BE 417: Ease Into Business English
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This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 417, Ease into 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.

Are you still translating from your native language into English in your head? Are you always getting confused between the different grammar tenses? Let's figure out what you need to work on. Find your current English level with our five-minute quiz at allearsenglish.com slash fluency score.

Hey Aubrey, how's it going today? I'm great. Lindsay, how are you? Aubrey, I have a question about your working style. Ready? Let's hear it. So do you like to ease into projects or do you just dive right in headfirst? I definitely dive right in headfirst.

Okay.

Yes, me too. I want to dive right in, but then I'll pull back because I'll realize, oh, I need this first. I need that first. And that can be a little frustrating sometimes, right? Absolutely. I think a lot of us are probably, especially if it's something new and exciting, we can't help, but we don't want to ease into it, right? Yeah.

- Yes, you guys have likely noticed we use this phrase ease into, and we got a great question in our Q&A. Alejandro was in our Q&A. This is something that students in our courses at the personal coach level are able to attend every week

and ask questions about what they're learning in their course. And he had this really great question. He had seen ease used as both a noun and a verb, and he had heard the expression ease into something, but he was unsure how to use them. And it was really great to talk about in Q&A. And I thought this is going to be great for the Business English podcast. Yeah, that's a great question for Q&A. And, you know, Q&A is a great thing, right? Students show up, they have their questions prepared, and you just get to ask the question and get an answer live on the call.

Right? Very, very cool. I know. And I think all of the students in there, they're always taking notes because the questions other students bring are always so interesting as they're observing language and learning these great things. So it's really amazing. So you guys should be in one of our courses if you're not. Yeah.

I mean, on top of that, you're there, you're practicing, right? Because you're asking the question, you're asking a follow-up question. You are maybe speaking a little bit with other students or with the teacher, and that is the way we're doing it there. So to get into the weekly Q&A, it's at the personal coach level, and all of our courses offer a basic plan and a personal coach plan. So choose the personal coach plan, all right? Yeah, so you could take any course that we offer and then get in the personal coach plan for that weekly Q&A.

It's very fun. All right, great. Aubrey, let's dive into these words now. Let's do it. All right. So first is ease as a noun, meaning an absence of difficulty or effort. So for example, you might say, I was surprised at the ease with which he accomplished that. So really, you're just saying it was so easy for him. I was amazed at the ease that he accomplished that.

Yeah. It's kind of amazing when you watch someone that is a master at something at their craft and the way they're just so elegant when, whatever, I don't know, like making pottery or whatever it is. I've talked to my father about this. He's an oil painter and I'll just watch. I'm like, I can't believe the ease with which he paints, right? He just makes it look so easy. Yes. I

I love that. I love watching people do what they do well. Here's another example. She's looking forward to retiring so she can have a life of ease. Travel, swinging in hammocks. Exactly. This just means lacking difficult effort or work, a life of ease.

Sounds nice. Sounds nice. All right. Next one. Now ease as a verb, different, right? Yeah. It means to make something unpleasant or painful or maybe intense, less severe or less serious. Okay. Right.

Right. So, for example, the new policy should ease tensions in the office. Is the pronunciation the same between the noun and the verb? Exactly the same. It has that Z sound. Ease. Yep. And these all, all of these are pronounced the same. So that helps. But it has all these different meanings. We use it all these different ways. And we actually use it as a noun, a verb and an adjective. So you're going to see that one in just a second here. All right, good. What's another example for a verb?

Yeah, a few people are experiencing overwhelm. So we'll add a new team member to ease the burden. So for this meaning, it's always going to be ease followed by something unpleasant, right? Ease tensions, ease anger, ease frustrations, right? We would never say ease happiness, for example.

Yeah, that doesn't make any sense because you're already good. You don't need to reduce it. Next one is ease into something. This is what we talked about at the top of the show. A phrasal verb about moving carefully or gradually into something to begin something.

Right? Exactly. And this can be physical, right? She eased into her chair, like if you're wanting to be quiet for some reason and not make it squeak, right? And it also can be more... So for example, you might say, when he arrived late, he... Oh, this is the physical. He eased into the chair to avoid disrupting the meeting. Yeah. Yeah.

Or it could be broader. You know, what just came to mind was my freshman year in college. I didn't know this because I traveled 500 miles to go there from New Hampshire. So I didn't go home, but I didn't know this until I got there. It was a suitcase school. Everyone went home on the weekends. So I was like, oh no,

No one told me this. So I'm there in the dorms by myself and the weekend it was sort of it was sort of just all these other kids were easing in college life. Right. What about laundry at home still? Yeah, they're doing laundry. I'm like, what? Are you serious? Did you go home a lot as a freshman on the weekend? Or did you stay where you I was a combination between right so it was about a three hour drive home. So I usually stayed but

I would go home maybe once every three months. So it was sort of a happy medium between easing into and then diving in. Yeah. No, that's good. I used to sometimes go home with my friends. So that was good. Right. Because you do kind of want to, you're like, I sort of miss a home cooked meal. Right.

You're only 18 years old, you know? So anyways, all right, next one. What is it Aubrey? Number four. - So the last one is at ease, which this is our adjective phrase, which means relaxed or in a state of comfort or relaxation. So we might say, we want our customers to feel at ease, 'cause we want them to feel relaxed and comfortable. - Yes, or I feel really at ease in this office since the company culture is so positive, yeah.

And it's kind of interesting. I know someone who's an interior designer and designers will think about this in terms of how they want people to feel when they enter an office space.

Yeah, exactly. You want people to feel at ease in a lobby, in an office space. Absolutely. What's the aesthetic? What's the color on the wall? What kind of furniture? Is it leather? Is it like a bright color fabric? Really fascinating. Yes, it's interesting. And the opposite, we have these two phrases. We can just say, I don't feel at ease. This would mean like worried or anxious. You don't have that.

relaxed feeling or we'll also say ill at ease I feel ill at ease here means like I just don't feel comfortable and I like that one that sounds very high level it's kind of articulate it's interesting right mm-hmm yeah eczema isn't always obvious but it's real and so is the relief from edgeless I

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Okay, we're back for a role play. Let's do it Aubrey. So here we are coworkers and we're discussing a recent misunderstanding that we had at work. Okay, so this is a very important connection skill. Absolutely. This happens. There are misunderstandings, miscommunications and how you handle it is what really matters to save the connection. Totally. So here we go. I don't really feel at ease about this situation. I think I can ease your fears by explaining what happened. Oh, I'd appreciate that. Thanks.

Initially, we were trying to ease into this project, so we didn't really give anyone the big picture. Okay, that makes sense. So it wasn't just me that was in the dark? Yeah, we thought initial tasks would be accomplished with ease and then we could move on to next steps. Yeah, and this kind of thing happens all the time, right? So it is really important to be able to sort of explain, be transparent as much as possible, and

As you said, Aubrey, foster the connection. Save the connection. Yes. Right. A few really good, important things happening here. First of all, you're coming to someone and saying that you don't feel at ease about something that happened. Right. So that's the first important thing is for because whoever you're talking to probably doesn't know that you feel uncomfortable with that situation. You have to express that.

Yes, that's your responsibility for sure. So I don't really feel at ease. And then you responded and you said, I think I can ease your fears. Now we're using this as a verb, right? Exactly right. And this will be followed by something negative. I think I can ease your concern, your worry, your frustration. Any of those might work depending on how you have told me you're feeling.

Yeah. And then you said, okay. I said, thank you. Please go ahead. Right? Yes. Right. I'd appreciate that. You mean, say more. Yes. Please say more. Yes. Yeah. And then what?

And then I said, initially, we were trying to ease into this project. So we didn't give anyone the big picture. It's interesting. This does happen sometimes. You're like, well, if we give everyone the big picture, then we're sort of diving in headfirst. And you're thinking if we can ease into it and just have people accomplish little tasks here and there. But that doesn't work for everyone. Some people are like, I need to know the big picture and then I'll understand how I fit in.

Yeah, it's true because the company could be just experimenting with an idea, right? A new line of business and...

if you go and announce it to everyone, we're doing this now, it becomes a whole thing where you just want to kind of experiment and see if you might be able to play in that world, that line of business, right? Right. They're saying they're just trying to ease into this project. You can see how this is a very typical misunderstanding, miscommunication, something that could cause this problem that where no one has really done anything wrong. It's sort of a difference in vision of how things would roll out. But then if it

really is creating this sense of unease for you, for someone, then they should express that and let someone know like next time,

it would be better if I had the whole picture, for example. - Yeah, and then the last thing we said was we thought initial tasks would be accomplished with ease, right? And then we could move on to next steps, nice. - Yeah, and this is interesting to think about this phrase with ease for something to be done with ease. You can replace it with the adverb easily. We thought this could be accomplished easily. So there's two different ways to say that, right?

I mean, absolutely the same thing interchangeable. Yeah, but I love that we didn't really teach that because that's still our listeners know that word, right? We know that but we're looking to expand what are the other ways we can use this idea of ease and more more articulate ways. Exactly right. More options, the more options you have, the better. If you've already said easily a couple of sentences ago, and you need to express that same thought. This helps you avoid being repetitive. If you have this other option, we accomplished this with ease.

Yes, I love that. And we did have a bonus today, Aubrey. Yes, you had said, okay, so it wasn't just me that was in the dark. This is a great bonus. That means to not have all the information, right? You're not literally in a dark room. It means that you were or sometimes we'll say they kept me in the dark, which sort of means they intentionally didn't give you all the information for some reason.

Yes, yes. Good one. Good expression. Yes. All right. So the next episode, guys, one other episode we can go to to learn more is Business English 411. Get some English experience under your belt. And I love that idiom. Another one. Yes. This was you and Michelle. There's some great vocabulary in that episode. So scroll up if you missed it. And be sure to hit follow on the podcast here if you are missing any of these amazing episodes.

All right, Aubrey. So what does this mean for connection? What's our takeaway today? Yeah, I love this thought that if you feel ill at ease at work, you should say something, right? Whatever it is that caused that maybe could have been prevented or could be prevented next time. So definitely speak up.

Yeah, exactly. Don't kind of harbor feelings of that could turn into resentment and could really affect your relationships at work and your performance, right? Bring it out, you know, and then depending on how the company handles it, that tells you a lot about, about that company and your future there, right?

Good point. Do they want you to feel at ease or does it seem to not be a priority or a value to them? I agree. That is a big deal. And so today you have learned all of this very interesting information for ease. What a tricky word to use it as a noun, a verb and an adjective.

But we use it all the time. It's very common. So I'm excited for you to be able to add it to your language. Awesome. Sounds good, guys. Hit the follow button right here on Business English and we'll see you next time. Awesome. See you next time. Bye. Bye. Bye.

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