BE 421: Let's Talk Shop About Business English
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This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 421. Let's talk shop about 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, Aubrey and Michelle, coming to you from Arizona and New York City, USA. Welcome to the Business English podcast from All Ears English.

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Hey, Aubrey, how are you? I'm great, Michelle. How are you? I'm good. I'm good. All right. So let's talk plans for our team meeting. Okay, let's do it. All right. I love this phrase. Let's talk blank, right? Let's talk plans. Let's talk. We do this all the time. We're shortening these chunks. We're removing words. We're not going to say, let's talk about our plans. Let's discuss. We use these native chunks.

Yes, exactly. This is such a fun way to introduce an idea at work or even out of work. It's very common in business to use this. And to me it sounds very casual. Yeah, we use this in everyday conversations too. Yeah, it sounds casual and cool. So yeah, again, like Aubrey was saying, it's let's talk blank, right? Then I said, let's talk plans.

But as Aubrey mentioned, usually that means let's talk about plans, but this is the casual way that people really speak. And also in business. I mean, this isn't so casual that it's not used in business, right, Aubrey? Exactly. You wouldn't want to write this in something that's more formal, right? Especially not academic papers or something, right? Grammatically, it's incorrect. But when we speak, we do this all the time. And also casual writing. Texts

emails. Absolutely. Right. Let's talk plans for next week. Right. And I think that it's definitely important to consider that like we don't write this because I was actually just looking at the plans and everywhere where I wrote, let's talk something. There's a little, do you see that? There's a little underline of like, you need the correction here. The grammar is incorrect. Yeah.

Yeah, so that goes to show you that really it's not correct. This is very conversational and this is not something that you're going to see in a textbook, right, Aubrey? Right, but you might even hear it like in a job interview. Let's talk qualifications. Let's talk experience, right? Because when we're speaking, we're not trying to be grammatically correct and include every word. A phrase like this, it's idiomatic language.

So this, you can use this, right? No matter where you're speaking, a presentation, let's talk numbers, right? People aren't going to be like, wow, that's really informal way to speak. No, this is very. No, no, no, not at all. I actually think it's pretty cool sounding. I just, I think it's very confident. And I appreciate that you are trying to save me time. You're respecting my time. We don't need extra words.

Exactly. So we've already been throwing out examples, but for a few more here we can say, let's talk shop. And what does that mean when I say to talk shop? Oh, this is interesting. It means like, let's get into the details, right? Whatever we've been talking about, we're talking high level, general. Now, if we're going to really hash out the details, all right, let's talk shop.

Or maybe if you're about to get into like a negotiation and talk about numbers, you've gone to this car dealership and you are looking at all the different ones and then finally say, let's talk shop. How much is this going to cost me? Right. Or let's say you're starting out a business meeting, right? And everybody's kind of trickling in and they're talking about their families and just warming up. And then you might say, okay, let's talk shop. Let's get started, right? Ah.

Oh, yeah. Just like, let's get serious, right? There are actually quite a few ways that we use this. You're right. Or let's talk floral arrangements. So I'm imagining maybe a wedding coordinator is going down a list of the things that they're going to do at the wedding that they need to plan. So then I say, let's talk floral arrangements. What are we thinking? Right? Right. And then a little bit later, they might be like, all right, let's talk about it.

You're gonna say let's talk and then whatever the topic is, we're moving on. - Yeah, so this is a great way to introduce a topic at a meeting, at a lunch, whatever it may be. And you would only use this in my opinion with one or two, maybe three words, right? So like let's talk budget, let's talk plans. I don't think that I would say something like let's talk Caroline's schedule and how it may impact the future weeks, right? - Good point.

No. And you also wouldn't say like, let's talk agenda item one. That doesn't make sense. It's going to be like a solid noun, the topic, what you're actually going to discuss. Let's talk budget. Let's talk numbers. Let's talk taxes. Right. So important. We have to be really careful with this one because it is, it is not correct. Um,

But we're not teaching always, it's not always about what's correct. It's about what's said. So it's not grammatical, but it is correct because we say it all the time. Right, right, right. Exactly. Good point. Yeah. But this is for, so if you have something longer like that, like that example I gave you would want to put in about, or let's talk about agenda item one. Right. So that's a really good point, Aubrey. Yeah.

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All right. So is there a time, I mean, another time that you would want to avoid this, Aubrey? Because I don't, again, we were saying that it's not,

too casual in my opinion. Yeah, the only thing I can think of is if you're meeting a client, for example, for the first time and you are really trying to make a good impression, you're trying to polish what you say and really be respectful. I maybe wouldn't say this like let's talk contracts because you are creating this more personal connection

So maybe the first time you meet someone with a first impression, maybe you wouldn't get quite this casual, but you would probably pretty quickly once you've met them and you've chatted a little bit, then maybe you would. All right, let's talk contracts. Right. And I think it depends what you're bringing up. I mean, if you're just asking somebody for their ideas, I mean, I guess

For some reason, I keep on going back to the wedding idea, right? You're with your coordinator and they're saying, oh, let's talk floral arrangements. Okay. Or let's talk lighting, right? To me, that would be fine in a first meeting. It's a little bit more casual of an industry. But it would be a little weird if the coordinator said,

let's talk contract, right? Like, okay. I think I figured out why. Yeah. Yeah. Something that is a little bit of a heavier topic or like negative, this phrase really implies sort of lightheartedness. It's casual. You would never have an attorney be like, all right, let's talk

abuse and now we're going to go into like the really negative aspects of something right might be like let's talk holdings let's talk finances right things that are have more of a positive connotation but if you're going to talk about something more serious yeah and negative you need a more serious tone and this phrase doesn't give you that that's so good aubrey i'm so glad that we kind of figured this out that you figured this out that is really good point this is for

more lighthearted things. Right. If you're a tax accountant and they'd be like, all right, let's talk, you know, funds. And, but then they wouldn't be like, let's talk debt. Right.

something negative because it's this lighthearted, positive phrase that would feel really counterintuitive to then say something that people are going to have negative feelings about. Yeah. Yeah. I love that. I'm so glad that you realized that you made that distinction. I think that's really helpful for our listeners, for their connection skills, because you don't want to misuse this. You kind of have to be pretty confident when using this let's talk blank. And now you can know that avoid it with serious, heavy stuff.

Right. And especially as a connection skill, when you are chatting with someone about something you read in the news, maybe, or something you heard on a podcast, saw on a show, especially at work,

How heavy do you want to get? Right. But if you are, if you have that connection and you're talking about something horrifying in the news, you certainly wouldn't want to use this. Let's talk the earthquake. Let's talk that school shooting. Right. You never would use this phrase because it implies horrible, very tone deaf, because this implies something positive.

lighthearted, upbeat. Like this is an upbeat phrase. So you should not use it. Introduce a topic that you should not be upbeat about. Right. You don't want to use it when you're introducing bad news, right? This is for benign stuff. So I mean, but let's talk about some other ways that you might

you know, share this kind of a topic. So let's discuss blank. So let's discuss the next steps for May. Yeah. And we do the same thing where we'll remove the article here. We'll be like, let's discuss next steps for May. Let's discuss...

floral arrangements, right? We do the same thing. We remove the article just like we do with let's talk. Interesting. Or what's another thing you might hear? Yeah. So maybe let's go over our plans for the conference. Same thing. Let's go over plans for the conference. Let's go over wedding plans, right? We're removing either the pronoun or the article just like with the other phrase.

Yeah, pretty neat. Should we do a role play? Yeah, let's do it. You and I are getting coffee during our lunch break and we are event planners. That would be a fun job. It would be a fun job, but I don't know. I don't know if I could handle all the logistics. I don't know. I don't know. Me too. I'm not that good under stress and I feel like I'm detail-oriented until I go to plan an event and then I'm like, whoops, I forgot this and this and this. Maybe you don't want me to be your event planner. Don't hire us. Okay. Okay.

Here we are. So we're getting our coffee. All right, here we go. I'll start us. Okay, so let's talk shop for a second. What are we going to do with all the invitations upstairs? Well, first, let's go over the guest list. Okay, got it. Then we can talk invitations and promos and raffles and all that good stuff. Right.

Oh, and then let's discuss cleanup. Yes. Love it. Okay. And so I love this because we would use all of these. In fact, when you're wanting to have this in a lot of different ways like this, it would be strange to repeat the same one over and over. So you need all of these different options to switch it up.

Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So this is all very lighthearted stuff. So it's okay for us to talk like this. So you said, so we're getting coffee, we're on our lunch break. And you said, let's talk shop for a second. So you're saying, okay, we have to talk business stuff. I know, maybe we've been chatting about Yeah, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We're talking about our families, whatever our weekends, I'm gonna say, okay, let's talk shop time to get serious. Yep. And then you said, Okay, let's go over the guest list.

And this is interesting where sometimes it won't work to remove the article because we couldn't say, let's go over guest list, right? You could say, let's go over plans. Let's go over cakes, right? Whatever it is. But when you're talking about a guest list that, you know, you need to be more specific about which guest list you're talking about, you would need that definite article.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. And then I said, then we can talk invitations, right? So again, talk invitations and promos and raffles and all that good stuff, right? Yes. And you said, and then let's discuss cleanup. And again, here we can remove the article. We don't need anything. Just let's discuss cleanup.

Yep, yep, yep, yep. Exactly. Guys, head on over to episode 408 of the Business English podcast. That was how to throw out your ideas in a brainstorming session. So good one. That's an important one to listen to because throw out has so many different uses, right? At work, we're saying throw out your ideas, but then throw out your ideas. Like, don't miss that episode. Yeah. Oh,

Aubrey, what do we want to leave our listeners with today? Yeah, I love this as far as connection at work. You want to save your colleagues time whenever you can. And when you can eliminate words and use an idiomatic chunk like this, that's the best way to do that, right? Save time, be more efficient with the words that you use. Yeah, yeah, really good. Love it. And I'm glad that we made that distinction for our listeners about when it would be good to use it and when you should avoid it.

Leave this for upbeat topics. Yes, upbeat topics. All right. Well, this was a very upbeat episode, Aubrey. I enjoyed talking about this with you and recording with you as always. So guys, thank you so much for listening and give this a try in your next conversation. Awesome. Thanks, Michelle. See you next time. All right. Bye. Bye. Bye.

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