or they have good enough dental insurance to pay for it. Right. And yeah, this is an interesting way that we say this in the U.S. to say we make a comfortable living. Yes. Oh, my gosh. Wow. It's a dynamic word. And we talked about dynamic. Yeah.

Yes. Business English podcast recently too. It's a very dynamic word, the word comfortable. It can be used in a lot of different ways. So guys go and listen to this episode again. Look out for the use of this by native speakers out in the world. And also don't forget about our exclusive discount that you can get on Saley data plans. Use the code

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It's S-A-I-L-Y dot com slash A-E-E. Yes. If you ever work from another country, another state in the U.S. like I do, this has happened to me so many times where I need reliable Internet and I can't always count on where I'm staying. So get that app. Check it out. So helpful. 100%. Aubrey, where should we leave our listeners today?

Yeah, comfortable means many different things in English. This is tricky. So today's tips will help you use it to connect in English. You're going to hear it everywhere now and we want you to be able to use it.

Yeah, it's kind of the nature of human beings to try to be more comfortable. This is something that we talk about in meditation practice. You're supposed to resist trying to make yourself more comfortable. Like if you have an itch, right, you're supposed to resist that. So it is the nature of human beings to try to be more comfortable. So if we can learn to express that, it's a connection skill, right? We talk about what is comfortable, what feels comfortable. That is a real connection skill because we all share that need to want to make ourselves more comfortable.

Yes. It reminds me of fasting. Often people will go without food or water to make themselves uncomfortable so they can become more in tune with their body or their soul. And I know a lot of you out there have experienced that. That's fascinating. Really interesting. Yeah. So give that a little bit of thought and we'll be back again soon. All right. Good stuff. I'll see you next time. Take care. Bye. Bye.

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