BE 578: This Episode is Courtesy of Lindsay and Michelle

This is the Business English Podcast Episode 578. This episode is courtesy of Lindsay and Michelle. Welcome to the Business English Podcast from All Ears English. Get the English skills you need to achieve your dreams in global business.

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Hey, Lindsay, how are you? Good, Michelle. How are you? How's it going? Doing well, doing well. Lindsay, have you ever gotten something courtesy of another podcaster?

I wouldn't say another podcaster, but when we get sponsorships, we do get the products, right? So, you know, we've worked with clothing companies and they will send us the clothing, right? And some pretty great stuff. So yeah, I mean, courtesy of these.

So these companies, I've gotten... clothing and items courtesy of companies that sponsor us. Yeah. Yes. Yeah, that's true. That's always, that was always nice.

Yeah, that is nice. Try them out. So today we're going to talk about what it means to say courtesy of and when and why this can be really useful for business.

So what does it mean when you hear, oh, something is courtesy of someone? When I think of that, when I hear that, I think of something has been given, like almost a gift has been given to me or provided by someone, right?

So when I'm saying that, it's like you're giving credit to the person or you're thanking them. You're calling them out as the giver of the gift. Right, right. You might even be announcing it to a group or just telling people.

So that's what we're going to be talking about today. So this is very useful. Guys, be sure to hit the follow button wherever you're listening to the Business English podcast. Don't miss any of our episodes.

Let us drop right into your queue. You got it. Exactly. I mean, let's get into it. So we use it with a particular structure, Michelle. So let's give our listeners that grammatical structure they will need.

And here it is. Something is courtesy of someone or something like a company maybe. right and obviously we can use tenses was has been i suppose what do you say has been courtesy i guess you could it's a little it's a little awkward sounding but possibly a little rare yeah yeah yeah let's let's see let's see our let's do some examples so these survey results are courtesy of elaine who had worked so hard on them thank you elaine So this isn't necessarily like a product or something like that, but it's just work that somebody did for us.

Yes. Maybe someone's gone above and beyond. Yep. Right. This would be a good time to use this phrase when someone's done a little bit more than was expected.

Someone has contributed to the greater good of your company or your team. Yep. These cookies are courtesy of the bakery down the street. They wanted to thank us for all our business.

That's a good example too. Yeah. So somebody sends you food or this free dinner is courtesy of the chef. Yes. And sometimes I hear compliments of the chef.

Does that mean the same thing? Yeah. Compliments of the chef. Yeah. I think is it that is compliments of the chef that they're giving it to you for free?

Actually, no. We need to look that up. We're going to do another episode on what that means. Compliments of the chef. Yeah. I've actually always wondered exactly what that means.

Yeah. I don't know. We'll come back to it. Yeah. Or my outfit is courtesy of Sheila. She helps me so much with my fashion. So this means she... either gave me the outfit like maybe she's my stylish friend she let me borrow it or maybe she went shopping with me she guided you in some way she guided me yeah so again we talked about this a little bit already but yeah

This could be used to share something, share who gave something to your team and you're telling them about it or what else? Or thanking someone publicly, acknowledging the person. Someone contributed to making this thing happen, right? Or to letting us have this thing today.

So you're calling them out. It could be used at a meeting, an event, in the professional space, maybe a conference. Yeah. Maybe a conference is providing free snacks.

The snacks today are courtesy of this local brewery. I don't know. Whatever. That kind of thing. Right? Yeah. But I love this. I love how it sounds. It sounds really nice, really professional because it's really different than just saying, oh, the bakery down the street gave us these cookies.

Yeah. It's a lot better for sure. Sounds a lot more professional. More professional. Yep. Really good for you guys at this level. Yes. Yes. If you're ready to start your business, go ahead with the platform for entrepreneurs.

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You can find your period of 1 euro per month on Shopify.eu. All right. So courtesy, the word courtesy in isolation, Michelle, is it used in other ways in English? Oh, yeah, for sure.

So we're going to teach you some other ways now. So one is as a courtesy, right? So this basically means that you're doing something to be nice, build goodwill.

Sometimes it might just be a one-time thing, like an exception, right? Right. So what, what might you hear? You could say, normally we have a cancellation fee, but as a courtesy, we can waive it this one time.

Yeah. So sometimes if, especially if there's been a problem, you can get on the phone with customer support and they can extend these courtesies. Right. Or as a courtesy, we will submit all the paperwork for you.

That should help. Right. So nice. You're being nice. You're building goodwill. Yeah. Yep. Or has anyone given you? Oh, wait, this is actually next example.

A question. No, this is a question for you, Lindsay. Has anyone ever has anyone given you anything as a courtesy? So like, different from what we were talking about before, maybe you got a nice hotel room upgrade, someone takes a charge off a bill.

Oh, for sure. Just recently, we had a big issue with Home Depot. Not to throw them under the bus, but there were some measurement mistakes that happened. Many mistakes were made from many different sides.

Honestly, our team made mistakes, their team made mistakes. And we had to ask forcefully for this, but they took money off our bill as a courtesy just to kind of make things right.

I guess that's a slightly different situation, right? No, but that makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, yeah, sorry. No, I was gonna say the manager could have used this languaging when she told us what was the what was going to be taken off our bill, right?

Right. As a courtesy, we'd like to make this up to you. You know, we'd like to offer you XYZ amount of money, right? Yeah, yeah, exactly. I also had I recently had a situation with Amazon.

Right. I also, I had to go back and forth and back and forth. It was regarding a Kindle. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, as a courtesy, I got lots of money back plus a second Kindle.

So I love that. Love that. Yeah. So this is a way that, um, corporations, companies to sound more professional might talk about giving a refund. Really?

Yeah. And sometimes, I mean, it can just be worth it for the company. I mean, because they don't want to, if they care about, you know, the customer experience and people being happy, you know, it might just be worth it, especially at Home Depot, Amazon. I mean, these places have enough money, right?

Yes. Yes. You, you know, they might just make these exceptions or give you money back in these situations. Yeah. Sure, for sure. And then the word common courtesy, this is a chunk, important chunk to know, right?

They come together. Common courtesy is basic kindness, just being nice. What does this look like, Michelle? Yeah, so it's common courtesy to offer someone help if they can't figure something out at work.

Yeah. Or it's common courtesy to let the team know if you are coming a week before the deadline. So if you're going to be early, you're going to arrive early or something maybe. I'm not sure.

Yeah, I guess so. That was a strange example. I apologize. Or she should know better. I mean, it's common courtesy. You might hear that, right? It's kind of the...

The rules of being nice that everyone should know, right? Yeah. I mean, common courtesy in our daily lives is holding the door for the person behind you. Maybe helping a handicapped person or an older person across the street, right?

Yes. Things like that. Yes, exactly. Nothing like over the top, you know, like basic things that people should want to do to help. Yes. Yeah, exactly.

Exactly. And then there's common sense too. We can do a whole episode about common, right? There's so much there. So that'd be a good one. So guys hit follow, but let's do a role play.

All right, let's do it. So here we're at a meeting and we got fruit delivered to, to, uh, fruit was delivered to us, to our team at one of those big fruit baskets that you see. Yeah. All right.

Ooh, this looks delicious. Yes. It's courtesy of the tutoring center down the street. Oh, that's so nice. Yeah. So did Henry and his team agree to send the stats over?

Yes, finally. He said they normally don't, but he would this one time as a courtesy. Oh, good. I was hoping he would cut us a break. We have helped them a lot.

It's common courtesy. Yeah. Yeah. Usually, though, those fruit baskets come with a... What kind of apples do you like? Do you like red delicious or...

I think I like green ones. Yeah. Green ones. Okay. Interesting. Usually, I feel like those fruit baskets come with a shiny red apples, which have less flavor.

Right. yeah i'm not a big rat although they do have like honey crisp that are red and you know those are good but like not just like like the red red i'm not not into that i'm not i don't think anyone likes those apples yeah they're just like bland and bitter yeah yeah for sure

But anyways, we wouldn't turn down the gift if someone wanted to deliver food. That's nice. All right. So here we said, oh, it looks delicious. And I said, yes, it's courtesy of the tutoring center down the street.

So maybe we did some kind of collaboration, right? Or maybe they're thanking us for something. So they wanted to send it to us. Or maybe they're looking for us to refer to them.

Yeah. Yeah. um and then um you said so did henry and his team agree to send the stats over and i said yes finally he said they normally don't but he would this one time as a courtesy so that can be when you use it too you normally don't do it it's kind of like as an exception to be nice As an exception.

That's a good example. An exception. Exactly. And then I said, good. I was hoping he would cut us a break. And you said, well, we've helped them a lot.

It's common courtesy. So you're kind of saying it's quid pro quo, right? Right. He should do this. Evening the social scale. I think as human beings, we kind of know when the scale is off balance and we kind of owe someone a little bit, right?

And it would be nice to do something nice for them. That's common courtesy. Yes. Exactly. Exactly. All right, Lindsay, guys, check out episode 572 just a few episodes ago that was afraid of saying no, how to under promise and over deliver in business.

Love that. And the takeaway today is this will come up in a lot of different professional contexts, but it's so much better than what was the example you use that if we didn't have this phrase, we would have to say that they like that. I think it was like the place these cookies are from are from the place the The place gave us to them.

Gave us these cookies. That's just so unremarkable. Right. That phrase. And this really dresses it up, makes it really professional, polishes what you're saying for the business space.

Okay. That's why I like it. Yeah. I like it a lot too. Yeah. All right, Lindsay. Well, this was fun and guys, we will see you next time. All right. Talk soon, Michelle.

Have a good day. Bye. Thank you for listening to Business English, a podcast just for you, the high achieving global professional. Want more from All Ears English?

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