How’s it going?

Nesse episódio do podcast Inglês Online vamos falar sobre algumas expressões muito comuns com a palavra ‘call’.

Transcrição

Hi, everybody. What’s up? Today we have a new episode of the inglesonline podcast. To download or just listen to other episodes and download transcripts, go to inglesonline.com.br and click Podcast Inglesonline.

Today we have three expressions with the word ‘call’. Yeah, I’m talking about call, the same word we use when we telephone someone. But only one of the expressions today has something to do with giving a phone call, so, let’s get started with that one.

Here it is: “Don’t call us; we’ll call you”. That means, of course, please do not get in touch. We will contact you, we will let you know if we want to talk to you any further. So, for example, you had a job interview this morning and, at the end, you asked the interviewer “When do you think you’ll make a decision?” And the interviewer says “Don’t call us, we’ll call you. Thank you for coming!”

This phrase “Don’t call us, we’ll call you” is often understood as, and it often actually is, a dismissal. It’s like that person is saying “Don’t bother, OK? Don’t bother calling us. If you get the job, we will let you know”. Sometimes you see that on sitcoms: one of the characters comes back from a job interview and a friend asks “So how did the interview go?” and the character answers “The interviewer said ‘Don’t call us, we’ll call you'”. And the friend says “Oh, sorry to hear that. I’m sorry it didn’t work out”.

This phrase is often understood as a rejection, although, I mean, that’s not necessarily true, of course. It could be that the people at the company decide that they like you and that you’re a good fit for the job and they end up calling you, so… who knows? In any case, if you hear “Don’t call us; we’ll call you” at the end of an interview, you know what to do: nothing. And keep looking for a job, right?

Our second expression with ‘call’ today is a great one. I’m going to start off with an example which, I think, will make it easier for you guys to get the meaning. Picture this: you and your work mates are in the office, working on a spreadsheet. It’s a super important spreadsheet with a ton of calculations and you’ve all been crunching numbers for hours, and snacking on some pizza, and now you’re revising the numbers again… So finally, around 5 o’clock, your work is done. The spreadsheet is ready to be emailed to the VP of Sales. You take one final glance at the spreadsheet, save the file and zip it up.

You’re about to hit “Send” when John, one of your teammates, interrupts you and says “Wait! We’d better make this file ‘read-only’, you know, just to be safe. A couple of people other than the VP will be able to open it, so… Let’s make it a read-only file’. Everyone looks at John and you say “Good call!” No one but John thought of the security aspect. That spreadsheet is full of confidential information and you guys worked so hard on it. The least you can do is protect it from being modified, even accidentally. So that’s why, when John thought that it would be a good idea to make the spreadsheet read-only, you said “Good call!”

That means, wow, what a great thing to think of, what a great thing to notice! Here’s something that’s really important; it’s such an important and simple detail, and no one else even thought of it, but John. And that is why you said “Good call, John!