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Welcome back to business English Pod! Today's Show

is part of a two-part series on making,

rejecting and accepting suggestions.

Reject means to say no and accept means to say yes

In this English lesson, we're focusing on making suggestions

in the next lesson, we'll look at accepting

and rejecting suggestions. This dialogue takes place and a sports shoe company

called Stratos. You'll be listening to Karen,

a marketing manager, meet with three members of her team

Charles, Sven, and Miguel. They are choosing a celebrity spokesperson

for new product. Celebrity means

a famous person. Here, spokesperson

is someone who gets paid to be in an advertisement for product

In the dialogue, target market is the place where you want to sell your

product and target consumer

is the type of customer you want to sell your product to.

In this case the product is a special kind of new sports shoe

made especially for overweight people.

Overweight is a nice way of saying too heavy or not fit.

okay let's listen as you listen

pay attention to the language the speakers used to make suggestions to

each other

okay now let's talk about who we want to use as a spokesperson for this product

let's go around the table show uses sports to

or someone else spend what do you think

well look possibility would be to use a famous

overweight business executives all CEO someone who is really successful

sorry can I come in here yes go ahead Miguel

that's a good idea but I'm not sure it would work

why not well for one thing our customers want to be fit

not back well then what do you suggest

perhaps we should just use a famous sports star

like we usually do if it isn't broken don't fix it

you know what I mean we could try getting Rooney

weren't at all good suggestion but I can see one or two problems with that

to be honest Boeing first of a target market

are in the UK and the US we need

someone people with Americans and Britain's really like

secondly a target customer is kind of special

I've got a suggestion go ahead child it's just an idea

but how about choosing someone from a sport wheres normal

to be happy american football for example

heavy but agile overweight

but strong and fast you know what I mean Rai

I can see what you doing what do others think

yes that might be worth trying okay

the what about the UK who we get to use on this side of the Atlantic

mmm let me think about the youth show we try to find someone in Golf

that's popular in the US and in the UK and that way we can kill two birds with

one stone I'm

that's an idea that idea you know I think this work to run

karen's team had a lot of ideas didn't what language do they use to make their

suggestions

first listen to us then well

look possibility would be to use a famous overweight business executives

all CEO

someone who is really successful houseman

make a suggestion he says one possibility

would be to instead will he uses

would the use of wood here means it's just a suggestion

past moreover should

could might and would are often use like this

in suggestions now listen to Miguel

making a suggestion perhaps we should just use a famous sports star

like we usually do if it isn't broken don't fix it

you know what I mean perhaps we should

is another polite way making a suggestion notice the you served just

perhaps we should just use a famous pornstar

this shows that what he's suggesting is no change

from the normal way of doing things that's why he says

if it isn't broken don't fix it this is an idiom

it means don't change something if it's already working fine

in informal American world English you can say

if it ain't broke don't fix it so far

we have two ways of making suggestions one possibility would be to

and perhaps we should

now

let's look at a couple more ways to make suggestions listener charles

I've got a suggestion go ahead child it's just an idea

but how about choosing someone from a sport worse normal

to be happy first Charles shows

that he has a suggestion I've got a suggestion

then since he's talking to his boss

and perhaps since he's not sure everyone will agree with him

he uses a careful polite way to introduce the suggestion

is just an idea by how Barack how bout

is a normal way of making a suggestion is just an idea but

makes it extra polite instead a Powerball

you can also say what about how bout

and what about are followed by a ver plus being

I N G

how about washing the dishes

it's just an idea but what about eating lunch together

these are sometimes followed by a phrase or sentence

this is more common with how about

how about you wash the dishes and I dry

how bout we have

lunch together

finally let's look at a couple more ways

making a suggestion listen to how Karen

makes her suggestion show we try to find someone in Gulf

you can also say wanna for example

what if we cut costs by finding a new office

now with Karen steam

practice the ways and making suggestions that we've learned so far

well one possibility would be to

I am will star

perhaps

should have more vacation

just an idea

n but how about leaving a little bit early today

shall we try to look at this from another point of view

well what if we try to

open a new store in Germany

now it's your turn to talk in a moment

you'll hear a series of Q's followed by a bee

after each be use the information supplied

in the queue to make a suggestion for example

if you hear get back on to sponsor the product

you can say well one possibility

would be to get back come to sponsor the product are you ready

let's give it a try

launched a new product in q1 next year

they've been a grant in Slovenia

give employees larger bonuses

hold English training

scheduled weekly meetings to check on progress

how did you do listen to the examples to check your answers

remember there are many possible ways to respond to each question

launch the new product in q1 next year

and soon perhaps you should launch the new product in q1 next year

they've been a branch in Slovenia

answer it's just an idea but what if we open a branch in Slovenia

give employees larger bonuses

sir well what if we try to give employees legend bonuses

hold English training

answer well one possibility

would be to hold English training

scheduled weekly meetings to check on progress

answer let's schedule weekly meetings to check on progress

now that you've heard some examples go back in practice again

substitute different phrases to build fluency

that's all for this unit we've covered many useful expressions for making

suggestions

in the next unit will use the same dialogue

to cover rejecting and accepting suggestions will also look closely

at some idioms that were used in the dialogue thanks for listening