STORYTELLING Skills for professionals - Business English vocabulary and grammar lesson, PART 2

Storytelling is an important speaking skill in any language, but if you're speaking English and you want to sound more native and natural then improving your storytelling skills is a great goal. Today we discuss how to talk about thoughts, emotions and dialogue when telling stories at work. We learn some natural and native sounding vocabulary, both formal and informal, that you can use to improve the way that you communicate at work, and we'll hear some great examples of how native English speakers might use these words and phrases.

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This podcast is all about helping you to communicate better, in English, at work. I work with international English speakers from around the world who use English, at work, as a second or third language and I hope that I can bring some of the ideas, vocabulary, and grammar, from those sessions, to you in this podcast.

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Today's examples:

They asked me about the project and I immediately told them about all of the success we’ve had. It never even crossed my mind to mention the challenges we’ve been facing.

Eventually the boss called on me for an update and I completely blanked.

I was in the middle of my presentation when our intern interjected, and said, “I think I could help with the implementation of this”

I overheard our CTO talking to someone from HR so I decided to jump in. I said, “I’d love to help draft the person spec for the new role”.

He was talking about how great this new idea was, and I just blurted out, I don't think it'll work.

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Transcript

Welcome back to the Breakout Business English podcast. My name is Chris and I'm a business English and communication coach. I've personally worked with over 1,000 international professionals just like you to improve the way that they communicate at work in English. Thank you so much for listening and for your time. I know how valuable it is. And today is the second part of our mini-series on... Storytelling. Ciao. If you didn't hear last week's episode, then feel free to listen to that. However, you'll still get a lot of value from this podcast, even if you haven't listened to last week's show. Last week, we covered the first two parts of Philip Hume's fantastic storytelling structure. Today we're going to discuss the remaining three ideas from this list. As a reminder, the first two ideas were location, meaning that you should tell us where your story is happening, And... Meaning that you should tell your audience what you did. Today, we're going to cover Thoughts? Emotions. And... Dialogue. And as always, we'll be talking about some great natural and native vocabulary and grammar that you can use to improve the way that you communicate in English. At work. Let's get started today with your thoughts. When you are telling people what you were thinking in a particular situation, I think the best way to approach this, and certainly the way that Philip Hume suggests, is to be honest. Honest. When I'm coaching people on how to tell better stories at work, a lot of people overthink this. They filter and edit the thoughts that they're going to include in their stories and think mainly about what they want to achieve. And how they want to appear to their audience. However, I would argue that in most situations, the thing that you want to achieve is always the same. You want to be relatable. You want your listener to feel like they've had the same thoughts and that they can relate to you. Let's listen now. To some native and natural sounding examples. Of people being honest about what they were thinking. They asked me about the project and I immediately told them about all of the success we've had. It never even crossed my mind to mention the challenges we've been facing. They asked me about the project and I immediately told them about all of the success we've had. It never even crossed my mind to mention the challenges we've been facing. Eventually in our meeting, the boss called on me for an update, and I completely blanked. Eventually, in our meeting, the boss called on me for an update, and I completely blanked. Okay, what do I mean if I say that I am? Blanked. I blanked. That's the past tense of the verb. To Blank. In the second sentence, we heard, I completely blanked. I completely blanked.Well, let's start with a more well-known usage of this word, a more well-known form of this word, and that is the adjective. If I say that something was Blank. What do I mean? If I tell you that I need a blank sheet of paper, Or I say that I like to wear... Blank. T-shirts. What does this mean? Well.Something that is Blank. Has nothing on it. It has. No features. No pictures and No. Writing. A blank piece of paper is ready to be used. It's never been used before. And if someone is wearing a blank t-shirt, then it's often hard to tell if it cost $5 or $500.So. What do I mean if I use blank? As a verb. The verb to blank. Means to suddenly Have an... Empty Mine. To have no thoughts at all. No ideas, no suggestions. Nothing. Anyone who has tried to remember the name of a famous actor or musician has definitely had that. Feeling.You see them in a movie and you say, it's that guy from that. Thing. What's his name? No, I can't remember. I'm blanking on it. That's the way we connect the verb blank with the object of the sentence, by the way.So, we can be interested in things, scared of things, and we blank. On thing. Tsss.Like. When you blank. On your wife's birthday. I'm pretty sure it's in March. I should probably check that. We often hear this as the phrase to draw a blank. As in, the boss called on me for an update and I drew a blank. I drew a blank. Both this phrase and the verb 'to blank' are common, natural and native sounding ways to express this feeling of not knowing what to say, and having no ideas in your mind. In the first example, we heard the phrase "to cross your mind". As in, it never even crossed my mind to mention the challenges we've been facing. It's never even crossed my mind to mention the challenges we've been facing. If something crosses your mind, then it is a thought that you have briefly. Only for a moment. A formal way to say this is to say that you have a fleeting thought. Because things that are Bleeding. Only lasts for a moment.So if you ask me if I've ever considered quitting my job, then I might say it crossed my mind last year when the company was really struggling, but I never really gave it a lot of thought. It crossed my mind last year when the company was really struggling, but I never really gave it a lot of thought. However, we very often hear this in negative sentences.So again, if you ask me if I've ever thought about quitting my job, I might say it's never even crossed my mind. I love my job. It's never even crossed my mind. I love my job. And if it's crossed your mind recently that maybe you should work with a professional coach to improve your English, then maybe we can work together. My full-time job is helping international professionals who use English at work to improve their communication skills.So, if you need English to do your job, but you don't speak it natively… Then I would love to meet you. If you'd like to book some time to meet with me through one-to-one video calls, just you and me, then you can go to BreakoutBusinessEnglish.com. That's the title of the podcast, BreakoutBusinessEnglish.com, and find out more. Starting on our first call, we can focus on the specific opportunities that you personally have to improve your English and communication skills. And the mistakes that you make most often, or cause the biggest problems with your communication. And right now, you can use the code PODCAST30, that's PODCAST30, at checkout to get a 30% discount off your first booking of 30, 45 or 60 minutes.Sometimes my calendar gets a little busy, so if you have trouble finding a time that works for you, then you can always send me a message through the contact page on the website and ask if I have any time to fit you in. Equally, if you have any questions about how we can work together and how we would make our time as productive as possible, then feel free to use that contact page. I've worked with well over 1,000 non-native English-speaking professionals, from new graduates up to CEOs and government leaders, to help them achieve their goals, and I look forward to meeting you. Next. Let's talk about emotions. And more specifically, how you show them when you are telling stories. The key here, is to not just tell people what your feelings were, but to show them. Especially if you're in the same room as someone, or even on a video call through something like Loom or Google Meet. If you're telling a story, then Why not try to act out your emotions? If you were scared, then show it on your face. If you were excited, then throw your hands in the air and cheer. And if you were nervous, then maybe fidget and shift your weight in your seat. Either way. Be vulnerable. And let your listeners see your emotions. That's a word I want to discuss for a moment. Vulnerable. What does it mean to be vulnerable? Or to show Vulnerability. That's the adjective Vulnerable. And the noun. Vulnerability.Well, the first definition of this word that you'll find in the dictionary, is that something can be easily damaged or hurt. If I'm a boxer in a fight... Then I should keep my hands up to protect my face. Otherwise, I'll be vulnerable. My face, my head, they are vulnerable. Or maybe more commonly the reason that we use complicated passwords and two-factor authentication. On our important website accounts, is that without these, they would be vulnerable to hackers, and no one wants their accounts or their details stolen. However, when we talk about being vulnerable in communication and storytelling, We mean that you are willing to show people that you are not perfect. That you get scared sometimes and that sometimes you make mistakes. Vulnerability. Is important for building connection. And professional relationships, or really any kind of relationships. Because it helps people relate to your stories better. And of course, it can be great for managers who want to show their staff that, to some extent, They are. Equals Now, let's talk about dialogue.So what do we mean by dialogue? Dialogue is what people said or what people say in your stories. You probably already do this one. You probably already include what people say to some extent. But let's... Talk about it anyway, to be clear. If people were talking in your story, and it's relevant to what is happening, then let's include it. Let's listen now. To how a native speaker might add dialogue to their stories. I was in the middle of my presentation when our intern interjected and said, "I think I could help with the implementation of this." I was in the middle of my presentation when our intern interjected. And said, "I think I could help with the implementation of this." I overheard our CTO talking to someone from HR, so I decided to jump in. I said, "I'd love to help draft the person spec." for this new role. I overheard our CTO talking to someone from HR, so I decided to jump in. I said I'd love to help draft the person spec. For the new role. He was talking about how great this new idea was, and I just blurted out, I don't think it'll work. He was talking about how great this new idea was, and I just blurted out, I don't think it'll work. Let's talk about the phrasal verb to blurt. To blurt. In the third example there, We heard, I just blurted out. I don't think it'll work. I just blurt it out. I don't think it'll work. If you blurt something out, That's B-L-U-R-T. Blurt. Then you say something suddenly. Without thinking. Often because you're excited or nervous. There are often stories of people meeting Famous musicians, famous actors, or meeting their heroes, and blurting out things like, "I love you so much, I watched all your movies when I was a kid." When, if they really took some time to think about what they wanted to say, they might choose different words or choose to express different ideas. But in the moment, they blurt out the first thing that comes to their mind, even if it's a little embarrassing. Blurt is a regular verb, as you heard there.So your past tense is blurted out, blurted. And another context for this might be giving out information that you probably shouldn't. For instance, he accidentally blurted out that the surprise party for his colleague's birthday was going to be happening that evening. He accidentally blurted out that the surprise party for his colleague's birthday was going to be happening that evening.So we often blurt things out in arguments maybe as well. Maybe you're very emotional and you blurt something out that hurts someone's feelings and that you don't really mean.So, lots of different contexts there for blurting something out. In the first example, we heard to interject. As in Our intern, Interjected. Our intern, interjected.And then in the second example, we heard the phrasal verb. To jump in. As in, I decided to jump in. I decided to jump in. Both of these really mean the same thing. They essentially mean that you interrupted a conversation or a dialogue because you wanted to say something. You had something to add. We often hear people start speaking with phrases like, "Sorry to jump in." Sorry to interject. Maybe sorry for the interjection. That's the verb and the noun there, interject and interjection. Ciao! Which do you think is more likely? Formal. To jump in or to interject.Well, one thing to remember here. Is that although phrasal verbs can definitely sound professional and can be used in really any workplace or professional context, they are generally considered informal. Certainly if you take a high level or a multi-level English test like IELTS or TOEFL, and they say 'please use formal language'. They would not want you to use phrasal verbs there. Therefore, The verb "to interject" and the noun interjection. And definitely more money. FOMO. As I mentioned, this five-part structure that we started discussing in last week's episode is something that I borrowed from Philip Hume. You can search for him on YouTube and find a lot of great videos about storytelling in a professional context. That's Philip Hume, Philip, and then the surname H-U-M. And indeed, his books contain a lot of really valuable ideas too, if you just want to get better at telling stories at work in whatever context that is useful. Bye. Don't forget that if you would like to discuss any of the ideas, vocabulary or grammar, etc. In today's episode, or work on your storytelling skills for your work and what you do professionally, then you can book a session with me to work on your English communication skills by going to BreakoutBusinessEnglish.com. That's the title of the podcast, www.breakoutbusinessenglish.com. Breakoutbusinessenglish.com or click on the link in the show notes. And use the code PODCAST 30. That's podcast three zero at checkout to get a 30% discount off your first booking. I have worked with over 1,000 non-native English-speaking professionals, from new graduates up to CEOs and government leaders, to help them achieve their language and communication goals, and I look forward to meeting you. Between episodes of the podcast, you can get videos every couple of days on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. Just search for Breakout Business English. If there's a topic that you'd like to hear me talk about on the podcast, then I'd be excited to hear your ideas. Leave me a message or a comment on one of my YouTube videos, and I look forward to hearing from you. If you are listening on Apple Podcasts, then I invite you to leave a review. Every review really helps me out and helps to push the podcast to new listeners and to grow the show. If you found this podcast useful and you think that there are some valuable things in here and that I add value for you, then feel free to write a couple of kind words. And I thank you for that in advance. A review is another great place to request a topic for a future podcast. That is it for today. Thank you so much for listening and as always for your time. I know how valuable it is and I really appreciate and respect your choice to spend some of your time with me and with this podcast. I hope you have a great week ahead, and I'll talk to you again next time on the Breakout Business English Podcast.