Learn 10 English Idioms about People at Work

211,177 views ・ 2016-12-22

Learn English with Rebecca


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

00:01
Hi.
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I'm Rebecca from engVid.
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In today's lesson you'll have a chance to learn 10 expressions that are used to describe
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people at work.
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Now, these are quite commonly used expressions by native English speakers, so if you work
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in an English-speaking business environment then it's quite likely that you will hear
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some of these expressions.
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Okay?
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Let's get started.
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So, I've kind of divided them up for you.
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So, some of them are positive, some are negative, and some are neutral.
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What do I mean by that?
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It means: These people we are happy to meet, these people we are really not very happy
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to meet, and these people we just...
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Where it's okay, we're just using these expressions to describe them.
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Okay?
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We have no feelings, positive or negative.
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Okay.
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So let's look at the people we are happy to meet.
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So, the first one is a "whiz kid".
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What's a whiz kid?
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A "whiz kid" is a term that we use to describe usually a young person who's quite brilliant,
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very intelligent, very successful, very talented, and you know that he's on a path to a lot
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of success.
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So, often we talk about like a computer whiz kid, a young person who's got lots and lots
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of talent.
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You probably know people like that.
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Okay?
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So that's a whiz kid.
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Next.
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Next one is called an "eager beaver".
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An "eager beaver" is kind of a very hardworking, enthusiastic person.
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Maybe this person comes to work early and stays late, and they're always smiling and
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they're happy to do their work.
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That person is called an eager beaver.
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Now, I put that as a positive.
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Maybe some people don't like them, but generally speaking, people like them.
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Okay.
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The next one is an "angel investor".
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What's an angel investor?
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Well, if you have a startup company or a new company that you want to start, you would
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love to meet an angel investor because this "business angel", as they're also known as,
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is someone who's usually rich and they're like a sponsor and they
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put money into your business.
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They are ready to invest money into your ideas, into starting your company, and so on.
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So these are called "angel investors".
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So if you want to start a business, you're probably going to be very happy if you meet
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one of these people.
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Okay?
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Next, let's move over here to the people that we're usually not very happy to meet at work.
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The first one is called a "smart alec(k)".
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Who's a smart aleck?
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A "smart aleck" is somebody who thinks he or she knows everything.
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Have you ever met such a person?
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They are just so extra confident, and they tell you everything as if they know everything.
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And usually people aren't very happy to meet those kind of people too much.
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Okay?
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And they called them "smart alecks".
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Sometimes it's written: "alec" and sometimes "aleck", doesn't matter.
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Usually we don't write this word.
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We usually say it.
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Okay? "Oh, he's a smart aleck.
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He thinks he knows everything."
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Okay?
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That kind of thing.
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Next one: "rotten apple".
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So, what's a rotten apple?
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If you can imagine a bag of apples and in the middle there's one that's not good.
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"Rotten" means bad, spoiled.
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So what will happen to all the other apples around that bad apple?
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Well, after some time all of them will start to go bad a little faster.
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Right?
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So when we call someone a rotten apple we're trying to suggest that this person has some
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rather unpopular, not very honest, is kind of dishonest, he's bad, he's corrupt, and
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he's also influencing people around him, his colleagues or workers to think or act in the
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same way.
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So this person is usually quite a troublemaker as far as the organization is concerned.
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Okay?
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So that's a rotten apple, a person who is kind of corrupt and has bad ideas, and is
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also influencing people around him or her in a negative way.
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Okay?
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You might know some people like that.
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Okay, what's a "faster talker"?
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Well, it's not somebody who talks...
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Speaks very fast, no.
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When we say: "fast talker", we mean somebody who is very good at convincing people and
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persuading people, but he's not always...
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He or she is not always very honest or moral about it.
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He doesn't really care...
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This person doesn't really care if they're selling you something which is not good, or
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which is actually bad.
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They don't care.
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They may lie, they may present it as very good.
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They're very good at that, but they're not necessarily selling you something in your
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interest.
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It doesn't have to be a salesperson, but often we refer to salespeople like that because
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sometimes they're trying to sell us something which is not good, although many salespeople
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are selling us good things.
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Okay.
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So that's a fast talker.
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Now let's come to some which are kind of neutral, they just describe different people.
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All right?
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The first one is: "head honcho".
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So the word "head" gives you an idea.
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The head honcho is like the main guy at the top of the company, a top executive, the person
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in charge, and this person has a lot of authority, responsibility, and influence.
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Okay?
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"Head honcho", that's the name for that person.
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Okay.
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Next one, the "number cruncher".
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Who's a number cruncher?
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You probably have some people like that in your company.
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You have to have, because "number crunchers" are people who work with numbers a lot,
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finance people. Right?
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They are number crunchers, and they're...
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They don't just work with numbers, they're really good with numbers.
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They know how to analyze numbers and understand numbers, and not everybody does, but they do.
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So these guys are called number crunchers.
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Okay.
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Another one here: "pen pusher".
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Sometimes also known as a "pencil pusher".
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So, this is just a regular employee, maybe a clerk who has a rather boring job just filling
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out forms, doing ordinary clerical administrative work.
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Not very interesting, but of course it's necessary in organizations to have a lot of people who
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are pen pushers.
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So sometimes a pen pusher is also used to refer to someone who just has a boring job.
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Okay?
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All right.
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And the last one we have here is: "whistle blower".
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So, what's a whistle blower?
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Well, I put it in the neutral column.
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Some people think whistle blowers are very good, and some people think whistle blowers
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are really bad.
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It depends who you are and who's looking at the whistle blower, because a whistle blower
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is a person on the inside of a company who becomes aware, he starts to know that there
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is something illegal or improper or immoral or something wrong that the company is doing
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or that is going on within the company, and then that person informs the police or the
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authorities that such activity is going on inside the company.
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So, he blows the whistle on these activities.
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Okay?
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Just like a referee will stop a game if something is wrong.
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Okay?
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So that person is a whistle blower.
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Now, I know we did a lot of them, but let's see if you remember some of them.
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So, what's a rotten apple?
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What's a rotten apple?
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Is it something good?
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No, we know that.
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So this is someone who influences people around them in a bad way.
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Okay?
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If you have a business, if you have a new business, who would you be very happy to meet,
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especially if you need money to start your business, to launch your business?
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That would be an angel investor.
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Okay?
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Good.
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Now, if you need to understand some statements and analyze numbers, who are you going to
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go to in your company?
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Probably a number cruncher.
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Right, really good.
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Who's that very smart, young person who just joined the company, he's so brilliant, everybody's
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talking about him, he's so talented?
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That's the whiz kid.
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Okay?
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Good.
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What about somebody who's trying to sell you something and he doesn't care if it's actually
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true or not, and he's really good at convincing people?
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Who's that?
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That's the fast talker.
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Okay?
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Who's the person who informs the police that something improper is happening within the company?
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Who's that?
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That's a whistle blower.
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Which poor person has a really kind of boring job, filling out forms, doing very routine,
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clerical work?
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That is a
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pen pusher or a pencil pusher.
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What's the name of the top guy in the company who has...?
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Or woman who has...?
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Sometimes in English when we say "guy" it actually refers to a man or woman.
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Okay?
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So men or women.
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Who's the top person in a company that has a lot of authority and influence?
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This is the
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head honcho.
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Okay.
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So, now, the important thing is we've gone through it once.
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I...
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Maybe you're taking notes.
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But what you can do is if you go to our website, www.engvid.com, you can do two things there.
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First you can do a quiz on this.
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Okay?
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So that will help you-right?-to practice and get a little bit better.
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And the second thing is that I have written for you a resource where all the meanings
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of these are given, and there are many, many more, there's probably around 50 such terms
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that are used in business which you can download for free from our resource section.
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Okay?
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That way you can learn these and also practice a lot more expressions like that.
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Okay?
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Thanks for watching.
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Good luck with your English.
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