This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 416. Consider this a wake-up call for your 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.
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and what GMC has done for over 100. We are professional grade. Visit GMC.com to learn more. Assembled in Flint and Hamtramck, Michigan and Fort Wayne, Indiana of U.S. and globally sourced parts. Hello, Lindsay. How are you? Hello. Doing great, Michelle. How are you? I'm doing well, thanks. Lindsay, do you remember getting wake-up calls at hotels?
Yeah, for sure. I guess they don't really. Well, I suppose you could. You probably can. But I feel like I don't know. I don't know if that's so much a thing as it used to be. What do you think? Yeah, it really feels like a thing of a bygone era, Michelle. The wake up call. Because now, of course, we all have our phones. We have our alarms or apps and things like that. But of course, I remember. Yeah. Yeah. Although.
I feel like if there was something I really, really, really needed to get up for, I might want that extra security of an additional phone call. So, yeah. Yeah. But today we're going to talk about the expression wake-up call. So not there is the actual wake-up call, right? That you're in a hotel.
and you need to you call them the night before and you say okay i want i need a wake-up call for 8 a.m and then the hotel actually just calls your phone in the hotel but but that's not what we're actually talking about today right lindsay that's right this is a more metaphorical you know life wake-up call that we're talking about today which is obviously more interesting
Something that happened that made you realize that you need to make some kind of an adjustment. It's some kind of an alert. It's a warning, right? I need to change something.
Yes, yes, exactly. So this can be really useful. I mean, in or outside of the business world. So very helpful. We're going to talk about it today. Guys, if you don't already follow the Business English podcast, make sure you hit that follow button. Let the episodes come to you. Make it super easy. So take a second and do that now.
Yes. Go ahead and hit that follow button. Michelle, do you use this phrase when you talk about decisions or events, things like that? Oh yeah. This comes up a lot. I think I'm pretty sure this came up naturally, which is why I decided to plan this episode. I can't remember exactly, but this is, I think this is very common. What do you think? Oh, for sure. For sure. I mean, there can be things that can happen. Um, maybe there's like an accident, right? And
that you're in or someone else is in and it causes you to just wake up and realize, oh my gosh, I'm not living my life the right way. Right. Right. Right. So when you think about it that way, yeah, the wake up call, I mean, it is, it's,
a call that wakes you up, that kind of, it might jolt you. It's something, it's not just a wake up call about, oh, I need to eat breakfast, right? It's something more extreme than that. I mean, and to me, I think this could be helpful for business, maybe talking about your personal career goals or your journey, maybe something important that happened in your company. There are a lot of reasons why this might come up.
Yes, for sure. Let's give our listeners some examples here. So for example, when I love, when I left my job or sorry, I think, yeah, I think, uh, hold on. I think you're right when I left. Yeah, there we go. Okay. We had to edit that in real time. Here we go. When I left my job a year ago, it was a wake up call that I needed to spend more time enjoying life. Yes.
And I think a lot of people get that wake up call. You know, you're so ingrained in your work and then all of a sudden you realize something happens and you're like, oh, God, I need to focus on what's really important. Yeah, for sure. For sure. Michelle, what's another example?
All right. Our sales this month should serve as a wake up call that we can't stop marketing. So maybe we kind of, you know, stopped a little bit. We relaxed a little bit and we saw it reflected in our sales. So we realize, oh, that's a wake up call. We got to keep this going. Yes, that's so true. Sometimes we can become complacent and forget to do things. And then we see it in the numbers, right? Yep.
or let this be a wake-up call to us that we can't be so casual in our hiring process. So in this case, maybe the company hired someone that turned out to be not a great addition to the company, not a great fit, and they got sort of lazy in their practices, the questions they asked or the...
the rigor of the process. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, Lindsay, for you, can you, I mean, this is very on the spot question, but have you had any, any wake up calls that changed or influenced the trajectory of your life or your career? Kind of when I was living in New York and it was 2008. So it was already an environment for some wake up calls, September of 2008, to be more specific, I was teaching at a school in Harold square.
It was a school with mostly Korean students teaching English as a second language. And all of a sudden, one day I got fired. I got fired. Yeah.
And the way they fired me, they didn't really offer any explanation. And I think what was happening was the school was going through a recertification process because they were actually funded by the public schools. So teachers needed like a public school certification. Yeah. And I don't work in the public school system. So at that moment, at the same time, many people were losing their jobs due to nine, not nine 11, 2008 crisis.
And I decided in that moment, I wasn't going to work for someone again. I was going to work for myself so that that kind of thing couldn't happen again. So it was a personal decision.
Um, yeah. And I did change things after that actually. Yeah. It was kind of a great example. That is, that's a, I can't think of a more perfect example than that. Well, we're glad that you, I mean, I'm not glad he got fired from your job, but we're glad you got that wake up call and that's, and otherwise we wouldn't be here today. So I wouldn't all be here today. No, it's true. It's true. So sometimes we don't see these things coming, but they come and they're shocking and it's very painful in the moment, but good things come out of them because of
forces us to have real conversations with ourselves. What do we want our career to look like? Right? - Yeah, yeah, really good.
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- All right, so Michelle, there must be other ways we could say this, right? - Mm-hmm. - Yeah, I like this one, a rude awakening.
And that's really, that's a negative thing, right? A rude awakening. So you're in for a rude awakening if you think Sally finished the report. - We know Sally. - Sally, so we have too much confidence in Sally, it sounds like, right? Yeah, rude awakening. Okay, yeah, that one, yeah, that's a good one. Very harsh, right?
Then eye opener. This is a good one too. It was an eye opener when I changed jobs. I realized how mistreated I was all those years. Ooh, that's not good. No.
Yeah. Okay. All right. Let's do one more reality check. Right. So I'm so I'm sorry to say this, but I think you need a reality check. Our company is not doing that well and we have to be realistic in our goals. Ouch. Yes, exactly. These are all, I mean, and it's good. We want these moments to happen, right? We, we, so that we can grow and change and evolve. Um, right. Which one are you most likely to use here?
here i think uh well wake up call i would say is definitely in the number one but um
maybe rude awakening I kind of like that one I mean I know it's only for negative things but I I like how it sounds what about you Lindsay I like eye opener it was an eye opener to see the numbers last month or something like that right it's a good one that's a good one um Michelle do you have any stories you want to share no no pressure no pressure I didn't come to that oh man I know when you were telling your story I was so happy that it was long because then I
It was like a really good story. And then I thought, okay, I don't have to tell one now. Okay. You don't have to share it. I can't, I can't think of one specifically, but yeah. Yeah. I mean, I know these things happen. I know I have a friend who recently, these can be very deep. Like if someone passes away, for example, that we know, um, I have a friend who was living in new England and, uh, someone they knew that was taking care of their dog passed away, got hit, uh, they were on a scooter actually.
in New England and they died. And it was so sudden and so shocking for her that she said, I need to change my life and I'm going to move. Like they needed, she needed to physically move to be closer to family. And so they did, they've moved now. Where did they move to? Actually to Colorado. So, oh, yeah, they moved to Colorado. So, so I don't know, these, these can, this can happen when, unfortunately, when there's some kind of tragic
Right. It might be like a way for you, like a wake up call that you need to start paying attention to your health more. Yes. Or anything. Yeah. Spend more time with your family. Just like appreciating life. Right. Appreciating life. Yeah. Yep. Exactly. Okay.
Well, yeah, so let's do a role play. So here we are colleagues and we're talking about our hopes for our work this year. So here we go. I just hope we can finally get those bonuses.
huh i think you're in for a rude awakening the company didn't do as well as we had hoped oh i was afraid of that maybe this is a wake-up call that we need to change something yeah i honestly think we need a reality check we need to focus more on marketing that would help so much yeah it was an eye-opener when i went to that conference and saw what others were doing we have to try more a
Agreed. Oh, yes. Conferences are great eye-openers. Yeah. Yeah, they are. Yeah, yeah. At the TESOL conference this year, the conference for teaching English to speakers of other languages, every third session was about AI in language learning. And that was an eye-opener for me. And I thought, wow, this is going to be big, right? Yeah. Yeah. Really interesting. So we can learn so much about what's really going on when we go to these conferences. Yeah.
Yeah, that's excellent. Oh, I bet that was interesting. Yeah. All right, Michelle. So what did we say here? What did we say?
Well, I say, I hope we're going to get those bonuses. And you said, I think you're in for a rude awakening, right? So meaning we're not right. You're going to be, uh, you know, unpleasantly surprised. Yes, exactly. And then you said, oh, I was afraid of that. Maybe this is a wake up call that we need to change something. Right. And then you said, yeah, I honestly think we need a reality check. We need to focus more on marketing.
Good. And then you said, yeah, it was an eye-opener when I went to that conference and saw what others are doing. Yes. Nice. All right. Great conversation there. Michelle, is there another episode our listeners should get into?
All right. So if you are going through a wake-up call or an eye-opener, you might want to be brainstorming on what to do. So guys, check out episode 408. That was how to throw out your ideas in a brainstorming session.
Yeah, perfect. And this is another connection episode, connection skill. We've put it in the context today of business, talking about maybe sales dipping. But you can bring this out into your daily life to connect with your coworkers, not around your work, but around life events, right? Sometimes we get close to our coworkers and we might share some big event that we've experienced and how we're going to change our lives based on it.
right yeah huge for connection so for business conversations or just for human regular conversations very helpful talking about those key moments that let us know something needed to change yes good stuff so guys go ahead and leave a review for the podcast and don't forget to hit follow right here on business english all right michelle we'll see you next time all right lindsay have a great day take care bye bye
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