BE 634: Are You Resolute in Your English Language Learning?

This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 634. Are you resolute in your English language learning? 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, Lindsay and Aubrey, coming to you from Arizona and Colorado, USA.

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Go to allearsenglish.com slash fluency score. That's allearsenglish.com slash f-l-u-e-n-c-y-s-c-o-r-e. Hello, Lindsay. How are you today? I'm doing pretty good, Aubrey.

How are you? How's it going? Excellent. A question for you. Have you ever known someone that was greedy? Oh, I know some famous figures that I can think of.

I won't name any names. But personally, I don't really think I know anyone that I would call greedy at this time in my life. It's such a harsh thing. Like you wouldn't want to call someone greedy and then they find out it would hurt their feelings.

This is such a negative thing. attribute. I will say that I won't name names, but one of my children has a tendency to be greedy. Sometimes I have to talk to them about it a lot.

Like if they're kind of trying to take more and keep other people from getting something, I'm like, Hey, let's not be greedy. Let's be, you know, I'm like constantly having to help them see like, let's be selfless, you know, selfish. And sometimes it's not innate. Sometimes it's something, a skill you have to learn.

Well, it's a very human thing. I mean, you know, I study Buddhism. I mentioned a few episodes ago. And in Buddhism, they say that the three things, human conditions, states of being human are either being greedy, being fearful, or like pushing things away.

or being diluted, just being detached or confused or not caring about anything. And so it's so human to be greedy in the sense of like, I want these great experiences. I want these things.

It's very normal. It's so interesting to think about. But this was interesting what inspired this episode. I was watching the World Cup and I heard a sports commentator use the word greedy in a really strange word.

And this was a native English speaker. And he said he thought a team should be greedy and win all three of their group stage games. So he was saying that their mentality should be greedy. And he said the word a few times.

And I said to my husband, I was like, it's weird to me that he's using the word greedy because it has such a negative connotation. And my husband agreed. He was like, this seems off to me. There are so many better words to use because greedy, at least in the States, has such a negative characteristic.

Interesting. And where was this person from? I looked him up. Actually, he's from Vermont or somewhere born and raised from the States. And he was using it as if it had a positive connotation.

And I could really see that throwing people off if they saw this and were like, okay, I should use greedy to describe someone who wants something for a positive reason. It's really not that way in English. So I was surprised. And it made me wonder.

I'm like, in the context of sports... I wonder if because sometimes some of that goes out the window, this like selflessness and kindness. You have this mentality of like you should be greedy and get all of the wins to be first place. So it is interesting how sometimes in the context of sports, things are positive that in regular life are not.

Yeah. Interesting. Interesting. Well, let's get a clear definition of generally how we use greedy, Aubrey. What is the definition? Because this is interesting.

If at work you described someone as greedy thinking it would be a compliment, it's not. It really would not ever be, right? No, definitely not at work. The definition, is this someone who wants more than they need or deserve?

Especially it's collocated with money, food, power, or possessions. It's almost always negative in modern English. Mm-hmm. For sure. For example, a company was criticized for its greedy business practices, right?

Or greedy politicians often lose the public's trust. So yeah, that's what really flagged as interesting to me is I'm like, I can imagine my students hearing this sports commentator and thinking, okay, good. I should call someone greedy if they're motivated and driven and all of these things that are more positive. Yeah.

No, it doesn't quite work. No, yeah, it doesn't quite work. I think in the US, we maybe, I don't know what that guy was thinking, maybe in a different way, but it really, greedy focuses on more on money than anything else. The connotation of greedy focuses on money.

You think about the movies like Wolf of Wall Street or what is it, the Gordon Gekko, the The image of like American Wall Street and that kind of thing. Yeah, greed. Greed means you want money for yourself, basically.

And if you look at this definition, right, where it says it's for someone who wants more than they need or deserve, that sort of makes it not fit in this sports situation.

the way it was used in the sports, because then you are implying that they should want more than they deserve. And you wouldn't necessarily mean that if you're talking about a World Cup team. If they win, you would think they deserve that win, right? Interesting.

Yeah. I mean, I think greedy, I don't know. In other languages, I'm imagining the translation can mean different things, can mean more. Like I was saying with Buddhism, it means...

Like wanting experiences, maybe addiction would fall under this category, right? Like wanting things. If you have a good, pleasant experience, you want that again. You cling to that experience, right?

That is like a broader definition of greedy. And I could see a coach in the locker room being like, let's be greedy. Let's get this win. Like you're trying to...

tap into that part of a person where they are not being selfless. They're not thinking about the team they're beating. They're just going for the win. So that's where I can see like, in the world of sports, this might be different.

But when we think about translating this language to work, I would... Highly recommend you don't ever call someone greedy. It's so negative. So I'm excited to dive into some more positive options because this character trait, when someone is driven and determined, that's a great quality at work in the state.

That's a good quality. In a very, very good quality. And you don't want to make someone seem like they're bad for wanting to do well, right? Exactly, right?

So we're going to dive into some better options. Yeah. Yes, guys, go ahead and hit the follow button right now on Business English. We publish here. Aubrey, how many days a week do we publish on Business English?

Three new episodes every week. So be sure to hit follow so you never miss an episode. Hit that follow button now, guys. All right. So we want to steer clear, stay away from the word greedy in American culture at work, unless you are literally talking about someone outside of work that you're just a figure, right?

Maybe certain politicians, maybe, for example. Yeah. But what else could we say that would be better? Yeah, first would be determined, right? So this is if they have a strong desire to achieve something, despite obstacles or setbacks, but it does not have that implication that greedy does that they want more than they have earned or deserved, right?

This is just all about that strong desire to achieve. Yeah. Exactly. So for example, despite losing several major clients, the sales manager remained determined to exceed the quarterly target.

Determined. Yes. Our team is determined to launch the product before the holiday shopping season. And this would have made more sense for me as the World Cup too.

This team should be determined to get all three wins, right? And remove that negative connotation of the word greedy. Or resolute. I like this. Resolute.

What a great word. Firm, unwavering, and confident in a decision or a course of action. I know in the White House, they have the resolute desk. They call it the president's desk is named that from what I know.

Yeah, this is a great adjective. This is something everyone wants to be called. It's so positive, right? Yeah, yeah. So, for example, the CEO remained resolute despite pressure from investors to abandon the project.

This is often how we use it. Someone staying determined and unwavering in spite of complications. Yeah. Or she was resolute in enforcing the company's new cybersecurity policy.

So yeah, unwavering, great. Also a great word, unwavering. Definitely. These are very positive characteristics. Absolutely. And then relentless is an interesting one.

These other two determined, resolute, unwavering are extremely positive. There's really just no negative connotation. Relentless means refusing to stop or give up, persistent with extraordinary intensity. It can be very positive depending on the context for someone to be relentless.

It can also be negative in the same way that like stubborn can be, right? It depends. Yeah, yeah, exactly. If you say to someone, you're relentless, stop this, right?

That might not be positive. Right. So for example, but here's a positive example at work. Her relentless pursuit of new clients doubled the company's revenue.

So this one, you can really flip between positive and negative depending on how you're using it. Okay. Exactly. Yes. Or the startup's relentless focus on innovation helped it outperform larger competitors.

Okay. So this one, depending on the context, can be very positive. Just someone refusing to give up for a positive goal or you could be relentless. If someone is just described as relentless in general, often that's something that's annoying or irritating.

You're like, they just won't stop. Yeah, for sure. For sure. Super interesting. All right. We'll take a quick break and then we'll be right back for a role play.

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All right, Aubrey, let's dive into a role play. We have some really solid, solid words today. So I want to see how it's used in real life here. Yeah, let's do it.

We are co-workers in this role play. I'll start us out. Okay. Have you noticed how quickly Daniel has moved up in the company? Yes, I've been impressed by how determined he is.

Even when a proposal gets rejected, he comes back with an even stronger version. I agree. During the merger discussions, he was also very resolute. Once he believed a strategy was the right one, he defended it with solid evidence instead of backing down under pressure.

And his work ethic is almost relentless. He's constantly following up with clients, improving presentations, and looking for ways to refine our processes. Yeah.

Yeah. So this is interesting. You can tell we're both really impressed with this Daniel character. Yes. And it's good that we have a variety of interesting adjectives that are extremely positive, but we have specifics about it, right?

Yeah, exactly. So we started by saying, I've been impressed by how determined he is. A great word, one of the key words from today. And even when his proposal gets rejected, he comes back with a stronger version.

So it's like stubborn, but it's a positive version of stubborn. Exactly. That's what's interesting. We often have words like that in English where one word, like two, the very similar meanings, but one has a little bit of a negative implication and one is more positive and determined is definitely the more positive spin on this.

That would actually make a good episode, Aubrey, for another day. Guys, hit the follow button on maybe over on All Ears English podcast, just an episode where here's the positive version, here's the negative one. Just like 10 examples. That'd be kind of great.

How we spin things depending on if we want to imply a little bit negative or a little bit positive. I love that. Yeah. What else? And then I said during the merger discussions, he was very resolute.

And then I gave an example. Once he believed a strategy was the right one, he defended it with solid evidence. So yeah, this is another great characteristic to be resolute. This is pretty positive.

Yeah, for sure. And then I said, and his work ethic is almost relentless. So this is using it in a positive way. It doesn't stop. He's constantly following up with clients, improving presentations, looking for ways to refine our processes.

Yes. How about the context? If you're talking about someone's work ethic being relentless, that's a positive thing because you can't have too much work ethic, right? Yeah.

I mean, definitely in American culture, we say that for sure. And I agree. Exactly. But if you say like he's relentless in pestering people to turn things in on time, that's a negative, right?

Because that means he like won't quit a negative behavior. Yes, exactly. I love it. Very interesting topic today on the concept of greedy and other ways to say this.

I like it. I like it. Guys, go over to Business English 630. When should you let something play out? That is your next step. That was a really interesting phrasal verb.

Scroll up and check that one out if you missed it. Yeah. Any other final takeaway today, Aubrey, that we want to leave our listeners with? This is interesting.

We want to be able to say positive things about coworkers, right? This role play, this conversation. If you haven't noticed positive attributes about other people, you do want to share that. You want to build these connections, have these conversations, and you need the vocabulary to be able to do that, right?

It could be drastic if you call someone greedy accidentally, not realizing the negative implications here. There are so many more positive terms. For sure. All right.

Good stuff for today, Aubrey. I'll see you back here on the show very soon. Have a good day. Awesome. Thanks, Lindsay. See you next time. All right. Bye.

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