How to talk about NUMBERS and MATHS | Business English lesson

0:02Chris Welcome back to the Breakout Business English podcast. My name is Chris. I'm a business English and communication coach, and 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.

0:30Chris And our topic today is numbers, or more specifically, how we talk about numbers. Now, I thought I'd done a podcast episode about numbers already. As soon as I wrote the title of this episode, I decided to go back and check. But no, apparently I've never done a deep dive into the vocabulary and ideas that we can use to discuss numbers at work.

1:06Chris We've discussed data, graphs, charts, and trends, but we've never spent a whole episode just covering numbers. So, here's a question to get us started. And I'd love to see an answer to this one in the YouTube comments for this video. My question is: how important is it for you to be able to read numbers at work?

1:41Chris Do you deal with a lot of numbers when you're doing your job? The interesting thing about numbers is that the part of your brain that handles math and counting is actually completely different from the part of your brain that handles language and communication. For that reason, it can be really difficult to count and do math in your second language.

2:14Chris I work with a lot of people who speak really great English, but when they do math, they still prefer to do it in their first language. It still feels more natural for them to go back to their mother tongue and do the calculations that they need to do and then switch back to English. So today we're going to take a look at some natural and native vocabulary that we can use to talk about numbers, figures, and calculations, including a couple of really interesting idioms that I'm excited to tell you about.

2:57Chris Also, if specifically reading numbers 253,796, if that's difficult for you, then if you're watching on YouTube, then after you've watched this, you can scroll down through my videos through the years and find a video. I think it's called How to Improve Your Reading in 153 Seconds. Maybe that's what the thumbnail says.

3:29Chris But it's a really great system, a really great practice method that you can use to improve your ability to read numbers. And of course, we'll finish with our quiz question. So if you think that you know the answer to the question I asked you last week, then listen until the end of this podcast to see if you were right.

3:58Chris To begin today, let's listen now to some natural and native ways to talk about doing calculations at work. I just did a quick back of the envelope calculation, and I think we're going to have a shortfall in the budget. I just did a quick back of the envelope calculation, and I think we're going to have a shortfall in the budget.

4:33Chris I took a look at our budget for this year, and a few things just don't add up. I took a look at our budget for this year, and a few things just don't add up. Okay, let's start with the idiom that we heard in the first example. That was, I just did a quick back of the envelope calculation, and I think we're going to have a shortfall in the budget.

5:07Chris I just did a quick back of the envelope calculation. So, what do I mean by a back of the envelope calculation? Now, I really like this phrase. It's actually the reason that I decided to write this episode of the podcast. It came up during a communication coaching session that I was doing, and I immediately knew that I wanted to let you know about it.

5:37Chris So, this is the catalyst, the reason for this whole episode. I want you to imagine that you're in your office, as I'm in mine, and you suddenly need to write something down. You look around you and you grab the first piece of paper that you can find. Well, if your office is anything like mine, then the first piece of paper that you can find is probably an envelope.

6:12Chris And now I'm realizing that hold on. So if your office is anything like mine, then the first piece of paper you'll find is probably an envelope. And given that the front of that envelope probably has some writing on it, probably has your address on it, then the back is where you'll be writing your note, where you'll be writing things down.

6:48Chris This is where we get the phrase a back of the envelope calculation, or maybe back of the envelope maths. I need to do some back of the envelope maths. So this means to do a quick, rough calculation, that might be wrong or slightly inaccurate. Honestly, I'm not sure I could do much calculation with a pen and paper anymore.

7:17Chris I definitely could when I was in school, but having a phone in my pocket all the time, I usually just rely on that these days. I'm not sure if losing that skill is a bad thing. I often do mental maths, though. That's calculating numbers in your head. However, if they get complicated, that's when the phone comes out.

7:39Chris I don't know about you, but when I was in school, teachers told us you'll need to know how to do calculation by hand because it's not like you're going to be carrying a calculator around with you every day. And well, now we all carry calculators around with us all the time. Okay, next. What do we mean if something doesn't add up?

8:06Chris In the second example, we heard I took a look at the budget for this year, and a few things just don't add up. I took a look at the budget for this year, and a few things just don't add up. This phrase is actually a lot more useful and generally applicable than just talking about numbers. When we say that a situation doesn't add up, we mean that the information or what is happening doesn't match other information that we know to be true.

8:49Chris For instance, if your colleague tells you that they're going to be late to work because their car broke down, you might say that this doesn't add up because you know that that colleague usually walks to work. So what do you think this means when we apply it to numbers? Well, quite simply, it means that the numbers don't make sense.

9:18Chris The results of your calculations don't match what you're calculating. So if you know that your company made 10,000 euros last month, but for some reason when you add together all the payments made by customers, they only total 8,000 euros. You might say that the numbers don't add up. All of this should equal 10,000 euros.

9:48Chris What have I done wrong? What's what's the mistake? And did I make it? And if you want to improve the way that you talk about numbers and calculation at work, or your English communication skills more generally, then maybe we can work together. My full-time job is helping international professionals who use English at work to improve their communication skills.

10:15Chris 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 breakoutbusinglish.com. That's the title of the podcast, breakoutbusinglish.com and find out more.

10:42Chris Starting on our very 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.

11:14Chris Sometimes my calendar gets a little busy, so if you have trouble finding a time that works for you, you can always send me a message through the contact page on the website. Equally, if you have questions about how we might work together or what our sessions might look like, then again, that's what the contact page is for.

11:38Chris I've worked with over 1,000 non-native international English-speaking professionals from new graduates up to CEOs and government leaders to help them achieve their English and communication goals. And I look forward to meeting you. Now, as nice as it is to be specific and be able to offer specificity to our colleagues, clients, and customers, sometimes we just can't do that.

12:12Chris Maybe the factors that influence a number are too complex to quickly calculate on the back of an envelope. Or maybe you'd prefer not to give that exact number. Equally, maybe being specific is not useful, especially if that makes the number really complicated. It might feel strange for me to say that a project will cost $98,728.13, when a nice round number, like $100,000, is easier to communicate.

12:53Chris Let's listen now to some ways that we can communicate about less specific numbers. It's easier if we just have a nice round number. So let's round that up to one hundred thousand. It's easier if we just have a nice round number. So let's round that up to one hundred thousand. We'll need twenty odd people to get this done in time.

13:32Chris We'll need twenty odd people to get this done in time. These are just ballpark numbers. So take them with a pinch of salt. These are just ballpark numbers. So take them with a pinch of salt. Okay, let's talk about round numbers. In the first example, we heard it's easier if we just have a nice round number.

14:06Chris So let's round that up to one hundred thousand. It's easier if we just have a nice round number. So let's round that up to one hundred thousand. We refer to a number as round when it ends in one or more zeros. So one hundred thousand would be a round number. But less than a hundred and ten. So maybe we would round that up.

14:45Chris If you round a number up or round a number down, then you change it in order to find the nearest round number. If your friend asks you to lend them 97 euros and 47 cents for something really important, then you might say, sure, I'll transfer the money to you. I'll round it up to 100 euros to make it easier.

15:15Chris Sure, I'll transfer the money to you. I'll round it up to 100 euros to make it easier. Rounding down, I'd say, is less common, but it is often used when we need to be more conservative or safe in our calculations. For instance, if you're trying to calculate the remaining budget for something at work, you'd rather underestimate your finances than overestimate them.

15:50Chris So we might round down in that situation. So if you think that you've got 1,123 euros and 21 cents left, then maybe when your boss asks you how much money is left, you round down and tell them that you have about 1,100 euros remaining. Then you know they're not going to overspend. That third example had two idioms in there.

16:24Chris It's a really natural and native sounding sentence, but unless you know what both of those idioms mean, I think it might be really difficult to understand. Let's start with that first phrase, a ballpark number. What is a ballpark number? This phrase can likely be traced back to America's favorite pastime.

16:54Chris So there's another quiz question for you. What is America's favorite pastime? Well, it's a sport that we don't really play here in the UK, although it's definitely popular in South Korea. I spent three years living in South Korea. My wife is Korean, and it's definitely popular over there. And that is the sport of baseball.

17:21Chris Baseball. Now, tennis is played on a court, football is played on a pitch. So where is baseball played? Baseball is played in a ballpark, in a ballpark. So the idea here is that if you're hitting a baseball, then you want it to stay in the ballpark, in the area that you're supposed to be playing baseball.

17:55Chris Now, after around the 1950s and the 1960s, this phrase in the ballpark entered our general business and professional vocabulary. And it started to mean a number that is not specific. I love researching language, and it's something that I end up discussing with a lot of the people I coach. And one thing that you notice immediately when you look at where words come from is the massive amount of new vocabulary that entered the English language in the 1950s and 1960s in the USA.

18:39Chris Maybe we'll explore that in more detail next time. So a ballpark number is an approximate number, an estimate. We can also say that something is in the ballpark of. And that means that it is around that number. So for instance, if I say we have somewhere in the ballpark of 1,000 staff, then I mean that we have approximately 1,000 staff.

19:12Chris Could be a few more, could be a few less, but it's in the ballpark of 1,000 staff. The other idiom in that third example was to take something with a pinch of salt. So here's where we find out how many people listening to this podcast are good at cooking. Cookery is a field with a lot of specialized vocabulary.

19:40Chris And pinch is often used to describe a very small amount of something like salt or other herbs and spices. Many years ago, writers often suggested that food would be easier to swallow or taste better if you added just a pinch of salt. Over time, this came to have a slightly wider and more general meaning in modern English.

20:13Chris We use it to communicate that information might be untrue or not completely accurate. Like when your boss tells you that he's spoken to hundreds of people who like his new idea. You should probably take that with a pinch of salt. He tends to exaggerate. So last week I asked you about the sentence. I can't tell you how much this is going to cost.

20:50Chris I can't tell you how much this is going to cost. And I wanted you to remove one word that would change the meaning from I'm unable to give you this information to I'm unable to figure out or determine this information. So one more time, that sentence was I can't tell you how much this is going to cost.

21:18Chris And the word that we can remove is you. So one more time, that sentence would now be I can't tell how much this is going to cost. I can't tell how much this is going to cost. So with the word tell, if this word means to give someone information, then it almost always needs to be followed by the person or thing receiving that information.

21:58Chris For instance, tell me. Me, what you need, or you should tell the HR department about the problem. However, if we take this person out of the sentence, then we very often have the meaning of not being able to know something. For instance, your colleague might tell you that they want to quit their job and join a circus.

22:28Chris Later that day, you might say to a friend, I couldn't tell if he was joking. I couldn't tell if he was joking. Meaning I wasn't able to determine this, but I'm not sure. Okay, so for this week's question, let's stick with the grammar around the word tell. I just told you that you need to put the person or thing receiving the information after the word tell, or otherwise it changes the meaning.

23:06Chris However, if you've studied English, then you know that most rules have exceptions, and this is one of them. So our question today is which words can I use with tell without following it with a person? And we're gonna keep the meaning to give information, but without needing the person there. I'll give you one to get us started where I can tell a story.

23:41Chris For instance, in the sentence, I told a story. I told a story, we were at a picnic and we had a lovely time, and I told a story. So in that sentence, there, there's no one to receive the information. Or you could put it in a question Would you like me to tell a story? Would you like me to tell a story?

24:10Chris Again, that part at the end there, tell a story. There's no one over there to receive the information. Maybe in other parts of the sentence, maybe we understand from context, but the person receiving the information is not immediately after tell. So a story is one of those things. Our question is: what else can we add to that list?

24:37Chris What else can we tell without a person immediately following it? One of those things is a story. And I've got three more things. Maybe four, but definitely three. So for next week, how many things can you think of that I can tell? I can tell a story, and what else? Now, 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 communication skills for your career and your working life, then you can book a session to work with me at breakoutbusinglish.com.

25:19Chris That's www.breakoutbusinglish.com, or you can click the link in the show notes and use the code podcast30 at checkout to get a 30% discount off your first booking. I've worked with well over 1,000 non-native international English speaking professionals from new graduates up to CEOs and government leaders.

25:45Chris And I look forward to meeting you and helping you achieve your goals. Between episodes of the podcast, you can get videos every couple of days on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. Just search for Breakout Business English. Equally, if you're listening to the podcast on wherever you're listening to it, because this podcast is in a lot of places.

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27:21Chris That's it for today. Thank you so much for listening and for your time. I know how valuable it is, and I really appreciate and respect your choice to spend some of it with this podcast. I hope you have a great week, and I'll talk to you again next time on the Breakout Business English podcast. Thanks a lot, everyone.

27:44Chris Talk to you soon.