BE 584: Are You at the Pinnacle of Your English Journey?

This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 584. Are you at the pinnacle of your English journey? welcome to the business english podcast from all ears english get the english skills you need to achieve your dreams in global business for a presentation a meeting or your office party this is real business english with your favorite american hosts aubrey and michelle coming to you from arizona and new york city usa

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Get your level at allearsenglish.com. Hey, Michelle, how's it going? Hey, Aubrey, I'm good. Aubrey, what do you think has been the pinnacle of your career so far?

This is a hard question. Honestly, I have an answer. This week in Open Conversation Club. So for those of you who don't know what that is, anytime anyone signs up for one of our courses, they join our community.

And then you immediately are able to come to all of our live speaking practice. Open Conversation Club, Fluency Parties, where our community is in there. It's on Zoom and we do breakout rooms and fun English learning games. And we're just chatting.

We're like open conversation, you know, questions. And this week I had a couple of moments where I told a joke and like my students got, you know, they like know me, they've listened to the podcasts, but also they've been in open conversation club for a while. And we're like becoming friends.

And with this global community, it was people from all over the world. We were all laughing at this joke and, And I remember what it was. One of the jokes was, okay, it's maybe too long to get into.

I'll tell you off the air, Michelle, but it was about the phrase it's five o'clock somewhere. I made kind of a joke about it's five o'clock somewhere and how people on this call are all over the world. I was like, Oh, it's five o'clock where you are. And it's five o'clock where you are, but it was 6am for me.

Right. Anyway, so it's so fun now that I'm able to like really show my personality and have friends around like that feels like the pinnacle of my career because I love education. But that is what I love about education, connecting with other people, really being fun and funny in myself with other people from other cultures and languages. And that Allers English has brought me that and it's been amazing.

Yeah. That's a beautiful answer, Aubrey. It was amazing. And that was the pinnacle of my career so far. Yeah. So guys, you've probably noticed Aubrey's been using this word pinnacle.

And this is not a word that we hear every day. And so today we are actually going to answer a listener question from over on YouTube about this word. And the question is from...

I'm going to say facility facility. Yeah. Would you read it? These YouTube names are always tricky, guys. It's never your names. It's like this letter number combination.

We do our best. Yes. All right. Here's the question. Hello, Lindsay, Michelle, and Aubrey. My name is Hanadi. I have been, oh, and there's the name is Hanadi with a YouTube tag that we also shared.

I have been listening to your podcast for a few months and it is really helpful. I'm improving my English and becoming more confident. I have a question. What is the difference between pinnacle and epitome, including the usage and use?

Is it a noun? Keep going. I have all my faith in you. Hi. Hannity, thank you for this comment and this question. We love it. Thank you so much. Yeah, this is a great question.

Both of these words are pretty advanced, don't you think, Aubrey? Absolutely. Yes. And we do use them often, especially in business English, but they are advanced.

They're impressive. And when you use them correctly, they can help convey a really precise meaning, but they are very different. So today we're going to explain the meaning and usage of each along with similar words that you can use. So guys, remember to hit follow wherever you listen to the Business English podcast.

Don't miss anything from us. Let us jump right into your queue. Absolutely. Let's get started, Aubrey. Let's start with pinnacle. What do you think? Yeah, absolutely.

So pinnacle is the highest point of something. So you could actually say the pinnacle of a mountain is the top. You're trying to hike to the pinnacle of K2 or some big mountain, but we also use it idiomatically. We don't really use it literally very often, except like extreme mountain climbers.

It's about the highest point achievement wise, usually when we use it. Right. So I was asking Aubrey about the pinnacle of her career. So what has been the highest point?

So that was such a good answer. But yeah, here's an example. He's reached the pinnacle of his career. Right. Or the company attained the pinnacle of success with its new product, the highest point.

Yes. And Aubrey, how do we spell pinnacle? It is spelled strangely. P-I-N-N-A-C-L-E. It's not really spelled how it sounds. No. And it's a noun. Okay.

And when we use pinnacle, we say the pinnacle of something usually. So winning that contract was the pinnacle of our quarter. Or for many athletes, the Olympics are the pinnacle of their careers.

Mm hmm. Yes, exactly. You hear a lot about Olympians who then when they can't be in the Olympics anymore or right after they get they have a lot of trouble with things like depression because that was such a always the highest thing that they were aiming for. Get there.

And then what? Yeah, tricky. And they're so young, too. Yes, right. I've talked to friends who play volleyball with me, and they reached the pinnacle of their career, usually in college.

They played college volleyball. And then it was hard after that to just start a job and be in regular life. And if they're playing volleyball, it's like recreational volleyball with people who aren't playing at the level they were, usually. Mm-hmm.

And that's tricky for like college athletes to reach the pinnacle of their athletic career. And then where do you go from there? You still want to be playing really high level ball and it's not always possible. No.

Yeah. Interesting. What about similar words, Aubrey? Yeah. Yeah. So for example, peak, this is P-E-A-K, and this could be a noun or an adjective. Again, you could say a peak, the highest point of the peak of the mountain, the very top point, right?

But we use this idiomatically at work all the time. It means the highest point in level, performance, or amount. This is more common. It's slightly less formal.

Mm hmm. So but we could we could also actually I'm just realizing we could use it as a verb to say something has peaked. Right? Yes, that's true. Yeah.

And that's usually how we say it. Or you say like, Oh, he's going to peak at 30. That's not a nice thing to say about someone, by the way. But it's the way we say like, we think they're going to reach the best point of their life or their career.

And then maybe at this job or at that age. Yes. A lot of times you might hear somebody say, oh, he peaked in high school, right? That's also not nice to say, but yes.

No, it's not a nice thing to say. These are horrible things to say, but you might hear it. There's a lot of American culture that goes into that because a lot of kids in high school are the popular jock, the one that you're friends with everyone. really good in sports.

Right. And then you leave high school and you're just a normal person. You're, you know, whatever college doing your job and so then about that person, we might say, I think you peaked in high school. If you get the impression that they were that popular jock and now something about their behavior is making you feel like that was, they were that person and they've kind of all tried to stay there, but you're an adult now.

You need to change what you're doing. Yeah. So here's another example. So sales hit their peak in December. So that's a noun, hit their peak. Or these are peak conditions for growth.

So peak conditions. So that would be as an adjective. You also might hear high point. And what is that, Aubrey? Yeah, this is the most enjoyable or successful moment.

This is very natural or conversational. I mean, again, you can literally, you could say the high point of a mountain, the high point of a actual cliff that you're climbing, but we use it at work to talk about the best part of something. So for example, your presentation was the high point of the meeting. This is a great compliment, meaning it was the best thing that happened during that meeting.

I want everyone to tell me that. Yes, that would be great. And then there's top or top level. So this is the highest standard or level. So this is really just a simple everyday English.

So for example, she's performing at the top level. So that's a really nice compliment as well. She's doing really well is what you're saying. Yeah, and we use top a lot.

There's a chunk that people say that's like, reach the reach the top and had to stop. And it's like you're saying you got to the best you could at a certain thing, or maybe at a company, and you hit like the ceiling, right? And that's the highest you could get, whether it's a standard, a level, the highest promotion you could get, you'd say I've reached the top.

So after this, we are going to go over epitome. Yes. Okay, everyone, we are back. And so now we're going to talk about the word epitome, which I'm going to spell that out because it is spelled strangely another one.

So it looks like epitome, but it's so but it's pronounced epitome. So it's E P I T O M E. So epitome. And an epitome is the perfect example of something.

So you can use it to talk about, you know, just about anything. So people, behavior, standards. And we usually... use it with examples of quality so I think we may have even talked about this maybe on All Airs English a little bit before but this is but I just felt that it was good to revisit this word so for example yeah this brand is the epitome of

of luxury. So if you can think of a luxury brand that that's what you associate Chanel, maybe or some luxurious brand that you would call the epitome of luxury, the high point, the best example of that, or his lifestyle is the epitome of success. Or you could say the epitome of laziness, depending on the lifestyle. Yeah.

It could be a bad epitome. Yep. Exactly. So we form sentences with epitome the same way we do as the word pinnacle. So the epitome of something. So her behavior is the epitome of professionalism.

Or what else? Or his leadership style is the epitome of confidence. Nice. Yes. Or you could, I mean, it can go negative. Maybe his leadership style is the epitome of micromanaging.

Yeah. It just means it's a prime example of that, a perfect example. Yeah. So let's talk about some similar words. So first of all, let's put epitome, let's put it in verb form.

So that's epitomize, E-P-I-T-O-M-I-Z-E. And that means the same word. thing as epitome, but this is as a verb. So you would hear it like this, to epitomize, and then equality or some sort of trait. So for example, she epitomizes professionalism, or she is the epitome of professionalism.

So same... Same thing you're saying, different grammar. Or this candidate really epitomizes that kind of leadership we're looking for. This feels very formal.

You will hear it in these kinds of situations, a job interview panel, right? A business conference. When someone is really trying to up-level their language, you might hear this. It's a little less common in regular standard conversations.

Yes, yes. But Aubrey, there are other words for this, right? Yes, absolutely. For example, ideal. This is an adjective. It's like the preferred choice for something.

It's more common. This you will hear in everyday conversations, at happy hour, at the water cooler, right? For example, she's the ideal candidate for the role, meaning she's the perfect or the preferred choice for that job. Mm-hmm.

so um or it's perfect example so this is very clear and less formal so this project is a perfect example of teamwork so a little different than right like ideal you wouldn't really just substitute epitome right you wouldn't say she's the epitome candidate for the role that doesn't also grammatically make sense but it's just a little different right it's like when something is the epitome of something it's like the in your mind the perfect example what you think of when you think of a luxury brand you think of chanel when you think of um you know new york city you might think of a hot dog like those that's like epitome right

Maybe you would say something like she's the epitome of what we're looking for in this role, right? Where you're saying she's the ideal. This is exactly what we were looking for.

Yes, exactly. So, but as we said, perfect example, this project is a perfect example of teamwork. So, yeah, I think that we've cleared up, you know, that they're very, very different from each other. But what they have in common is that they are both very advanced words, really great to use at business.

Yes, very impressive. Let's put them in a role play here, Michelle. You want to start us out? Yes. Yes. So here we go. So we here, it looks like that we are friends.

No, sorry, that we work together. And maybe we just had some job interviews and we're talking about them. Okay, so I'll start. So what did you think of that last interview?

Yeah. Honestly, I think she would be ideal for the management position. She's the epitome of what we are looking for. Oh, I have the same impression. Her communication style was the perfect example of confident yet approachable.

Exactly. And her experience really stood out. She's performing at a top level and came with really good recommendations. True. At this rate, she's bound to reach the pinnacle of her career soon.

Yes. And I think she'd really help the team reach peak performance. Agreed. So sounds like it's settled. I'll reach out to her and let her know. Amazing.

This is the high point of my day. I was really getting worried about finding someone suitable. This has calmed all my fears. That's always nice when you find the candidate you want to hire after lots of interviews.

It's rough. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So should we go through it, Aubrey? Yeah. Yes, I first said I think she would be ideal for the management position.

So I'm saying she would be perfect. It's just another interesting way to say that. yep and you said she's the epitome of what we're looking for so she's exactly what we're looking for basically and you know what i just thought of this is a more sort of slang way to say that we say she's the poster child of what we're looking for which is fun we maybe don't use it quite as much at work maybe we should do a follow-up over on allers english with other ways or maybe you have maybe we have we have to look yes hopefully you guys are following all there's english and maybe you're thinking we heard that episode aubrey but yeah that's a fun one too to say someone's a poster child but then you said um her communication style was the perfect example of confident yet approachable and this is a fun chunk where we'll say a perfect example of and then we have the first adjective yet the second adjective both like the perfect example of both of these things at once

Yeah, exactly. And then you said she's performing at a top level and came with really good recommendations. And this is interesting because I would usually use the definite article here and say she's performing at the top level. But it's interesting.

I guess it depends on the context. Because if you're talking about sort of in general of like lots of different fields, you might say she's performing at a top level sort of in general. And if you're imagining a specific field, then she's performing at the top level. So that's interesting how sometimes the article you choose depends on what exactly you're referring to.

Right. More about the context. Yeah. And you have to kind of think it through. And then I said, true. At this rate, she's bound to reach the pinnacle of her career soon.

So the very highest point. Yes. And then we're hoping she'll help the team reach peak performance, meaning the best performance they could reach. And then I said, this is the high point of my day.

So that's an interesting way to say it. It doesn't have to be a high point of your career. You also have a high point of your day. And I think it's a fun exercise, Michelle, to reflect at the end of a day.

What was the high point of my day? What went the best? What am I excited about? It's a great way to end the day. oh yeah for sure that's really good um so yeah this was a really um useful role play that sounds i mean it sounds like a conversation you could hear lots of advanced vocabulary um guys check out uh episode 579 of the business english podcast that was uh do you think this episode is a fair amount of fun so listen for that one

Yes. And just as a takeaway, these words will impress your coworkers. When someone uses these words, a pinnacle epitome, I'm impressed by their vocabulary. I know what they're saying.

They're not so uncommon that someone might not know what you mean, but they are impressive. So use them at work to talk about something being the peak, the most impressive or the best of something.

Yes. Love it. All right, Aubrey. I think that's it for today. Thanks for chatting about this with me. And thanks to our listener for that great question.

And I hope this is, I mean, Aubrey, this has been one of the high points of my day. This is the epitome of my day. Thanks for joining me, Michelle, and everyone out there listening. I will see you next time.

Okay. Bye, guys. 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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