BE 384: One Phrase to Change the Game in English
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This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 384, One Phrase to Change the Game in 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 Michelle, coming to you from New York City and Colorado, USA.

Hear that? Spring is back. And so is Church of Seafood with eight-piece shrimp, surf and turf, or fish sandwich. Each starting at $3.99. All for valid at participating locations. Hey there, Michelle. How are you doing today? I am good. How are you, Lindsay? Fantastic, fantastic. What are we getting into on Business English today?

So today we are going to talk about taking things to another level. So this is actually, Lindsay, do you want to share where this idea came from? Yes, I have been loving hosting Open Conversation Club, what we call OCC. I'm trying to host once a week or so, more or less, and I get a chance to meet our students.

And nowadays, if you join one of our courses, you get invited to these open conversation clubs. It's actually really amazing, Michelle, the connections, the breakout rooms. We're doing a hot seat program now where you get to talk with me if you're randomly selected for five minutes and get corrections and we check in together. We talk about your goals. It's actually very cool.

But just a few weeks ago, yeah, just a few weeks ago, I was hosting OCC, Open Conversation Club, and one student expressed what we were all thinking, which is he said, it's one thing to join the course, but it's another thing entirely to log in and practice every day. Oh, yeah.

That's true. And you spoke the truth. And I said, you are so right. Right? And he made an important distinction. And I also just love this construction that he made. So I wanted to highlight that. And we actually did stop and learn this as a group during that call. But we're going to have all of our listeners learn it today. Great. So let's talk about what this actually means. So let's start with that example. So which one is better in that example? Joining a course?

or logging in every day and practicing in that course. So definitely logging in every day and practicing, right? Because we usually have, we have goals, we commit to a course, but then it is not easy to get back to the course every day. It can be hard. It can be a challenge, right? Yes, absolutely. Exactly. So the everyday practice,

because it's going to get you more in the end it's going to get you to your goals you can join a course never using it and never use it so gotta use it you gotta work hard so that's really what the essence of this expression is so before we get a little bit further into it let's make sure everybody's hit the follow button so you never miss anything from the business english podcast

Wonderful. Go ahead and hit follow. We drop three episodes a week here on Business English and you don't want to miss a single one. All right. All right. So Michelle, what's the exact construction again? Because I think I tweaked it a lot. I changed it a tiny bit when I presented the example from OCC. But what is it? Okay. So it's one thing to X, but it's another thing to Y. So

is kind of the basic thing. Yes. Why is changing the game? It's more extreme. It's doing more. But why can be positive or negative? Now, this is sounding a little bit like alphabet soup, which we just were talking about on the All Ears English podcast. So we're going to explain it. Let's break it down and explain it.

Yeah, let's not have any alphabet soup here, Michelle. Let's really get into it. Here we go. So in the positive category, right? Here's one positive example. It is one thing to reach out to your clients via email, but it's another thing to call them personally. And I agree with that because it's a heavier lift on most people to make a call, right? It's just a little more vulnerable, a little harder to talk to someone on the phone than it is to write an email, but the benefits could be so much better.

Right. So which one is better? Making that call. Making the call, right? So it's one thing. So that's the basic thing, maybe the easier thing. And then as Lindsay said, I like it, the heavier lift is to call them personally. So it's changing the game. It's making it more intense, doing more. Here's another one. It's one thing to organize the files, but it's another thing to do it alphabetically.

So maybe this is funny. I didn't even realize because, yeah, they're talking about the alphabet soup. Yeah. So organizing the files basically is good, but I'm saying even if you do it alphabetically, it's better. It's going to be...

easier to find things and so that example would be better. Right or it's one thing to network online like use LinkedIn for example but it's another thing to actually go out and do informational interviews and go to events. Yeah that's harder. It's the harder thing but it's probably the better thing because you'll probably form better in-person relationships. Right.

Better networking connections in person. Exactly. Exactly. So those are the positive ones. And we're going to go over to how it might be used where the second, the why is more of a negative thing. Oh, I'm excited to see what that looks like. Here we go. Eczema isn't always obvious, but it's real. And so is the relief from Ebbgliss. Ebbgliss.

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Okay, so we're back to talk about another variation of how this might look in the negative side of things. So for example, it's one thing to make a mistake, but it's another thing to not even try to fix it. Ooh.

Ooh, okay. So maybe if we're in an argument or we're talking about someone at work, maybe, which we don't recommend. Yeah, right. Exactly. But yeah, it's one thing to make it a mistake, right? Okay, so you made the mistake, but if you don't try to fix it, right, that's another thing. Like, it's okay to make mistakes, but it's not okay to...

try and get everything to be okay. Exactly. And here's another, it's one thing to leave your job, but it's another thing to quit and try to steal all the passwords. Oh my gosh. Yes, exactly. Exactly. Or it's one thing to accept lunch from your coworker, but it's another thing to not even say thank you. So

And these ones, the second part, the why, as we're calling it, is really changing the game in a negative way, making it worse. Yeah. I mean, the one that I see the most frequently here is very much what the student said in Open Conversation Club about, like I said, heavier lifting, right? The thing that is harder to do, but we know it's going to get us the best results.

Right. It's like the step two. Yeah. Yeah. Right. So exactly. So with the client's examples, emailing them versus calling them personally, networking online versus going out. Right. It's the heavier lift. It's the thing that is going to get you further. Yeah.

So it's just about the second thing being more extreme or specific or intense or the heavier lift. And this is so useful for business. You could use this to talk about work or talk to a coworker or I mean, you could use it in a meeting. There are just so many ways that you could use this. - Yeah, the one way, one really specific way that I see this being used is in a performance review, right? So if your boss is doing a performance review with you, which tends to happen maybe twice a year,

If you're being praised by your boss or your manager and you did something that was above and beyond, right? And they want to highlight that to you. They want to make sure that they know that you appreciate that. That you know that they appreciate it. So they say, oh, it's one thing to...

um do a good job in our presentations but it's another thing to close the deal within the space of the 45-minute presentation you know you closed the deal right right so it's a way of praising someone if you if you are a boss or a manager and you're talking to your direct reports that could be a way to do it right

Yeah. Yeah. So it sounds like to you, you definitely hear more in the positive way. That's how you think about the six. Yeah. The leveling up, leveling up, whether it's positive or neutral or praising or just talking about how much harder something is, but how much better it is for us. Right. Right. Right. Right. Exactly. Um, yeah, I like that. So while we're going to do a negative example, but that's okay.

All right, that's okay. Here we go. We are coworkers in a meeting. Here we go. I'm ready. Here we go. All right. So you're telling me Sheila's figures are wrong? Yes. And we didn't know this until now? Unfortunately, no. Yeah. It's one thing to have some incorrect numbers, but it's another thing to not even notify us before this meeting. I agree.

And yeah, don't get me wrong. I think this is a totally realistic scenario too, right? I think some of it honestly actually depends on your company culture. So what is being said at work at your company? Are people pointing out people's mistakes more often or are they praising people more often? Or are they talking about just how could we get better? Like our student in open conversation club, we realize it's a heavy lift. It's a challenge, but we know we need to do it by logging in every day and doing our work. We know

We're going to be that much further along with our fluency. Right. Yeah, exactly. That's really important. So we use this. So what happened was Sheila gave us some wrong numbers. And so I said, and we didn't know this until now. And then you said no. And then what did I say?

And then you said, yeah, now here's the big phrase, right? It's one thing to have some incorrect numbers, but it's another thing to not even notify us before this meeting. Yeah. So the really bad thing is actually that she didn't tell us the numbers were wrong. Right. Yeah. She made a mistake on the numbers. Fine. This happens, but to not tell us, and I want to actually add a bonus piece here because as

at the top of the show, I inserted a word and I said entirely, but it's another thing entirely. - Ah, entirely, that's good. - To not even notify us. So that is an optional insert for our listeners, okay? If you wanna really make your phrase even a little more fancy and more natural, you can do that, but you don't have to. - Entirely. - Yeah. Just for emphasis.

- Yeah, that's definitely a good thing to add in to really hammer at home. - Yeah, totally. - Yeah, and I feel like this could actually be a good check on our lives. Are we in the right place work-wise? Are we in the right environment around our friends? How are people using this construction, right? - Right.

Just in general, I think when you use this, it's because you have some sort of strong feeling about something, whether positive or negative. So I don't think you use this just...

willy-nilly. Totally not. Totally not. Yeah, because it takes a lot of energy to say this. Exactly. It does. And to think of this even. So it's not necessarily just totally something that you're just blasé about. It's just something where you have some feeling, you have some opinion. It's affecting you in some way and you want to express that.

Exactly. But we need the expressions to do it. And I love that this came up from directly from a listener, from a student. Thank you to that student for saying this in Open Conversation Club. And Michelle, is there another episode we could check out? Yes.

Yep. Head on over to the Business English podcast. That was episode 375 was improve your English around the margins. Love it. That was a fun one where we talked about accounting, you know, the accounting phrases and how does accounting actually come into English? Believe it or not, it comes into a lot of parts of our vocabulary, Michelle. It's really cool. Very fun.

All right. All right. Yep. Anything you want to say before we head off? I think we kind of did take away. That's, that's it. That's the takeaway. Think about your life. Are you working in a positive environment? Are you living in a positive environment? You know, are people making these big statements, positive or negative? Just a good

gauge on your life to see how things are going. Right? Yes. Love it. All right. Perfect. Well, thank you to this listener for the question. And thanks for talking about this with me today, Lindsay. All right. Talk soon, Michelle. Bye. Bye.

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