Podcast Inglês Online

Hey, everyone. Nesse episódio do podcast Inglês Online eu falo sobre expressões relacionadas à palavra boring (chato, entediante).

Transcrição

Hi, all. 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.

Are you familiar with the word “boring”? If you’ve been in contact with English for longer than, let’s say, four or five months, chances are you’ve heard this word before. Boring. Boring is an adjective and it describes something – or someone – that, in your opinion, is uninteresting, tedious maybe, or even dull.

So people can say “That movie was boring. I almost fell asleep halfway through”. Or someone might ask you “Why are you so boring today? You haven’t said a word the whole afternoon!” What are some boring things in your opinion? Think of the last boring movie you watched. Alright. Now let’s get to some expressions involving the word ‘boring’ or a related word.

I’ve already talked about the expression bored to tears in a previous episode. That means, like, super bored. You’re almost crying, you’re so bored. Here’s a similar expression: bored to death. That’s extreme, right? It’s like you’re saying, this situation is so boring that I’m dying of boredom. Let me give you an example: many people enjoy action movies a lot, and they’re not used to watching movies that are more dialogue-based. You know, films where most scenes are about the characters talking. Some movies are like that: they don’t have a lot of action and they’re all about the conversation. Many people who grew up watching action movies full of explosions and car chasing aren’t used to slower-paced films, and therefore they find these of films super boring. They might say “I went with my friend to watch that movie and it bored me to death”.

You know one thing that bores me to death sometimes? Traveling. Sometimes, when I’m on a bus or plane, and it’s a long trip, I just get so bored after a few hours. Of course having an mp3 player with me helps relieve the boredom, but sometimes even that won’t help since I’m too sleepy to pay attention to whatever’s playing, and at the same time I’m uncomfortable in the seat, so I can’t fall asleep. That state bores me to death sometimes, cause there’s nothing I can do to accelerate the bus or the plane.

Here’s another way to say that: I was bored out of my mind last time I traveled by bus. OK, I’m exaggerating… I’m usually able to doze off for a few minutes, but in general I’ll wake up after only a few minutes and I get bored out of my mind real fast. Sometimes you hear someone say that they attended a lecture or a presentation, and it bored them out of their mind. Other people are bored out of their mind when they’re attending some kind of class they’re not interested in.

You know what else happens occasionally? You’re at a party and you don’t know anyone, and then someone walks up to you and introduces himself. Yeah, let’s say it’s a guy and his name’s Steve. So Steve starts talking and he talks, and talks, and talks, and you’re struggling to pay attention just because his topic is so boring to you. That monologue is boring you out of your mind. I have to admit: that happened to me before when I was in school, and I didn’t have the guts to excuse myself and leave.

Hey, everyone. Nesse episódio do podcast Inglês Online eu conto sobre o que aconteceu num café quando uma estrangeira pediu ajuda.

Transcrição

Hi, all. 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.

Yesterday I spent all morning in a café. A café is a place where you can get coffee, of course, but also a sandwich, a snack, juice, water, stuff like that. In other words, it’s a place where you can get a capuccino and make a light meal if you want. Nowadays pretty much all cafés offer wi-fi connection, which is a big plus for me. I, like many other people, enjoy working at a café while sipping a coffee drink or some tea. For some reason I don’t mind all the buzz around me. You know, other people getting their coffee, chatting, talking on the phone… I find that usually I’m able to concentrate much better when I’m at a public place with a cup of coffee. Go figure!

So last morning there I was writing something on my netbook when a woman standing next to me said, in English, “Excuse me, do you speak some English?” I said yes, and she continued “Are you using the Internet?” I nodded, and she said “Can you help me?” She showed me her iPhone, and an Internet card that is given to customers free of charge at this café. Safari, the browser on the iPhone, was open, but the screen was blank. I told her that was wierd, ’cause the wifi connection at this cafe is supposed to not only fire up the browser, but also to open a screen where the owner of the iPhone would be able to enter their login information and the unique code from the Internet card.

This woman was really puzzled! She didn’t even know what to do with the card. That must be because this is a very famous chain of cafes that is present in several countries – maybe you know which one I’m talking about. In the US and many European coutries, you don’t need a card to connect to the Internet when you’re at this café. You simply get in there and when you fire up Safari you just have to agree to the terms of use and voilá – you’re connected. So maybe that’s what it’s like in this woman’s country. So she showed me the card and the iPhone screen and then she looked at me, and her face said “What do I do?”

I told her that she needed to register online at the Internet provider’s page, and I told her she would have to enter username, password and her passport number. That surprised her – she thought it was a bit much since she only wanted to have access for a few minutes. But the weird thing is that the same page should have showed up on her iPhone browser.

I asked her to hand me the phone and then I shook it a little and tapped it lightly. She thought that was funny and chuckled. Who knows? That might have worked, but it didn’t and I handed the phone back to her. She thanked me and said using the Internet for a few minutes wasn’t worth the trouble of registering and then filling in a form, etc. Then she went back to talking to her friend. From what I was able to tell, they were speaking either German or Dutch.

So, tell me: do you run into many foreigners where you live? I live in São Paulo and I run into people from other countries all the time. Sometimes I’m just walking down the street and I hear some foreign language being spoken, usually English or Spanish. Has anyone ever walked up to you in the street and asked for directions or other kind of information? Were you able to help?  Let us know in the comments… tell us your story. Talk to you next time.

 

Glossary

which is a big plus for me = o que pra mim é uma grande vantagem

sipping = bebericando

Go figure!

Hey, everyone. Nesse episódio do podcast Inglês Online falamos sobre expressões interessantes em inglês com a palavra WALK, e eu chamo sua atenção também para uma expressãozinha que comunica “no entanto”.

Transcrição

Hi, all. 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.

Let’s take a look today at a couple of expressions with the word WALK. Yes, this is a very simple word, one that most people learn very quickly when they start studying English, and yet there are many, many idiomatic expressions in English that use this word and the more we hear them and get what they mean, the faster we’ll incorporate them into our own vocabulary.

Before we get to the idioms with WALK… did you notice I said “and yet”? Listen again: ‘Walk’ is a very simple word, and yet there are many English idioms with this word that we may not be used to. I don’t know how knowledgeable you are about the word YET, but here’s a very common way to use it: ‘walk’ is a very simple word, and yet some expressions with walk aren’t that simple. The French course isn’t what Mary expected, and yet she’s still attending classes. Teaching teenagers was difficult and demanding, and yet Mark still misses it. We didn’t know anyone at Jane’s party, and yet we stayed until the end. “And yet” can usually be translated as “no entanto” or “ainda assim”… so keep an eye out (and an ear) for “and yet” next time you find yourself listening to English or watching a TV show.

So here’s our first idiom of today: walk all over somebody. What does that mean? “Walk all over somebody” has a figurative meaning which is usually to treat that person badly or without consideration or respect. Here’s an example: let’s say your friend Sara started a new job a month ago and today the two of you are at a bar catching up and she’s filling you in on her new job. She says her new boss, Lawrence, has been demanding a lot more from her than she initially agreed to do. She says she’s been working late every night since her first day on the job, and that she’s been covering for a colleague who went on vacation last week. When you ask her why she’s agreed to do all that extra work, she says “Well, I tried to tell my boss that this isn’t part of my job description but he’s always so busy and last week he told me I could lose my job if I refused to do the extra work. He said it’s really hard to get a job nowadays and that I was really lucky to be in this company”.

You can’t believe what you’re hearing. In your opinion, Sara’s boss is being a jerk! He’s trying to scare her. You tell Sara “Your boss is walking all over you, Sara, and it is up to you to put a stop to this! If you don’t do it, he’s gonna keep acting like a jerk and demanding things from you he has no right to!”. You think Sara’s boss is treating her very badly. You also think he’s not respecting his initial agreement with Sara, and unfortunately your friend has given in to his unreasonable demands. So he keeps walking all over her.

Can you think of any examples from your own life, or someone you know? Let us know in the comments. And here’s another expression with WALK: “all walks of life”. This is an interesting expression and you’ll hear it when people are describing events or any situation, really, where they saw people with very different backgrounds.  Not just in terms of professional experience, but diverse social, economic and even ethnic groups. For example, you could hear someone who attended a concert at a...

Hi, all. Nesse episódio do podcast Inglês Online falamos sobre mais dois ditados muito populares em inglês, desta vez ligados às consequências de nossos atos.

Transcrição

Hello, everybody. How’s it going? 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.

Our episode today is dedicated to a couple of very popular sayings in English. The first one is What goes around, comes around. Think of a boomerang. When you throw a boomerang, it kinda makes a u-turn and flies back at you, or at least near you, right? That’s kind of the principle behind this saying: what goes around, comes around.

People usually use this saying to mean basically that if you’re bad, bad things will happen to you, and if you’re good, good things will happen to you. So let’s say you’re telling your friend Sara what happened at the office last week. You were in a meeting with your boss, who reports to the company CEO, and you watched how the CEO chewed your boss out right there in front of everyone. And what’s really weird about it is, the CEO is usally such a calm, slow-to-anger kind of guy! Not last week, though. He raised his voice and proceeded to scold your boss. Now, you’ve been working for this guy for a year and the thing is, he has the habit of scolding employees in front of everyone else!

When your friend hears that, she says “What goes around, comes around. He’s been such a jerk to his employees; now it’s his turn to be yelled at”. So he yelled a lot at his employees; now the CEO is yelling at him and scolding him. What goes around, comes around. Here’s another example: you friend Mark tells you that he had a neighbor who kept throwing trash on Mark’s backyard. Mark confronted him and he denied it. This morning, however, someone dumped a lot of trash on his garden and ruined the flowers! You could say “What goes around… comes around”. This guy dumped a lot of trash on Mark’s garden, but now it is his turn. Someone did the same thing to him, and he’s not happy! What goes around, comes around.

And this is the perfect example to introduce our second expression today. You know what else we could say about Mark’s neighbor? Here it goes: we could say that he got a taste of his own medicine. Again: Mark’s neighbor got a taste of his own medicine. What does that mean? Well, this expression means that Mark’s neighbor was doing something unpleasant to Mark, and now someone’s doing the same thing to him, so he can have a “taste” of that unpleasant thing he was doing. And just to clarify: “medicine”, here, means “drug”, but not that bad kind of drug. “Medicine” here means the kind of drug people take in order to heal a disease.

And what about my initial example, where Sara’s boss got scolded by the CEO? Remember I said he had the habit of doing just that to his employees?  Well, when the CEO yelled at him in front of all his employees, he got a taste of his own medicine. You know when someone keeps doing something unpleasant, or bad, and then all of a sudden they become the victim of that same thing they were doing? That’s when you can say They got a taste of their own medicine.

So please give us your example in the comments. Can you remember any examples from your own life where someone had a taste of their own medicine? Talk to you next time.

 

Key expressions

* What goes around, comes around

* get a taste of his/her/your/etc. medicine

 

Glossary

Hi, all. How’s it going? Nesse episódio do podcast Inglês Online falamos sobre um ditado em inglês que diz que a gente colhe o que planta, mais usos do verbo reap (colher).

Transcrição

Hi, everyone. 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.

So today let’s take a look at a popular saying in English: you reap what you sow. You reap what you sow. We have a similar ditado in Portuguese: “a gente colhe o que planta”. Have you ever heard this saying here in Brazil? Well, it is used by English speakers basically in the same way we use it in Portuguese: to say that what we experience, or the results we get, are consequences of our own actions.

So let’s take a closer look at the key verbs in this saying: reap and sow. Sow is a verb  frequently used together with the word “seeds”. Do you see the picture? That guy is sowing some seeds. He’s spreading the seeds over an area of land and soon, if all goes well, some kind of plant will start growing there, and he will reap fruits or maybe grains. So the process of growing something on the land illustrates very well what this saying means. For example, if you sow orange seeds, you will eventually reap oranges. If you sow apple seeds, you’ll reap apples. If you sow corn, corn will grow and you won’t reap olives!  You will reap corn.

So figuratively speaking, if you sow lies and deceit, you will probably reap… something that is not good. You may end up without a job, or without support from other people and so on. What do you think about that? Would you agree that people reap what they sow?

So of course the word “reap” is very often used figuratively in conversation. For example, people say that if you work hard at something, you will reap the rewards later. Reap the rewards. What does reward mean? A reward is something you get in return for doing something else, usually something good. So, let’s say, if you go to college and study really hard you will later reap the rewards of your hard work. You’ll probably get a good job, or you’re going to become a scientist and become very famous, something like that.

Here’s an example: your friend Richard started eating more veggies six months ago and now he’s reaping the rewards. He feels better and he looks better, so he’s reaping the rewards of his dietary change. Many bloggers are reaping the rewards of putting a lot of work into their blogs over the years. Can you think of an example from your own life? Maybe you abandoned a bad habit some time ago, and now you’re reaping the rewards of doing so. Maybe you started saving some money last year and now you’re reaping the rewards: you have enough money to fulfill your dream of traveling around the world. What’s your example?

And, finally, it is also common to say that, after saving some money, or working hard, you’re now reaping the fruits of your actions. Of course, the fruits can be bad or good, depending on your actions. For example, if you kept lying to a friend in order to take advantage of him, and… let’s say your friend just found out about all your lies and he never wants to see you again, and he’s telling everyone about how you’re such a big liar. Well… it looks like you’re reaping the fruits of all that lying, right?

So let us know about your example. A genuine example; something that really happened in your life. Are you reaping the rewards of something you did in the past? Talk to you next time.

 

Key expressions

Hi, all. How’s it going? Nesse episódio do podcast Inglês Online falamos sobre como você vai ouvir perguntas às vezes de gente que fala muito rápido em inglês.

Transcrição

Hi, everyone. 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.

So let’s take a look today at something that may confuse you if you’ve been listening to podcasts or watching TV series and films in their original language.  This is something that took me a while to acquire – what I mean by this is, it took me a certain amount of listening to English to finally get this and absorb it, and incorporate it to my speech. It didn’t make sense to my ears in the beginning, but… enough with the mystery. I’m talking about the way the beginning of some questions is omitted in everyday speech.  What do I mean by that? I’ll show you.

These are a couple of questions you’ll hear people ask in everyday conversation:

* Anyone have a pen?

* Everyone see the show?

They may sound weird to you. You may ask yourself, Are these really questions?  They sound wrong. After all, we learn that ‘anyone’ and ‘everyone’ are the third person of the singular and therefore, we say ‘anyone has’ and ‘everyone sees’.

Well, let’s see: take the first one, Anyone have a pen? That is actually the quick, shorter version of Does anyone have a pen? When people are talking fast they will often skip “Does” and just go with the rest of the question. In my first few months in the US I would often say something like “Anyone HAS a pen?” because in my mind ‘anyone’ goes with ‘has’, not ‘have’.

This is a question, though, and it is a question in the present tense. The present tense calls for does when you’re using anyone. We say Does anyone have a pen? And, of course, one way to make ‘Does anyone have a pen?’ shorter is by skipping that little word at the beginning, ‘does’, and saying simply Anyone have a pen?

And that is exactly what many native speakers do and that’s why you will sometimes hear things like Anyone know what time the movie starts?, which comes from Does anyone know what time the movie starts?. Or Get it?, which comes from Do you get it? and You know what I mean?, which comes from… you guessed it. Do you know what I mean? The last two don’t sound so weird because we’re used to “you know”.

And here’s the other example I gave at the beginning: Everyone see the show? If you don’t get this question and you think “everyone see” sounds super weird… here’s why: this is a shorter version of Did everyone see the show? The speaker is obviously talking to a group of people and he or she wants to know whether everyone in the group saw a certain show. The auxiliary word “did” in Did everyone see the show? disappears and the question asked by this fast-talker becomes Everyone see the show?

Now, you may be asking yourself “But how would I know? How can I know this person is asking a question in the past if they’re not starting the question with DID” Well, the same way you know when a friend sees you and asks “So, how was the party?” What party is your friend talking about? Oh, your girlfriend’s birthday party. You told your friend yesterday that your girlfriend was gonna throw a big party to celebrate her birthday. Your friend sees you today and asks about the party. You know immediately what he’s talking about.

Same thing with that other person. When they ask “Everyone see the show?” they’re talking to people who are going to get the question, because they have talked about this show before.

Hello, everyone. What’s up?

Nesse episódio do podcast Inglês Online falamos sobre uma maneira simples de expandir nossa comunicação em inglês.

Transcrição

Hello, all. 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.

Everyone, let’s practice something a little different today. When we’re learning a new language, we start with the easy stuff, and that’s how it should be. After a while we become curious about how the language is really spoken, and we start paying attention to native speakers and their movies, TV shows, radio programs and so on. And then we notice that they don’t always speak in simple phrases – the ones we learned in… at the beginning of our English course. Here are a few examples of what I mean by this – here are a few short sentences. Notice how simple they are:

* I saw a dog in the yard.

* The crowd was noisy.

* That woman is from Germany.

* People say Mr. Jones is a great teacher.

* Did you see those people?

Short and simple, right? Here they are again, said a bit faster: I saw a dog in the yard. The crowd was noisy. That woman is from Germany. People say Mr. Jones is a great teacher. Did you see those people? So there’s absolutely nothing wrong with them, and as you and I both know, what people say is frequently longer and more detailed. So how about we take a look at one of the ways we can pack more information into those sentences?

Take the first example: I saw a dog in the yard. OK, that’s fine. However, when I looked at the dog, he was doing something. Yeah, I said “he” because… I could see it was a boy, so to speak. A male dog. So what I noticed when I saw the dog was that… he was barking at Sally. Sally is someone I know, and she was standing next to the dog. And the dog was barking at her. Remember my initial sentence? It was ‘I saw a dog in the yard’. And it was barking at Sally. What I would probably say in a real conversation is I saw a dog barking at Sally in the yard.

The additional information here is “barking at Sally”, right? And that’s pretty much the same thing we do in Portuguese. You don’t want to simply communicate you saw a dog. You want to communicate that you saw a dog barking at Sally. And, of course, instead of saying two sentences, such as “I saw a dog. It was barking at Sally”, we go for the easy way… We combine them into one sentence: I saw a dog barking at Sally in the yard.

What about the second one?  The crowd was noisy. What crowd am I talking about? Well, I was driving by a theater last night and got stuck in a bit of a jam. It was right at that moment that the crowd inside the theater was coming out to the street, and they were really noisy. They were talking and laughing and I thought they were really noisy. So what I’m telling you is that “The crowd was noisy”. Which crowd? The crowd coming out of the theater. So what I would probably say is The crowd coming out of the theater was noisy.

Let me call your attention again to the simple version of this example: The crowd was noisy. What’s the subject in this sentence? “The crowd”. Now the longer version is “The crowd coming out of the theater was noisy. What’s the subject here? The subject here is “The crowd coming out of the theater”. What was noisy? The crowd coming out of the theater.

Moving on… ‘That woman is from Germany’. Here’s some more information about this woman: she is talking to my sister,

Hi, everyone.  What’s up?

Nesse episódio do podcast Inglês Online falamos sobre duas maneiras muito comuns de usar a palavra such em inglês.

Transcrição

Hey, all. 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.

Remember last week when our podcast talked about how to use the word ‘such’? That’s the most common way to use it I know. There are others, and there are also a few terms with ‘such’ that you’ll hear a lot when you talk to people or watch movies and sitcoms in English.

So for today’s podcast I picked a couple of very popular terms. I’m going to introduce the first one with an example. Just listen to this: We went to the supermarket yesterday looking for cheap food. Really healthy food, such as veggies and fruit, was expensive. Since we were on a tight budget, we ended up buying stuff that is more like junk food, such as cookies, instant pasta and burgers. Large chains such as Walmart and Carrefour usually carry a broad range of frozen meals as well, such as feijoada, strogonoff and pasta dishes.

Did you notice that I used “such as” in order to exemplify the kinds of things I was talking about? I could have said that whole thing without the examples. Listen: We went to the supermarket yesterday looking for cheap food. Really healthy food was expensive. Since we were on a tight budget, we ended up buying stuff that’s more like junk food. Large chains usually carry a broad range of frozen meals as well. So the first time I read the paragraph, I used ‘such as’ to introduce examples.

So from now on when you listen to English try to notice how people use ‘such as’. And by the way, the word ‘like’, as you may know, is also used to exemplify stuff. Some people, even some grammarians, consider ‘like’ and ‘such as’ interchangeable. Others disagree. In any case, a good thing to do is be alert while you’re listening to English materials such as podcasts and radio shows, in order to catch examples of how ‘such as’ is used. See what I did there? ;)

OK. And here’s a common saying in English: There’s no such thing as free lunch. Have you ever heard that one? This is so common, especially in business settings, that I think it’s already becoming incorporated into our Brazilian conversations. I’ve seen it used on newspaper articles once or twice. But what does it mean? There’s no such thing as a free lunch. The literal meaning would be –  it’s not really free. They may pay for the lunch, but they’re doing this because they’re expecting something from you. It’s like when sales people take clients out for lunch, dinner, drinks and so on. Of course they may like their clients and enjoy their company, but sales people are actually trained to pamper their clients. They hope their clients will like them better after a few free lunches and dinners, and, ultimately, buy more of their stuff.

So that’s actually where this saying probably originated. When a sales person offers a client a free lunch, is it really a gift? Not really… the sales person is expecting something in return. So it isn’t really a free lunch. Of course, nowadays this sentence is used for anything that looks free, but actually isn’t. For example, imagine that you’re browsing the Internet and you land on a website that’s offering an e-book collection for free! This e-book collection comprises twenty different novels written by your favorite author. Since the books are in the public domain, the website can offer them for free. They have managed to find some pretty rare books and you’re excited to get your favorite ...

Hi, all.  How have you been?

Nesse episódio do podcast Inglês Online falamos sobre a palavra such.

Transcrição

Hello, everyone. 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 I’m gonna give you several examples of how to use this word: such. S-u-c-h. Such. Such may be used to communicate a few different things, and today we are going to focus on one of them: how to use ‘such’ to emphasize. For example, when you say Mary is such a nice girl, what are you saying? You’re saying that you think Mary is very nice. It’s as though you were saying Mary is so nice. Instead, you say Mary is such a nice girl. Here’s another one: Bahia has such nice weather all year round. What does that mean? That means you think that the weather in Bahia is so nice, all year round.

It’s simple, right? As with everything in English – especially stuff that isn’t intuitive to us Portuguese speakers –  we have to hear it a lot in order to become familiar and absorb it. So here is a series of examples where I use the word “so”, which is the word everyone is more familiar with, in order to emphasize something. After I’m done reading this list, I’ll give you the same examples using ‘such’:

* This coffee is so bad.

* This car was so cheap!

* This study room looks so messy.

* The variety of products carried by this supermarket is so amazing.

* I didn’t know their house was so old.

Now let’s hear these sentences when they have the word such in them. ‘This coffee is so bad’ – we can say This is such bad coffee, or This is such a bad coffee if you want to be specific to the cup of coffee in your hand, for example.

‘This car was so cheap!’ can be said like this: It was such a cheap car! ‘This study room looks so messy’ can become This study room is such a mess. The next one we have is ‘The variety of products carried by this supermarket is so amazing’. You could say This supermarket carries such an amazing variety of products. And finally, ‘I didn’t know their house was so old’ can be expressed as I didn’t know they owned such an old house.

Did you notice that we say so bad, so cheap, so messy, so amazing and  so old? This is so good, that is so bad. This bar is so trendy, that house is so spacious, that girl is so clever, this magazine is so interesting. This little word ‘so’ comes before adjectives. Now notice how such was used in all the previous examples: such bad coffee, such a cheap car, such a messy room, such an amazing variety, such an old house. ‘Such’ comes before a short phrase, right? A short phrase containing at least an adjective and a noun. Bad coffee, a cheap car.  Such bad coffee, such a cheap car.

Here’s an expression that you’ll hear a lot as you get more and more familiar with English: This isn’t such a bad idea. What does that mean? When someone says This isn’t such a bad idea, they are saying that this idea isn’t so bad… it’s actually a good idea. This idea isn’t so bad. This isn’t such a bad idea. It may not seem like a very good idea at first; but as you take a closer look you realize that this idea isn’t so bad. This isn’t such a bad idea. It’s… an OK idea, maybe even a good idea!

Here are a few of my personal opinions: English is such a great language to learn and speak. The Internet is such a fantastic tool for business. It’s such a nice feeling to wake up to a sunny day. Dogs are such loyal friends. Memorizing words is such a boring thing to do. Again,

Hello, everybody. How’s it going?

Nesse episódio do podcast Inglês Online falamos sobre vocabulário relacionado a fazer críticas.

Transcrição

Hi, all. 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 I’d like to talk about a business-related topic… criticism. First things first – listen to the word criticism again: CRITICISM. It’s as if you had an “a” between the S and the M: “criticisam”. OK, so for the second time I’m using a newsletter issued by technology company HP, or Hewlet Packard, as inspiration. This time what caught my eye was the vocabulary involved when you’re criticizing someone’s work. Or maybe I should say, when you’re constructively criticizing someone’s work. It is still very common for people to take criticism the wrong way, or to be offended, and… of course, the way you deliver your criticism makes all the difference.

However if you are planning to maintain some kind of professional interaction with American people you probably should get used to giving and receiving constructive criticism. People say ‘constructive feedback’ as well… same thing. In the time I studied and worked in the United States, no matter what kind of project I was involved in there always came a time when we had to meet with other people in order to get some feedback. Of course it can be nerve-wracking, but if you’re lucky enough to have a good boss and peers, you probably won’t be caught off guard by that kind of meeting.

So the HP newsletter I read is all about how to make criticism and the language you can use for that. I recommend reading the entire article since it’s gonna give you some insight into American culture, and also because I’m only going to touch on a few expressions from the article here, so, just click the link here on the podcast and read it to become familiar with a lot more vocabulary related to criticism.

The article splits the suggestions in three categories, and the first one is mild criticism. Mild means soft or weak, something that isn’t strong or extreme. Do you get the idea of mild criticism? Mild criticism comes across more like a suggestion but, don’t be fooled, if it’s your boss giving you the suggestion my guess would be… you’d better take it! Listen to some phrases from the article that can be used to give mild criticism:

* “I think it’s good but there are a couple of things I’d like changed.” Here your boss is basically saying he or she likes what you’ve done and there are a few things you should change.

Here’s a good one:

* “I’m not sure if the figures you quote on page 5 are completely up to date. Could you please have another look at them and adjust them if necessary?” “Figures” means numbers. This is an indirect way to communicate that your boss thinks you made a mistake with the numbers and they would like you to check your figures again.

Let’s move on to a few examples of moderate criticism. This one is, of course, a bit stronger or more comprehensive than mild criticism.

* “It’s basically fine but it’s not quite there yet.” That means, what you did is good, it’s in the right direction, I like it, but it’s not 100% yet; it’s not completely right yet. After your boss says that,