Learn Business English Vocabulary – Corporate phrases
Following on from the previous Short and Sweet episode (episode 105) today we are going to learn more about the corporate jargon or corporate buzzwords. I will share some examples with you which you can start implementing right away. Enjoy :)
Transcript
Hello guys and gals, you are listening to the English Made Simple Show, this is episode number 1-0-7, one hundred and seven, numero ciento siete.
Hey amigos, welcome to the short and sweet episode of the English Made Simple show, my name is Milena from www.englishmadesimple.net.
In today’s show I will share a few office buzzwords that are commonly used around the workplace. I will share a few jargon phrases that can be heard around offices practically every day.
So if you are currently employed overseas or if you are working for a multinational company where you have to talk in English, communicate in English, you will find today’s episode extremely useful.
I wish something like this existed when I entered the workforce for the first time.
Learning the corporate lingo is like learning another language sometimes.
Earlier I mentioned the word” buzzwords”, what’s a buzzword? Buzzword also known as buzzword bingo, or business speak, or business jargon, or colloquial business language and my favourite which is “weasel words”, it is just colloquial language used by corporations.
Another word for jargon is slang, modismos. Corporate jargon is lenguaje corporativo in Spanish.
Remember this guys, every company will have their own jargon, so you will need to learn two things really, the general slang and also the industry specific slang in whatever industry you happen to be working in.
For example, if you are in Sales and Marketing you will hear this popular phrase: customer-centric. If a company claims to be customer-centric it just means that they are customer orientated or customer focused.
So the word customer-centric is essentially a buzzword in the business world, sales and marketing world more specifically.
Hmm….Who comes up with this lingo, I have no idea! It’s like cool bananas, we can use cool bananas here at English Made Simple. This could be our lingo! There we go I started the trend now. Go bananas using Cool Bananas.
Let me continue.
On the other hand we have something like IoT, it’s an acronym – which stands for Internet of Things, this is an excellent example of a more recent buzzword, it’s a lingo adopted from the Science and Technology field and I hear it almost everywhere in the news now, it also appears inside the magazines for techies. Techies another word for technical people. If you are interested in technology you will know what Internet of Things means.
This one is a new buzzword, but we had words like Cloud, Data and Dotcom for example or in Spanish Puntocom, they used to be buzzwords in the past, maybe they still are, but we just take them for granted nowadays. We take them as normal, every-day words.
Alrighty amigos, I will now share a few examples of the most commonly used phrases in the workplace that you can start using going forward.
The first one being, going forward.
Going forward or moving forward – they are both the same mean sometime in the future.
In Spanish this would be similar to más adelante.
I will use Mr Jones as an example, Mr Jones is my boss today, el jefe.
For example: So just to confirm Mr Jones, going forward you will be expecting the report to be produced on a monthly basis.
The next phrase, amigos, is:
Drop me a line – meaning contact me either by phone or email, or simply get in touch. Contact me.
For example – Thank you Mr Jones, I will drop you a line once the report is finalised.
And the last 2 following phrases that you would typically hear at work, the following 2 phrases would be used frequently, I am sure. And they are: Keep me in the loop and To Follow Up.
Keep me in the loop – meaning keep me posted, keep me informed about the project, about the meeting or any plans or similar. In Spanish would be manténme informado, keep me informed.
The word loop itself means a cycle. If you as an employee are not inside a loop you are not being informed about things.
Well, let me give you an example, I can say to my boss, Mr Jones, I will keep you in the loop regarding the report. I will keep you informed, I will keep you updated.
And the last phrase for this evening or morning if it’s the morning over there where you happen to be at the moment.
To follow up. Some of the related words to describe this phrase would be: to look into, to pursue, to find out, to make sure, to ensure, and to investigate.
Follow up – to chase someone for information.
For example: Mr Jones, being my boss, could tell me: Thanks for putting your hand up to do the report Milena. I will follow up with you next week.
And another example: I am just following up to see how the report is tracking along. Where are you up to with this?
And ta-da! We have reached the end of the show. You can start using these phrases immediately. No doubt you have seen them somewhere already, maybe in the emails or you’ve heard them being spoken in the meetings, over the phone with your colleagues for example.
And that’s it! There will be more coming next week! Thank you for listening. You’ve been jamming with Milena from English Made Simple, until next time, hasta la proxima!