On the Breakout Business English podcast we focus on vocabulary, and methods to help you to build CONFIDENCE and FLUENCY in the English skills that you use in your professional life.

Breakout Business English

Almost daily, short podcasts to help you build a useful and modern vocabulary and improve your ability to communicate at work.

DAILY Business English VOCABULARY builder

Starting a job at an English speaking company can be a challenge. So much new information, meeting new people, and lots of conversations. Although listening is important, knowing what to say when you speak is important too. So for people who speak English as a 2nd language, today we're going to discuss some tips and vocabulary that we can use to make starting work at an English speaking employer as easy, simple, and stress free as possible. We'll hear some idioms, phrasal verbs, and more formal ways to express your ideas, to ask questions, to clarify information, and to introduce yourself. At the end we'll have a vocabulary quiz to see if you can remember what you learned, and a speaking challenge to get you talking!


STARTING A JOB at an English speaking company - Tips and Vocabulary

Let's talk today about how to give feedback at work, especially if you use English as a second language in the workplace and are not a native English speaker.

Giving feedback to your colleagues, your staff, and your managers, is an essential part of a great team. However, so few people actually do it! We often think of feedback as a scary thing that is reserved for end of year performance reviews and appraisals. However, the best teams in the world make both negative and positive feedback a key part of their company culture.

Today we’re going to hear some tips and ideas for how to give feedback to your colleagues. We’ll hear some great natural and native sounding vocabulary that we can use to do this, and then we’ll finish off with some challenges for you. Including a speaking challenge and a vocabulary quiz to see what you’ve remembered from today’s podcast. 

How to GIVE FEEDBACK to your colleagues at work - Business English lesson

Disagreeing with people is an important and healthy part of working on a team towards shared goals. The challenge is therefore, how can we do this in a way that protects and even strengthens our professional relationships? It would be great if the only thing we had to do at work was to agree with people. If everyone around us had great ideas, and if our colleagues' suggestions always seemed like the best things to do. However, this is not the case.  A lot of people worry that if they disagree with their co-workers then this could upset them or damage their professional relationships. However, if we do it right, disagreeing with colleagues when it’s appropriate can be great for your team, your career, and your reputation at work.

Today we’re going to hear some tips and ideas for how to disagree with your colleagues, we’ll hear some great natural and native sounding vocabulary that we can use to do this, and then we’ll finish off with some challenges for you. Including a speaking challenge and a vocabulary quiz to see what you’ve remembered from today’s podcast. As always, if you find this podcast useful and helpful please feel free to follow me on iTalki, it really helps me out. OK, with that said let’s get started. 

How to disagree with your colleagues! - Business English podcast

Teamwork and collaboration are two of the most important topics in Business English. Today let's listen to some vocabulary, grammar, phrases, idioms and ideas for speaking about this in English. As an international professional you are always collaborating with colleagues from around the world, working together to complete projects and deliver great work. Learning and understanding how we can work together better, build better teams, and have better relationships with our team mates is key to being the best professional possible.  If you're listening on Apple podcasts please don't forget to leave a review, it really helps me out! 

For non-native English speakers, and people who speak English as a 2nd language, (second language speakers), working in teams can be challenging. Listening to what your colleagues have to say, and also expressing your own ideas, making as few mistakes as possible, and creating great sentences can be a challenge that many people find really difficult.

In this podcast we're going to be listening to several tips for improving your teamwork and collaboration skills, we'll look at the vocabulary and business English that can really help us to use those tips, then at the end we'll have a short quiz to see how much of what we talk about you can remember.

Teamwork and how to work better with your colleagues!

Today's topic is, how to be more confident when speaking in meetings.

Some of you might know this already but my full time job is working with non native English speakers, one to one, on video calls to improve their confidence and ability when using English at work. And the number one thing that people tell me they need to improve is their confidence in meetings! How can I become more confident in meetings, how can I express my ideas better, how can I make my meetings easier. This is what we’re going to discuss today. 

For non-native English speakers, speaking in meetings can be a challenging and daunting task. Whether you’re presenting in front of a large group or just participating in a small discussion, it can be difficult to feel confident in your ability to express yourself. However, with a few simple tips, you can start speaking more confidently in meetings sooner rather than later.

At the same time, we’re going to look at some useful vocabulary and sentence structures that we can use to do this. So if you want to grab a pen to take some notes, feel free, and let’s get started.

Oh, and right at the end we’ll review a couple of the more interesting pieces of vocabulary I’ve included in today’s podcast.

Speaking in meetings. How to become more confident!

Today's topic is, how to be more confident when speaking in meetings.

Some of you might know this already but my full time job is working with non native English speakers one to one on video calls to improve their’s confidence and ability when using English at work. And the number one thing that people tell me they need to improve is their confidence in meetings. How can I become more confident in meetings, how can I express my ideas better, how can I make my meetings easier. This is what we’re going to discuss today. 

For non-native English speakers, speaking in meetings can be a challenging and daunting task. Whether you’re presenting in front of a large group or just participating in a small discussion, it can be difficult to feel confident in your ability to express yourself. However, with a few simple tips, you can start speaking more confidently in meetings sooner rather than later.

At the same time, we’re going to look at some useful vocabulary and sentence structures that we can use to do this. So if you want to grab a pen to take some notes, feel free, and let’s get started.

Oh, and right at the end we’ll review a couple of the more interesting pieces of vocabulary I’ve included in today’s podcast.